Part 4

_Passage in Göthe's "Faust."_--Has the following passage from the second part of _Faust_ ever been noticed in connexion with the fact that the clock in Göthe's chamber stopped at the moment that he himself expired? If it has not, I shall congratulate myself on having been the first to point out this very curious coincidence

"_Mephistopheles._ Die Zeit wird Herr, der Gries hier liegt im Sand, _Die Uhr steht still_---- _Chorus._ Steht still! Sie schweigt wie Mitternacht _Der Zeiger fällt._ _Mephistopheles._ Er fällt, es ist vollbracht." _Faust_, der Tragödie Zweiter Theil, Fünfter Act.

W. FRASER.

_Schomberg's Epitaph by Swift._--A correspondent asks whether the epitaph alluded to in the following extract from the _Daily Courant_ of July 17, 1731, is given in any edition of Swift's _Works_.

"The Latin Inscription, composed by the Rev. Dr. Swift, Dean of St. Patrick's, and ordered by the Dean and Chapter to be fixed up in the Cathedral of the said Church, over the place where the body of the great Duke of Schomberg lies, has been with all possible care and elegance engraved on a beautiful table of black Kilkenny marble, about eight feet long and four or five broad; the letters are gilded, and the whole is now finished with the utmost neatness. People of all ranks are continually crowding to see it, and the Inscription is universally admired."

The _Daily Gazetteer_ of Saturday, July 12, 1740, gives a detailed account of the rejoicings in Dublin on the Tuesday preceding, being the anniversary of the battle of the Boyne, and a particular account of the bonfire made by Dean Swift in St. Kevin's Street, near the watch-house.

E.

_The Burial Service said by Heart._--Bishop Sprat (in his _Discourse to his Clergy_, 1695, for which see _Clergyman's Instructor_, 1827, p. 245.) relates that, immediately after the Restoration, a noted ringleader of schism in the former times was interred in one of the principal churches of London, and that the minister of the parish, being a wise and regular conformist, and afterwards an eminent bishop, delivered the whole Office of Burial by heart on that occasion. The friends of the deceased were greatly edified at first, but afterwards much surprised and confounded when they found that their fervent admiration had been bestowed on a portion of the Common Prayer. Southey (_Common-Place Book_, iii. 492.) conjectures that the minister was Bull. This cannot be, for Bull, I believe, never held a London cure. Was it Hackett? And who was the noted ringleader of schism?

J. K.

_Shaw's Staffordshire MSS._--Can any of your Staffordshire correspondents furnish information as to the present depository of the Rev. Stebbing Shaw's Staffordshire MSS., and the MS. notes of Dr. Thomas Harwood used in his two editions {14} of Erdeswick's _Staffordshire_? And can they refer to a pedigree of Thomas Wood, Esq., Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, 1501; who is said to have built Hall O'Wood, in Batterley, near Botley, Staffordshire.

N. C. L.

_"Ne'er to these chambers," &c._--

"Ne'er to these chambers where the mighty rest Since their foundation, came a nobler guest, Nor to th' immortal entrance e'er convey'd A loftier spirit, or more welcome shade."

Where do these lines come from?

ARAM.

Swillington.

_County History Societies._--I would suggest the idea whether County History Societies might not be formed with advantage, as there are so many counties which have never had their histories written. They are very expensive and laborious for individuals to undertake, and constantly require additions on account of the many changes which are taking place, to make them complete as works of reference for the present time: I think that by the means suggested they might be made very useful, particularly if complete statistical tables were annexed to the general and descriptive account. With comparatively little expense, the history and statistics of every county could be brought down to the latest date, making a valuable work of reference to which all could refer with confidence for the information which is constantly being sought for.

G. H.

_Hugh Oldham, Bishop of Exeter._--Is any pedigree extant of the family of Hugh Oldham? Baines speaks of him (_Hist. of Lanc._, vol. ii. p. 579.) as "descended from an ancient family," born, "according to Wood and Godwin, at Manchester; but, according to Dodsworth, at Oldham."

What arms did he adopt?

J. B.

_The English Domestic Novel._--My first intention was to ask whether Defoe was the founder of this pleasing class of literature, but have just recollected, that Mrs. Aphara Behn wrote something of the kind in the time of Charles II. My first question will be, therefore, who was the earliest writer of this description? And, secondly, is not the matter of sufficient interest to ask your readers' assistance in the formation of a list, giving full titles, authors' names, and dates extending to 1730 or 1750?

JOHN MILAND.

_Dr. Young._--In the most authentic biographical accounts we leave of Dr. Young the poet, it is stated that he left in the hands of his housekeeper a collection of manuscript sermons, with an injunction that after his death they should be destroyed; it is also added, that this request was only complied with _in part_. Can any of your correspondents confirm the hope that these sermons may still be in existence; and if so, in what quarter information may be obtained concerning them? The housekeeper is said to have been the widow of a clergyman, and therefore was not regarded by the Doctor in the light of a servant.

J. H.

Cambridge.

_Bishop Hall's Meditations._--I have an old copy before me, the title-page of which runs as follows:

"Occasionall Meditations by Jos. Exon. Set forth by R. H. The Third Edition: with the Addition of Forty-nine Meditations not heretofore published: London, printed by M. F. for Nathaniel Butter, 1633."

It is edited by Bishop Hall's son (Robert). I should be glad to learn whether this is a scarce edition.

BOEOTICUS.

Edgmond, Salop.

_Chatterton._--Dr. Gregory, in his _Life of Chatterton_, p. 100. (reprinted by Southey in the first volume of his edition of Chatterton's _Works_, p. lxx.), says: "Chatterton, as appears by the coroner's inquest, swallowed arsenick in water, on the 24th of August, 1770, and died in consequence thereof the next day."

Mr. Barrett, the historian of Bristol, one of Chatterton's best friends and patrons, who, from his profession as a surgeon, was likely to have made, and seems to have made, inquiries as to the circumstances of his death, says, in his _History of Bristol_, not published before 1789, and therefore not misled by any false first report, that Chatterton's principles impelled him to become his own executioner. He took a large dose of opium, some of which was picked out from his teeth after his death, and he was found the next morning a most horrid spectacle: with limbs and features distorted as after convulsions, a frightful and ghastly corpse" (p. 647.). I do not know whether this contradiction has ever been noticed, and shall be obliged to any correspondent who can give me information. I believe that Sir Herbert Croft's _Love and Madness_ was the authority followed by Dr. Gregory, but I have not the book.

N. B.

_Passage in Job._--The wonderful and sublime book of Job, authenticated by subsequent Divine records, and about 3400 years old, is very probably the most ancient writing in the world: and though life and immortality were especially reserved as the glorious gift and revelation of our Blessed Redeemer, the eternal Author and Finisher of our salvation, yet Job was permitted to declare his deep conviction, that he should rise from the dead and see God. This memorable declaration (chap. xix. ver. 25.) can be forgotten by none of your readers; but some of them may not know that the Septuagint adds these words of life to chap. xlii. ver. 17.:"[Greek: gegraptai de, auton palin anastêsesthai meth' hôn ho Kurios anistêsin][2]."--(But it is written that {15} he shall rise again with those whom the Lord raiseth up.)

Our authorised and truly admirable translation of the Holy Scriptures omits this deeply important conclusion of Job's life, so properly noticed by the learned and excellent Parkhurst.

Pray, can you or any of your readers explain the cause of this omission? As your pages have not been silent on the grand consummation which cannot be too constantly before us, I do not apologise for this very short addition to your Notes.

EDWIN JONES.

Southsea, Hants.

[Footnote 2: This passage was originally printed "[Greek: gegraptai, seauton] ...". It was corrected by an erratum in next issue--Transcriber.]

_Turner's View of Lambeth Palace._--In a newspaper memoir of the late Mr. Turner, R.A., published shortly after his death, it was stated that the first work exhibited by him at Somerset House was a "View of Lambeth Palace," I believe in water colours. I should be glad to ascertain, through your columns, if this picture be still in existence, and in what collection.

L. E. X.

_Clarke's Essay on the Usefulness of Mathematical Learning._--Can any of the readers of "N. & Q." assist me in obtaining a copy of this work? In the same author's _Rationale of Circulating Numbers_ (Murray, London, 1778) it is stated that the demonstrations of all the theorems and problems at the end of the Rev. John Lawson's _Dissertation on the Geometrical Analysis of the Ancients_ "will be given at the latter end of _An Essay on the Usefulness of Mathematical Learning_, which will soon be published." In a subsequent portion of the work, a sketch of the contents of the _Essay_ is given, which include "a Treatise on Magic Squares, translated from the French of Frenicle, as published in _Les Ouvrages de Mathématique par Messieurs de l'Académie Royale des Sciences_, with several Additions and Remarks." And in a list of "Tracts and Translations _written and published_ by H. Clarke, LL.D.," which occurs at the end of my copy of the first volume of Leybourn's _Mathematical Repository_ (London, 1805), the _Essay_ appears as No. 10, and is stated to have been published in 8vo. at six shillings. None of my friends are acquainted with the work; but if the preceding description will enable any reader to help me to a copy, I shall esteem it a great favour.

T. T. WILKINSON.

Burnley, Lancashire.

"_The General Pardon._"--An imperfect copy of a small tract (measuring five and a half inches by three and a half inches) has recently come into my hands, of which I much desire to obtain the wanting parts. It is entitled:

"The general Pardon, geuen longe agone, and sythe newly confyrmed, by our Almightie Father, with many large Priuileges, Grauntes, and Bulles graunted for euer, as is to be seen hereafter: Drawne out of Frenche into English. By Wyllyam Hayward. Imprinted at London, by Wyllyam How, for Wyllyam Pickeringe."

There is no date, but it is believed to have been printed in or about 1571. It is in black letter, and is an imitation of the Roman Catholic pardons. It consists of twelve leaves. In my copy the last seven of these are torn through their middle vertically.

I have not been able to meet with this tract in the catalogues of any of the great libraries which I have consulted; _e.g._ The British Museum, Bodleian, Cambridge University, Lambeth, and several of the college libraries at Cambridge.

I want any information concerning it, or its original in French, which the readers of "N. & Q." can give: also access to a copy from which to transcribe the parts wanting in mine.

CHARLES C. BABINGTON.

St. John's Coll. Cambridge.

* * * * *

Minor Queries with Answers.

_Edward the Confessor's Rings._--There is an old legend of a ring given to one of our early kings, I think Edward the Confessor, by some saintly or angelic messenger. If any of your readers could give me any of the details of this story, it would very much oblige your constant reader

M. J. T.

[The following extract from Taylor's _Glory of Regality_, pp. 74. _et seq._, will give our Correspondent the legend referred to.

"The ring with which our kings are invested, called by some writers 'the wedding ring of England,' is illustrated, like the Ampulla, by a miraculous history, of which the following are the leading particulars: from the 'Golden Legende' (_Julyan Notary_, 1503), p. 187.:--'Edward the Confessor being one day askt for alms by a certain 'fayre olde man,' the king found nothing to give him except his ring, with which the poor man thankfully departed. Some time after, two English pilgrims in the Holy Land having lost their road, as they travelled at the close of the day, 'there came to them a fayre auncyent man wyth whyte heer for age.' Then the old man axed them what they were and of what regyon. And they answerde that they were Pylgryms of Englond, and hadde lost their felyshyp and way also. Then this old man comforted theym goodly, and brought theym into a fayre cytee; and whan they had well refresshyd them, and rested theym alle nyght; on the morne, this fayre olde man wente with theym and brought theym in the ryght waye agayne. And he was gladde to hear theym talke of the welfare and holynesse of theyr Kynge Saynt Edward. And whan he shold departe fro theym thenne he told theym what he was, and sayd I am Johan Theuangelyst, and saye ye unto Edward your king, that I grete hym well by the token that he gaaf to me thys rynge with his one hondes, whych rynge ye shalle {16} delyuer to hym agayne: and whan he had delyuerde to theym the ringe, he departed from theym sodenly.'

"This command, as may be supposed, was punctually obeyed by the messengers, who were furnisht with ample powers for authenticating their mission. The ring was received by the Royal Confessor, and in after times was preserved with due care at his shrine in the Abbey of Westminster."]

_The Bourbons._--What was the origin of the Bourbon family? How did Henry IV. come to be the next heir to the throne on the extinction of the line of Valois?

E. H. A.

[Henri IV., King of Navarre, succeeded to the throne on the extinction of the house of Valois, as the head of the house of Bourbon, which descends from Robert of France, Count de Clermont, the fifth son of St. Louis, and Seigneur de Bourbon. On the death of Louis I. in 1341, leaving two sons, this house was divided into the Bourbon, or elder branch (which became extinct on the death of the Constable of Bourbon, in 1527), and the younger branch, or that of the Counts de la Marche, afterwards Counts and Dukes of Vendome. Henri was the son of Antoine de Bourbon, Duc de Vendome.]

* * * * *

Replies.

EMBLEMS.

(Vol. vi., p. 460.)

The Query confirms Professor De Morgan's excellent article in _The Companion to the Almanack for 1853_, "On the Difficulty of correct Description of Books." The manuscript note cited by H. J., though curiously inaccurate, guided me to the book for which he inquires. I copy the title-page: "_Die Betrübte Pegnesis, den Leben, Kunst, und Tugend-Wandel des Seelig-Edeln Floridans, H. Sigm. von Birken, Com. Pal. Cæs. durch 24 Sinnbilder in Kupfern, zur schuldigen nach-Ehre fürstellend, und mit Gesprach und Reim-Gedichten erklärend, durch ihre Blumen-Hirten._ Nürnberg, 1684, 12mo." I presume the annotator, not understanding German, and seeing "Floridans" the most conspicuous word on the title-page, cited him as the author; but it is the pastoral academic name of the late Herr Sigmond von Birken, in whose honour the work is composed. The emblem, with the motto "Bis fracta relinquor," at p. 249. (not 240.), is a tree from which two boughs are broken. It illustrates the death of Floridan's second wife, and his determination not to take a third. The chess-board, plate xiv. p. 202., has the motto, "Per tot discrimina rerum," and commemorates Floridan's safe return to Nuremberg after the multitudinous perils ("die Schaaren der Gefahren") of a journey through Lower Saxony. They must have been great, if typified by the state of the board, on which only a black king and a white bishop are left--a chess problem!

I bought my copy at a book-sale many years ago, and, after reading a few pages, laid it aside as insufferably dull, although it was marked by its former possessor, the Rev. Henry White, of Lichfield, "Very rare, probably unique." On taking it up to answer H. J.'s Query, I found some matter relating to the German academies of the seventeenth century, which I think may be interesting.

Mr. Hallam (_Literature of Europe_, IV. v. 9.) says:

"The Arcadians determined to assume every one a pastoral name and a Greek birthplace; to hold their meetings in some verdant meadow, and to mingle with all their own compositions, as far as possible, images from pastoral life; images always agreeable, because they recall the times of primitive innocence. The poetical tribe adopted as their device the pipe of seven reeds bound with laurel, and their president, or director, was denominated General Shepherd or Keeper--_Custode Generale_."

He slightly mentions the German academics of the sixteenth century (III. ix. 30.), and says:

"It is probable that religious animosities stood in the way of such institutions, _or they may have flourished without obtaining much celebrity_."

The academy of Pegnitz-shepherds ("Pegnitzshäfer-orden") took its name from the little river Pegnitz which runs through Nuremberg. Herr Sigmond von Birken was elected a member in 1645. He chose _Floridan_ as his pastoral name, and the amaranth as his flower. In 1658 he was admitted to the Palm Academy ("Palmen-orden"), choosing the name _Der Erwacsene_ (the adult?), and the snowdrop. In 1659, a vacancy having occurred in the Pegnitz-Herdsmen ("Pegnitz-Hirten") he was thought worthy to fill it, and in 1679 he received the diploma of the Venetian order of the Recuperati. He died in 1681. This, and what can be hung upon it, is _Die Betrübte Pegnitz_, a dialogue of 406 pages. It opens with a meeting of shepherds and shepherdesses, who go in and out of their cottages on the banks of the Pegnitz, and tell one another, what all seem equally well acquainted with, the entire life of their deceased friend. It would not be easy to find a work more clumsy in conception and tasteless in execution. Herr von Birken seems to have been a prosperous man, and to have enjoyed a high pastoral reputation. His works are enumerated, but the catalogue looks ephemeral. There is, however, one with a promising title: _Die Trockene Trunkenheit, oder die Gebrauch und Missbrauch des Tabacks_. His portrait, as "Der Erwachsene," is prefixed. It has not a shepherd-like look. He seems about fifty, with a fat face, laced cravat, and large flowing wig. There are twenty-four emblematical plates, rather below the average of their time.

As so secondary a town as Nuremberg had at least three academies, we may infer that such {17} institutions were abundant in Germany, in the seventeenth century: that of the Pegnitz shepherds lasted at least till the beginning of the eighteenth. In _Der Thörichte Pritschmeister_, a comedy printed at Coblenz, 1704, one of the characters is "Phantasirende, ein Pegnitz Schäffer," who talks fustian and is made ridiculous throughout. The comedy is "von Menantes." I have another work by the same author: _Galante, Verliebte, und Satyrische Gedichte_, Hamburg, 1704. I shall be very glad to be told who he was, as his versification is often very good, and his jokes, though not graceful, and not very laughable, are real.

H. B. C.

U. U. Club.

* * * * *

MARRIAGES EN CHEMISE.--MANTELKINDER.--LEGITIMATION.

(Vol. vi., pp. 485. 561.)

The popular error on the legal effect of marriage _en chemise_ is, I think, noticed among other vulgar errors in law in a little book published some twenty years ago under the name of _Westminster Hall_, to which a deceased lawyer of eminence, then young at the bar, was a contributor. I believe the opinion to be still extensively prevalent, and to be probably founded, not exactly in total ignorance, but in a misconception, of the law. The text writers inform us that "the husband is liable for the wife's debts, _because_ he acquires an absolute interest in the personal estate of the wife," &c. (Bacon's _Abridgment_, tit. "Baron and Feme.") Now an unlearned person, who hears this doctrine, might reasonably conclude, that if his bride has no estate at all, he will incur no liability; and the future husband, more prudent than refined, might think it as well to notify to his neighbours, by an unequivocal symbol, that he took no pecuniary benefit with his wife, and therefore expected to be free from her pecuniary burdens. In this, as in most other popular errors, there is found a _substratum_ of reason.

With regard to the other vulgar error, noticed at the foot of MR. BROOKS' communication (p. 561.), that "all children under the girdle at the time of marriage are legitimate," the origin of it is more obvious. Every one knows of the "legitimatio per subsequens matrimonium" of the canonists, and how the barons assembled in parliament at Merton refused to engraft this law of the Church on the jurisprudence of England. But it is not perhaps so well known that, upon such a marriage the premature offspring of the bride and bridegroom sometimes used to perform a part in the ceremony, and received the nuptial benediction under the veil or mantle of the bride or the pallium of the altar. Hence the children so legitimated are said to have been called by the Germans _Mantelkinder_. The learning on this head is to be found in Hommel's _Jurisprudentia Numismatibus Illustrata_ (Lipsiæ, 1763), pp. 214-218., where the reader will also find a pictorial illustration of the ceremony from a codex of the _Novellæ_ in the library of Christian Schwarz. The practice seems to have been borrowed from the form of adopting children, noticed in the same work and in Ducange, verb. "Pallium, _Pallio cooperire_;" and in Grimm's _Deut. Rechts Alterth._, p. 465.

Let me add a word on the famous negative given to the demand of the clergy at Merton. No reason was assigned, or, at least, has been recorded, but a general unwillingness to change the laws of England. As the same barons did in fact consent to change them in other particulars, this can hardly have been the reason. Sir W. Blackstone speaks of the consequent uncertainty of heirship and discouragement of matrimony as among the causes of rejection,--arguments of very questionable weight. Others (as Bishop Hurd, in his _Dialogues_) have attributed the rejection to the constitutional repugnance of the barons to the general principles of the canon and imperial law, which the proposed change might have tended to introduce,--a degree of forethought and a range of political vision for which I can hardly give them credit, especially as the great legal authority of that day, Bracton, has borrowed the best part of his celebrated Treatise from the Corpus Juris. The most plausible motive which I have yet heard assigned for this famous parliamentary negative on the bishops' bill at Merton, is suggested (quod minimè reris!) in an Assistant Poor-Law Commissioner's Report (vol. vi. of the 8vo. printed series), viz. that bastardy multiplied the escheats which accrued to medieval lords of manors.

E. SMIRKE.

A venerable person whose mind is richly stored with "shreds and patches" of folk-lore and local antiquities, on seeing the "curious marriage entry" (p. 485.), has furnished me with the following explanation.