S. WMSON.
P.S. To show the extent of Mr. Boyd's poetical perseverance, I subjoin a note of the contents of one of his poetical MSS.:—the Flowers of Zion, generally called Zacharie Boyd's Bible.
| David and Goliath contains about | 850 | lines. | ||
| Historie of Jonah | 1130 | " | ||
| —— of Samson | 2100 | " | ||
| —— of Jephtha | 720 | " | ||
| The Flood of Noah | 860 | " | ||
| The Tower of Babylon | 930 | " | ||
| The Destruction of Sodom | 2000 | " | ||
| Abram commanded to sacrifice Isaac | 840 | " | ||
| Historie of the Baptist | 800 | " | ||
| The Fall of Adam | 900 | " | ||
| Abel murdered | 900 | " | ||
| Pharaoh's Tyranny and Death | 2480 | " | ||
| Historie of Jacob and Esau | 750 | " | ||
| —— of Jacob and Laban | 1400 | " | ||
| Jacob and Esau reconciled | 720 | " | ||
| Dinah ravished by Shechem | 440 | " | ||
| Joseph and his Brethren | } | 1615 | " | |
| Joseph tempted to Adultery | ||||
| Nebuchadnezzar's Fierie Furnace | 3280 | " | ||
| Also at the end— | ||||
| The World's Vanities (Divided into 8 Branches:—1st. Strength, 2nd. Honour, 3rd. Riches,4th. Beautie,5th. Pleasure, 6th. Wisdom, 7th. Children, 8th. Long Life) contains about | 550 | lines. | ||
| The Popish Powder Plot (The Speakers—Christ—King James—Elizabeth—Peeres of England—The Lords appointed to trye the Traitors—The Earls of Nottingham, Suffolke, the Lord Monteagle—The Sherriffe of Worcester—The Devill—the Jesuit Gerrard—Robert Catesby—Thomas Percy, Guy Faux, &c. &c. &c.) contains about | 1560 | lines. |
Replies to Minor Queries.
Death, how symbolised (Vol. iii., p. 450.).
—I beg to inform your correspondent S. T. D., that in an old 4to. volume in my possession, which treats principally of the topic about which he is inquiring, there are several engravings of Death as a skeleton. In one he is armed with a bow and arrow, an axe, and a scythe notched as a saw. In another he has an axe only: while in a third, in which he is announcing his dissolution to a man on his deathbed, he has a spade in his left hand, while with his right he points upwards; and on his head is a wreath of thorns with flowers standing up out of it. I do not know whether the book is a rare one or not. It is in black letter, and at the end is the date 1515. The title, which is a woodcut, rather curious, is—Sermones Johannis Geilerii Keiserspergii, &c., &c. There are also six other woodcuts, after the manner of Albert Durer, very quaint and curious. The volume is in its original vellum, over oak boards, finely tooled, and has once been bound at the corners and clasped with metal. In MS. on the top of the title are the words "Monast. S. Udalrici Augæ." Though in very good condition, the black-letter type is so curiously crabbed and abbreviated that I have not had time to do more than ascertain that it seems a very singular and a learned work.
H. C. H.
Rectory, Hereford, June 8. 1851.
[The author of the curious work in the possession of our correspondent is John Geiler, called also Gayler, Keiserspergius, an eminent Swiss divine, who was born in 1445, and died in 1510. His works in German and Latin are books of rare occurrence, and consist principally of Sermons. Oberlin published in 1786 a curious life of Geiler. For the titles of his various works, consult Panzer's Annales Typographici, vol. vi.]
Death (Vol. iii., p. 450.).—Has S. T. D. consulted the excellent treatise of Lessing, "Wie die Alten den Tod gebildet?" It is illustrated with many engravings. (See Lessing's Sämmtliche Schriften, 1839, vol. viii.)