Notes and Queries, Number 46, Saturday, September 14, 1850 written by Various
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Various >> Notes and Queries, Number 46, Saturday, September 14, 1850
NOTES AND QUERIES:
A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES,
GENEALOGISTS, ETC.
* * * * *
"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.
* * * * *
No. 46.] SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1850 [Price Threepence. Stamped Edition
4d.
* * * * * {241}
CONTENTS.
NOTES:--Page
The Meaning of "Risell" in Hamlet, by S.W. Singer. 241
Authors of the Rolliad. 242
Notes and Queries. 242
The Body of James II., by Pitman Jones. 243
Folk Lore:--Legend of Sir Richard Baker--Prophetic
Spring at Langley, Kent. 244
Minor Notes:--Poem by Malherbe--Travels of Two
English Pilgrims. 245
QUERIES:--
Quotations in Bishop Andrewes, by Rev. James Bliss. 245
Minor Queries:--Spider and Fly--Lexicon of Types--Montaigue's
Select Essays--Custom of wearing the Breast uncovered--Milton's
Lycidas--Sitting during the Lessons--Blew-Beer--Carpatio--Value of
Money--Bishop Berkeley, and Adventures of Gaudeatio
di Lucca--Cupid and Psyche--Zund-nadel Guns--Bacon
Family--Armorials--Artephius--Sir Robert Howard--Crozier
and Pastoral Staff--Marks of Cadency--Miniature Gibbet. 245
REPLIES:--
Collar of S.S. by Rev. H.T. Ellacombe and J. Gough
Nichols. 248
Sir Gregory Norton. 250
Shakspeare's Word "Delighted," by Rev. Dr. Kennedy. 250
Aerostation, by Henry Wilkinson. 251
Replies to Minor Queries:--Long Lonkin--Rowley
Powley--Guy's Armour--Alarm--Prelates of
France--Haberdasher--"Rapido contrarius orbi"--Robertson
of Muirtown--"Noli me tangere"--Clergy sold
for Slaves--North Side of Churchyards--Sir John
Perrot--Coins of Constantius II.--She ne'er with
treacherous Kiss--California--Bishops and their
Precedence--Elizabeth and Isabel--Bever's Legal
Polity--Rikon Basilike, &c. 251
MISCELLANEOUS:--
Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 255
Notices to Correspondents. 255
Advertisements. 256
* * * * *
NOTES.
THE MEANING OF "DRINK UP EISELL" IN HAMLET.
Few passages have been more discussed than this wild challenge of Hamlet
to Laertes at the grave of Ophelia:
"Ham. I lov'd Ophelia! forty thousand brothers
Could not, with all their quantity of love,
Make up my sum. What wilt thou do for her?
--Zounds! show me what thou'lt do?
Woo't weep? Woo't fight? Woo't fast? Woo't tear
thyself?
_Woo't drink up Eisell?_ eat a crocodile?
I'll do't".
The sum of what has been said may be given in the words of Archdeacon
Nares:
"There is no doubt that eisell meant vinegar, nor even that
Shakspeare has used it in that sense; but in this passage it
seems that it must be put for the name of a Danish river.... The
question was much disputed between Messrs. Steevens and Malone:
the former being for the river, the latter for the vinegar; and
he endeavored even to get over the drink up, which stood much in
his way. But after all, the challenge to drink vinegar, in such
a rant, is so inconsistent, and even ridiculous, that we must
decide for the river, whether its name be exactly found or not.
To drink up a river, and eat a crocodile with his impenetrable
scales, are two things equally impossible. There is no kind of
comparison between the others."
I must confess that I was formerly led to adopt this view of the
passage, but on more mature investigation I find that it is wrong. I see
no necessary connection between eating a crocodile and drinking up
eysell; and to drink up was commonly used for simply to drink. Eisell or
Eysell certainly signified vinegar, but it was certainly not used in
that sense by Shakspeare, who may in this instance be his own expositor;
the word occurring again in his CXIth sonnet.
"Whilst, like a willing patient, I will drink
Potions of eysell, 'gainst my strong infection;
No bitterness that I will bitter think,
Nor double penance, to correct correction."
Here we see that it was a bitter potion which it was a penance to drink.
Thus also in the Troy Book of Lydgate:
"Of bitter eysell, and of eager wine."
Now numerous passages in our old dramatic writers show that it was a
fashion with the gallants of the time to do some extravagant feat, as a
proof of their love, in honour of their mistresses; and among others the
swallowing some nauseous potion was one of the most frequent; but
vinegar would hardly have been considered in this light; wormwood might.
In Thomas's Italian Dictionary, 1562, we have "Assentio, Eysell" and
Florio renders that word by vinegar. What is meant, however, is
Absinthites or Wormwood wine, a nauseously bitter medicament then much
in use; and this being evidently {242} the _bitter potion of Eysell_ in
the poet's sonnet, was certainly the nauseous draught proposed to be
taken by Hamlet among the other extravagant feats as tokens of love. The
following extracts will show that in the poet's age this nauseous bitter
potion was in frequent use medicinally.
"ABSINTHIUM, [Greek: apsinthion, aspinthion], Comicis, ab
insigni amarore quo bibeates illud aversantur."-_Junius,
Nomenclator ap. Nicot_.
"ABSINTHITES, _wormwood wine_.--_Hutton's Dict_.
"Hujus modi autem propomatum _hodie_ apud Christianos quoque
_maximus est et frequentissimus usus_, quibus potatores maximi
ceu proemiis quibusdam atque praeludiis utuntur, ad dirum illud
suum propinandi certamen. _Ae maxime quidem commune est proponia
absynthites_, quod vim habet stomachum corroborandi et
extenuandi, expellendique excrementa quae in eo continentur. Hoc
fere propomate potatores hodie maxime ab initio coenae utuntur
ceu pharmaco cum hesternae, atque praeteritae, tum futurae
ebrietatis, atque crapulae.... _amarissimae sunt potiones
medicatae_, quibus tandem stomachi cruditates immoderato cibo
potuque collectas expurgundi cause uti coguntur."--Stuckius,
_Antiquitatae Corviralium. Tiguri_, 1582, fol. 327.
Of the two latest editors, Mr. Knight decides for the _river_, and Mr.
Collier does not decide at all. Our northern neighbours think us almost
as much deficient in philological illustration as in enlarged
philosophical criticism on the poet, in which they claim to have shown
us the way.
S.W. SINGER.
Mickleham, Aug. 1850.
* * * * *
AUTHORS OF THE ROLLIAD.
To the list of subjects and authors in this unrivalled volume,
communicated by LORD BRAYBROOKE (Vol. ii., p. 194.), I would add that
No. XXI. _Probationary Odes_ (which is unmarked in the Sunning-hill Park
copy) was written by Dr. Laurence: so also were Nos. XIII. and XIV., of
which LORD BRAYBROOKE speaks doubtfully. My authority is the note in the
correspondence of Burke and Laurence published in 1827, page 21. The
other names all agree with my own copy, marked by the late Mr. A.
Chalmers.
In order to render the account of the work complete, I would add the
following list of writers of the _Political Miscellanies_. Those marked
with an asterisk are said "not to be from the club:"--
"* Probationary Ode Extraordinary, by Mason.
The Statesmen, an Eclogue. Read.
Rondeau to the Right Honourable W. Eden. Dr. Laurence.
Epigrams from the Club. Miscellaneous.
The Delavaliad. Dr. Laurence.
This is the House that George built. Richardson.
Epigrams by Sir Cecil Wray. Tickell and Richardson.
Lord Graham's Diary, not marked.
* Extracts from 2nd Vol. of Lord Mulgrave's Essays.
* Anecdotes of Mr. Pitt.
Letter from a New Member.
* Political Receipt Book, &c.
* Hints from Dr. Pretyman.
A tale 'at Brookes's once,' &c. Richardson.
Dialogue 'Donec Gratus eram Tibi.' Lord J. Townshend.
Pretymaniana, principally by Tickell and Richardson.
Foreign Epigrams, the same and Dr. Laurence.
* Advertisement Extraordinary.
Vive le Scrutiny. Bate Dudley.
* Paragraph Office, Ivy Lane.
* Pitt and Pinetti.
* New Abstract of the Budget for 1784.
Theatrical Intelligence Extraordinary. Richardson.
The Westminster Guide (unknown). Part II. (unknown).
Inscription for the Duke of Richmond's Bust (unknown).
Epigram, 'Who shall expect,' &c. Richardson.
A New Ballad, 'Billy Eden.' Tickell and Richardson.
Epigrams on Sir Elijah Impey, and by Mr. Wilberforce (unknown).
A Proclamation, by Richardson.
* Original Letter to Corbett.
* Congratulatory Ode to Right Hon. C. Jenkinson.
* Ode to Sir Elijah Impey.
* Song.
* A New Song, 'Billy's Budget.'
* Epigrams.
* Ministerial Undoubted Facts (unknown).
Journal of the Right Hon. Hen. Dundas. From the Club.
Miscellaneous.
Incantation. Fitzpatrick.
Translations of Lord Belgrave's Quotations. From the Club.
Miscellaneous."
Some of these minor contributions were from the pen of O'Beirne,
afterwards Bishop of Meath.
Tickell should be joined with Lord John Townshend in "Jekyll." The
former contributed the lines parodied from Pope.
In reply to LORD BRAYBROOKE'S Query, Moore, in his _Life of Sheridan_,
speaks of Lord John Townshend as the only survivor of "this confederacy
of wits:" so that, if he is correct, the author of "Margaret Nicholson"
(Adair) cannot be now living.
J.H.M.
Bath.
* * * * *
NOTES AND QUERIES.
"There is nothing new under the sun," quoth the Preacher; and such must
be said of "NOTES AND QUERIES." Your contributor M. (Vol. ii, p. 194.)
has drawn attention to the _Weekly Oracle_, which in 1736 gave forth its
responses to the inquiring public; but, as he intimates, many similar
periodicals might be instanced. Thus, we have _Memoirs for the
Ingenious_, 1693, 4to., edited by I. de la Crose; _Memoirs for the
Curious_, 1701, 4to.; _The Athenian Oracle_, 1704, 8vo.; _The Delphick
Oracle_, {243} 1720, 8vo.; _The British Apollo_, 1740, 12mo.; with
several others of less note. The three last quoted answer many singular
questions in theology, law, medicine, physics, natural history, popular
superstitions, &c., not always very satisfactorily or very
intelligently, but still, often amusingly and ingeniously. _The British
Apollo: containing two thousand Answers to curious Questions in most
Arts and Sciences, serious, comical, and humourous_, the fourth edition
of which I have now before me, indulges in answering such questions as
these: "How old was Adam when Eve was created?--Is it lawful to eat
black pudding?--Whether the moon in Ireland is like the moon in England?
Where is hell situated? Do cocks lay eggs?" &c. In answer to the
question, "Why is gaping catching?" the Querists of 1740 are gravely
told,--
"Gaping or yawning is infectious, because the steams of the
blood being ejected out of the mouth, doth infect the ambient
air, which being received by the nostrils into another man's
mouth, doth irritate the fibres of the hypogastric muscle to
open the mouth to discharge by expiration the unfortunate gust
of air infected with the steams of blood, as aforesaid."
The feminine gender, we are further told, is attributed to a ship,
"because a ship carries burdens, and therefore resembles a pregnant
woman."
But as the faith of 1850 in _The British Apollo_, with its two thousand
answers, may not be equal to the faith of 1740, what dependence are we
to place in the origin it attributes to two very common words, a _bull_,
and a _dun_?--
"Why, when people speak improperly, is it termed a bull?--It
became a proverb from the repeated blunders of one _Obadiah
Bull_, a lawyer of London, who lived in the reign of King Henry
VII."
Now for the second,--
"Pray tell me whence you can derive the original of the word
_dun_? Some falsely think it comes from the French, where
_donnez_ signifies _give me_, implying a demand of something
due; but the true original of this expression owes its birth to
one _Joe Dun_, a famous bailiff of the town of Lincoln, so
extremely active, and so dexterous at the management of his
rough business, that it became a proverb, when a man refused to
pay his debts, 'Why don't you _Dun_ him?' that is, why don't you
send Dun to arrest him? Hence it grew a custom, and is now as
old as since the days of Henry VII."
Were these twin worthies, Obadiah Bull the lawyer, and Joe Dun the
bailiff, men of straw for the nonce, or veritable flesh and blood? They
both flourished, it appears, in the reign of Henry VII.; and to me it is
doubtful whether one reign could have produced two worthies capable of
cutting so deep a notch in the English tongue.
"To dine with Duke Humphrey," we are told, arose from the practice of
those who had shared his dainties when alive being in the habit of
perambulating St. Paul's, where he was buried, at the dining time of
day; what dinner they then had, they had with Duke Humphrey the defunct.
Your contributor MR. CUNNINGHAM will be able to decide as to the value
of the origin of Tyburn here given to us:
"As to the antiquity of Tyburn, it is no older than the year
1529; before that time, the place of execution was in _Rotten
Row_ in _Old Street_. As for the etymology of the word _Tyburn_,
some will have it proceed from the words _tye_ and _burn_,
alluding to the manner of executing traitors at that place;
others believe it took its name from a small river or brook once
running near it, and called by the Romans Tyburnia. Whether the
first or second is the truest, the querist may judge as he
thinks fit."
And so say I.
A readable volume might be compiled from these "NOTES AND QUERIES,"
which amused our grandfathers; and the works I have indicated will
afford much curious matter in etymology, folk-lore, topography, &c., to
the modern antiquary.
CORKSCREW.
* * * * *
JAMES THE SECOND, HIS REMAINS.
The following curious account was given to me by Mr. Fitz-Simons, an
Irish gentleman, upwards of eighty years of age, with whom I became
acquainted when resident with my family at Toulouse, in September, 1840;
he having resided in that city for many years as a teacher of the French
and English languages, and had attended the late Sir William Follett in
the former capacity there in 1817. He said,--
"I was a prisoner in Paris, in the convent of the English
Benedictines in the Rue St. Jaques, during part of the
revolution. In the year 1793 or 1794, the body of King James II.
of England was in one of the chapels there, where it had been
deposited some time, under the expectation that it would one day
be sent to England for interment in Westminster Abbey. It had
never been buried. The body was in a wooden coffin, inclosed in
a leaden one; and that again inclosed in a second wooden one,
covered with black velvet. That while I was so a prisoner, the
sans-culottes broke open the coffins to get at the lead to cast
into bullets. The body lay exposed nearly a whole day. It was
swaddled like a mummy, bound tight with garters. The
sans-culottes took out the body, which had been embalmed. There
was a strong smell of vinegar and camphor. The corpse was
beautiful and perfect. The hands and nails were very fine, I
moved and bent every finger. I never saw so fine a set of teeth
in my life. A young lady, a fellow prisoner, wished much to have
a tooth; I tried to get one out for her, but could not, they
were so firmly fixed. The feet also were very beautiful. The
face and cheeks were just as if he were alive. I rolled his
eyes: the eye-balls were perfectly firm under my finger. The
French and English prisoners {244} gave money to the
sans-culottes for showing the body. They said he was a good
sans-culotte, and they were going to put him into a hole in the
public churchyard like other sand-culottes; and he was carried
away, but where the body was thrown I never heard. King George
IV. tried all in his power to get tidings of the body, but could
not. Around the chapel were several wax moulds of the face hung
up, made probably at the time of the king's death, and the
corpse was very like them. The body had been originally kept at
the palace of St. Germain, from whence it was brought to the
convent of the Benedictines. Mr. Porter, the prior, was a
prisoner at the time in his own convent."
The above I took down from Mr. Fitz-Simons' own mouth, and read it to
him, and he said it was perfectly correct. Sir W. Follett told me he
thought Mr. Fitz-Simons was a runaway Vinegar Hill boy. He told me that
he was a monk.
PITMAN JONES.
Exeter, Aug. 1850.
* * * * *
FOLK LORE.
_The Legend of Sir Richard Baker_ (vol. ii., p. 67.).--Will F.L. copy
the inscription on the monument in Cranbrook Church? The dates on it
will test the veracity of the legend. In the reign of Queen Mary, the
representative of the family was Sir John Baker, who in that, and the
previous reigns of Edward VI. and Henry VIII., had held some of the
highest offices in the kingdom. He had been Recorder of London, Speaker
of the House of Commons, Attorney-General and Chancellor of the
Exchequer, and died in the first year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth.
His son, Sir Richard Baker, was twice high-sheriff of the county of
Kent, and had the honour of entertaining Queen Elizabeth in her progress
through the county. This was, most likely, the person whose monument
F.L. saw in Cranbrook Church. The family had been settled there from the
time of Edward III., and seem to have been adding continually to their
possessions; and at the time mentioned by F.L. as that of their decline,
namely, in the reign of Edward VI., they were in reality increasing in
wealth and dignities. If the Sir Richard Baker whose monument is
referred to by F.L. was the son of the Sir John above mentioned, the
circumstances of his life disprove the legend. He was not the sole
representative of the family remaining at the accession of Queen Mary.
His father was then living, and at the death of his father his brother
John divided with him the representation of the family, and had many
descendants. The family estates were not dissipated; on the contrary,
they were handed down through successive generations, to one of whom, a
grandson of Sir Richard, the dignity of a baronet was given; and
Sivinghurst, which was the family seat, was in the possession of the
third and last baronet's grandson, E.S. Beagham, in the year 1730. Add
to this that the Sir Richard Baker in question was twice married, and
that a monumental erection of the costly and honourable description
mentioned by F.L. was allowed to be placed to his memory in the chancel
of the church of the parish in which such Bluebeard atrocities are said
to have been committed, and abundant grounds will thence appear for
rejecting the truth of the legend in the absence of all evidence. The
unfortunately red colour of the gloves most likely gave rise to the
story. Nor is this a solitary instance of such a legend having such an
origin. In the beautiful parish church of Aston, in Warwickshire, are
many memorials of the Baronet family of Holt, who owned the adjoining
domain and hall, the latter of which still remains, a magnificent
specimen of Elizabethan architecture. Either in one of the compartments
of a painted window of the church, or upon a monumental marble to one of
the Holts, is the Ulster badge, as showing the rank of the deceased, and
painted red. From the colour of the badge, a legend of the bloody hand
has been created as marvellous as that of the Bloody Baker, so fully
detailed by F.L.
ST. JOHNS.
[Will our correspondent favour us by communicating the Aston Legend of
the Holt Family to which he refers?]
_Langley, Kent, Prophetic Spring at._--The following "note" upon a
passage in _Warkworth's Chronicle_ (pp. 23, 24.) may perhaps possess
sufficient interest to warrant its insertion in your valuable little
publication. The passage is curious, not only as showing the
superstitious dread with which a simple natural phenomenon was regarded
by educated and intelligent men four centuries ago, but also as
affording evidence of the accurate observation of a writer, whose
labours have shed considerable light upon "one of the darkest periods in
our annals." The chronicler is recording the occurrence, in the
thirteenth year of Edward the Fourth, of a "gret hote somere," which
caused much mortality, and "unyversalle fevers, axes, and the blody flyx
in dyverse places of Englonde," and also occasioned great dearth and
famine "in the southe partyes of the worlde."
He then remarks that "dyverse tokenes have be schewede in Englonde this
year for amendynge of mannys lyvynge," and proceeds to enumerate several
springs or waters in various places, which only ran at intervals, and by
their running always portended "derthe, pestylence, or grete batayle."
After mentioning several of these, he adds--
"Also ther is a pytte in Kent in Langley Parke: ayens any
batayle he wille be drye, and it rayne neveyre so myche; and if
ther be no batayle toward, he wille be fulle of watere, be it
neveyre so drye a wethyre; and this yere he is drye."
Langley Park, situated in a parish of the same {245} name, about four
miles to the south-east of Maidstone, and once the residence of the
Leybournes and other families, well-known in Kentish history, has long
existed only in name, having been disparked prior to 1570; but the
"pytte," or stream, whose wondrous qualities are so quaintly described
by Warkworth, still flows at intervals. It is scarcely necessary to add,
that it belongs to the class known as _intermitting springs_, the
phenomena displayed by which are easily explained by the syphon-like
construction of the natural reservoirs whence they are supplied.
I have never heard that any remnant of this curious superstition can now
be traced in the neighbourhood, but persons long acquainted with the
spot have told me that the state of the stream was formerly looked upon
as a good index of the probable future price of corn. The same causes,
which regulated the supply or deficiency of water, would doubtless also
affect the fertility of the soil.
EDWARD R.J. HOWE.
Chancery Lane, Aug. 1850.
* * * * *
MINOR NOTES.
_Poem by Malherbe_ (Vol. ii., p. 104.).--Possibly your correspondent MR.
SINGER may not be aware of the fact that the beauty of the fourth stanza
of Malherbe's Ode on the Death of Rosette Duperrier is owing to a
typographical error. The poet had written in his MS.--
"Et Rosette a vecu ce que vivent les roses," &c.,
omitting to cross his _t_'s, which the compositor took for _l_'s, and
set up _Roselle_. On receiving the proof-sheet, at the passage in
question a sudden light burst upon Malherbe; of _Roselle_ he made two
words, and put in two beautiful lines--
"Et Rose, elle a vecu ce que vivent les roses,
L'espace d'un matin."
(See _Francais peints par eux-memes_, vol. ii. p. 270.)
P.S. KING.
Kennington.
_Travels of Two English Pilgrims._--
"A True and Strange Discourse of the Travailes of Two English
Pilgrimes: what admirable Accidents befell them in their Journey
to Jerusalem, Gaza, Grand Cayro, Alexandria, and other places.
Also, what rare Antiquities, Monuments, and notable Memories
(concording with the Ancient Remembrances in the Holy
Scriptures), they sawe in the Terra Sancta; with a perfect
Description of the Old and New Jerusalem, and Situation of the
Countries about them. A Discourse of no lesse Admiration, then
well worth the regarding: written by one of them on the behalfe
of himselfe and his fellowe Pilgrime. Imprinted at London for
Thomas Archer, and are to be solde at his Shoppe, by the Royall
Exchange. 1603."
A copy of this 4to. tract, formerly in the hands of Francis Meres, the
author of _Wit's Commonwealth_, has the following MS. note:--
"Timberley, dwellinge on Tower Hill, a maister of a ship, made
this booke, as Mr. Anthony Mundye tould me. Thomas, at Mrs.
Gosson's, sent my wyfe this booke for a token, February 15. A.D.
1602."
P.B.
* * * * *
QUERIES.
QUOTATIONS IN BISHOP ANDREWES' TORTURA TORTI.
Can any of your contributors help me to ascertain the following
quotations which occur in Bishop Andrewes' _Tortura Torti_?
P. 49.:
"Si clavem potestatis non praecedat clavis discretionis."
P. 58.:
"Dispensationes nihil aliud esse quam legum vulnera."
P. 58.:
"Non dispensatio est, sed dissipatio."
This, though not marked as a quotation, is, I believe,
in _S. Bernard_.
P. 183.:
"Et quae de septem totum circumspicit orbem Montibus, imperii
Roma Deumque locus."
P. 225.:
"Nemo pius, qui pietatem cavet."
P. 185.:
"Minutuli et patellares Dei."
I should also be glad to ascertain whence the following passages are
derived, which he quotes in his _Responsio ad Apologiam_?