Chapter 3

Notwithstanding all this, it appears to be the case that, both in the Norman and English periods, the common people of this country were often wrapped in a sere-cloth after death, and so placed, coffinless, in the earth. The illuminations in the old missals represent this. And it is not impossible that the extract from the "Table of Dutyes," on which H.E. founds his inquiry, may refer to a lingering continuance of this rude custom. Indeed, a statute passed in 1678, ordering that all dead bodies shall be interred in woollen and no other material, is so worded as to give the idea that there might be interments without coffins. The statute forbids that any person be put in, wrapt, or wound up, or buried in any shirt, shift, sheet, or shroud, unless made of sheep's wool only; or in any coffin lined or faced with any material but sheep's wool; as if the person might be buried either in a garment, or in a coffin, so long as the former was made of, or the latter lined with, wool.

I think the "buryall without a coffin," quoted by H.E., must have referred to the interment of the poorest class. Their friends, being unable to provide a coffin, conformed to an old rude custom, which had not entirely ceased.

Alfred Gatty

* * * * *

SHAKSPEARE'S USE OF THE WORD "DELIGHTED".

If the passage from _Measure for Measure_, which has been the subject of much controversy in your recent numbers, be read in its natural sense--there is surely nothing unintelligible in the word "delighted" as there used.

The object of the poet was to show how instinctively the mind shudders at the change produced by death--both on body and soul; and how repulsive it must be to an active and sentient being.

He therefore places in frightful contrast the condition of _each_ before and after that awful change. The BODY, _now_ endowed with "sensible warm motion," to become in death "a kneaded clod," to "lie in cold obstruction, and to rot." The SPIRIT, _now_ "delighted" (all full of delight), to become in death utterly powerless, an unconscious--passive thing--"imprisoned in the viewless winds, and blown with restless violence round about the pendant world," how intolerable the thought, and how repulsive the contrast! It is _not_ in its state _after death_, but _during life_, that the poet represents the spirit to be a "delighted one." If we fall into the error of supposing him to refer to the _former_ period, we are compelled to alter our text, in order to make the passage intelligible, or invent some new meaning to the word "delighted," and, at the same time, we deprive the passage of the strong antithesis in which all its spirit and force consists. It is this strong antithesis, this painfully marked contrast between the two states of _each, body_ and _spirit_, which displays the power and skill of the poet in handling the subject. Without it, the passage loses half its meaning.

MR. HICKSON will not, I hope, accuse one who is no critic for presuming to offer this suggestion. I tender it with diffidence, being conscious that, although a passionate admirer of the great bard, I am all unlearned in the art of criticism, "a plain unlettered man," and therefore simply take what is set before me in its natural sense, as well as I may, without searching for recondite interpretations. On this account, I feel doubly the necessity of apologising for interfering with the labours of so learned and able a commentator as MR. HICKSON has shown himself to be.

L.B.L.

* * * * *

VENTRILOQUISM

(Vol. ii., p. 88.)

Plutarch (tom. ii., p. 397.D.) has these words:

[Greek: "Ou gar esti theou hae gaerus oude ho phthoggos, oude he lexis, oude to metron, alla taes yunaikos: ekeinos de monas tas phantasias paristaesi, kau phos en tae psuchae poiei pros to mellon."]

If that be the passage referred to be Rollin, nothing is said there about ventriloquism. The Scholiast on Aristoph. (_Plut._ 39.) tells us how the Pythian received the _afflatus_, but says nothing about her _speaking_ from her belly: He only has

[Greek: "Ta taes manteias hae mallon manias ephtheggeto hraemata."]

In another place of Plutarch (tom. ii., p. 414. E.) we have [Greek: eggastrimuthoi] and [Greek: puthones] used as synonymous words to express persons into whose bodies the god might be supposed to enter, "using their {235} bodies and voices as instruments." The only word in that passage which appears to hint at what we call ventriloquism is [Greek: hupophtheggesthai].

I have very little doubt that amongst the various tricks of ancient divination ventriloquism found a place; but I cannot give that direct evidence which MR. SANSOM asks for. I think it very likely that "_the wizards that peep and mutter_" (Isa. viii. 19.) were of this class; but it is not clear that the [Hebrew: 'obot]--the [Greek eggastrimuthoi] of the LXX.--were so. The English version has "them that have familiar spirits." The Hebrew word signifies _bottles_; and this may mean no more than that the spirit of divination was contained in the person's body as in a bottle, "using his body and his voice as instruments," as in the place of Plutarch quoted above. We have something like this, Acts, xix. 15., where "the evil spirit answered," no doubt in the voice of the demoniac, "Jesus I know," &c. Michaelis (Suppl., p. 39.) gives a different meaning and etymology to [Hebrew: 'obot]. He derives it from the Arabic, which signifies (1) _rediit_, (2) _occidit_ sol, (3) _noctu venit_ or _noctu aliquid fecit_. The first and third of these meanings will make it applicable to the [Greek: nekromanteia] (of which the witch of Endor was a practitioner), which was carried on at night. See Hor. _Sat._ I. ix.

I do not think that the damsel mentioned Acts, xvi. 16. was a ventriloquist. The use of the word [Greek: ekraze] in the next verse, would lead us to infer that she spoke in a loud voice _with her mouth open_; whereas the [Greek: eggastrimuthoi] are defined by Galen (_Glossar. Hippocr._) as [Greek: oi kekleismenou tou stomatos phthengomenoi].

Consult Vitringa and Rosenmüller on Isa. viii. 19., Wolf and Kuinoel on Acts, xvi. 16., Biscoe on the Acts, ch. viii. §2; where references will be found to many works which will satisfy Mr. SANSOM better than this meagre note.

[Hebrew: B]

_Ventriloquism_ (Vol. ii., p. 88.).--In reply to Query 1, I wish to call Mr. SANSOM'S attention to _Plutarch de Oraculorum defectu_ (Lipsiæ, 1777, vol. vii. p. 632.), and to Webster's _Displaying of supposed Witchcraft_ (chaps. vi. and viii.). Queries 2 and 3. Besides the extraordinary work of Webster, he may consult the elaborate dissertations of Allatius on these subjects, in the eighth volume of _Critici Sacri_. Query 4. On the use of the term [Greek: eggastrimuthos] by the sacred writers, _Ravanelli Biblioth. S._, and by classical authors, _Foesii Oeconomia Hippocratis_; and for synonymous "divinorum ministrorum nomina," _Pollucis Onomasticon_.

T.J.

* * * * *

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES.

_Earl of Oxford's Patent_ (Vol. ii., p. 194.).--M.'s quotation from the _Weekly Oracle_ relates to Harley's having been stabbed at the council-table by the Sieur de Guiscard, a French Papist, brought up for examination 8th March, 1711. The escape of the Chancellor of the Exchequer was the subject of an address from both Houses to the Queen; and upon his being sufficiently recovered to resume his seat, the Speaker delivered to him the unanimous congratulations of the House of Commons. Harley was shortly after created Earl of Oxford, by patent bearing date 24th May, 1711, which recites, _inter alia_,--

"Since, therefore, the two Houses of Parliament have declared that the fidelity and affection he has expressed in our service have exposed him to the hatred of wicked men, _and the desperate rage of a villanous parricide_, since they have congratulated his escape from such imminent dangers, and put us in mind that he might not be preserved in vain, we willingly comply with their desires, and grant him who comes so honourably recommended by the votes of our Parliament, a place among our peer," &c. &c.--Collin's _Peerage_, vol. iv. p. 260. edit. 1789.

Guiscard died in Newgate of the wounds which he received in the scuffle when he was secured.

BRAYBROOKE.

[O.P.Q., who has kindly replied to M.'s inquiry, has appended to his answer the following Query:--"Is Smollett justified in using the words _assassin_ and _assassinate_, as applied to cases of intended homicide, when death did not ensue?"]

_The Darby Ram_ (Vol. ii., p. 71.).--There is a whimsical little volume, which, as it relates mainly to local matters, may not have come under the notice of many of your readers, to which I would refer your querist H.W.

It is entitled,--

"Gimcrackiana, or Fugitive Pieces on Manchester Men and Manners ten years ago. Manchester, 1833." cr. 8vo.

It is anonymous, but I believe truly ascribed to a clever young bookseller of the name of J.S. Gregson, since dead.

At page 185. he gives twelve stanzas of this ballad, as the most perfect copy from the oral chronicle of his greatgrandmother.

In _The Ballad Book_ (Edinb. 1827, 12mo.), there is another entitled "The Ram of Diram," of a similar kind, but consisting of only six verses and chorus. And the _Dublin Penny Journal_, vol. i., p. 283., contains a prose story, entitled "Darby and the Ram," of the same veracious nature.

F.R.A.

_Rotten Row and Stockwell Street._--R.R., of Glasgow, inquires the etymology of these names (Vol. i., p. 441.). The etymology of the first word possesses some interest, perhaps, at the present time, owing to the name of the site of the intended Exhibition from all Nations in Hyde Park. I sent to the publishers of _Glasgow Delineated_, {236} which was printed at the University press in 1826, a contradiction of the usual origin of the name adopted in that city, showing the impossibility of the expression bearing any reference to the dissoluteness or immorality of the former residents, and also contradicting its having any thing to do with "rats," or "rattons," _Scotticè_; although, in 1458, the "Vicus Rattonum" is the term actually used in the Archbishop of Glasgow's chartulary. My observations, which were published in a note, concluded as follows:

"The name, however, may be also traced to a very remote and classic origin, although we are not aware that it has hitherto been condescended on. In ancient Rome was what was called the Ratumena Porta, 'a nomine ejus appellata (says Gessner in his Latin _Thesaurus_) qui ludiero certamine quadrigis victor juvenis Veiis consternatis equis excussus Romæ periit, qui equi feruntur non ante constitisse quam pervenirent in Capitolium.' The same story is related by Pliny, from whom and other authors, it appears that the word Ratumena was then as proverbially applied to jockies as Jehu in our own days. From the circumstance of the Rotten Row Port (of Glasgow) having stood at the west end of this street, and the Stable Green Port near the east end, which also led to the Archbishop's castle, it is probably not only that it was the street through which processions would generally proceed, but that the port alluded to, and after it the street in question, were dignified by the more learned of our ancestors with the Roman name of which, or of the Latin Rota, the present appears a very natural corruption."

I may here refer to Facciolati's _Dictionary, voce_ "Ratumena Porta," as well as Gessner's.

As to _Stockwell_, also a common name, it is obviously indicative of the particular kind of well at the street, by which the water was lifted not by a wheel, nor by a pump, nor a pulley, but by a beam poised on or formed by a large _stock_, or _block of wood_.

Lambda.

_Hornbooks_ (Vol. ii., p. 167.).--Mr. Timbs will find an account of hornbooks, with a woodcut of one of the time of Queen Elizabeth, in Mr. Halliwell's _Notices of Fugitive Tracts_, printed by the Percy Society, 1849. Your readers would confer a favour on Mr. Timbs and myself by the communication of any additional information.

R.

_Passages from Shakspeare_ (Vol. ii., p. 135.).--

_Ang._ We are all frail.

_Isab._ Else let my brother die, If not a feodary, but only he Owe, and succeed thy weakness.

_Ang._ Nay, women are frail too.

_Measure for Measure_, Act. ii. Sc. 4.

I should paraphrase Isabella's remarks thus:--

"If it be otherwise, if we are not all frail as thou sayest, then let my brother die, unless he be but in the same case as others; if he alone possess and follow thee in that particular frailty to which thou has half confessed."

A feodary, I should observe, was an officer of the Court of Wards, who was joined with the escheator and did not act singly; I conceive therefore that Shakspeare by this expression indicates an associate; one in the same plight as others; negatively, one who does not stand alone. In _Cymbeline_, Act iii. Sc. 2., we read:

"Senseless bauble, Art thou a _feodary_ for this act, and lookst So virgin-like without?"

where feodary clearly means confederate, associate. According to some, the word signifies one who holds land by the same tenure as the rest of mankind; whilst Mr. Knight, in a note on _Henry IV_. Part i. Act i. endeavors to show that it includes both the companion and the feudal vassal.

"To owe" is frequently used by Shakspeare in the sense of to possess, to own, as in Act i. Sc. 5. where Lucio says:

"But when they weep and kneel, All their petitions are as freely theirs As they themselves would _owe_ them."

So also in the following instances:--

"The slaughter of the prince that _ow'd_ that crown."

_Richard III._, Act. iv. Sc. 4.

"What art thou, that keepst me out from the house I _owe_?"

_Comedy of Errors_, Act iii. Sc. 1.

"Then thou alone kingdoms of hearts shouldst _owe_."

_Sonnet_ lxx.

Further examples will be found in _A Lover's Complaint_, the last line but two; _Pericles_, Act v. Sc. 1.; _Twelfth Night_, Act. i Sc. 5., _Love's Labour's Lost_, Act i. Sc. 2.; _King John_, Act ii. Sc. 1.; _King Lear_, Act i. Sc. 4.

As the passage is allowed to be obscure, this attempt to explain its meaning is submitted with great deference to the opinions of your readers.

Arun.

_Mildew in Books_ (Vol. ii., p. 103.).--In answer to B. I mention that the following facts connected with mildew in books have been elicited.

The mildew referred to is that which shows itself in the form of roundish or irregular brown spots.

It is usually most abundant in those parts which are most exposed to the air.

In making a microscopic examination of the spots, I ascertained that there was no new structure present; but in manipulating I found that these spots absorbed water more rapidly than the rest of the paper.

On applying litmus, these spots were found to have a powerful acid reaction.

On submitting the matter to a chemical friend, he ascertained that the acid in question was the sulphuric, or oil of vitriol. Experiments were then made with a dilute solution of this acid on {237} clean paper, and spots were produced similar to those of mildew.

The acid does not naturally exist in paper, and its presence can only be accounted for by supposing that the paper has been bleached by the fumes of sulphur. This produces sulphurous acid, which, by the influence of atmospheric air and moisture, is slowly converted into sulphuric, and then produces the mildew. As this may be shown to be an absolute _charring_ of the fibres of which the paper is composed, it is to be feared that it cannot be cured. After the process has once commenced, it can only be checked by the utmost attention to dryness, moisture being indispensable to its extension, and vice versâ.

I do not know whether these facts are generally known, but they would seem to be very important to paper-makers.

T.I.

_Pilgrims' Road to Canterbury_ (Vol. ii., p. 199.).--Your correspondent PHILO-CHAUCER, I presume, desires to know the old route to Canterbury. I should imagine that at the time of Chaucer a great part of the country was uncultivated and uninclosed, and a horse-track in parts of the route was probably the nearest approximation to a road. At the present day, crossing the London road at Wrotham, and skirting the base of the chalk hills, there is a narrow lane which I have heard _called_ "the Pilgrims' road," and this, I suppose, is in fact the old Canterbury road; though how near to London or Canterbury it has a distinct existence, and to what extent it may have been absorbed in other roads, I am not able to say. The title of "Pilgrims' road" I take to be a piece of modern antiquarianism. In the immediate vicinity of this portion there are some druidical remains: some at Addington, and a portion of a small circle tolerably distinct in a field and lane between, I think, Trottescliffe and Ryarsh. In the absence of better information, you may perhaps make use of this.

S.H.

_Abbé Strickland_ (Vol. ii, p. 198.), of whom I.W.H. asks for information, is mentioned by _Cox_, in his _Memoirs of Sir Robert Walpole_, t. i. p. 442., and t. iii. p. 174.

D. ROCK.

_Etymology of Totnes._--The Query of J.M.B. (Vol. i., p 470.) not having been as yet answered, I venture to offer a few notes on the subject; and, mindful of your exhortation to brevity, compress my remarks into the smallest possible compass, though the details of research which might be indulged in, would call for a dissertation rather them a Note.

That Totnes is a place of extreme antiquity as a British town cannot be doubted; first, from the site and character of its venerable hill fortress; secondly, from the fact that the chief of the four great British and Roman roads, the Fosse-way, commenced there--"The ferthe of thisse is most of alle that tilleth from Toteneis ... From the south-west to north-east into Englonde's end;" and, thirdly, from the mention of it, and the antiquity assigned to it by our earliest annals and chronicles. Without entering into the question of the full authenticity of Brute and the _Saxon Chronicle_, or the implicit adoption of the legendry tales of Havillan and Geoffry of Monmouth, the concurring testimony of those records, with the voice of tradition, the stone of the landing, and the fact that the town is seated at the head of an estuary the most accessible, the most sheltered, and the best suited of any on the south-western coast for the invasion of such a class of vessels as were those of the early navigators, abundantly warrant the admission that it was the landing-place of some mighty leader at a very early period of our history.

And now to the point of the etymology of _Totenais_, as it stands in Domesday Book. We may, I think, safely dismiss the derivation suggested by Westcote, on the authority of Leland, and every thing like it derived from the French, as well as the unknown tongue which he adopts in "Dodonesse." That we are warranted in seeking to the Anglo-Saxon for etymology in this instance is shown by the fact, that the names of places in Devon are very generally derived from that language; e.g. taking a few only in the neighbourhood of Totnes--Berry, Buckyatt, Dartington, Halwell, Harberton, Hamstead, Hempstin, Stancombe.

First, of the termination _ais_ or _eis_. The names of many places of inferior consequence in Devon end in _hays_, from the Ang.-Saxon _heag_, a hedge or inclosure; but this rarely, if ever, designates a town or a place beyond a farmstead, and seems to have been of later application as to a new location or subinfeudation; for it is never found in Domesday Book. In that ancient record the word _aisse_ is often found alone, and often as a prefix and as a terminal; e.g., Aisbertone, Niresse, Aisseford, Aisselie, &c. This is the Ang.-Saxon _Aesc_, an ash; and it is uniformly so rendered in English: but it also means a ship or boat, as built of ash. _Toten_, the major of the name, is, I have no doubt, the genitive of _Tohta_, "dux, herzog," a leader or commander. Thus we have _Tohtanoesc_, the vessel of the leader, or the commander's ship,--commemorating the fact that the boat of some great invader was brought to land at this place.

S.S.S

_Ædricus qui Signa fundebat_ (Vol. ii., p. 199), must surely have been a bell-founder: signum is a very common word, in mediæval writings, for a "bell."

D. ROCK

_Fiz-gig_ (Vol. ii, p. 120).--I had expected that your Querist C.B. would have received an {238} immediate reply to his Query as to the meaning of _fiz-gig_, because the word is in Johnson's _Dictionary_, where he may also see the line from Sandys' _Job_, in which it caught his attention.

You may as well, therefore, tell him two things,--that _fiz-gig_ means a fish-cart and that Querists should abstain from soliciting your aid in all cases where a common dictionary would give them the information they want.

H.W.

_Guineas_ (Vol. ii., p. 10.).--The coin named in the document quoted by A.J.H. is the _Guiennois_ a gold piece struck at Guienne by Edward III., and also by his son the Black Prince. It is not likely that the Guiennois was the original of the name given to the new gold coin of Charles II., because it could have had no claim to preference beyond the _Mouton_, the _Chaise_, the _Pavillon_, or any other old Anglo-Gallic coin. I think we may rest contented with the statement of Leake (who wrote not much more than half a century after the event), and who says that the _Guinea_ was so called from the gold of which it was made having been brought from Guinea by the African Company, whose stamp of an elephant was ordered to be impressed upon it.

J.C. Witton.

_Numismatics._--My thanks are due to Mr. J.C. Witton (Vol. ii., p. 42.) for his replies to my Numismatic Queries, though I cannot coincide with his opinion on Nos. 1. and 3.

No ancient forger would have taken the pains to cut a die to strike lead from; and my specimen, from its sharpness, has clearly never been in circulation: why may it not have been a proof from the original die?

Of No. 2. I have since been shown several specimens, which had before, I suppose, escaped my notice.

On the coin of Macrinus, the letter below the S.C. now clearly appears to be an [Greek: eta], but the one above is not a [Greek: Delta], but rather an L or inverted T. It cannot stand for [Greek: Lykabas], as on the Egyptian coinage, as Macrinus was slain by his soldiers the year after his accession.

The Etruscilla, even under a powerful magnifier, betrays no trace of ever having been plated and has all the marks by which numismatists determine the genuineness of a coin. The absence of S.C., I must remind Mr. W., is not uncommon on _third_ brass, though of course it always appears on the first and second.

I need go no farther than the one just mentioned of Tiberius, which has no S.C., and I possess several others which are deficient in this particular, a Severus Alexander, Elagabalus, &c. After Gallienus it never appears.

E.S.T.

_Querela Cantabrigiensis_ (Vol. ii, p. 168.).--Dr. Peter Barwick, in the life of his brother, Dr. Jno. Barwick (Eng. Edit. Lond. 1724, 8vo.), after describing the treatment of the University by Cromwell, adds (p. 32.) "But Mr. Barwick, no inconsiderable part of this tragedy, together with others of the University, groaning under the same yoke of tyranny, and each taking a particular account of the sufferings of his own college, gave a distinct narrative of all these barbarities, and under the title of _Querela Cantabrigiensis_, or the _University of Cambridge's Complaint_, got it printed by the care of Mr. R---- B----, bookseller of _London_ who did great service to his King and country, by printing, and dispersing in the most difficult times, books written in defence of the royal cause." See also _Biog. Brit._, article "Barwick".

John I. Dredge.