Chapter 2

Can any of your correspondents put me in the way of procuring the good honest letter-paper which I want? I have in vain applied to the stationers in every town within my reach. Would any of the paper-mills be disposed to furnish me with a ream or two of the unglazed, plain, and unhotpressed paper which I am anxious to obtain?

Whilst I am on this subject, I will take occasion to lament the very great inferiority of the paper generally which is employed in printing books. It may have a fine, glossy, smooth appearance, but its texture is so poor and flimsy, that it soon frays or breaks, without the greatest care; and many an immortal work is committed to a miserably frail and perishable material!

A comparison of the books which were printed a century ago, with those of the present day, will, I conceive, fully establish the complaint which I venture to make; and I would particularly remark upon the large Bibles and Prayer Books which are now printed at the Universities for the use of our churches and chapels, which are exposed to much wear and tear, and ought, therefore, to be of more substantial and enduring texture, but are of so flimsy, brittle, and cottony a manufacture, that they require renewing every three or four years.

"LAUDATOR TEMPORIS ACTI."

_Little Casterton (Rutland) Church._--Within the communion rails in the church of Little Casterton, Rutland, there lies in the pavement (or did lately) a stone, hollowed out like the basin or drain of a piscina, which some church-hunters have supposed to be a piscina, and have noticed as a great singularity. The stone, however, did not originally belong to this church; it was brought from the neighbouring site of the desecrated church of Pickworth, by the late Reverend Richard Twopeny, who held the rectory of Little Casterton upwards of sixty years; he had long seen it lying neglected among the ruins, and at length brought it to his own church to save it from destruction.

It may be interesting to some of your readers to learn that in the chancel of Little Casterton are monumental brasses of an armed male and a female figure, the latter on the sinister side, with the following inscription in black letter:--

"Hic jacet D[=n]s Thomas Burto[=n] miles quondam d[=u]s de Tolthorp ac ecclesiæ.... patronus qui obiit kalendas Augusti.... d[=n]a Margeria uxor ejus sinistris quor[um], a[=i]abus ppicietur deus amen."

R. C. H.

_The Hippopotamus_ (Vol. ii., pp. 35. 277.).--I can refer your correspondent L. (Vol. ii, p. 35.) to one more example of a Greek writer using the word [Greek: hippopotamos], viz., the Hieroglyphics of Horapollo Nilous, lib. i. 56. (I quote from the edition by A. T. Cory. Pickering, 1840): {182}

"[Greek: Adikon de kai achariston, hippopotamou onuchas duo, katô blepontas, graphousin]."

He there mentions the idea of the animal contending against his father, &c.; and as he flourished in the beginning of the fifth century, it is probable that he is the source from which Damascius took the story.

I have in my cabinet a large brass coin of the Empress Ptacilia Severa, wife of Philip, on which is depicted the Hippopotamus, with the legend SAECVLARES. AVGG., showing it to have been exhibited at the sæcular games.

E. S. TAYLOR.

_Specimens of Foreign English._--Several ludicrous examples have of late been communicated (see Vol. ii., pp. 57. 138.), but none, perhaps, comparable with the following, which I copied about two years since at Havre, from a Polyglot advertisement of various Local Regulations, for the convenience of persons visiting that favourite watering-place. Amongst these it was stated that--

_"Un arrangement peut se faire avec le pilote, pour de promenades à rames."_

Of this the following most literal version was enounced,--

"One arrangement can make himself with the pilot for the walking with _roars_" (sic).

ALBERT WAY.

_St. Clare._--In the interesting and amusing volume of _Rambles beyond Railways_, M. W. Wilkie Collins has attributed the church of St. Cleer in Cornwall, with its Well and ruined Oratory, to St. Clare, the heroic Virgin of Assisi; but in the elegant and useful _Calendar of the Anglican Church_, the same church is ascribed to St. Clair, the Martyr of Rouen. My own impression is, that the latter is correct; but I note the circumstance, that some of your readers better informed than myself, may be enabled to answer the Query, which is the right ascription? When Mr. Collins alluded to the fate of Bishop Hippo, devoured by rats, I presume he means Bishop Hatto, commemorated in the "Legends of the Rhine."

BERIAH BOTFIELD.

Norton Hall, Feb. 14. 1851.

_Dr. Dodd._--On the 13th February, 1775, Dr. Dodd was inducted to the vicarage of Wing, Bucks, on the presentation of the Earl of Chesterfield. On the 8th February, 1777, he was arrested for forging the Earl's bond. Dr. Dodd never resided at Wing; but, during the short period he held the living, he preached there four times. The tradition of the parish is, that on those occasions he preached from the following texts; all of them remarkable, and the second and fourth especially so with reference to the subsequent fate of the unhappy man, whose feelings they may reasonably be supposed to embody.

The texts are as follows:--

1 _Corinthians_ xvi. 22. "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha."

_Micah_ vii. 8. "Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy; when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall be a light unto me."

_Psalm_ cxxxix. 1, 2. "O Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting and mine up-rising, thou understandest my thought afar off."

_Deuteronomy_ xxviii. 65, 66, 67. "And among these nations thou shalt find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest; but the Lord shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind: and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear day and night, and shalt have none assurance of thy life: In the morning thou shalt say, Would God it were even! and at even thou shalt say, Would God it were morning! for the fear of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see."

Q. D.

_Hats of Cardinals and Notaries Apostolic_ (Vol. iii. p. 169.).--An instance occurs in a MS. in this college (L. 10. p. 60.) circa temp. Hen. VIII., of the arms of "Doctor Willm. Haryngton, prothonotaire apostolik," ensigned with a black hat, having three tassels pendant on each side: these appendages, however, are somewhat different to those attached to the Cardinal's hat, the cords or strings not being _fretty_. I have seen somewhere a series of arms having the same insignia; but, at present, I cannot say where.

THOS WM. KING, YORK HERALD.

College of Arms, Feb. 17. 1851.

_Baron Munchausen's Frozen Horn._--

"Till the Holy Ghost came to thaw their memories, that the words of Christ, like the voice in Plutarch that had become frozen, might at length become audible."--Hammond's _Sermons_, xvii.

These were first published in 1648.

E. H.

_Contracted Names of Places._--Kirton for Crediton, Devon; Wilscombe for Wiveliscombe, Somersetshire; Brighton for Brighthelmstone, Sussex; Pomfret for Pontefract, Yorkshire; Gloster for Gloucester.

J. W. H.

* * * * *

Queries.

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL QUERIES.

(_Continued from_ Vol. iii., p. 139.)

(43.) Is there any valid reason for not dating the publication of some of Gerson's treatises at Cologne earlier than the year 1470? and if good cause cannot be shown for withholding from them so high a rank in the scale of typographic being, must we not instantly reject every effort to extenuate Marchand's obtuseness in asserting with reference to Ulric Zell, "On ne voit des éditions de ce Zell qu'en 1494?" (_Hist. de l'Imp._, p. 56.) {183} Schelhorn's opinion as to the birthright of these tracts is sufficient to awaken an interest concerning them, for he conceived that they should be classed among the earliest works executed with cut moveable characters. (_Diat. ad Card. Quirini lib._, p. 25. Cf. Seemiller, i. 105.) So far as I can judge, an adequate measure of seniority has not been generally assigned to these Zellian specimens of printing, if it be granted "Coloniam Agrippinam post Moguntinenses primùm recepisse artem." (Meerman, ii. 106.) This writer's representation, in his ninth plate, of the type used in 1467, supplies us with ground for a complete conviction that these undated Gersonian manuals are at least as old as the _Augustinus de singularitate clericorum_. But why are they not older? Is there any document which has a stronger conjectural claim? Van de Velde's _Catalogue_, tome i. Gand, 1831, contains notices of some of them; and one volume before me has the first initial letter principally in blue and gold, the rest in red, and all elaborated with a pen. The most unevenly printed, and therefore, I suppose, the primitial gem, is the _Tractatus de mendicitate spirituali_, in which not only rubiform capitals, but whole words, have been inserted by a chirographer. It is, says Van de Velde, (the former possessor,) on the fly-leaf, "sans chiffres et réclames, en longues lignes de 27 lignes sur les pages entières." The full stop employed is a sort of twofold, recumbent, circumflex or caret; and the most eminent watermark in the paper is a Unicorn, bearing a much more suitable antelopian weapon than is that awkwardly horizontal horn prefixed by Dr. Dibdin to the Oryx in profile which he has depicted in plate vi. appertaining to his life of Caxton: _Typographical Antiquities_, vol. i.

(44.) Wherein do the ordinary _Hymni et Sequentiæ_ differ from those according to the use of Sarum? Whose is the oldest _Expositio_ commonly attached to both? and respecting it did Badius, in 1502, accomplish much beyond a revision and an amendment of the style? Was not Pynson, in 1497, the printer of the folio edition of the Hymns and Sequences entered in Mr. Dickinson's valuable _List of English Service-Books_, p. 8.; or is there inaccuracy in the succeeding line? Lastly, was the titular woodcut in Julian Notary's impression, A.D. 1504 (Dibdin, ii. 580.), derived from the decoration of the _Hymnarius_, and the _Textus Sequentiarum cum optimo commento_, set forth at Delft by Christian Snellaert, in 1496? From the first page of the latter we receive the following accession to our philological knowledge:

"Diabolus dicitur a _dia_, quod est duo, et _bolos_ morsus; quasi dupliciter mordens; quia lædit hominem in corpore et anima."

(45.) (1.) In what edition of the Salisbury Missal did the amusing errors in the "Ordo Sponsalium" first occur; and how long were they continued? I allude to the husband's obligation, "to haue and to holde fro thys day _wafor beter_ for wurs," &c., and to the wife's prudential promise, "to haue et to holde _for thys day_." (2.) Are there any vellum leaves in any copy in England of the folio impression very beautifully printed _en rouge et noir_ "in alma Parisiorum academia," die x. Kal. April, 1510?

(46.) On the 11th of last month (Jan.) somebody advertised in "NOTES AND QUERIES" for _Foxes and Firebrands_. In these days of trouble and rebuke, when (if we may judge from a recent article savouring of Neal's second volume) it seems to be expected that English gentlemen will, in a Magazine that bears their name, be pleased with a réchauffé of democratic obloquy upon the character of the great reformer of their church, and will look with favour upon _Canterburies Doome_, would it not be desirable that Robert Ware's (and Nalson's) curious and important work should be republished? If a reprint of it were to be undertaken, I would direct attention to a copy in my possession of "The Third and Last Part," Lond. 1689, which has many alterations marked in MS. for a new edition, and which exhibits the autograph of Henry Ware.

(47.) Was COHAUSEN the composer of "Clericus Deperrucatus; sive, in fictitiis Clericorum Comis moderni seculi ostensa et explosa Vanitas: Cum Figuris: Autore ANNOEO RHISENNO VECCHIO, Doctore Romano-Catholico," printed at Amsterdam, and inscribed to Pope Benedict XIII.? One of the well-finished copperplates, page 12., represents "_Monsieur l'Abbé prenant du Tabac_."

(48.) Where can a copy of the earliest edition of the _Testamentum XII. Patriarcharum_ be found? for if one had been easily obtainable, Grabe, Cave, Oudin, and Wharton (_Ang. Sac._ ii. 345.) would not have treated the third impression as the first; and let it be noted by the way that "Clerico _Elichero_" in Wharton must be a mistake for "Clerico _Nicolao_." Moreover, how did the excellent Fabricius (_Bibl. med. et inf. Latin._, and also _Cod. Pseudepig. V. T._, i. 758.) happen to connect Menradus Moltherus with the _editio princeps_ of 1483? It is certain that this writer's letter to Secerius, accompanying a transcript of Bishop Grossetête's version, which immediately came forth at Haguenau, was concluded "postridie Non. Januar. M.D.XXXII."

(49.) (1.) Who was the bibliopolist with whom originated the pernicious scheme of adapting newly printed title-pages to books which had had a previous existence? Sometimes the deception may be discerned even at a glance: for example, without the loss of many seconds, and by the aspect of a single letter, (the long s,) we can perceive the falsehood of the imprint, "Parisiis, apud Paul Mellier, 1842," together with "S.-Clodoaldi, è typographeo Belin-Mandar," grafted upon tome i. {184} of the Benedictine edition of S. Gregory Nazianzen's works, which had been actually issued in 1778. Very frequently, however, the comparison of professedly different impressions requires, before they can be safely pronounced to be identical, the protracted scrutiny of a practised eye. An inattentive observer could not be conscious that the works of Sir James Ware, translated and improved by Harris, and apparently the progeny of the year 1764, (the only edition, and that but a spurious one, recorded in Watt's _Bibliotheca Britannica_,) have been skilfully tampered with, and should be justly restored--the first volume to 1739, the second to 1745.

(2.) We must admit that a bookseller gifted with mature sapience will very rarely, or never, be such an amateur in expensive methods of bamboozling, as to prefer having recourse to the title-page expedient, if he could flatter himself that his purpose would be likely to be effected simply by _doctoring the date_; and thus a question springs up, akin to the former one, How great is the antiquity of this timeserving device? At this moment, trusting only to memory, I am not able to adduce an instance of the depravation anterior to the year 1606, when Dr. James's _Bellum Papale_ was put forth in London as a new book, though in reality there was no novelty connected with it, except that the last 0 in 1600 (the authentic date) had been compelled by penmanship to cease to be a dead letter, and to germinate into a 6.

(3.) If neither the judicious naturalisation of a title-page, nor the dexterous corruption of the year in which a work was honestly produced, should avail to eliminate "the stock in hand," _res ad Triarios rediit_--there is but one contrivance left. This is, to give to the ill-fated hoard _another name_; in the hope that a proverb properly belonging to a rose may be superabundantly verified in the case of an old book. What Anglo-Saxon scholar has not studied "_Divers Ancient Monuments_," revived in 1638? and yet perhaps scarcely any one is aware that the appellation is entirely deceptive, and that no such collection was printed at that period. The inestimable remains of Ælfric, edited by L'Isle in 1623, and then entitled, "_A Saxon Treatise concerning the Old and New Testament_," together with a reprint of the "_Testimonie of Antiquitie_," (sanctioned by Archbishop Parker in 1567,) had merely submitted to substitutes for the first two leaves with which they had been ushered into the world, and after fifteen years the unsuspecting public were beguiled. When was this system of misnomers introduced? and can a more signal specimen of this kind of shamelessness be mentioned than that which is afforded by the fate of Thorndike's _De ratione ac jure finiendi Controversias Ecclesiæ Disputatio_? So this small folio in fours was designated when it was published, Lond. 1670; but in 1674 it became _Origines_ _Ecclesiasticæ_; and it was metamorphosed into _Restauratio Ecclesiæ_ in 1677.

(50.) Dr. Dibdin (_Typ. Antiq._ iii. 350.) has thus spoken of a quarto treatise, _De autoritate, officio, et potestate Pastorum ecclesiasticorum_:--

"This very scarce book is anonymous, and has neither date, printer's name, nor place; but being bound up with two other tracts of Berthelet's printing _are my reasons_ for giving it a place here."

The argument and the language in this sentence are pretty nearly on a par; for as misery makes men acquainted with dissimilar companions, why may not parsimony conglutinate heterogeneous compositions? I venture to deny altogether that the engraved border on the title-page was executed by an English artist. It seems rather to be an original imitation of Holbein's design: and as regards the date, can we not perceive what was meant for a modest "1530" on a standard borne by one of the boys in procession? In Simler's Gesnerian _Bibliotheca_ SIMON HESS (let me reiterate the question, Who was he?) is registered as the author; and of his work we read, "Liber impressus in Germania." This observation will determine its locality to a certain extent; and the tractate may be instantly distinguished from all others on the same subject by the presence of the following alliterative frontispiece:--

"Primus Papa, potens Pastor, pietate paterna, Petrus, perfectam plebem pascendo paravit. Posthabito plures populo, privata petentes, Pinguia Pontifices, perdunt proh pascua plebis."

R. G.

* * * * *

ENIGMATICAL EPITAPH.

In the church of Middleton Tyas, in the North Riding of the county, there is the following extraordinary inscription on the monument of a learned incumbent of that parish:--

"This Monument rescues from oblivion the Remains of the Rev. John Mawer, D.D., late Vicar of this Parish, who died Nov. 18th, 1763, aged 60. The doctor was descended from the royal family of Mawer, and was inferior to none of his illustrious ancestors in personal merit, being the greatest linguist this nation ever produced. He was able to write and speak twenty-two languages, and particularly excelled in the Eastern tongues, in which he proposed to his Royal Highness Frederick Prince of Wales, to whom he was firmly attached, to propagate the Christian religion in the Abyssinian empire,--a great and noble design, which was frustrated by the death of that amiable prince."

Whitaker, after giving the epitaph verbatim in his _History of Richmondshire_, vol. i. p. 234., says:

"This extraordinary personage, who may seem to have been qualified for the office of universal interpreter to all the nations upon earth, appears, {185} notwithstanding, to have been unaware that the Christian religion, in however degraded a form, has long been professed in Abyssinia. With respect to the royal line of Mawer I was long distressed, till, by great good fortune, I discovered that it was no other than that of old King Coyl."

As I happen to feel an interest in the subject which disinclines me to rest satisfied with the foregoing hasty--not to say flippant explanation of the learned historian, I am anxious to inquire whether or not any reader of the "NOTES AND QUERIES" can throw light on the history, and especially the genealogy, of this worthy and amiable divine? While I have reason to believe that Dr. Mawer was about the last person in the world to have composed the foregoing eulogy on his own character, I cannot believe that the allusion to illustrious ancestors "is merely a joke," as Whitaker seems to imply; while it is quite certain that there is nothing in the inscription to justify the inference that the deceased had been "unaware that the Christian religion" had "long been professed in Abyssinia:" indeed, an inference quite the reverse would be quite as legitimate.

J. H.

Rotherfield, Feb. 23. 1851.

* * * * *

SHAKSPEARE'S "MERCHANT OF VENICE"

(Act IV. Sc. 1.).

In the lines--

"The quality of Mercy is not strained, It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven, Upon the place beneath."

What is the meaning of the word "strained?" The verb _to strain_ is susceptible of two essentially different interpretations; and the question is as to which of the two is here intended? On referring to Johnson's Dictionary, we find, amongst other synonymous terms, _To squeeze through something; to purify by filtration; to weaken by too much violence; to push to its utmost strength_. Now, if we substitute either of the two latter meanings, we shall have an assertion that "Mercy is not weakened by too much violence (or put to its utmost strength), but droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven," &c., where it would require a most discerning editor to explain the connexion between the two clauses. If, on the other hand, we take the first two meanings, the passage is capable of being understood, if nothing else. Beginning with _to squeeze through something_; what would present itself to our ideas would be, that "Mercy does not fall in one continuous stream (as would be the case, if _strained_) on one particular portion of the earth, but expands into a large and universal shower, so as to spread its influence over the entire globe." This, however, though not absurd, is, I fear, rather forced.

To come to the second explanation of _to purify_, which in my opinion is the most apt, I take it that Shakspeare intended to say, that "Mercy is so pure and undefiled as to require no cleansing, but falls as gently and unsullied as the showers from heaven, ere soiled by the impurities of earth."

With these few remarks, I shall leave the matter in the hands of those whose researches into the English language may have been deeper than my own, with a hope that they may possess time and inclination to promote the elucidation of a difficulty in one of the most beautiful passages of our great national bard; a difficulty, by the way, which seems to have escaped the notice of all the editors and commentators.

L. S.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

_Was Lord Howard of Effingham, who commanded in chief against the Spanish Armada, a Protestant or a Papist?_--On the one hand, it is highly improbable that Queen Elizabeth should employ a popish commander against the Spaniards.

1. The silence of Dr. Lingard and other historians is also negatively in favour of his being a Protestant.

But, on the other hand, it has been repeatedly asserted, in both houses of Parliament, that he was a Papist.

2. It is _likely_, because his _father_ was the eldest son by his second wife of Thomas, second Duke of Norfolk, and was created Baron Howard of Effingham by Queen Mary.

3. Whatever his own religion may have been, he was contemporary with his cousin, Philip, Earl of Arundel, whom Camden calls the champion of the Catholics, and whose _violence_ was the cause of his perpetual imprisonment.

4. The present Lord Effingham has recently declared that by blood he was (had always been?) connected with the Roman Catholics.

Under these and _other_ circumstances, it is a question to be settled by _evidence_.

C. H. P.

Brighton.

_Lord Bexley--how descended from Cromwell?_--In the notice of the late Lord Bexley in _The Times_, it is stated that he was _maternally_ descended from Oliver Cromwell, the Protector, through the family of Cromwell's son-in-law, Ireton.