Notes and Queries, Number 206, October 8, 1853

Edward Foss.

TRANSLATION OF THE PRAYER BOOK INTO FRENCH

(Vol. vii., p. 382.)

In answer to some of the questions proposed by O. W. J. respecting the Prayer Book translated into French, I am able to give this information.

A copy of a French Prayer Book is to be found in the Bodleian Library (Douce Coll.), which is very probably the first edition of the translation. A general account of this book may be gained from Strype's Mem. Eccl. K. Ed. VI. (vol. iii. p. 208. ed. 1816); also Strype's Mem. Abp. Cranmer (b. ii. c. 22. sub fin. and c. 33., and App. 54. and 261.); also Collier's Eccl. Hist., vol. ii. p. 321.

From these sources we may conclude that a translation of the first book of K. Ed. VI. was begun very soon after its publication in England, at the instigation of Pawlet (at that time governor of Calais), with the sanction of the king and the archbishop "for the use of the islands of Guernsey and Jersey, and of the town and dependencies of Calais;" but it does not seem to have been completed before the publication of the second book took place, and so the alterations were incorporated into this edition.

The translator was "Françoys Philippe, a servant of the Lord Chancellor" (Thos. Goodrick, Bishop of Ely), as he styles himself. The printer's name is Gaultier. It was put forth in 1553.

There is still extant an "Order in Council" for the island of Jersey, dated April 15, 1550, commanding to "observe and use the service, and other orders appertaining to the same, and to the ministration of the sacraments, set forth in the booke sent to you presentlye." It is uncertain what the book here referred to was, whether a translation or a copy of the English liturgy.

There are copies extant of another liturgy put forth in 1616, purporting to be "newly translated at the command of the king." The printer's name is Jehan Bill, of London. The name of John Bill appears also as king's printer in the English authorised edition of 1662.

Another was published in 1667, by Jean Dunmore and Octavien Pulleyn.

The edition of 1695, published by Erringham (Everingham) and R. Bentley, has the sanction of K. Charles II. appended to it.

Numerous editions have since been published, varying in many important points (even of doctrine) from one another, and from their English original. There is now no authorised edition fit for general use; the older translations having become too antiquated by the variations in the French language to be read in the churches.

M. A. W. C.

PRAYING TO THE WEST

(Vol. viii., p. 208.)

Although going over old ground, yet, if it be permitted, I would note a curious coincidence connected with this far-spread veneration for the West.

As mentioned by G. W., the Puranas point to the "Sacred Isles of the West" as the elysium of the ancient Hindûs, "The White Islands of the West." The Celtæ of the European continent believed that their souls were transported to England, or some islands adjacent. (See Encyclopédié Méthodique, art. "Antiquités," vol. i. p. 704.) The Celtic elysium, "Flath-Innis," a remote island of the West, is mentioned by Logan in his Celtic Gaël, vol. ii. p. 342., who no doubt drew his information from the same source as Professor Rafinesque, whose observations on this subject I transcribe, viz.:

"It is strange but true, that, throughout the earth, the place of departed souls, the land of spirits, was supposed to be in the West, or at the setting sun. This happens everywhere, and in the most opposite religions, from China to Lybia, and also from Alaska to Chili in America. The instances of an eastern paradise were few, and referred to the eastern celestial abode of yore, rather than the future abode of souls. The Ashinists, or Essenians, the best sect of Jews, placed Paradise in the Western Ocean; and the Id. Alishe, or Elisha of the Prophets, the happy land. Jezkal (our Ezekiel) mentions that island; the Phœnicians called it Alizut, and some deem Madeira was meant, but it had neither men nor spirits! From this the Greeks made their Elysium and Tartarus placed near together, at first in Epirus, then Italy, next Spain, lastly in the ocean, as the settlers travelled west. The sacred and blessed islands of the Hindus and Lybians were in this ocean; Wilford thought they meant the British Islands. Pushcara, the farthest off, he says, was Iceland, but may have meant North America.

"The Lybians called their blessed islands 'Aimones;' they were the Canaries, it is said, but likely the Atlantides, since the Atlantes dwelt in the Aimones," &c.

And farther he says, the Gauls had their Cocagne, the Saxons their Cockaign, Cocana of the Lusitanians,—

"A land of delight and plenty, which is proverbial to this day! By the Celts it was called 'Dunna feadhuigh,' a fairy land, &c. But all these notions have earlier foundations, since the English Druids put their paradise in a remote island in the west, called 'Flath-Innis,' the flat island", &c.—American Nations, vol. ii. p. 245. et infra.

The coincidence then is this. The same veneration for the West prevails among many of our Indian tribes, who place their Paradise in an island beyond the Great Lake (Pacific), and far toward the setting sun. There, good Indians enjoy a fine country abounding in game, are always clad in new skins, and live in warm new lodges. Thither they are wafted by prosperous gales; but the bad Indians are driven back by adverse storms, wrecked on the coast, where the remains of their canoes are to be seen covering the strand in all directions.

I cannot refrain from adding here another coincidence connected with futurity. The above idea of sailing to the Indian Paradise, though prevalent, is not general; for instance, the Minnetarees and Mandans believed that to reach Paradise the souls of the departed had to pass over an extremely narrow bridge, which was done safely by the good Indians, but the bad ones slipped off and were buried in oblivion. (See Long's Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, vol. i. p. 259.)

The Chepewa crosses a river on a bridge formed by the body of a large snake (see Long's Expedition to St. Peter's River, vol. i. p. 154.); and in the same volume it is stated that the Dacota, or Sioux, believe they must pass over a rock with a sharp edge like a knife. Those who fall off go to the region of evil spirits, where they are worked, tormented, and frequently flogged unmercifully.

Now, this bridge for gaining Paradise is just the Alsirat of the Mahomedans; I think it will be found in the Bibliothèque Orientale of D'Herbelot; at all events it is mentioned in the preliminary discourse to Sale's Koran. Sale thinks Mahomet borrowed the idea from the Magians, who teach, that on the last day all mankind must pass over the "Pûl Chînavad" or "Chînavar," i.e. "The Straight Bridge." Farther, the Jews speak of the "Bridge of Hell," which is no broader than a thread. According to M. Hommaire de Hell, the Kalmuck Alsirat is a bridge of iron (or causeway) traversing a sea of filth, urine, &c. When the wicked attempt to pass along this, it narrows beneath them to a hair's breadth, snaps asunder, and thus convicted they are plunged into hell. (Travels in the Steppes of the Caspian, &c., p. 252.)

Having already trespassed most unconscionably, I forbear farther remark on these coincidences, except that such ideas of futurity being found amongst nations so widely separated, cannot but induce the belief of a common origin, or at least of intimate communication at a former period, and that so remote as to have allowed time for diverging dialects to have become, as it were, distinct languages.

A. C. M.

Exeter.

JACOB BOBART

(Vol. viii., p. 37.)

The completion of a laborious literary work has taken my attention away from the "N. & Q." for some weeks past, otherwise I should sooner have given Mr. Bobart the following information.

The engraving of old Jacob Bobart by W. Richardson is not of any value, being a copy from an older print. Query if it is not a copy of the very rare engraving by Loggan and Burghers?

The original print of the "founder of the physick garden," "D. Loggan del., M. Burghers sculp., 1675," which Mr. Bobart wishes to procure, may be purchased of A. E. Evans, 403. Strand, for 2l. 12s. 6d. I also learn from Mr. Evans' invaluable Catalogue of Engraved British Portraits (an octavo of 431 pages, lately published), that there exists a portrait of Bobart, "the classical alma mater coachman of Oxford," whole length, by Dighton, 1808. The same catalogue also contains other portraits of the Bobarts.

Since my last communication on the present subject, I find the following memorandums in one of my note-books, which possibly may be unknown to your correspondent; they relate to MSS. in the British Museum.

Add. MS. 5290. contains 227 folio drawings of various rare plants, the names of which are added in the autograph of Jacob Bobart the elder.

Sloane MS. 4038. contains some letters from Jacob Bobart to Sir Hans Sloane, 1685-1716; also one from Anne Bobart, dated 1701.

Sloane MS. 3343. contains a catalogue of plants and seeds saved at Oxford, by Mr. Bobart, 1695-6.

Sloane MS. 3321., consisting of scientific letters addressed to Mr. Petiver, contains one from Jacob Bobart, and another from Tilleman Bobart. The latter has a letter dated "Blenheim, Feb. 5, 1711-12," to some person unknown, in Sloane MS. 4253.

Tilleman Bobart appears to have been employed in laying out the park and gardens at the Duke of Marlborough's magnificent seat at Blenheim. A member of his original papers and receipts were lately disposed of by auction at Messrs. Puttick and Simpson's. (See the sale catalogue of July 22, 1853, lot 1529.)

Edward F. Rimbault.

EARLY USE OF TIN.—DERIVATION OF THE NAME OF BRITAIN

(Vol. viii., p. 290.)

Many questions are proposed by G.W., to which it is extremely improbable that any but a conjectural answer can ever be given. That tin was in common use 2800 years ago, is certain. Probably evidence may be obtained, if it have not been so already, of its use at a still earlier period; but it is unlikely that we shall ever know who first brought it from Cornwall to Asia, and used it to harden copper. It is, however, a matter of interest to trace the mention of this metal in the ancient inscriptions, Egyptian and Assyrian, which have of late years been so successfully interpreted. Mistakes have been made from time to time, which subsequent researches have rectified. It was thought for a long time that a substance, mentioned in the hieroglyphical inscriptions very frequently, and in one instance said to have been procured from Babylon, was tin. This has now been ascertained to be a mistake. Mr. Birch has proved that it was Lapis lazuli, and that what was brought from Babylon was an artificial blue-stone in imitation of the genuine one. I am not aware whether the true hieroglyphic term for tin has been discovered. Mention was again supposed to have been made of tin in the annals of Sargon. A tribute paid to him in his seventh year by Pirhu (Pharaoh, as Col. Rawlinson rightly identifies the name; not Pihor, Boccharis, as I at one time supposed), king of Egypt, Tsamtsi, queen of Arabia, and Idhu, ruler of the Isabeans, was supposed to have contained tin as well as gold, horses, and camels. This, however, was in itself an improbable supposition. It is much more likely that incense or spices should have been yielded by the countries named than tin. At any rate, I have recently identified a totally different word with the name of tin. It reads anna; and I supposed it, till very lately, to mean "rings." I find, however, that it signifies a metal, and that a different word has the signification "rings." When Assur-yuchura-bal, the founder of the north-western palace at Nimrúd, conquered the people who lived on the banks of the Orontes from the confines of Hamath to the sea, he obtained from them twenty talents of silver, half a talent of gold, one hundred talents of anna (tin), one hundred talents of iron, &c. His successor received from the same people all these metals, and also copper.

It is already highly probable, and farther discoveries may soon convert this probability to certainty, that the people just referred to (whom I incline strongly to identify with the Shirutana of the Egyptian inscriptions) were the merchants of the world before Tyre was called into existence; their port being what the Greeks called Seleucia, when they attempted to revive its ancient greatness. It is probably to them that the discovery of Britain is to be attributed; and it was probably from them that it received its name.

In G. W.'s communication, a derivation of the name from barat-anac, "the land of tin," is suggested. He does not say by whom, but he seems to disclaim it as his own. I do not recollect to have met with it before; but it appears to me, even as it stands, a far more plausible one than bruit-tan, "the land of tin:" the former term being supposed to be Celtic for tin, and the latter a termination with the sense of land: or than brit-daoine, "the painted (or separated) people."

I am, however, disposed to think that the name is not of Phœnician origin, but was given by their northern neighbours, whom I have mentioned as their predecessors in commerce. These were evidently of kindred origin, and spoke a language of the same class; and I think it all but certain, that in the Assyrian name for tin (anna) we have the name given to it by this people, from whom the Assyrians obtained it. "The land of tin" would be in their language barat (or probably barit) anna, from which the transition to Britannia presents no difficulty. I assume here that b-r-t, without expressed vowels, is a Phœnician term for "land of." I assume it on the authority of the person, whoever he may be, that first gave the derivation that G. W. quotes. I have no Phœnician authority within reach: but I can readily believe the statement, knowing that banit would be the Assyrian word used in such a compound, and that n, r, and b are perpetually interchanged in the Semitic languages, and notoriously so in this very root. Ummi banitiya, "of the mother who produced me," is pure Assyrian; and so would banit-anna, "the producer of tin," be; all names of lands being feminine in Assyrian.

It would be curious if the true derivation of the world-renowned name of Britain should be ascertained for the first time through an Assyrian medium.

Edw. Hincks.

Killyleagh, Down.

As there are several Queries in the Note of G. W. which the Celtic language is capable of elucidating, I beg to offer a few derivations from that language.

Britain is derived from briot, painted, and tan, a country—i. e. "the country of the painted people." It is a matter of history, that the people of Britain dyed their bodies with various colours.

Tin is from the Celtic tin, to melt readily, to dissolve. It is also called stan: Latin, stannum.

Hercules is from the Phœnician or Celtic, Earr-aclaide, pronounced Er-aclaie, i. e. the noble leader or hero.

Melkarthus is derived from Mal-catair, pronounced Mal-cahir, i. e. the champion or king of the city (of Tyre).

Moloch cannot be identical with the Tyrian Hercules, as Moloch was the god of fire: probably a name for the sun, from the Celtic molc, i. e. fire.

Fras. Crossley.

YEW-TREES IN CHURCHYARDS

(Vol. viii., p. 244.)

Whilst offering a solution to the Query of R. C. Warde, as to the placing yew-trees in churchyards, I am obliged to differ from him toto cœlo, by considering the derivation of the name of the plant itself, though I must candidly confess that the solution of the Query and the derivation of the word are my own.

Yew is ancient British, and signifies existent and enduring, having the same root as Jehovah; and yew is Welsh for it is, being one of the forms of the third person present indicative of the auxiliary verb bód, to be. Hence the yew-tree was planted in churchyards, not to indicate death, despair, but life, hope and assurance. It is one of our few evergreens, and is the most enduring of all, and clearly points out the Christian's hope in the immortality of the soul: Resurgam.

Whilst on the word yew, I may perhaps observe that I am hardly inclined now (though I once was so) to derive from it, as the author of the Etymological Compendium does, the name yeoman: I think that yeoman is not yew-man, "a man using the yew-bow," but yoke-man, a man owning as much land as a yoke of oxen could plough in a certain time.

J. G. Cummings.

The following extract frown the Handbook of English Ecclesiology, p. 190., may be of some assistance to your correspondent:

"Yew. These were planted generally to the south of the church, to supply green for the decoration of churches at the great festivals; this tree being an emblem of immortality. It is a heathen prejudice which regards it as mournful. It is not probable yews were used as palms; the traditional name given to the withy showing that this was used in the procession on that festival."

William W. King.

Instead of troubling you with a particular answer to Mr. Warde's inquiry, let me refer him to the Forest Trees of Britain, by the Rev. C. A. Johns, p 297. et seq., where, among many other curious and interesting facts, he will find the various reasons assigned by different authors, ancient and modern, for the plantation of yew-trees in churchyards. I do not find, however, that the origin ingeniously assigned by Mr. Warde is among the number.

Φ.

I have always supposed, but I know not upon what authority, that the custom of planting yew-trees in churchyards originated in the idea of supplying the yeomen of the parish with bows, in the good old archery days.

Ignoramus.

STARS ARE THE FLOWERS OF HEAVEN

(Vol. vii. passim.)

I sent a Note to "N. & Q" some time ago, expressing my conviction that the original locale of this beautiful idea was in St. Chrysostom. but, as I could not then give a reference to the passage which contained it, my suggestion was of course not definite enough to call for attention. I am now able to vindicate to the "golden-mouthed" preacher of Antioch this expression of poetic fancy, the origination of which has excited, and deservedly, so much inquiry among the readers of "N. & Q." It occurs in Homily X., "On the Statues," delivered at Antioch. I transcribe the passage from the translation in The Library of the Fathers:

"Follow me whilst I enumerate the meadows, the gardens, the flowering tribes; all sorts of herbs and their uses, their odours, forms, disposition; yea, but their very names; the trees which are fruitful and the barren; the nature of metals; that of animals, in the sea or on the land; of those that swim and those that traverse the air; the mountains, the forests, the groves; the meadow below and the meadow above; for there is a meadow on the earth, and a meadow too in the sky, THE VARIOUS FLOWERS OF THE STARS; the rose below, and the rainbow above!… Contemplate with me the beauty of the sky; how it has been preserved so long without being dimmed, and remains as bright and clear as if it had been only fabricated to-day; moreover the power of the earth, how its womb has not become effete by bringing forth during so long a time!" &c. Homily X., "On the Statues," pp. 178-9.

W. Fraser.

Tor-Mohun.

P.S.—Are the following lines, which contain this idea, and were copied long ago from the poet's corner of a provincial paper, with the title of "The Language of the Stars, a fragment," worth preserving?

"The stars bear tidings, voiceless though they are:'Mid the calm loveliness of the evening air,As one by one they open clear and high,And win the wondering gaze of infancy,They speak,—yet utter not. Fair heavenly flowersStrewn on the floor-way of the angels' bowers!'Twas His own hand that twined your chaplets bright,And thoughts of love are in your wreaths of light,Unread, unreadable by us;—there lieHigh meanings in your mystic tracery;Silent rebukings of day's garish dreams,And warnings solemn as your own fair beams."

BOOKS BURNED BY THE COMMON HANGMAN

(Vol. viii., p. 272.)

Your correspondent Balliolensis should remember that at the time Dr. Drake published his Historia Anglo-Scotica, 1703, there were no bounds to the angry passions and jealousies evoked by the discussion of the projected union; consequently, what may appear to as in the present day an insufficient reason for the treatment the book met with in the northern metropolis, wore a very different aspect to the Scots, who, under the popular belief that they were to be sold to their enemies, saw every movement with distrust, and tortured everything said or written on this side the Tweed, upon the impending question, to discover an attack upon their national independence, their church, and their valour.

Looking at Dr. Drake's book, then, for the data upon which it was condemned, we find that it opens with a prefatory dedication to Sir E. Seymour, one of Queen Anne's Commissioners for the Union, and a high churchman, wherein the author distinctly ventures a blow at Presbytery when he says to his patron:

"The languishing oppressed Church of Scotland is not without hopes of finding in you hereafter the same successful champion and restorer that her sister of England has already experienced."

He farther calculated upon Sir Edward inspiring the neighbouring nation "with as great a respect for the generosity of the English as they have heretofore had to dread their valour." Now the Scots neither acknowledged the Episcopacy which Seymour is here urged to press upon them, nor had they any such slavish fear of the vaunted English prowess with which Dr. Drake would have them intimidated; without going farther, therefore, into the book, it appears to me that the Scots parliament had a right to consider it written in a bad spirit, and to pacify the people by condemning it.

Defoe, in his History of the Union (G. Chalmers' edition, London, 1786), says:

"One Dr. Drake writes a preface to an abridgment of the Scots History, wherein, speaking something reflecting upon the freedom and independence of Scotland, the Scots parliament caused it to be burned by the hangman in Edinburgh."

In his Northern Memoirs, 1715, Oldmixon observes:

"They (the Jacobites) therefore put Dr. Drake, author of the High Church Memorials, upon publishing an antiquated Scotch history, on purpose to vilify the whole nation in the preface, and create more ill blood. This had the desired effect. The Scots parliament highly resented the affront, and ordered it to be burnt by the common hangman at Edinburgh."

D'Israeli, in his Calamities of Authors, has the following interesting notice of Drake:

"I must add one more striking example of a political author in the case of Dr. James Drake, a man of genius and an excellent writer. He resigned an honorable profession, that of medicine, to adopt a very contrary one, that of becoming an author by profession for a party. As a Tory writer he dared every extremity of the law, while he evaded it by every subtlety of artifice; he sent a masked lady with his MSS. to the printer, who was never discovered; and was once saved by a flaw in the indictment, from the simple change of an r for a t, or nor for not, one of those shameful evasions by which the law, to its perpetual disgrace, so often protects the criminal from punishment. Dr. Drake had the honor of hearing himself censured from the throne, of being imprisoned, of seeing his Memorials of the Church of England burned at (the Royal Exchange) London, and his Hist. Angl. Scot. at Edinburgh. Having enlisted himself in the pay of the booksellers, among other works, I suspect, he condescended to practise some literary impositions; for he has reprinted Father Parsons famous libel against the Earl of Leicester, under the title of Secret Memoirs of Robert Dudley, E. of L., 1706, with a preface pretending it was printed from an old MS."