ENGLISH POEMS BY CONSTANTINE HUYGHENS.
It is probable that some of your friendly correspondents in Holland may have it in their power to indicate where the English verses of Constantine Huyghens are to be found which he refers to in his Koren Bloemen, 2de Deel, p. 528. ed. 1672, where he was given Dutch translations with the following superscriptions: "Aen Joffw Utricia Ogle, uyt mijn Engelsh;" and "Aen Me-Vrouwe Stanhope, met mijn Heilige dagen, uyt mijn Engelsh."
Huyghens appears to have had a thorough knowledge of our language, and his very interesting volume contains translations of twenty of Dr. Donne's poems, very ably rendered, considering the difficulty of the task. He refers to this in his address to the reader, and says that an illustrious Martyr [Charles I.] many years since had declared that he could not have believed that any one could have successfully accomplished it. Huyghens confesses that the Latinisms with which our language abounds, had given him much to wrestle with; and that it was difficult to express in pure Dutch such words as ecstasy, atomy, influence, legacy, alloy, &c. The first stanza of the song, "Go and catch a falling Star," may perhaps be acceptable to some of your readers, who may not readily have access to the book:
"Gaet en vatt een Sterr in 't vallen,
Maeckt een' Wortel-mensch[1] met kind,
Seght waer men al den tijd die nu verby is vindt,
En wie des Duyvels voet geklooft heeft in twee ballen:
Leert my Meereminnen hooren,
Leert my hoe ick 't boose booren,
Van den Nijd ontkommen moet,
En wat Wind voor-wind is voor een oprecht gemoed."
[1] Mandrake.
One more example of his translation, from the epigram on Sir Albertus Morton, may be allowed, as it is short:
"She first deceased; he for a little tried
To live without her; liked it not, and died."
"Sy stierf voor uyt: hy pooghd' haer een' wijl tijds te derven,
Maer had geen' sin daer in, en ging oock liggen sterven."
Considering the affinity of the languages, and the frequent and constant intercourse with Holland, it is singular that we should have to reproach ourselves with such almost total ignorance respecting the literature of that country. With the exception of the slight sketch given by Dr. Bowring of its poetical literature, an Englishman has no work to which he can turn in his own language for information; and Dutch books may be sought for in vain in London. The late Mr. Heber when in Holland did not neglect its literature, and at the dispersion of his library I procured a few valuable Dutch books; among others, the very handsome volume which has given rise to this note. It contains much interesting matter, and affords a most amiable picture of the mind of its distinguished author, who lived to the very advanced age of ninety-one. There is a speaking and living portrait of him prefixed, from the beautiful graver of Blotelingk, and a view of his chateau of Hofwyck, with detailed plans of his garden, &c. He was secretary to three successive princes of Nassau, accountant to the Prince of Orange, and Lord of Zuylichem; and lived in habits of friendly intercourse with almost all the distinguished men who flourished during his long and prosperous life. His son is well known to the world of science as the inventor of the pendulum.
Translations of three or four of Constantine Huyghens' poems are given by Dr. Bowring in his Batavian Anthology. And the great Vondel pronounces his volume to be—
"A garden mild of savours sweet,
Where Art and Skill and Wisdom meet;
Rich in its vast variety
Of forms and hues of ev'ry dye."
S. W. SINGER.
THE REV. MR. GAY.
The very interesting notices which you have often given us of the truly great and inestimable Locke, induce me to trouble you with an inquiry relative to a philosophical writer, who followed in his school, I mean the Rev. Mr. Gay, the author of the Dissertation prefixed to Bishop Law's translation of King's Origin of Evil. It is sufficient evidence of the importance of that Dissertation, that it put Hartley upon considering and developing the principle of association, into which principle he conceived, and endeavoured to prove, that all the phenomena of reasoning and affection might be resolved, and of which Laplace observes, that it constitutes the whole of what has yet been done in the philosophy of the human mind; "la partie réelle de la métaphysique" (Essai Philosophique sur les Probabilités, p. 224. ed. 1825).
Of this Mr. Gay, I have not yet been able to learn more than that he was a clergyman in the West of England; but of what place, of what family, where educated, of what manner of life, or what habits of study, biographical or topographical reading has hitherto furnished me with any information. I should feel greatly indebted to any of your readers who would give the clue to what is known or can be known about him. It is probably within easy reach, though I have missed it. The ordinary biographical dictionaries make no mention of him.
EDWARD TAGART.
North End, Hampstead, May 19. 1851.
Minor Queries.
Carved Ceiling in Dorsetshire.—In the south of Dorsetshire there is a house (its name I do not remember) which has a beautifully carved ceiling in the hall. This is said to have been sent from Spain by a King of Castile, who, being wrecked on this coast, and hospitably entertained by the owners of the mansion, took this method of showing his gratitude. Can any of your readers inform me what king this was, or refer me to any work in which I may find it?
JERNE.
Publicans' Signs.—Will any of your readers inform me whether the signs of publicans were allowed to be retained by the same edict which condemned those of all other trades?
ROVERT.
To a T.—What is the origin of the phrase; and of that "To fit to a T.?" (Query, a "T square" = ad amussim.)
A. A. D.
Skeletons at Egyptian Banquet.—Where did Jer. Taylor find this interpretation of the object of placing a skeleton at the banqueting table:—
"The Egyptians used to serve up a skeleton to their feasts, that the vapours of wine might be restrained with that bunch of myrrh, and the vanities of their eyes chastened by that sad object."
Certainly not in Herodotus, 2. 78.; which savours rather of the Sardanapalian spirit: "Eat, drink, and love—the rest's not worth a fillip!" Comp. Is. xxii. 13., 1 Cor. xv. 32.
A. A. D.
Gloves ([Vol. i., pp. 72.] [405.]; [Vol. ii., p. 4.]; [Vol. iii., p. 220.]).—Blount, in his Law Dictionary, fo. 1670, under the title "Capias Utlagatum," observes:
"At present, in the King's Bench, the outlawry cannot be reversed, unless the defendant appear in person, and, by a present of gloves to the judges, implore and obtains their favour to reverse it."
Perhaps some of your correspondents may be able to state when the practice of presenting gloves to the judges on moving to reverse an outlawry in the King's Bench was discontinued. The statute 4 & 5 Will. and Mar. c. 18., rendered unnecessary a personal appearance in that court to reverse an outlawry (except for treason or felony, or where special bail was ordered).
C. H. COOPER.
Cambridge, March 24. 1851.
Knapp Family in Norfolk and Suffolk.—I should be much obliged to any Norfolk or Suffolk antiquary who would give me information as to the family of Knapp formerly settled in those counties, especially at Ipswich, Tuddenham, and Needham Market in the latter county. My inquiries have not discovered any person of the name at present residing in any of these places; and my wish is to learn how the name was lost in the locality; whether by migration—and if so, when, and to what other part of the county; or if in the female line, into what family the last heiress of Knapp married; and, as nearly as may be, when either of these events occurred?
G. E. F.
To learn by "Heart."—Can you give any account of the origin of a very common expression both in French and English, i. e. "Apprendre par cœur, to learn by heart?" To learn by memory would be intelligible.
A SUBSCRIBER TO YOUR JOURNAL.
Knights.—At some periods of our history the reigning monarch bestowed the honour of knighthood, 1306, Edward I.; at other times, those in possession of a certain amount of property were compelled to assume the order, 1254. Query, Was there any difference in rank between the two sorts of knights?
B. DE. M.
Supposed Inscription in St. Peter's Church, Rome.—When at school in France, some twenty years ago, I was informed that the following inscription was to be found in some part of St. Peter's Church in Rome:
"Nunquam amplius super hanc cathedram cantabit Gallus."
It appears that the active part taken by the French in fomenting the great schism of the Church during the fourteenth century, when they set up and maintained at Avignon a Pope of their own choosing, had generated an abhorrence of French interference in the Italian mind; and that, when the dissensions were abated by the suspension of the rival Popes, the ultramontane cardinals had posted up this inscription to testify their desire for the exclusion of French ecclesiastics from the Papal chair. In one respect the prediction remains in force to this day; for I believe I am correct in saying that no Frenchman has worn the triple crown for the last 450 years. But that portion of it which is implied in the second meaning of "Gallus," has been woefully belied in our time by the forcible occupation of Rome by a French army, on which occasion the Gallic cock had all the "crowing" to himself.
I have never had an opportunity of ascertaining the existence of this inscription, and shall be obliged to any correspondent of "NOTES AND QUERIES" who will afford information on the subject.
HENRY H. BREEN.
St. Lucia, April, 1851.
Rag Sunday in Sussex.—Allow me to ask the explanation of "Rag Sunday" in Sussex. I lately saw some young gentlemen going to school at Brighton, who had been provided with some fine white handkerchiefs, when one observed they would not stand much chance of escape on "Rag Sunday." He then told me that each boy, on the Sunday but one preceding the holidays, always tore a piece of his shirt or handkerchief off and wore it in the button-hole of his jacket as his "rag." When a boy, I remember being compelled to do the same when at school at Hailsham in Sussex, and all boys objecting had their hats knocked off and trod on.
H. W. D.
Northege Family.—Can any one tell me the county and parish in which the family of Northege were located in the sixteenth century?
E. H. Y.
A Kemble Pipe of Tobacco.—In the county of Herefordshire, the people call the last or concluding pipe that any one means to smoke at a sitting, a Kemble pipe. This is said to have originated in a man of the name of Kemble, who in the cruel persecution under Queen Mary, being condemned for heresy, in his walk of some miles from the prison to the stake, amidst a crowd of weeping friends and neighbours, with the tranquillity and fortitude of a primitive martyr, smoked a pipe of tobacco! Is anything known of this Kemble? and where can I find any corroboration of the story here told?
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
Durham Sword that killed the Dragon.—In the Harleian MS. No. 3783., letter 107., Cosin, in describing to Sancroft some of the ceremonies of his reception at Durham, mentions "the sword that killed the dragon," as a relic of antiquity introduced on the occasion. I should feel obliged, if you, or any of your antiquarian readers, could kindly refer me to some tolerably full account of the ceremony alluded to, or throw any light upon the meaning of the custom in question, the origin and history of the sword, and the tradition connected with it.
J. SANSOM.
Minor Queries Answered.
"At Sixes and Sevens" ([Vol. iii., p. 118.]).—May not this expression bear reference to the points in the card-game of piquet?
G. F. G.
May not this expression have arisen from the passage in Eliphaz's discourse to Job?
"He shall deliver thee is six troubles; yea, in seven there shall no evil touch thee."—Job. v. 19.
A. M.
Mr. Halliwell, in his Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, vol. ii. p. 724., thus explains this phrase:
"The Deity is mentioned in the Towneley Mysteries, pp. 97. 118., as He that 'sett alle on seven,' i. e., set or appointed everything in seven days. A similar phrase at p. 85. is not so evident. It is explained in the Glossary, 'to set things in, to put them in order;' but it evidently implies, in some cases, an exactly opposite meaning, to set in confusion, to rush to battle, as in the following examples. 'To set the steven, to agree upon the time and place of meeting previous to some expedition,'—West and Cumb. Dial. p. 390. These phrases may be connected with each other. Be this as it may, hence is certainly derived the phrase to be at sixes and sevens, to be in great confusion. Herod, in his anger at the wise men, says:
"'Bot be they past me by, by Mahowne in heven,
I shalle, and that in hy, set alle on sex and seven;
Trow ye a kyng as I wyll suffre thaym to neven
Any to have mastry bot myself fulle even.'
Towneley Mysteries, p. 143.
"'Thus he settez on sevene with his sekyre knyghttez.'
Morte Arthure, MS. Lincoln, f. 76.
"'The duk swore by gret God of hevene,
Wold my hors so evene,
Zet wold I set all one seven
Ffor Myldor the swet!'
Degrevant, 1279.
"'Old Odcombs odnesse makes not thee uneven,
Nor carelesly set all at six and seven.'
Taylor's Workes, 1630, ii. 71."
J. K. R. W.
[Six and seven make the proverbially unlucky number thirteen, and we are inclined to believe that the allusion in this popular phrase is to this combination.]
Swobbers.—There is a known story of a clergyman who was recommended for a preferment by some great men at court to an archbishop. His Grace said, "He had heard that the clergyman used to play at whist and swobbers; that as to playing now and then a sober game at whist for pastime, it might be pardoned; but he could not digest those wicked swobbers;" and it was with some pains that my Lord Somers could undeceive him. So says Swift, in his Essay on the Fates of Clergymen; and a note in Sir W. Scott's edition (1824, vol. viii. p 231.) informs us that the primate was "Tenison, who, by all contemporary accounts, was a very dull man." At the risk of being thought as dull as the archbishop, I venture to ask for an explanation of the joke.
J. C. R.
[Johnson, under "Swobber" or "Swabber," gives, "1. A sweeper of the deck;" and "2. Four privileged cards that are only incidentally used in betting at the game of whist." He then quotes this passage from Swift, with the difference that he says "clergymen." Were not the cards so called because they "swept the deck" by a sort of "sweep-stakes?">[
Handel's Occasional Oratorio.—Will DR. RIMBAULT, or some other musical correspondent of your journal, enlighten us as to the true meaning of the name Occasional Oratorio, prefixed to one of Handel's compositions, of which no one that I have ever met with has heard more than the overture? This composition has become almost universally known from the foolish practice which used to prevail of performing it as an introduction to Israel in Egypt, or any other work to which its composer had purposely denied the preliminary of an overture; a practice now happily exploded, which seems to have had its origin in a misinterpretation of the name; as though Handel had written the overture to suit any occasion when one might be needed, instead of, as I am rather disposed to believe, having some particular occasion in view for which the oratorio was composed.
E. V.
[Surely, if there is no Occasional Oratorio to be found, the Overture must mean that it was to be used on occasion. Our correspondent does not seem to know the word as it is used by writers of a century ago, for "Occasional Sermons" or services, &c. The question is simply one of fact. Is there an Oratorio? Everybody knows the overture. The writer of this note remembers being horrified, when a freshman, at hearing the fugue break forth in the College Chapel, was pondering in his mind whether it was Drops of Brandy, or the Rondo in the Turnpike-Gate, both then popular tunes.]
Archbishop Waldeby's Epitaph.—W. W. KING would be obliged by a perfect copy of the inscription on the monumental brass of Archbishop Waldeby in Westminster Abbey.
[The brass is engraved in Harding's Antiquities of Westminster Abbey; but it appears that one half of the following inscription, which was formerly round the verge of the brass, has now been torn away:—
"Hic fuit expertus in quovis jure Robertus,
De Waldeby dictus nunc est sub marmore strictus;
Sacre Scripture Doctor fuit, et geniture
Ingenuus Medicus et plebis semper amicus
Presul Adurensis posthoc Archas Dublinensis
Hinc Cicestrensis, tandem Primas Eborensis
Quarto kalend. Junii migravit cursibus anni
Sepultus milleni ter C. septem Nonies quoque deni.
Vos precor, Orate quod sint sibi dona beate
Cum sanctis vite requiescat et hic sine lite."
Weever, in his Funeral Monuments, quotes the following description of him from a MS. account of the Archbishops of York, in the Cottonian Collection:—
"Tunc Robertus ordinis fratris Augustini
Ascendit in cathedram primatis Paulini,
Lingua scientificus sermonis latini
Anno primo proximat vite sue fini,
De carnis ergastulo presul evocatur
Gleba sui corporis Westminstre humatur.">[
Verstegan.—Will any of the contributors to your valuable miscellany be kind enough to inform me if there are any engraved portraits of the quaint old antiquary Richard Verstegan, the author of a curious work, entitled A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence? The portraits may be common, but living in the country, and at distance from town, I have no friend from whom I can glean the required information. Can my informant at the same time acquaint me with the best edition of his work? There was one printed at Antwerp in 1605.
J. S. P. (a Subscriber.)
[Our correspondent will find a notice of Verstegan's work in page 85. of this volume. The first edition was printed at Antwerp in 1605, and was reprinted at London in 4to. in 1634, and in 8vo. in 1655 and 1673. The first edition is deservedly reckoned the best, as well on account of containing one or more engravings, afterwards omitted, as also for the superiority of the plates, those in the subsequent editions being very indifferent copies. No portrait of the author is noticed either by Granger or Bromley.]
Royal Library.—In the new edition of Boswell's Life of Johnson (published by the proprietors of the Illustrated London News), in the National Illustrated Library, the editor, in reference to the library of King George III. (which is generally understood to have been presented to the nation by George IV., and which is recorded to have been given, in an inscription placed in that magnificent hall), has appended the following note:—
"It has recently transpired that the government of the day bought the library of George IV., just as he was on the eve of concluding a sale of it to the Emperor of Russia."
Can any of your readers inform me if this is correct, and whether the nation have really paid for what has always been considered a most worthy and munificent present from a monarch to his subjects? I trust to hear that the editor has been misinformed.
J. S. L.
[The nation certainly never paid one farthing for this munificent present. The Russian Government offered, we believe, to purchase the library; and this is probably the origin of the statement in the note quoted by our correspondent.]