Replies to Minor Queries.
Inveni portum (Vol. v., p. 10.).
—This couplet, which occurs at the close of the second volume of Gil Blas, is a version of the following Greek epigram among those of uncertain authors in the Anthologia:
Εἰς τύχην
Ἐλπὶς καὶ σὺ Τύχη, μέγα χαίρετε· τὸν λιμέν' εὗρον.
Οὐδὲν ἐμοὶ χ' ὑμῖν· παίζετε τοὺς μετ' ἐμέ.
It is a slight alteration of the translation given by William Lilly, Sir Thomas More's friend and schoolfellow, and occurs, with Sir Thomas More's version, in the Progymnasmata prefixed to the first edition of More's Epigrams, a very elegant volume, printed under the care of Beatus Rhinanus by Frobenius, at Basle, in 1520: small 4to. The frontispiece is by Holbein:
"T. MORI DE CONTEMPTU FORTUNÆ.
"Jam portum inveni, Spes et Fortuna valete.
Nil mihi vobiscum est, ludite nunc alios."
"G. LILII.
"Inveni portum. Spes et Fortuna valete.
Nil mihi vobiscum, ludite nunc alios."
There is a longer epigram, also by an uncertain author, in the First Book of the Anthologia, the first lines of which differ but slightly. It runs thus:
Ἐλπὶς καὶ σὺ Τύχη, μέγα χαίρετε· τὴν ὁδὸν εὗρον·
Οὐκ ἔτι γὰρ σφετέροις ἐπιτέρπομαι· ἔῤῥετε ἄμφω,
Οὕνεκεν ἐν μερόπεσσι πολυπλανέες μάλα ἐστέ.
κ. τ. λ.
The epigram has been very frequently translated. We have Latin versions by W. Morel, Grotius, and others; and several Italian and French versions. Mr. Merivale has thus rendered it:
"Fortune and Hope farewell! I've found the port:
You've done with me: go now, with others sport!"
Thomas Moore has given us a spirited paraphrase of it.
S.W. SINGER.
Manor Place, South Lambeth.
Quarter Waggoner (Vol. v., p. 11.).
—As the editor, in the exercise of his official functions, may class this scrap with the Replies, it cannot be amiss to state that I offer its contents as mere conjectures.
In the Sea grammar of captain John Smith, which was published in 1627, we have a list of books adapted to the use of those who would learn to observe the altitude, to prick their card, or say their compass. It is as follows:
"Master Wrights Errours of nauigation. Master Tapps Sea-mans kalender. The art of nauigation. The sea regiment. The sea-mans secret. Waggoner. Master Gunters workes. The sea-mans glasse for the scale. The new attracter for variation. Master Wright for vse of the globe. Master Hewes for the same."
It thus appears that Waggoner was either the title of a book, or the name of an author; and we may infer, from the absence of particulars, that it was quite familiar to the seamen of that period—as much so as Charles'-wain. May it not indicate Lucas Jansz Wagenaer of Enchuisen, author of the Spieghel der zeevaerdt, or mirror of navigation, published at Leyden in 1585. The Spieghel became a standard work; and a translation of it by Anthony Ashley was printed at London, with a dedication to sir Christopher Hatton, about the year 1588. Mr. Joseph Ames, who gives the title of this translation, observes: "Perhaps the sailors from this book call their sea charts Wagenars." He was the son of a merchant-captain, and passed his life as a ship chandler in Wapping: I need not search for a better witness. With regard to the word Quarter, it seems to be an abbreviation of quarter-deck; and if so, Quarter Waggoner would mean the quarter-deck charts, or the charts which were supplied to the commander of a ship for the use of himself and the other officers.
BOLTON CORNEY.
Cibber's Lives of the Poets (Vol. v., p. 25.).
—MR. CROSSLEY says that none of Johnson's biographers appear to have known that the prospectus which he has sent you was furnished by Dr. Johnson; but of this fact he gives no other proof than his own opinion that "the internal evidence is decisive." Now I really must say, that to my poor judgment nothing can be less like Johnson's peculiar style; and, moreover, MR. CROSSLEY, who quotes Mr. Croker's note (p. 818., ed. 1848) on this subject, has certainly not read that note accurately, for the object of that note was to endeavour to account for Johnson's having frequently and positively asserted that Cibber had nothing to do with these lives, of which MR. CROSSLEY would have us suppose he wrote the prospectus for Cibber. If MR. CROSSLEY will read more carefully the note referred to, which is half Boswell's and half Croker's, and also another note (also referred to), p. 504., he will see that it is impossible that Johnson could have written this prospectus.
As I happen to be addressing MR. CROSSLEY, I take the liberty of asking whether he has yet been able to lay his hands on Pope's Imitation of Horace, printed by Curll in 1716 (see "N. & Q.," Vol. iv., pp. 122. 139.), and which he tells us he possesses. I wonder and should be sorry that such a curiosity should be lost or even mislaid.
C.
Poniatowski Gems (Vol. v., p. 30.).
—A. O. O. D. is informed that a portion of these gems were sold by Christie and Manson about the second week in June of last year, under an order of the Court of Chancery, on account of the estate of the late Lord Monson. The contents of one cabinet were alone put up, and the auctioneers can, no doubt, supply the particulars that A. O. O. D. requires; or more general information might possibly be obtained from the solicitors, Messrs. Pooley and Beisly, 1. Lincoln's Inn Fields.
M——N.
Dial Motto at Karlsbad (Vol. iv., pp. 471. 507.).
—I do not think it difficult to throw light upon the Karlsbad inscription sent to you by HERMES. I believe that there is a mistake either by the inscriber or the transcriber, and that the word CEdIt ought to be written CeDIt. The chrono-grammatic letters or numerals would then be MDCCVVVVIIIIIIIIII = MDCCXXX = 1730. There are, however, as you have printed it, three other capital letters, but I observe they are not in the same type as the numerals. The question then arises, how do they appear in the original inscription? do they all appear there, or only the first two. It is possible that they, i.e. H. H. T., may be the initials of the name of the then owner of the house I should like this explanation better if the only capitals, not numerals, were H. H., the initials of the first two words of the inscription, and unmingled with the numerals. It would then be H. H. MDCCXXX, or as it would appear upon a house of the present day:
H. H.
1730.
It is probable that by inquiry at Karlsbad, if it were worth while, the name of the owner and date of the house might afford a certain solution of his difficulty. The doubtful letters may be the initials of the maker of the dial.
GRIFFIN.
P.S. Upon what authority does your correspondent E. H. D. D. (Vol. iv., p. 507.) assert that "E in such compositions stands for 250?"
Passage in Jeremy Taylor (Vol. iv., p. 435.).
—I have to thank your correspondent F. A. for calling my attention to a passage in the present edition of Jeremy Taylor, in which the bishop cites a "common saying" concerning Repentance. I had already discovered the error which F. A. alludes to, my attention having been called to the words in question, by finding them quoted by Jackson (Sermon on Luke, xiii. 6. et seq.); and a MS. note in the margin by a former possessor of the volume gave me the true account of the sentence.
I am living at a distance from libraries, and without the opportunity of examining questions; but I believe F. A. will find that he has slightly misunderstood L'Estrange; the sentence in question not being found in Coverdale's translation of the Bible.
C. P. E.
Aue Trici and Gheeze Ysenoudi (Vol. i., pp. 215. 267.).
—These two nuns belonged to the convent of St. Margaret at Gouda. In 1714 there still existed in the library of that city a book entitled Coll==tarius (Commentarius) supra Psalmos.[2] This work, written by Peter Por of Floref, and dedicated to John of Arckel, bishop of Utrecht, was transcribed on parchment in the year 1454 by seven nuns of the above convent, these were:
Maria Joannis,
Geza Yzenoude,
Aua Trici,
Jacoba Gerardi,
Agatha Nicolai,
Maria Martini,
en Maria Gerardi.
[2] Sic in MSS. Legendumne com̅tarius?
On the back of the MS. is a list of the books belonging to the convent: these were then seventy in number.
Lambertus Wilhelmi, a monk of Sion Abbey, and director of these nuns, composed in the year 1452 a History of the Convent of St. Margaret at Gouda, by order of its superintendent, Heymanus Florentii, a monk of 'S. Gravezande. This convent was burnt in 1572 by one of Lumey's captains, Hans Aulterman, who for his many crimes was condemned on the 11th of April, 1573, and burnt alive at the gates of Gouda.
The Nicholas de Wit mentioned in the Query was prior of the monastery of St. Michael, near Schoonhoven. (See further T. Walvisch, Beschrÿving van Gouda, II. pp. 123-172.)
ELSEVIER.
Leyden, Navorscher, Jan. 1852.
Rev. John Paget (Vol. iv., p. 133.).
—Of this clergyman the following mention is made in the Resolutions of the States General:
"9 January, 1607. Op te requeste van John Paget, predikand van de Engelsche regimenten, is geordonneert de selve te stellen in handen van den Ovesten Horace Vere, Ridder, omme ordre te stellen, dat den suppl. van syn tractament mach worden betaelt."
9 January, 1607. Touching the request of John Paget, chaplain of the English regiments, is ordained that the same be placed in the hands of the Colonel Horace Vere, Knight, that provision may be made for the payment of the suppliant's salary.
From the register of a marriage celebrated at Leyden the 7th of January, 1649, between Mathys Paget, smith, and Maria Picters Del Tombe, both of that city, it would appear that other members of the Paget family have resided there.
ELSEVIER.
Leyden, Navorscher, Jan. 1852.
The Rev. John Paget doubtless belonged to an English or Scotch family, sometimes also called Pagett, or Pagetius. John Paget, who was the first minister of the English church in Amsterdam, came there in 1607, and preached his introductory sermon on the 5th of February, in the chapel prepared for that purpose: his formal induction took place in the month of April, in the same year, and here he remained twenty-nine years. Thomas Paget, invited from Blackeley in England, was inducted in November 1639, and departed the 29th of August 1646, for Shrewsbury. Robert Paget, or Pagetius, minister of the Scotch congregation at Dordrecht from 1638 to 1685, "was a man of extensive biblical knowledge, but of extreme modesty." When the English church in Amsterdam was offered him, he could not be prevailed upon to accept it. With Jacob Borstius he lived on terms of close intimacy.
Consult the Kerkelÿk Alphabeth of Veeris, Wagenaar, Beschrÿving van Amsterdam, and Balen Beschrÿving van Dordt; also The History of the Scottish Church at Rotterdam, by the Rev. William Steven, M.A., Edinburgh and Rotterdam, 1832, and Schotel, Kerkelÿk Dordrecht, vol. i. p. 457., and the note (2), vol. ii. p. 217., where many particulars concerning the Pagets, especially Robert, are found. It is, however, probable that CRANMORE may obtain more information touching his family in England than in this country. In Töcher's Gelehrten Lexicon mention is made of Ephraim, Eusebius, and Wilhelmus Paget, all of whom resided in England.
We also read in the Lÿste van de Namen der Predikanten in de Provincie van Utrecht, by H. van Rhenen, 1705, p. 66., that Robert Paget, an Englishman, and English preacher at Dordt, nephew of Thomas Paget, was invited to Utrecht in 1655, but declined. He remained at Dordrecht, and died there in 1684.
V. D. N.
Rotterdam, Navorscher, Jan. 1852.
Lines on the Bible (Vol. iv., p. 473.).
—"Within that awful volume lies," &c. These lines are Walter Scott's. They are spoken by the White Lady of Avenel, in The Monastery. It appears that they were copied by Lord Byron into his Bible, for they are inserted at the end of Galignani's 1-vol. edition of Byron's Works (Paris, 1826), among the "attributed pieces," as "lines found in Lord Byron's Bible." This I believe is the only authority on which the compiler of the volume referred to by your correspondent can have supposed his lordship to have been the author. In Murray's editions they have no place, nor even in Galignani's later editions.
B. R. I.
[We are indebted to many other correspondents for similar replies.]
Dial Mottoes (Vol. iv., p. 471.).
—The following is an inscription which I copied from a dial-plate in the churchyard of Kirk-Arbory, Isle of Man:
"Thomas Kirkall de
Bolton Fecit.
Horula dum quota sit
Quæritur hora fugit.
1678."
There is a coat of arms also, but the tinctures are not marked; viz. Quarterly of three coats: first and fourth, three roundels in fess, between two barrulets; second, on a bend three mullets; third, a chevron between three lozenges.
T. H. KERSLEY, B.A.
Martial's Distribution of Hours (Vol. iv., pp. 273., 332.).
—I ought perhaps to thank THEOPHYLACT for good intention in answering, not the question I did ask, but that which he thinks I "might have asked."
My real question was based upon an assumption, the truth of which THEOPHYLACT denies: his reply therefore is rather a challenge to premiss, than an answer to the question.
I totally dissent from him in understanding "quies lassis" in any sense short of absolute recumbent repose: "finis," which he takes as the real commencement of the siesta, I understand as its conclusion: nor am I aware of any, except the last final quies, to which the term finis would be applicable.
Neither can I admit, upon the authority of THEOPHYLACT, that there was any gradual or partial cessation of business in Rome during the hour which we call "between eleven and twelve o'clock in the forenoon." Julius Cæsar left home, commenced the business of the senate, was surrounded by thronging applicants, and was assassinated—all during that hour: and, unless THEOPHYLACT can show that therefore, and on that account, it became distasteful to succeeding emperors, he must excuse me from admitting his interpretation.
A. E. B.
Nelson's Signal (Vol. iv., p. 473.).
—I send you Nelson's exact words as conveyed by signal at Trafalgar, as noted down by several ships in the fleet:
England—253
expects—269
that—863
every—261
man—471
will—958
do—220
his—370
d—4
u—21
t—19
y—24
Let me add, that the refrain of the best song on the Battle of Trafalgar, gives the exact words of the signal:
"From line to line the signal ran,
England expects that every man
This day will do his duty."
You should have heard this chanted in the singing-days of
W. H. S.
Cooper's miniature, &c. (Vol. v. p. 17.).
—I have a painting on copper of Oliver Cromwell. It is oval, and about six inches by four. It resembles the engravings of him which have Cooper's name attached to them. In the distance is a "white horse," faintly sketched in. My father, in whose possession it long was, set a very great value upon it. I have not had sufficient opportunity to inquire—Did ever Cooper paint in oil?
B. G.
Roman Funeral Pile (Vol. iv., p. 381.).
—The ceremony of a Roman funeral concluded with a feast, which was usually a supper given to the friends and relatives of the deceased; and sometimes provisions were distributed to the people. (Vid. Adams' Roman Hist., 3rd edit. p. 283.) Basil Kennett, in his Antiquities of Rome, published 1776, further observes (p. 361.) that—
"The feasts, celebrated to the honour of the deceased, were either private or publick. The private feasts were termed silicernia, from silex and cœna, as if we should say suppers made on a stone. These were prepared both for the dead and the living. The repast designed for the dead consisting commonly of beans, lettuces, bread and eggs, or the like, was laid on the tomb for the ghosts to come out and eat, as they fancied they would; and what was left they burnt on the stone."
No authority is cited either by Adams or Kennett for the custom, but your correspondent John ap William ap John might perhaps refer to "Petri Morestelli Pompa Feralis, sive justa Funebria Veterum," with some probability of success in finding the subject there treated at large.
FRANCISCUS.
Barrister (Vol. iv., p. 472.).
—The derivation of this word proposed by W. Y. can only be looked upon as a joke, as he himself seems to regard it. "Roister" can have no more to do with it than "oyster" has with such words as "songster, spinster, maltster, punster, tapster, webster," &c., in which "ster" is the A.S. termination to denote one whose business is "song, or spinning," &c. Thus from the Mediæval Latin "barra" we get "barraster, one whose business is at the bar;" this is confirmed by the old mode of spelling the word, viz., "barrester and barraster." See Spelman's Glossary, v. Cancellarius—
"Dicuntur etiam cancelli septa curiarum quæ barras vocant; atque inde Juris candidati causas illic agentes, Budæo Cancellarii, ut nobiscum Barrestarii."
And again—
"Barrasterius, Repagularis Causidicus."
J. EASTWOOD.
Meaning of Dray (Vol. iv., p. 209.).
—Dray is a squirrel's nest.
"A boy has taken three little young squirrels in their nest or drey."—White's Selborne, p. 333. Bohn's edition.
To which is appended the following note:—
"The squirrel's nest is not only called a drey in Hampshire, but also in other counties; in Suffolk it is called a bay. The word drey, though now provincial, I have met with in some of our old writers."—Mitford.
PANTAGRUEL.
Tregonwell Frampton (Vol. iv., p. 474.; Vol. v., p. 16.).
—In the History of the British Turf, by James Christie Whyte, Esq. (London, Colburn, 2 vols. 8vo. 1840), T. R. W. will meet with a sketch of the life of Mr. Frampton, together with an inquiry into the truth of the well known anecdote respecting his cruelty to his horse Dragon. Mr. Chafin, in his Anecdotes of Cranbourne Chase (London, 1818), p. 47., refers to him, and prints one or two curious original letters from him. Mr. Whyte illustrates his first volume by a portrait of Mr. Frampton.
CRANMORE.
Vermin, Parish Payments of, &c. (Vol. iv., p. 208.).
—There is no doubt but that nearly all country parishes paid at one time for the destruction of different kinds of vermin; but this practice is now entirely discontinued. The following are the prices paid twenty-five years ago by the parish of Corsham, Wilts:—
Vipers, 6d. each; slowworms or blindworms, 3d. each; rats, 1d. each (the tails only were required to be brought); sparrows' heads, 6d. per dozen, (meaning the old birds); sparrows' eggs and young birds, 4d. per dozen.
I shall never forget, when a boy, and my father was churchwarden, the tricks the young lads and boys used to play in order to palm off other birds' eggs and young birds for sparrows. One young rascal actually painted the eggs very cleverly to imitate the sparrows, till I discovered it. Young birds of all kinds were brought, and many dozens paid for that were not sparrows; as it was impossible to tell the young birds of many of the hard billed kinds from the sparrow. At last the parish gave up paying for the eggs or young birds, but gave 1s. per dozen for the heads of old sparrows, and vast numbers were brought throughout the winter; and then attempts were made to substitute other birds' heads, which were in many cases paid for. The next year the parish agreed only to pay for the whole birds, so that no deception could be practised. When the New Poor Law came into operation, all these payments were stopped. Glead was a provincial term for the kite and buzzard, the ringtail for the hen harrier hawk, and greashead or greyhead for the female kestrel or greyheaded falcon. In most of the Wiltshire parishes 6d. per head was paid for the hedgehog, as the farmers always believed they sucked the teats of cows when laid down in the fields. The badger was also paid for in some places.
J. K.
North Wilts.
Alterius Orbis Papa (Vol. iii., p. 497.).
—The origin of this title is, I think, still open to explanation, and in offering one which I find recorded in Lambard's Perambulation of Kent, 1596, pp. 80, 81. I trust the quaint but interesting style of that learned antiquary and historian will be a sufficient excuse to your readers for its insertion at length verbatim et literatim:
"The whole Province of this Bishopricke of Canterbury, was at the first divided by Theodorus (the seventh Bishop) into five Dioceses only: howbeit, in processe of time it grew to twentie and one, besides itselfe, leaving to Yorke (which by the first institution should have had as many as it) but Durham, Carleil, and Chester only. And whereas by the same ordinance of Gregorie, neither of these Archbishops ought to be inferiour to other, save onely in respect of the priority of their consecration, Lanfranc (thinking it good reason that he should make a conquest of the English clergie, since his maister, King William, had vanquished the whole nation), contended at Windsor with Thomas Norman (Archbishop of Yorke) for the primacie, and there (by judgement before Hugo, the Pope's Legate) recovered it from him: so that ever since the one is called Totius Angliæ primas, and the other Angliæ primas, without any further addition. Of which judgement, one (forsooth) hath yielded this great reason: that even as the Kentish people, by an auncient prerogative of manhood, do challenge the first front in each battel, from the Inhabitants of other countries; so the Archbishop of their Shyre, ought by good congruence to be preferred before the rest of the Bishops of the whole Realme. Moreover, whereas before time, the place of this Archbishop in the generall Councell was to sit next to the Bishop of Sainct Ruffines, Anselmus, the successor of this Lanfranc (for recompence of the good service that hee had done, in ruffling against Priests' wives, and resisting the King for the investiture of clerks) was by Pope Urbane endowed with this accession of honour, that he and his Successours should from thencefoorth have place in all generall councels, at the Pope's right foote, who then said withall. 'Includamus hunc in orbe nostro, tanquam alterius orbis Papam.'"
FRANCISCUS.
Dido and Æneas (Vol. iv., p. 423.).
—I beg leave to transcribe for A. A. D. the following passage from the Facetiæ Cantabrigiensis, p. 95. (London, Charles Mason, 1836):
"Porson observing that he could pun on any subject, a person present defied him to do so on the Latin gerunds, which however he immediately did in the following admirable couplet:
'When Dido found Æneas would not come,
She mourned in silence, and was DI-DO-DUM.'"
I have also seen these lines attributed to Porson in an old volume of The Mirror. Of any other authorities I have no knowledge.
J. S. W.
Stockwell.
Compositions during the Protectorate (Vol. iv., pp. 406. 490.).
—W. H. L. suspects that there is an error in the list of these compositions for Lincolnshire, as given in Oldfield's History of Wainfleet, and asks, "Where is there any account or list of these?" H. F. refers W. H. L. to a small volume entitled A Catalogue of the Lords, Knights, and Gentlemen that have compounded for their Estates. London, 1655. I have compared Oldfield's list with the reprint of the Catalogue (Chester, 1733), and find that, with some slight exceptions, they agree. Oldfield, however, omits the following compositions for Lincolnshire:
There are also a few discrepancies in the amounts of the compositions, but none of any importance.
Roger Adams, the publisher of the edition of the Catalogue printed at Chester in 1733, says, in the preliminary address to his subscribers, that—
"The Catalogue was printed five years before the miserable scene of oppression (by sequestration) closed. To supply the defects of it, I apply'd many ways, first to Goldsmith's Hall, where I was told the latter sequestrations were generally imposed; but the haste my friend was in, and some discouragements he met with, rendered this application unsuccessful."
The error which W. H. L. suspects in Oldfield's list, may probably be corrected by application at Goldsmith's Hall.
P. T.
I was aware of the work, A Catalogue, &c., which contains also the error alluded to at p. 406. Will H. F. be so obliging as to say from what materials that work was compiled, and how the whole business of the compositions was managed? Some part of it was carried on at Goldsmith's Hall. Evelyn probably alludes to the compositions at p. 311. of vol. i. of his Diary, edition of 1850.
W. H. L.