Chapter 4

[Lemon, in his English _Etymology_, has the following remarks on this phrase:--"_Vessel of Paper_: The etymology of this word does not at first sight appear very evident; but a derivation has been lately suggested to me, which seems to carry some probability with it; viz. that _a vessel of paper_ may have derived its appellation from _fasciculus_, or _fasciola_; quasi _vassiola_; a vessel, or small slip of paper; a little winding band, or swathing cloth; a garter; a _fascia_, a small narrow binding. The root is undoubtedly _fascis_, a bundle, or anything tied up; also, the fillet with which it is bound."]

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Replies.

KING JAMES'S IRISH ARMY LIST, 1689.

(Vol. ix., pp. 30, 31.)

My collections are arranged for illustrating, in the manner alluded to in the above notice, upwards of four hundred families. In Tyrconnel's _Horse_, I find a Dominick _Sheldon_, Lieut.-Colonel. His name appears in the "Establishment" of 1687-8 for a pension of 200l. Early in the campaign, he was actively opposed to the revolutionary party in Down and Antrim; and was afterwards joined in an unsuccessful negotiation for the surrender of Derry. At the battle of the Boyne he commanded the cavalry, and in a gallant charge nearly retrieved the day, but had two horses shot under him. When Tyrconnel left Ireland for France, to aid the cause of the Stuarts, he selected this colonel as one of the directory, who were to advise the young Duke of Berwick, to whom Tyrconnel had committed the command of the Irish army, and who was afterwards so distinguished in the wars of the brigades abroad. After the capitulation of Limerick in 1691, Sarsfield, then the beloved commander of the last adherents of the cause of the royal exile, intrusted to Colonel Sheldon the care of embarking all who preferred a foreign land to the new Government; and King James (for, in justice to my subject, I must still style him _King_) especially thanked him for his performance of that duty. When his own regiment was brigaded in France, it was called, _par excellence_, "the King's Regiment;" and Dominick Sheldon, "an Englishman," was gazetted its Colonel. The successes of his gallant band are recorded, in 1702, at the confluence of the Mincio and the Po; in 1703, against the Imperialists under Visconti, when he was wounded; in the army of the Rhine, and at the battle of Spire within the same year, &c. He appears, throughout his career, an individual of whom his descendants should be proud; but I cannot discover the house of this _Englishman_.

In the Outlawries of 1691, he is described on one as "of the city of Dublin," on another, as "of Pennyburn Mill, co. Derry." No other person of his name appears in my whole _Army List_; although the "Diary" preserved in the _Harleian Miscellany_ (old edit., vol. vii. p. 482.) erroneously suggests a subaltern of his name. In the titular Court of St. Germains, two of the name of Sheldon were of the Board of Green Cloth. Dr. Gilbert Sheldon was Archbishop of Canterbury in the middle of the seventeenth century; and the Sheldons are shown by Burke to be still an existing family at Brailes House in Warwickshire, previously in Oxfordshire, and _semble_ in Staffordshire. I have made application on the subject to Mr. Sheldon of Brailes House, the more confidently as the Christian name of "Ralph" is frequent in the pedigree of that family, and Colonel Dominick Sheldon had a brother Ralph; but Mr. Sheldon could not satisfy me.

One of the adventurers or soldiers in Cromwell's time, in Ireland, was a William Sheldon; who, on the Restoration, in the royal policy of that day, obtained a patent for the lands in Tipperary, which {402} the usurping powers had allotted for him by certificate. Could Colonel Dominick have been his relative?

I pray information on this subject, and any others connected with the _Army List_, with any documentary assistance which, or the inspection of which, the correspondents of "N. & Q." may afford me; and such services will be thankfully acknowledged. If I were aided with such by them, and by the old families of Ireland, the work should be a gem.

JOHN D'ALTON.

48. Summer Hill, Dublin.

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QUOTATIONS WANTED.

(Vol. ix., pp. 247, 301.)

"The knights are dust, Their good swords are rust, Their souls are with the saints, we trust."

This seems to be an imperfect recollection of the concluding lines of a short poem by Coleridge, entitled "The Knight's Tomb." (See _Poems_ of S. T. Coleridge: Moxon, 1852, p. 306.)

The correct reading is as follows:

"The knight's bones are dust, And his good sword rust; His soul is with the saints, I trust."

G. TAYLOR.

Your correspondent's mutilated version I have seen on a china match-box, in the shape of a Crusader's tomb.

C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY.

"Of whose omniscient and all-spreading love."

These lines are also Coleridge's (_Poems_, &c., p. 30., edit. 1852). He afterwards added the following note on this passage:

"I utterly recant the sentiment contained in the lines--

Of whose omniscient and all-spreading love Aught to _implore_ were impotence of mind;

it being written in Scripture, '_Ask_, and it shall be given you!' and my human reason being, moreover, convinced of the propriety of offering _petitions_, as well as thanksgivings, to Deity.--S. T. C., 1797."

H. G. T.

Weston-super-Mare.

The line quoted (p. 247.) as having been applied by Twining to Pope's _Homer_, is from _Tibullus_, iii. 6. 56.

P. J. F. GANTILLON

"A fellow feeling makes us wond'rous kind,"

is to be found in the epilogue written and spoken by Garrick on quitting the stage, 1776.[2]

A parallel passage appears in _Troilus and Cressida_, Act III. Sc. 3.:

"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin."

NEWBURIENSIS.

The following lines, and the accompanying paraphrase, probably those inquired after by X. Y., are in Davison's _Poems, or a Poetical Rhapsody_ (p. 50., 4th impression, 1621), where they form the third "device." I do not know who the writer was.

"Quid pluma laevius? Pulvis. Quid pulvere? Ventus. Quid vento? Mulier. Quid muliere? Nihil."

"Dust is lighter than a feather, And the wind more light than either; But a woman's fickle mind More than a feather, dust, or wind."

F. E. E.

The lines quoted by L. are the first two (a little altered) in the opening stanza of a ballad entitled _The Berkshire Lady_. The correct version (I speak on the authority of a copy which I procured nearly thirty years ago in the great ballad-mart of those days, the Seven Dials) is,--

"Bachelors of every station, Mark this strange but true relation, Which in brief to you I bring; Never was a stranger thing."

The ballad is an account of "love at first sight," inspired in the breast of a young lady, wealthy and beautiful of course, but who, disdaining such adventitious aids, achieves at the sword's point, and covered with a mask, her marriage with the object of her passion. It is much too long, and not of sufficient merit, for insertion in "N. & Q."

F. E. E.

[Footnote 2: [See "N. & Q.," Vol. iii., p. 300.]]

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OATHS.

(Vol. viii., no. 364, 605.; Vol. ix., p. 45.)

I am extremely obliged to your several correspondents who have replied to my Query.

I now send you "a remarkable case," which occurred in 1657, and throws considerable light upon the subject.

Dr. Owen, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford, being a witness for the plaintiff in a cause, refused to be sworn in _the usual manner, by laying his right hand upon the book, and by kissing it afterwards_; but he caused the book to be held open before him, and he raised his right hand; whereupon the jury prayed the direction of the Court whether they ought to weigh such evidence as strongly as the evidence of another witness. Glyn, Chief Justice, answered them, that in his opinion he had taken {403} as strong an oath as any other of the witnesses; but he added that, if he himself were to be sworn, he would lay his right hand upon the book itself (_il voilt deponer sa maine dexter sur le liver mesme_). Colt _v._ Dutton, 2 Siderfin's _R._ 6.

This case shows that the usual practice at the time it was decided was, not to take the book in the hand, but to lay the hand upon it. Now, if a person laid his hand upon a book, which rested on anything else, he most probably would lay his fingers upon it, and, if he afterwards kissed it, would raise it with his fingers at the top, and his thumb under the book; and possibly this may account for the practice I mentioned of the Welsh witnesses, which, like many other usages, may have been once universally prevalent, but now have generally ceased.

With regard to kissing the book, so far from assuming that it was essential, I stated that "in none of these instances does kissing the book appear to be essential." Indeed, as, "upon the principles of the common law, there is no particular form essential to an oath to be taken by a witness; but as the purpose of it is to bind his conscience, every man of every religion should be bound by that form which he himself thinks will bind his own conscience most" (per Lord Mansfield, Chief Justice, Atcheson _v._ Everitt, Cowper's _R._ 389.), the form of the oath will vary according to the particular opinion of the witness.

Lord Mansfield, in the case just mentioned, referred to the case in Siderfin, and stated that "the Christian oath was settled in very ancient times;" and it may, perhaps, be inferred that he meant that it was so settled in the form there mentioned; but, as he inaccurately translates the words I have given thus, "If I were sworn, _I would kiss the book_," it may be doubtful whether he did not consider kissing the book as a part of the form of the oath so settled.

I cannot assent to the opinion of Paley, that the term _corporal_, as applied to oath, was derived from the corporale--the square piece of linen on which the chalice and host were placed. The term doubtless was adopted, in order to distinguish some oaths from others; and it would be very strange if it had become the invariable practice to apply it to all that large class of oaths, in every civil and criminal tribunal, to which it did not apply; and when it is remembered that in indictments (which have ever been construed with the strictest regard to the truth of the statements contained in them) this term has always been used where the book has been touched, and where the use of the term, if incorrect, would inevitably have led to an acquittal, no one I think can doubt that Paley is in error.

In addition to the authorities I before referred to, I may mention that Puffendorff clearly uses the term in the sense I attributed to it; and so does Mr. Barbeyrac, in his note to "corporal oath," as used by Puffendorff, where he says: "Juramentum corporale, or, as it is called in the code, juramentum _corporaliter_ praestitum;" and then refers to a rescript of Alexander, where the terms used are "jurejurando _corporaliter_ praestito." (Puffendorff, _Law of Nature and Nations_, lib. iv. ss. 11. and 16., pp. 345. and 350.: London, 1729.) And it seems very probable that the term came to us from the Romans; and as it appears from the books, referred to in the notes to s. 16., that there were some instances in which an oath had been taken by proxy, it may, perhaps, be that the term _corporal_ was originally used to distinguish such oaths as were taken by the party himself from such as were taken by proxy.

The word corporale plainly is the "_corporale_ Linteum," on which the sacred elements were placed, and by which they were covered; and no doubt were so used, because it covered or touched what was considered to be the very body of our blessed Lord. In fact, the term is the same, whether it be applied to oath or cloth; and when used with oath, it is used in the same sense as our immortal bard uses it in "corporal suffering" and "corporal toil."

S. G. C.

As the various forms in which oaths have been administered and taken is a question not altogether devoid of interest, I would wish to add a few words to what I have already written upon this subject. The earliest notice of this ceremony is probably that which is to be found in Genesis xxiv. 2, 3.:

"And Abraham said unto his eldest servant of his house, that ruled over all that he had. Put, I pray thee, _thy hand under my thigh_; And I will make thee swear," &c.

That at a very early period the soldier swore by his sword, is shown by the Anglo-Norman poem on the conquest of Ireland by Henry II., published by Thomas Wright, Esq.: London, 1837, p. 101.:

"Morice par sa espe ad jure, N' i ad vassal si ose."

In a charter of the thirteenth century, made by one Hugh de Sarnefelde to the Abbey of Thomascourt in Dublin, of a certain annuity, we find the passage:

"Et sciendum quod jam dictus Adam de Sarnefelde _affidavit in manu_ Magistri Roberti de Bedeford pro se et heredibus suis quod fideliter et absque omni fallacia persolvent, etc. redditum prenominatum."

And such clauses are probably of frequent occurrence in ancient charters. The expression "affidavit in manu" may be perhaps explained by referring to the mode in which the oath of homage was accustomed to be taken. This form, as it was of old time observed in England, is, I presume, {404} fully described in other publications; but as many of the most valuable of the ancient public records of Ireland have been, and are still, in a sadly neglected state, it is not probable that the following description of the manner in which certain of the Irish chieftains in the time of Richard II. performed their homage to Thomas Earl of Nottingham, his deputy, has been hitherto printed:

"Gerraldus O'Bryn predictus zonam, glaudium et capitium ipsius a se amovens, et genibus flexis ad pedes dicti domini comitis procedit, ambas manus suas palmis [adgremium] junctis erigens, et inter manus dicti domini comitis crectas tenens, protulit hec verba in lingua hibernicana," &c.--_Inquisition deposited in the Exchequer Record Office, Dublin; James I._ No. 84.

JAMES F. FERGUSON.

Dublin.

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REMUNERATION OF AUTHORS.

(Vol. viii., p. 81.)

Some time ago I suggested, in the columns of "N. & Q.," a collection which might prove interesting, of the remuneration received by authors for their works, sending my first instalment thereof. A correspondent (W. R.) has since contributed to the stock; and I now beg to add a few more cases which have lately occurred to me. In the instances of plays, &c., I have confined myself to the sums paid for the copyright; any remuneration accruing to the author from the performance, a share of the profit, benefit, &c. &c. being too diffuse to bring into a tabular form; and, in the case of works published while that servile system was in vogue, I have not attempted to record the amounts paid for dedications by the inflated "patrons," nor even those raised by subscription, except in one or two cases, where such was (which was rarely the case) a genuine transaction:

Title of Work. |Author. |Price. |Publisher. |Authority. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- _Phaedra_ |Edmund Smith |60l. |Lintot. |Dr. Johnson. _The Wanderer_ |Savage |10l. 10s. | -- |Ditto. _Beggar's Opera_ |Gay |400l. | -- |Spence. Poems |Ditto |1000l. |Subscription|Dr. Johnson. Translation of eight |W. Broome |600l. |Paid by Pope|Ditto. books of the _Odyssey_,| | | | and all the notes. | | | | Ditto of four books of |Fenton |300l. |Ditto |Ditto. ditto | | | | Edition of Shakspeare |Pope |217l. 12s.|Tonson |Ditto. _Amynta and Theodora_ |Mallet |120l. |Vaillant. |Ditto. _The Poor Gentleman_ |G Colman, sen.|150l. | -- |R. B. Peake. _Who wants a Guinea?_ |Ditto |150l. | -- |Ditto. _Tales from Shakspeare_|Charles Lamb |63l. | -- |Himself. |Mary Lamb | | | Contributions for two |Charles Lamb |170l. | -- |T. Moore, years to the _London | | | | Lord J. Magazine._ | | | | Russell. The King of Prussia's |Thos. Holcroft|1200l. | -- |Galt. works, translation of | | | | _Exchange no Robbery_ |Theodore Hook |60l. | -- |R. H. D. | | | | Barham. _Sayings and Doings_ |Ditto |600l. |Colburn |Ditto. (1st series) | | | | _Ditto_ (2nd series) |Ditto |1050l. |Ditto |Ditto. | |150l. | | | |200l. | | _Ditto_ (3rd series) |Ditto |1050l. |Ditto |Ditto. _Births, Marriages, and|Ditto |600l. |Ditto |Ditto. Deaths_ | | | | Editorship of Colburn's|Ditto |400l. per |Ditto |Ditto. _New Monthly_ | | annum. | | _Rejected Addresses_ |J. and H. |131l. |Murray |H. Smith. | Smith |after 16th| | | | edition | | _Country Cousins_ } | | |Paid for by |} _A Trip to Paris_ } |James Smith. |1000l. |C. Matthews |}Himself. _Air Ballooning_ } | | |for his Ent-|} _A Trip to America_} | | |ertainments.|

ALEXANDER ANDREWS.

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OCCASIONAL FORMS OF PRAYER.

(Vol. viii., p. 535.)

The list of Occasional Forms of Prayer, recently contributed to your pages by the REV. THOMAS LATHBURY, contained no less than forty-eight items. All the forms which he enumerates, with one exception, are earlier than the year 1700. Using the same limitation of date, I send you herewith a farther list of such occasional forms: all these are to be found in the British Museum, and the press-marks by which they are designated in the catalogue are here added. The present list comprises fifty-one items, all of them, I think, different from those which have been already mentioned. Unless otherwise stated, the copies of the forms here referred to are printed at London, and they are for the most part in black-letter, without pagination.

A Psalme and Collect of Thankesgiving, not unmeet for the present Time [_i.e._ after the defeat of the Spanish Armada]. 1588. (3406. c.)

{405}

An Order for Prayer and Thanksgiving (necessary to be used in these dangerous Times) for the Safetie and Preservation of her Majestie and this Realm. 1598.

A revision of the form first issued in 1594. (3406. c.) 1.

Certain Prayers collected out of a Form of godly Meditations ... to be used at this Time in the present Visitation of God's heavy Hand, &c. With the Order of a Fast to be kept every Wednesday. 1603. (3406. c.)

Thanksgiving, August 5; being the Day of his Highnesse's happy Deliverance from the trayterous and bloody Attempt of the Earle of Gowry and his Brother, with their Adherents. 1606. (3406. c.)

Forme of Common Prayer, together with an Order of Fasting: for the averting of God's heavy Visitation upon many Places of this Kingdom [two editions, the second with a few MS. notes]. 1625. (3406. d.) 1. and (3406. d. 1.) 2.

Thanksgiving. March 27, 1626. (3406. d. 1.) 4.

Prayer for Safety and Preservation of his Majestie and this Realm. 1626. (3406. d. 1.) 5.

Thanksgiving. Safe Delivery of the Queen. 1631. Fol. (3406. e.) 1.

Thanksgiving. Safe Child-bearing of the Queene's Majestie. 1635. Fol. (3406. e.) 2.

Thanksgiving. November 5, 1636. (3406. c.)

Thanksgiving. November 5, 1638. (3406. d. 1.) 6.

Prayer for the King's Majestie, in the Northern Expedition. 1639. Fol. (3406. e.) 3.

A Form of Thanksgiving to be used September 7, 1640, thorowout the Diocese of Lincoln, and in the Jurisdiction of Westminster. 1640(?) (3407. c.)

Thanksgiving. March 27, 1640. (3406. d. 1.) 8.

Prayer for the King's Majestie, in his Expedition against the Rebels of Scotland. 1640. Fol. (3406. e.) 4.

Fast, February 5, 1644, for a Blessing on the Treaty now begunne. (3406. d. 1.) 9.

Thanksgiving for the late Defeat given unto the Rebells at Newarke (and A Prayer for the Queene's safe Delivery). 1644. Oxford, fol. (3406. e.) 5.

Prayer to be used upon January 15, 1661, in London and Westminster, &c.; and upon the 22nd of the said moneth in the rest of England and Wales. (3406. d. 2.) 1.

Prayer on June 12 and June 19, 1661 (as in the last form). (3406. d. 2.) 2.

Fast. July 12, 1665, in London, &c. (3406. d. 2.) 3.

Prayer. April 10, 1678. (3407. c.)

Fast. November 13, 1678. (3406. d. 2.) 5.

Prayer for King. 1684. (3407. c.)

Thanksgiving. July 26, 1685. Victories over the Rebels. (3406. d. 3.) 3.

Prayers ... during this time of Public Apprehension from the Danger of Invasion. 1688. (3407. c.)

Additional Prayers to be used, together with those appointed in the Service for November 5, 1689. (3406. d. 4.) 4.

Fast. March 12, 1689. Preservation of his Majestie's sacred Person, and the Prosperity of his Arms in Ireland, &c. (3406. d. 4.) 1.

Fast. June 5 and June 19, 1689. To implore Success in the War declared against the French King. (3406. d. 4.) 2.

Thanksgiving: Success towards the reducing of Ireland. October 19, 1690. (3406. d. 4.) 3.

Thanksgiving. November 5, 1690. (3406. d. 4.) 6.

A Prayer for the King, to be used instead of that appointed for his Majestie's present Expedition. 1690. (3406. d. 4.) 5.

A Prayer for the King, to be constantly used while his Majesty is abroad in the Wars. 1691. (3406. d. 4.) 7.

Fast. April 29, 1691. (3406. d. 4.) 8. Two editions.

Thanksgiving. Success in Ireland. November 26, 1691. (3406. d. 4.) 10.

Thanksgiving. 1692. (3406. d. 4.) 12.

Thanksgiving. 1692. (3406. d. 4.) 14.

Thanksgiving. October 27 and November 10, 1692. For the signal Victory vouchsafed to the Fleet. (3406. d. 4.) 15.

Prayer, during the Time of their Majesties' Fleet being at Sea. 1692. (3406. d. 4.) 18.

Fast. April 8, 1692. (3406. d. 4.) 11.

Prayer. May 10, 1693, and second Wednesday of every month following, &c. (3406. d. 4.) 16.

Thanksgiving. November 12 and November 26, 1693. (3406. d. 4.) 17.

Thanksgiving. December 9 and December 16, 1694. (3406. d. 5.) 3.

Prayers to be used during the Queen's Sickness, &c. 1694. (3406. d. 5.) 2.

Thanksgiving. April 16, 1695. (3406. d. 5.) 4.

Fast. June 19, 1695. (3406. d. 5.) 5.

Prayer. December 11 and December 18, 1695. (3406. d. 5.) 6.

Fast. June 26. (3406. d. 5.) 7.

Form of Prayer to be used Yearly on September 2, 1696, for the dreadful fire of London. (3406. d. 5.) 8.

Fast. April 28, 1697. (3406. d. 5.) 9.

Thanksgiving. December 2, 1697. (3406. d. 5.) 10.

Fast. April 5, 1699. (3406. d. 5.) 11.

It would occupy more space than "N. & Q." can afford to complete the list up to the present time. In the British Museum Catalogue alone, between the years 1700 and 1800, there are about 120 Forms of Prayer; and, between 1800 and 1850, about 113 more. Let me, before leaving the subject, draw the attention of your readers to the following extract from Straker's (Adelaide Street, West Strand) _Catalogue of Books_, printed in 1853, pp. 419.: