Part 2

"When Gabriel (no blest spirit more kind or fair) Bodies and cloathes himself with thicken'd air, All like a comely youth in life's fresh bloom; Rare workmanship, and wrought by heavenly loom! He took for skin a cloud most soft and bright, That ere the mid day sun pierc'd through with light: Upon his cheeks a lively blush he spread, Wash't from the morning's beauties deepest red. An harmless flaming meteor shone for haire And fell adown his shoulders with loose care. He cuts out a silk mantle from the skies, Where the most sprightly azure pleas'd the eyes. This he with starry vapours spangles all, Took in their prime ere they grow ripe and fall. Of a new rainbow ere it fret or fade, The choicest piece took out, a scarf is made. _Small streaming clouds he does for wings display_, _Not virtuous lovers' sighs more soft than they_. _These he gilds o'er with the sun's richest rays_, _Caught gliding o'er pure streams on which he plays._"

_Davideis_, lib. ii. ad finem.

Again, in a verse which was inserted in the _Elegy_ as it originally stood (and the subsequent rejection of which we must ever grieve over, as it almost surpasses any verse of the entire poem; and besides would have saved it from the imputation of having been written as a heathen poet would have written it), the words "sacred calm" occur, which are not unfrequent in Cowley:

"Hark how the _sacred calm_ that breathes around Bids every fierce tumultuous passion cease; In still small accents whispering from the ground, A grateful earnest of eternal peace."--

_Gray._

"They came, but a new spirit their hearts possest, Scattering a _sacred calm_ through every breast."

_Davideis_, lib. i. ad finem.

"All earth-bred fears and sorrows take their flight; In rushes joy divine, and hope, and rest; A _sacred calm_ shines through his peaceful breast."

_Davideis_, lib. ii. ad finem.

Again, does not Mr. Gray's _Ode to Spring_--

"Methinks I hear," &c.

remind one a little of Cowley's "Anacreontic to the Grasshopper?"

"To thee of all things upon earth, Life is no longer than thy mirth. Happy insect, happy thou, _Dost neither age nor winter know_. But when thou'st drunk, and danc'd, and sung Thy fill, the flowery leaves among (Voluptuous and wise withal, Epicurean animal!) Sated with thy summer feast Thou retir'st to endless rest."

or the following lines

"Their raptures now that wildly flow, _No yesterday nor morrow know_; Tis man alone that joy descries With forward, and reverted eyes."

Gray's _Ode on the Pleasure arising from Vicissitude_.

In his notes to "Spring," Wakefield gets quite pathetic at the words--

"Poor moralist, and what art thou? A solitary fly," &c.

I have always believed that Gray was imitating Bishop Jeremy Taylor:

"Marriage is the mother of the world, and preserves kingdoms, and fills cities, and churches, and heaven itself. _Celibate, like the fly in the heart of an apple_, dwells in a perpetual sweetness, but sits alone, and is confined and dies in singularity."--Sermon XVII. _The Marriage Ring_, Part I.

If these random notes be interesting to any of your readers, they are only a portion out of many I could send; and any one who doubts Gray's partiality for Cowley may compare his second verse of the "Ode to Spring" with Cowley's lines on "Solitude," found amongst his _Essays_, especially verses 4. and 5.:

"Here let me careless and unthoughtful lying Hear the soft winds above me flying, With all their wanton boughs dispute, And the more tuneful birds to both replying, Nor be my self too mute.

"A silver stream shall roll his waters near; Gilt with the sunbeams here and there, On whose enamel'd bank I'll walk, And see how prettily they smile, and hear How prettily they talk."

And--

"Soft-footed winds with tuneful voices there Dance through the perfumed air, There silver rivers through enamel'd meadows glide, And golden trees enrich their side."

_Translation of Pindar's Second Olympic Ode._

Or let him compare Gray's Latin and English verses upon the death of his friend Mr. West with Cowley's upon the death of Mr. William Harvey and Mr. Crashaw:

"Hail, Bard Triumphant! and some care bestow On us the Poets Militant below," &c.

Cowley _on Mr. Crashaw_.

"At Tu, sancta anima, et nostri non indiga luctus," &c.

_Gray._

To these lines on Crashaw Pope is indebted for a sentiment which in his hands assumes a very infidel form:

"For modes of faith let senseless bigots fight; His can't be wrong whose life is in the right."

Crashaw had become a Roman Catholic, and was a canon of Loretto when he died; but Cowley's Protestant feelings could not blind him to his worth, and he says:

"His _Faith_ perhaps in some nice tenets might Be wrong; his _Life_, his soul were _in the Right_."

How much the two last-mentioned poems of Gray's owe to Milton's "Lines to Mansus" and his "Epitaphium Damonis," any one acquainted with them may remember. I have only been alluding to Gray's reproductions of Cowley.

RT.

Warmington.

Minor Notes.

_Remains of Sir Hugh Montgomery_ (Vol. iv., p. 206.)--Allusion has been made to the following stanza from "Chevy Chase:"--

"Against Sir Hugh Montgomery, So right his shaft he set, The grey goose wing that was thereon In his heart's blood was wet."

Having lately visited the sea-bathing town of Largs, my attention was attracted to a building in the churchyard forming the present burying ground. In this building, bearing date of erection 1636 by Sir Robert Montgomery (ancestor of the present Earl of Eglinton), there is an elaborately carved tomb of mason work, beneath which is a strongly arched stone vault, where, besides the founder and others, tradition has placed the remains of the brave Sir Hugh Montgomery. It is difficult to reconcile this with the long prior date of the battle of Chevy Chase, unless the vault, which has certainly a very ancient look, can be substantiated to have existed before the above building. Taking matters as they go, the remains of the warrior now appear in the most humiliating condition--reduced to a hard, dry bony skeleton deprived of legs and thighs, with the singular appearance of the skull having been cloven (most likely) by a battle-axe, the skull being held together by some plate or substance and rude stitching. The body is said to have been originally embalmed, and enclosed in a lead coffin, which was barbarously torn off some forty years ago, as sinks for fishing nets. The building, tomb, and vault, taken altogether, present perhaps one of the finest specimens of this species of architecture in Scotland, and are additionally curious from the cone roof of the building being highly ornamented with descriptive paintings in a tolerable state of preservation. It is understood that some historical notices of the whole have been privately printed by a Scotch antiquarian, of which some of your learned readers may be aware, and may furnish more ample details than the foregoing.

G.

Glasgow, Sept. 23, 1851.

_Westminster Hall._--The following extract from the _Issue Roll of Michaelmas Term_, 9 Hen. VII. 1493, may be interesting to some of your readers, and will perhaps lead to a speculation on the nature of "the disguisyings" alluded to:--

"To Richard Daland, for providing certain spectacles, or theatres, commonly called scaffolds, in the great hall at Westminster, for performance of 'the disguisyings,' exhibited to the people on the night of the Epiphany, as appears by a book of particulars; paid to his own hands, £28, 3_s._ 5-3/4_d._"--Devon's _Issue Roll_, 516.

Possibly the next entry, which is in Michaelmas in the following year, of a payment of five marks yearly "to John Englissh, Edward Maye, Richard Gibson, and John Hamond, 'lusoribus Regis' otherwise called in English the players of the king's interludes, for their fees,"--has some connexion with "the disguisyings."

DESSAWDORF.

_Meaning of "Log-ship."_--If you have a spare corner, can you grant it to me for the origin of a word which describes an article used in every sailing and steam vessel in the world, and yet perhaps not one sailor in a thousand knows whence it is derived. I allude to the word "log-ship," the name of the little wooden float (quadrant-shaped) by which, with a line attached, the vessel's speed is ascertained. Before the invention of the line with "knots" on it, a "chip," or floating-scrap, was thrown overboard forward, and the "master," or whoever it might be, walked aft at the rate which the vessel passed the "chip," judging of his pace from experience. Hence the term "log-ship," or "chip," which is its true name.

A. L.

West Indies, Aug. 11. 1851.

_The Locusts of the New Testament._--While in Greece last year, I was talking one day with a highly intelligent person on the English translation of the New Testament. In the course of our conversation he said, that in the third chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel we had got an entirely wrong meaning for the verse in which we are told the food of St. John the Baptist, viz. "locusts and wild honey." I have not at this moment a Testament in ancient Greek by me but in the Romaic the paragraph alluded to runs thus:

Verse 4. ... "[Greek: Kai hê trophê tou êton akrides, kai meli agrion.]"

He said that the word [Greek: akrides], which we have translated "locusts," means rather the "young and tender parts of plants." Since that time I have looked into various Lexicons and Dictionaries both of the ancient and modern Greek, but have been unable to find anything to assist me in fixing this meaning. In that of Hedericus, it is thus given: "[Greek: Akris, idos, hê], Locusta." There is also, however, "[Greek: Akris, ios, hê], Summitas, cacumen montis. Ab [Greek: akros], summus." Whether there may be any confusion between these two words I know not; and here, possibly, I may be assisted by some obliging reader. I have consulted, along with a clergyman who is well skilled in Greek literature, and who is perfectly acquainted with Romaic, many commentaries; but in every one we found this passage either entirely passed over, or very unsatisfactorily noticed.

[Greek: Boreas.]

Queries.

COINAGE OF VABALATHUS, PRINCE OF PALMYRA.

A great boon would be conferred on numismatists if some of your correspondents would endeavour to elucidate the puzzling legend sometimes found on coins of this prince.

Vabalathus, or Vhabalathus, Athenodorus (which Mionnet and Akerman make to be the Greek translation of Vabalathus), was the son of the celebrated Zenobia, by an Arab prince, and was raised to the imperial dignity by his mother. His sway extended over some parts of Syria and Egypt, A.D. 266-273.

Aurelian gave to Vabalathus a petty province of Armenia, of which he made him king, though perhaps this arose from the mistake of Occo and Salmasius (_in Vopisc._ p. 380.) in reading [Greek: ARMENIAS] for [Greek: AUG . HERMIAS] on his Egyptian coins (Vide infra).

His portrait appears on the reverse of coins of Aurelian, with the legend VABALATHVS. VCRIMDR. Frölich and Corsini have unsuccessfully attempted the interpretation of this word. Père Hardouin, considering, VCRIMOR as the correct reading, divides it V. C. R. IM. OR., i.e. _Vice Cæsaris Rector Imperii Orientis_; but, as Banduri rightly observes, the existence of this legend is extremely doubtful, VCRIMDR being the authorised one, and is undoubtedly so in a specimen in my cabinet; and though the worthy Jesuit remarks, "Barbaram vocem aliquam arbitrari sub hisce Notis Latinis latere, frigidum genus exceptionis est, ac desperantium," I am inclined to think that the true interpretation is to be sought in the Syriac, or some of the Oriental languages.

I have two others in my collection, of the rude third brass of the Egyptian mint: Obv. AURELIAN, &c.

Rev. [Greek: OUABALLATHOS . ATHÊNOU . AUG . HERMIAS I . AU . OUABALLATHOS . ATHÊNU . A . HER]

The first and three final letters of this last legend are very indistinct, and I should much like a correct reading of it, as it is, I believe, inedited. Other legends are given by Banduri: VABALATHVS . alii REX . VCRIM . P.P.--VABALATVS . VCRIMOR .--VABALATHVS . ITER . IMP . R.--IM . C . VHABALATHVS . AVG .--[Greek: A . HERMIAS . OUABALLATHOS . ATHÊNU .--AU . K . HERMIAS . OUABALLATHOS . ATHÊNOU . OUABALATHOS . ATHÊNOU . AUG . HERMIAS.]

E. S. TAYLOR.

Minor Queries.

195. _Chaucer, how pronounced._--What is, or was, the original pronunciation of the name of the poet Chaucer? Was, or was not, the _ch_ in his day a guttural? And was not the name _Hawker_ or _Howker_?

JAMES LAURIE.

196. _The Island of Ægina._--Having occasion to make some inquiry about the island of Ægina, in Greece, I have been sadly perplexed by the discrepancies of the modern authorities I have had an opportunity of consulting. The principal of these relates to the site of the temple of Jupiter, or Zeus Panhellenios, which Dr. Smith's _Classical Dictionary_, and M'Culloch's and Fullerton's _Gazetteers_, place in the N.E. part of the island; Fullerton, however, saying also that Mount St. Elias lies in _the south part_, though he does not say that the temple is built on that mount. But Blaikie's _Gazetteer_ says that the temple stands on _Mount St. Elias_, which, according to Fullerton, is in the _south_. With this agrees the map in the _Topographisch-historisch Atlas von Hellas_, &c. von H. Kiepert, Berlin, 1846, which distinctly places the "Tempel von Zeus Panhellenios" in the _south_ part of the island while the temple in the _north-east_ is called "Tempel von Athena." The Atlas to Anacharsis' _Travels_ places it also in the _south_. Which of these authorities is right? or, can any of your readers tell me, from personal knowledge, in what part of the island the said Temple of Zeus Panhellenios really stands?

JAMES LAURIE.

197. _Statute of Limitations Abroad._--With so many foreigners sojourning among us, I should be glad if you could, by throwing out a hint in your paper, obtain from them what is the statute of limitations of the several countries to which they belong.

CURIOSUS.

198. _Tapestry Story of Justinian._--There is a series of ancient tapestries in Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland, representing certain events in the life of the emperor Justinian. One of these exhibits him in the act of making his celebrated Digest of Law, surrounded by his lawyers; in a second, he is manumitting slaves before the temple of Janus, at the time, I presume, when he proclaimed the _eternal peace_, which lasted two years; in a third, he appears crowned, on his knees, swearing, it should seem, to observe the _Lex Romana_, which is held up to him in an open book by two lictors; in the fourth, he is seen in a wild country, with a hunting spear in his hand, coming, as it were by surprise, and in great alarm, upon two hounds in the agonies of death. A dish, from which they may have taken poison, lies on the foreground; and a stream, which may possibly have been poisoned, gushes from a neighbouring rock. Figures in the background seem to be slinking away from the scene here represented.

I shall be much obliged to any of your correspondents who can point out to me the ancient author in whose writings the circumstance alluded to in the last-mentioned picture is detailed.

W. N. DARNELL.

199. _Praed's Works._--Can any reader of "NOTES AND QUERIES" inform me if there be a collected edition of the works of Praed? Many of your readers are familiar with his fugitive pieces published in Knight's _Quarterly Magazine_, _The Etonian_, and other periodicals. And all, I am sure, who are acquainted with him, would be glad to see his graceful and elegant productions published in a collected form.

K. S.

200. _Folietani._--Who founded the order of _Folietani_, or leaf-eaters (to the exclusion of all grain and meat)? where and when? What Pope dissolved the order, and is the Bull extant?

A. N.

201. _Berlin Mean Time._--In the _Nautical Almanac_ the day is supposed to commence at noon according to the custom of English astronomers. Foreigners, however, ordinarily commence the astronomical day at midnight, at least those of France, Germany, Italy, and Spain do. But can you or any of your correspondents tell me whether it is from the midnight succeeding, or the midnight preceding our noon of the same number? For instance, taking the longitude of Berlin to be 0h 53m 35s .5 East, would the present moment, which is September 17, 3h 40m 30s Greenwich mean time, if expressed in Berlin mean time, be September 17, 16h 34m 5s .5, or would it be September 16, 16h 34m 5s .5? (I have reckoned to days by ordinals, as, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, &c., without a 0-day, which, however, the foreigners generally use, employing a cardinal number, the hours minutes, and seconds being considered as a fraction to be added.) I ask this question because so many things now are announced in Berlin mean time.

DX.

202. _De Foe's House at Stoke Newington._--About the year 1722 De Foe built here a large and handsome house for his own residence. Is it still standing, and where? Many mansions in the neighbourhood appear to have been erected about that time.

SPERIEND.

203. _Oxford Fellowships._--

"Upon this occasion I might repeat what I have observed before, page 33. of these _Annals_, where the highest fellowships in Oxford in 1534 or 1535 did not exceed 6_l._ 13_s._ 4_d._, nor the lowest fall under 3_l._, and that was in Brazen Nose College; at which time New College fellowships were but rated at 3_l._ 9_s._ 4_d._, nor any of Magdalen fellowships (_except two for Yorkshire that were obliged to go and preach in the countries abroad_) above 3_l._ 15_s._ 4_d._, as may be found in Mr. Twine's MS."--Smith's _Annals of Univ. Coll._ p. 372.

Can any of your correspondents throw any light upon the parenthetical clause printed in Italics?

E. H. A.

204. _Leonard Fell and Judge Fell._--Mr. Josiah Marsh, in _A popular Life of George Fox_, 8vo., London, 1847, p. 83., mentions "Leonard Fell of Becliff, a brother of the judge."

I shall be obliged by a reference to the authority on which this statement rests. George Fox frequently mentions both Leonard Fell and Judge Fell; but I cannot find in his _Journal_ the slightest hint that they were in any way connected. Fell is a common name in the north of Lancashire. Leonard Fell was one of the preachers who sometimes accompanied George Fox in his wanderings. Judge Fell was a staunch member of the Church of England.

LLEWELLYN.

205. "_Cleanliness is next to Godliness._"--Will you, or one of your correspondents, have the goodness to inform me whence is derived the quotation "Cleanliness is next to Godliness?"

A MUSSULMAN.

206. _Davies Queries._--I shall feel much obliged by a correct description of the monument erected to Sir John Davys, Davis, or Davies, the celebrated lawyer and poet, in St. Martin's church, London, and particularly of the arms, crest, and motto (if any) which are on it.

I wish to know also the _correct blazon_ of the following coats of arms: Thos. Davies, a fess inter three elephants' heads erazed; and Davis of London, on a bend cotissed inter six battle-axes three daggers: there is some mention of these arms in the Har. MSS., but I wish to know the correct colours of the shields and their charges?

LLAW GYFFES.

Minor Queries Answered.

_Poet referred to by Bacon._--To what poet does Bacon refer in the following passage of the _Advancement of Learning_?--

"The invention of one of the late poets is proper, and doth well enrich the ancient fiction: for he feigneth that at the end of the thread or web of every man's life there was a little medal containing the person's name, and that Time waited upon the shears; and as soon as the thread was cut, caught the medals, and carried them to the river of Lethe; and about the bank there were many birds flying up and down that would get the medals, and carry them in their beak a little while, and then let them fall into the river," &c.--Vol. ii. p. 112. in B. Montagu's edition of Bacon.

E.

[We are inclined to think that Bacon's reference was to the _Mirror for Magistrates_, and will probably be found in connexion with the following lines:

"A little wren in beake with laurell greene that flew, Foreshew'd my dolefull death, as after all men knew."]

_The Violin._--Which is the best work hitherto published on the history and construction of the violin?

MUSICUS.

[Certainly the best work on the history of this favourite instrument is the amusing little volume published by Mr. George Dubourg, in 1836, under the title of _The Violin, being an Account of that leading Instrument, and its most eminent Professors, from its earliest Date to the present Time: including Hints to Amateurs, &c._]

_Sir Thomas Malory, Knt._--I should feel obliged if any of your correspondents could give me any information relative to Sir Thomas Malory, Knt., who translated into English _The most Ancient and Famous History of the renowned Prince Arthur, King of Britaine_? Also any particulars relative the original author of that work?

M. P. S.

Inverness.

[Consult Herbert's edition of Ames's _Typographical Antiquities_, vol. i. pp. 59-61. 134.; Dibdin's _Typographical Antiquities_, vol. i. pp. 241-255.; and Wharton's _History of English Poetry_.]

_Archbishop of Spalatro._--In a note to the account of Chelsea College, in Lysons' _Environs of London_, which contains a list of the first fellows of the college, called by Archbishop Laud "Controversy College," of which Dr. Sutcliffe was founder and provost, I read--

"Many vacancies having occurred by the promotion of some of the fellows above-mentioned to bishoprics, and by the death of others, King James, by his letters patent, Nov. 14, 1622, substituted others in their room, among whom was _the celebrated Archbishop of Splalato, then Dean of Windsor_."

I wish to ask who this archbishop was? and should be glad to learn any further particulars respecting him, especially as to whether he ever acted as a bishop in England? _Splalato_ is, I presume, an error of the press for _Spalatro_.

W. FRAZER.

[Mark Antony de Dominis, born about 1561, was educated among the Jesuits, and was Bishop of Segni, and afterwards Archbishop of Spalatro. Bishop Bedell met with him at Venice, and corrected, previous to publication, his celebrated work _De Republica Ecclesiastica_. When Bedell returned to England, Dominis came over with him. Here he preached and wrote against the Romanists, and the king gave him the Deanery of Windsor, the Mastership of the Savoy, and the rich living of West Ildesley in Berkshire. De Dominis's wish seems to have been to re-unite the Romish and English churches. He returned to Rome in 1622, where he abjured his errors, but on the discovery of a correspondence which he held with some Protestants, he was thrown into prison, where he died in 1625. He was a man of great abilities and learning, although remarkable for a fickleness in religious matters. He was author of a work entitled _De Radiis Visus et Lucis in Vitris Perspectivis et Iride Tractatus_, and was the first person, according to Sir Isaac Newton, who had explained the phenomena of the colours of the rainbow. We are also indebted to him for Father Paul's _History of the Council of Trent_, the manuscript of which he procured for Archbishop Abbot.--See Chalmers's _Biographical Dictionary_, _s.v._ DOMINIS.]