Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

as entertaining. The volume is a goodly 12mo. of 269 pages, and its full title is as follows:

"The Law and Lawyers laid Open, in Twelve Visions. To which is added, Plain Truth, in Three Dialogues between Truman, Skinall, Dryboots, three Attorneys, and Season, a Bencher. London, 1737."

It is dedicated to Lord Hardwicke, Chief Justice of the King's Bench, and the Visions carry the author to the judgment-seat of Minos, acus, and Rhadamanthus, before whom are brought lawyers of all degrees, and their deeds in the flesh canvassed. Out of the thousands that appear, comprehending judges, serjeants, barristers, attornies, solicitors, and bailiffs, the author shows his charity by not recording the acquittal of more than one attorney and two barristers; a result which leaves but little hope for us, the members of the profession at the present day.

Without discussing the fairness of his verdict, it is evident that the author, in many of his pictures, has represented real portraits, though distorted in the painting. My question therefore is, whether any of your correspondents, who know the book, can identify any of the persons? and tell who is the writer that thus defiles his own nest? CAUSIDICUS. Howell's Familiar Letters; Cabala, or Mysteries of State; Scrinia Sacra, a Supplement of the Cabala. Can any correspondent of "N. & Q." impart information respecting the authors, or rather compilers, of these volumes, and suggest from what sources the letters were derived? S. M. S.

Gipsey Surnames. — Permit me through your pages to inquire whether the surnames adopted by various gipsey clans have passed under Mr. Lower's attention? At p. 165. of Hoyland's work on the gipsies, he states from reports received in answer to his inquiries through various counties:

"The most common names among the gipsies are Smith, Cooper, Draper, Taylor, Bosswel, Lee, Lovell, Loversedge, Allen, Mansfield, Glover, Williams, Carew, Martin, Stanley, Buckley, Plunkett, Corrie."

It seems an interesting inquiry how, and when, these names, some of them associated with our noble familjes, were adopted by this peculiar race. It has been considered such originally designated the various clans or bodies frequenting the estates

of individuals of these names.

S. M. S.

Madame de la Motte. — Madame de la Motte, who was implicated in the "affaire du Collier," lived for a long time in London, and was killed by a fall out of a window in trying to escape an arrest for debt. Can any of your readers inform me 1. In what street she lived and died? 2. What has become of her papers? 3. The titles of some works giving particulars about her? I have her Mémoires and her life written by herself. She died Aug. 23, 1791. HENRI VAN LAUN.

King William's College, Isle of Man.

[blocks in formation]

"This curious and invaluable MS. contains an account of every book or tract that has been discovered relative to Ireland, printed or otherwise; also a variety of matter on ecclesiastical affairs, and the ancient records; it is all in eight years, and he was adding to it to the last. It is the General's handwriting, engaged him constantly for alphabetically arranged, and through it is a vast deal of Irish, where necessary. It is one of the most valuable MSS. on Irish affairs extant.”

At the sale this work was bought by the Secretary to the Commissioners of Public Records, for the use of the Board, at an outlay of 1137. 15s. Has it ever been printed? M. C.

Heir of John Baliol. - Blackstone, in his Commentaries (vol. i. p. 208.), observes that King James I. "united in his person every possible claim by hereditary right to the English as well as Scottish throne, being the heir both of Egbert and William the Conqueror." I apprehend this is laid down far too broadly; for, however true it may be that James was the heir of William the Conqueror, it would be hard to show that James's ancestor, Robert Bruce, had a better title than John Baliol, Bruce's competitor for the Scottish throne, to be considered the heir of Egbert. Can any of your readers point out who would be entitled to claim as Baliol's representative, if the right of succession were an open question at the present day? R. S.

Siege of Basing House.-The following statement occurs in Peters' Letter to the Parliament relating the taking of Basing House by Cromwell. The letter is quoted in Sprigg's England's

Recovery :

[blocks in formation]

new Royal Exchange, was built mainly at the charge of Thomas Pike, Sheriff of London, in 1410, whose ancestor, Nicolas Pike, was sheriff in 1332. Can any of your readers, having access to the corporation records, state of what City company they were freemen, and from what county they came? ARCHITECT.

English Clay Pipes.—Searching through the back volumes of "N. & Q." for information upon early English clay pipes, I find MR. W. J. B. SMITH'S communication (1st S. ix. 546.) to have proved the induction of a host of others, not upon the articles to which he called attention, but to the practice of smoking. As, however, I believe your valuable periodical circulates among many who have collected the utensils themselves, I wish to inquire whether nothing more has been elicited relative to the Hunt family? no less than three members of which would appear to have been among our earliest national pipe-makers. Their names, although apparently most frequent upon pipes in the south-west of England, are occasionally found in far-distant places, and the occurrence of such in Ireland seems to point to their importation into that country nearly three centuries ago. Any of your readers furnishing me with a list of pipepotters' names (or initials, where such only occur) upon pipes met with in their localities, or in public collections, will be welcome to my own in return. H. ECROYD SMITH,

Belle Vue, Claughton, Birkenhead. Armorial Query.—I have a small silver escutcheon on the top of an old box, which, if correctly engraved, stands thus: Argent, a chevron g. between 3 fleurs-de-lys (2 and 1) of the second. Crest. A griffin passant. Motto. "Dieu mon port." I cannot find the coat amongst the list of those containing fleurs-de-lys in " N. & Q." I should be very glad to know to whom it belongs.

C. W. BINGHAM.

[blocks in formation]

Rev. H. F. Lyte.-Could you oblige me with some account of the Rev. H. F. Lyte, who edited the Poems of Henry Vaughan? What are the titles of Mr. Lyte's poetical works, published and unpublished? His Life and Remains were published in 1850. R. INGLIS.

[Henry Francis Lyte was born at Kelso on June 1, 1793, and entered Trinity College, Dublin, in 1812, where obtained the curacy of Taghinon in Ireland; but subsehe obtained a scholarship. In 1815 he took orders, and quently removed to the more genial clime of South Devon, where he held for a year or two the curacy of Charlton, near Kingsbridge, which eventually led him to take charge of the new church at Lower Brixham. His biographer informs us, that "during the hours spent in his extensive library, the formation of which had been for years his favourite recreation, he had made a large acquaintance with the writings of the Fathers, and the earlier divines of the Anglican Church; having, by his wide bibliographical research, enriched his stores with most of the best editions of the Fathers, and also accumulated a rare and valuable collection of the works of the Nonjurors, for whose quaint, severe, yet simple style, he possessed a peculiar relish, and had, at one time, partially prepared for publication a new edition of their writings, with a history of their chief men and their times." Mr. Lyte died at Nice on the 20th Nov. 1847, and a simple marks the last earthly resting-place of this amiable and marble cross in the English cemetery at that place fitly gifted man. In 1833 Mr. Lyte published a volume of Poems, chiefly Religious, 8vo. His Remains consist of a Prefatory Memoir, Poems, Early Poems, and Sermons. His extensive library was sold by Southgate and Barrett in July, 1849.]

Cawood's New Testament. — I shall feel obliged by a short collation of the New Testament titlepage of the 1569, 4to. Bible, Cranmer's edition, J. S. M. printed by J. Cawood.

[I have two editions of Cranmer's Bible printed by J. Cawood, small pot 4to., 1569. One ends on folio 132.

The ende of the newe Testament, with a large wood

cut on the reverse - the other on the same folio, but numbered in error 128. The ende of the new Testamente within a border, with the same woodcut on the reverse, followed by two leaves of table on the reverse of the second leaf, "Imprinted at London in Powles Churchyarde by Jhon Cawood, Printer to the Quenes Maiestie," within a border. The title-page to the New Testament is exactly the same in each, and somewhat difficult to describe. It is in a square tablet, sitting on which there is a young angel on the left with a trumpet, and on the right another reading. In the centre, "The newe Testament in English, tran-slated after the Greeke,- conteyning these bookes." The list of books in blackletter in columns, excepting lines three and four. Under the list 1569; reverse blank.-G. Offor.]

Monograph.-This is a new term, frequently used now, but not to be found in Johnson's Dictionary; though that contains monogram, explained as a cipher. By the context of the passages in which it occurs, monograph would seem to mean a treatise on a single subject. Is that the true de

ALFRED JOHN DUNKIN. [The "Saphire" was unfortunately lost on 31 Mar. 1670, on the coast of Sicily, through the default and cowardice of Capt. John Pierce and his lieutenant Andrew Logan, who, upon the approach of four sail, supposed to be Turkish men-of-war, ordered the ship to run from them, contrary to the persuasion of the master and pur-finition of the word? ser, who wished them to fight. The court-martial was held on board the "Bezan," on Sept. 16, 1670: Sir Jeremiah Smith was president of the court.-London Gazette, No. 505.]

STYLITES.

[This word occurs in Webster's Dictionary:-" MONOGRAPH, n. Gr. μovos, sole, and ypapn, description. An account or description of a single thing or class of things;

[blocks in formation]

It is now Nine Years since we first opened our columns for the use of all inquiring spirits,

"Omni quærenti et scire volenti,”

and each of those Nine Years has seen an increase in the number of our Friends, and in our consequent usefulness.

The obvious utility of the object for which this Journal was started, namely, "to assist Men of Letters and of Research in their pursuits, by furnishing them with a Medium of Inter-communication," is doubtless one great cause of our success. Something may also be due to the rule which excludes from these pages all harsh and uncourteous discussions. Even if this rule has not contributed to our success, it has made NOTES AND QUERIES what it now is, that summum bonum of all philosophers "a happy Medium." We shall endeavour to maintain this essential characteristic of our publication. We have no objection to preside over a passage of arms; but when the combatants wax wroth, we must be permitted, as of old, to throw down our truncheon and close the lists. And so, once more, Gentle Readers, we bid You A HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Notes.

JOSUAH SYLVESTER AND HIS WORKS.

that it positively laid the first stone of that monumentum ære perennius." And he proceeds to establish his hypothesis by innumerable quotations from, and comparisons of, the principal works of Milton's obligations to him ought to preserve the two poets. The interesting fact alone of from oblivion the name of Du Bartas's ingenious paraphrast.

No author was more highly esteemed by his poetical contemporaries than Josuah Sylvester, by whom he was commonly styled "The Silvertongued," for the smoothness of his versification. He was not more distinguished for his learning and ingenuity than for his many virtues and piety. Anthony à Wood incidentally describes him as "a saint on earth, a true Nathanael, a Christian Israelite;" and John Vicars, the Puritan, who sang his requiem, testifies also of him as one

"Whom Envy scarce could hate, whom all admired, Who lived beloved, and a Saint expired."

He was a native of Kent, and was born in the year 1563. The only education he received was under Dr. Adrianus Šaravia of Southampton, with whom he continued from the age of nine to twelve, and of whose "love and labors" he makes grateful acknowledgments in one of his latest poems :My Saravia, to whose rev'rend name

66

Mine owes the honor of Du Bartas' fame.
From th' ample cisterns of his sea of skill
Suck'd I my succor, and slight shallow rill;
The little all I can, and all I could,

In three poor years, at three times three years old."

[ocr errors]

He regrets not having to "either Athens flown" (that is, to Oxford or Cambridge), or followed his revered master to Leyden, when Saravia was invited, shortly after parting with his pupil, to fill the divinity chair in that University.

Little is known of the personal history of this once highly popular, but now totally neglected poet. It has been surmised that pecuniary difficulties drove him into exile, where he languished and died, and was soon forgotten. The suspicion may be fairly Notwithstanding his scholastic deficiencies in controverted-the assertion is too true. With youth, Sylvester contrived, "in his manly years," the exception of that typographical curiosity, his to thoroughly master the French, Spanish, Dutch, Lachryme Lachrymarum (a monody on the pre- Italian, and Latin languages. Doubtless, he acmature demise of his patron, Prince Henry, eldest quired the first four of these whilst trading on the son of James I.), and three brief extracts from Continent. In 1597, he was a candidate for the his lighter compositions, inserted in Ellis's Speci- office of secretary to the Company of Merchantmens of the Early British Poets, probably few are adventurers at Stade, of which he was a member. aware how many other pieces, original and trans- On that occasion the Earl of Essex, then at the lated, this proto-musus of the Puritans committed height of his fortune, exerted himself, but apparto the press; and how deeply was the most illus-ently in vain, in his favour; recommending him in trious of our sacred poets indebted to him for some of his choicest similes, as well as the most apposite of his phrases. Sylvester culled the flowers which the genius of Milton disposed. This interesting fact was first noted, in 1750, by Lauder, in his splenetic Essay on Milton's Use and Imitation of the Moderns; and, half a century later, was confirmed more at large by Dunster, in his Letter to Dr. Falconer. Sylvester's Du Bartas " contains (says the last-mentioned critic) more material prima stamina of the Paradise Lost than, as I believe, any other book whatever; and my hypothesis is,

two highly eulogistic letters, addressed from the court of Elizabeth. Wood says that queen "had a great respect for him; King James I. had a greater; and Prince Henry the greatest of all; who valued him so much, that he made him the first [and Sylvester adds himself the worst] poetpensioner."

His connexion with the Court, however, as well as all hopes of preferment there, must have terminated with the life of the young Prince; for the poet's subsequent career appears to have been one of unmitigated poverty and neglect. The

prime cause of his misfortunes is said to have been "his taking too much liberty upon him to correct the vices of the times;" but, in the concluding dedicatory lines of the Second Part of his Parliament of Virtues Reall, he intimates a very different reason, when subscribing himself "Your under-clarke, unworthily undon (By over-trusting to a starting BowYer-while too strong, to my poor wrong and woe).” Whence I infer that the individual, upon whose name he there so oddly plays, had anticipated him in, or ousted him from, some lucrative office under the government, if indeed he had not effected his ruin in some more questionable manner. Be that as it may, his indigence was extreme towards the close of his life, as is evident from another, and (if possible) more touching of his dedications; namely, that of The Triumph of Faith, "for ever consecrated to the grateful memorie of my never-sufficiently-honoured deere uncle, William Plumbe (late) of Fulham, Esq., deceased, first kinde fosterer of our tender muses,' wherein he mournfully complains that, "for want of wealth," he could do no more than "build a toomb with words." He died at Middleburg, in Zealand, on the 28th Sept. 1618, in the fifty-sixth year of his age.

Chalmers, in his very curt notice of Sylvester, is not content with damning him, pro more suo, as an author, but also taxes him with being "very earnest in courting the great for relief." I know not whence that information was obtained, or upon what authority the unfortunate poet is sometimes accused of fleeing abroad in order to avoid his creditors. The few authentic particulars concerning him, preserved by Anthony à Wood, indicate á totally different character. Besides the testimony of Vicars, already referred to, he was reported by others who personally knew him, as being "very pious and sober; religious in himself and family, and courageous to withstand adversity.” The task of adjusting the order of Sylvester's numerous publications would be about as difficult as profitless. I subjoin a list of them, together with such dates as I have been able to gather, partly from the title-pages themselves, and partly from other sources. The last edition of his collected works, which was printed in folio by Robert Young, appeared in the year 1641. His translations, upon the whole, are superior to his original pieces; although amongst the latter, which are generally brief, there are several fully equal to anything that his age produced. I doubt not the Divine Weeks and Duys, which he paraphrased from the French of that gallant Huguenot, Guillaume de Salust, Sieur Du Bartas, the friend and counsellor of King Henry of Navarre, would still find many admirers, if reproduced in a commodious form, and enriched with a few annotations. i was a well-spring at the foot of Parnassus from

which both Milton and Dryden copiously drank before making their respective ascents. Notwithstanding his pages are occasionally disfigured by highly inflated and bombastic passages and tropes, such, for instance, as "wrapt into ecstacy" the infantine mind of the last-mentioned great poet, and which afterwards served to excite his (as well as our own) merriment, it may be confidently asserted that the beauties of the volume are infinitely more numerous than its blemishes. The following list of our author's various compositions prove, at least, his extraordinary diligence - a diligence, it is to be regretted, that failed to secure to him not only a commensurate, but even the most moderate reward:

The Batail of Yvry (from Du Bartas), 4to. n. P., 1590.

The Triumph of Faith, 4to. n. p., 1592. (This is manifestly a second and enlarged edition. Vide the Dedication.)

The Second Week, or Childhood of the World (part of Du Bartas's Divine Weeks), 16mo. n. p., 1598.*

The Weeks and Works of Du Bartas. To these were added "Fragments," and other small pieces of Du Bartas, with translations from other sources, comprising Jonas, a fragment; Urania; Miracle of Peace; Ode to Astrea; Epigrams and Epitaphs ; The Profit of Imprisonment; Quadrains of Pibrac, (translated by John Sylvester,) &c. 4to. n. p., 1605.; ib. 1606. Subjoined to the last-mentioned edition are Posthumous Bartas, containing The Vocation; The Fathers; The Captaines; The Tropheis of Henry the Great; and The Magnificence. Ib. 1608. Together with The History of Judith, Englished by Thomas Hudsonf, and An Index of the hardest Words. lb. 1611; ib. 1613. (Five editions in all )

Lachrymæ Lachrymarum, or the Spirit of Teares, Lond. 1613; ib. 1614.

4to.

[blocks in formation]

* Silvester was not the first English translator of this portion of Du Bartas' great work. Wm. Lisle preceded him by two years in his publication entitled Babilon, a Part of the Second Weeke, with a Commentarie and marginall notes by S. G. S. 4. Lond. 1596 a work which escaped the notice of Wood, Ames, Herbert, Ritson, and Lowndes; and Watt only notices the enlarged edition of 1637.

+ The History of Judith is also from the French of Du Bartas, and was translated at the command of James VI., to whom it was dedicated. It was originally published in 8vo., Edinb. 1584.

a Compleate Collection of all the other most delight ful Works, translated and written by that famous Philomusus, Josuah Sylvester, Gent. Fol. 1621; ib. 1633; ib. 1641. The first folio edition contained the following additional poems, namely:Micro-cosmo-graphia; The Maiden's Blush, or Joseph; Panaretus; Job Triumphant; Hymn of Alms; Memorials of Mortalitie; St. Lewis; SelfeCivil-War; All's not Gold that Glisters; New Jerusalem; Christian Conflict; Honor's Farewell; Elegy on the Death of Sir W. Sidney; Elegy on the Death of Mrs. Hill; A Briefe Catechisme; Spectacles; Mottoes; The Woodman's Brare; A Preparation to the Resurrection; and A Table of the Mysterie of Mysteries. The last folio edition, or that of 1641, contained, besides all the poems which I have already enumerated, Posthumi, or Sylvester's Remains; containing divers Sonnets, Epistles, Elegies, Epitaphs, Epigrams, and other delightfal devises, revived out of the Ashes of that Silver-tongued Translator and divine Poet Laureat, Master Josuah Sylvester, never till now Imprinted.

which the shallows, rocks, and various securities against danger are marked. It must be borne in mind that these dangers exist at present, when the captains are all well acquainted with these seas, are provided with far more

perfect vessels and better crews, and steer by the compass and the chart; when all the coasts and the dangerous places in the water are marked with signals of all sorts both by day and night, and preparations are made for the hand, let us image to ourselves a solitary Phoenician naassistance of ships in case of actual danger. On the other vigator in a craft fitted for his coasting voyage, feeling his way by means of the lead, without any knowledge of these dangerous shores, more than 1200 miles in length, occupied by rapacious barbarians accustomed to a sea-life; in a course where, if he is driven before any wind for 24 hours, he is either wrecked on sand-banks or rocks, or carried out into the boundless ocean. The difficulties of the climate must likewise be considered; the storms, fogs, and clouds which prevail in these seas during half the year, the shortness of the days, and the ice in winter. However he timed his voyage, and whenever the winter fell, he must have twice encountered the equinoctial gales. Wherever he might land, he was exposed to being plundered or killed. Heeren, like other persons ignorant of navigation, evidently believes that a coasting voyage is easy in comparison with a voyage in the open sea; whereas the reverse is the fact. 3. Without pretending to professional knowledge, but judging only from the impressions made by the accounts of these seas which I have heard during a long series of years, I cannot but regard the difficulties opposed by nature to the Phonician navigation, under the supposed circumstances, as simply insuperable. I do not believe that out of a hundred ships sailing from Tyre to the southern coast of the Baltic, two would have returned home. The premiums for marine insurance afford a standard for measuring the dangers of this voyage. From the prices in the Hamburg Exchange List it may be seen that the rates of insurance from Hamburg to the Mediterranean in general are as high as those to the western coast of America, and even to China, and sometimes even higher.

SUPPOSED VOYAGES OF THE PHOENICIANS IN THE
NORTHERN SEAS.

In reference to the reality of the voyages supposed to have been made in remote times by the Phoenicians to the southern coast of the Baltic, in search of amber, it may interest some of the readers of "N. & Q." to read the opinions expressed on the subject by Dr. Redslob, in a program of the Hamburg Academic Gymnasium, entitled Tartessus, and published in 1849. In this program, Dr. Redslob, having occasion to treat of the northern trade of Tartessus, makes the following remarks :

"It is unpleasant to be obliged to apply the epithet ridiculous to the opinions of distinguished men; but the speculations concerning the voyages of the Phoenicians are in truth deserving of this appellation. It has even been thought possible that they may have reached America! Heeren thinks that they may have sailed as far as the Baltic coast of Prussia in quest of amber; and he sees nothing in this coasting voyage which was beyond their power. But the currents in the Bay of Biscay, which he considers the main difficulty, would have been in fact one of their least obstacles. Living, as I do, in a port which sends out ships to all these waters, and maintains an active intercourse with Bilbao, I have never heard any complaints as to the currents of the Bay of Biscay. But one may hear every day that the channel between France and England is a highly dangerous sea, in which a number of ships commanded by the most experienced captains are annually damaged or lost. The German Ocean is likewise a dangerous sea, with shallows running into it for miles, from the flat shores of Holland and Germany, and with narrow channels which form the entrances of the rivers. The same is the character of the long coast of Sleswig-Holstein and Jutland. Next comes the Cattegat, a difficult sea; and the Belt, a dangerous strait; the Baltic in general is bad for navigation, as may be seen by the inspection of a chart on

[ocr errors]

"Even if it is admitted that the merchant fears no

dangers, yet he does not undertake the easiest and safest
voyage without the prospect of profit. Now it is certain
that voyages of the Phoenicians to the German Ocean
and the Baltic must from their long duration have been
most costly, and therefore must have yielded a very high
profit, if they were carried on systematically. If, how-
ever, we consider the slowness of the voyage, the necessity
of taking a large crew for purposes of defence, and the
probability that not above one out of three, four, or perhaps
ten ships could return in safety, it may be doubted whe-
ther the profit to be made on a box of amber would have
repaid the merchant for his enterprise.”
G. C. LEWIS.

MILTON'S AUTOGRAPH, IN THE ALBUM OF CHRIS-
TOPHER ARNOLD.

In the edition of Milton's Works by the Rev. John Mitford, 1851, he refers (vol. i. p. clxxx.) to a letter from Christopher Arnold to George Richter (printed among Geo. Richteri Epistolæ Selectiores, Norimb., 1662, p. 483.), written from London, 7th Aug. 1651, in which he speaks of Milton and his writings, and characterises him as the "strenuus defensor" of the Republic. The fact of the acquaintance of Arnold with Milton is confirmed by the Album of the former, which

« ZurückWeiter »