Chapter 2

"Es gab aber im Alterthum noch einen erlaubten Ausweg f¸r die Verbindung vorneluner Männer mit geringen (freien und selbst unfreien) Frauen, den _Concubinat_, der ohne feierliches Verlˆbniss, ohne _Brautgabe_ und _Mitgift_ eingegangen wurde, mithin _keine wahre und volle Ehe_, dennoch ein rechtmässiges Verhältniss war.

"Da jedoch die Kirche ein solches Verhältniss missbilligte durch keine Einsegnung weihte, so wurde es allmählich unerlaubt und verboten als Ausnahme aber bis auf die neueste Zeit f¸r F¸rsten zugelassen--ja durch Trauung an die linke Hand gefeiert. Die Benennung Morganatische Ehe,--Matrimonium ad Morganaticam (11. Feud. 29.), r¸hrt daher, dass _den Concubinen_ eine _Morgangabe_ (woraus im Mittelalter die Lombarden '_Morganatica_' machten)--bewilligt zu werden pflegte--_es waren Ehen auf blosse Morgengabe_. Den Beweis liefern Urkunden, die Morganatica f¸r Morgengabe auch in Fallen gebrauchen wo von wahrer Ehe die Rede ist." (See Heinecius, _Antiq_. 3. 157, 158.)

The case now stands thus:

It was the custom to give money to the wife's relations on the marriage-day.

It was not the custom with respect to unequal marriage (Misheirath): this took place "ohne Brautgabe und Mitgift," which was also of later origin.

The exception made by the Church for _princes_, restored the woman so far, that the marriage was legally and morally recognised by the Lombard law and the Church, with exceptions as regards _issue_, and that the left hand was given for the _right_.

With regard to this latter, it would be desirable to trace whether giving of the hand had any _symbolic_ meaning. I think the astrologists consider the right as the nobler part of the body; if so, giving of _the left_ in this case is not without symbolic significance. It must be remembered how much symbolism prevailed among the tribes which swept Europe on the fall of the Roman empire, and their Eastern origin.

The Morgengabe, according to Cancianus (_Leges Barbarorum_, tom. iv. p. 24.), was at first a _free gift_ made by the husband after the first marriage night. This was carried to such excess, that Liutprand ordained

"Tamen ipsum Morgengabe volumus, ut non sit amplius nisi quarta pars ejus substantia, qui ipsum Morgengabe dedit."

This became subsequently converted into a _right_ termed _justitia_.

Upon this extract from a charter,--

"Manifesta causa est mihi, quoniam die ilio quando te sposavi, promiseram tibi dare _justitiam_ tuam secundum _legem meam_ [qr. _my Lombard_ law in opposition to the Roman, which he had a right to choose,] in Morgencap, id est, quartam portionem omnium rerum mobilium et immobilium," &c.

Cancianus thus comments:--

"Animadverte, quam recte charta hÊc cum supra alligatis formulis conveniat. Sponsus promiserat Morgencap, quando feminam desponsaverat, inde vero ante conjugium chartam conscribit: et quod et Liutprandi lege, et ex antiquis moribus _Donum_ fuit mere gratuitum, hic appellatur _Justitia_ secundum legem Langobardorum."

The Morgencap here assumes, I apprehend, somewhat the form of _dower_. That it was so, is very doubtful. (Grimm, vol. ii. p. 441. "Morgengabe.")

"An demselben Morgen empf‰ngt die JungFrau von ihrem Gemahl ein ansehnliches Geschenk, welches Morgengabe heisst. Schon in der Pactio Guntherammi et Childeberti, werden Dos und Morganagiba _unterschieden_, ebenso _Leg. Rip._ 37. 2. _Alaman_. 56. 1, 2. Dos und Morgangeba; _Lex Burgend._ 42. 2. Morgangeba und das 'pretium nuptiale;' bei den Langobarden, 'Meta und Morgengab.'"

I do not say this answers the question of your correspondent G., which is, what is the _derivation_ of the word?

Its actual signification, I think, means left-handed; but to think is not to resolve, and the question is open to the charitable contributions of your learned and able supporters.

As regards the Fairy Morgana, who was married to a mortal, I confess, with your kind permission, I had rather not accept her as a satisfactory reply. It is as though you would accept "once upon a time" as a chronological date! She was _married_ to a mortal--true; but _morganatically_, I doubt it. If morganatic came from this, it should appear the _Fairy Morgana_ was the _first lady_ who so underwent the ceremony. Do not forget Lurline, who married also a mortal, of whom the poet so prettily sings:

"Lurline hung her head, Turned pale, and then red; And declared his abruptness in popping the question So soon after dinner had spoilt her digestion."

This lady's marriage resembled the other in all respects, and I leave you to decide, and no man is more competent, from your extensive knowledge of the mythology of Medieval Europe, whether Morgana, beyond the mere accident of her name, was more likely than Lurline to have added a word with a puzzling etymology to the languages of Europe. The word will, I think, be found of Eastern origin, clothed in a Teutonic form.

After all, Jacob Grimm and Cancianus may interest your readers, and so I send the Note.

S.H.

AthenÊum, Sept. 6. 1850

* * * * *

MINOR NOTES.

_Alderman Beckford._--Gifford (_Ben Jonson_, vol. vi. p. 481.) has the following note:--

"The giants of Guildhall, thank heaven, yet defend their charge: it only remains to wish that the citizens may take example by the fate of Holmeby, and not expose them to an attack to which they will assuredly be found unequal. It is not altogether owing to their wisdom that this has not already taken place. For twenty years they were chained to the car of a profligate buffoon, who dragged them through every species of ignominy to the verge of rebellion; and their hall is even yet disgraced with the statue of a worthless negro-monger, in the act of insulting their sovereign with a speech of which (factious and brutal as he was) _he never uttered one syllable_." ... "By my troth, captain, these are very bitter words."

But Gifford was _generally_ correct in his assertions; and twenty-two years after _his_ note, I made the following one:--

"It is a curious fact, but a true one, that Beckford _did not utter one syllable of this speech_. It was penned by Horne Tooke, and by his art put on the records of the city and on Beckford's statue, as he told me, Mr. Braithwaite, Mr. Seyers, &c., at the Athenian Club.

"ISAAC REED.

"See the _Times_ Of July 23. 1838, p. 6."

The worshipful Company of Ironmongers have _relegated their_ statue from their hall to a lower position: but it still disgraces the Guildhall, and will continue to do so, as long as any factious demagogue is permitted to have a place among its members.

L.S.

_The Frozen Horn._--Perhaps it is not generally known that the writer of _Munchausen's Travels_ borrowed this amusing incident from Heylin's _Mikrokosmos_. In the section treating of Muscovy, he says:--

"This excesse of cold in the ayre, gave occasion to _Castilian_, in his _Aulicus_, wittily and not incongruously to faine that if two men being smewhat distant, talke together in the winter, their words will be so frozen that they cannot be heard: but if the parties in the spring returne to the same place, their words will melt in the same order that they were frozen and _spoken_, and be plainly understood."

J.S.

Salisbury.

_Inscription from Roma Subterranea._--If you deem the translation of this inscription, quoted in Lord Lindsay's fanciful but admirable _Sketches of the History of Christian Art_, worth a place among your Notes, it is very heartily at your service.

"Sisto viator Tot ibi trophÊa, quot ossa Quot martyres, tot triumphi. Antra quÊ subis, multa quÊ cernis marmora, Vel dum silent, Palam RomÊ gloriam loquuntur. Audi quid Echo resonet SubterraneÊ RomÊ! Obscura licet Urbis Cœmetria Totius patens Orbis Theatrium! Supplex Loci Sanetitatem venerare, Et post hac sub luto aurum Coelum sub coeno Sub Rom‚ Romam quÊrito!"

_Roma Subterranea_, 1651, tom. i. p. 625.

(Inscription abridged.)

Stay, wayfarer--behold In ev'ry mould'ring bone a trophy here. In all these hosts of martyrs, So many triumphs. These vaults--these countless tombs, E'en in their very silence Proclaim aloud Rome's glory: The echo'd fame Of subterranean Rome Rings on the ear. The city's sepulchres, albeit hidden, Present a spectacle To the wide world patent. In lowly rev'rence hail this hallow'd spot, And henceforth learn Gold beneath dross Heav'n below earth, Rome under Rome to find!

F.T.J.B.

Brookthorpe.

_Parallel Passages._--

"_There is an acre sown with royal seed_, the copy of the greatest change from rich to naked, from cieled roofs to arched coffins, from _living like gods to die like men_."--Jeremy Taylor's _Holy Dying_, chap. i. sect. 1. p. 272. ed. Edin.

"_Here's an acre sown_ indeed _With_ the richest _royalest seeds_, That the earth did e'er suck in, Since the first man dyed for sin: Here the bones of birth have cried, Though _gods they were, as men they died_." F. BEAUMONT

M.W. Oxon.

_A Note on George Herbert's Poems._--In the notes by Coleridge attached to Pickering's edition of George Herbert's _Poems_, on the line--

"My flesh beg_u_n unto my soul in pain,"

Coleridge says--

"Either a misprint, or noticeable idiom of the word _began_: Yes! and a very beautiful idiom it is: the first colloquy or address of the flesh."

The idiom is still in use in Scotland. "You had better not begin to me," is the first address or colloquy of the school-boy half-angry half-frightened at the bullying of a companion. The idiom was once English, though now obsolete. Several instances of it are given in the last edition of Foxe's _Martyrs_, vol. vi. p. 627. It has not been noticed, however, that the same idiom occurs in one of the best known passages of Shakspeare; in Clarence's dream, _Richard III._, Act i. Sc. 4.:

"O, then _began_ the tempest _to_ my soul."

Herbert's _Poems_ will afford another illustration to Shakspeare, _Hamlet_, Act iv. Sc. 7.:--

"And then this _should_ is like a spendthrift sigh, That hurts by easing."

Coleridge, in the _Literary Remains_, vol. i. p. 233., says--

"In a stitch in the side, every one must have heaved a sigh that hurts by easing."

Dr. Johnson saw its true meaning:

"It is," he says, "a notion very prevalent, that sighs impair the strength, and wear out the animal powers."

In allusion to this popular notion, by no means yet extinct, Herbert says, p. 71.:

"Or if some years with it (a sigh) escape The sigh then only is A gale to bring me sooner to my bliss."

D.S.

"_Crede quod habes_," &c.--The celebrated answer to a Protestant about the real presence, by the borrower of his horse, is supposed to be made since the Reformation, by whom I forget:--

"Quod nuper dixisti De corpore Christi Crede quod edis et edis; Sic tibi rescribo De tuo palfrido Crede quod habes et habes."

But in Wright and Halliwell's _ReliquiÊ AntiquÊ_, p. 287., from a manuscript of the time of Henry VII., is given--

"Tu dixisti de corpore Christi, crede et habes De palefrido sic tibi scribo, crede et habes."

M.

_Grant to the Earl of Sussex of Leave to be covered in the Royal Presence._--In editing Heylyn's _History of the Reformation_, I had to remark of the grant made by Queen Mary to the Earl of Sussex, that it was the only one of Heylyn's documents which I had been unable to trace elsewhere (ii. 90.). Allow me to state in your columns, that I have since found it in Weever's _Funeral Monuments_ (pp. 635, 636).

J.C. ROBERTSON.

Bekesbourne.

_The first Woman formed from a Rib_ (Vol. ii., p. 213.).--As you have given insertion to an extract of a sermon on the subject of the creation of Eve, I trust you will allow me to refer your correspondent BALLIOLENSIS to Matthew Henry's commentary on the second chapter of Genesis, from which I extract the following beautiful explanation of the reason why the _rib_ was selected as the material whereof the woman should be created:--

"Fourthly, that the woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not made out of his head to top him, nor out of his feet to be trampled upon by him; but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be beloved."

IOTA.

_Beau Brummel's Ancestry._--Mr. Jesse some years back did ample justice to the history of a "London celebrity," George Brummell; but, from what he there stated, the following "Note" will, I feel assured, be a novelty to him. At the time that Brummell was considered in everything the _arbiter elegantiarum_, the writer of this has frequently heard Lady Monson (the widow of the second lord, and an old lady who, living to the age of ninety-seven, had a wonderful fund of interesting recollections) say, that this ruler of fashion was the descendant of a very excellent servant in the family. Not long ago, some old papers of the family being turned over, proofs corroborative of this came to light. William Brummell, from the year 1734 to 1764, was the faithful and confidential servant of Charles Monson, brother of the first lord: the period would identify him with the grandfather of the Beau; the only doubt was, that as Mr. Jesse has ascertained that William Brummell, the grandfather, was, in the interval above given, married, had a _son William_, and owned a house in Bury Street, how far these facts were compatible with his remaining as a servant living with Charles Monson, both in town and country. Now, in 1757, Professor Henry Monson of Cambridge being dangerously ill, his brother Charles sent William Brummell down, as a trustworthy person, to attend to him; and in a letter from Brummell to his master, he, with many other requisitions, wishes that there may be sent down to him a certain glass vessel, very useful for invalids to drink out of, and which, if not in Spring Gardens, "may be found in _Bury Street_. It was used when _Billy_ was ill." From the familiarity of the word "Billy," he must be speaking of his son. These facts are certainly corroborative of the old dowager's statement.

M(2).

* * * * *

QUERIES.

GRAY'S ELEGY AND DODSLEY POEMS.

I have here, in the country, few editions of Gray's works by me, and those not the best; for instance, I have neither of those by the Rev. J. Mitford (excepting his Aldine edition, in one small volume), which, perhaps, would render my present Query needless. It relates to a line, or rather a word in the _Elegy_, which is of some importance. In the second stanza, as the poem is usually divided (though Mason does not give it in stanzas, because it was not so originally written), occurs,

"Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight."

And thus the line stands in all the copies (five) I am able at this moment to consult. But referring to Dodsley's _Collection of Poems_, vol. iv., where it comes first, the epithet applied to "flight" is not "droning," but _drony_--

"Save where the beetle wheels his _drony_ flight."

Has anybody observed upon this difference, which surely is worthy of a Note? I cannot find that the circumstance has been remarked upon, but, as I said, I am here without the means of consulting the best authorities. The _Elegy_, I presume, must have been first separately printed, and from thence transferred to Dodsley's _Collection_; and I wish to be informed by some person who has the earliest impression, how the line is there given? I do not know any one to whom I can appeal on such a point with greater confidence than to MR. PETER CUNNINGHAM, who, I know, has a large assemblage of the first editions of our most celebrated poets from the reign of Anne downwards, and is so well able to make use of them. It would be extraordinary, if _drony_ were the epithet first adopted by Gray, and subsequently altered by him to "droning," that no notice should have been taken of the substitution by any of the poet's editors. I presume, therefore, that it has been mentioned, and I wish to know where?

Now, a word or two on Dodsley's _Collection of Poems_, in the fourth volume of which, as I have stated, Gray's-_Elegy_ comes first. Dodsley's is a popular and well-known work, and yet I cannot find _that anybody has given the dates connected with it accurately_. If Gray's _Elegy_ appeared in it for the first time (which I do not suppose), it came out in 1755 which is the date of vol. iv. of Dodsley's _Collection_, and not in 1757, which is the date of the Strawberry Hill edition of Gray's _Odes_. The Rev. J. Mitford (Aldine edit. xxxiii.) informs us that "Dodsley published three volumes of this _Collection_ in 1752; the fourth volume was published in 1755 and the fifth and sixth volumes, which completed the _Collection_, in 1758." I am writing with the title-pages of the work open before me, and I find that the first three volumes were published, not in 1752, but in 1748, and that even this was the second edition so that there must have been an edition of the first three volumes, either anterior to 1748, or earlier in that year. The sale of the work encouraged Dodsley to add a fourth volume in 1755, and two others in 1758 and the plate of Apollo and the Muses was re-engraved for vols. v. and vi., because the original copper, which had served for vols. i., ii., iii., and iv., was so much worn.

This matter will not seem of such trifling importance to those who bear in mind, that if Gray's _Elegy_ did not originally come out in this _Collection_ in 1755, various other poems of great merit and considerable popularity did then make their earliest appearance.

THE HERMIT OF HOLYPORT.

Sept. 1850.

P.S. My attention has been directed to the subject of Gray's _Poems_, and particularly to his _Elegy_, by a recent pilgrimage I made to Stoke Poges, which is only five or six miles from this neighbourhood. The church and the poet's monument to his mother are worth a much longer walk; but the mausoleum to Gray, in the immediate vicinity, is a preposterous edifice. The residence of Lady Cobham has been lamentably modernised.

* * * * *

HUGH HOLLAND AND HIS WORKS.

The name of Hugh Holland has been handed down to posterity in connexion with that of our immortal bard; but few know anything of him beyond his commendatory verses prefixed to the first folio of Shakspeare.

He was born at Denbigh in 1558, and educated at Westminster School while Camden taught there. In 1582 he matriculated at Baliol College, Oxford; and about 1590 he succeeded to a Fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge. Thence he travelled into Italy, and at Rome was guilty of several indiscretions by the freedom of his conversations. He next went to Jerusalem to pay his devotions at the Holy Sepulchre, and on his return touched at Constantinople, where he received a reprimand from the English ambassador for the former freedom of his tongue. At his return to England, he retired to Oxford, and, according to Wood, spent some years there for the sake of the public library. He died in July, 1633, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, "in the south crosse aisle, neere the dore of St. Benet's Chapell," but no inscription now remains to record the event.

Whalley, in Gifford's _Jonson_ (1. cccxiv.), says, speaking of Hugh Holland--

"He wrote several things, amongst which is the life of Camden; but none of them, I believe, have been ever published."

Holland published two works, the titles of which are as follows, and perhaps others which I am not aware of:--

1. "Monumenta Sepulchralia Sancti Pauli. Lond. 1613. 4to."

2. "A Cypres Garland for the Sacred Forehead of our late Soveraigne King James. Lond. 1625. 4to."

The first is a catalogue of the monuments, inscriptions, and epitaphs in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, which Nicolson calls "a mean and dull performance." It was, at any rate, very popular, being printed again in the years 1616, 1618, and 1633.

The second is a poetical tract of twelve leaves, of the greatest possible rarity.

Holland also printed commendatory verses before a curious musical work, entitled _Parthenia, or the Maydenhead of the First Musick for the Virginalls_, 1611; and a copy of Latin verses before Dr. Alexander's _Roxana_, 1632.

In one of the Lansdowne MSS. are preserved the following verses written upon the death of Prince Henry, by "Hugh Hollande, fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge:"--

"Loe, where he shineth yonder A fixed Star in heaven, Whose motion here came under None of the planets seven. If that the Moone should tender The Sun her love, and marry, They both could not engender So sweet a star as HARRY."

Our author was evidently a man of some poetical fancy, and if not worthy to be classed "among the chief of English poets," he is at least entitled to a niche in the temple of fame.

My object in calling attention to this long forgotten author is, to gain some information respecting his manuscript works. According to Wood, they consist of--1. Verses in Description of the chief Cities of Europe; 2. Chronicle of Queen Elizabeth's reign; 3. Life of William Camden.

Can any of your readers say in whose possession, or in what library, any of the above mentioned MSS. are at the present time? I should also feel obliged for any communication respecting Hugh Holland or his works, more especially frown original sources, or books not easily accessible.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

* * * * *

HARVEY'S CLAIM TO THE DISCOVERY OF THE CIRCULATION OF THE BLOOD.

I have both a Note and a Query about Harvey and the circulation of the blood (Vol. ii., p. 187.). The Note refers to Philostratus (_Life of Apollorius_, p. 461., ed. 1809), _Nouvelles de la RÈpublique des Lettres_, June, 1684, xi.; and Dutens pp. 157-341. 4to. ed. 1796. I extract the passage from _Les Nouvelles_:--

"On voit avec plaisir un passage d'AndrÈ CÊsalpinus qui contient fort clairement la doctrine de la circrilation. Il est tirÈ de ses Questions sur la mÈdecine imprimÈes l'an 1593. Jean Leonicenas ajo˚te que le pËre Paul dÈcouvrit la circulation du sang, et les valvules des veines, mais qu'il n'osa pas en parler, de peur d'exciter contre luy quelque tempÍte. Il n'etois dÈj‡ que trop suspect, et il n'eut fallu que ce nouveau paradoxe pour le transformer en hÈrÈtique dans le pais d'inquisition. Si bien qu'il ne communiqua son secret qu'au seul Aquapendente, qui n'osant s'exposer ‡ l'envie.... Il attendit ‡ l'heure de sa mort pour mettre le livre qu'il avoit composÈ touchant les valvules des veines entre les mains de la rÈpublique de Venise, et comme les moindres nouveautez font peur en cc pais-l‡, le livre fut cachÈ dans le billiothËque de Saint Marc. Mais parcequ' Aquapendente ne fit pas difficultÈ de s'ouvrir ‡ un jeune Anglois fort curieux nommÈ HarvÈe, qui Ètudioit sous lui a PadouÎ, et qu'en mÍme temps le pËre Paul fit a mÍme confidence ‡ l'Ambassadeur d'Angleterre, ces deux Anglois de retour chez eux, et se voyant en pais de libertÈ, publiËrent ce dogme, et l'ayant confirmÈ par plusieurs expÈriences, s'en attribuËrent toute la gloire."

The Query is, what share Harvey had in the discovery attributed to him?

W.W.B.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

_Bernardus Patricius._--Some writers mention _Bernardus_ Patricius as a follower of Copernicus, about the time of Galileo. Who was he?

M.

_Meaning of Hanger._--Can any one of your readers inform me, what is the meaning of the word _hanger_, so frequently occurring in the names of places in Bedfordshire, such as Panshanger?

W. Anderson