Replies to Minor Queries.
Ulm Manuscript (Vol. iii., pp. 60. 191.).—In addition to the information supplied by Mr. Foss, it may be mentioned that this manuscript is so called from having been referred to by Griesbach as the Codex Ulmensis apud Gerbert. This takes us to the Iter Alemannicum, Italicum et Gallicum of Martin Gerbert, published in 1765, at p. 192. of which work he informs us, that in the year 1760 this manuscript was preserved at Ulm in the library of the family of Krafft, which consisted of 6000 volumes, printed and manuscript. Of its history from this period till it came into Bishop Butler's hands, I am ignorant. Its reference at present in the British Museum is MSS. Add. 11,852.
μ.
Father Maximilian Hell (Vol. iii., p. 167.).—A querist is in conscience bound to be a respondent; I therefore hasten to tell you that Dr. Watt (Biblioth. Britan. iv. Magnetism, animal) should have written Hell instead of Hehl. It was that eminent astronomer, Maximilian Hell, who supposed that magnets affected the human frame, and, at first, approved of Mesmer's views. The latter was at Vienna in 1774; and perhaps got some parts of his theory from Father Hell, of whom he was afterwards jealous, and therefore very abusive. The life of Hell in Dr. Aikin's General Biography is an unsatisfactory compilation drawn up by Mr. W. Johnston, to whom we are indebted for the current barbarism so-called. In that account there is not one word on Hell's Treatise on Artificial Magnets, Vienna, 1763; in which the germ of animal magnetism may probably be found.
Engastrimythus.
Meaning of "strained" as used by Shakspeare (Vol. iii., p. 185.).—The context of the passage quoted by L. S. explains the sense in which Shakspeare used the word "strain'd:"
"Portia. Then must the Jew be merciful.
Shylock. On what compulsion must I? tell me that.
Portia. The quality of mercy is not strain'd," &c.
that is, there is nothing forced, nothing of compulsion in the quality of mercy.
Johnson gives: "To strain, to force, to constrain."
Q. D.
L. S. will find his difficulty solved by Johnson's Dictionary (a work to which he himself refers), if he compares the following quotation with Portia's reply to Shylock:—
"He talks and plays with Fatima, but his mirth
Is forced and strained," &c.
Egduf.
[We have also to thank, for replying to this Query, our correspondents R. F., R. T. G. H., P. K., J. H. Kershaw, C. M., Y., E. N. W., C. D. Lamont, and also Mr. Snow, who remarks that "actresses rarely commence this speech satisfactorily, or give, or seem to feel, the point of contrast between the must and no must, the compulsion and no compulsion. In fact, the whole of it is usually mouthed out, without much reference to Shylock or the play, as if it had been learned by rote from a school speech-book. Hazlitt says, in his Characters of Shakspeare's Plays, 'The speech about mercy is very well, but there are a thousand finer ones in Shakspeare.'">[
Headings of Chapters in English Bibles (Vol. iii., p. 141.).—The summaries of the contents of each chapter, as found in the authorised editions of our English Bible, were prefixed by Miles Smith, bishop of Gloucester, one of the original translators, who also wrote the preface, and, in conjunction with Bishop Bilson, finally reviewed the whole work. Your correspondent will find full answers to his other queries in Stackhouse and Tomlins; in Johnson's History of English Translations, &c.; and in T. H. Horne's Introduction.
Cowgill.