Read Ebook: Notes and Queries Number 12 January 19 1850 by Various

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 182 lines and 19344 words, and 4 pages

NOTES:-- Page Passage in Hudibras, by E.F. Rimbault 177 Field of the Brothers' Footsteps 178 Notes on Books and Authors, by Bolton Corney 178 Receipts of the Beggar's Opera 178 Notes on Cunningham's London, by E.F. Rimbault 180 Sewerage in Etruria 180 Andrew Frusius 180 Opinions respecting Burnet 181

QUERIES:-- St. Thomas of Lancaster, by R. Monckton Milnes 181 Shield of the Black Prince, &c. by J.R. Planch? 183 Fraternitye of Vagabondes, &c. 183 The name of Shylock, by M.A. Lower 184 Transposition of Letters, by B. Williams 184 Pictures in Churches 184 Flaying in Punishment of Sacrilege 185 Minor Queries:--Pokership or Parkership--Boduc or Boduoc--Origin of Snob--Mertens the Printer-- Queen's Messengers--Bishop of Ross' Epitaph, &c.-- Origin of Cannibal--Sir W. Rider--Origin of word Poghele, &c. 185

MISCELLANIES--including ANSWERS TO MINOR QUERIES:-- Darkness at the Crucifixion--High Doctrine--Wife of King Robert Bruce--The Talisman of Charlemagne --Sayers the Caricaturist--May-Day--Dr. Dee's Petition --Lines quoted by Goethe--Queen Mary's Expectations --Ken's Hymns--Etymology of Daysman, &c. 186

MISCELLANEOUS:-- Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 189 Books and Odd Volumes wanted 190 Notices to Correspondents 190 Advertisements 191

ORIGIN OF A WELL-KNOWN PASSAGE IN HUDIBRAS.

The often-quoted lines--

"For he that fights and runs away May live to fight another day,"

"For those that fly may fight again, Which he can never do that's slain."

A second edition was printed by John Kingston, in 1564, with no other variation, I believe, than in the orthography. Haslewood, in a note on the fly-leaf of my copy, says:--

"Notwithstanding the fame of Erasmus, and the reputation of his translator, this volume has not obtained that notice which, either from its date or value, might be justly expected. Were its claim only founded on the colloquial notes of Udall, it is entitled to consideration, as therein may be traced several of the familiar phrases and common-place idioms, which have occasioned many conjectural speculations among the annotators upon our early drama."

The work consists of only two books of the original, comprising the apophthegms of Socrates, Aristippus, Diogenes, Philippus, Alexander, Antigonus, Augustus Caesar, Julius Caesar, Pompey, Phocion, Cicero, and Demosthenes.

On folio 239. occurs the following apophthegm, which is the one relating to the subject before us:--

"That same man, that renneth awaie, May again fight, on other daie.

"? Judgeyng that it is more for the benefite of one's countree to renne awaie in battaile, then to lese his life. For a ded man can fight no more; but who hath saved hymself alive, by rennyng awaie, may, in many battailles mo, doe good service to his countree.

"? At lest wise, if it be a poinet of good service, to renne awaie at all times, when the countree hath most neede of his helpe to sticke to it."

Thus we are enabled to throw back more than a century these famous Hudibrastic lines, which have occasioned so many inquiries for their origin.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

FIELD OF THE BROTHERS' FOOTSTEPS.

Mr. Southey then goes on the speak of his full confidence in the tradition of their indestructibility, even after ploughing up, and of the conclusions to be drawn from the circumstance.

To this long note, I beg to append a query, as to the latest account of these footsteps, previous to the ground being built over, as it evidently now must be.

G.H.B.

"SONNET.

I venture to add the titles of two interesting volumes which have been printed subsequently to the publications of Lowndes and Martin. It may be a useful hint to students and collectors:--

BOLTON CORNEY.

RECEIPTS TO THE BEGGAR'S OPERA ON ITS PRODUCTION.

? s. d. Night 1 - - - 169 12 0 2 - - - 160 14 0 3 - - - 162 12 6 4 - - - 163 5 6 5 - - - 175 19 6 6 - - - 189 11 0 7 - - - 161 19 0 8 - - - 157 19 6 9 - - - 165 12 0 10 - - - 156 8 0 11 - - - 171 10 0 12 - - - 170 5 6 13 - - - 164 8 0 14 - - - 171 5 0 15 - - - 175 18 0 16 - - - 160 11 0 17 - - - 171 8 6 18 - - - 163 16 6 19 - - - 158 19 0 20 - - - 170 9 6 21 - - - 163 14 6 22 - - - 163 17 6 23 - - - 179 8 6 24 - - - 161 7 0 25 - - - 169 3 6 26 - - - 163 18 6 27 - - - 168 4 6 28 - - - 153 3 6 29 - - - 165 2 6 30 - - - 152 8 6 31 - - - 183 4 0 32 - - - 185 8 6

Therefore, when the run was interrupted, the attraction of the opera was greater than it had been on any previous night, excepting the 6th, which was one of those set apart for the remuneration of the author, when the receipt was 189l. 11s. The total sum realised by the 32 successive performances was 5351l. 15s., of which, as we have already shown, Gay obtained 693l. 13s 6d. To him it was all clear profit; but from the sum obtained by Rich are, of course, to be deducted the expenses of the company, lights, house-rent, &c.

DRAMATICUS.

NOTES UPON CUNNINGHAM'S HANDBOOK FOR LONDON.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

SEWERAGE IN ETRURIA.

The ancient population appears, moreover, to have been located in circumstances not by any means favourable to the health of the people. Those cities surrounded by high walls, and entered by singularly small gateways, must have been very badly ventilated, and very unfavourable to health; and yet it is not reasonable to suppose they could have been so unhealthy then as the author describes the country at present to be. It is hardly possible to imagine so great a people as the Etruscans, the wretched fever-stricken objects the present inhabitants of the Maremna are described to be.

To what, then, can this great difference be ascribed? The Etruscans appear to have taken very great pains with the drainage of their cities; on many sites the cloaca are the only remains of their former industry and greatness which remain. They were also careful to bury their dead outside their city walls; and it is, no doubt, to these two circumstances, principally, that their increase and greatness, as a people, are to be ascribed. But why do not the present inhabitants avail themselves of the same means to health? Is it that they are idle, or are they too broken spirited and poverty-stricken to unite in any public work? Or has the climate changed?

Perhaps it was owing to some defect in their civil polity that the ancients were comparatively so easily put down by the Roman power, which might have been the superior civilisation. Possibly the great majority of the people may have been dissatisfied with their rulers, and gladly removed to another place and another form of government. It is even possible, and indeed likely, that these great public works may have been carried on by the forced labour of the poorest and, consequently, the most numerous class of the population, and that, consequently, they had no particular tie to their native city, as being only a hardship to them; and they may even have had a dislike to sewers in themselves, as reminding them of their bondage, and which dislike their descendants have inherited, and for which they are now suffering. At any rate, it is an instructive example to our present citizens of the value of drainage and sanitary arrangements, and shows that the importance of these things was recognised and appreciated in the earliest times.

C.P.F.

EDW. VENTRIS. Cambridge, Jan. 10. 1850.

Duthilloeul, according to Mr. Bruce, says 251.

OPINIONS RESPECTING BURNET

T. Bath.

QUERIES

SAINT THOMAS OF LANCASTER.

Sir,--I am desirous of information respecting the religious veneration paid to the memory of Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, cousin-german to King Edward the Second. He was taken in open rebellion against the King on the 16th of March, 1322, condemned by a court-martial, and executed, with circumstances of great indignity, on the rising ground above the castle of Pomfret, which at the time was in his possession. His body was probably given to the monks of the adjacent priory; and soon after his death miracles were said to be performed at his tomb, and at the place of execution; a curious record of which is preserved in the library of Corpus Christi College, at Cambridge, and introduced by Brady into his history of the period. About the same time, a picture or image of him seems to have been exhibited in St. Paul's Church, in London, and to have been the object of many offerings. A special proclamation was issued, denouncing this veneration of the memory of a traitor, and threatening punishment on those who encouraged it; and a statement is given by Brady of the opinions of an ecclesiastic, who thought it very doubtful how far this devotion should be encouraged by the Church, the Earl of Lancaster, besides his political offences, having been a notorious evil-liver.

As soon, however, as the King's party was subdued, and the unhappy sovereign, whose acts and habits had excited so much animosity, cruelly put to death, we find not only the political character of the Earl of Lancaster vindicated, his attainder reversed, his estates restored to his family, and his adherents re-established in all their rights and liberties, but within five weeks of the accession of Edward the Third, a special mission was sent to the Pope from the King, imploring the appointment of a commission to institute the proper canonical investigation for his admission into the family of saints. His character and his cause are described, in florid language, as having been those of a Christian hero; and the numberless miracles wrought in his name, and the confluence of pilgrims to his tomb, are presumed to justify his invocation.

In June of the same year , a "king's letter" is given to Robert de Weryngton, authorising him and his agents to collect alms throughout the kingdom for the purpose of building a chapel on the hill where the Earl was beheaded, and praying all prelates and authorities to give him aid and heed. This sanction gave rise to imposture; and in December a proclamation appeared, ordering the arrest and punishment of unauthorised persons collecting money under this pretence, and taking it for their own use.

In 1330, the same clerical personages were sent again to the Pope, to advance the affair of the canonization of the Earl, and were bearers of letters on the same subject from the King to five of the cardinals, all urging the attention of the Papal court to a subject that so much interested the Church and people of England.

It would seem, however, that some powerful opposition to this request was at work at the Roman see. For in the April of the following year another commission, composed of a professor of theology, a military personage, and a magistrate of the name of John de Newton, was sent with letters to the Pope, to nine cardinals, to the referendary of the Papal court, and to three nephews of his Holiness, entreating them not to give ear to the invectives of malignant men , who here asserted that the Earl of Lancaster consented to, or connived at, some injury or insult offered to certain cardinals at Durham in the late king's reign. So far from this being true, the letters assert that the earl defended these prelates to the utmost of his power, protected them from enemies who had designs on their lives, and placed them in security at his own great peril. The main point of the canonization is again urged, and allusion made to former repeated supplications, and the sacred promise, "Knock, and it shall be opened unto you," appealed to. The vindication of the Earl from the malicious charge against him is omitted in the letters to two of the cardinals and the lay personages. Were these the two cardinals who fancied themselves injured?

Five hundred years after the execution of the Earl of Lancaster, a large stone coffin, massive and roughly hewn, was found in a field that belonged of old to the Priory of Pomfret, but at least a quarter of a mile distant from the hill where the chapel stood. Within was the skeleton of a full-grown man, partially preserved; the skull lay between the thighs. There is no record of the decapitation of any person at Pomfret of sufficient dignity to have been interred in a manner showing so much care for the preservation of the body, except the Earl of Lancaster. The coffin may have been removed here at the time the opposite party forbade its veneration, from motives of precaution for its safety.

Now, I shall be much obliged for information on the following points:--

Is any thing known, beyond what I have stated, as to the communications with Rome on the subject of his canonization, or as to the means by which he was permitted by the English church to become a fit object for invocation and veneration?

Are any anecdotes or circumstances recorded, respecting the worship of this saint in later times, than I have referred to?

What is the historic probability that the stone coffin, discovered in 1822, contained the remains of this remarkable man?

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet