I have delayed contradicting the stories told about the Royal Library in
the Quarterly Review
of last December, and repeated in the
Illustrated Boswell, and, I am sorry to say, still more gravely and
circumstantially reproduced by the Editor of "NOTES AND QUERIES." I have
delayed, I say, until I was enabled to satisfy myself more completely as
to one of the allegations of your Note. I can now venture to assure
you that the whole story of the projected sale to Russia is absolutely
unfounded; and that the Princess Lieven, whose supposed agency is the
gist of the story, never heard a syllable about it, till my inquiry
brought it to her notice, and that she has given it the most absolute
contradiction. As there never was any such proposition, I need not say
that the interference against it attributed to Mr. Heber and Lord
Sidmouth is equally unfounded. The real history of the affair is
this:—Mr. Nash, the architect, had rendered himself very agreeable to
George IV. by his alterations and additions to the Pavilion at Brighton,
and he managed to obtain (somewhat irregularly, I believe) the job of
altering old Buckingham House, which was originally intended, or at
least proposed, to be only an extensive repair and more commodious
arrangement of the existing edifice. Under that notion, Mr. Nash had
little difficulty in persuading the king that the space occupied by so
large a library could not be spared for that purpose, if the house was
to be arranged as a palace both for private residence and for purposes
of state; and as there was a very great jealousy in Parliament of the
expense of Buckingham House, he was afraid to propose the erection of an
additional building to receive the books. It was then that the scheme
was hit on, I know not exactly by whom (but I believe by Mr. Nash), of
giving the books to the British Museum. The principal part of the
library occupied three large rooms, two oblong and one an octagon. The
former were to have been absorbed into the living apartments, and the
octagon was to be preserved as a chapel, which it was proposed to
adorn with the seven cartoons of Raphael from Hampton Court. All
these, and several other schemes, vanished before Mr. Nash's larger
views and increased favour, which led by degrees to the total
destruction of the old house, and the erection of an entirely new
palace, which however retains strong evidence of the occasional and
piecemeal principle on which it was begun. But in the meanwhile the
library was gone. I know that some members of the government were very
averse to this disposal of the library: they thought, and strongly
represented, that a royal residence should, not be without a library;
and that this particular collection, made especially ad hoc, should
not have been, on any pretence, and above all on one so occasional and
trivial, diverted from its original destination. It is very possible
that Mr. Heber may have expressed this opinion; and I think I may say
that Lord Sidmouth certainly did so: but, on the other hand, some of the
king's advisers were not sorry to see the collection added to the Museum
pro bono publico; and so the affair concluded,—very unsatisfactorily,
as I thought and think, as regards the crown, to whom this library ought
to have been an heirloom; and indeed I doubt whether it was not so in
point of law. It is likely enough that the gift of the library may have
been partly prompted by a hope of putting the public in better humour
as to the expenses of Buckingham House; but the idea of a sale to
Russia never, I am sure, entered the head of any of the parties.
C.
I can easily suppose, after the space you have given to J. S. W. (Vol.
iv., p. 64.) to sum up on the long-protracted controversy of the
Eisell interpretation, that you will scarcely permit it to be renewed.
J. S. W.'s judgment, though given with much amenity and fulness, I
cannot think satisfactory, as towards its close he evidently sinks into
the advocate.
Theobald, a most admirable annotator, has narrowed the controversy very
properly, to the consideration whether Hamlet was here proposing
possibilities or impossibilities. J. S. W. dwells on the whole of the
dialogue between Hamlet and Laertes as a rant; and sinks all the lines
and passages that would bring it down to sanity. But this seems to line
singularly unjust. Imprimis, Hamlet is not enraged like Laertes, "who
hath a dear sister lost," and is a very choleric, impetuous, and
arrogant young gentleman. It is this quality which irritates Hamlet, who
is otherwise in the whole of this scene in a particularly moralising and
philosophic mood, and is by no means "splenetic and rash." Hamlet, a
prince, is openly cursed by Laertes: he is even seized by him, and he
still only remonstrates. There is anything but rant in what he (Hamlet)
says; he uses the most homely phrases; so homely that there is something
very like scorn in them:
—— "What wilt thou do for her?"
is the quietude of contempt for Laertes' insulting rant; and so, if my
memory deceive me not, the elder Kean gave it; "Do for her" being put
in contrast with Laertes' braggadocio say. Then come the
possibilities:
"Woul't weep, fight, fast, tear thyself,"
(All, be it noted, common lover's tricks),
"Would drink up eisell, eat a crocodile,
I'll do't."
Now the eating a crocodile is the real difficulty, for that looks like
an impossibility but then, no doubt, the crocodile, like all other
monstrous things, was in the pharmacopœia of the time, and
was considered the most revolting of eatables. Eat a crocodile, does not
mean a whole raw one, but such as the alligator mentioned in the shop of
Romeo's apothecary, probably preserved in spirits.
Here we have possibilities put against the rant of Laertes; the doing
against the saying; the quietude of the philosophic prince, against
the ranting of the robustious Laertes; things that could be done,—for
Hamlet ends with "I'll do it." That is, he will weep, fight, fast, tear
himself, drink bitterness, and eat monstrosities: and this is his
challenge of Laertes to the true testimony of his love, in contrast to
his wordy lamentation. But his quick imagination has caught an impetus
from its own motion, and he goes on, "Nay, I will even outprate you;"
and then follows his superior rant, not uttered with sincere vehemence,
but with quiet and philosophic scorn; and he ends with the reproof of
Laertes' mouthing; a thing particularly distasteful to him. And now, in
accordance with this dignified contempt is his final remonstrance and
his exit speech of—
"I lov'd you ever; but it is no matter;
Let Hercules himself," &c.
We thus see that there is no real rant in Hamlet; he is not outbragging
Laertes; but institutes the possible, in contradiction to swagger and
mouthing. The interpretation of eisell thus becomes a matter of
character, and to a great degree would determine an actor's mode of
rendering the whole scene. This result I do not see that any of your
correspondents have taken notice of; and yet it really is the main thing
worth discussing.
This interpretation too has the advantage of coinciding with
Shakspeare's perpetual love of contrast; the hot, hasty, wordy Laertes
being in strong contrast to the philosophic, meditating, and melancholy
young prince; always true to his character, and ever the first in every
scene by his own calm dignity. He never rants at all, but rides over his
antagonist by his cool reasoning and his own magnificent imagination.
The adoption of Theobald and Hickson's interpretation of the word
eisell becomes therefore of great importance as indicating the
character of Hamlet.
F. G. T.
Many of your readers no doubt feel much indebted to your correspondent
for his able summary of the eisell controversy; an example which it is
to be hoped will be followed in other cases. It has induced me to
collect a few passages for the purpose of showing that Shakspeare was
accustomed to make use of what may be termed localisms, which were
frequently as occult as in the instance of the eisell; and that he was
especially fond of establishing himself with the children of his brain
in the particular country by means of allusion to the neighbouring seas
and rivers. What appropriate signs are the Centaur and the Phœnix for
the city of Ephesus, the scene of the Comedy of Errors! The Italian,
Iachimo, speaks of—
"—— lips as common as the stairs
That mount the capitol."
And Petruchio alludes to the bursting of "a chestnut in a farmer's
fire," an incident probably of common occurrence in the sunny south. In
Hamlet, with which we are chiefly concerned, the king "gulps his
draughts of Rhenish down;" and the grave-digger talks of a flagon of
Rhenish having been poured by the jester upon his head, the wine with
which Denmark would naturally be supplied. His majesty inquires:
"Where are the Switzers? let them guard the door."
And the student Horatio is judiciously placed at the university of
Wittenburg. Constant mention is made in The Merchant of Venice of the
Rialto; and Portia, not unmindful of the remarkable position of the
city, thus directs Balthazar:
"Bring them, I pray thee, with imagin'd speed
Unto the tranect, to the common ferry
Which trades to Venice."
What a fine Hebraism (Hazlitt remarks) is that of Shylock, where he
declares, that he would not have given his ring "for a whole wilderness
of monkeys!" And so, if the subjoined passage in Othello relates to
the ceremony of the Doge's union with the sea, may we not exclaim "What
an admirable Venetianism!"
"I would not my unhoused free condition
Put into circumscription and confine
For the sea's worth."
The Moor has not travelled far to find the following simile:
"Like to the Pontick sea,
Whose icy current and compulsive course
Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps due on
To the Propontick and the Hellespont."
Petruchio asserts in respect to Catherine:
"—— Were she as rough
As are the swelling Adriatic waves,
I come to wive it wealthily in Padua."
In the Roman plays the Tiber is repeatedly noticed. The Thames occurs in
Merry Wives of Windsor, and others. And in the Egyptian scenes of
Antony and Cleopatra, the Nile is several times introduced.
"Master Brook [says Falstaff], I will be thrown into Etna, as I
have been into Thames, ere I will leave her thus."
Antony exclaims:
"Let Rome in Tiber melt!"
while Cleopatra gives utterance to the same sentiment:
"Melt Egypt into Nile! And kindly creatures
Turn all to serpents!"
In the last two passages it may be observed, that the hyperbolical
treatment of the two rivers
bears some analogy to that of the
eisell; and it may also be pointed out, that although one of your
correspondents has rashly maintained that the word cannot mean a river
because the definite article is omitted before it, Thames, Tiber, and
Nile here occur without. Upon the whole it must appear that there is
some reason for adopting the motto:
"Flow on, thou shining river."
T.
Eisell will, I think, if examples from our old writers decide, be at
least acknowledged to mean in Shakspeare what we now (improperly?) call
vinegar, and not any river. In The Goolden Letanye of the Lyf and
Passion of our Lorde Jesu Criste, edited from a MS. (No. 546.) in the
library at Lambeth, by Mr. Maskell, Monumenta Ritualia, ii. 252.,
comes this entreaty:—
"For thi thirste and tastyng of gall and eysyl, graunte us to
tast the swetnes of thi spirite; and have mercy on us."
All through the sixteenth century, and ages before, eisell was not
only a housewife's word, but in every one's mouth—in the poet's as he
sang, the preacher's as he preached, and the people's while they prayed.
Surely, for this very reason, if Shakspeare meant Hamlet to rant about a
river, the bard would never have made the king choose, before all
others, that very one which bore the same name with the then commonest
word in our tongue: a tiny stream, moreover, which, if hardly ever
spoken of in these days of geographical knowledge, must have been much
less known then to Englishmen.
DA. ROCK.
Buckland, Faringdon.
Your correspondent J. S. W. well deserves the thanks of all those of
your readers who have taken an interest in the discussion on the meaning
of eisell in Hamlet, for the able manner in which he has summed up
the evidence put forward by the counsel on both sides. Perhaps he is
correct in his conclusion, that, of twelve good men and true, nine would
give their verdict for eisell being "a river;" while but three would
favour the "bitter potion." Nevertheless, I must say, I think the
balance yet hangs pretty even, and I rather incline myself to the latter
opinion, for these reasons:
1. There is no objection whatever, even in the judgment of its enemies,
against eisell meaning "a bitter potion," except that they prefer
the river as more to their taste; for the objection of MR. CAUSTON I
conceive to have no weight at all, that "to drink up" can only be
applied "to a definite quantity;" surely it may also mean, and very
naturally, to drink "without stint." And eisell need not be taken as
meaning nothing more than "vinegar;" it may be a potion or medicament of
extreme bitterness, as in the 111th sonnet, and in Lydgate's Troy Boke
quoted by MR. SINGER, such, that while it would be possible to sip or
drink it in small quantities, or diluted, yet to swallow a quantity at a
draught would be almost beyond endurance; and hence, I submit, the
appropriateness of "drink up."
2. There is this objection against eisell meaning a river,—Would the
poet who took a world-wide illustration from Ossa, refer in the same
passage to an obscure local river for another illustration? Moreover it
does not appear to be sufficient to find any mere river, whose name
resembles the word in question, without showing also that there is a
propriety in Hamlet's alluding, to that particular river, either on
account of its volume of water, its rapid flow, &c., or from its being
in sight at the time he spoke, or near at hand.
Can any of your readers, who have Shakspeare more at their fingers' ends
than myself, instance any exact parallel of this allusion of his to
local scenery, which, being necessarily obscure, must more or less mar
the universality, if I may so speak, of his dramas. Could such instances
be pointed out (which I do not deny) or at least any one exactly
parallel instance, it would go far towards reconciling myself at least
to the notion that eisell is the river Essel.
H. C. K.
—— Rectory, Hereford, July 28.
I will not attempt to follow all the statements of L. M., because some
of them are totally beside the question, and others contradict each
other. I shall only observe that he totally mistakes my argument when
he says, as if in reply to me, that it is not necessary to have the
courtesy title of lord to be a privy councillor. No one ever said any
such thing. What I said was this, that the Mayor of London, like those
of Dublin and York, had the courtesy title of lord, and that this
title of lord brought with it the other courtesy designation of right
honorable, which latter being also (but not likewise) the
designation of privy councillors, had, as I suppose, occasioned the
error now predicated of the Mayor of London being a privy councillor,
which, I repeat, he is no more than any Lord John or Lady Jane, who have
also the title of Right Honorable.
L. M., however, states as a matter of fact, that "the Lord Mayor is
always summoned to council on the accession of a new sovereign." Now I
assert, and I think have proved in my former note, that the Lord Mayor
never was so summoned to council. I now add that he never has on any
occasion entered the council chamber, that he has never taken the oath
nor performed any act of a privy councillor, and that in short there is
not the
smallest doubt with any one who knows anything about the
Privy Council, that the Lord Mayor of London no more belongs to it
than the Lord Mayors of York or Dublin, or the Lord Provost of
Edinburgh, all of whom are equally styled Right Honorable, which title,
I repeat, is the sole and silly pretence of this new-fangled hypothesis.
C.
Observing the imperfect knowledge which Lowndes and your correspondents
apparently have of the work called Anderson's House of Yvery, I send
you a few Notes to clear up some points.
It may be said there were two editions of this work; one containing the
censorious comments of (I presume) Lord Egmont on the degraded state of
the peerage; the second, that in which those comments were cancelled. To
the first, no printer's name appeared in the title-page; to the second
is the name of "H. Woodfall, jun."
Lowndes has entirely mistaken the origin of the different paging in vol.
i. The fact is, the original edition of the Introduction contained 41
pages of text, but the cancels reduced that number to 37; which p. 37.,
as Lowndes correctly remarks, is in the second edition misprinted 29. I
possess both copies, with and without the cancels. By Lowndes we are led
to believe that only p. xxxvii. was destroyed; but in truth they are p.
xvi., and parts of pp. xv. and xvii., and nearly the whole of pp.
xxxv.-vi., containing the anecdotes of the tailor's son and the
apothecary's brother-in-law being sent, or intended to be sent, to
foreign courts, as ambassadors from England. Another cancel occurs in
vol. ii., of nearly the whole of pp. 444-5-6, which occasions Lowndes to
say that pp. 446-7 are missing. The duplicate pages 453 to 460 are
peculiar to the second edition only. One of my copies contains two
additional plates, one of Wardour Castle, the other of Acton Burnell,
evidently engraved for the work. The map of the baronies of Duhallow,
&c., is only in one copy, viz. the original edition. Unfortunately, this
original edition wants all the portraits of Faber, but it has the tomb
of Richard Percival of 1190, beginning "Orate," as in Lowndes. It
contains also a duplicate portrait of Sir Philip Percival, engraved by
Toms in 1738 (who also engraved the Wardour and Acton Burnell Castles);
and this duplicate is also in the other copy.
Were I to form any judgment when this work was commenced, I should say
about 1738, and that all the engravings for it were done by Toms; and
the first edition was printed in 1742, without any printer's name, and
that some copies were so bound up. The other copies remained in sheets
until the next year, when Faber was employed to engrave the portraits,
and till 1744 or 1747; 1747 being the latest date of Faber's plates.
There is some curious information in these volumes, and I would
recommend your readers to observe how much the conduct of the Catholics
of Ireland, recorded in vol. ii. p. 271., resembles that of the
Catholics of the present day.
P.
I think A. E. B. has not understood MR. HICKSON'S argument in reference
to this word. Perhaps the latter may not have expressed himself very
clearly; and not having by me his original paper on the subject, I
cannot cite his exact words; but his argument I take to be to this
effect:—In construction of the passage there is a double comparison,
which, though perfectly clear to the intelligent reader, causes some
confusion when a doubt is first raised as to the meaning of the word,
and which can be cleared up only by a thorough analysis. "The
cloud-capp'd towers," &c., are first compared with "the baseless fabric
of this vision," like which they "shall dissolve," and afterwards with
"this insubstantial pageant," like which (having "faded") they shall
"leave not a rack behind." A given object can be said to "leave behind"
only that which was originally of its elements, and for this reason only
a general term such as wreck or vestige will accord with the
construction of the passage.
I am sorry to find that any one should misquote Shakspeare for the
purpose of obtaining a temporary triumph: probably, however, in the
instance I am about to cite, A. E. B. has really fallen into the common
error of regarding two similes as one. He says, giving the substance of
Shakspeare's passage, "the globe itself shall dissolve, and, like this
vision, leave not a wreck behind." What Shakspeare in substance does
say is, "The globe itself, like this vision, shall dissolve, and,
like this faded pageant, shall leave not a rack behind." A. E. B.'s
question, therefore, "in what was the resemblance to the vision to
consist, if not in melting, like it, into thin air?" is thus answered:
The resemblance does consist in dissolving, or "melting" away.
My object in making these remarks is not to express an opinion on one
side or the other, but to draw the attention of your readers to the real
question at issue. I therefore say nothing as to whether Shakspeare may
or may not have had a prevision of the nebular theory; though I cannot
see that this would be in the least affected by our decision as to the
meaning of this word, since the wrack or wreck of the world might
well be represented
by the "vapour" for which A. E. B. contends.
As, however, this gentleman says such is its meaning "beyond all doubt,"
(a rather dogmatic way of settling the question, by the way, seeing that
a doubt had been thrown upon it in the very paper he has engaged himself
to answer,) I should like to be informed if there is any authority for
the use of the word in Shakspeare, or his cotemporaries, as mere
"haze" or "vapour." I have generally understood it to mean a
particular description of cloud, or, as some say, more properly, the
course of the clouds in motion.
In fine, as Prospero did undoubtedly point to the dissolution of the
globe and all that it contained, it is quite clear that it could in such
case leave neither "cloud" nor "vapour," nor anything else behind it.
The simple question then remains: Is the word rack, as elsewhere used
by Shakspeare and his contemporaries, logically applicable there?
A LOOKER-ON.
Dawlish, Aug. 16. 1851.
—Coleridge (Death of
Wallenstein, Act V. Sc. 1.) gives the lines—
"Fast fly the clouds, the sickle of the moon
Struggling, darts snatches of uncertain light."
as a translation of
"—— schnell geht
Der Wolken Zug: die Mondessichel wankt
Und durch die Nacht zuckt ungewisse Helle."
In a note on this passage he says:
"The words wanken and schweben are not easily translated. The
English words by which we attempt to render them are either
vulgar or pedantic, or not of sufficiently general application.
So 'der Wolken Zug,' the draft, the procession of clouds, the
masses of the clouds sweep onward in swift stream."
On reading this, it struck me that the English word rack exactly
expresses the meaning of "der Wolken Zug."
Malone, in his note on the Tempest, Act IV. Sc. 1., says:
"Rack is generally used for a body of clouds, or rather for
the course of clouds in motion."
I add a few instances of the use of this word, many of which are
collected in the note I have referred to.
In Antony and Cleopatra—
"That which is now a horse, even with a thought
The rack dislimns."
In Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess—
"shall I stray
In the middle air, and stay
The sailing rack."
In Dryden's tenth Æneid—
"the doubtful rack of heaven
Stands without motion."
The term scud, used by sailors, seems to express the same idea.
X. Z.
The productions of the writer known by the name of the Hermit of Hampole
have been hitherto much neglected: they afford copious illustrations of
ancient manners, and are very valuable in a philological point of view.
I would especially name the Speculum Vitæ, or Mirrour of Life, of
which I possess two MSS. in entirely distinct dialects.
Your Cambridge correspondent has shown that the Metrical Sermons contain
interesting passages also illustrative of manners and as the extracts he
has made have given occasion to some glossarial Queries from an Oxford
correspondent, J. E., should they not be more satisfactorily answered by
C. H., to whom they are addressed, perhaps the following attempt to
resolve them may not be unacceptable.
1. By the devenisch most probably the Danish is meant, which we find
elsewhere written Deniske, Daniske, and Danske.
2. Guystroun should be quystroun, which is used by Chaucer in the
Romaunt of the Rose, and signifies a scullion, as is evident from
this passage. It is from the O. Fr. quistron or cuistron. Thus in K.
Alisaunder (Weber's Metr. Rom.), v. 2511.:
"Ther n'as knave no quistron
That he no hadde gôd waryson."
3. By Chaunsemlees we may probably understand schoon-semeles,
signifying, no doubt, sandals.
4. "Hir chere was ay semand sori," which your correspondent says is
"an expression very strange to English verse," is nothing more than the
old form of seeming: her cheer was ever sorrowful or sad-seeming.
The termination and or ande, as well as inde, was formerly used
where we now have ing. Examples are numerous of this form; as semand
and semynd, spekand, strikinde, &c. &c.
In Gawin Douglas, Eneados, we have glaidsembland for an appearance
of joy or gladness, a cheerful countenance; and in b. ii. v. 159.:
"As that drery unarmyt wicht was sted
And with eine
[8]
blent about semyn ful red."
There are other words which appear in an uncommon form in these
extracts, for instance, telid and telith, hirched and hirching;
and the following plural form I do not recollect to have observed
elsewhere:
"For ser deyntes and many mes
Make men falle in many sicknes."
In the last line of the first page, Salhanas should be Sathanas:
"And so slew Jesu Sathanas,"
reminding us of the tradition mentioned by DR. RIMBAULT, "the Devil died
when Christ suffered," not when he was born.
S. W. Singer.
Mickleham, Aug. 18. 1851.
—ERZA regrets extremely the mistake she has made with
regard to the above poem. The person from whom, and the circumstances
under which she received it, all tended to confirm her in her error till
the last moment—with which, if the authoress of this beautiful poem
were acquainted, ERZA is sure she would be forgiven.
[To these regrets on the part of ERZA we have to add the
expression of our own that our columns should have been made the
medium of a statement which it is obvious originated in error. We
regret also that, after the contradictions given to the first
statement, ERZA should, without a positive knowledge of the real
facts of the case, have reiterated in such strong terms the
claims of Lady Flora Hastings to the authorship of a poem which
it is now quite clear is really the production of Miss Barber.]
—I
cannot concur in MR. CROSSLEY'S conjecture that the marks of quotation
affixed to this line in the eighteenth book of the Dunciad may have
been a mere error of the press; because, in the first place, I do not
find that the Dunciad is more negligently printed than other works of
the day. I should say rather less so; but (which is more important) any
one who will look at the successive editions will, I think, be satisfied
that the remarkable typography of the line, carefully reproduced in
all, could not be accidental. This matter is less trifling than it at
first sight may seem, because there are several lines in Pope's works
similarly marked as quotations, on which questions have arisen; and my
belief is that everything so marked will turn out to have really been a
quotation, though in this case, and in that other,
"No Lord's anointed but a Russian bear,"
we have, as yet, failed to find the original.
C.
—The old church was Early
English; the original windows were lancet-shaped. It was built, like all
the adjoining churches, of stone; but it had been repaired with brick,
and the roof of the tower had been covered with tiles instead of
shingles. The earliest brick building in Sussex, after the Roman period,
is Herstmonceux Castle, built by Sir Roger de Fynes, treasurer of the
household to Henry VI.
W. D. COOPER
—The quotation your
correspondent writes about to be found in MR. DOUGLAS JERROLD'S A Man
Made of Money, p. 252.:
"'Robert, my dear,' said Jenny, with the deferential air of a
scholar, 'Robert, what did Mr. Carraways mean when he said he
hated dog—dogmatism?' Topps was puzzled. 'Robert, my dear,'
Jenny urged, 'what—what in the world is dogmatism?' Now it was
the weakness of Topps, never to confess ignorance of anything
soever to his wife. 'A man should never do it,' Topps had been
known in convivial seasons to declare; 'it makes 'em conceited.'
Whereupon Topps prepared himself, as was his wont, to make
solemn, satisfying, answer. Taking off his hat, and smoothing the
wrinkles of his brow, Topps said, 'Humph! what is dogmatism? Why,
it is this, of course: dogmatism is puppyism come to its full
growth.'"
E D. STEANE JACKSON.
Saffron Walden, Aug. 10.
—That Swift was the son of Sir William Temple seems to have been
completely disproved by Mason. Swift was born in Dublin, 30th November,
1667, in the house of his uncle Godwin Swift, who, after the death of
his younger brother, Jonathan, in the preceding April, took charge of
his widow. Sir William Temple appears from his letters to have been
abroad in a public capacity from 1665 to 1670. If therefore, there
existed such consanguinity between Swift and Stella as to be a bar to
their marriage, it must have arisen in some other way. Swift says that
Stella "was born at Richmond in Surrey, on 13th March, 1681; her father
being the younger brother of a good family in Nottinghamshire [Qy. Sir
Wm. Temple? Sheen, where he resided, was close by], her mother of a
lower degree." There can be little doubt that she was illegitimate. The
question arises, who was her mother? On this point the Richmond registry
might perhaps throw some light. Has it ever been searched? In order
that the supposed consanguinity should have existed, her mother must
have been either Swift's mother, Abigail Swift (née Erick) of
Leicestershire, or (what seems more probable) an illegitimate
half-sister of Swift. It has been surmised, however, that an impediment
to Swift's marriage of an entirely different nature from consanguinity
may have existed; or that, feeling himself to be labouring under an
hereditary disease, he may have been unwilling to propagate it. I am
much inclined to think that the objection to the marriage of Swift and
Stella, which certainly must have existed, was of this last description;
and that
it would have been equally strong the case of any other
female. However this may be, I believe that full credit may be given to
what Swift has stated respecting the perfect purity of his intercourse
with Stella.
"I knew her from six years old, and had some share in her
education, by directing what books she should read, and
perpetually instructing her in the principles of honour and
virtue, from which she never swerved in any one action or moment
of her life."—Swift's Works, vol ix. p. 489. (citante
Mason).
E. H. D. D.
—It has been
suggested to me by a lady who was an intimate friend of Lamb's, that Mr.
Justice Talfourd was the author of this epitaph. The observation,
however, was made without, I believe, any certain knowledge on the
subject.
COWGILL.
—ARUN inquires as to the
meaning of Carnaby as the name of a street. Carnaby is a surname
probably deriving from the parish of Carnaby in Yorkshire. It has become
a Christian name in the family of —— Haggerston, Bart., since the
marriage of an heiress of Carnaby's into that family.
Streets are often called after proper names.
†
—Your correspondent T. J.
has called attention to the tradition-falsifying assertion of Mr. G.
Pigott, that the custom with which the Scandinavians were long
reproached, of drinking out of the skulls of their enemies, has no other
foundation than a blunder of Olaus Wormius in translating a passage in
the death-song of Regner Lodbrog.
The following extracts from the curious and learned work of Bartholinus,
De Causis Contemptæ a Danis Adhuc Gentilibus Mortis, will, I think,
show that the subject deserves further inquiry before we consent to
place this ancient historical tradition in the category of vulgar
errors. Speaking of the banquets of the beatified heroes in Valhalla,
Bartholinus says:
"Neque tamen ex communi animalium cornu elaborata pocula in
Valhalla viserentur; sacratiora desiderabantur ex cæsorum craniis
inimicorum confecta, quæ apud Danos vel ex Daniâ oriundos, alias
quoque gentes, in summo erant pretio."—Lib. ii. cap. xii. p.
555.
In proof of this assertion he quotes the following authors; Herodotus
(lib. iv. cap. 65.) and Plato (Euthydemus), who attribute this custom to
the Scythians. Aristotle is supposed to allude to it, De Repub. lib.
vii. cap. 2. In the Historia Miscellanea, lib. vi., it is mentioned as
a custom of the Scordisci; and similar customs are recorded of the
Panebi by Nicolaus Damascenus, of the Essedones by Solinus and Mela, of
the Boii by Livy (lib iii. cap. 24.), of the Celts by Silius Italicus
(lib. ii.), of the Langobards by Paulus Diaconus (lib. i. cap. 27.). The
last-mentioned author informs us that these skull cups were alled
"scalæ;" upon which Bartholinus remarks—
"Unde genus, undeque morem ejusmodi conficiendarum paterarum unde
etiam nomen scalæ iis inditum, ex septentrione nempe traxerunt
Langobardi manifestum facient Vaulundar qvidu.
"Enn pœr skalar
&c. &c.
h. e.
Crania autem illa
Quæ pericraniis suberant
Argento obduxit et
Nidado tradidit."
W. B. R.
—I do
not recollect that either of your correspondents on this subject has
brought forward the aspersion upon Queen Elizabeth's fair fame in
precisely the same form in which the Jesuit Sanders places it in the
following passage:—
"Hâc Ecclesiæ contra ipsam sententiâ, et Catholicorum novis
incrementis quotidianis, non mediocriter offensa Elizabetha,
convocatis ordinibus, leges valde iracundas et cruentas contra
veteris fidei cultores promulgat: quibus primum cavetur, ne quis
Elizabetham hæreticam, schismaticam, infidelem, usurpatricemve,
sub pœnâ capitis vocet. Item. Ne quis aliam quamcunque
certam personam nominet, cui regnum vel in vitâ, vel post mortem
ipsius, deberi dicatur, exceptâ Elizabethæ naturali prole. Ea
enim sunt ipsa decreti verba. In eam enim homines vel adulationem
vel necessitatem ita perduxit hæresis, ut quod illud nobilissimum
regnum illegitimæ illius regis sui proli ægre unquam concessit,
nunc naturali, id est, spuriæ, soboli reginæ in cujus sexu
fornicationis peccatum est fœdius, non denegarint: pariter et
reipublicæ, ex proximi successoris ignoratione, extremum
periculum, et Elizabethæ incontinentiam prodentes."—Nicolai
Sanderi Hist. Schism. Angl. lib. iii. § Novæ leges latæ in
Catholicos, ann. 1571, ed. 8vo. Col. Agr. 1628, p. 299.
To some of your readers this passage may seem to indicate that the use
of the equivocal word naturali may have given colour, not to say
occasion, to the whole scandal against Queen Elizabeth. By many, I
apprehend, it will be acknowledged that spuriæ is not the only, if an
allowable, interpretation.
J. SANSOM.
Oxford, July 22. 1851.
—I think the following may help
to throw a little light upon the use of the word deal as meaning
divide. I was in Wensleydale about a month ago; and on inquiring where
the boundary between the North and West Ridings of Yorkshire ran, was
told, "On the top of Penhill, where God's water deals" (i. e. the rain
divides). I may further add, on my own knowledge, that in the north-west
corner of Suffolk, where the country is almost entirely open,
the boundaries of the different parishes are marked by earthen mounds,
from three to six feet high, which are known in the neighbourhood as
dools the word being probably derived from the same root. I have been
told, however, that it should be spelled duals, and that the
derivation of it was from the Latin duo as marking two parishes; but I
am sure that it is always pronounced by the country-people at a
monosyllable, and therefore the chances are in favour of the former
derivation being the right one.
A propos to Suffolk, another of your correspondents (Vol. iv., p. 55)
lately mentioned the fashion the people there have of leaving out the
ve in the middle of the names of places. In this I can bear him
witness also; but I do not think it is confined to those letters only:
e. g. Eriswell, pronounced Asel; Wymondham (in Norfolk) Wyndham,
&c. Among those names of places in which the ve is left out, your
correspondent has omitted Elveden (commonly, though erroneously,
Elvedon), which is always called and often spelled Elden.
A. N.
—This quotation is from
Cowper's lines appended to the Bill of Mortality for the parish of All
Saints, Northampton, for 1787:
"Read, ye that run, the awful truth
With which I charge my page;
A worm is in the bud of youth,
And at the root of age."
I know not with whom the idea originated. The imagery is frequently used
by Shakspeare, but with him never indicates disease or death.
I can call to mind no similar expression in the classics.
H. E. H.
—Your correspondent FRANCIS is in
error as to the MSS. and correspondence of Henry Andrews being in the
possession of his son, Mr. Wm. Henry Andrews. Mr. W. H. Andrews some
time ago sold to me the whole of his father's MSS. correspondence,
astronomical and astrological calculations, with a mass of very curious
letters from persons desirous of having their "nativities cast." I have
also some copies of Andrews' portrait, one of which shall be much at
your service.
Moore's Almanack was known by that name long before Andrews had any
connection with it, but he was for upwards of forty years its compiler
for the Company of Stationers, whose liberal (?) treatment of Andrews
may be collected from the following postscript to a letter addressed to
me by his son:—
"My father's calculations, &c., for Moore's Almanack, continued
during a period of forty-three years; and although through his
great talent and management he increased the sale of that work
from 100,000 to 500,000, yet, strange to say, all he received for
his services was 25l. per ann.!! Yet I never heard him murmur
even once about it; such was his delight in pursuing his
favourite studies, that his anxiety about remuneration was out of
the question. Sir Richard Phillips, who at times visited him at
Royston, once met him in London, and endeavoured to persuade him
to go with him to Stationers' Hall, and he would get him 100l.;
but he declined going, saying that he was satisfied."
Andrews was also computer to the Board of Longitude, and Maskelyne's
Letters evidence the value and correctness of his calculations.
The only materials left by Andrews for a memoir of his life I believe I
possess, and some day I may find leisure to put them into order for
publication.
ROBT. COLE.
—The Query (Vol. iv., p. 68.) "What was scurvy ale?" may
perhaps be answered by an extract from a little work, The Polar Sea and
Regions, published by Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh. In the account of
Baffin's voyage, in which he discovered the bay called after him
Baffin's Bay, we are told that—
"Finding the health of his crew rather declining, he sailed
across to Greenland, where an abundance of scurvy grass boiled
in beer quickly restored them; and the Lord then sent them a
speedy and good passage homeward."
Johnson explains scurvy-grass as spoonwort.
W. FRASER.
—Will you have the goodness
to inform your correspondent that I have a pamphlet, printed soon after
the famous siege was over, giving a particular account of it, though it
altogether omits mentioning the name of an ancestor of mine who
distinguished himself in the relief of that place. I shall be happy to
afford E. A. any information or assistance he may require.
B. G.
about which MR. MCCABE asks, is a very old custom in England. Matt. Paris, in his
description of Abbot William's funeral at St. Albans, A.D. 1235, tells
us how—
"Corpus apertum est. &c. Et quicquid in corpore repertum est, in
quadam cuna repositum est, sale conspersum. Et in cœmiterio,
est humatum. Corpus autem interius, aceto lotum et imbutum et
multo sale respersum et resutum. Et hoc sic factum est
circumspecte et prudenter, ne corpus per triduum et amplius
reservandum, tetrum aliquem odorem olfacientibus generaret et
corpus tumulandum, contrectantibus aliquod offendiculum
praesentaret."—Vitæ S. Albani Abbatum, p. 87. ed. Wats, Paris,
1644.
DA. ROCK.
Buckland, July 24. 1851.
In the 86th and two following sections of the Second Book of Herodotus
is the description of the ancient Egyptian methods of preserving
the
bodies of the dead. These were more or less embalmed with
aromatic spices, according to the condition of the person, and then
corned with saltpetre (λιτρον, nitre) for seventy days;
strictly, salted. Is it possible that the early Christians, in
adopting this practice, may have been influenced by that very obscure
passage, Mark ix. 49.: "Every one shall be salted with fire?"
ALFRED GATTY.
The custom of placing a plate of salt on the body of the dead is very
general in Wales. I remember, when a child, inquiring the reason of the
practice, and being told by an old woman that it was to prevent the body
from swelling. My remark, that any weight might answer the same
purpose, was met by the reply; "there's no weight so heavy as salt gets
when it is on the dead." This proves that some feeling of superstition
mingles with the custom. Has not the use of salt in baptism, amongst the
Italians &c., come allusion to the banishment of the evil spirit?
SELEUCUS.
—That the use of the word
repudiate, in the sense of refuse, repel, reject, abandon, disown,
cast off, is by no means modern; and that such phrases as "I repudiate
the idea," "I repudiate the sentiment," "I repudiate the proposal," are
strictly correct, is evident from the use of the word by "standard
classical authors" in the original language from which it has come down
to us. Sallust, for instance, in his History of Catiline's Conspiracy,
says that Lentulus advised him to seek assistance everywhere, even
amongst the dregs of the populace; asking him at the same time, "Why,
since the senate had already adjudged him to be an enemy to the
republic, he should repudiate the slaves?" i. e., refuse to enrol them
in his levies.
"Cum ab senatu hostis judicatus sit, quo consilio servitia
repudiet?"—Sall. Cat. 44.
Cicero, in his Offices, in opposition to the opinion of the peripatetic
school, that anger is implanted in us by nature for useful ends, lays it
down as a principle, that "on all occasions anger ought to be
repudiated;" that is, "cast out of the mind," and says that "it is to
be wished that persons who are at the head of the state should be like
the laws, which inflict punishment not in anger but in justice."
"Illa (iracundia) vero omnibus in rebus repudianda
est."—Cic. de Off. I. xxv. 13.
Cicero knew nothing of the Christian grace of "being angry and sinning,
not;" he knew nothing of the severity of love. In another place he tells
us that on one occasion Themistocles declared in the Athenian assembly,
that he had a plan to propose which would be of great advantage to the
state, but ought not to be made public. He was willing, however, to
communicate it to any one person whom they might select. Aristides,
rightly named the Just, being the person selected, Themistocles
disclosed his plan to him: which was, secretly to set fire to the
Lacedæmonian fleet in the dockyard of Gytheum, by which means they would
effectually crush the power of the Lacedæmonians. Aristides returned to
the assembly, and at once declared that Themistocles' plan was certainly
very advantageous, but by no means honourable; whereupon the Athenians,
rightly considering that what was not attended with honour, could not be
attended even with advantage in reality, without hearing another word,
"repudiated the whole affair;" that is, utterly rejected the proposal.
"Itaque Athenienses, quod honestum non esset, id ne utile quidem
putaverunt; totamque eam rem, quam ne audierant quidem, auctore
Aristide, repudiaverunt."—Cic. de Off. III. xi. 12.
In a third place, he relates that some persons forged a will of one
Minucius Basilus, who had died in Greece; and, in order that they might
the more easily obtain their end, put down Marcus Crassus and Quintus
Hortensius, two of the most influential men in Rome at that time, as
co-legatees with themselves, who although they suspected the will to be
forged, yet did not repudiate the little legacy coming to them through
other persons' fraud, because forsooth they were not privy to the actual
commission of the forgery.
"Qui cum illud falsum esse suspicarentur, sibi autem nullius
essent conscii culpæ, alieni facinoris munusculum non
repudiaverunt."—Cic. de Off. III. xviii. 4.
A little further research might easily multiply instances, but I think
these are quite sufficient to prove that we moderns are but following
the ancients in using the word repudiate without reference to any
obligation expressed or implied.
F. F. F.
—Your correspondent
H. C. K. has dealt, I fear, somewhat too harshly with "repudiate."
Surely "repudiare" is "to reject what one is ashamed of, scorns, or
disdains." Two instances immediately suggest themselves in Cicer. pro
Plancio, 18 (44). 20 (50). In the former—
"Respuerent aures, nemo agnosceret, repudiarent,"
perhaps the word is a gloss upon "respuerunt." The latter, however, is
unexceptionable:
"Nunquam enim fere nobilitas, integra præsertim atque innocens, a
Populo Romano supplex repudiata fuit."
Why then should "repudiate" necessarily imply the notion of
"obligation?" and why should I, if I "repudiate" the criticism of H. C.
K., be held to "talk nonsense?"
May I be allowed room for a couple of Queries? 1. Is our modern usage of
"ringlet" found before
the time of Milton? 2. What is the
earliest authority for "outburst?"
CHARLES THIRIOLD.
Cambridge, July 29. 1851.
—I have read with pleasure the
paragraphs in your "NOTES AND QUERIES" on "the letter v," and beg
space for a further notice, with an especial reference to the patronymic
of Ray or Wray. One family uses the motto, "Juste et Vrai," whose
name is Wray; and another the same motto, whose name is Ray. And it
will be remembered that John Ray, the naturalist, changed the
orthography of his name from Wray to Ray, as he concluded it had
been formerly written; and in one of the letters published by the Ray
Society,
[9]
allusion is made to the adjective or substantive vrai, as
if that distinguished philosopher and divine had either derived his name
thence, or it had the same signification as that French word. Are we
then to take this as an instance of the silent v or double u or v;
and as any proof that families writing their names Wray and Ray were
originally of one patronymic and one common root, and that presumptively
Norman?
Under a separate heading, perhaps you will also indulge me with a Query
as to the coat of arms, under the portrait by Bathon, 1760, after W.
Hibbart, of Joannes Rajus, A.M., prefixed to Dr. Derham's Life of John
Ray, published by George Scott, M.A. and F.R.S.: London, 1760. The
shield is, gules, on a fesse, between three crescents, three cross
crosslets. Is it inferable that that coat was ever borne by patent or
admissible prescriptive right, by any of his ancestors? Several families
in the north of England, whence his father came, also have registered in
respectable armories crescents against their names. The poor origin of
John Ray is obviated, in some degree, by what is said in a Life of him,
published in The Portrait Gallery of British Worthies, by Charles
Knight. I suppose he himself used the armorials in question, and was
related to the family of nearly the same name, bearing crescents, viz.
Reay.
The glasses of some of your correspondents may assist one more
shortsighted than themselves.
H. W. G. R., Presbyter,
and Member of the Ray Society.
1. Mead Place, Derby, Aug. 2. 1851.
I beg leave to correct a remark of W. S. W***. as to Tiverton, Devon,
which was never pronounced Terton; it is Twiverton, near Bath, which
is pronounced Twerton.
S. S.
—The name "Whig" is derived from
the Celtic ugham, a sort of large saddle, with bags attached to it, in
use among the freebooters of the borders of Scotland: hence those
robbers were known to the Highlanders by the name of Whiggam-more, or
"big-saddle thieves;" and when the Civil War broke out, the Highlanders
and Irish, who supported the king, called themselves a taobh Righ, i.
e. "the king's party," and gave the name of Whiggamore thieves to
their opponents. Whiggammore and taobh Righ soon became shortened to
Whig and Tory, and in aftertimes served to distinguish the
supporters of the rival houses of Hanover and Stuart. The modern
signification of the terms is different, Whig being taken to mean
"liberal," and Tory "exclusive."
FRAS. CROSSLEY.
—I do not understand this
Query. What is meant by "planets for the months?" There are twelve
months, and in common parlance only seven planets. Nor do I see what is
meant by "precious stones symbolizing those planets." In heraldry, the
arms of sovereigns and royal personages are blazoned by the names of the
sun, moon, and planets, for colours, as those of noblemen are by
precious stones. If this is what is asked after, the following table
will explain it:—
|
Colours. |
Pr. Stones. |
Planets. |
|
Or |
Topaz |
Sol |
|
Argent |
Pearl |
Luna |
|
Sable |
Diamond |
Saturn |
|
Gules |
Ruby |
Mars |
|
Azure |
Sapphire |
Jupiter |
|
Vert |
Emerald |
Venus |
|
Purpure |
Amethyst |
Mercury |
C.
—The two following extracts
may throw some light upon the origin of the title of baronet. James I.
probably adopted this title, which he found to have been so long
existing in Ireland, for the new order of nobility he was about to
establish. And it should be remembered that the order of baronet was
instituted for the purpose of promoting the plantation of Ulster.
The names mentioned in the second extract are probably those of the
baronets whom Spenser mentions as being, in existence in his time. There
was, thirty years ago, a "Baron of Galtrim;" perhaps there is still.
EUDOX: "You say well, for by the increase of Freeholders, their
numbers hereby will be greatly augmented; but how should it passe
through the higher house, which still must consiste all of
Irish?"
IREN: "Marry, that also may bee redressed by ensample of that
which I heard was done in the like case by King Edward III. (as I
remember), who being greatly bearded and crossed by the Lords of
the cleargie, they being there [i. e. in the Parliament of
Ireland] by reason of the Lords Abbots, and others, too many
and too strong for him, so as hee could not for their
frowardnesse
order and reforme things as hee desired, was
advised to direct out his writts to certaine Gentlemen of the
best ability and trust, entitling them therein Barons, to serve
and sitt as Barons in the next Parlament. By which meanes hee had
so many Barons in his Parlament, as were able to weigh down the
Cleargie and their friends: the which Barons, they say, were not
afterwards Lords, but onely Baronets, as sundry of them doe yet
retayne the name."—Spenser's "View of the State of Ireland," in
the Ancient Irish Histories, Dublin Edition, 1809, pp. 223,
224.
"Seint Leger, Baronet of Slemarge, meere Irish.
Den, Baronet of Por man ston, waxing Irish.
Fitz Gerald, Baronet of Burnchurch.
Welleslye, Baronet of Narraghe.
[Ancestor of the Duke of Wellington.]
Husee, Baronet of Galtrim.
S. Michell, Baronet of Reban.
Marwarde, Baronet of Scryne.
Nangle, Baronet of Navan."
Campion's "Historie of Ireland," written in the yeare 1571, p.
12. (In the Ancient Irish Histories, Dublin edition, 1809.)
T. J.
—Your
correspondents will find some "curious memoirs" of this person in the
Anthologia Hibernica for June, 1793, p. 424. The memoirs are
embellished with a plate "correctly copied from an extreme rare print in
the collection of J. Bindley, Esq."
R. H.
—From Burke's Landed Gentry, 1846, under
"Plowden of Plowden" (A.D. 1194), it would appear that Edmund was of
Wansted, Hampshire, and ancestor of the Plowdens of Lassam, Hants, and
that he "was styled in his will, July 29, 1655, Sir Edmund, lord earl
palatine, governor, and captain general, of the province of New Albion."
I would suggest to your Transatlantic readers the interest that would be
derived from a compilation of surnames in the United States; and in
cases where it can be ascertained, the date of introduction, position of
first immigrant, ancestry, and descendants. The names and subsequent
history of those families who remained loyal during the American
Revolution, are worthy of record; most of whom have, I believe,
prospered in the world since the confiscation of their property.
The names of the followers of William the Conqueror are often alluded
to; but the "comers over" at the conquest of Wales, Scotland, and
Ireland are but seldom thought of, though they lend to their
descendants' pedigree a degree of historical interest.
A. C.
—This proverb is to
be found in Ray's first edition (1670), and is quoted in a little book
entitled Scarronides, et cet., a burlesque on the second book of
Virgil's Æneid. Æneas, reposing on the "toro alto," is likened to
"Ludlam's curr, on truckle lolling;" whilst a marginal note says "'Tis a
proverb, Ludlam's dog lean'd his head against a wall when he went to
bark." Both here and in Ray the name is spelt Ludlam.
CRANMORE.
—The piece quoted by MR. BARTON
had long since been pointed out by Warton (Essay on Pope), who has
also collected many others which Pope may have known and made use of,
some which he must.
V.
—The explanation of the
stanza in question would occupy more space than I think you would spare
me. It will suffice to note that a very sufficient one will be found in
Todd's edition of Spenser (1803) in vol. iii., at the close of canto
ix. book ii.; and that the letter of Sir K. Digby is given at full
length, before the editor's own commentary and explanation, in that
place.
V.
Belgravia.
—In reply to the inquiry
whether there is still a law against the use of bells as a summons to
divine services, except in churches, which has not been answered, permit
me to quote the following sentences from a judgment of Lord Chief
Justice Campbell, as reported in the Times of August 14.
"First, with regard to the right of using bells at all. By the
common law, churches of every denomination had a full right to
use bells, and it was a vulgar error to suppose that there was
any distinction at the present time in this respect. At the same
time, those bells might undoubtedly be made use of in such a
manner as to create a nuisance; and in that case a Protestant
church and a Roman Catholic one were equally liable."
The case (Soltan v. De Weld) from the judgment in which the above
remarks are extracted was tried at the Croydon Assizes, and related to
the use of bells by a Romanist community in such a manner as was alleged
to be a nuisance.
ARUN.
—The meaning of this proverb
will be found in Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary, 4to. ed:—To "cone"
or "cunne" thanks, is "to give thanks; to express a sense of
obligation; to leave a sense of obligation."
S. WMSON.