NOTES IN ANSWER TO QUERIES.
The Lobster in the Medal of the Pretender.
Your correspondent, Mr. B. NIGHTINGALE, desires an answer to his Query (in your No. 4), Why is the figure of a Lobster introduced into the impression upon the rare medal struck 20th June, 1688, in contempt or ridicule of Prince James Edward, the newly-born son of King James II.?
A reference to the two following works will, perhaps, supply the answer:—
1st. In Philemon Holland's translation of Pliny's Natural History (a great authority at the time) this passage occurs in book ix. cap. 30.:—
"Lobsters, so long as they are secure of any fear and danger, go directly straight, letting down their hornes at length along their sides;... but if they be in any fear, up go their hornes straight—and then they creep byas and go sidelong."
And in the next chapter (31.):—
"Crabs" (which were often confounded with lobsters) "when they will be afraid, will recule backward, as fast as they went forward."
2nd. In the celebrated work of Sebastian Brandt, entitled Stultifera Naxis (which went through many editions after its first appearance in 1494), is an engraving of a fool, wearing cap and bells, seated astride on the back of a lobster, with a broken reed in his hand, and a pigeon flying past him as he stares vacantly at it with open mouth. The following lines are attached:—
DE PREDESTINATIONE
"Qui pretium poseit quod non meruisse videtur,
Atque super fragilem ponit sua brachia cannam
Illius in dorso Cancrorum semita stabit;
Devolet inque suum rictum satis assa Columba."
It appears, then, to me, that the design of the medallist was to hold up to the exceration of the English people the machinations of Father Petre, who (together with Sunderland) guided the councils of the king at the juncture. The Jesuits, like the crustaceous fish above-mentioned, were alleged to accomplish their dark and crooked designs by creeping and sedulously working their way straight forward through the mud, until some real danger presented itself, and then reculing with equal adroitness.
At this time, too, the bigoted and superstitious adherents of James had been offering their vows at every shrine, and even making pilgrimages, to induce Heaven to grant a male heir to the throne, and thus exclude the Protestant daughters of the king. The premature and unexpected event, therefore, of the birth of a son, was pronounced by James's friends to have been predestined by the special grace of the Most High. All this, I apprehend, was intended to be typified by the figure of the Jesuit Petre riding upon a Lobster.
JOS. BROOKS YATES
Straw Necklaces—Method of keeping Notes, &c.
Sir,—As I see this matter is not yet explained, I venture a suggestion. Wheat straw was an emblem of peace among heathen nations; in it the first-fruits brought by Abaris the Hyperborean to Delos were wrapped; and when commerce, or rather trade by barter, had rendered transmission from hand to hand practicable, wheat straw was still used. With the worship of Diana the offering of wheat straw passed over to Thrace, where it was a recognition of that goddess as the patron of chastity. In Judea the wheat harvest was later than that of barley, the Jews therefore offered a sheaf of the latter grain as first-fruits; it is, however, extraordinary that Moses orders barley-meal as the offering for jealousy (Numbers, v 15.), though the price of barley was but half that of wheat. It seems as if there were the same connection between this peace-offering and that of the first-fruits with the Jews, that we see between the offering to Diana and the first-fruits of the Hyperboreans; both may have been derived from Egypt, in the learning of which, we are told, Moses was skilled. The straw necklace or chaplet of Erasmus' pilgrim might be worn to secure him from molestation in travelling, or it may refer to the patroness of Walsingham, the Virgin Mary.
I dare say many persons have thought with me, that a poet's promise of a "belt of straw" to his love, was not a very complimentary one; one possible meaning never struck me till this moment: it may be a compliment unconsciously drawn from a heathen source, and perpetuated, like so many of our old-world customs, among a class of people the least likely to understand the meaning.
Another corroboration of Macaulay's Young Levite may be found in The Tatler, No. 255, sixty years later than Burton.
I beg to suggest a method of keeping "Notes," which I have found useful. I have a blank book for each quarter of the world, paged alphabetically; I enter my notes and queries according to the subject for which they are most likely to be required; if relating to mere geography or history, under the name of place or person. I also keep a list (with dates) of all the books I read, with a note of any use to be made of them; I also keep a list of all books to be read, and the reasons for reading them. I tried various ways of keeping my notes, and found no classification so easy for reference as the plan I have mentioned; it may not, however, suffice to those whose reading is much more extensive than mine; I mention it as a working plan.
F.C.B.