Replies to Minor Queries.
Coleridge's "Christabel" (Vol. iv., p. 316.).
—I am not familiar with the Coleridge Papers, under that title, nor indeed am I quite sure that I know at all to what papers MR. MORTIMER COLLINS refers in his question. On this account I am not qualified, as he will perhaps think, to give an opinion upon the genuineness of the lines quoted as a continuation of "Christabel." If I may be allowed, however, to hazard a judgment, as one to whom most of the great poet-philosopher's works have long and affectionately been known, I would venture to express an opinion against the right of these lines to admission as one of his productions. I do it with diffidence; but with the hope that I may aid in eliciting the truth concerning them.
I presume "brookless plash" is a misprint for "brooklet's plash."
The expressions "the sorrow of human years," "wild despair," "the years of life below," of a person who is not yet dead and in heaven, do not seem to me, as they stand in the lines, to be in Coleridge's manner; but especially I do not think the couplet—
"Who felt all grief, all wild despair,
That the race of man may ever bear,"
is one which Coleridge would have penned, reading as I do in the Aids to Reflection, vol. i. p. 255. (edit. Pickering, 1843) his protest against the doctrine
"holden by more than one of these divines, that the agonies suffered by Christ were equal in amount to the sum total of the torments of all mankind here and hereafter, or to the infinite debt which in an endless succession of instalments we should have been paying to the divine justice, had it not been paid in full by the Son of God incarnate!"
There are one or two other expressions of which I entertain doubt, but not in sufficient degree to make it worth while to dwell upon them.
Are we ever likely to receive from any member of Coleridge's family, or from his friend Mr. J. H. Green, the fragments, if not the entire work, of his Logosophia? We can ill afford to lose a work the conception of which engrossed much of his thoughts, if I am rightly informed, towards the close of his life.
THEOPHYLACT.
Dryden—Illustrations by T. Holt White (Vol. iv., p. 294.).
—My father's notes on Dryden are in my possession. Sir Walter Scott never saw them. The words ÆGROTUS attributes to Sir Walter were used by another commentator on Dryden some thirty years since.
ALGERNON HOLT WHITE.
Lofcop, Meaning of (Vol. i., p. 319.).
—Lofcop, not loscop, is clearly the true reading of the word about which I inquired. Lovecope is the form in which it is written in the Lynn town-books, as well as in the Cinque-port charters, for a reference to which I have to thank your correspondent L. B. L. (Vol. i., p. 371.). I am now satisfied that it is an altered form of the word lahcop, which occurs in the laws of Ethelred, and is explained in Thorpe's Ancient Laws and Institutes of England, vol. i., p. 294., note. The word loveday, which is found in English Middle-Age writers, meaning "a day appointed for settling differences by arbitration," is an instance of a similar change. This must originally have been lah-dæg, though I am not aware that the word is met with in any Anglo-Saxon documents. But in Old-Norse is found Lögdagr, altered in modern Danish into Lavdag or Lovdag.
C. W. G.
Middleton's Epigrams and Satyres, 1608 (Vol. iv., p. 272.).
—These Epigrams, about which QUÆSO inquires, are not the production of Thomas Middleton the dramatist, but of "Richard Middleton of Yorke, gentleman." The only copy known to exist is among the curious collection of books presented by the poet Drummond to the University of Edinburgh. A careful reprint, limited to forty copies, was published at Edinburgh in 1840. It is said to have been done under the superintendance of James Maidment, Esq.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
Lord Edward Fitzgerald (Vol. iv., p. 173.).
—Your correspondent R. H. was misinformed as to the house of Lord Edward Fitzgerald at Harold's Cross, from the fact of his friend confounding that nobleman with another of the United Irishmen leaders; namely, Robert Emmett, who was arrested in the house alluded to. Lord Edward never lived at Harold's Cross, either in avowed residence or concealment.
R. H.'s note above referred to, provoked the communication of L. M. M. at Vol. iv., p. 230., who seems to cast a slur upon the Leinster family for neglecting the decent burial of their chivalric relative. This is not merited. The family was kept in complete ignorance as to how the body was disposed of, it being the wish of the government of the day to conceal the place of its sepulture; as is evident from their not interring it at St. Michan's, where they interred Oliver Bond and all the others whom they put to death at Newgate; and from the notoriety of their having five years later adopted a similar course with regard to the remains of Robert Emmett. (See Madden's Life of Emmett.) But is he buried at St. Werburgh's? Several, and among others his daughter, Lady Campbell, as appears from L. M. M.'s note, think that he is. I doubt it. Some years since I conversed with an old man named Hammet, the superannuated gravedigger of St. Catherine's, Dublin, and he told me that he officiated at Lord Edward's obsequies in St. Catherine's church, and that they were performed at night in silence, secrecy, and mystery.
E. J. W.
Earwig (Vol. iv., p. 274.).
—I do not know what the derivations of this word may be, which are referred to by ΑΞΩΝ as being in vogue. It is a curious fact that Johnson, Richardson, and Webster do not notice the word at all; although I am not aware that it is of limited or provincial use. In Bailey's Scottish Dictionary, and in Skinner's Etymologicon, it is traced to the Anglo-Saxon ear-wicga, i.e. ear-beetle. In Bosworth's Dictionary we find wicga, a kind of insect, a shorn-bug, a beetle.
C. W. G.
Sanderson and Taylor (Vol. iv., p. 293.).
—In No. 103 of "NOTES AND QUERIES," under the head of "Sanderson and Taylor," a question is put by W. W. as to the common source of the sentence, "Conscience is the brightness and splendour of the eternal light, a spotless mirror of the Divine majesty, and the image of the goodness of God." Without at all saying that it is the common source, I would beg to refer W. W. to "The Wisdom of Solomon," c. vii. v. 26., where "wisdom" is described as "the brightness of the everlasting light, the unspotted mirror of the power of God, and the image of His goodness." The coincidence is curious, though the Latin expressions are dissimilar, the verse in "The Wisdom of Solomon" being as follows: "Nam splendor est à luce æterna et speculum efficacitatis Dei expers maculæ, ac imago bonitatis ejus."
R. M. M.
(A Subscriber).
Taunton.
Island of Ægina and the Temple of Jupiter Panhellinius (Vol. iv., p. 255.).
—In Lemprière's Classical Dict., by the Rev. J. A. Giles, 1843, is the subjoined:—
"The most remarkable remnant of antiquity at the present day is the temple of 'Jupiter Panhellinius' on a mount of the same name about four hours' distance from the port, supposed to be one of the most ancient temples in Greece, and the oldest specimen of Doric architecture; Dodwell pronounces it to be the most picturesque ruin in Greece."
And in Arrowsmith's Compendium of Ancient and Modern Geography, 1839, p. 414.:
"In the southern part of the island is Panhellinius Mons, so called from a temple of Jupiter Panhellinius, erected on its summit by Æacus."
C. W. MARKHAM.
The Broad Arrow (Vol. iv., p. 315.).
—I forget where it is, but remember something about a place held by the tenure of presenting the king with
"———— a Broad-Arrow,
When he comes to hunt upon Yarrow."
I would however suggest, that the use of an arrow-head as a government mark may have a Celtic origin; and that the so-called arrow may be the ↑ or â, the broad a of the Druids. This letter was typical of superiority either in rank and authority, intellect or holiness; and I believe stood also for king or prince.
A. C. M.
Exeter, Nov. 4. 1851.
Consecration of Bishops in Sweden (Vol. iv., p. 345.).
—E. H. A. asks whether any record exists of the consecration of Bethvid, Bishop of Strengnäs in the time of Gustavus I., King of Sweden? I cannot reply from this place with the certainty I might be able to do, if I had access to my books and papers. But I may venture to state, that the "consecration" (if by that term be meant the canonical and apostolical ordination) of Bethvidus Sermonis, in common with that of all the Lutheran Bishops of Sweden, is involved in much doubt and obscurity; the fact being, that they all derive their orders from Petrus Magni, Bishop of Westeras, who is said to have been "consecrated" bishop of that see at Rome by a cardinal in A.D. 1524, the then Pontiff having acceded to the request of Gustavus Vasa to this effect. It is, however, uncertain whether Petrus Magni ever received proper episcopal consecration, although it appears probable he did. I endeavoured at one time to ascertain the fact by reference to Rome; but though promised by my correspondent (a British Romanist resident there) that he would procure the examination of the Roll of Bishops in communion with the Holy See, and consecrated by Papal license, for the purpose of discovering whether Bishop Petrus Magni's name occurred therein or not, I never heard more of the subject. I could not help judging, that this silence on the part of my correspondent (to whom I was personally unknown), after his having replied immediately and most civilly to my first communication, was very eloquent and significant. But still the doubt remains uncleared, as to whether the Swedish episcopacy possess or not, as they maintain they do, the blessing of an apostolical and canonical succession.
G. J. R. G.
Pen-y-lau, Ruabon.
Meaning of Spon (Vol. iv., p. 39.).
—Is the word spooney derived from the Anglo-Saxon spanan, spón, asponen, to allure, entice, and therefore equivalent to one allured, trapped, &c., a gowk or simpleton? If C. H. B. could discover whether those specified places were ever at any time tenanted by objectionable characters, this verb and its derivatives might assist his inquiries. He will, however, see that Spondon (pronounced spoondon) in Derbyshire is another instance of the word he inquires after.
THOS. LAWRENCE.
Ashby-de-la-Zouch.
Quaker Expurgated Bible (Vol. iv., p. 87.).
—I can inform the correspondent who inquires whether such a publication of a Bible, which a committee of Friends were intending to publish, ever took place, that no committee was ever appointed by the Society of Friends, who adopt the English authorised version only, as may be seen by their yearly epistle and other authorised publications. I have inquired of many Friends who were likely to know, and not one ever heard of what the authoress of Quakerism states.
A MEMBER OF THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS.
Cozens the Painter (Vol. iv., p. 368.).
—In Rose's Biographical Dictionary it is stated that Alexander Cozens was a landscape painter, born in Russia, but attaining his celebrity in London, where he taught drawing. In 1778 he published a theoretical work called The Principle of Beauty relative to the Human Face, with illustrations, engraved by Bartolozzi. He died in 1786.
J. O'G.
Authors of the Homilies (Vol. iv., p. 346.).
—Allow me to say that in the reply to the inquiry of G. R. C. one work is omitted which will afford at once all that is wanted: for the Preface to Professor Corrie's recent edition of the Homilies, printed at the Pitt Press, contains the most circumstantial account of their authors.
W. K. C.
College, Ely.