AMICUS asks where this couplet is to be found. It appears to me that it has been derived from an imperfect translation of the last two lines of Martial's epigram, L. iv. Ep. 44., in which he describes the effects of a recent eruption of Vesuvius:
"Cuncta jacent flammis, et tristi mersa favillâ:
Nec Superi vellent hoc licuisse sibi."
It is a petit morçeau of heathen blasphemy, in supposing that the gods ought to repent of what they have done.
W. N. D.
Madrigal, Meaning of (Vol. v., p. 104.).
—NEMO will find all that I could collect upon this subject in the introduction to my Bibliotheca Madrigaliana, published by J. Russell Smith, 8vo., 1847.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
Absalom's Hair (Vol. iv., pp. 131. 243.).
—In answer to P. P., who says that "Absalom's long hair had nothing to do with his death, his head itself, and not the hair upon it, having been caught in the boughs of the tree," RT. refers to the "respectable antiquity" of the popular tradition. In the Vulgate edition of the Bible (Venetiis, 1760, ex Typographia Balleoniana) there is a rude woodcut, evidently of much older date than 1760, in which Absalom is represented as hanging by his hair. Perhaps some of your correspondents can mention similar woodcuts of a far earlier date.