Replies.
ST. CHRISTOPHER.
(Vol. v., p. 295.)
Some years ago I remember meeting with the following explanation of the beautiful legend of St. Christopher, and unfortunately forgot to take a Note of it. It recurred to my mind on lately reading Mr. Talbot's work on English etymologies, the writer of which appears to take a similar view of the allegorical meaning.
Part of the legend is founded on the meaning of the Greek Χριστοφερων, coupled with a circumstance in the original legend, which is of German origin, and is an allegorizing of our blessed Lord's bearing the sins of the world, and offering himself up on the altar of the cross. In a Latin document of A.D. 1423, the name is abbreviated into X'poferus; in an English one of the same date it is spelt Christopfore; and in French, Christopfre. Christopfer signifies Christ's sacrifice: that is, the sacrifice of the cross continually offered up in the sacrament of the altar, or the mass, the messopfer, so named from the German opfer, a sacrifice; Welsh offeiriad, a priest; offrwm, a sacrifice; offeren, the mass; Irish, oifrionn, or aifrionn.
The perfection of our blessed Lord's humanity, His resistance of evil, and mighty strength displayed in bearing the sins of the universe, are shadowed out in the great stature and vast strength of the giant Christopher. According to the legend, when he had succeeded in reaching the shore, and had set down his burden, he said: "Chylde, thou hast put me in grete peryll, thou wayest alle most as I had had the world upon me; I might bere no greater burden;" and the child answered, "Christopher, marvel thou nothing, for thou hast not only borne all the world upon thee, but its sins likewise."
Mr. Talbot says, the name Christopher, Christoffer, may have been given to children born on Good Friday, the day of the Great Sacrifice, as those born on Christmas, Easter, and All Saints were named Pascal, Noel, Toussaint.
JARLTZBERG.
"REHETOUR" AND "MOKE," TWO OBSCURE WORDS USED BY WYCKLYFFE, A.D. 1384.
(Vol. i., pp. 155. 278.)
I. REHETOUR.
(See the Three Treatises, published by Dr. Todd, Dublin, 1851. Text, pages xxv, xxvi and lxv; Note on Rehetours, p. clxxi-ii.)
It is certain that Monastery and Minster were originally one word in Latin; it is generally believed that Rhythm and Rhyme were one in Greek; and it is possible that Rehetour and Caterer had one prototype in Spanish: of this last pair only one survived; it is naturally that which, by being equal to the other in sense, excels it in harmony with the English tongue.
Convinced that the office assigned to the Rehetours in the lordly household could not have been filled by any such character as ascribed to the Rehâteur, Reheater, or Rehaiteur; convinced, moreover, that the Scottish Rehator, Rehatoure, and the English Rehetour must be either both restored to their common kindred, or else consigned to common oblivion, I chose the former alternative; and after a careful inquest held on these twin foundlings, together with Rehete, Reheting, two other departed strangers of the same age, I venture to pronounce the following verdict:—
1. A native of Spain, Regatero (see Stephen's Spanish Dictionary, 1726, and all that is said about Regaton in the Diccionario of the Academy, Madrid, 1737, folio), travelling in Great Britain, changed to Rehetour, Rehator, &c.
2. By trade a retailer of provisions, huckster, or purveyor, his character strongly partook of the nature of his commodities, so as to become tainted; this appears from the quotations in Jamieson's Etym. Dictionary, and is attested by the Spanish proverb, Ni compres de Regaton, ni te descuides en meson: Wycklyffe in all three passages expresses his apprehension of "harm." The French regrattier from gratter (to scratch, scrape), and Regatero, Regaton, from gato (a cat), whether they be, or be not, truly thus derived, bear equally marks of a contemptible impression.
3. In Wycklyffe's simile the Rehetours take care of the bodily, the ecclesiastics of the spiritual food, the Pope being the steward of the household. The Scottish Rehatour we find no longer as an ordinary plain dealer, but in a state of depravity, so as to be a mere byeword, even in the sense of blackguard, which word itself, if we believe Nares (see his Glossary) that it owes its existence to those menials of the court, cannot have been barely "a jocular name," but their disposition must have corresponded to their black exterior, otherwise the joke could not have remained a lasting stigma. I believe, however, the word blackguard, by inserting the l, merely simulates a vernacular origin, it being properly Beguards (see Boiste, Dictionnaire Universel), from Beghardus (see Mediæval Glossaries), once a German participle bekārt (now bekehrt), converted, applied to the Frater conversus, secular begging monks who, increasing in number and misdeeds, soon became universally notorious, and ultimately (mixed up with impostors who assumed their dress) would serve in any capacity rather than the honest and irreproachable.
4. If Caterer proceeded from the Spanish, it arrived thus—Recatero—Recaterer—Caterer; the c for g being either the natural result from the accent which the majority of speakers withdrew from the latter syllable of the word, or is accounted for by "Recatear lo mismo que regatear:" the derivation from re and cautus, as given by Covarrubias, likewise protects the c.
5. It is possible that the primitive root Kat or Gat, in the sense of hollow, hole, cavity, cave, &c., whence Gate, Cot, Cottage, Cattegat (Sinus Codanus), probably also Regatta, was the first element of both the Spanish and the English term; the spot or situation where the eatables were originally exposed for sale thus causing them first to be called cates (a plural noun like wages), then the singular cate, &c., the noun of agent having most probably preceded the verb cater, which has come last. A similar derivation is certain with regard to huckster, which, besides huckeback, joins the Swedish hökare, German Höker, &c., from the bending, crooked, or squatting position in some brook or crook or corner.
6. The verb Rehete is aptly derived by Jamieson from Rehaiter; both are extinct, yet their kindred heiter (formerly haiter), with its two verbs erheitern and aufheitern, are still in full vigour among the Germans, to whom they afford serenity of mind, mood, and weather. The French compound word for wishing, souhaiter, refers its verb haiter to the Swedish heta, German heissen, Anglo-Saxon hetan, as in Ulf het aræran cyrice, "ULF bid rear the church" (see Latham, Engl. Lang. 1850, p. 99.): now if also from the haiter of that compound we may suppose a derivative Rehaiter, or at least one of the kind to have served Chaucer in his participle Reheting, which has been the puzzle of his commentators in the following passage from Troilus (III. line 350.):
"And all the reheting of his sikes (sighs) sore,
At ones fled, he felt 'hem no more;"
we may easily understand thereby that, as it were, a rebidding, an importunate insisting upon, the repetition of his sighs, ceased and were at an end; so that in the time of Edward III. a person complaining of a troublesome cough, headache, &c., might call it a reheting cough, &c.
II. MOKE.
(See the said Three Treatises, pages cxxxvii, and Notes, pages ccxx. ccxxiii-iv.)
Wyckliffe using the possessive "their moke," not the mere "a," as we would say, I would not give "a pin," "a button," &c., together with the evidence of the Irish muc, and the obsolete German Mocke, which has been defined "Sus fœminea, quæ ob fœtus alitur," hardly leaves a doubt that he means that animal, which may be traced also in the words muck, mucky, &c. The reader may judge for himself by the following passage:—
"Crist gave his life for hise brether, and so rewled hise shepe; thei wolen not gyue her moke to help here nedy brethern, but leten here shep perishen, and taken of hem."
In allusion to their not feeding their flock, but suffering their sheep to perish, he prefers to mention an eatable object.
N. L. BENMOHEL, A.M.
2. Trinity College, Dublin.
[MR. BENMOHEL is wrong in supposing the word Beghard to signify bekehrt, conversus, and to be a name given to the Fratres Conversi of monasteries, who, by the way, were not "secular begging monks," nor necessarily monks at all. Any person, by a donation to a convent, could be enrolled amongst its fratres or sorores, entitled to the prayers of the monks, and to a share of their superabundant merits; and, being clothed at his death in the habit of the order, was a frater conversus. Another class of conversi were lay monks (not necessarily begging monks), who attended on the other monks, and performed certain lay duties in monasteries. MR. BENMOHEL will see some account of them in Dr. Todd's Introduction to the Book of Obits and Martyrol. of Christ's Church Cathedral, Dublin, p. xxvii.
The Beghards, on the other hand, were not, properly speaking, monks at all, inasmuch as they were not under any monastic vow. They professed poverty, and lived on alms generally; but in other respects their mode of life was various, and their orthodoxy and morality very doubtful. They are generally denounced by the ecclesiastical authorities; and, except in some few places and under certain regulations, were never recognised by the Church. The best account of them will be found in Mosheim's posthumous and unfinished treatise, De Beghardis et Beguinis. The name is evidently, as Mosheim shows, a compound of beg (from the old Saxon beggen, mendicare) and hard, or hart, a servant, famulus, servus: the same word which we still use in the composition of such words as shepherd, cow-herd, swine-herd. So that Beghard is not otherwise different from our word beggar, than in so far as it was formerly applied to a religious sect.
MR. BENMOHEL'S explanation of Rehetour is very ingenious, and may very possibly be true. His interpretation of Muck is not so satisfactory.]
PLAGUE STONES.
(Vol. v., p. 226.)
At the bottom of a street leading from Bury St. Edmunds to the Newmarket road, stands an octagonal stone of Petworth marble with a hole in it, which is said to have been filled with water or vinegar in the time of the small-pox in 1677, for people to dip their money in on leaving the market. What truth may attach to the traditionary use of the stone I know not; but the stone is the base of a cross called St. Peter's Cross, and the hole is the socket for the shaft.
BURIENSIS.
Are the stones mentioned by your correspondent J. J. S. as plague stones anything more than the "holy stones" common at the meeting of old cross roads in Lancashire, and perhaps other counties? The square hole in them is surely nothing more than the socket in which the way-side cross was formerly placed. Perhaps, however, he is speaking of a different and less common kind of stone, in which case, if a list is made, it must be by some competent person, able to distinguish the one from the other.
P. P.
In compliance with the suggestion of J. J. S., I may note that what I suppose (since reading his communication in "N. & Q.") to be a "plague stone" is to be seen close to Gresford in Denbighshire. I met with it last summer, and could not then imagine what it could be. It is a large hexagonal (I think) stone, with a round cavity on the top, which certainly was full of water when I passed it. This cavity is pretty deep, and the stone must be nearly three feet high, by from two to three across. I regret I made no measurements of it. It is situated about a quarter of a mile from the town on the road to Wrexham, under a wide-spreading tree, on an open space where three roads meet. Should this be seen by any Gresfordite, perhaps he would send you a more accurate description of this stone, with any legend that may be attached to it.
G. J. R. G.
RHYMES ON PLACES.
(Vol. v., p. 293.)
Notwithstanding his name, which appears to indicate northern origin, your correspondent W. FRASER may possibly be unacquainted with Robert Chambers's amusing work, entitled Popular Rhymes of Scotland, which contains numerous verses on both places and families, besides other curious matter.
E. N.
The following doggrel I have heard in Surrey:
"Sutton for good mutton,
Cheam for juicy beef,
Croydon for a pretty girl,
And Mitcham for a thief"
I beg to contribute the inclosed, which I have heard from a former incumbent of the parish of Sutton Long in Somersetshire.
"Sutton Long, Sutton Long, at every door a tump of dung.
Some two; some three; it's the dirtiest place that ever you see."
It was an ancient saying in the parish, and I believe the word tump is Somersetshire for heap.
A village in Essex, called Ugley, possesses the unfortunate saying:
"Ugly church, ugly steeple;
Ugly parson, ugly people."
The first line is literally true; to give an opinion on the second would descend too much into personalities.
METAQUO.
A particularly appropriate rhyme is that of
"Stow on the Wold (Would?)
Where the wind blows cold."
S. L. P.
Oxford and Cambridge Club.
ARCHAIC AND PROVINCIAL WORDS.
(Vol. v., pp. 173. 196. 250.)
Provincial Words.
—Though the Rev. Wm. Barnes has almost perfectionated the catalogue of Dorset provincialisms in the Glossary to his beautiful poems in the Dorset dialect, I still sometimes meet with a stray omission, viz.:
Blasty. To feed a fire with the dust of furze, &c.
Clean-sheaf. Altogether, e.g. "I've clean-sheaf vargot."
Crudelee. To crow, as a baby does.
Eickered. Blotchy.
Giblets. The smaller pieces of a shirt.
Scousse. To barter.
Snyche. Eager; ready to snap at.
Squeapity. To squeak, as an ungreased wheel.
Stump. Disturbance.
Treaden. The sole of the foot.
C. W. B.
In addition to the names already given, the following occur to my mind:—
| Spelling. | Pronunciation. |
| Alwalton, Hunts | Allerton |
| Caldicott, Hunts | Cawcott |
| Overton, Hunts | Orton |
| Brewood, Staffordshire | Brood |
| Chaddesley, Worcestershire | Chaggeley. |
In connexion with this inquiry, would it not be interesting to make out a list of proper names of individuals, the pronunciation of which is different from the spelling; and, if possible, to trace (for example) how Trevelyan and St. John became Trevethlan and Sinjin, and the high-sounding Cholmondeley sank, in the bathos of pronunciation, to plain Chumley?
CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A.
The Word "Pick."
—Presuming that the proposal at Vol. v., p. 173., involves the discussion and illustration of the words inserted, allow me, as a Lancashire man, to express my belief that the word pick has invariably the sense of "to throw," and not "to push." It is in fact another form of the verb "to pitch;" the two terminations being almost convertible, especially in words formed from the Saxon, as "fetch" from "feccean," "stitch" from "stician," "thatch" from "theccan," the earlier form of the latter word being retained in the well-known lines of "Bessy Bell and Mary Gray." Pick, in the sense of "throw," will be found in Shakspeare's Henry VIII., Act V. Sc. 3.:
"I'll pick you o'er the pales."
And in Coriolanus, Act I. Sc. 1.:
"As high as I could pick my lance."
And see the notes of the various commentators on these passages. If the subject be worth further illustration, I may mention that in the district of the cotton manufacture, the instrument by which the shuttle is thrown across the loom is called a picker; and each thread of the woven fabric, being the result of one throw of the shuttle, is, by using the word in a secondary sense, called a pick. I have heard a story of a worthy patron of the Arts, more noted for his wealth than his taste, who, attributing certain freedom of touch in a picture, for which he had given a commission, to a want of due pains in elaboration, expressed his dissatisfaction by saying, "there were not the right number of picks to the inch;" the threads of calico, when received from the weaver, being usually counted under the microscope as a test of the goodness of the work.
J. F. M.
North Lincolnshire Provincialisms (Vol. v., pp. 173. 250.).
—I have noted the following North Lincolnshire provincialisms since the appearance of MR. RAWLINSON'S suggestion:—
Beat. A bundle of flax.
Blower. A winnowing machine.
Bumble. A rush used to make the seats of chairs.
Bun. The stalk of hemp.
Casson. Cow dung.
Charking. The wall lining a well.
Choo. }
} Words used in driving pigs.
Huigh. }
Connifolde. To cheat; to deceive.
Coul Rake. An instrument used to scrape mud from roads.
Dozel. A toppen; a ball placed on the highest point of a corn-rick.
Feat. Clever.
Fingers-and-toes. Turnips are said to go to fingers and toes when instead of forming bulbs they branch off into small knotty substances.
Gizen. To stare vacantly.
Grave. To dig turf.
Hales. The handles of a plough.
Hethud. A viper.
Kedge. Trash; rubbish.
Kelp. The handles of a pail.
Ketlack. Wild mustard.
Kittlin. A kitten.
Lew. A word used in driving geese.
Livery. Sad; heavy; said of freshly-ploughed soil.
Mazzen. To stupify; to make dizzy.
Meant. Meaning of.
Nobut. Only.
Nout. Nothing.
Nozzel. The spout of a pump.
Rate. To revile.
Snail-shelley. Cankered; said of wood.
Tod. Dung.
K. P. D. E.
LONDON STREET CHARACTERS.
(Vol. v., p. 270.)
I believe more than one of the courts to be haunted by persons who may have suggested Mr. Dickens's "Little Old Lady." More than twenty years ago a female of about fifty was a constant attendant on the Court of Queen's Bench in Banco: I never saw her at a Nisi Prius sitting. She was meanly but tidily dressed, quiet and unobtrusive in manners, but much gratified by notice from any barrister. It was said she had been ruined by a suit, but I could not learn anything authentic about her; though I several times spoke and listened to her, partly from curiosity and partly from the pleasure which she showed at being spoken to. Her thoughts seemed fixed upon the business of the day, and I never extracted more than, "Will they take motions?—Will it come on next?—I hope he will bring it on to-day!" but who was "he," or what was "it," I could not learn; and when I asked, she would pause as if to think, and pointing to the bench, say, "That's Lord Tenterden." I have seen her rise, as about to address the court, when the judges were going out, and look mortified as if she felt neglected. I cannot say when she disappeared, but I do not remember having seen her for the last eight years.
I have heard that an old woman frequented Doctors' Commons about seven years ago. She appeared to listen to the arguments, but was reserved and mopish, if spoken to. She often threw herself in the way of one of the leading advocates, and always addressed him in the same words: "Dr. ——, I am virgo intacta."
The sailor-looking man described by Charles Lamb lasted a long time. I remember him in Fleet Street and the Strand when I was boy, and also an account which appeared in the newspapers of his vigorous resistance when apprehended as a vagrant; but I cannot fix the dates. I think, however, it was about 1822. His portrait is in Kirby's Wonderful and Eccentric Museum, vol. i. p. 331. Below it is, "Samuel Horsey, aged fifty-five, a singular beggar in the streets of London." The date of the engraving is August 30, 1803. As the accompanying letter-press is not long, I copy it:
"This person, who has so long past, that is to say, during nineteen years, attracted the notice of the public, by the severity of his misfortunes, in the loss of both his legs, and the singular means by which he removes himself from place to place, by the help of a wooden seat constructed in the manner of a rocking-horse, and assisted by a pair of crutches, first met with his calamity by the falling of a piece of timber from a house at the lower end of Bow Lane, Cheapside. He is now fifty-five years of age, and commonly called the King of the Beggars: and as he is very corpulent, the facility he moves with is very singular. From his general appearance and complexion, he seems to enjoy a state of health remarkably good. The frequent obtrusion of a man naturally stout and well made, but now so miserably mutilated as he is, having excited the curiosity of great numbers of people daily passing through the most crowded thoroughfares of the metropolis, has been the leading motive of this account, and the striking representation of his person here given."
The likeness is very good. Among the stories told of him, one was that his ample earnings enabled him to keep two wives, and, what is more, to keep them from quarrelling. He presided in the evenings at a "cadgers' club," planted at the head of the table, with a wife on each side. Not having been present at these meetings I do not ask anybody to believe this report.
H. B. C.
U. U. Club.
I believe Mr. Dickens's sketch, in the Bleak House, of the woman who haunts the various Inns of Court, to be a clever combination of different real characters. It is principally taken from a stout painted old woman, long since dead, and who I believe was really ruined by some suit in Chancery, and went mad in consequence, and used to linger about the Courts, expecting some judgment to be given in her favour. Mr. Dickens seems to have combined this woman's painful history with the person and appearance of the diminutive creature mentioned by MR. ALFRED GATTY. This latter personage is the daughter of a man for many years bedmaker in one of the Inns of Court (I think Gray's Inn), and much of her eccentricity is assumed, as, when begging from the few lawyers who are old enough to remember her father as their bedmaker, no one is more rational and collected. Though this little woman is well known from her singular appearance and demeanour, there is no romance about her history, and her craziness (if it really exists) is not to be attributed to the Court of Chancery,—at which, as it is in the position of the dying lion in the fable, every donkey (I mean no disrespect to Mr. Dickens) must have its fling.
If any correspondent really feels an interest in this little creature's history, I can undertake, with very little trouble, to supply the fullest particulars.
B. N. C.
Oxford.
Although I have for many years ceased to be an inhabitant of the metropolis, I am much gratified at the suggested record of these worthies, and think it would be a most interesting book, were truthful particulars got together concerning them, with good portraits—I mean striking likenesses—of these beings, who, as ALFRED GATTY observes, "come like shadows, so depart." I will inform him something about the "half-giant," of whom Charles Lamb says, that he "was brought low during the riots of London." I almost doubt this, for just about then he lived in the parish of St. Mary-le-Strand; indeed, before then, my grandfather was there overseer, or otherwise a parochial authority, and he had him apprehended and imprisoned as a rogue and a vagabond. I have often heard my father talk about him; indeed, he knew this man well, and I regret that I have forgotten his name. He always spoke of him as having been a sailor, and that he had his legs carried away by a cannon-ball. This burly beggar had two daughters, to each of whom he is said to have given 500l. on her wedding; and it was also said he left a handsome sum of money at his death. But, doubtless, some curious correspondent will be able to forward the desideratum with farther information. I only tell the little I know.
The old porter, John, at the King's printing-office, whom I remember as quite a character, "N. & Q." have peculiar facilities to immortalise. We sexagenarians all remember the blackee at the crossing by Waithman's in Bridge Street. He was said to have died very rich, and reported to have sold his "walk," when he retired from business, for 1000l.
But other "characters" might amusingly be introduced, such as those two or three last roses in summer who continue to wear pig-tails or pantaloons. I would even not omit Baron Maseres, and such peculiarities—the German with his Bible and beard, without a hat—et hoc genus omne. There is a large work of the kind, exhibiting portraits and biographies of these illustrious personages in Edinburgh; it is now scarce and valuable. I remember spending a most interesting evening over it with a Scotchman, who knew and described many of the characters developed.
B. B.
Pembroke.
STONE PILLAR WORSHIP.
(Vol. v., p. 121.)
SIR J. EMERSON TENNENT has accumulated many interesting particulars, but by no means exhausted the subject. O'Brien, in his Essay on the Round Towers, advocates the opinion of their being idolatrous objects—remnants of Buddhism. The Lia fail is celebrated in Irish history. The episcopal city of Elphin has its name from a celebrated pillar stone, which remained erect until Charles II.'s time, when it fell in accordance with an ancient prophecy. This is attested by the cotemporary evidence of O'Flaherty. Clogher has its name from another celebrated stone, designated "The Golden Stone," which I believe was oracular. There was in the city of Dublin, until recently, a curious remnant of this veneration for stones, and in which we could probably trace the transition from the Pagan to the Christian usage. At the base of the tower of St. Audoen's Church was a rude-looking stone, something like a spud-post, let into the wall, but so as to abut upon the street. On the upper part of this stone was carved a cross in very low relief. The stone was designated "The Lucky Stone," and the lower classes of the people, especially hawkers and itinerant vendors of small wares, believed that their success in business depended on their making a daily visit to this stone, which they kissed; and thus a portion of the stone became perfectly smooth and polished. There was a tradition, too, that whenever the stone was removed, it was miraculously conveyed back to its place. Thus it was said to have been stolen away to Galway, but to have been restored to its original site on the following day. However this may be, it remained attached to the church tower until about the year 1828, when some alterations being made in the church, it disappeared from its place. The belief was, that one of the churchwardens, a man in trade, had removed the stone into his own place of business, with a view of engrossing all the luck to himself. Whether he succeeded or not, I do not know; but after an interval of twenty years the identical stone reappeared in front of a large Roman Catholic chapel lately erected near St. Audoen's Church. It remained there, a conspicuous and well-remembered object, near the donation-box, which it perhaps assisted; but about six months ago it again disappeared, having been removed, I know not where.
R. T.
ON A PASSAGE IN HAMLET, ACT I. SC. 4.
(Vol. v., p. 169.)
Theobald long since observed—
"I do not remember a passage throughout our poet's works more intricate and depraved in the text, of less meaning to outward appearance, or more likely to baffle the attempt of criticism in its aid."
He then proposes his reading:
"The dram of base
Doth all the noble substance of worth out
To his own scandal;"
observing that "the dram of base" means the alloy of baseness or vice, and that it is frequent with our poet to use the adjective of quality instead of the substantive signifying the thing.
It would be tedious to enumerate all the hapless attempts at emendation which have been subsequently made, but I must be allowed to refer to that adopted by MR. SINGER as long since as the year 1826, when he vindicated the original reading, doubt, from the unnecessary meddling of Steevens and Malone. MR. SINGER thus printed the passage:
"The dram of bale
Doth all the noble substance often doubt,
To his own scandal."
Bale was most probably preferred to base as more euphonous, and nearer to the word eale in the first quarto; but MR. S. would now perhaps adopt base, as suggested by the word ease, in the second quarto, for the reasons given by Theobald and your correspondent A. E. B.
It is evident that dout cannot have been the poet's word, for, as your correspondent remarks, the meaning is obviously, that "the dram of base" renders all the noble substance doubtful or suspicious, not that it extinguishes it altogether. This will appear from what precedes:
"Or by some habit that too much o'erleavens
The form of plausive manners," &c.
Under present impressions, therefore, I should prefer, as the least deviation from the old copies, to read:
"The dram of base
Doth, all the noble substance o'er, a doubt,
To his own scandal:"
i.e. doth cast a doubt over all the noble substance, bring into suspect all the noble qualities by the leaven of one dram of baseness. This, according to your correspondent's own showing, is the very sense required by the context, "the base doth doubt to the noble, i.e. imparts doubt to it, or renders it doubtful." And when we recollect the frequent use of the elision o'er for over by the poet, and the ease with which of might be substituted for it by the compositor, I cannot but think it conclusive. To me the proposed reading, "offer doubt," does not convey a meaning quite so clear and unequivocal.
Conjectural emendation of the text of our great poet is always to be made with extreme caution, and that reading which will afford a clear sense, with the slightest deviation from the first editions, is always to be preferred. The errors are chiefly typographical, and often clearly perceptible, but but they are also not unfrequently perplexing.
That MR. COLLIER and MR. KNIGHT, who do not often sin in this way, should on the present occasion have countenanced such a wide departure from the old copies as to read ill and doubt, may well have surprised A. E. B., as it certainly did
PERIERGUS BIBLIOPHILUS.
"THE MAN IN THE ALMANACK."
(Vol. v., p. 320.)
Nat Lee's Man i' th' Almanack stuck with Pins has no reference to "pricking for fortunes;" but to the figure of a man surrounded by the signs of the zodiac found in old almanacks, and intended to indicate the favourable, adverse, or indifferent periods for bloodletting. From the various signs are lines drawn to various parts of the naked figure; and these lines give it very much the appearance of being stuck with pins.
I have not ready access to any old English almanacks; but a German one of the early part of the sixteenth century contained the figure as above described, with this inscription:
"In dieser Figur sihet man in welchem
Zeichen güt, mittel, oder böss lassen sey."
Surrounding the frame, the words "güt," "mittel," or "böss" are placed against each sign of the zodiac from which the lines are drawn; and underneath the figure are the following verses:
"Im Glentz und in des Sommers zeit,
So lass du auff der rechten seyt,
In Winters zeit, und in dem Herbst,
Auff der lincken;—dass du nit sterbst."
Some former possessor has written on the margin:
"Signa cœli sunt 12. sqr:
"Quatuor boni: Aries, Libra, Sagittarius, et Aquarius.
"Et etiam quatuor medii, sqr.: Cancro, Virgo, Scorpio, et Pisces.
"Et quatuor mali: Geminij, Leo, Capricornus et Taurus."
Similar figures no doubt occur in our old English almanacks. I will merely add that the figure above described is pasted on the back of the title-page of an edition of Regimen Sanitatis, with an interlineary version in German verse, bearing the following imprint: "Impressum Auguste per Johannem Froschauer, Anno Dm̅ MDij." 4to.
The book also bears a German title which, as it mentions the subject of bloodletting [lassen], I may as well transcribe: ¶ Diss ist das Regiment der Gesuntheyt durch all monat des ganzen iars, wie man sich halten sol mit essen und trincken, und auch von lassen. I presume that the rules for bloodletting which accompany the old almanacks are chiefly derived from this Regimen Sanitatis, which is founded upon that of the school of Salerno, as they form a principal feature in its precepts.
This edition of the book does not appear to have been known to Sir Alexander Croke: I will therefore give the general precepts for the twelve months which are prefixed to it.
"Januarius { Ante cibum vina
{ tu sumas pro medicina.
Februarius { Non minuas, non balnearis,
{ Mala ne patiaris.
Marcius { Hic assature
{ tibi sunt balnea quoque cure.
Aprilis { Ut vivas sane minuas venam
{ Medicinam.
Mayus { Carnes arescentes
{ non sume sed recentes.
Junius { Sanus eris totus
{ si fons erit tibi potus.
Julius { Ut tua te vita
{ non vitas balnea vita.
Augustus { Potio te lædit
{ te quippe minutio sedat.
September { Tempore Septembris
{ prodest agrimonia membris.
October { Sumere que potes
{ et musti pocula potes.
November { Hoc tibi scire datur
{ quod reuma Novembri curatur,
{ Potio sit sana
{ atque minutio bona.
December { Sit tepidus potus
{ frigori contrarie totus."
Such were the popular dietetics, and the almanacks were made the vehicle of communicating them. As late as the year 1659, Edmund Gayton, author of the Festivous Notes on Don Quixote, put forth a book in verse entitled The Art of Longevity, or a Dietetical Institution. He had graduated in physic at Oxford, but in his book he plays the part of a Merry Andrew more than that of a physician. The book, however, is curious as well as rare.
S. W. SINGER.
EPIGRAM ON DR. FELL.
(Vol. v., pp. 296. 333.)
Your correspondent E. F. may very probably have been informed, by ladies intimate with the Sheridan family, that Tom Sheridan composed the lines on Dr. Fell, respecting whose author and subject inquiries were made by a querist in page 296.; but it is nevertheless quite untrue. My memory of those lines goes back to a date earlier than Tom Sheridan's capacity for writing an epigram; and this on Dr. Fell may be found, if memory does not deceive me, in the Elegant Extracts in Verse, of a date at least as early as Tom Sheridan's work. The subject of the epigram was Dr. Fell, who held the deanery of Christ Church with the bishopric of Oxford, in the times of Charles II. and James II. Its author probably put it into circulation anonymously, as is usual with such brief specimens of personal satire.
As lodged in my memory, the third line was,—
"But this I'm sure I know full well."
That Dr. Fell, with some learning and a character for loyalty, had somewhat in him which a discerning observer could not like, is become notorious since the publication of his correspondence with the obsequious and unprincipled Earl of Sunderland respecting Locke, whom James II. wished the Dean to deprive of the income he received as a student of Christ Church. (See Appendix to Fox's History of Early Part of Reign of James II.) Dr. Fell there tells the Earl that he had long watched Mr. Locke, and made "strict inquiries," but that no person had ever heard him speak a word against the government. He adds, that language disparaging Locke's political friends had frequently been used for the treacherous purpose of provoking such replies as might have been used to his ruin, but hitherto all in vain; and that, as he had withdrawn to the Continent, some other plan must now be adopted. He accordingly proposes a mode of ensnaring him, subjoining, that if the King would simply order his expulsion, the mandate should be obeyed, without asking for any proof of his deserving such a sentence. This was accordingly done; but in two short years the circumstances of all the parties were changed. The Bishop and Dean was gone to appear before Him who has said, "Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment;" the King had withdrawn to the Continent, expelled by his own terrors, and deprived of his inheritance; Locke was returning to his native land, to be counted one of its chief ornaments; the Earl of Sunderland had betrayed his master, and was desiring to be allowed to do any dirty work for another.
H. W.