E.C.H.
Athenæum.
Luther's Hymns (Vol. ii., p. 327.).—If F.Q. will turn to Mr. Palmer's Origines Liturgicæ, vol. ii. p. 238. 4th edit., he will find that the sentence in the Burial Service, "In the midst of life we are in death," &c., is taken from the Salisbury Breviary Psalter. The Salisbury Use was drawn up by Bishop Osmund in the eleventh century.
N.E.R. (a Subscriber.)
Bolton's Ace.—What is the meaning of "Bolton's Ace," in the following passage in the address to the reader prefixed to Henry Hutton's Follies Anatomie, 8vo. Lond. 1618? It is passed over by DR. RIMBAULT in his reprint of the work for the Percy Society in 1842:
"Could ye attacke this felon in's disgrace,
I would not bate an inch (not Bolton's ace)
To baite, deride, nay, ride this silly asse."
J. CT.
["Bate me an ace quoth Bolton" is an old proverb of unknown origin. Ray tells us that a Collection of Proverbs having been presented to Queen Elizabeth, with an assurance that it contained all the proverbs in the English language. "Bate me an ace, quoth Bolton," said the queen, implying that the assertion was too strong; and, in fact, that every proverb was not in the collection. See Nares' Glossary, who quotes the following epigram by H.P., to show the collection referred to