Notes and Queries, Number 60, December 21, 1850

Then follows the rubric, "Generalis confessio, ab universa congregatione dicenda, genibus flexis." It would appear from this, that the confession was repented at the same time by the minister and the congregation, and not by the congregation after the minister.

Of the authenticity of this edition there can be no doubt. It bears the royal arms on the titlepage, and is printed "Cum privilegio Regiæ majestatis. Excudebat Thomas Vautrollerius." I have not seen the earlier editions. A Greek version was printed with the Latin, in one volume, one year before; and the Latin was republished in 1584. The edition of 1574 was printed before the Catechism was completed by the questions on the sacraments. In the rubrics of the Lord's Prayer, in the Post Communion, and in the last prayers the Commination Service, the word after is rendered by post.

The difference between the Latin and the English in the exhortation is very remarkable, for it does not make the priest dictate the confession, but repeat it with them; whereas the English services of Edward and Elizabeth, unaltered in any subsequent editions, distinctly make the priest dictate the confession. There can be no doubt about the sense of the word after, when we find it in the rubrics of the Post Communion and Commination translated post. Some of your readers may be able to give an account of the Latin versions, and explain by what influence the alteration was made, and how it came to be sanctioned, while the English remained unchanged.

E.C.H.

Disputed Passage in the Tempest (Vol. ii., pp. 259. 299. 337. 429.).—Allow me to remind Mr. George Stephens, who takes credit for adhering to the "primitive" text of a certain disputed passage in the Tempest, that neither he nor any one else does so; that the "primitive" text, that is, the text of the first folio, is mere nonsense, and that he simply adopts the first attempt at correction, instead of the second, or the third, or the fourth.

Enough has been written, perhaps, on the meaning of this passage; and opinion will always be divided between those who adopt the prosaical, and those who prefer the more poetical reading: but when Mr. Stephens says the construction is merely an instance of a "common ellipsis," I cannot but think it would be an advantage if he would inform us whether he uses this term in its common acceptation, and if so, if he would give the meaning stated at first. If this be a common ellipsis, I must confess myself to be so stupid as not to understand it.

I dissent, too, altogether from the opinion that the comma is of any importance in the construction of this passage. Assuming, as one correspondent says, and as Mr. Stephens (for I don't quite understand his brief judgment) seems to say, that "most busie least" means least busy, the placing a comma between "least" and the conjunction "when" can in no way affect the sense, though, as a matter of taste, I should decidedly object to it.

To show that I am not wedded to any particular interpretation, I have another suggestion to make which has struck me even while writing. Taking "lest" for least, can it have been used for at least, or as some people say, leastwise? The sense would still be the same as I have contended for, expressed something like this: "But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours: at least they are most busy when I forget myself in my occupation."

Samuel Hickson.

Lady Compton's Letter (Vol. ii., p. 424.).—Mr. C.H. Cooper inquires whether this letter appeared before 1839? Gifford gives an extract from it in Massinger's City Madam, Act II., where the daughters of Sir John Frugal make somewhat similar stipulations from their suitors. When speaking of this letter as "a modest and consolatory one," Gifford adds, "it is yet extant." The editor of a work entitled Relics of Literature (1823) gives it at length, with this reference, "Harleian MSS. 7003." The property of Lady Compton's father, Sir John Spencer, is stated variously from 300,000l. to 800,000l. In this case, riches brought with them their customary share of anxieties. Lysons, in his Environs of London, informs us that a plot was actually laid for carrying off the wealthy merchant from his house at Canonbury, by a pirate of Dunkirk, in the hope of obtaining a large ransom.

J.H.M.

Midwives licensed (Vol. ii., p. 408.).—I have a manuscript volume which belonged to Bishop Warburton, and apparently to other Bishops of Gloucester before him; containing, amongst other Pontificalia, in writing of various ages, a number of forms of licences, among which occurs "Licentia Obstetricis," whereby the bishop

"eandem A.B. ad exercendam Artem et Officium Obstetricis in et per totam Diocesin Gloucestrensem prædietam admisit et Literas Testimoniales superiade fieri decrevit."

There is no mention of charms or incantations in the licence, but the oath "de jure in hac parte requisito," is required to have been made. The form is of the same writing as several others which bear dates from 1709 to 1719. Below is a memorandum of the fees, amounting to 17s. 6d.

Thomas Kerslake.

Bristol.

Echo Song (Vol. ii., p. 441.).—Although I cannot supply Llyd Rhys Morgan with the name of the writer, I may refer him to D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature, p. 257. (Moxon's edit. 1840), where he will find another Echo Song, by a certain Francis Cole, so similar to the one he quotes as to induce me to think that they either come from the same pen, or that the one is an imitation of the other.

Y.

The Irish Brigade (Vol. ii., pp. 407. 452.).—It is understood John C. O'Callaghan, Esq., author of the Green Book, contemplated a much more copious work on the subject than that by the late Matthew O'Connor, mentioned by your correspondent (p. 452.). The Union Quotidienne of 23rd April last announced a work by M. de la Ponce, Essai sur l'Irlande Ancienne, et sur les Brigades Irlandaises au Service de France, depuis leur Organisation en 1691; but whether published or not I am not aware. Perhaps some of your correspondents may know.

Drumlethglas.

To save one's Bacon (Vol. ii., p. 424.).—May I venture to suggest that this phrase has reference to the custom at Dunmow, in Essex, of giving a flitch of bacon to any married couple residing in the parish, who live in harmony for a year and a day. A man and his wife who stopped short when on the verge of a quarrel might be said to have "just saved their bacon;" and in course of time the phrase would be applied to any one who barely escaped any loss or danger.

X.Z.

"The Times" Newspaper and the Coptic Language (Vol. ii., p. 377.).—J.E. quotes a passage from The Times newspaper respecting the Coptic language, and asks if any correspondent can furnish a clearer account of its structure than the writer of that article has given. A reference to the work which he was reviewing (Kenrick's Ancient Egypt under the Pharaohs) will show the origin of the apparent inconsistency on which J.E. animadverts. In that work it is said (vol. i. p. 100.):

"The roots of the Coptic language appear to have been generally monosyllabic, and the derivatives have been formed by a very simple system of prefixing, inserting, and affixing certain letters, which have usually undergone but little change, not having been incorporated with the root, nor melted down by crasis, nor softened by any euphonic rules."

Again (vol. i. p. 107.), speaking of the supposed connexion between India and Egypt:

"The Sanscrit is the most polished and copious language ever spoken by man; the Coptic, the most rude of all which were used by the civilised nations of antiquity."

The writer in The Times, currente calamo, has thrown the contents of these two sentences together, and somewhat strengthened the expressions of his author, who does not call the Coptic system of inflexion rude, nor assert that it is totally different from the Syro-Arabian system, but quotes the opinion of Benfey, that they differ so much that neither can have originated from the other, but both from a parent language. The distinction between a system of inflexion and one of affixes and prefixes is not permanent. What we call the inflexions of the Greek verb were once, no doubt, affixes; but while, in the Greek, they have become incorporated with the root, in the Coptic they stand rigidly apart from it.

Herampion.

Luther's Hymns (Vol. ii., p. 327.).—A writer in the Parish Choir of September last (p. 140.) has traced the words "In the midst of life we are in death" to a higher source than the Salisbury Service-book. It occurs in the choir-book of the monks of St. Gall in Switzerland, and was probably composed by Notker, surnamed the Stammerer, about the end of the ninth century, or the beginning of the tenth.

C.H.

St. Catherine's Hall, Cambridge.

Osnaburg Bishopric (Vol. ii., pp. 358. 484.).—The occupiers of this bishopric were princes ecclesiastical of the empire, and had not only the ordinary authority of bishops in their dioceses, but were sovereigns of their provinces and towns in the same manner as were the princes temporal.

The bishopric of Osnaburg was founded by Charlemagne, and was filled by various princes until 1625, when Cardinal Francis William, Count of Wartemburg, was elected by the chapter.

By the Treaty of Osnaburg, 1642, which was ratified at the Peace of Westphalia, 1648, the House of Brunswick resigned all claims to the archbishoprics of Magdeburg and Bremen, and to the bishoprics of Halberstadt and Ratzburg; and received the alternate nomination of the bishopric of Osnaburg, which was declared to belong jointly to the Catholic and the Protestant branch of Brunswick.

Under this arrangement, on the death of Count Wartemburg in 1662, Ernest Augustus I., the sixtieth bishop, patriarch of the present royal family of England, succeeded to the government of Osnaburg, which he held for thirty-six years.

Ernest Augustus II, sixty-second bishop, Duke of Brunswick and Lunenburg, was made Duke of York and Albany, and Bishop of Osnaburg, in 1716, in the room of Charles Joseph of Lorraine. He died in 1748.

Frederick, second son of George III., was appointed bishop at an early age; he being called, in a work dedicated to him in 1772, "An infant bishop."

By the Treaty of Vienna, the bishopric of Osnaburg was made part of the kingdom of Hanover.

The ancient territory of the Bishop of Osnaburg consisted of Osnaburg, Iborg, Forstenau, Bostel, Quakenburg, Vorde Gronsburg, Hunteburg on the lake Dummer, Witlage, Melle, and Holte.

In Halliday's History of the House of Guelph, 4to., 1821, at p. 133., the conditions of the Treaty of Osnaburg relative to the bishopric are given at length.

Whilst preparing the above I have seen the reply of F.E. at p. 447., and would beg to correct the following errors:—

The Treaty of Osnaburg was 1642, not 1624.

Halliday's House of Guelph was published 1821, not 1820.

Reference to the conditions of the treaty at p. 133. is omitted.

F.B. Relton.

Scandal against Queen Elizabeth (Vol. ii., p. 393.).—There is a current belief in Ireland that the family of Mapother, in Roscommon, is descended from Queen Elizabeth: and there are many other traditions completely at variance with the ordinarily received opinion as to her inviolate chastity. A discussion of the matter might discover the foundation on which they rest.

R. Ts.

Pretended Reprint of Ancient Poetry (Vol. ii., p. 463.).—The late Rev. Peter Hall was the person at whose expense the two copies of the work mentioned by Dr. Rimbault were reprinted. At the sale of that gentleman's library, in May last, one of these two reprints was sold for 20s.

Cato.

Martin Family (Vol. ii., p. 392.).—If your correspondent Clericus will refer to Morant's History of Essex, vol. ii. p. 188., he will find some account of the family of Martin. There do not appear to be any families of the name of Cockerell or Hopkins in the same neighbourhood.

J.A.D.

"Ge-ho," Meaning of.—I am a little girl, only two years and five months old, and my kind aunt Noo teaches me to spell. Now I hear the men, when driving their horses, say "Ge-ho;" and I think they say so because G, O, spells "Go." Is it so, can anybody say?

I am, your youngest correspondent,Katie.

[Better etymologists than Katie have made far worse guesses than our youngest correspondent. But in Brand's Popular Antiquities, by Ellis, vol. i. p. 294. ed. 1841 (the passage is not in the last edition), is the following curious illustration of the phrase Ge-ho.

"A learned friend, whose communications I have frequently had occasion to acknowledge in the course of this work, says, the exclamation 'Geho, Geho,' which carmen use to their horses, is probably of great antiquity. It is not peculiar to this country, as I have heard it used in France. In the story of the Milkmaid, who kicked down her pail, and with it all her hopes of getting rich, as related in a very ancient collection of apologues, entitled Dialogus Creaturarum, printed at Gonda in 1480, is the following passage: 'Et cum sic gloriaretur, et cogitaret cum quantâ gloriâ duceretur ad illum virum super equum dicendo gio gio, cepit percutere terram quasi pungeret equum calcaribus.'"

Brand's learned correspondent was, doubtless, the late Mr. Douce, from whom the writer of this Note has often heard the same illustration.]

Lady Norton (Vol. ii., p. 480.).—An account of lady Norton may be seen in Memoirs of several ladies of Great Britain, who have been celebrated for their writings or skill in the learned languages arts and sciences. By George Ballard. Oxford, 1752. 4º. She is said to have written two books, viz.: The applause of virtue. In four parts. etc. London, 1705. 4º. pp. 262; and Memento mori: or meditations on death. London 1705. 4º. pp. 108. She was living in advanced years, about 1720.

The same biographical repertory contains an account of her daughter, lady Gethin—of whom some particulars were given by myself in a small volume of essays printed for private circulation, under the title of Curiosities of literature illustrated, in 1837. On that occasion I ventured to express my belief that lady Gethin did not compose one sentence of the remains ascribed to her; but I hope the claims of lady Norton to patristic learning may more successfully bear the test of critical examination.

Bolton Corney.

Miscellaneous

NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC

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