Part 2

Mars. La Diète d'Augsbourg. Vienne, Peter Hansgood, 1690.

Avril. La Lotterie de Pasquin. Basle, Eugene Tyrannomostix, 1690.

Mai. L'Ombre de Monmouth. Oxford, _James Good King_, 1690.

Juin. Les Medaillez. Amsterdam, Eugene Philolethe, 1690.

"Tome 3. Title.

Juillet. La Clef du Cabinet de Neufbourg. Heidelberg, Neopolo Palatino, 1690.

Août. Le Triomphe. Fleuruz, chez Valdekin Bienbattu, 1690.

Septembre. Les Ombres de Schomberg et de Lorraine. Dublin, chez Le Vieux, Belle Montaigne.

Octobre. La Lanterne de Diogène. Whitehall, chez La Veuve Guillemot. 1690.

Novembre. Les Mercures, ou la Tabatière des Etats d'Hollande. Hermstadt, chez Emeric Hospodar, 1690.

Décembre. Le Roy des Fleurs. A Bride, chez Leopol la Dupe.

"Tome 4. Title.

Janvier. Les Estrennes d'Esope ('burnt at Amsterdam, by the hand of the hangman, by order of the States-General. The dialogue had its origin, probably, in the proscription of the History of the Republic of Holland by the same author, which was seized wherever it was found.'--_Peignot._). Bruxelles, chez Jean Gobbin, 1691.

Février. L'Ombre du Duc d'Albe, with illustration. Anvers, Antoine Maugouverne, 1691.

Mars. Le Carnaval de la Haye, with illustration. A la Haye, chez Guillaume l'Emballeur, 1691.

Avril. Le Tabouret des Electeurs, with illustration. Honslar dük, Guillemin Tabouret, 1691.

Mai. Le Reveille Matin des Alliez, with illustration. A Monts, Guillaume le Chasseur, 1691.

Juin. Les Lunettes pour le Quinze Vingts. Turin, Jean sans Terre, 1691.

"Tome 5. Title.

Juillet. Nostradamus, ou les Oracles, with illustration. A Liege, Lambert Bonnefoi, 1691.

La Fable du Baudet Extraordinaire, with illustration. A Asnières, chez Jean le Singe, 1691.

Août. L'Anneau des Giges, with illustration. A Venise, Penetrante Penetranti, 1691.

Septembre. L'Avortement, with illustration. Gerpines, chez Guillaume Desloge sur le Quai des Morfondus au Pistolet qui prend un Rat, 1691.

Octobre. Le Jean de Retour, with illustration. A Loo, chez Guillaume Pie de Nez, rue Perdue au Bien Revenu, 1691.

Novembre. Le Prothée, with illustration. Chez Pedre l'Endormy, 1691."

Eustache le Noble, Baron of St. George and of Tenelière, the author of this work, was born at Troyes in 1643, of a good and ancient family. His natural abilities and attainments, combined with political influence, readily obtained for him, at an early age, the post of Procureur-Général to the Parliament at Metz. But a dissolute life soon brought on its consequent evils--duties neglected and discreditable debts--and he was compelled to sell his appointment. The proceeds were insufficient, and he had recourse to forgery to satisfy his creditors. To be successful in such a case, more than ability is required. Le Noble was suspected, arrested, confined in the Châtelet, and condemned to nine years' imprisonment. Upon his appeal, he was removed to the Conciergerie, a place destined to become another scene in his life of uniform villainy. Gabrielle Perreau, known under the name of "La Belle Epicière," was confined here at the instigation of her husband, who indulged in the hope of thus reforming her disorderly conduct. But a prison is hardly a school of reformation, and La Belle Epicière and Le Noble were not characters to receive, even in monastic seclusion, any such impression. He won her affections, or the mastery over her passions: the husband, frantic with jealous rage, obtained for himself the satisfaction of immuring her in a convent of his own selection. From this she escaped, and joined Le Noble, who had similarly evaded the vigilance of his keepers. By living in the vilest and least frequented quarters of Paris, by disguises, false names, and constant changes of residence, they succeeded in baffling the pursuit of the police for three years, when Le Noble was accidentally discovered; the judgment of the Châtelet was confirmed, and he was reconducted to prison. It was then that his great resources were displayed. He retained his gaiety, and assured his friends he still enjoyed "une parfaite tranquillité d'esprit, inséparable de l'innocence!" A man of this kind, with a venal and capacious intellect, and a heart utterly unconscious of the slightest moral feeling, could not with advantage be suffered to remain unemployed. There was work to be done for James II., and the hireling was worthy of his hire. It was simply to lie and libel with ability, with caution, with the appearance of loyalty, and an ardent zeal for religion. Le Noble was equal to the task. He had written histories burnt by the hangman; Bayle had praised him for his skill in judicial astrology; he had composed treatises on money, and on Catholic doctrine; compiled historical romances, and translated the Psalms of David! In poetry he had attempted to rival La Fontaine; written the Eulogy of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, and translated Persius,--substituting French customs for the Roman, and praising, or censuring, his contemporaries as though he were the Roman poet and not the Paris scribe! An ability so various was at least well paid. He received from the booksellers, and others by whom he was retained, a hundred pistoles a month; Peignot states, in all, about one hundred thousand crowns. There cannot be the least doubt this was but a portion of his earnings, or that the work I have described was not written for the Jacobite interest of James II. But no success in such characters is ever accompanied with prudence. Although the penalty of banishment from France was suspended, that his venal abilities might assist the designs of others, he was always living between luxury and the direst want. As he advanced in years, he was less useful, and was consequently driven from doors where he had formerly been welcomed. D'Argenson allowed him a louis-d'or for charity per week; but all other resources failed, until, in his sixty-eighth year, after a long period of misery, and of the uttermost mental and bodily degradation, he died on the 31st January, 1711, and was buried at the communal expense. It cannot be denied that Le Noble united many pleasing qualities as a writer. He had read much, could condense ably, and united to a strong memory a rare facility in employing its resources. He touched with light ridicule the weaker points of a case, and could wield both reason, sarcasm and polished inuenda in misstating facts, or damaging the argument of his adversaries. Such a man was well adapted to the French advisers of James. Public attention was to be engaged and won by falsehoods in the disguise of truth; bad designs were to be cloaked under moral purposes; and the revolution was to be discredited in the name of loyalty and religion. All this Le Noble did with infinite ability, and infinite obliquity. I can give but a slight sketch of his work. The _Couronnement de Guillemot_ is a violent tirade against William. Marforio and Pasquin converse about his coronation, and the king is described as one "qui vouloit estre le bourreau du Prince de Galles." Churchill is "l'infame comblé de tant de bienfaitz par son bon maître, et qui l'a vendu, trahi et livré." In the decorations of the abbey, consisting of tapestry, &c., there is stated to be a representation of Pilate placing Jesus Christ and Barabbas before the people, and the choice of Barabbas by the latter; James occupying, in Le Noble's opinion, the place of the former. The people he describes as preferring even "ce voleur public, ce scélérat, ce séditieux de Barabbas, ce meurtrier qui a poignardé les _Withs_ (Witts), à cet aimable maistre qui n'a jamais eu pour eux que de la douceur et de la bonté." The _Sermon du grand Docteur Burnet_ is very clever, light, pungent, and satirical, especially against the king: the text being "Dominus regnavit, exultet terræ, lætentur insulæ." In the _L'Ombre de Monmouth_, William is described as wishing to be "le singe du glorieux Cromwell;" Portland, Shrewsbury, Burnet, and Dykvelt, are "ses quatre Evangélistes;" and the king is made to utter violent complaints against the Parliament, which he calls "une étrange beste," and adds: "Si je n'avois pas cassé celui que j'ai rompu pour en convoquer un autre, toutes mes affaires s'en alloient sens dessus dessous." In the _Estrennes d'Esope_, which was burnt by order of the States-General, there is the following description of England:

"L'Angleterre sous son Roi légitime et ne lui donnant qu'avec epargne comme elle faisoit le nécessaire pour son entretien, estoit justement comme ces sages et vertueuses femmes qui, fidèles à leurs époux, gouvernen avec un prudent économie leur ménage reglé, et cette mesme Angleterre, qui s'épuise pour satisfaire à l'avidité d'un tyran, est aujourd'hui comme une de ces infames debauchées qui, emportée de fureur pour une adultère qui l'enlève à son mari, lui fait une profusion criminelle de son bien."

In illustrations such as these, Le Noble was most happy, as with the vice he was most familiar. The length of this paper precludes my sending to you a pasquinade, in the epitaph written for Innocent XI., which, considering its purport, is of value as indicating the opinions of the Jacobites against the policy of the Pope. This I will do in another paper.

S. H.

CALAMITIES OF AUTHORS.

The miseries and disappointments of the literary life are proverbial:

"Toil, envy, want, the patron and the gaol."

To these "calamities of authors," I wish to add a new, and as yet unrecorded trial, incidental to this age of cheap postage and extravagant puffs. I am myself _a small author_, and have written on theology and antiquarianism; and my publisher's shelves know the weight of my labours. Conceive then my delight, a few weeks ago, at receiving a "confidential" letter from B. D., requesting the immediate transmission of my theological tomes to a country address; on the representation that, although B. D. well knew that my writings had been favourably received, he judged that "striking recommendations at this moment in influential journals to which he had reviewing access during the parliamentary recess, would prove of essential service." I wrote to my publisher, who coolly answered that it was "no go;" and I even stood the tempting shock of a second application from B. D., remonstratively hinting that, but for the non-arrival of the volumes, a notice would have appeared that very week in an "important quarter." The hopeful mind has difficulty in settling down into a belief that men deceive.

Not a month had elapsed before I received another letter, sealed with such a signet as in size would rival the jewel sometimes seen pendent from the waistcoat pocket of a Jew broker on Saturday, and engraven with evidence of illustrious lineage, if quarterings be only half true. I did not break this magnificent seal, but I tore open the envelope, and I found that my antiquarian researches had been most flatteringly estimated by a gentleman with a double surname, which happened to be familiar to me. The communication was, of course, "private;" and it expressed the writer's knowledge, from hearsay, of the "value, merit, and ability" of my book, and the satisfaction it would afford my correspondent, to give it a "handsome an elaborate review in both the widely circulating and reviewing publications with which he had the honour of being connected." A copy of my work was to be sent to his own address, or to that of his bookseller: or, even a third course was obligingly opened to me--"he would send his man-servant to my publisher for the volume!" I sent the book, and the same day communicated with the head of the family who legally bore this very handsome name used by my correspondent, and he told me that he had just received 5_l._ worth of books from a great house in "the Row," which were obviously designed to be the response to an application from the gentleman with a large seal, who was "an impostor." This may be so; but I have received an acknowledgement for the receipt of my little work, so kind and courtly in its tone, that I do not even yet quite despair of one day reading the promised "handsome and elaborate review."

A SMALL AUTHOR.

FOLK LORE.

_Valentine's Day--Superstition in Devonshire._--The peasants and others believe that if they go to the porch of a church, waiting there till half-past twelve o'clock on the eve of St. Valentine's day, with some hempseed in his or her hand, and at the time above-named then proceed homewards, scattering the seed on either side, repeating these lines--

"Hempseed I sow, hempseed I mow, She (or he) that will my true love be, Come rake this hempseed after me;"--

his or her true love will be seen behind, raking up the seed just sown, in a winding-sheet. Do any of your readers know the origin of this superstitious custom?

J. S. A.

Old Broad Street.

_Fairies._--An Irish servant of mine, a native of Galway, gave me the following relations:--Her father was a blacksmith and for his many acts of benevolence to benighted travellers became a great favourite with the fairies, who paid him many visits. It was customary for the fairies to visit his forge at night, after the family had retired to rest, and here go to work in such right good earnest, as to complete, on all occasions, the work which had been left overnight unfinished. The family were on these occasions awoke from their slumber by the vigorous puffing of bellows, and hammering on anvil, consequent upon these illustrious habits of the fairies, and it was an invariable rule for the fairies to replace all the tools they had used during the night; and, moreover, if the smithy had been left in confusion the previous evening, the "good people" always arranged it, swept the floor, and restored everything to order before the morning. I never could glean from her any detailed instances of the labour accomplished in this way, or indeed anything which might aid in the formation of an estimate of the relative skill of the fairies in manual labour; and I must confess that on these subjects I never question too closely,--the reader will know why.

On one occasion, one of the family happening to be unwell, the father went back to the smithy at midnight for some medicine which had been left there on the shelf, and put the "good people" to flight, just as they had begun their industrial orgies. To disturb the fairies is at any time a perilous thing; and so it proved to him: for a fat pig died the following day, little Tike had the measles, too, after, and no end of misfortunes followed. In addition to this occult revenge, the inmates of the house were kept awake for several nights by a noise similar to that which would be produced by peas being pelted at the windows. The statement was made with an earnestness of manner which betrayed a faith without scruples.

SHIRLEY HIBBERD.

Minor Notes.

_Lines in Whispering Gallery at Gloucester Cathedral._--The following verse is inscribed in the Whispering Gallery of Gloucester Cathedral; to preserve it, and as a "Note" to the fourth stanza of the "Ditty" I inserted in Vol iv., p. 311., I copied it for "N. & Q."

"Doubt not but God who sits on high, Thy secret prayers can hear; When a dead wall thus cunningly Conveys soft whispers to the ear."

H. G. D.

_Definition of Thunder._--The following singular definition of _thunder_ occurs in Bailey's _Dictionary_, vol. i. 17th edit., 1759:--

"Thunder [Dunder, Sax. &c.], a noise known by persons not deaf."

In Bailey's 2nd vol. 2nd edition, 1731 (twenty-eight years previous to the edition of vol. i. above cited), the word is much more scientifically treated.

CRANMORE.

_Greek Epigram by an uncertain Author._--

Εἴ με φιλοῦντα φιλεῖς, δισσὴ χάρις· εἰ δέ με μισεῖς, Τόσσον μισηθείης, ὅσσον ἐγώ σε φιλῶ.

_Imitated._

"Shouldst thou, O Daphne! for my sake, An equal pain endure, A sense of gratitude will make The bond of love secure.

But shouldst thou, reckless of my fate, Unkind and cruel prove, Sweet maid, thou'lt never learn to hate So truly as I love."

N. N.

Queries.

BURNING OF THE JESUITICAL BOOKS AT PARIS.

The Quarterly Reviewer who endeavours in the number just published to establish the claim of Thomas Lord Lyttelton to the authorship of Junius, instances the following coincidence in support of his theory:--

"Junius tells us directly, 'I remember seeing Busenbaum, Suarez, Molina, and a score of other Jesuitical books, burnt at Paris, for their sound casuistry by the hands of the common hangman.' _We may assume_ that this took place in 1764, as it was in that year that Choiseul suppressed the Jesuits. Thomas Lyttelton was on the continent during the whole of 1764, and for part of that time resided at Paris."[1]

[Footnote 1: [The burning of the books referred to by BIFRONS not Junius (unless it be proved that JUNIUS and BIFRONS are one, which is not yet universally admitted), took place on 7th August, 1761. See a very curious note on the subject in Bohn's recently published edition of _Junius_, vol. ii. pp. 175-6.--ED. "N. & Q."]]

But the orders of the parliament of Paris against the Jesuits, one of which condemned some thirty of their books to be burnt, were issued three years before the suppression of their order in France, viz., in the early part and summer of 1761. That Thomas Lyttelton could then have been in Paris is highly improbable; he was only seventeen, and it was a time of war. Will any one take the trouble to ascertain where Francis was? I believe he was appointed secretary to the Portuguese embassy in 1760, and returned to London in 1763.

H. MERIVALE.

GRANTHAM ALTAR CASE.

An old book now lies before me, intituled _England's Reformation from the time of King Henry VIII. to the end of Oates's Plot, a Poem in four Cantos, with large Marginal Notes according to the Original. By Thomas Ward. London: Printed for W. B. and sold by Thomas Bickerton, in Little Britain._ 1716.

In Canto IV., and beginning at p. 353., there is an account of a brawl in the parish church of Grantham, anno 1627, arising, as appears by a marginal note, out of circumstances connected with the "removal of the Communion table from the upper part of the quire to the altar place." A master alderman Wheatley, assisted by "an innkeeper fat as brawn," and "a bow-legged tailor that was there," appears to have taken an active part in the scuffle which ensued upon the vicar's persisting in his determination. The alderman and his mob seem to have been triumphant on this occasion, for we read, p. 356.:

"The alderman, by help of rabble, Brought from the wall communion table; Below the steps he plac'd it, where It stood before, in midst of quire."

A pamphlet war followed; for there was immediately _A Letter to the Vicar of Grantham about setting his Table altarwise_. In answer to this came _A Coal from the Altar_; which was in its turn assailed by _The Quench Coal out_, and _The Holy Table, Name and Thing_ (said to have been written by Williams, Bishop of Lincoln.) A Dr. Pocklington (who was he?) espoused the side of the Altar party, and published his _Altare Christianum_. During this literary contest the vicar appears to have died, and, some twelve months after his death, out comes _The Dead Vicar's Plea_.

The affair seems to have created what we should now call a great sensation in the "religious world:" for, says our author:

"Scarce was a pen but what has try'd, And books flew out on every side, Till ev'ry fop set up for wit, And Laud, and Hall and Heylin writ, And so did White and Montague, And Shelford, Cousins, Watts, and Dow, Lawrence and Forbis, and a crew Whose names would"----

Master Ward did not like these men, and therefore I omit his rather uncharitable conclusion.

Is there any record left of the notable quarrel, which appears to have engaged the attention and pens of some of the learned men of the age? Perhaps some of your correspondents at Grantham could throw some light upon this question.

L. L. L.

Kirton-in-Lindsey.

[This celebrated altar controversy occurred during the reign of Charles I., and its origin will be found in Clarendon's _History of the Rebellion_. The Puritans contended that the proper place for the table, when the eucharist was administered, was in the body of the church before the chancel door, and to be placed _tablewise_, and not _altarwise;_ that is, that one of the _ends_ of the table was to be placed towards the east, so that one of the larger sides might be to the north, the priest being directed to stand at the north side, and not at the north _end_ of the table. The Church party, on the contrary, contended that as the Injunctions ordered that the table should stand where the altar used to stand, it should consequently be placed as the altar was. This matter was the source of much violent contention, and tracts were published neither remarkable for courtesy of language nor for accurate statements of facts. It appears to have originated in a dispute between Mr. Titly, the Vicar of Grantham, and his parishioners, respecting the proper place for the table. The vicar insisted that it ought to stand at the upper end of the chancel, against the east wall. Some of the parishioners contended that it should stand in the body of the church. The vicar removed it from that situation, and placed it in the chancel. The alderman of the borough and others replaced it in its former situation, when a formal complaint was made to the bishop (Williams). In 1627 the bishop published his judgment on the question, in _A Letter to the Vicar of Grantham_. The visitation of 1634 tempted Peter Heylyn to republish this _Letter_, together with an answer under the title of _A Coal from the Altar_, &c. Williams replied in 1637 by a treatise entitled _The Holy Table, Name and Thing, more anciently and literally used under the New Testament than that of Altar_. Heylyn rejoined by his _Antidotum Lincolniense; or an Answer to a Book entitled "The Holy Altar, Name and Thing," &c._ The bishop was preparing for his further vindication, when he was prevented by his troubles in the Star Chamber, in consequence of which his library was seized. "And how," says Hacket, "could he fight without his arms? or, how could the bell ring when they had stolen away the clapper?" During the controversy Dr. Pocklington, Chaplain in Ordinary to the King, published his _Altare Christianum; or, the Dead Vicar's Plea, wherein the Vicar of Grantham being dead yet speaketh, and pleadeth out of Antiquity against him that hath broken down his Altar_, 4to. 1637. The best historical notice of this controversy is given in Hacket's _Life of Archbishop Williams_, pt. ii. pp. 99-109., and was particularly referred to by the counsel on the Cambridge stone altar case, 1844-1845, as well as by Sir Herbert Jenner Fust in his judgment on it.]

MEANING OF GROOM.

In investigating the descent of two Devonshire families, I save met with four instances of persons designating themselves as _groom_. They were certainly well connected, and in fortune apparently much above the class of people who accept the care of horses in this present day.