J. Taylor.
Newick, Sussex.
Outline in Painting.—J. O. W. H. (Vol. i., p. 318.) and H. C. K. (Vol. iii., p. 63.) are earnestly referred, for resolution of their doubts, to the work by Mr. Ruskin, in 2 vols. large 8vo., entitled Modern Painters, by a Graduate of Oxford, published by Smith and Elder, 1846.
Robert Snow.
Handbell before a Corpse (vol. iii., p. 68.).—Your correspondent ב. has too inconsiderately dismissed the Query which he has undertaken to answer touching the custom of ringing a handbell in advance of a funeral procession. He says, "I have never considered it as anything but a cast of the bell-man's office, to add more solemnity to the occasion."
The custom is invariably observed throughout Italy, and is common in France and Spain. I have witnessed at least some hundreds of funerals in various cities and villages of Piedmont, Sardinia, Tuscany, the Roman States, Naples, Elba, and Sicily; and in Malta; yet never knew I one without the handbell.
Its object, as first explained to me in Florence, is to clear the way for the procession; to remind passengers and loiterers to take off their hats; and to call the pious to their doors and windows to gaze upon the emblems of mortality, and to say a prayer for the repose of the departed soul.
Nocab.
Brandon the Juggler (Vol. ii., p. 424.).—Your correspondent T. Cr. is referred to Scot's Discoverie of Witchcraft, p. 308. (edit. 1584) for a notice of this person and his pigeon.
Jas. Crossley.
"Words are Men's Daughters" (Vol. iii., p. 38.).—This line is taken from Dr. Madden's Boulter's Monument (Dublin, 1745, 8vo.), a poem which was revised by Dr. Johnson, but to which little attention has been paid by his biographers. Mr. Croker observes (edit. of Boswell, 1848, p. 107. note)—
"Dr. Madden wrote very bad verses. The few lines in Boulter's monument which rise above mediocrity may be attributed to Johnson."
Those who take the trouble to refer to the poem itself, will, notwithstanding Mr. Croker's hasty criticism, find a great many fine and vigorous passages, in which the hand of Johnson is clearly distinguishable, and which ought not to be allowed to remain unnoticed. Perhaps on a future occasion I may, in support of this opinion, give some specimens from the poem. The line as to which T. J. inquires,—
"Words are men's daughters, but God's Sons are things,"—
and which is in allusion to Genesis vi. 2. 4., is, I entertain no doubt, one of Dr. Johnson's insertions.
Jas. Crossley.
"Fine by degrees, and beautifully less" (Vol. iii., p. 105.).—This line is from Prior's "Henry and Emma," a poem, upon the model of the "Nut-brown Maid." I copy part of the passage in which it occurs, for the sake of any of your readers who may be lovers of context, and may not have the poem at hand to refer to.
"Henry [addressing Emma].
"Vainly thou tell'st me what the woman's care
Shall in the wildness of the woods prepare;
Thou, ere thou goest, unhappiest of thy kind,
Must leave the habit and the sex behind.
No longer shall thy comely tresses break
In flowing ringlets on thy snowy neck;
Or sit behind thy head, an ample round,
In graceful braids with various ribbon bound:
No longer shall the bodice aptly lac'd
From thy full bosom to thy slender waist,
That air and harmony of shape express,
Fine by degrees, and beautifully less:
Nor shall thy lower garments' artful plait,
From thy fair side dependent to thy feet,
Arm their chaste beauties with a modest pride,
And double every charm they seek to hide."
C. Forbes.
Temple, Feb. 10.
[We are also indebted for replies to this Query to Robert Snow, Fras. Crossley, A. M., J. J. M., A. H., S. T., E. S. T. T., V., W. K., R. B., and other correspondents. C. H. P. remarks:
"Pope, who died in 1744, twenty-three years after Prior, evidently had this line in view when he wrote as follows:—
"'Ladies, like variegated tulips, show;
'Tis to their changes half their charms they owe;
Fine by defect, and delicately weak,
Their happy spots the nice admirer take.'"
And J. H. M. tells us, "The late Lord Ellenborough applied the line somewhat ignobly, when speaking of bristles, in a dispute between two brushmakers."]
"The Soul's dark Cottage" (Vol. iii., p. 105.).—The couplet "Effaress" inquires for, is to be found in Waller's poems. It is a production of his later years, and occurs in the epilogue to his "Poems of Divine Love," and "Of the Fear of God," &c., thus:—
"The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd,
Lets in new light through chinks that time has made,
Stronger by weakness, wiser, men become,
As they draw nigh to their eternal home.
Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view,
That stand upon the threshold of the new."
There is another couplet worth citing—
"The seas are quiet, when the winds give o'er;
So calm are we, when passions are no more."
How different were the effusions of Waller's earlier muse! In the year 1645, Humphrey Mosley published "Poems, &c., written by Mr. Ed. Waller, of Beaconsfield, Esquire, lately a Member of the Honourable House of Commons." The title-page also states that—
"All the Lyrick Poems in this Booke were set by Mr. Henry Lawes of the King's Chappell, and one of his Majesties Private Musick."
It is not a little remarkable that the same publisher, in the same year, should have also given to the world the first edition of that precious volume—Milton's Minor Poems; and, in the advertisement prefixed, he thus adverts to the circumstance:—
"That incouragement I have already received from the most ingenious men, in their clear and courteous entertainment of Mr. Waller's late choice Peeces, hath onece more made me adventure into the world, presenting it with these ever-green and not to be blasted laurels."
Had Humphrey Mosley any presentiment of the deathless fame of Milton?
S. W. Singer.
"The Soul's dark Cottage," &c. (Vol. iii., p. 105.).—This admired couplet can never escape recollection. It was written by Waller. From the tenor of some preceding lines, and the place which the verses occupy in the edition of 1693, they must be among the latest of his compositions.
Bolton Corney.
[A. H. H., R. B., C. J. R., H. G. T., and other friends have replied to this Query.
The Rev. J. Sansom points out a kindred passage in his poem of Divine Love, canto vi. p. 249.:
"The soul contending to that light to fly
From her dark cell," &c.
H. G. sends a beautiful parallel passage from Fuller (Holy State Life of Monica): "Drawing near her death, she sent most pious thoughts as harbingers to heaven, and her soul saw a glimpse of happiness through the chinks of her sickness-broken body." And J. H. M. informs us that amongst Duke's Poems is a most flattering one addressed to Waller, evidently allusive to the lines in question.]
"Beauty Retire" (Vol. iii., p. 105.).—The lines beginning "Beauty Retire," which Pepys set to music, taken from the second part of the Siege of Rhodes, act iv. scene 2., are printed in the 5th volume of the Memoirs, p. 250., 3rd edition.
I believe the music exists in the Pepysian Library, but any of the Fellows of Magdalene College could ascertain the fact.
Braybrooke.
Mythology of the Stars (Vol. iii., p. 70.).—I would here add to my recommendation of Captain Smyth's Celestial Cycle (antè, p. 70.), that soon after it appeared it obtained for its author the annual gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society; and that it is a book adapted to the exigencies of astronomers of all degrees, from the experienced astronomer, furnished with every modern refinement of appliances and means of observation, to the humbler, but perhaps no less zealous beginner, furnished only with a good pair of natural eyes, aided, on occasion, by the common opera-glass. Such an observer, if he goes the right way to work, will make sure of a high degree of entertainment and instruction, and may reasonably hope to light on a discovery or two, worthy, even in the present day, of being recorded.
Robert Snow.
Simon Bache (Vol. iii., p. 105.).—Thesaurarius Hospitii.—The office of "Thesaurarius Hospitii," about which A. W. H. inquires, means, I believe, "Treasurer of the Household." In Chauncy's Hertfordshire, vol. ii. p. 102., the inscription on Simon Bache is given in the same terms as by your correspondent. The learned author then gives, at p. 103., the epitaph on another monument also in Knebworth Church, erected to the memory of John Hotoft, in which occur these two lines:
"Hospitii regis qui Thesaurarius olim
Henrici sexti merito pollebat honore."
At p. 93. of the same volume, Sir Henry Chauncy speaks of the same John Hotoft as an eminent man, and sheriff of the county, and adds:
"He was also Treasurer of the King's Household afterwards; he dyed and was buried in the chancel of this church, where his monument remains at this day."
Who Simon Bache was, or how he came to be buried at Knebworth, I cannot tell. The name of "Bach" occurs in Chauncy several times, as that of mayors and assistants, at Hertford, between 1672 and 1689.
J. H. L.
Winifreda (Vol. iii., p. 108.).—It may perhaps interest Lord Braybrooke and J. H. M. to know, that I have in my possession the copy of Dodsley's Minor Poems, which belonged to John Gilbert Cooper, and which was bought at the sale of his grandson, the late Colonel John Gilbert-Cooper-Gardiner. The song of "Winifreda" is at page 282. of the 4th volume; and a manuscript note, in the handwriting of the son of the author of Letters concerning Taste, states it to have been written "by John Gilbert Cooper." The praise bestowed by Cooper on the poem, and which J. H. M. conceives to militate against his claim to the composition, is obviously intended to apply to the original, and not to Cooper's elegant translation.
A.
Newark.
Queries on Costume (Vol. iii., p. 88.).—Addison's paper in the Spectator, No. 127., seems to be conclusive that hooped petticoats were not in use so early as the year 1651. The anecdote in connection with the subject related in Wilson's Life of De Foe, has always appeared to me very questionable, not only on that consideration, but because Charles was at the time a fine tall young man of more than twenty-one years of age, and at the only period that he could have been in the neighbourhood referred to, he was on horseback and attended by at least two persons, who were also mounted. Neither can the circumstances related be at all reconciled with the particulars given by Clarendon and subsequent writers, who have professed to correct the statements of that historian by authority.
J. D. S.
Antiquitas Sæculi Juventus Mundi (Vol. ii., p. 218.; Vol. iii., p. 125.).—Permit me again to express my opinion, with due deference to the eminent authorities cited in your pages, that the comprehensive words of Lord Bacon, "Antiquitas sæculi juventus mundi," were not borrowed from any author, ancient or modern. But it would be a compliment which that great genius would have been the first to ridicule, were we to affirm that no anterior writer had adopted analogous language in expressing the benefits of "the philosophy of time." On the contrary, he would have called our attention to the expressions of the Egyptian priest addressed to Solon, (see a few pages beyond the one referred to in his Advancement of Learning):
"Ye Grecians are ever children, ye have no knowledge of antiquity nor antiquity of knowledge."
The words of Bacon to me appear to be a condensation of the well-known dialogue in Plato's Timæus, above quoted, as will, I hope, appear in the following paraphrase:
"Apud vos propter inundationes ineunte modò sæculo nihil scientiarum est augmentationis. Quoad nos juventus mundi ac terræ Aegyptiacæ, quâ nulla hominum exitia fuerunt, progrediente tempore, antiquitas fit sæculi, et antiquissimarum rerum apud nos momumenta servantur."
T. J.
Lady Bingham (Vol. iii., p. 61.).—Lady Bingham, whose daughter, afterwards Lady Crewe, was unsuccessfully courted by Sir Symonds D'Ewes (for which see his autobiography), was Sarah, the daughter of John Heigham, Esq., of Gifford's Hall in Urekham Brook, Suffolk, of the same family with Sir Clement Heigham, Knt., of Barrow, Suffolk, Speaker of the House of Commons. She was married by banns at St. Olave's, Hart Street, Jan. 11, 1588, to Sir Richard Bingham, Knt., of co. Dorset. She married, secondly, Edward Waldegrave, Esq., of Lawford, Essex, to whom she was second wife, and by him had Jemima, afterwards Lady Crewe. Edward Waldegrave, married to his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Bartholomew Averell, of Southminster, Essex, had by her an only daughter, Anne, who married Drew, afterwards Sir Drew Drury, Bart., of Riddlesworth, Norfolk. He, Edward Waldegrave, was descended from a younger branch of the family of Waldegrave, of Smallbridge, in the parish of Bures, Suffolk, from whence descends the present Earl Waldegrave.
Lady Bingham lies buried in the chancel of Lawford church, where a stone in the floor states her age to have been sixty-nine, and that she was buried Sept. 9. 1634. There is also another stone in the floor for Edward Waldegrave, Esq., who married Dame Sarah Bingham, by whom he had one daughter, Jemima, who was married to John Stearne (a mistake evidently for Stene, the seat of James Lord Crewe). Edward Waldegrave was buried Feb. 13, 1621, aged about sixty-eight.
The large monument in Lawford church is for the father of this Edward Waldegrave, who died in 1584.
D. A. Y.
Proclamation of Langholme Fair (Vol. iii., p. 56.).—Monkbarns wishes the meaning of the choice expressions in the proclamation. They may be explained as follows:—Hustrin, hustling, or riotously inclined, being so consonanted to make it alliterate with custrin, spelt by Jamieson, custroun, and signifying a pitiful fellow. Chaucer has the word truston in this sense.
Land-louper, one who runs over the country, a vagabond.
Dukes-couper I take to be a petty dealer in ducks or poultry, and to be used in a reproachful sense, as we find "pedlar," "jockey," &c.
Gang-y-gate swinger, a fighting man, who goes swaggering in the road (or gate); a roisterer who takes the wall of every one. Swing is an old word for a stroke or blow.
Durdam is an old word meaning an uproar, and akin to the Welsh word dowrd. Urdam may be a corruption of whoredom, but is more probably prefixed to the genuine word as a co-sounding expletive.
Brabblement seems to be a derivative from the Scotch verb "bra," to make a loud and disagreeable noise (see Jamieson); and squabblement explains itself.
Lugs, ears; tacked, nailed; trone, an old word, properly signifying the public weighing-machine, and sometimes used for the pillory.
A nail o' twal-a-penny is, of course, a nail of that size and sort of which twelve are bought for a penny.
Until he down of his hobshanks, and up with his muckle doubs, evidently means, until he goes down on his knees and raises his hands. Hobshanks is, I think, still in common use. Of doubs I can give no explanation.
W. T. M.
Edinburgh, Jan. 29th.
Burying in Church Walls (Vol. iii., p. 37.).—To the examples mentioned by N. of tombs in church walls, may be added the remarkable ones at Bottisham, Cambridgeshire. There are several of these in the south aisle, with arches internally and externally: the wall between resting on the coffin lid. They are, of course, coeval with the church, which is fine early Decorated. They are considered, I believe, to be memorials of the priors of Anglesey, a neighbouring religious house. They will, no doubt, be fully elucidated in the memoir of Bottisham and Anglesey, which is understood to be in preparation by members of the Cambridge Antiquarian Society. At Trumpington, in the same county, is a recessed tomb of Decorated date, in the south wall of the chancel, externally.
C. R. M.
Defender of the Faith (Vol. ii., pp. 442. 481.; Vol. iii., pp. 9. 94.).—Should not King Edward the Confessor's claim to defend the church as God's Vicar be added to the several valuable notices in relation to the title Defender of the Faith, with which some of your learned contributors have favoured us through your pages?
According to Hoveden, one of the laws adopted from the Anglo-Saxons by William was:
"Rex autem atque vicarius Ejus ad hoc est constitutus, ut regnum terrenum, populum Dei, et super omnia sanctam ecclesiam, revereatur et ab injuriatoribus defendat," &c.
Which duty of princes was further enforced by the words—
"Illos decet vocari reges, qui vigilant, defendunt, et regunt Ecclesiam Dei et populum Ejus, imitantes regem psalmographum," &c.—Vid. Rogeri de Hoveden Annal., par. post., §. Regis Officium; ap. Rerum Anglicarum Scriptores post Bedam, ed. Francof. 1601, p. 604. Conf. Prynne's Chronol. Records, ed. Lond. 1666, tom i. p. 310.
This law appears always to have been received as of authority after the Conquest; and it may, perhaps, be considered as the first seed of that constitutional church supremacy vested in our sovereigns, which several of our kings before the Reformation had occasion to vindicate against Papal claims, and which Henry VIII. strove to carry in the other direction, to an unconstitutional excess.
J. Sansom.
Sauenap, Meaning of (Vol. ii., p. 479.).—The word probably means a napkin or pinafore; the two often, in old times, the same thing. The Cornish name for pinafore is save-all. (See Halliwell's Arch. Dict.) I need not add that nap, napery, was a common word for linen.
George Stephens.
Stockholm.
Sir Thomas Herbert's Memoirs (Vol. ii., p. 476.).—The memoirs of Charles I. by Sir Thomas Herbert were published in 1702. I transcribe the title from a copy in my possession:—
"Memoirs of the two last years of the reign of that unparall'd prince, of ever blessed memory, king Charles I. By sir Tho. Herbert, major Huntingdon, col. Edw. Coke, and Mr. Hen. Firebrace, etc. London, Rob. Clavell, 1702, 8vo."
The volume, for a publication of that period, is of uncommon occurrence. It was printed, as far as above described, "from a manuscript of the Right Reverend the Bishop of Ely, lately deceased." The remainder of the volume consists of reprinted articles.
Bolton Corney.
Robert Burton (Vol. iii., p. 106.).—The supposition that the author of the Anatomy of Melancholy was born at Fald, Staffordshire, instead of Lindley, Leicestershire, seems probable from the fact, that in an edition of the History of Leicestershire, by his brother William, I find that the latter dates his preface "From Falde, neere Tutbury, Staff., Oct. 30. 1622." In this work, also, under the head "Lindley," is given the pedigree of his family, commencing with "James de Burton, Squier of the body to King Richard the First;" down to "Rafe Burton, of Lindley, borne 1547; died 17 March, 1619;" leaving "Robert Burton, bachelor of divinity and student of Christ Church, Oxon; author of the Anatomy of Melancholy; borne 8 of Febr. 1578;" and "William Burton, author of this work (History of Leicestershire), borne 24 of Aug. 1575, now dwelling at Falde, ann. 1622."
T. T.
Leicester.
Drachmarus (Vol. iii., p. 105.).—If your correspondents (Nos. 66 and 67.) who have inquired for a book called Jartuare, and for a writer named "Drachmarus," would add a little to the length of their questions, so as not by extra-briefness to deaden the dexterity of conjecturers, perhaps they might be nearer to the reception of replies. Many stranger things have happened than that Drachmarus should be renovated by the context into Christian Druthmar.
Averia (Vol. iii., p. 42.).—I have long desired to know the exact meaning of averia, but I have not met with a good explanation until lately. It is clear, however, from the following legal expression, "Nullus distringatur per averia carucæ." Caruca is the French charrue, and therefore averia must mean either cart-horses or oxen which draw the plough.
P.
Dragons (Vol. iii., p. 40.).—I think the Draco of the Crusaders' times must have been the Boa constrictor. If you will look into St. Jerome's Vitas Patrum, you will find that he mentions the trail of a "draco" seen in the sand in the Desert, which appeared as if a great beam had been dragged along. I think it not likely that a crocodile would have ventured so far from the banks of the Nile as to be seen in the Desert.
P.