Part 2

The word _guiled_ in the first line is printed _guilded_ in the second folio, the form in which _gilded_ appears often in the old copies. I have no doubt that this is the true reading, and it would obviate the difficulty of supposing that Shakspeare wrote guil_ed_ for guil_ing_.

In Henry Peacham's _Minerva Britanna_, 1612, p. 207., of _deceitful_ "court favour" it is said:

"She beares about a holy-water brush, Wherewith her bountie round about she throwes Fair promises, good wordes, and gallant showes: Herewith a knot of _guilded_ hookes she beares," &c.

Notwithstanding your correspondent's ingenious argument to show that _beautie_ in the third line may be the true reading, I cannot but think that it is a mistake of the compositor caught from _beauteous_ in the preceding line; and that _gypsie_ was the word used by the poet, who thus designates Cleopatra. The words in their old form might well be confused. For "thou _pale_ and common drudge," in the seventh line, I unhesitatingly read "thou _stale_ and common drudge;" and, by so doing, avoid the repetition of the same epithet to silver and lead. It is evident that the epithet applied to silver should be a depreciating one; while _paleness_ is said to _move more than eloquence_. The following passage in _King Henry IV._, Part I. Act III. Sc. 2. confirms this reading:

"So _common_ hackney'd in the eyes of men, So _stale_ and cheap."

To obviate the repetition, Warburton altered _paleness_ to _plainness_, but _paleness_ was the appropriate epithet for lead. Thus, Baret has, "_Palenesse or wannesse_ like lead. Ternissure."

And in _Romeo and Juliet_, Act II. Sc. 5., we have:

"Unwieldly, slow, heavy and _pale as lead_."

With these simple and, most of them, obvious corrections, I submit the passage to the impartial consideration of those who with me think that our immortal poet, so consummate a master of English, has been here, as elsewhere, rendered obscure, if not absurd, by the blunders of the printer. It will then run thus:

"Thus ornament is but the _gilded_ shore To a most dangerous sea: the beauteous scarf Veiling an Indian _gipsy_; in a word, The seeming truth which cunning times put on To entrap the wisest. Therefore, thou gaudy gold Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee: Nor none of thee, thou _stale_ and common drudge 'Tween man and man: but thou, thou meagre lead, Which rather threat'nest than doth promise aught, Thy paleness moves me more than eloquence, And here choose I; joy be the consequence!"

I may just observe, that in _Troilus and Cressida_, Act II. Sc. 2., the quarto copies have printed _pale_ for _stale_, which is corrected in the folio.

S. W. SINGER.

* * * * *

EPISODE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

_Mademoiselle de Sombreuil and the Glass of Blood._

"... In the Abbaye, Sombreuil, the venerable Governor of the Invalides, was brought up to the table, and Maillard had pronounced the words 'à la Force,' when the Governor's daughter, likewise a prisoner, rushed through pikes and sabres, clasped her old father in her arms so tightly that none could separate her from him, and made such piteous cries and prayers that some were touched. She vowed that her father was no aristocrat, that she herself hated aristocrats. But to put her to a further proof, or to indulge their bestial caprices, the ruffians presented to her a cup full of blood, and said 'Drink! drink of the blood of the aristocrats, and your father shall be saved!' The lady took the horrible cup, and drank and the monsters kept their promise."

Thus, in relating the massacres of September, writes the author of Knight's _Pictorial Hist. of Engl._ (Reign of Geo. III., vol. iii. p. 160.); and thus tradition has handed down to us this most horrible episode of the first French revolution; one which made so deep an impression on my own mind, that the scene was always uppermost whenever the atrocities committed during that eventful period of French history were under consideration. This impression, I am glad to say, has now been removed by M. Granier de Cassagnac, who (_Histoire du Directoire_) states that the tradition is not founded on fact; and as it is the first denial of the event which has come under my notice, I send you the substance of the evidence which M. de Cassagnac brings forward in support of his statement:-- {606}

1. The Marquise de Fausse-Lendry, in her work, _Quelques-uns des Fruits amers de la Révolution_, does not make any allusion to the fact, although she was in the same chamber with Mlle. de Sombreuil, and relates her heroic devotion to her father.

2. Peltier, who was in Paris at the time, and published his _Histoire de la Révolution du 10 Août_ early in 1793, does not say a word as to the occurrence.

3. The report of Piette, which was drawn up in Mlle. de Sombreuil's favour, and from details supplied by herself, is completely silent on the matter.

4. Being arrested with her father, and her younger brother, Mlle. de Sombreuil was taken to the Prison de la Bourbe on the 31st of December, 1793. One of the prisoners thus notices the event in his journal:

"Du 11 Nivôse, an II.

"L'on amena aussi a famille Sombreuil, le père, le fils, et la fille: tout le monde sait que cette courageuse citoyenne se précipita, dans les journées du mois de Septembre, entre son père et le fer des assassins, et parvint à l'arracher de leurs mains. Depuis, sa tendresse n'avait fait que s'accroître, et il n'est sorte de soins qu'elle ne prodiguât à son père, malgré les horribles convulsions qui la tourmentaient tous les mois, pendant trois jours, depuis cette lamentable époque. Quand elle parut au salon, tous les yeux se fixèrent sur elle et se remplirent de larmes."--_Tableau des Prisons de Paris sous Robespierre_, p. 93.

Here again, not a word about the glass of blood, although the narrative was written at no very distant period from the occurrences of September.

Maton de la Varennes, in his _Hist. particulière des Evènemens_, written subsequent to the events of Fructidor, year V., is enthusiastic in his praise of Mlle. de S.'s devotion; but says not a word as to the horrible sacrifice by which she is represented to have purchased her father's life.

The tradition is found for the first time in print in a note to Legouvé's _Mérite des Femmes_, which appeared in 1801; and the subject has been consecrated by the pen of the exiled poet Victor Hugo, in an ode to Mlle. de Sombreuil. Since then M. Thiers, without further looking into the matter, has given place to it in his _Hist. de la Révolut. Française_:

Victor Hugo's lines are the following:--

"S'élançant au travers des armes: --Mes amis, respectez ses jours! --Crois-tu nous fléchir par tes larmes? --Oh! je vous bénirai toujours! C'est sa fille qui vous implore; Rendez-le moi; qu'il vive encore! --Vois-tu le fer déjà levé; Crains d'irriter notre colère; Et si tu veux sauver ton père, Bois ce sang....--Mon père est sauvé!"

The subsequent history of this unfortunate family was this. M. de Sombreuil and his youngest son perished on the scaffold, the 10th June, 1794. The elder brother, Charles de Sombreuil, was shot at Vannes in June, 1795, after the Quiberon expedition. Leaving prison and France, after the 9th Thermidor, Mlle. de S. married an emigrant, the Comte de Villelume, who, under the Restoration, became governor of the Invalides at Avignon, at which place she died in 1823.

PHILIP S. KING.

* * * * *

MILTON INDEBTED TO TACITUS.

There is perhaps nothing in "Lycidas" which has so commended itself to the memory and lips of men, as that exquisite strain of tender regret and pathetic despondency in which occur the lines--

"Fame is the spur which the clear spirit doth raise (That last infirmity of noble mind) To scorn delights, and live laborious days."

It is with no desire to impair our admiration of these noble lines that I would ask, if that graceful glorifying of Fame as "the last infirmity of noble minds" was not suggested by the profound remark of Tacitus, in his character of the stoical republican, Helvidius Priscus (_Hist._, l. iv. c. 6.):

"Erant, quibus appetentior famæ videretur, quando etiam sapientibus cupido gloriæ novissima exuitur."

The great Englishman has condensed and intensified the expression of the concise and earnest Roman. This is one of those delightful obligations which repay themselves: Milton has more than returned the favour of the borrowed thought by lending it a heightened expression.

THOMAS H. GILL.

* * * * *

Minor Notes.

_Note by Warton on Aristotle's "Poetics."_--Some of your correspondents having expressed a wish that the MS. remarks of eminent scholars, when met with by your readers, might be communicated to the world through your pages, I beg to send you the following observations, signed _J. Warton_, which I have found on the blank leaf of a copy of Aristotle's _Poetics_ (edit. of Ruddimannos, Edinb. 1731):--

"To attempt to understand poetry without having diligently digested this treatise, would be as absurd and impossible as to pretend to a skill in geometry without having studied Euclid. The fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth chapters, wherein he has pointed out the properest methods of exciting terror and pity, convince us that he was intimately acquainted with those objects which most forcibly affect the heart. The prime excellence of this precious treatise is the scholastic precision and philosophical clearness with which the subject is handled, without any address to {607} the passions or imagination. It is to be lamented that the part of the Poeticks in which he has given precepts for comedy did not likewise descend to posterity."

A considerable number of notes, in the same handwriting, are also in the volume.

J. M.

Oxford.

_Misappropriated Quotation._--I have heard the following passage of Lord Bacon's, Essay VIII., and by a Cambridge D.D. too, so far as the word "fortune," attributed to Paley:

"He that hath a wife and children hath given hostages to fortune, for they are impediments to great enterprises. The best works of the greatest merit for the public have proceeded from unmarried and childless men."

B. B.

_The God Arciacon._--In a _Descriptive Account of the Antiquities in the Grounds and in the Museum of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society_, drawn up by the learned Curator of the antiquities, at page 20. I find the following inscription and explanation:--

"N. III. An altar recently discovered in the rubble foundation, under one of the pillars of the church of St. Dionis, Walmgate, York. It is inscribed:

DEO ARCIACON ET N. AVG. SI MAT. VITALIS ORD V. S. LM.

Which may be read thus: DEO Arciacon et Numini Augusti Simatius Vitalis Ordovix Votum solvit libens merito, _i.e._ To the God Arciacon and to the Divinity of Augustus, Simatius Vitalis, one of the Ordovices, discharges his vow willingly, deservedly--namely, by dedicating this altar. There is nothing in this inscription to indicate its date, or the Emperor to whose divinity, in part, the altar is dedicated. The god Arciacon, whose name occurs in no other inscription, was probably one of those local deities to whom the Roman legions were so prone to pay religious reverence, especially if in the attributes ascribed to them they bore any resemblance to the gods of their own country. If the reading and interpretation of ORD be right, Vitalis was a Briton; and Arciacon may have been a deity acknowledged by the Ordovices, who occupied the northern parts of Wales."

In the name ARCIACON I fancy that I see in a Latinized form the British words ARCH IACHAWR, _i.e._ the Supreme Healer. _Arch_ has the same meaning in Welsh as it has in the English and several other languages. In combination it is shortened to _Ar_, as in Yr Arglwdd Dduw, the Lord God. My conjecture is, that the Britons may have worshipped a God whose attributes resembled those of the Æsculapius of the Greeks. I hope that some of the contributors to "N. & Q." will be so kind as to give some information on this subject.

[Inverted hand symbol]

_Gat-tothed._--I do not know whether this mysterious word in the description of the "Wife of Bath[3]," has been satisfactorily explained since the time of Tyrwhitt; but perhaps the following passage may suggest a new reading in addition to "cat-tothed" and "gap-tothed," which he gives in his note on _Canterbury Tales_, p. 470.:

"The Doctor deriveth his pedigree from Grono ap Heylyn, who descended from Brocknel Skythrac, one of the princes of Powis-land, in whose family was ever observed that one of them had a _gag_-tooth, and the same was a notable omen of good fortune."--Barnard's _Life of Heylyn_, p. 75., reprinted in _Heyl. Hist. Ref._ Eccl. Hist. Soc., 1. xxxii.

Query, What was a _gag-tooth_? The "Wife" herself says,

"Gat-tothed I was, and that became my wele, I hold the print of Seinte Venus sele."--6185-6.

J. C. R.

[Footnote 3: "Bath" corrected from "Both"--Transcriber.]

_Goujere._--The usage of this word by Shakspeare (in the Second Part of _Henry IV._) is another proof that he took refuge in Cornwall, when he fled from the scene of his deerstalking danger. The _Goujere_ is the old Cornish name of the Fiend, or the Devil; and is still in use among the folk words of the West.

C. E. H. MORWENSTOW.

_The Ten Commandments in Ten Lines._--In looking over the Registers of the Parish of Laneham, Notts, last April, I discovered on one of the leaves the Commandments with the above title. It is signed "Richard Christian, 1689:" he was vicar at that time.

"Have thou no other Gods Butt me. Unto no Image bow thy knee Take not the name of God in vain Doe not thy Sabboth day profaine Honour thy ffather and Mother too And see y^t thou no murder doo ffrom vile Adultry keep the cleane And Steale not tho thy state be meane Bear no ffalse Witness, shun y^t Blott What is thy neighbour's Couet not.

Whrite these thy Laws Lord in my heart And Lett me not from them depart."

S. WISWOULD.

_Vellum-bound Books._--In a list of thirty books printed for T. Carnan and F. Newbery, and issued in 1773, I find the phrase _two volumes bound in one in the vellum manner_ in seven instances; also, _four volumes bound in two in the vellum manner_; and, _six volumes bound in three in the vellum manner_. In other cases we have only the word _bound_ or _sewed_. I have a suspicion that the phrase _in the vellum manner_ may have some obsolete meaning; and submit this note to the consideration of those who are in search of a _vellum-bound Junius_.

BOLTON CORNEY.

{608}

* * * * *

Queries.

THOMAS GILL, THE BLIND MAN OF ST. EDMUNDSBURY.

Putting in order this morning a mass of pamphlets, which my women-kind threaten to sweep into the kitchen unless more _tidily_ kept, I came upon a few poetical tracts by "Thomas Gill, the Blind Man of St. Edmundsbury." Not having had any previous acquaintance with this poetical moralist, I have looked over the lot; but beyond the above description of himself upon their titles, they afford little information regarding their author.

There is, however, proof, in _The Blind Man's Case at London_, 1711, that Gill was a character in his day. In what he loftily calls "The Argument" to these eight pages of doggrel, he says:

"The Blind Man of Bury by the Persuasions of his Printer, and some other supposed Friends, takes his Wife with him to London, with an Intention to settle there, where they met with so many Inconveniences, and so great Difficulties and Charges, as soon disgusted them with the Place."

Hereupon the blind man, finding himself disappointed in his expectations of, apparently, a larger sphere for his begging operations, opens out upon the metropolis in a fine round style of abuse in his "Letter to his Good Friend and Benefactor at Bury."

Desirous that my successor in the O---- library should have the advantage of all the information I can collect, in regard to the bibliographical curiosities therein contained, I am induced to avail myself of the medium your pages afford to inquire whether any of your Suffolk antiquaries can give me, or point out where I can help myself to, any particulars touching my new friend with an old face.

J. O.

* * * * *

BRONZE MEDALS.

Having applied in vain to several distinguished numismatists respecting certain bronze medals in my cabinet, which have baffled my own researches, I now beg to seek for information through the medium of "N. & Q.," to which I have been already much indebted; and have little doubt but that among your many intelligent correspondents some one will be found to solve my difficulties.

The medals to which I refer, and which I will describe very briefly, are the following; and I am desirous of obtaining some account of the persons in whose honour they were struck:--

1. _Astalia._ Size (Mionnet's scale), 16. "Diva Julia Astalia." Bust to the left. Rev. "Unicum for. et pud. Exemplum." A phoenix rising from its ashes. Probably not later than the early part of the sixteenth century.

2. _Conestagius._ Size, 15½. "Hieronimus Conestagius, MDXC." Bust in armour to the right, with ruff round the neck. Beneath, "MART. S***." Rev. A pen and a sword in saltire. An oval in high relief, of Italian workmanship.

3. _Meratus._ Size, 13½. "Franciscus Meratus I.P.F." Bearded bust to the right. Rev. "Me Duce Tutus Eris." A figure seated holding a book in its right hand. Query the meaning of the initials after the name?

4. _Aragonia._ Size, 13. "D. Maria Aragonia." Bust to the right, with a crown falling from her head. Rev. None.

5. _Hanna._ Size, 18. "Martinus de Hanna." Bust in a gown, to the right. Rev. "Spes mea in Deo est." A full-length figure, with hands clasped and raised towards heaven: apparently a foreign Protestant divine.

6. _Corsi._ Size, 20. "Laura Corsi March. Salviati." Hooded bust to the left, with crucifix suspended from the neck. Beneath, "MDCCVIII." Rev. "Mens immota manet." Full-length female figure, with helmet on her head, leaning on a spear round which a serpent is twined, with a stag by her side. In the background, on one side, is represented a castle on a wooded height; on the other, a vessel is seen labouring in a storm. A striking medal; and the lady's portrait makes one feel interested to learn her history, which seemingly ought to be known: but I must confess my ignorance even whether the Marquisate of Salviati be in Italy or Sicily.

JOHN J. A. BOASE.

P.S.--John de Silvâ, Count de Portalegre, who accompanied Don Sebastian in his expedition to Africa against Muley Moloch, published at Genoa in 1585 a work entitled _Dell' Unione del Regno di Portogallo alla Corona di Castiglia_, under the name of _Conestaggio_; but not having the book by me, I do not know whether the Christian name "Geronimo" also appears.

[The remainder of the title-page reads, "Istoria Del Sig. Ieronimo De Franchi Conestaggio Gentilhuomo Genovese."]

* * * * *

ACWORTH QUERIES.

In the church of St. Mary Luton, Beds, there is a brass slab bearing the figures of a knight and his two wives, with the following inscription:

"Pray for the soules of John Acworth Squyer and Alys and Amy his wyfes, which John deceased the xvij day of March the yer of our Lord M'v^cxiij. On whose souls Jhu have mercy."

For arms, he bore quarterly, 1st and 4th, erm. on a chief indented gu. 3 coronets or. 2nd and 3rd, or, between 3 roses a chev. gu.

In the reign of Henry VIII. there was one Johan Acworth (a lady of the bedchamber to Katherine Howard), who married Sir John Bulmer, and went to reside at York.

John Acworth was, I believe, succeeded by his son, George Acworth, who married Margaret, the {609} daughter of -- Wilborefoss, of Durham, Esquire, and had issue a daughter, Johan Acworth. This Johan Acworth married Sir Edward Waldegrave, the youngest son of George Waldegrave, of Smalbridge, Essex, Esq. I do not know if George Acworth had any other issue.

In 1560 there was a George Acworth who was public orator of Cambridge. He was formerly of Peterhouse, and took his D.C.L. at St. John's, Oxon. He was in his early days the friend and companion of Archbishop Parker. In 1576, he was appointed Master of the Faculties, Judge of the Prer. Court of Ireland. He is said to have died in Ireland, but where or when I do not know.

There was another of the name, Allin Acworth, formerly of Magdalen Hall, Oxon, and Vicar of St. Nicholas, Rochester, Kent. He was a sufferer by the Act of Uniformity, having been, in consequence of that Act, expelled his vicarage in 1666. Of his subsequent history I find no trace.

If any of your correspondents can give me any information relative to any of the above, their descent, or intermarriages, I shall be much obliged.

The name is, I believe, an uncommon one, and is only borne, as far as I can learn, by one family now in existence. There was, however, another family of the name formerly belonging to Suffolk, who bore for arms: Sa. a griffin segreant armed and langued or. But I cannot find any trace of their residence, &c., or when they flourished or became extinct.

I believe there was a Baron of the name in the reign of one of the early Henries, but unfortunately can discover no certain information about him.

The above particulars are wanted for genealogical purposes.

G. B. A.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

"_Row the boat, Norman._"--In the _Chronicles of England_ collected by John Stow, and printed in 1580, is the following passage:--

"1454. John Norman, Draper, Maior. Before thys time the Maiors, Aldermen, and Commoners of the Citie of London were wonte all to ride to Westminster when the Maior should take hys charge, but this Maior was rowed thyther by water; for the whiche the watermen made of hym a song, 'Rowe the boate, Norman,' &c."

Are any of your correspondents in possession of the words of this song? or is the tune to which it was sung known?

T. G. H.

_The Hereditary Standard Bearer._--In Crawford's _Peerage of Scotland_ it is mentioned, that in the year 1107 Alexander I., by a special grant, appointed a member of the Carron family (to whom he gave the name of Scrimgeour, for his valour in a _sharp fight_) the office of Hereditary Standard Bearer. Can you inform me how the Scrimgeours were deprived of this honour? The family is not extinct, and yet I see the Hereditary Royal Standard Bearer is now a Wedderburne, and the Earl of Lauderdale is also Hereditary Standard Bearer. There surely must have been injustice committed some time to cause such confusion. When and how did it take place?

T. G. H.

_Walton's Angler; Seth's Pillars; May-butter; English Guzman._--In Walton's _Complete Angler_, in the beginning of the discourse between Piscator and Venator, the former, expatiating on the antiquity of the art of angling, gives as one of the traditions of its origin, that Seth, one of the sons of Adam,

"Left it engraven on those pillars which he erected, and trusted to preserve the knowledge of the mathematics, music, and the rest of that precious knowledge, and those useful arts which, by God's appointment or allowance, and his noble industry, were thereby preserved from perishing in Noah's flood."

What is the tradition of Seth's Pillars?

Piscator in chap. v. says:

"But I promise to tell you more of the fly-fishing for a trout, which I may have time enough to do, for you see it rains May-butter."

What is May-butter, or the origin of the saying?