Vol. IV.—No. 104. NOTES AND QUERIES: A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.
"When found, make a note of."—CAPTAIN CUTTLE.
VOL. IV.—No. 104.
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25. 1851.
Price Sixpence. Stamped Edition, 7d.
CONTENTS.
NOTES:—
The Old Countess of Desmond, No. 1. [305]
Panslavic Sketches, by Dr. J. Lotsky [306]
Monumental Bust of Shakspeare, by J. O. Halliwell [307]
Notes on Passages in Virgil, by Dr. Henry [307]
Folk Lore:—Superstitions respecting Bees—Bees invited to Funerals—North Side of Churchyards—Ashton Faggot: a Devonshire Custom—Offerings to the Apple-trees: Devonshire Superstition [308]
Poetical Imitations [310]
Gloucestershire Ballads:—A Gloucester Ditty; George Ridler's Oven [311]
The Caxton Coffer, by Bolton Corney [312]
Minor Notes:—Note on the Duration of Reigns—Cock and Bull Story—"Multa renascentur," &c.—Corruptions recognised as acknowledged Words [312]
QUERIES:—
Mary Queen of Scots and Bothwell's Confession [313]
Minor Queries:—"'Tis Twopence now"—Scythians blind their Slaves—The "Gododin"—Frontispiece to Hobbes's Leviathan—Broad Arrow or Arrow Head—Deep Well near Bansted Downs—Upton Court—Derivation of Prog—Metrical History of England—Finger Pillories in Churches—Stallenge Queries—Ancient MS. History of Scotland—Pharetram de Tutesbit—Inundation at Deptford—Butler's Sermons—Coleridge's Christabel—Epigram ascribed to Mary Queen of Scots [314]
MINOR QUERIES ANSWERED:—Meaning of Farlieu—"History of Anglesey"—The Word "Rile" [317]
REPLIES:—
Winchester Execution [317]
Cockney [318]
Sir Edmund Plowden or Ployden [319]
General James Wolfe [322]
Stanzas in Childe Harold [323]
Replies to Minor Queries:—MS. Note in a Copy of Liber Sententiarum—Naturalis Proles—Print cleaning—Story referred to by Jeremy Taylor—Anagrams—Battle of Brunanburgh—Praed's Works—Sir J. Davies—Coins of Constantius Gallus—Passage in Sedley—Buxtorf's Translation of Elias Levita's "Tub Taam"—Stonehenge—Glass in Windows formerly not a Fixture—Fortune, infortune, fort une—Matthew Paris's "Historia Minor"—Sanford's "Descensus"—Death of Pitt—History of Hawick—"Prophecies of Nostradamus"—Bourchier Family—William III. at Exeter—Passage in George Herbert—Suicides buried in Cross Roads—Armorial Bearing—"Life of Cromwell"—Harris, Painter in Water Colours—"Son of the Morning"—Grimsdyke or Grimesditch—Cagots—The Serpent represented with a human Head—Fire Unknown—Plant in Texas—Copying Inscriptions—Chantrey's Statue of Mrs. Jordan—Portraits of Burke—Martial's Distribution of Hours [326]
MISCELLANEOUS:—
Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. [332]
Books and Odd Volumes wanted [333]
Notices to Correspondents [333]
Advertisements [333]
[List of Notes and Queries volumes and pages]
Notes.
THE OLD COUNTESS OF DESMOND, NO. 1.
The various notices and inquiries at times in your publication respecting this lady, including, as they do, some sceptical doubts of her existence, induce me to trouble you with several particulars upon this subject, of which I have at sundry times, according to the admirable suggestion of your motto, "when found, made a note." Some of them, derived from local antiquarian opportunities, will be new; of all I shall endeavour to make an intelligible arrangement; and as the subject will probably extend itself too much for a single article suited to your pages, I propose to place it under these distinct headings:—Was there an old Countess of Desmond? Is there really a portrait of her? And, Who was she?
In reference to the first inquiry, I would observe that the fact of the existence of such a personage rests upon no modern or uncertain tradition. This aged lady, according to an account I shall mention presently, is supposed to have lived to the latter end of the reign of James I. or beginning of that of Charles I.; and mention is made of her by Sir Walter Raleigh, in his History of the World (bk. i. p. i. c. 5.), as "personally known to him" as having been married in the reign of Edward IV. (who died A.D. 1485); and who was living in 1589, and "many years afterwards, as all the noblemen and gentlemen of Munster can witness."
Lord Bacon, in his Natural History (cent. viii. sect. 755.) refers to her thus:
"They tell a tale of the old Countess of Desmond, who lived until she was seven score years old; that she did dentize twice or thrice, casting her old teeth, and others coming in their place."
Horace Walpole, in his Historic Doubts respecting Richard III. (p. 102.), correcting the "misrepresentations regarding his person," says:
"The old Countess of Desmond, who had danced with Richard, declared he was the handsomest man in the room except his brother Edward, and was very well made."
This last anecdote of Walpole's is taken from an account which I certainly have seen and read, but the name of the authority I cannot now recollect, which stated that the Countess actually outlived the "trust term for securing her jointure" (a period generally of ninety-nine years from the date of marriage), "and was obliged in her old age to appear in a court of justice to establish her rights; and that it was there and then she delivered Walpole's anecdote to the judge and audience." All these different yet concurring testimonies seem satisfactorily to establish the fact that there was a Countess of Desmond "passing old."
Then, as to her celebrated picture, of which I have frequently seen the original on wood, in possession of the "Right Hon. Maurice Fitzgerald, Knight of Kerry," and have now a print before me, there are some particulars and questions which may interest your readers.
The print (same size as the original) is a mezzo-tint, ten inches by seven inches and a half, and has under it the following inscription:
"CATHERINE FITZGERALD (the long-lived) COUNTESS OF DESMOND, from an original Family Picture of the same size, painted on Board, in the possession of the Right Honorable Maurice Fitzgerald, Knight of Kerry, &c. &c. &c., to whom this plate is most respectfully dedicated by her very obedient and much obliged humble servant, HENRY PELHAM.
"This illustrious lady was born about the year 1464, and was married in the reign of Edward IV., lived during the reigns of Edward V., Richard III., Henry VII., Henry VIII., Edward VI., Mary, and Elizabeth, and died in the latter end of James I., or beginning of Charles I.'s reign, at the great age (as is generally supposed) of 162 years. Published as the Act directs, at Bear Island, June 4, 1806. By Henry Pelham, Esq."
In this print the features are large and strongly marked; the forehead and upper part of the nose deeply wrinkled, the head covered with a large full black hood, showing no hair whatever about the face; the person wrapped in a dark cloak, held by a single button over the breast. As some of your correspondents speak of portraits of this lady at Knowle (Vol. iii., p. 341.), Bedgebury, and Penshurst, it may be useful to compare them with this description, for the following reason.
Horace Walpole, whose "mission" seems to have been to raise "Historic Doubts," in a letter to Rev. Mr. Cole, dated May 28, 1774, has the following sentence:
"Mr. Pennant has given a new edition of his former Tour, with more cuts: among others is the vulgar head called the Countess of Desmond. I told him I had discovered, and proved past contradiction, that it is Rembrandt's mother. He owned it, and said he would correct it by a note: but he has not. This is a brave way of being an antiquary: as if there could be any merit in giving for genuine what one knows to be spurious."
This is a very teasing passage. I have no copy of Pennant's Tour by me; nor do I recollect ever to have seen one with the print here referred to. Probably some of your numerous correspondents will find one, and inform us, whether the print in it resembles the description I have given. It is not at all probable that Pennant's "cut" was copied from the Knight of Kerry's picture: but if it was copied from any of those mentioned by your correspondents; and if these be duplicates of the Knight of Kerry's "family portrait;" and if Horace Walpole's cruel criticism on Mr. Pennant be correct—then have we all been shamed with a sham. These are a considerable number of ifs, upon which this conclusion depends; but in one thing Walpole is correct: "there is no merit in giving for genuine what one knows to be spurious."
Of the Mr. Pelham who published the print I have described, there are some particulars which may interest your readers. He will be found among the correspondents of the late General Vallancey, whose interest in Irish antiquities is well known. Mr. Pelham was an ingenious gentleman, who came to Kerry in the end of the last century, in the character of agent to the Marquis of Lansdowne; which engagement, after a few years, he resigned, but continued in the county, a zealous studier of its antiquities, and intending, as I have heard, either a new County History or a reprint of Smith's work. He was a good civil engineer, and executed a great part of a large county and baronial map, afterwards finished by another hand. Mr. Pelham, who perished prematurely by sudden death, in his boat, while superintending the building of a Martello tower on Bear Island, in the River Kenmare, in the very year he published this print, is said to have been an uncle by half-blood to the present Lord Lyndhurst, whose grandmother, Sarah Singleton, is said to have married to her second husband, —— Pelham, an American—Henry Pelham being the only issue of her second marriage, as John Singleton Copley, father to the ex-chancellor, was of her first. In my next I propose to consider the question, Who was the old Countess of Desmond?
A. B. R.
PANSLAVIC SKETCHES.
The idea and conception of Panslavism are the produce of the latent political events on the Continent, viz. the idea of a re-crystallisation of a race of people comprising even now sixty millions, and which in former epochs extended from Archangelsk to Tissalonichi, where it bordered on the abodes of the Hellenic race. Having lost their primeval (Indian) civilisation by migrations which extend to times historical, the only monuments testifying to their most ancient origin are the languages of these various tribes,—the Russians, Czechs, Poles, &c. But these languages have all acquired a more modern type, by a great susception of Greek, Tartarian, Latin, Turkish, and German phrases and constructions. Fortunately, however, there have been other branches of this huge nation-tree, which, settled on the shores of the German ocean, afar from the tracts of migration and the stations of war, have escaped the influence of the changes contingent on the contentions and intercourse of men. And thus, the Old Prussian, the Lithuanian, and the Lettish tongues (dialects) have escaped, as it were, the changes of improvement, and have remained, in the mouth of aboriginal inhabitants, such as they were many centuries ago. If the mythology of the Slavian nations, and their universal complex of languages, are undoubtedly Indian (Sanscrit), the above-named three dialects have retained most of their primordial type. I subjoin the Lord's Prayer, written in these three ancient Slavonic dialects, now hardly understood by any other save those very same tribes. The approximation to Sanscrit is most striking, and deserves the notice of philologists. As a number of persons conversant with Sanscrit, and even the dialects spoken in India, are to be met with in the British capital, their attention is most respectfully called to these venerable remains of old Panslavic tongues.
DR. J. LOTSKY, Panslave.
8. Robert Street, Hampstead Road.
THE LORD'S PRAYER.
Old Prussian.
Tava nuson, kas tu essei en dangon, svintints virst tvais emnes; pereit tvais ryks; tvais quaits audasin kagi en dandon tyt deigi no semien, nuson deinennin geitien dais numans s̄an deinan; bhe etverpeis numas nusons ausautins, kaimes etverpimai nusons aus̄autenikamans; bhe ni veddeis mans em perbandasnan, s̄lait isrankeis mans esse vissan vargan.
Lithuanian.
Tive musû, kurs essi danguie, te essie s̄venē amas tavo vardas; te ateinie tavo karaliste; te nusidŭdie tavo vale, kaip danguie taip ir ant z̄èmês; dŭna musû diesnis̄ka dûk mums ir sa diena; ir attèisk mums musû kattes, kaip mes attèidsam savo kattiemus; ir ne vesk mus i pagundima, bet gèlbèk mus nŭ pikto.
Letton (Lettish.)
Mûsu têvs debbesîs, svêtîts lai tôp tavs vârds, lai nâk tava valstiba; tavs prâts lai noteek, ka debbesîs ta arridzan zemmes virzû; mûsû deenis̄ku maiz dôd mums s̄odeen; un pametti mums mûsu parradus, ka arrimês pamettam saveem parradneekeem; un ne ceveddi mûs eeks̄ kârdinas̄anas, bet atpesti mûs no ta launa.
MONUMENTAL BUST OF SHAKSPEARE.
Mr. T. Kite, the parish clerk of Stratford-on-Avon, has recently completed a copy in imitation stone from a cast of the monumental bust of Shakspeare, which appears to me, after a very close and minute comparison, to be a far more faithful transcript of the original than any of the kind hitherto accessible to the public. It gives in detail most accurately those peculiarities which led Sir F. Chantrey to the opinion that the artist worked from a cast made after death; and if you would kindly spare a few lines of your paper for a paragraph to that effect, I feel sure you would not only confer a benefit on Shakspearian collectors, but at the same time pay a just tribute to Mr. Kite, for the intelligent pains he has bestowed upon the work. It is scarcely necessary to say an accurate copy of the Stratford bust is the best memorial of Shakspeare the public can possess, it being so much superior in authenticity to any other resemblance.
J. O. HALLIWELL.
Stratford on Avon, Oct. 15.
NOTES ON PASSAGES IN VIRGIL.
I. "Acti Fatis."—Virg. Æn. I. 36.
"Si fatis, nulla Junonis invidia est. Si Junonis invidiâ fatigabantur quomodo dicit acti fatis? Sed hoc ipsum Junonis odium fatale est. Agebantur fatis Junonis, i.e. voluntate; vel fatis, pro malis, ut iii. 182."—SERVIUS.
"Non tam quoniam hoc Junonis odium fatale erat, ut Servius; sed potius, quoniam hi ipsi Trojanorum, errores fatales erant."—HEYNE.
Not only these two, but all other commentators and translators, as far as I know, have wholly mistaken the meaning of this passage, which is not that the Trojans were jactati, fatigati, or agitati, harassed, or driven hither and thither by the fates, (actus being never used in the sense assigned to it in such interpretation), but simply that they were driven onward, or toward Latium, by the fates (acti fatis); while at the same time they were driven backward, or from Latium, by Juno, (arcebat longe Latio). The result was "multos per annos errabant maria omnia circum:" words could not more clearly express the opposition of the forces between which the Trojans were placed; an opposition on which hangs the whole action of the poem. The invidia of Juno, concerning which Servius queries, was manifested by her using her utmost exertions to prevent the Trojans from arriving at the place toward which they were impelled by the fates, i.e. at which it was fated they should arrive.
As "acti fatis" here, so "fato profugus venit," verse 6; "sedes ubi fata quietas ostendunt," verse 209; "data fata secutus," verse 386; "fata deum vestras exquirere terras imperiis egere suis" (Æn. VII. 239.); "fatisque vocantia regna" (Æn. v. 656.); &c.; through all which expressions runs the one constant idea of the fates calling, forcing, driving (agentia) the Trojans toward Latium.
II. "Sævus ubi Æacidæ telo jacet Hector ubi ingens
Sarpedon."—Virg. Æn. I. 103.[1]
[1] The numbering of the lines is that of the Delphin edition.
Observe how the poet surmounts the obvious difficulty of uniting Hector, the principal champion of Troy, and Sarpedon, the son of Jove, in one and the same sentence, without implying a preference for either, without exalting one at the expense of the other; viz., by counterbalancing, by an inferior position towards the end of a line, that advantage of priority of mention, which he must necessarily give to one of them; and by compensating the other for the disadvantage of being placed second in order, by the double advantage of first place in a line, and separation from the rest of the line by a sudden pause.
III. "Ubi tot Simois correpta sub undis
Scuta virum galeasque et fortia corpora volvit."—Virg. Æn. I. 104.
"Contendit cum Homero (Il. μ. 22. seq.). Potest sane oratio nimis ornata videri ex Æneæ persona; sed innumeris locis poetæ cum epici, tum tragici, ac lyrici, sibi indulgent in ornatu, etiam ubi alios loquentes inducunt."—HEYNE.
This stricture, very seasonable in a commentary on Statius or Lucan, is wholly inapplicable to Virgil; a poet remarkable, above all others, for his abstinence from gaudy ornament, and singularly careful to adapt the sentiment to the character and circumstances of the speaker. The words in the text, or some similar words, were indispensable to give full expression to the idea of Æneas; very imperfectly understood either by the annotators, or, with the exception of Caro, by the translators: Happy those who died on the plains of Troy, in the sight of their sires? Oh! that I, too, had perished there by the hand of Tydides, or been swept away along with so many of my friends by the Simois!
JAMES HENRY.
34. Westland Row, Dublin.
FOLK LORE.
Superstitions respecting Bees.
—It is a subject for painful reflection, that beings of so great skill and useful industry should be so liable to take affront, as is proved by the anecdotes related of bees by L. L. L. Who would not grieve, that bees—who have been said to partake of the Divine nature,
"Esse apibus partem divinæ mentis et haustus
Ætherios dixêre"—
should reduce themselves, by this susceptibility of offence at (in most cases imaginary) neglect, to a level with the weakness and folly of human creatures,—I say human creatures; for in the country I have known feuds caused by omitting to bid to the funeral of a deceased neighbour, or to send black gloves. It was to be hoped that these "offensiones muliebres" (we may add "viriles" also) were peculiar to the human race; but that, it is apparent, is not so. The custom of giving a piece of the funeral cake is new to me; though it looks like want of feeling to be greedy of cake in the hour of affliction, yet there is a sort of retributive fitness in presenting to these busy people
"Melle soporatam et medicatis frugibus offam."
It is a grateful acknowledgment of past favours conferred upon the deceased head of the family, and a retainer for future services to the survivors.
With regard to the custom of informing the bees of a death in the family, and the penalty of omitting to do so, I can add to the proof of it. I find among some memoranda I made more than five-and-twenty years ago, the following note:
"In Buckinghamshire it is common, on the death of any one of the family, for the nurse to go to all the bee-hives in the garden, and tap gently three times, each time repeating three times these words, 'Little brownie, little brownie, your master's dead;' when the bees, beginning to hum, show their consent to remain. The omission of this ceremony, it is believed, would occasion the loss of the bees by flight, or otherwise."
To show that a similar custom and belief, though varying in some particulars, are found upon the continent of Europe, I give the following extract:
"In Lithuania, when the master or mistress of the house dies, it is considered necessary to give notice of the fact to the bees, horses, and cows, by rattling a bunch of keys; and it is believed, that if this were omitted the bees and cattle would die."—See the Journal of Agriculture. Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, Oct. 1848, p. 538.
One word more of bees: "His head is full of bees" is a Scotch proverb, said of a drunkard. (Ray's Proverbs, p. 198.) "He has a bee in his head" is an English proverb. So, "He has a bee in his bonnet." What is the meaning? As I was writing the last lines I said to a friend who was lounging in his arm-chair by our fireside, "Why is a drunkard's head said to be full of bees?" "I don't know," he answered, "unless it is on account of their humming. You remember," he added,
"With a pudding on Sundays, with stout humming liquor,
And remnants of Latin to welcome the vicar."
The half-hour bell rang before we had done talking of and repeating parts of V. Bourne's "The Wish." Many a time has "NOTES AND QUERIES" given subjects for talk in our family before and after dinner.
F. W. T.
Oliver, in his account of Cherry-Burton (History of Beverley, p. 499.), speaks thus on the superstitious practice of informing bees, and putting them in mourning on the occasion of a death in the family:
"The inhabitants entertain a superstitious belief, that when the head of a family dies, it is necessary to clothe the bees in mourning on the funeral day to ensure the future prosperity of the hive."
He then refers to an instance, and says:
"A scarf of black crape was formally applied to each bee-hive; and an offering of pounded funeral biscuit, soaked in wine, was placed at its entrance."
In a note, he accounts for the ceremony's origin by a quotation from Porph. De Ant. Nymp., p. 261., in which honey is spoken of as being "anciently a symbol of death." For other notices of superstitions in reference to bees, see Hone's Mysteries, pp. 220. 222. 283.
R. W. ELLIOT.
I was lately informed by a native of Monmouthshire, that the belief relative to bees is entertained in that and some of the adjacent counties even by educated persons. My informant gravely assured me that though the bees are aware of the approaching event, from the acuteness of their organs of smell, they require to be duly and timely communicated with on the subject, to induce them to remain with the survivors; but if this be neglected, they will desert their hives, and disappear. The propriety or necessity of offering them any refreshment was not stated.
YUNAF.
The custom mentioned by L. L. L. still prevails in the Weald of Surrey and Sussex; probably through all the southern counties; but certainly in the Isle of Wight, where the writer only the other day, on noticing an empty apiary in the grounds of a villa, was told that the country people attributed its desertion to the bees not having had this formal notice of their master's death.
The same superstition is practised in some parts of France, when a mistress of the house dies; the formula being much like our English one, i.e. to tap thrice on the hive, repeating these words, "Petits abeilles, votre maîtresse est morte."
A. D.
Bees invited to Funerals.—North Side of Churchyards.
—At Bradfield, a primitive village on the edge of the moors, in the parish of Ecclesfield, I was informed by a person of much intelligence, that a custom has obtained in the district from time immemorial—"for hundreds of years" was the expression used—of inviting bees to funerals; and that an instance could be produced of the superstition having been practised even within the last year. What is done is this. When a death occurs, a person is appointed to call the neighbours to the funeral, who delivers the invitations in one form of words: "You are invited to the funeral of A. B., which is to take place at such an hour, on such a day; and there will be dinner on table at —— o'clock." And if it should happen that bees were kept in the garden of the house where the corpse lies (not an unlikely thing near moors), the messenger is instructed to address the same invitation to the bees in their hives; because it is considered that, if this compliment be omitted, the bees will die.
I asked the sexton of Bradfield why, in a churchyard that was rather crowded with graves, there was no appearance of either mound or tombstone on the north side? His only answer was, "It's mostly them 'at died i' t' workhus is buried at t' backside o' t' church." An instance, but no explanation of the prejudice entertained against the north side of churchyards.
ALFRED GATTY.
In answer to your correspondent L. L. L. respecting bee etiquette, I can inform him, from my personal observation, that the ceremony of informing the bees of their owner's death is in full force in Ashborne, Derbyshire, Hinton, Wilts, and even in the highly intellectual city of Oxford. The ceremony is the same in all these places. Three taps are made on the hives with the house-key, while the informant repeats: "Bees, bees, bees, your master is dead, and you must work for ——," naming the future owner. A piece of black crape is then fastened to the hive. Many bee owners think it is politic to inform the bees of the death of a relation: but in this case they never give the name, but the degree of relationship; as "your master's brother, sister, aunt, &c. is dead." On weddings the bees always expect to be informed of the auspicious event, and to have their hive decorated with a wedding favour.
J. G. WOOD.
Oxford.
Ashton Faggot: A Devonshire Custom.
—The ashton faggot is burned on Christmas eve. The faggot is composed entirely of ash timber, and the separate sticks or branches are securely bound together with ash bands. The faggot is made as large as can conveniently be burned in the fireplace, or rather upon the floor, grates not being in use. A numerous company is generally assembled to spend the evening in games and amusement, the diversion being heightened as the faggot blazes on the hearth, as a quart of cider is considered due, and is called for, and served upon the bursting of every hoop or band bound round the faggot. The timber being green and elastic, each band generally bursts open with a smart report when the individual stick or hoop has been partially burned through.
Offerings to the Apple-trees: Devonshire Superstition.
—It was a custom in Devonshire, and probably in some of the adjoining counties also, to perform the following ceremonial on Old Christmas Eve, or Twelfth Day, namely: In the evening the farmer's family and friends being assembled, hot wheat-flour cakes were introduced, with cider; and this was served round to the company, the cake being dipped in the cider, and then eaten. As the evening wore on, the assembled company adjourned into the orchard, some one bearing hot cake and cider as an offering to the principal tree in the orchard; the cake was deposited on a fork of the tree, and the cider was then thrown over it, the men firing off muskets, fowling-pieces, pistols, &c., the women, girls, and boys shouting and screaming to the trees with all the excitement of young Indians the following rhyme:—
"Bear blue, apples and pears enoug';
Barn fulls, bag fulls, sack fulls. Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!"
Query, Do these customs prevail to this day either in Devonshire or in other European countries?
R. R.
POETICAL IMITATION.
It has always been a pleasing office of criticism, to observe how often an excellent thought, having sprung from some master mind, or from some inferior mind in a happy moment, has been used by succeeding writers.
Homer,
"à quo, ceu fonte perenni,
Vatum Pieriis ora rigantur aquis,"
has, in Il. v. 406. et seq., the following lines:
"Νήπιος, οὐδὲ τὸ οἶδε κατὰ φρένα Τυδέος υἱὸς
Ὅττι μάλ' οὐ δηναιὸς, ὃς ἀθανάτοισι μάχοιτο,
Οὐδέ τί μιν παῖδες ποτὶ γούνασι παππάζουσιν,
Ἐλθόντ' ἐκ πολέμοιο καὶ αἰνῆς δηϊοτῆτος."
"The son of Tydeus is foolish and rash, nor is aware that he who fights with the immortals is not long-lived, and that no children, as he returns from war and strife, gather round his knees to call him father."
The idea of children saluting their parent at his knees, has been adopted, and accompanied with various additions, by several subsequent authors. Among the writers in Homer's language, however, we find no imitation of it, unless the following lines of Callimachus can be regarded as taken from it:
"Πατρὸς ἐφεζομένη γονάτεσσι
Παῖς ἔτι κουρίζουσα, τάδε προσέειπε γονῆα,
Δός μοι παρθενίην αἰώνιον, ἄππα, φυλάσσειν."
"She (Diana), yet a child, sitting sportively on the knees of her father, said to him, Allow me, dear parent, to preserve a perpetual virginity."
In the Latin writers the thought occurs several times. The first in whom it is found is Lucretius:
"At jam non domus adcipiet te læta, neque uxor
Optuma, nec dulces obcurrent oscula natei
Præripere, et tacitâ pectus dulcedine tangent."
III. 907.
"But thy cheerful home shall no more receive thee, nor thy excellent wife; nor shall thy sweet children run to snatch kisses from thee, and touch thy breast with secret delight."
In whose steps Virgil treads:
"Interea dulces pendent circum oscula nati;
Casta pudicitiam servat domus."
Geo. II. 523.
"His cares are eased with intervals of bliss;
His little children climbing for a kiss,
Welcome their father's late return at night;
His faithful bed is crown'd with chaste delight."
Dryden.
(Virgil liked the expression dulces nati. He has
"Nec mihi jam patriam antiquam spes ulla videndi,
Nec dulces natos exoptatumque parentem."
Æn. II. 137.
"Nec dulces natos, Veneris nec præmia nôris?
Æn. IV. 33.
"Sed tota in dulces consument ubera natos."
Geo. III. 178.)
Statius, doubtless, had both Lucretius and Virgil in his view, when he wrote,
"Rursus et ex illis soboles nova; grexque protervus
Nunc humeris irreptet avi, nunc agmine blando
Certatim placidæ concurrat ad oscula Pollæ."
Silv. III. i. 179.
"Again from them springs a new race; a forward little troop, which sometimes climb on the shoulders of their grandfather, and sometimes, in pleasing congress, run to catch a kiss from the gentle Polla."
Seneca, Thyest. I. 145., has another imitation:
"Exceptus gladio parvulus impio,
Dum currit patrium natus ad osculum,
Immatura focis victima concidit."
"The little Pelops, met by the impious sword, while he was running to receive his father's kiss, fell a premature victim on the hearth."
Claudian, Rapt. Proserp. III. 173., has another:
"Hæc post cunabula dulci
Ferre sinu, summoque Jovi deducere parvam
Sueverat, et genibus ludentem aptare paternis."
"She was accustomed to bear the little infant, after it had slept in its cradle, in her fragrant bosom, to present it to almighty Jove, and to place it sporting on its father's knees."
But the best adaptations and expansions of the thought have been among the writers of our own country. The earliest allusion to it, I believe, occurs in Thomson's description of the traveller lost in the snow:
"In vain for him th' officious wife prepares
The fire fair-blazing, and the vestment warm;
In vain his little children, peeping out
Into the mingling storm, demand their sire
With tears of artless innocence! Alas!
Nor wife, nor children, more shall he behold,
Nor friends, nor sacred home.
Winter, 311.
But this is a less pointed imitation than that of Gray, which succeeded it. Gray had his eye on Lucretius:
"For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,
Or busy housewife ply her evening care;
No children run to lisp their sire's return,
Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share."
Next followed Collins, in his Ode on the Superstitions of the Highlands, who, however, seems to have had Thomson chiefly in view:
"For him, in vain, his anxious wife shall wait,
Or wander forth to meet him on his way;
For him, in vain, at to-fall of the day,
His babes shall linger at th' unclosing gate:
Ah! ne'er shall he return."
To him succeeded Dyer:
"The little smiling cottage, when at eve
He meets his rosy children at the door,
Prattling their welcomes, and his honest wife,
———————————————— intent
To cheer his hunger after labour hard."
Fleece, Book I. 120.
Burns has a picture equal to any of these:
"At length his lonely cot appears in view
Beneath the shelter of an aged tree:
Th' expectant wee things, todlin', stacher through
To meet their dad with flichterin' noise and glee:
His wee-bit ingle blinkin' bonnilie,
His clean hearth-stane, his thrifty wifie's smile,
The lisping infant prattling on his knee,
Does a' his weary carking cares beguile,
And makes him quite forget his labour and his toil."
Cotter's Saturday Night.
Burns may have taken the thought from Gray, or some other English source. But he has not disgraced it by his mode of treating it.
Allen Ramsay, in his Gentle Shepherd, has a very pretty allusion to children, which I have not at hand to consult, but which concludes with,
"While all they ettle at, their greatest wis',
Is to be made o', and obtain a kiss."
J. S. W.
Stockwell.
A GLOUCESTER DITTY.
(From an Old Broadside without date.)
Come, my very merry gentle people, only list a minute,
For tho' my song may not be long there's something comic in it;
A stranger I, yet, by the bye, I've ventured in my ditty,
To say a word at parting, just in praise of Gloucester city.
The Romans they this city built, and many folks came down here,
Kings Richard, Henry, John, and Ned, did visit Glo'ster town here;
King William dined each Christmas here, and Glo'ster folks it pleases,
To know the food he relished most was double Berkeley cheeses.
The ladies, Heaven bless 'em all! as sure as I've a nose on,
In former times had only thorns and skewers to stick their clothes on;
No damsel then was worth a pin, whate'er it might have cost her,
Till gentle Johnny Tilsby came, and invented pins in Glo'ster.
Your fine cathedral when I saw, tho' much I was delighted,
Yet in the whisp'ring gallery I got most sadly frighted;
Some question there I asked myself, when not a soul was near me,
And suddenly an answer came, as if the walls could hear me.
The Severn full of salmon fine enriches low and high land,
And then, for more variety, you've got a little island;
Of which I've read a Taylor's Tale, a dozen verses long, sirs,
And may I go to Old Harry, if it's not a clever song, sirs.
George Ridler's oven, I've been told, contains some curious jokes, sirs,
And much of it is said by many Glo'ster folks, sirs;
But ovens now are serious things, and from my soul I wish, sirs,
Your ovens here many ne'er want bread to fill the poor man's dish, sirs.
Now if you will but all forgive this slight attempt at rhyme, sirs,
I'll promise, like the little boys, to mend another time, sirs;
May health, with every blessing, join this company to foster,
Till, with your leave, some future time I come again to Glo'ster.
GEORGE RIDLER'S OVEN.
(From a Broadside.)
The stwons that built George Ridler's oven,
And thauy keum from the Bleakeley's Quaar;
And George he wur a jolly old mon,
And his yead it grawed above his yare.
One thing of George Ridler I must commend,
And that wur vur a notable theng;
He meud his braags avoore he died,
Wi' ony dree brothers his zons should zeng.
There's Dick the Treble and John the Mean,
(Let ev'ry mon zeng in his auwn pleace)
And George he wur the elder brother,
And therevoore he would zeng the Beass.
Mine Hostess' moid (and her neaum 'twur Nell),
A pretty wench, and I loved her well;
I loved her well, good reazun whoy,
Because zhe loved my dog and I.
My dog is good to catch a hen,
A duck or goose is vood vor men;
And where good company I spy,
O thether gwoes my dog and I.
My mother told I when I wur young,
If I did vollow the strong beer pwoot,
That drenk would pruv my auverdrow,
And meaak me vear the thread bare cwoart.
My dog has gotten sich a troick,
To visit moids when thoiy be zick;
When thoiy be zick and loik to die,
O, thether gwoes my dog and I.
When I have dree zixpences under my thumb,
O, then I be welcome wherever I keum;
But when I have none, O then I pass by,
'Tis poverty pearts good company.
If I should die as it may hap,
My greauve shall be under the green yeal tap;
In voulded earmes there wool us lie,
Cheek by jowl, my dog and I.
The foregoing is a very famous old Gloucestershire ballad, corrected according to the fragments of a MS. found in the Speech-house of Dean several centuries ago, and used to be sung at the meetings of the Gloucestershire Society, a charitable institution held at the Crown and Anchor in the Strand.
Both these ballads are literally copied from the Broadsides.
H. G. D.
THE CAXTON COFFER.
The biographers of Caxton may be divided into two classes; those who wrote before the publication of the Typographical antiquities, A.D. 1749, and those who wrote after that date. The same distinction may be made with regard to those who have incidentally noticed his life or publications.
The principal writers of the first period are Leland, Bale, Stow, Pits, Fuller, Nicolson, Middleton, Birch, Oldys, Lewis and Tanner. At the present moment, I must content myself with a critical remark on the mode in which Leland has been so often quoted. The first passage contains the expression to which I allude.
(1.) "Gulielmus Caxodunus, Angliæ prototypographus, hæc, aut similia his, Anglice refert" etc.
(2.) "Quanquam priusquam id, quod modo sum pollicitus, præstitero, non alienum meo erit instituto palam facere Gulielmum Caxodunum, hominem nec indiligentem, nec indoctum, et quem constat primum LONDINI artem exercuisse typographicam, Chauceri opera, quotquot vel pretio vel precibus comparare potuit, in unum volumen collegisse."
The incidental expression Angliæ prototypographus has been considered as a proof that Leland discredited the typographical claims of Oxford. The second quotation conveys an opposite notion. I tax no one, however, with unfairness, but ascribe the oversight to reliance on the Index scriptorum à Joanne Lelando laudatorum, which refers only to the first quotation.
BOLTON CORNEY.