Minor Queries Answered.
The Pelican, as a Symbol of the Saviour.
—Is the pelican now, or was it formerly considered as a symbol of Our Saviour? I have seen it used in the ancient decorations of churches, but never looked on it as such; nor can I remember ever having seen it mentioned as an emblem of the Saviour, with the exception of one passage in Dante's Vision (Canto xxv.) of Paradise.
ROBERT NELSON.
[In the Calendar of the Anglican Church Illustrated, p. 328., will be found an engraving of "a pelican feeding her young with blood from her own breast, signifying the Saviour giving Himself up for the redemption of mankind;" and in the foot-note references to Aringhi's Roma Subterranea, and other works, in which other representations of the same symbol are to be found. Our correspondent may also be referred to Alt's Heiligenbilder, s. 56.]
Bishop Coverdale's Bible.
—When did Bishop Coverdale commence his translation of the Bible? Where was the first edition printed? Is any copy in existence which possesses the original title-page, i.e. not the one added in England, stating that it is translated from the "Douche and Latyn?"
H. H. H. V.
[We have submitted H. H. H. V.'s Query to our obliging correspondent, GEORGE OFFOR, ESQ., whose library is particularly rich in early English versions of the Bible, and who has kindly favoured us with the following communication]:—
In reply to your correspondent H. H. H. V.'s very curious question to know when Myles Coverdale commenced his translation, I beg to state that he was born in 1488, and that it has not yet been discovered when his mind was first led to contemplate the translation of the Sacred Scriptures, nor whether he commenced with the New or the Old Testament. The facts known are, that he finished the translation or the printing of it on the 4th day of October, 1535,—probably at Cologne, because other books printed there about that time have the same initials, wood-cuts, and type. A copy, with the original title-page, is in the Holkham library, having, on the reverse, part of the list of books, showing that originally it was without a dedication; this has the words, "Douche and Latyn." When the dedication was printed, this title was cancelled and a new one printed, still with the words "Douche and Latyn," with the reverse blank. A fine copy of this is in the possession of Earl Jersey, and one with the title-page repaired is in the British Museum. Perfect copies have a map of Palestine. In 1537, this book was reprinted, both in folio and quarto, probably at Antwerp, and in these the words "from the Douche and Latyn" were very properly omitted, Coverdale being still living to see them through the press; these are ornamented with large initial letters with a dance of death, and are the rarest volumes in the English language. In these the dedication is altered from Queen Anne to Queen Jane, as the wife of Henry VIII. They were all dedicated to the king and to the queen; the two latter are all in Old English type. These were followed by an edition dedicated to Edward VI. in a Swiss type, 4to., printed at Zurich by Chr. Froschover, and published under three titles—1st, as the translation of Thos. Matthewe; 2nd, as the translation of Myles Coverdale, London, by Andrew Hester, 1550; and 3rd, London, by Jugge, 1553. These are books of great rarity, and may be all seen in my library by any of your readers, sanctioned by a note from you or any minister of religion. My first edition has several uncut leaves.
The introduction of the words "from the Douche (meaning Luther's German) and Latyn" has never been accounted for; they probably were inserted by the German printer to make the volume more popular, so as to interest reformers by the German of Luther, and Romanists by the Vulgate Latin. The translation is certainly from the Hebrew and Greek, compared with Luther's and the Vulgate.
GEORGE OFFOR.
Grove Street, Victoria Park.
Age of the Oak.
—The late Queries respecting the age of trees, remind me of some lines of which I have been long in search—
"The monarch oak, the patriarch of the trees,
Shoots rising up, and spreads by slow degrees:
Three centuries he grows, and three he stays
Supreme in state; and in three more decays."
I think it probable that they are from a play of Dryden or Otway; but some of your readers may probably be able to answer this Query.
T. C.
Durham.
[In Richardson's Dictionary, as well as in the Encyclopædia Metropolitana, these lines are quoted under the word Patriarch, as from The Cock and the Fox, by Dryden; whereas Bysshe, in his Art of English Poetry, under the word Oak, refers us to Dryden's Ovid. In neither of these pieces do they occur; our correspondent, however, will find them in Dryden's Palamon and Arcite, or the Knight's Tale, line 2334.]
Olivarius.
—Can any of your readers inform me what is the title of a book written by Olivarius, a French astrologer, 1542, in which there is a prophecy relative to France, and somewhat similar to that of St. Cæsarius (p. 471.)? What was his christian name, and in what library is the work to be found?
CLERICUS D.
Dublin.
[Maittaire, in his Annales Typograph., tom. v. pt. ii. p. 102., notices the following work: "Olivarius (Petrus Joannes) Valentinus de Prophetiâ. Basileæ ex officinâ Joannis Oporini, 1543, mense Augusto." From the catalogues of the British Museum and the Bodleian, it does not appear to be in either of these libraries.]
Vincent Bourne's Epilogus in Eunuchum Terentii.
—Will any of your readers inform me whether an Epilogue to the Eunuch of Terence, written by V. Bourne, and spoken in 1746, has ever been printed in any, and what, edition of Bourne's Poems? Gnatho appears on the stage, dressed as a recruiting sergeant, with several recruits, and thus begins:
"Siste—tace—Gnatho sum Miles, cum gloria cives
Evocat ad Martem, quis parasitus erit?
Aut quis venari cœnas et prandia malit,
Nobile cui stimulet pectus honoris amor?"
And the concluding lines are:
"Arma viros facient—Vosmet simul arma geratis,
Seribatis, jubeo, protinus armigeros:
Hâc lege, ut conclametis, Rex Vivat; idemque
Tu repetas, Stentor noster, utrâque manu."
This epilogue is in my possession in MS., the handwriting of my father, who was, in 1746, a scholar of Westminster College. It should seem, from a letter written to the Gentleman's Magazine by the late Archdeacon Nares, in April, 1826, and reprinted in Nichols's Illustrations, vol. vii. p. 656., that he was in possession of a copy, as he there tenders it to the editor of the sixth edition of Bourne, which had then (1826) recently issued from the Oxford press.
W. S.
Richmond, Surrey.
[The Epilogue referred to will be found in the beautiful edition of Vinny Bourne's Poems, published by Pickering in 1840, and in the Gentleman's Magazine, May, 1826, p. 450, where, however, the first line reads—
'Siste, tace; Gnatho sum Miles, cum gloria pulchra,' &c.]
Burton, Bp., Founder of Schools, &c., at Loughborough, co. Leicester.
—Can any of your genealogical readers give a clue to his family, and their armorial bearings?
J. K.
[Thomas Burton was a French merchant, not a prelate. A short notice of him and his gifts will be found in the Reports of Commissioners of Inquiry into Charities, and in Carlisle's Endowed Charities; but no account of his family has been given by his namesake, William Burton, in his History of Leicestershire, or by Nichols in his History.]
Hoo.
—What is the meaning of this word? In Bedfordshire there are two houses and estates called by this name, Luton Hoo and Pertenhall Hoo; and in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Kent are villages so called.
ARUN.
[Luton Hoo, in Bedfordshire, was the manor of the family of Hoo, or De Hoo, who are said by Sir Henry Chauncy to have been settled there before the Norman Conquest. Hasted, in his Kent, says, "Hoo comes from the Saxon hou, a hill." Ihre derives the word from hoeg, high. Spelman, vo. Hoga, observes that ho, how, signifies mons, collis. Jamieson says "How is certainly no other than Isl. haug, Suio-Gothic hoeg, the name given to sepulchral mounds." See also Lemon's English Etymology, s. v. Hough, how.]