"Cor linguæ fœderat naturæ sanctio,
Tanquam legitimo quodam connubio;
Ergo cum dissonant cor et locutio,
Sermo concipitur ex adulterio."
Mr. Wright's only source quoted for the poem is MS. Cotton, Vespas, E. xii. Of its authority he remarks (Preface, p. xx.), that the writer's name was certainly Walter, but that he appears to have lived at Wimborne, with which place Walter Map is not traced to have had any connexion; and if Mr. Wright's conjecture be correct, that the young king alluded to in it is Henry III., it must of course have been written some years after Walter Map's death.
J. G. N.
Under the Rose (Vol. i., pp. 214. 458.; Vol. ii., pp. 221. 323.).—I am surprised that no one has noticed Sir T. Browne's elucidations of this phrase. (Vulg. Err. lib. v. cap. 21. § 7.) Besides the explanation referred to by Archæus (Vol. i., p. 214.), he says:
"The expression is commendable, if the rose from any naturall propertie may be the symbole of silence, as Nazienzene seems to imply in these translated verses—
'Utque latet Rosa verna suo putamine clausa,
Sic os vinela ferat, validisque arctetur habenis,
Indicatque suis prolixa silentia labris.'"
He explains "the Germane custome, which over the table describeth a rose in the seeling" (Vol. ii., pp. 221. 323.), by making the phrase to refer only to the secrecy to be observed "in society and compotation, from the ancient custome in Symposiacke meetings to wear chapletts of roses about their heads."
Ache.