Minor Queries Answered.

Whipping a Husband—Hudibras.

—In the first canto of Hudibras, part ii. l. 885., are these lines:

"Did not a certain lady whip

Of late her husband's own lordship?

And though a grandee of the house

Claw'd him with fundamental blows;

Ty'd him uncover'd to a bed-post,

And firk'd his hide, as if sh' had rid post.

And after in the Sessions Court,

Where whipping's judg'd, had honor for't?"

My copy of the poem, with Hogarth's plates, has no note on this passage. To whom does it refer? A Bury Guide, published in 1833, states that it occurred in that town in 1650 to a nobleman who had discovered an inclination to desert the Hanoverian cause.

BURIENSIS.

[Zachary Grey has given a long note on this passage, and states that it was William Lord M-n-n, residing at Bury St. Edmunds, whose lady, possessing the true disciplinarian spirit, tied his lordship to a bed-post by the help of her maids, and punished him for showing favours to the unsanctified Cavaliers; for which salutary discipline she had thanks given her in open court.]

Aldus.

—What was the inscription on his printing-house, requesting his friends to dispatch their business with him as soon as possible, and then go about their business?

A. D. F.R.S.

[Over the door of his sanctum Aldus placed the following inscription:

"Whoever you are, ALDUS earnestly entreats you to dispatch your business as soon as possible, and then depart; unless you come hither, like another Hercules, to lend him some friendly assistance; for here will be work sufficient to employ you, and as many as enter this place."

This inscription was afterwards adopted, for a similar purpose, by the learned Oporinus, a printer of Basil.]

"The last links are broken."

—Who is the author of "The last links are broken?" If they are by Moore, in what part of his works are they to be found?

M. C.

[This ballad was written by Miss Fanny Steers.]

Under Weigh or Way.

—Does a ship on sailing get under "weigh," or under "way?"

E. S. T. T.

[Webster and Falconer are in favour of way. The latter says, "The way of a ship is the course or progress which she makes on the water under sail. Thus, when she begins her motion, she is said to be under way; and when that motion increases, she is said to have fresh way through the water; whereas, to weigh (lever l'ancre, appareiller) is to heave up the anchor of a ship from the ground, in order to prepare her for sailing.">[

The Pope's Eye.

—Why is it that the piece of fat in the middle of a leg of mutton is called the "Pope's eye?"

J. D. G.

[Boyer, in his French Dictionary, explains it: "Le morceau gras d'une éclanche ou d'un gigot de mouton." Others have derived it from popa, which seems originally to have denoted that part of the fat of the victim separated from the thigh in sacrificing; and in process of time, the priest who sacrificed.]

"History is Philosophy," &c.

—What is the exact source of the often repeated passage,

"History is philosophy teaching by examples?"

I am aware that it is commonly attributed to Bolingbroke, but a distinguished literary friend tells me that he cannot find it in Bolingbroke's writings, and suspects that, as is the case with some other well-known sayings, its paternity is unknown.

[In the Encyclopædia Metropolitana, vol. ix., p. 13., this passage is attributed to Dionysius of Halicarnassus.]