Chapter 4

But, perhaps, there may be doubts whether rightly. I am exceedingly ignorant in Fletcher; but here is a form of expression which occurs twice in the scene, which, I believe, is more conformable to the practice of Fletcher:--

"_A_ heed was in his countenance." "And force them with _a_ constancy."

There is very great stiffness in the versification: one instance is quite extraordinary:

"Yet I know her for A spleeny Lutheran; and not wholesome to Our cause, that she should lie i' the bosom of Our hard rul'd king."

There is great stiffness and tameness in the matter in many places.

Lastly, what MR. HICKSON hopes he has taken off Shakspeare's shoulders, the compliments to the Queen and the King, is brought in here most forcedly:--

"She (_i.e._ A. Boleyn) is a gallant creature, and complete In mind and feature. I persuade me, from her Will fall some blessings to this land, which shall In it be memoriz'd."

But there is also the general question, whether, either upon _à priori_ probability, or inferences derived from particular passages, we are bound to suppose that the two authors wrote scene by scene. Shakspeare might surely be allowed to touch up scenes, of which the mass might be written by Fletcher.

As to the dates, MR. COLLIER is persuaded that _Henry VIII._ was written in the winter of 1603-4. The accession of James was in March, 1603. MR. COLLIER thinks that the compliments to Queen Elizabeth were not written in her lifetime. He thinks that, even in the last year of her long reign, no one would have ventured to call her an "aged princess," though merely as a way of saying that she would have a long reign; and he says, there is not the slightest evidence that the compliment to King James was an interpolation. But surely it is strong evidence that if there is no interpolation, this passage--

"As when The bird of wonder dies, the maiden phoenix,"

afterwards--

"When Heav'n shall call her from this cloud of darkness,"

and then, after disposing of the King--

"She shall be to the happiness of England An aged princess . . . . . . . . . Would I had known no more--but she must die; She must--the saints must have her yet a virgin," &c.

{191} would be ridiculous. All that can be said is, that either way it is partly ridiculous to make it a matter of prophecy and lamentation that a human being must, sometime or other, die.

But it is very difficult to conceive that the compliments to Elizabeth should have been written after her death.

Fletcher, born in 1579, did not, in Mr. Dyce's opinion, bring out anything singly or jointly with Beaumont till 1606 or 1607.

The irrelevant scenes, like that of Ventidius, are introduced with two objects--one to gain time, the other for the sake of naturalness: of the latter of which there are two instances in _Macbeth_; one where the King talks of the swallows' nests: the other, relating to the English king touching for the evil, seems remarkably suited to the mind of Shakspeare.

C. B.

* * * * *

"SUN, STAND THOU STILL UPON GIBEON!"

(JOSH. x. 12.)

(Vol. iii., p. 137.)

The observations of I. K. upon this passage have obviously proceeded from a praiseworthy wish to remove what has appeared to some minds to be inconsistent with that perfect truth which they expect to be the result of divine inspiration. I. K. doubtless believes that God put it into the heart of Joshua to utter a command for the miraculous continuance of daylight. But why should he expect the inspiration to extend so far as to instruct Joshua respecting the manner in which that continuance was to be brought about? Joshua was not to be the worker of the miracle. It was to be wrought by Him who can as easily stop any part of the stupendous machinery of His universe, as we can stop the wheels of a watch. Joshua was left to speak, as he naturally would, in terms well fitted to make those around him understand, and tell others, that the sun and moon, whom the defeated people notoriously worshipped, were so far from being able to protect their worshippers, that they were made to promote their destruction at the bidding of Joshua, whom God had commissioned to be the scourge of idolaters. And when the inspired recorder of the miracle wrote that "the sun stood still," he told what the eyes saw, with the same truth as I might say that the sun _rose_ before seven this morning. Inspiration was not bestowed to make men wise in astronomy, but wise unto salvation.

Those who think that the inspired penman should have said "the earth stood still," in order to give a perfectly true account of the miracle, have need to be told, or would do well to remember, that the stopping of the diurnal revolution of the earth, in order to keep the sun and moon's apparent places the same, would not involve a cessation of its motion in its orbit, still less a cessation of that great movement of the whole solar system, by which it is now more than conjectured that the sun, the moon, and the earth are all carried on together at the rate of above 3700 miles in an hour; so that to say "the earth stood still" would be liable to the same objection, viz., that of not being astronomically true. I. K. carries his notion of the "inseparable connexion" of the sun "with all planetary motion" too far, when he supposes that a stoppage of the sun's motion round its own axis would have any effect on our planet. The note he quotes from Kitto's _Pictorial Bible_ is anything but satisfactory; and that from Mant is childishly common-place. Good old Scott adverts with propriety to the Creator's power to keep all things in their places, when the earth's revolution was stopped; but when he endeavoured to illustrate it by the little effect of a ship's _casting anchor when under full sail_, he should have consulted his friend Newton, who would have stopped such an imagination. Another commentator, Holden, has argued, in spite of the Hebrew, that "in the midst of heaven" cannot mean mid-day, having made up his mind that the moon can never be seen at that hour!

Such helpers do but make that difficult which, if received in its simplicity, need neither perplex a child nor a philosopher.

H. W.

* * * * *

Replies to Minor Queries.

_Ulm Manuscript_ (Vol. iii., p. 60.).--The late Bishop Butler's collection of manuscripts is in the British Museum. I send you a copy of the bishop's own description of the MS. (which should be called the _St. Gall MS._), from the printed Catalogue, which was prepared for a sale by auction, previous to the negociation with the trustees for the purchase of the collection for the nation.

"Acta Apostolorum. Epistolæ Pauli et Catholicæ cum Apocalypsi. Latinè. Sæculi IX. Upon Vellum. 4to.

The date of this most valuable and important manuscript is preserved by these verses:

'Iste liber Pauli retinet documenta sereni Hartmodus Gallo quem contulit Abba Beato, Si quis et hunc Sancti sumit de culmine Galli Hunc Gallus Paulusque simul dent pestibus amplis.'

Which I thus have tried to imitate:

Thys boke conteynes the doctrynes of Seynct Paull, Hartmodus thabbat yeve yt to Seynct Gall; Gyf any tak thys boke from hygh Seynct Gall, Seynct Gall appall hym and Seynct Paull hym gall.

Hartmodus was Abbot of St. Gall in the Grisons from A.D. 872 to 874. The MS. therefore may be earlier than the former, but cannot be later than the latter date. {192}

This MS. is of the very highest importance. It contains the celebrated passage of St. John thus: 'Quia tres sunt, qui testimonium dant, Spliritus, aqua, et sanguis, et tres unum sunt. Sicut in coelo tres sunt, Pater, Verbum, et Spiritus, et tres unum sunt.' This most important word _Sicut_ clearly shows how the disputed passage, from having been a Gloss crept into the text. And on the first page prior to the Seven Catholic Epistles is the Prologue of St. Jerome, bearing his name in uncials, which Porson and other learned men think spurious. See Porson's _Letters to Travis_, p. 290."--Bp. Butler's Manuscript Catalogue.

H. Foss.

Rotherhithe, Jan. 29. 1851.

_Harrison's Chronology_ (Vol. iii., p. 105.).--To the querist on William Harrison all lovers of bibliography are under obligations. At Oxford, amid the Bodleian treasures, he could not have had many questions to ask: at Thurles the case may be much otherwise, and he is entitled to a prompt reply.

After examining the _Typographical Antiquities_ of Ames and Herbert, and various bibliographical works, relying also on my own memory as a collector of books for more than thirty years, I may venture to assert that the _Chronology_ of W. Harrison has never been printed. I can further assert that no copy of the work is recorded in the _Catalogi librorum manuscriptorum Angliæ et Hiberniæ_, Oxoniæ, 1697.

The best account of Harrison is given by bishop Tanner, in his _Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica_. Wood, however, should be consulted. With reference to the events of his life, it is important to observe that the date of his letter to sir William Brooke, which may be called an autobiography in miniature, is 1577.

Assuming that this question could not escape the notice of other contributors, I had made no researches with a view to answer it, and shall be happy to remedy the defects of this scrap at a future time.

BOLTON CORNEY.

_Mistletoe on Oaks_ (Vol. ii., pp. 163, 214.).--Is it ever found now on _other_ trees? Sir Thos. Browne (_Vulg. Err._ lib. ii. cap. vi. § 3.) says, "We observe it in England very commonly upon _Sallow_, _Hazell_, and Oake." By-the-bye, DR. BELL (p. 163.) seems to adopt the belief, which it is Browne's object in the section referred to above to refute, viz., that "Misseltoe is bred upon trees, from seeds which birds let fall thereon." Have later observations shown that it was Browne himself who was in error?

ACHE.

_Swearing by Swans_ (Vol. iii., p. 70.).--An instance of the cognate custom of swearing by pheasants is given by Michelet, _Précis de l'Histoire Moderne_ (pp. 19, 20.). On the taking of Constantinople by the Turks,--

"L'Europe s'émut enfin: Nicholas V. prêcha la croisade.... à Lille, le duc de Bourgoyne fit apparaître, dans un banquet, l'image de l'Eglise désolée et, selon les rites de la chevalerie, jura Dieu, la Vierge, les dames, et _le faisan_, qu'il irait combattre les infidèles." (1454.)

It seems, however, that in spite of all these formalities, the oath did not sit very heavily on the conscience of the taker: for we are told immediately after that--

"Cette ardeur dura peu.... le duc de Bourgoyne resta dans ses états."

Michelet gives, as his authority, Olivier de la Marche, t. viii. _De la Collection des Mémoires rélatifs à l'Hist. de France_, edit. de M. Petitot.

X. Z.

_Jurare ad caput animalium_ (Vol. ii., p. 392; Vol. iii., p. 71.).--Schayes, a Belgic writer (in _Les Pays Bas avant et durant la Domination Romaine_, vol. ii. p. 73. et seq.), furnishes references to two councils, in which this mode of swearing was condemned, viz. Concil. Aurelianense (Orleans), A.D. 541, and Concil. Liptinense (Liptines or Lestines), 743. On the Indiculus Paganiarum of the latter he subjoins the commentaries of Des Roches (_Anc. Mém. de l'Acad. de Brux._), de Meinders (_de statu relig. sub Carolo M._, p. 144.), d'Eckart (_Francia Orient_, lib. i. p. 407.), de Canciani (_de Legibus barbaror._, tom. iii. p. 78.). The enquirer may also consult Riveli Opera on the Decalogue; Petiti, _Observ. Miscell._ lib. iv. c. 7.: "Defenditur Socrates ab improba Lactantii calumnia et de ejus jusjurando per _canem_:" and Alex. ab Alexandro, _Geniales Dies_, lib. v. c. 10.

I may avail myself of this opportunity of noticing the misprint in p. 152., _V_ezron for _P_ezron.

T. J.

_Ten Children at a Birth_ (Vol. ii., p. 459.; Vol. iii., p. 64.).--We are indebted to the obliging courtesy of the editor of the _Leeds Mercury_ for the following extract from that paper of the 9th October, 1781:--

"A letter from Sheffield, dated October 1, says, 'This day one Ann Birch, formerly of Derby, who came to work at the silk-mills here, was delivered of TEN children; nine were dead, and one living, which, with the mother, is likely to do well.'"

Our informant adds--

"I never heard of any silk-mills at Sheffield. If there was a Medical Society in Sheffield then, its records might be examined."

Can our correspondent N. D. throw any further light upon this certainly curious and interesting case?

_Richard Standfast_ (Vol. iii., p. 143.).--This divine is buried in Christ Church, Bristol; having been rector of that church for the long space of fifty-one years. There is a monument erected to his memory in the above-mentioned building, with the following inscription:-- {193}

"Near this place lieth the body of Richard Standfast, Master of Arts, of Sidney College in Cambridge, and Chaplain-in-Ordinary to his Majesty King Charles I., who for his loyalty to the King and stedfastness in the established religion, suffered fourteen years' sequestration. He returned to his place in Bristol at the restoration of King Charles II., was then made prebendary of the cathedral church of Bristol, and for twenty years and better (notwithstanding his blindness) performed the offices of the church exactly, and discharged the duties of an able, diligent, and orthodox preacher. He was Rector of Christ Church upwards of fifty-one years, and died August 24, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, and in the year of Our Lord 1681.

He shall live again."

The following additional lines, composed by himself, were taken down from his own mouth two days before his death; and are, according to his own desire, inscribed on his tomb:--

"Jacob was at Bethel found, And so may we, though under ground. With Jacob there God did intend, To be with him where'ver he went, And to bring him back again, Nor was that promise made in vain. Upon which words we rest in confidence That he which found him there will fetch us hence. Nor without cause are we persuaded thus, For where God spake with him, he spake with us."

Besides the work your correspondent mentions, he wrote a book, entitled a _Caveat against Seducers_.

J. K. R. W.

Feb. 22. 1851.

"_Jurat, crede minus_" (Vol. iii., p. 143.).--This epigram was quoted by Sir Ed. Coke on the trial of Henry Garnet. The author I cannot tell, but F. R. R. may be glad to trace it up thus far.

J. BS.

_Rab Surdam_ (Vol. ii., p. 493.; Vol. iii., p. 42.).--May not "Rab Surdam" be the ignorant stone-cutter's version of "resurgam?"

M. A. H.

_The Scaligers_ (Vol. iii., p. 133.).--Everything relating to this family is interesting, and I have read with pleasure your correspondent's communication on the origin of their armorial bearings. I am, however, rather surprised to observe, that he seems to take for granted the relationship of Julius Cæsar Scaliger and his son Joseph to the Lords of Verona, which has been so convincingly disproved by several writers. The world has been for some time pretty well satisfied that these two illustrious scholars were mere impostors in the claim they made, that Joseph Scaliger's letter to Janus Dousa was a very impudent affair. If your correspondent has met with any new evidence in support of their claim, it would gratify me much if he would make it known. Who would not derive pleasure from seeing the magnificent boast of Joseph proved at last to have been founded in fact:

"Ego sum septimus ab Imperatore Ludovico et Illustrissimâ Hollandiæ comite Margareta: septimus item a Mastino tertio, ut et magnus Rex Franciscus, literarum parcus."

and Scioppius's parting recommendation--

"Quid jam reliquum est tibi, nisi ut nomen commutes et ex Scalifero fias Furcifer?"--_Scaliger Hypobolimaeus. Mogunt._, 1607, 4to., p. 74. b.

deprived of its force and stringency? I fear, however, that this is not to be expected.

It is impossible to read Joseph Scaliger's defence of his own case in the rejoinder to Scioppius, _Confutatio fabulæ Burdonum_, without observing that the author utterly fails in connecting Niccolo, the great-grandfather of Joseph, with Guglielmo della Scala, the son of Can Grande Secundo. And yet such is the charm of genius, that the _Confutatio_, altogether defective in the main point as a reply, will ever be read with delight by succeeding generations of scholars.

JAMES CROSSLEY.

Manchester, Feb. 22, 1851.

_Lincoln Missal_ (Vol. iii., p. 119.).--It is clear that one of the most learned ritualists, Mr. Maskell, did not know of a manuscript of the Lincoln Use, else he would have noted it in his work, _The Ancient Liturgy of the British Church_, where the other Uses of Salisbury, York, Bangor, and Hereford, are compared together. In his preface to this work (p. ix.) he states--

"It has been doubted whether there ever was a Lincoln Use in any other sense than a different mode and practice of chanting."

MR. PEACOCK would probably find more information in the _Monumenta Ritualia_, to which Mr. Maskell refers in his preface.

N. E. R. (A Subscriber.)

_By and bye_ (Vol. iii., p. 73.).--Your correspondent S. S., in support of his opinion that _by the bye_ means "by the way," suggests that _good bye_ may mean "bon voyage." I must say the commonly received notion, that it is a contraction of "God be wi' ye," appears to me in every way preferable. I think that in the writers of the Elizabethan age, every intermediate variety of form (such as "God b' w' ye," &c.) may be found; but I cannot at this moment lay my hand on any instance.

In an ingenious and amusing article in a late Number of the _Quarterly_, the character of different nations is shown to be indicated by their different forms of greeting, and surely the same may be said of their forms of taking leave. The English pride themselves, and with justice, on being a peculiarly religious people: now, applying the above test,--as the Frenchman has his _adieu_, the Italian his _addio_, the Portuguese his _addios_, and the Spaniard his "vaya usted con _Dios_,"--it is to be presumed {194} that the Englishman, also, on parting from his friend, will commit him to the care of Providence. On the other hand, it must be admitted that the Germans, who, as well as the English, are supposed to entertain a deeper sense of religion than many other nations, content themselves with a mere "lebe-wohl." I should be obliged if some one of your readers will favour me with the forms of taking leave used by other nations, in order that I may be enabled to see whether the above test will hold good on a more extensive application.

X. Z.

_Gregory the Great._--This is clearly a mere slip of the pen in Lady Morgan's pamphlet. I I think it may confidently be asserted that Gregory VII. has not been thus designated habitually at any period.

R. D. H.

_True Blue_ (Vol. iii., p. 92.)--"The earliest connexion of the colour blue with truth" (which inquiry I cannot consider as synonymous with the original Query, Vol. ii., p. 494.) is doubtless to be traced back to one of the typical garments worn by the Jewish high priest, which was (see Godwyn's _Moses and Aaron_, London, 1631, lib. i. chap. 5.) "A robe all of blew, with seventy two bels of gold, and as many pomegranates, of blew, purple, and scarlet, upon the skirts thereof." He says that "by the bells was typed the sound of his (Christ's) doctrine; by the pomegranates the sweet savour of an holy life;" and, without doubt, by "the blew robe" was typified the immutability and truthfulness of the person, mission, and doctrine of our great High Priest, who was clothed with truth as with a garment. The great Antitype was a literal embodiment of the symbolic panoply of his lesser type.

BLOWEN.

_Drachmarus_ (Vol. iii., p. 157.).--Your correspondent has my most cordial thanks both for his suggestion, and also for his conjecture.

1. Perhaps you will kindly afford me space to say, that the name of Drachmarus occurs in a well-written MS. account of Bishop Cosin's controversy, during his residence in Paris, with the Benedictine Prior Robinson, concerning the validity of our English ordination: in the course of which, after stating the opinion of divers of the Fathers, that the keys of order and jurisdiction were given John xx., "Quorum peccata," &c., Cosin adds:

"I omit Hugo Cardinalis, the ordinary gloss, _Drachmarus_, Scotus, as men of a later age (though all, as you say, of your church) that might be produced to the same purpose."

I should here perhaps state, that no letter of Prior Robinson's is extant in which any mention is made either of Drachmarus or of Druthmarus.

2. Before my Query was inserted, it had not only occurred to me as probable that the transcriber might have written Drachmarus in mistake for Druthmarus, but I had also consulted such of Druthmar's writings as are found in the _Bibl. Patr._ I came to the conclusion, however, that a later writer than Christian Druthmar was intended. _My_ conjecture was, that Drachmarus must be a second name for some known writer of the age of the schoolmen, just as _Carbajulus_ may be found cited under the name of _Loysius_, or _Loisius_, which are only other forms of his Christian name, _Ludovicus_.

J. SANSOM.

_The Brownes of Cowdray, Sussex._--E. H. Y. (Vol. iii., p. 66.) is wrong in assigning the title of Lord _Mountacute_ to the Brownes of Cowdray, Sussex. In 1 & 2 Phil. and Mary, Sir Antony Browne (son of the Master of the Horse to Henry VIII.) was created Viscount _Montague_ (Collins). When curate of Eastbourne, in which parish are situated the ruins of their ancestral Hall of Cowdray, I frequently heard the village dames recite the tales of the rude forefathers of the hamlet respecting the family.

They relate, that while the great Sir Antony (temp. Hen. VIII.) was holding a revel, a monk presented himself before the guests and pronounced the curse of fire and water against the male descendants of the family, till none should be left, because the knight had received and was retaining the church-lands of Battle Abbey, and those which belonged to the priory of Eastbourne. Within the last hundred years, destiny, though slow of foot, has overtaken the fated race. In one day the hall perished by fire, and the lord by water, as mentioned by E. H. Y. The male line being extinct, the estate passed to the sister of Lord Montague. This lady was married to the late W. S. Poyntz, Esq., M.P. The two sons of Mr. and Mrs. Poyntz were drowned at Bognor, and the estate a second time devolved on the female representatives. These ladies, still living, are the Marchioness of Exeter, the Countess Spencer, and the Dowager Lady Clinton. The estate passed by purchase into the hands of the Earl of Egmont.

The old villagers, the servants, and the descendants of servants of the family, point to the ruins of the hall, and religiously cling to the belief that its destruction and that of its lords resulted from the curse. It certainly seems an illustration of Archbishop Whitgift's words to Queen Elizabeth:

"Church-land added to an ancient inheritance hath proved like a moth fretting a garment, and secretly consumed both: or like the eagle that stole a coal from the altar, and thereby set her nest on fire, which consumed both her young eagles and herself that stole it."

E. RDS.

Queen's Col., Birm., Feb. 20. 1851.