Notes and Queries, Number 73, March 22, 1851

"Before the crimson-circled starHad fallen into her father's grave."

means "before the planet Venus had sunk into the sea."

In Smith's Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, under the word Aphrodite or Venus, we find that—

"Some traditions stated that she had sprung from the foam (ἀφρός) of the sea which had gathered around the mutilated parts of Uranus, that had been thrown into the sea by Kronos, after he had unmanned his father."—Hesiod. Theog. 190.

The allusion in the first stanza of In Memoriam is, I think, to Shelley. The doctrine referred to is common to him and many other poets; but he perhaps inculcates it more frequently than any other. (See Queen Mab sub finem. Revolt of Islam, canto xii. st. 17. Adonais, stanzas 39. 41. et passim.) Besides this, the phrase "clear harp" seems peculiarly applicable to Shelley, who is remarkable for the simplicity of his language.

X. Z.

Tennyson's In Memoriam.—The word star applies in poetry to all the heavenly bodies; and therefore, to the crescent moon, which is often near enough to the sun to be within or to be encircled by, the crimson colour of the sky about sunset; and the sun may, figuratively, be called father of the moon, because he dispenses to her all the light with which she shines; and, moreover, because new, or waxing moons, must set nearly in the same point of the horizon as the sun; and because that point of the horizon in which a heavenly body sets, may, figuratively, be called its grave; therefore, I believe the last two lines of the stanza of the poem numbered lxxxvii., or 87, in Tennyson's In Memoriam, quoted by W. B. H., to mean simply—

We returned home between the hour of sunset and the setting of the moon, then not so much as a week old.

Robert Snow.

Bishop Hooper's Godly Confession, &c. (Vol. iii., p. 169.).—The Rev. Charles Nevinson may be informed that there are two copies of the edition of the above work for which he inquires, in the library of Trinity College, Dublin.

Tyro.

Dublin.

Machell's MS. Collections for Westmoreland and Cumberland (Vol. iii., p. 118.).—In reply to the inquiry of Edward F. Rimbault, that gentleman may learn the extent to which the Machell MS. collections of the Rev. Thomas Machell, who was chaplain to King Charles II., have been examined, and published, by referring, to Burn and Nicholson's History of Westmoreland and Cumberland, edit. 1778. A great part of the MS. is taken up with an account of the antiquary's own family, the "Mali Catuli," or Machell's Lords of Crakenthorpe in Westmoreland. the papers in the library of Carlisle contain only copies and references to the original papers, which are carefully preserved by the present representatives of the family. There are above one thousand deeds, charters, and other documents which I have carefully translated and collated with a view to their being printed privately for the use of the family, and I shall feel pleasure in replying to any inquiry on the subject. Address:

G.P. at the Post Office, Barrow upon Humber, Lincolnshire.

Two impressions of the seal of the Abbey of Shapp (anciently Hepp), said not to be attainable by the editors of the late splendid edition of the Monasticon, are preserved in the Machell MSS.

Oration against Demosthenes (Vol. iii., p. 141.).—For the information of your correspondent Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie, I transcribe the title of the oration against Demosthenes, for which he makes inquiry, which was not "privately printed" as he supposes, but published last year by Mr. J. W. Parker.

"The Oration of Hyperides against Demosthenes, respecting the Treasure of Harpalus. The Fragments of the Greek Text, now first edited from the Fac-simile of the MS. discovered at Egyptian Thebes in 1847; together with other Fragments of the same Oration cited in Ancient Writers. With a Preliminary Dissertation and Notes, and a Fac-simile of a Portion of the MS. By Churchill Babington, M.A. London: J. W. Parker, 1850."

The discovery of the MS. was made by Mr. A. C. Harris of Alexandria, who placed a fac-simile in the hand of Mr. Churchill Babington, who edited it as above described.

My information is derived from an article on the work in the Christian Remembrancer for October, 1850, to which I refer Mr. Mackenzie for further particulars.

Tyro.

Dublin

[Mr. Edward Sheare Jackson, B.A., to whom we are indebted for a similar reply, adds, "Mr. Harris contributed a paper on the MS. to the Royal Society of Literature"]

Mr. Sharpe has also published "Fragments of Orations in Accusation and Defence of Demosthenes, respecting the money of Harpalus, arranged and translated," in the Journal of the Philological Society, vol. iv.; and the German scholars Boeckh (in the Hallische Litteratur-Zeitung for 1848) and Sauppe have also written critical notices on the fragments; but whether their notices include the old and new fragments, I am unable to say, having only met with a scanty reference to their learned labours.

J. M.

Oxford.

Borrow's Danish Ballads (Vol. iii., p. 168).—The following is the title of Mr. Borrow's book, referred to by Bruno:—

"Targum; or, Metrical Translations from Thirty Languages and Dialects. By George Borrow. 'The Raven ascended to the Nest of the Nightingale.'—Persian Poem. St. Petersburgh. Printed by Schulz and Beneze. 1835."

R. W. F.

Borrow's Danish Ballads.—The title of the work is—

"Romantic Ballads, translated from the Danish, and Miscellaneous Pieces; by George Borrow. 8vo. Printed by S. Wilkin, Norwich; and published at London by John Taylor, 1826."

In the preface it is stated that the ballads are translated from Oehlenslöger, and from the Kiæmpé Viser, the old Norse book referred to in Lavengro.

μ.

Head of the Saviour (Vol. iii., p. 168.).—The correspondent who inquires about the "true likeness" of the Saviour exposed in some of the London print-shops, is not perhaps aware that there is preserved in the church of St. Peter's at Rome a much more precious and genuine portrait than the one to which he alludes—a likeness described by its possessors as "far more sublime and venerable than any other, since it was neither painted by the hands of men nor angels, but by the divinity himself who makes both men and angels." It is not delineated upon wood or canvass, ivory, glass, or stucco, but upon "a pocket handkerchief lent him by a holy woman named Veronica, to wipe his face upon at the crucifixion" (Aringhi, Roma Subterran., vol. ii. p. 543.). When the handkerchief was returned it had this genuine portrait imprinted on its surface. It is now one of the holiest of relics preserved in the Vatican basilica, where there is likewise a magnificent altar constructed by Urban VIII., with an inscription commemorating the fact, a mosaic above, illustrative of the event, and a statue of the holy female who received the gift, and who is very properly inscribed in the Roman catalogue of saints under the title of St. Veronica. All this is supported by "pious tradition," and attested by authorities of equal value to those which establish the identity of St. Peter's chair. The only difficulty in the matter lies in this, that the woman Veronica never had any corporeal existence, being no other than the name by which the picture itself was once designated, viz., the Vera Icon, or "True Image" (Mabillon, Iter. Ital., p. 88.). This narrative will probably relieve your correspondent from the trouble of further inquiries by enabling him to judge for himself whether "there is any truth" about the other true image.

A. R., Jun.

In your 70th Number I perceived that some correspondent asked, "What is the truth respecting a legend attached to the head of our Saviour for some time past in the print-shops?" I ask the same question. True or false, I found in a work entitled The Antiquarian Repertory, by Grose, Astle, and others, vol. iii., an effigy of our Saviour, much inferior in all respects to the above, with the following attached:—

"This present figure is the similitude of our Lord IHV, oure Saviour imprinted in amirvld by the predecessors of the greate turke, and sent to the Pope Innosent the 8. at the cost of the greate turke for a token for this cawse, to redeme his brother that was taken presonor."

This was painted on board. The Rev. Thomas Thurlow, of Baynard's Park, Guildford, has another painted on board with a like inscription, to the best of my recollection: his has a date on it, I think.

Pope Innocent VIII. was created Pope in 1484, and died in 1492.

The variation in the three effigies is an argument against the truth of the story, or the two on board must have been ill-executed. That in the shops is very beautiful.

The same gentleman possesses a Bible, printed by Robert Barker, and by the assignees of John Bill, 1633; and on a slip of paper is, "Holy Bible curiously bound in tapestry by the nuns of Little Gidding, 12mo., Barker."

In a former Number a person replies that a Bible, bound by the nuns of Gidding for Charles I., now belongs to the Marquis of Salisbury. Query the size of that?

E. H.

Norwich, March 9.

Lady Bingham (Vol. iii., p. 61.).—If C. W. B. will refer to the supplementary volume of Burke's Landed Gentry, p. 159, he will see that Sarah, daughter of John Heigham, of Giffords Hall, co. Suffolk (son of William Heigham, of Giffords, second son of Clement Heigham, of Giffords, second son of Thomas Heigham, of Heigham, co. Suffolk) married, first, Sir Richard Bingham, Knt., of Melcombe Bingham, co. Dorset, governor of Connaught in 1585, &c.; and secondly, Edward Waldegrave, of Lawford, co. Essex. This, I presume, is the lady whose maiden name he enquires for.

C. R. M.

Shakepeare's Use of Captious (Vol. ii., p. 354.).—In All's Well that Ends Well, Act I. Sc. 3.:

"I know I love in vain; strive against hope;Yet in this captious and intenible sieve,I still pour in the waters of my love,And lack not to lose still:"

has not Mr. Singer, and all the other commentators upon this passage, overlooked a most apparent and satisfactory solution? Is it not evident that the printer simply omitted the vowel "a," and that the word, as written by Shakespeare, was "capatious," the "t," according to the orthography of the time, being put for the "c" used by modern writers?

With great deference to former critics, I think this emendation is the most probable, as it accords with the sentiment of Helena, who means to depict her vast but unretentive sieve, into which she poured the waters of her love.

W. F. S.

P.S.—I hope Mr. Singer and J. S. W. will tell us what they think of this proposed alteration.

Bognor, Feb, 22. 1851.

Tanthony (Vol. iii., p. 105.).—I would suggest that the "tanthony" at Kimbolton is a corruption or mis-pronunciation of "tintany," tintinnabulum. I have failed to discover any legend of St. Anthony, confirmatory of Arun's suggestion.

A.

Newark, Notts., Feb. 12.

By the bye (Vol. iii., p 73.).—Is your correspondent S. S. not aware that the phrase "Good bye" is a contraction of our ancestors' more devotional one of "God be wi' ye!"

D. P. W.

Rotherhithe, Jan. 21. 1851.

Lama Beads (Vol. iii., p. 115.).—It is a pretty bold assertion that Lama beads are derived from the Lamas of Asia. Lamma, according to Jamieson, is simply the Scotch for amber. He says Lamertyn steen means the same in Teutonic. I do not find it in Wachter's Lexicon.

Your correspondent's note is a curious instance of the inconvenience of half quotation. He says the Lamas are an order of priests among the Western Tartars. I was surprised at this, since their chief strength, as everybody knows, is in Thibet. On referring to Rees's Cyclopædia, I found that the words are taken from thence; but they are not wrong there, since, by the context they have reference to China.

C. B.

Language given to Men, &c. (Vol. i., p. 83.).—The saying that language was given to men to conceal their thoughts is generally fathered upon Talleyrand at present. I did not know it was in Goldsmith; but the real author of it was Fontenelle.

C. B.

Daresbury, the White Chapel of England (Vol. iii., p. 60.).—This jeu-d'esprit was an after-dinner joke of a learned civilian, not less celebrated for his wit than his book-lore. Some stupid blockhead inserted it in the newspapers, and it is now unfortunately chronicled in your valuable work. It is not at all to be wondered at that "the people in the neighbourhood know nothing on the subject."

Echo.

Holland Land (Vol. ii., pp. 267. 345.; Vol. iii., pp. 30. 70.).—Were not the Lincolnshire estates of Count Bentinck, a Dutch nobleman who came over with William III., and the ancestor of the late Lord George Bentinck, M.P. for Lynn Regis, denominated Little Holland, which he increased by reclaiming large portions in the Dutch manner from the Wash?

E. S. Taylor.

Passage in the Tempest (Vol. ii., p. 259, &c.).—I do not profess to offer an opinion as to the right reading; but with reference to the suggestion of A. E. B. (p. 338.) that it means—

"Most busy when least I do it,"

or—

"Most busy when least employed,"

allow me to refer you to the splendid passage in the De Officiis, lib. iii. cap. i., where Cicero expresses the same idea:—

"Pub. Scipionem,… eum, qui primus Africanus appellatus sit, dicere solitum scripsit Cato,… Nunquam se minus otiosum esse, quam cum otiosus; nec minus solum, quam cum solus esset. Magnifica vero vox, et magno viro, ac sapiente digna; quæ declarat, illum et in otio de negotiis cogitare, et in solitudine secum loqui solitum: ut neque cessaret unquam, et interdum colloquio alterius non egeret."

Ache.

Damasked Linen (Vol. iii., p. 13.).—I believe it has always been customary to damask the linen used by our royal family with appropriate devices. I have seen a cloth of Queen Anne's, with the "A. R." in double cypher, surrounded by buds and flowers; and have myself a cloth with a view of London, and inscribed "Der Konig Georg II.," which was purchased at Brentford, no doubt having come from Kew adjoining.

H. W. D.

Straw Necklaces (Vol. ii., p. 511.).—Having only lately read the "Notes and Queries" (in fact, this being the first number subscribed for), I do not know the previous allusion. It makes me mention a curious custom at Carlisle, of the servants who wish to be hired going into the marketplace of Carlisle, or as they call it "Carel," with a straw in their mouths. It is fast passing away, and now, instead of keeping the straw constantly in the mouth, they merely put it in a few seconds if they see any one looking at them. Anderson, in his Cumberland Ballads, alludes to the custom:—

"At Carel I stuid wi' a strae i' my mouth,The weyves com roun me in clusters:'What weage dus te ax, canny lad?' says yen."H. W. D.

Library of the Church of Westminster (Vol. iii., p. 152.).—The statement here quoted from the Délices de la Grande Bretagne is scarcely likely to be correct. We all know how prone foreigners are to misapprehension, and therefore, how unsafe it is to trust to their observations. In this case, may not the description of the Bibliothèque Publique, which was open night and morning, during the sittings of the courts of justice, have originated merely from the rows of booksellers' stalls in Westminster-hall?

J. G. N.

The Ten Commandments (Vol. iii., p. 166.).—Waterland (vol. vi. p. 242., 2nd edition, Oxford, 1843) gives a copy of the Decalogue taken from an old MS. In this the first two commandments are embodied in one. Leighton, in his Exposition of the Ten Commandments, when speaking on the point of the manner of dividing them, refers in a vague manner to Josephus and Philo.

R. V.

Sitting crosslegged to avert Evil (Vol. ii.,p. 407.).—Browne says:—

"To set crosselegg'd, or with our fingers pectinated or shut together, is accounted bad, and friends will perswade us from it. The same conceit religiously possessed the ancients, as is observable from Pliny: 'Poplites alternis genibus imponere nefas olim;' and also from Athenæus, that it was an old veneficious practice."—Vulg. Err., lib. v. cap. xxi. § 9.

Ache.

George Steevens (Vol. iii., p. 119.).—A. Z. wishes to know whether a memoir of George Steevens, the Shakspearian commentator, was ever published, and what has become of the manuscripts.

I believe the late Sir James Allen Park wrote his life, but whether for public or private circulation I cannot tell.

The late George Steevens had a relative, a Mrs. Collinson, and daughters who lived with him at Hampstead, and with him when he died, in Jan. 1800. Miss Collinson married a Mr. Pyecroft, whose death, I think, is in the Gentleman's Magazine for this month: perhaps the Pyecroft family may give information respecting the manuscripts.

"The house he lived in at Hampstead, called the Upper Flask, was formerly a place of public entertainment near the summit of Hampstead Hill. Here Richardson sends his Clarissa in one of her escapes from Lovelace. Here, too, the celebrated Kit-Cat Club used to meet in the summer months; and here, after it became a private abode, the no less celebrated George Steevens lived and died."—Vide Park's Hampstead, pp. 250. 352.

I just recollect Mr. Steevens, who was very kind to us, as children. My mother, who is an octogenarian, remembers him well, and says he always took a nosegay, tied to the top of his cane, every day to Sir Joseph Banks.

Julia R. Bockett.

Southcote Lodge, near Reading.

The Waistcoat bursted, &c. (Vol. ii., p. 505.).—The general effect of melancholy: digestion is imperfectly performed, and melancholy patients generally complain of being "blown up." Bodvar's "blowing up," on the contrary, is the mere effect of the generation of gases in a dead body, well illustrated by a floating dead dog on the river side, or the bursting of a leaden coffin.

H. W. D.

Love's Labour's Lost (Vol. iii., p. 163.).—Your correspondent has very neatly and ably made out how the names of the ladies ought to have been placed; but the error is the poet's, not the printer's. It is impossible to conceive how, in printing or transcribing, such a mistake should arise; the names are quite unlike, and several lines distant from one another. Such forgetfulness is not very uncommon in poets, especially those of the quickest and liveliest spirit. It is the old mistake of Bentley and other commentators, to think that whatever is wrong must be spurious. These, too, we must recollect, are fictitious characters.

C. W. B.

Miscellaneous

NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC

Agreeing with Mr. Lower, that they who desire to know the truth as to the earlier periods of our national history, will do wisely to search for it among the mists and shadows of antiquity, and rather collect it for themselves out of the monkish chronicles than accept the statements of popular historiographers, we receive with great satisfaction the addition to our present list of translations of such chronicles, which Mr. Lower has given us in The Chronicle of Battel Abbey from 1066 to 1176, now first translated, with Notes, and an Abstract of the subsequent History of the Establishment. The original Chronicle, which is preserved among the Cottonian MSS., though known to antiquaries and historians, was never committed to the press until the year 1846, when it was printed by the Anglia Christiana Society from a transcript made by the late Mr. Petrie. Mr. Lower's translation has been made from that edition; and though undertaken by him as an illustration of local history, will be found well deserving the perusal of the general reader, not only from the light it throws upon the Norman invasion and upon the history of the abbey founded by the Conqueror in fulfilment of his vow, but also for the pictures it exhibits of the state of society during the period which it embraces.

Books Received.—The Embarrassment of the Clergy in the Matter of Church Discipline. Two ably written letters by Presbyter Anglicanus, reprinted, by request, from the Morning Post;—Ann Ash, or the Foundling, by the Author of 'Charlie Burton' and 'The Broken Arm.' If not quite equal to Charlie Burton, and there are few children's stories which are so, it is a tale well calculated to sustain the writer's well-deserved reputation;—Burns and his Biographers, being a Caveat to Cavillers, or an Earnest Endeavour to clear the Cant and Calumnies which, for half a Century, have clung, like Cobwebs, round the Tomb of Robert Burns.

Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson, of 93. Wellington Street, Strand, will sell on Monday next, and five following days, the valuable Library of the late Mr. Andrews of Bristol, containing, besides a large collection of works of high character and repute, some valuable Historical, Antiquarian, and Heraldic Manuscripts.

Catalogues Received.—John Gray Bell's (17. Bedford Street, Covent Garden) Catalogue of Autograph Letters and other Documents; John Alex. Wilson's (20. Upper Kirkgate, Aberdeen) Catalogue of Cheap Books, many Rare and Curious; E. Stibbs' (331. Strand) Catalogue Part III. of Books in all Languages.

BOOKS AND ODD VOLUMES WANTED TO PURCHASE

Madame D'aulnoy's Fairy Tales, a small old folio. At the end of the Edition sought for, there are some Spanish Romances: it is in one vol.

Rural Walks—Rambles Farther, by Charlotte Smith. A Child's Book in 4 Vols. (of the last Century).

[However ragged and worn the above may be, it does not signify.]

Any Rare or Valuable Works relating in any way to Free Masonry.

Baronii Annales Eccles. cum cent. O. Raynaldi et Lauterbachii. 25 Volumes.

L'Abbé Annales de Saint Pierre, Projet de Paix Perpetuelle, 3 Vols. 12mo. Utrecht, 1713.

Chevalier Ramsay, Essai de Politique, où l'on traite de la Nécessité, de l'Origine, des Droits, des Bornes, et des Différentes Formes de la Souveraineté, selon les Principes de l'Auteur de "Télémaque." 2 Vols. 12mo. La Haye, without date, but printed in 1719.

The same, Second Edition, under the title of Essai Philosophique sur le Gouvernement Civil, selon les Princeps de Fénelon. 12mo. Londres, 1721.

Biblia Hebraica, cum locc. pavall. et adnott. J. H Michaelis. Halæ Magd. 1720. Quarto preferred.

*** Letters stating particulars and lowest price, carriage free, to be sent to Mr. Bell, Publisher of "NOTES AND QUERIES," 186. Fleet Street.

Notices to Correspondents

We are this week compelled by want of room to postpone many interesting papers, among which we may mention one by Lord Braybrooke on Portraits of Distinguished Englishmen, and one by Sir F. Madden on the Collection of Pictures of Bart. del Nave purchased by Charles I. Our next Number will be enlarged to 24 pages, so as to include these and many other valuable communications, which are now waiting for insertion.

Lucius Questorius. It is obvious that we have no means of explaining the discrepancy to which our correspondent refers. If we rightly understand his question, it is one which the publisher alone can answer.

Enquirer (Milford). The copy of Hudibras described is worth from fifteen to twenty shillings.

W. H. G. A coin of Aphrodisia in Caria. Has our correspondent consulted Mr. Akerman's Numismatic Manual?

J. N. G. G. Anania, Azaria, and Mizael, occurring in the Benedicite, are the Hebrew names of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. See Daniel, i. 7.

Laudator Temporis Acti. Will our correspondent who wrote to us under this signature enable us to address a communication to him?

Hermes is assured that the proposal for "showing the world that there is something worth living for beyond external luxury" is only postponed because it jumps completely with a plan which is now under consideration, and which it may in due time help forward.

Replies Received.—Lines on Woman—Meaning of Strained—Mounds or Munts—Rococo Sea—Headings of Chapters in English Bibles—Predeceased and Designed—Christmas Day—Ulm MS.—Bede MS.—Booty's Case—Good bye—Almond Tree—Snail-eating—Swearing by Swans—Rev. W. Adams—Engraved Portraits—Laus Tua—Nettle in—Portraits of Bishops—Passage in Gray—Oliver Cromwell—Fifth Sons—Lady Jane of Westmoreland—The Volpe Family—Ten Children at a Birth—Edmund Prideaux and the first Post-office—Dr. Thomlinson—Drax Free School—Mistletoe—Standfast's Cordial Comfort.