Notes and Queries, Number 182, April 23, 1853

W. R. Arrowsmith.

Broad Heath, Presteign, Herefordshire.

A WORK ON THE MACROCOSM

I intended to have contributed a series of papers to "N. & Q." on the brute creation, on plants and flowers, &c.; and in a Note on the latter subject I promised to follow it up. However, as circumstances have changed my intentions, I think it may be well to mention that I have in hand a work on Macrocosm, or World of Nature around us, which shall be published in three separate parts or volumes. The first shall be devoted to the Brute Creation; the second shall be an Herbal, with a Calendar of dedicated Flowers prefixed; the third shall contain Chapters on the Mineral Kingdom: in the last I shall treat of the symbolism of stones, and the superstitions respecting them. I purpose in each case, as far as possible, to go to the fountain-head, and shall give copious extracts from such writers as St. Ildefonso of Toledo, St. Isidore of Seville, Vincent of Beauvais, St. Basil, Origen, Epiphanius, and the Christian Fathers.

As the work I have sketched out for myself will require time to mature, I shall publish very shortly a small volume, containing a breviary of the former, which will give some idea of the manner in which I shall treat the proposed subject.

Many correspondents of "N. & Q." have evinced great interest in the line I intend to enter upon. (See Vol. i., pp. 173. 457.; Vol. iv., p. 175.; Vol. vi., pp. 101. 272. 462. 518.) Their Queries have produced no satisfactory result. I myself made a Query in my "Chapter on Flowers," some months ago, respecting Catholic floral directories, and two works in particular, about which I was most anxious, and which were quoted in The Catholic Florist, London, 1851, and I have received no answer. Mr. Oakley, indeed, wrote to me to say that he "only edited it, and wrote a preface," and that he forwarded my Query "to the compiler:" the latter personage, however, has not favoured me with a reply.

In spite of all these discouragements, I have taken the step of bringing my contemplated work before the readers of "N. & Q.," and I shall gratefully acknowledge any communications relative to legends, folk-lore, superstitions, symbolism, &c. bearing on the subjects proposed. As I intend inserting a bibliographical list of the chief works which come under the scope of each volume, I might receive much valuable assistance on this point, especially as regards Oriental and other foreign books, which might escape my researches. As regards the brute creation, I have gotten, with the kind assistance of the editor of "N. & Q.," Hildrop's famous reply to Father Bougeant; and I have sent to Germany for Dr. Kraus's recent work on the subject.

Eirionnach.

DR. SOUTH'S LATIN TRACT AGAINST SHERLOCK

None of South's compositions are more striking or characteristic than his two English tracts against Sherlock, his Animadversions on Sherlock's Vindication of the Trinity, 1693-94, 4to., and his Tritheism charged on Sherlock's new Notion of the Trinity, 1694, 4to. For caustic wit and tremendous power of vituperation, I scarcely know any controversial works which surpass, or even equal them. South looked upon Sherlock with profound scorn as a Sciolist, and hated him most cordially as a heretic and a political renegade. He accordingly gives him no quarter, and seems determined to draw blood at every stroke. Mrs. Sherlock is of course not forgotten, and one of the happiest passages in the Tritheism charged is the well-known humorous illustration of Socrates and Xantippe, p. 129. It is somewhat curious that, notwithstanding these two works of South have attracted so much notice, it seems to be quite unknown that he also published a Latin tract against Sherlock, in further continuation of the controversy, in which the attack is carried on with equal severity. The title of the tract in question is, Decreti Oxoniensis Vindicatio in Tribus ad Modestum ejusdem examinatorem modestioribus Epistolis a Theologo Transmarino. Excusa Anno Domini 1696, 4to., pp. 92. The tract, of which I have a copy, is anonymous, but it is ascribed to South in the following passages in The Agreement of the Unitarians with the Catholic Church, part i. 1697, 4to., which is included in vol. v. of the 4to. Unitarian Tracts, and evidently written by one who had full information on the subject. His expressions (p. 62.) are—"Dr. South, in his Latin Letters, under the name of a Transmarine Divine;" and a little further on, "Dr. South, in two (English) books by him written, and in three Latin letters, excepts against this (Sherlock's) explication of the Trinity." In confirmation of this ascription, I may observe that the Latin tract is contained in an extensive collection of the tracts in the Trinitarian Controversy formed by Dr. John Wallis, which I possess, and in which he has written the names of the authors of the various anonymous pieces. He took, as is well known, a leading part in the controversy, and published himself an anonymous pamphlet (not noticed by his biographers), also in defence of Oxford decrees. On the title-page of the Latin tract he has written "By Dr. South." I have likewise another copy in a volume which belonged to Stephen Nye, one of the ablest writers in the controversy, and who ascribes it in the list of contents in the fly-leaf, in his handwriting, to Dr. South. These grounds would appear to be sufficient to authorise our including this tract in the list of South's works, though, from the internal evidence of the tract itself alone, I should scarcely have felt justified in ascribing it to him.

Jas. Crossley.

SHAKSPEARE CORRESPONDENCE

Parallel Passages.—

"You leaden messengers,That ride upon the violent wings of fire,Fly with false aim; move the still-piecing air,That sings with piercing,—do not touch my lord!" All's Well that Ends Well, Act III. Sc. 2."the elements,Of whom your swords are tempered, may as wellWound the loud winds, or with bemock'd at stabsKill the still-closing waters, as diminishOne dowle that's in my plume." The Tempest, Act III. Sc. 3.

There can be little doubt that the clever corrector of Mr. Collier's folio had the last of these passages in view when he altered the word move of the first, into wound of the second: but in this instance he overshot the mark, in not perceiving the nice and subtle distinction which exists between them. The first implies possibility: the second impossibility.

In the second, the mention of, to "wound the loud wind, or kill the still-closing water," is to set forth the absurdness of the attempt; but in the first passage there is a direct injunction to a possible act: "Fly with false aim, move the still-piecing air." To say "wound the still-piecing air" would be to direct to be done, in one passage, that which the other passage declares to be absurd to expect!

If it were necessary to disturb move at all, the word cleave would be, all to nothing, a better substitution than wound.

Whether the annotating of Mr. Collier's folio be a real or a pseudo-antique, it is impossible to deny that its executor must have been a clever, as he was certainly a slashing hitter. It cannot, therefore, be wondered that he should sometimes reach the mark: but that these corrections should be received with that blind and superstitious faith, so strangely exacted for them, can scarcely be expected. Indeed, it is to be regretted that they have been introduced to the public with such an uncompromising claim to authority; as the natural repugnance against enforced opinion may endanger the success of the few suggestive emendations, to be found amongst them, which are really new and valuable.

A. E. B.

Leeds.

P.S.—With reference to the above Note, which, although not before printed, has been for some time in the Editor's hands, I have observed in a Dublin paper of Saturday, April 9th, a very singular coincidence; viz. the recurrence of the self-same misprint corrected by Malone, but retained by Messrs. Collier and Knight in their respective editions of Shakspeare. Had the parallel expressions still-closing, still-piecing, which I have compared in the above paper, been noticed by these editors, they would no more have hesitated in accepting Malone's correction than they would object to the same correction in the misprint I am about to point out; viz.

"Two planks were pointed out by the witnesses, viz. one with a knot in it, and another which was piered with strips of wood," &c.—Saunders's Newsletter, April 9th, 3rd page, 1st col.

The Passage in "King Henry VIII.," Act III. Sc. 2. (Vol. vii., pp. 5. 111. 183.).—Is an old Shakspearian to talk rashly in "N. & Q." without being called to account? "If 'we can,'" says Mr. Singer, "'by no means part with have,' we must interpolate been after it, to make it any way intelligible, to the marring of the verse." Now, besides the passage in the same scene—

——"my loyalty,Which ever has, and ever shall be growing,"

pointed out by your Leeds correspondent, there is another equally in point in All's Well that Ends Well, Act II. Sc. 5., which, being in prose, settles the question as to whether the omission of the past participle after the auxiliary was customary in Shakspeare's time. It is Lafeu's farewell to Parolles:

"Farewell, Monsieur: I have spoken better of you, than you have or will deserve at my hand; but we must do good against evil."

Either this is "unintelligible," and "we must interpolate" deserved, or (the only possible alternative) all three passages are free from Mr. Singer's objection.

C. Mansfield Ingleby.

Birmingham.

On a Passage in "Macbeth."—Macbeth (Act I. Sc. 7.) says:

"I have no spurTo prick the sides of my intent, but onlyVaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself,And falls on the other."

Should not the third line be—

"Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps its sell!"

Sell is saddle (Latin, sella; French, selle), and is used by Spenser in this sense.

"O'erleaping itself" is manifest nonsense; whereas the whole passage has evident reference to horsemanship; and to "vault" is "to carry one's body cleverly over anything of a considerable height, resting one hand upon the thing itself,"—exactly the manner in which some persons mount a horse, resting one hand on the pommel of the saddle.

It would then be perfectly intelligible, thus—

"Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps its saddle (sell),And falls on the other (side of the horse)."

Does Mr. Collier's "New Text," or any other old copy, prove this?

S. Singleton.

Greenwich.

Minor Notes

Robert Weston.—I copy the following from a letter of R. L. Kingston to Dr. Ducarel in Nichols's Literary History, vol. iii. p. 629.:

"Robert Weston was Lord of Manor of Kilmington in Devon, and divided his estate among four daughters, reserving to the eldest son the royalties of his courts. In his will or deed of settlement is this clause:—'That the Abbot of Newnhams, near Axminster, had nothing to do in the highway any further than to his land of Studhays, and that he should stand without the court gate of his land of Studhays, and take his right ear in his left hand, and put his right arm next to his body under his left across, and so cast his reap-hook from him; and so far he shall come.'"

Balliolensis.

Sonnet on the Rev. Joseph Blanco White.—Some years ago, I copied the following sonnet from a newspaper. Can you say where it first made its appearance? After the annexed testimony of Coleridge, it is needless to say anything in its praise.

"SONNET ON THE REV. JOSEPH BLANCO WHITE.Mysterious Night! When our first parent knewThee from report divine, and heard thy name,Did he not tremble for this lovely frame,This glorious canopy of light and blue?Yet 'neath a curtain of translucent dew,Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame,Hesperus, with the host of heaven, came,And lo! Creation widen'd in man's view.Who could have thought such darkness lay conceal'dWithin thy beams, O Sun! Or who could find,Whilst fly, and leaf, and insect, stood reveal'd,That to such countless orbs thou mad'st us blind?Why do we then shun death with anxious strife?If light can thus deceive—wherefore not life?"

Coleridge is said to have pronounced this "The finest and most grandly conceived in our language; at least, it is only in Milton's and in Wordsworth's sonnets that I recollect any rival."

Balliolensis.

English and American Booksellers.—It is rather curious to note, that whilst English booksellers are emulously vying with one another to publish editions of Uncle Toms, Queechys, Wide Wide Worlds, &c., they neglect to issue English works which the superior shrewdness of Uncle Sam deems worthy of reprinting. Southey's Chronicle of the Cid, which was published by Longman in 1808, and not since printed in England, was brought out in a very handsome octavo form at Lowell, U. S., in 1846. And this, the "first American edition," as it is called on the title-page, can be readily procured from the booksellers in London; whereas the English original is not to be met with. In like manner, Macaulay's Essays were collected and published first in America; and so with Praed's Poems, and many others. Uncle Sam has lately announced collections of Dr. Maginn's and De Quincey's scattered Essays, for which we owe him our most grateful acknowledgments.

J. M. B.

Tunbridge Wells.

Odd Mistake.—

"One of the houses on Mount Ephraim formerly belonged to Judge Jeffries, a man who has rendered his name infamous in the annals of history by the cruelty and injustice he manifested in presiding at the trial of King Charles I."—Descriptive Sketches of Tunbridge Wells, by John Britton, F.S.A., p. 59.

Voilà comment on fait l'histoire!

J. M. B.

Tunbridge Wells.

Thomas Shakspeare.—In the year 1597 there resided in Lutterworth in Leicestershire, only distant from Stratford-upon-Avon, the birth-town of Shakspeare, a very few miles, one Thomas Shakspeare, who appears to have been employed by William Glover, of Hillendon in Northamptonshire, gentleman, as his agent to receive for him and give an acquittance for a considerable sum of money.

Having regard to the age in which this Thomas Shakspeare lived, coupled with his place of residence, is it not probable he was a relative of the great Bard?

Charlecote.

Early Winters.—I heard it mentioned, when in St. Petersburg very lately, that they have never had so early a commencement of winter as this last year since the French were at Moscow.

I find in accounts of the war, that the winter commenced then (1812) on November 7, N. S., with deep snow. Last year (1852) it commenced at St. Petersburg on October 16, N. S., as noted in my diary, with snow, which has remained on the ground ever since, accompanied at times with very severe frost.

Query: Can November 7, N. S., be the correct date? If it is, this last winter's commencement must be unprecedented; as I have always heard it remarked, that the winter began unusually early the year the French were at Moscow.

I may mention as a note, that by the last accounts from Russia, they say the ice in the Gulf of Finland was four and a half feet thick.

J. S. A.

Old Broad Street.

Queries

SATIRICAL PLAYING CARDS

I have lately been much interested in a pack of cards, complete (fifty-two) in their number and suits, engraved in the time of the Commonwealth at the Hague, and representing the chief personages and the principal events of that period. I have been able, by reference to historical authorities, and, in particular, to the Ballads and Broadsides in the British Museum, forming the collection presented to the nation by George III., to explain the whole pack, with the exception of two. These are "Parry, Father and Sonne," and "Simonias slandering the High Priest, to get his Place." The former simply represents two figures, without any thing to offer a clue to any event; the latter gives the representation of six Puritans, forming an assembly, who are being addressed by one of the body. I cannot find any notice of Simonias, or to whom such a name has been applied, in any of the Commonwealth tracts with which I am acquainted. Probably some of your readers can help me in this matter. Of these cards I can find no notice: they are not mentioned by Singer, and appear to have escaped the indefatigable research of Mr. Chatto. They were purchased at the Hague, more than thirty years since, for thirty-three guineas, and are exceedingly curious: indeed they form a bundle of Commonwealth tracts. All the principal persons of the time figure in some characteristic representation, and the private scandal is also recognised in them. Thus, Oliver is to be found under a strong conflict with Lady Lambert; Sir Harry Mildmay solicits a citizen's wife, for which his own corrects him; and he is also being beaten by a footboy,—which event is alluded to in Butler's Posthumous Works. General Lambert, of whom your pages have given some interesting information, is represented as "The Knight of the Golden Tulip," evidently in reference to his withdrawal with a pension to Holland, where he is known to have ardently cultivated flowers, and to have drawn them in a very superior manner. I hope this communication may enable me to complete my account of these cards, the explanation of which may probably throw light upon some of the stirring events of that extraordinary period of our history.

T. J. Pettigrew.

Saville Row.

MOVABLE METAL TYPES ANNO 1435

A vellum MS. has lately come into my possession, containing the Service for the Dead, Prayers, &c., with the tones for chanting, &c., in Latin, written for a German Order, apparently about the year 1430.

This tome, which is in small 4to., is very remarkable and valuable on account of the binding. This is red leather, stamped with double lines forming lozenges, and powdered with additional stamps, Or, a lion, a fleur-de-lys, an eagle, and a star. The whole is on the plain leather, without any gilding.

But in addition hereto, a full inscription runs along each back, at top and bottom and each side, stamped with movable metal types applied by hand, without gold, as is done by the bookbinder to this day in blind stamping.

The legend on the first back is as follows:

At top.—"DIEZ . PUCHLEI

Continued to the right.—IST . S. . MARGRETEN .

At the bottom.—SCHUEST . ABT . ZU .

Continued to the left.—S. . KATHEREI . ZU . MUR ."

That is,—

"Diez puchlein ist schwester Margreten, sehuest abtisse zu Sankt Katherein zu Mur."

The legend on the last back is,—

At top.—"NACH . CRIST .

Continued to the right.—GEPURT . MCCCCXXXV .

At bottom.—UVART . GEPUN

Continued to the left.—DE . DIEZ . PUCH … K."

That is,—

"Nach Crist gepurt MCCCCXXXV uvart gepunden diez puch … k."

The whole inscription will therefore be, in English,—

THIS BOOKLETIS SISTER MARGARET'S,SISTER-ABBESS ATSAINT CATHERINE'S AT MUR.AFTER CHRIST'SBIRTH, 1435,WAS BOUN-DEN THIS BOOK … K.

A letter or two is illegible, from the injury made by the clasp, before the last K. Both the clasps are torn away, perhaps from their having been of some precious metal. Has this K anything to do with Köster?

Can any particulars be given of the abbess, monastery, and town mentioned?

Is any other specimen of movable metal types known of so early a date?

George Stephens.

Copenhagen.

PORTRAITS AT BRICKWALL HOUSE

Among the pictures at Brickwall House, Northiam, Sussex, are the following portraits by artists whose names are not mentioned either in Bryan, or Pilkington, or Horace Walpole's notices of painters. I shall be thankful for any information respecting them.

1. A full-length portrait in oils (small size) on canvas (29 inches by 24) of a gentleman seated, dressed in a handsome loose gown, red slippers, and on his head a handsome, but very peculiar velvet cap; on the ground, near him, a squirrel; and on a table by his side, a ground plan of some fortification. "John Sommer pinxit, 1700."

N. B.—The late Capt. Marryatt, and subsequently another gentleman, guessed it to be a portrait of Wortley Montague from the peculiar dress; but the fortification would seem to indicate a military personage. The picture is well painted.

2. A half-length portrait in oils (small size) on canvas (20-1/2 inches by 17), of an old lady seated; a landscape in the background. A highly finished and excellent picture; the lace in her cap is most elaborate. "T. Vander Wilt, 1701."

N. B.—I conclude this is the artist's name, though possibly it may be the subject's.

3. A pair of portraits (Kit Kat size), of John Knight of Slapton, Northamptonshire, aged seventy-two; and Catherine his wife, aged thirty-seven. "Lucas Whittonus pinxit, 1736."

N. B.—Inferior portraits by some provincial artist. I conclude Lucas is the surname, and Whittonus indicates his locality; if so, what place?

Whilst on this subject, I would add another Query respecting a picture in this house: a very highly finished portrait (small size) by Terburgh, of a gentleman standing, in black gown, long brown wig, and a book on a table by him. "Andries de Græff. Obiit lxxiii., MDCLXXIIII."

Can you tell me anything about this old gentleman?

T. F.

Minor Queries

Christian Names.—Can any of your correspondents inform me when it became a common practice to have more than one Christian name? Lord Coke says (Co. Litt. 3 a):

"And regularly it is requisite that the purchaser be named by the name of baptism and his surname, and that special heed be taken to the name of baptism; for that a man cannot have two names of baptism as he may have divers surnames."

And further on he says:

"If a man be baptized by the name of Thomas, and after, at his confirmation by the bishop, he is named John, he may purchase by the name of his confirmation.... And this doth agree with our ancient books, where it is holden that a man may have divers names at divers times, but not divers Christian names."

It appears, then, that during the first half of the seventeenth century a man could not have two Christian names.

Also, at what period did the custom arise of using as Christian names words which are properly surnames?

Ericas.

Lake of Geneva.—The chronicler Marius (in the second volume of Dom Bouquet) mentions that, in the reign of the sons of Clotaire, an earthquake or landslip, in the valley of the Upper Rhone, enlarged the Lemannus, or Genevese Lake, by thirty miles of length and twenty of breadth, destroying towns and villages. Montfaucon, in his Monumens de la Monarchie, i. p. 63., states that the Lake of Geneva was formed on this occasion: absurdly, unless he means that upon this occasion its limits were extended to Geneva, having previously terminated further east. What vestiges of this catastrophe are now perceptible?

A. N.

Clerical Portrait.—May I request the assistance of "N. & Q." in discovering the name of a reverend person whose portrait I have recently met with in my parish? The individual from whom I procured it could give me no other history of it, but that he had bought it at the sale of the effects of a respectable pawnbroker in the village many years ago.

Afterwards I learned from another resident in the parish that he well remembered visiting the shop of the same broker, in company with another gentleman still living, when this identical portrait was the subject of conversation, and the broker went into his private room and brought out a book, conceived to be a magazine, from which he read a description of the person of whom this was the portrait, to the following effect, viz., "That he was born of obscure parentage in the parish of Glemham, Suffolk; that he was sent to school, and afterwards became a great man and a dignitary of the church, if not a bishop; and became so wealthy that he gave a large sum for the repairs of Norwich Cathedral."