Notes and Queries, Number 56, November 23, 1850 by Various
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Various >> Notes and Queries, Number 56, November 23, 1850
{417} NOTES AND QUERIES:
A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES,
GENEALOGISTS, ETC.
* * * * *
"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.
* * * * *
No. 56.]
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23. 1850.
[Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4d.
* * * * *
CONTENTS.
NOTES:--
The Oldenburg Horn 417
Greek Particles Illustrated by the Eastern Languages 418
Samuel Rowlands, and his Claim to the Authorship of
"The Choise of Change," by Dr. E.F. Rimbault 419
Etymology of "Apricot," "Peach," and "Nectarine" 420
Minor Notes:--Chaucer's Monument Robert Herrick
--Epitaph of a Wine Merchant--Father Blackhal--
The Nonjurors--Booksellers' Catalogues--Bailie
Nicol Jarvie--Camels in Gaul 420
QUERIES:--
Bibliographical Queries 421
Dryden's "Essay upon Satire" 422
Minor Queries:--AEnius Silvius (Pope Pius II.)--
"Please the Pigs"--To save one's Bacon--Arabic
Numerals--Cardinal--"By the bye"--Poisons--
Cabalistic Author--Brandon the Juggler--Jacobus
Praefectus Siculus--The Word "after" in the Rubric--
Hard by--Thomas Rogers of Horminger--Armorial
Bearings--Lady Compton's Letter to her Husband--
Romagnasi's Works--Christopher Barker's Device 423
REPLIES:--
Licensing of Books, by C.H. Cooper 425
Remains of James II., by Dr. J.R. Wreford 427
Judge Cradock, by H.T. Ellacombe 427
Replies to Minor Queries:--Replies by George Stephens:
On a Passage in the "Tempest;" Legend of a Saint;
Cupid and Psyche; Kongs Skuggsia--Disputed Passage
in the "Tempest"--Viscount Castlecomer--Steele's
Burial-place--Cure for Warts--Etymology of
"Parse" 429
MISCELLANEOUS:--
Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 430
Books and Odd Volumes Wanted 431
Notice to Correspondents 431
Advertisements 431
* * * * *
NOTES.
THE OLDENBURG HORN.
The highly interesting collection of pictures at Combe Abbey, the seat of
the Earl of Craven, in Warwickshire, was, for the most part, bequeathed by
Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, the daughter of James I., to her faithful
attendant, William, Earl of Craven. The collection has remained, entire and
undisturbed, up to the present time. Near the upper end of the long gallery
is a picture which doubtless formed a part of the bequest of the Queen of
Bohemia, and of which the following is a description:--
Three quarters length: a female figure, standing, with long curling light
hair, and a wreath of flowers round the head. She wears a white satin gown,
with a yellow edge; gold chain on the stomacher, and pearl buttons down the
front. She has a pearl necklace and earrings, with a high plaited
chemisette up to the necklace; and four rows of pearls, with a yellow bow,
round the sleeve. She holds in her hands a large highly ornamented gold
horn. The back-ground consists of mountains. Underneath the picture is this
inscription:
"Anno post natum Christum 939. Ottoni comiti Oldenburgico in venatione
vehementer sitibundo virgo elegantissima ex monte Osen prodiens cornu
argenteum deauratum plenum liquore ut biberet obtulit. Inspecto is
liquore adhorruit, ac eundum bibere recusavit. Quo facto, subito Comes
a virgine discedens liquorem retro super equum quem mox depilavit
effudit, cornuque hic depictum secum Oldenburgum in perpetuam illius
memoriam reportavit. Lucretio de Sainct Simon pinxit."
The painting is apparently of the first part of the seventeenth century.
The ordinary books of reference do not contain the painter's name.
The same legend as that contained in this inscription, though with fuller
details, is given by the brothers Grimm, in their collection of _Deutsche
Sagen_, No. 541. vol. ii. p. 317., from two Oldenburg chronicles. According
to this version Otto was Count of Oldenburg in the year 990 or 967. [The
chronicles appear to differ as to his date: the inscription of the Combe
Abbey picture furnishes a third date.] Being a good hunter, and fond of
hunting, he went, on the 20th of July, in this year, attended by his nobles
and servants, to hunt in the forest of Bernefeuer. Here he found a deer,
and chased it alone from this wood to Mount Osen: but in the pursuit he
left his companions and even his dogs behind; and he stood alone, on his
white horse, in the middle of the mountain. Being now exhausted by the
great heat, he exclaimed: "Would to God that some one had a draught of cold
water!" As soon as the count had uttered these words, the mountain opened,
and from the {418} chasm there came a beautiful damsel, dressed in fine
clothes, with her hair divided over her shoulders, and a wreath of flowers
on her head. In her hand she held a precious silver-gilt hunting-horn,
filled with some liquid; which she offered to the count, in order that he
might drink. The count took the horn, and examined the liquid, but declined
to drink it. Whereupon the damsel said: "My dear lord, drink it upon my
assurance; for it will do you no harm, but will tend to your good." She
added that, if he would drink, he and his family, and all his descendants,
and the whole territory of Oldenburg, would prosper: but that, if he
refused, there would be discord in the race of the Counts of Oldenburg. The
count, as was natural, mistrusted her assurances, and feared to drink out
of the horn: however, he retained it in his hand, and swung it behind his
back. While it was in this position some of the liquid escaped; and where
it fell on the back of the white horse, it took off the hair. When the
damsel saw this, she asked him to restore the horn; but the count, with the
horn in his hand, hastened away from the mountain, and, on looking back,
observed that the damsel had returned into the earth. The count, terrified
at the sight, spurred on his horse, and speedily rejoined his attendants:
he then recounted to them his adventure, and showed them the silver-gilt
horn, which he took with him to Oldenburg. And because this horn was
obtained in so wonderful a manner, it was kept as a precious relic by him
and all his successors in the reigning house of Oldenburg.
The editors state that richly decorated drinking-horn was formerly
preserved, with great care, in the family of Oldenburg; but that, at the
present time [1818], it is at Copenhagen.
The same story is related from Hamelmann's _Oldenburg Chronicle_, by
Buesching, in his _Volksagen_ (Leips. 1820), p. 380., who states that there
is a representation of the horn in p. 20. of the _Chronicle_, as well as in
the title-page of the first volume of the _Wunderhorn_.
Those who are accustomed to the interpretation of mythological fictions
will at once recognise in this story an explanatory legend, invented for
the purpose of giving an interest to a valuable drinking-horn, of ancient
work, which belonged to the Counts of Oldenburg. Had the story not started
from a basis of real fact, but had been pure fiction, the mountain-spirit
would probably have left, not _silver gilt_, but a _gold_ horn, with the
count. Moreover, the manner in which she suffers herself to be outwitted,
and her acquiescence in the loss of her horn, without exacting some
vengeance from the incredulous count, are not in the spirit of such
fictions, nor do they suit the malignant character which the legend itself
gives her. If the Oldenburg horn is still preserved at Copenhagen, its date
might doubtless be determined by the style of the work.
Mount Osen seems to have been a place which abounded in supernatural
beings. Some elves who came from this mountain to take fresh-brewed beer,
and left good, though unknown money, to pay for it, are mentioned in
another story in the _Deutsche Sagen_, (No.43. vol. i. p. 55.)
L.
[Having had an opportunity of inspecting a copy of Hamelmann's
_Chronicle_, at present belonging to Mr. Quaritch, in which there is a
very interesting engraving of the horn in question (which may possibly
have been a Charter Horn), we are not disposed to pronounce it older
than the latter end of the fifteenth century. If, however, it is still
preserved at Copenhagen, some correspondent there will perhaps do us
the favour to furnish us with a precise description of it, and with the
various legends which are inscribed upon it.--ED.]
* * * * *
GREEK PARTICLES ILLUSTRATED BY THE EASTERN LANGUAGES.
The affinity which exists between such of the vernacular languages of India
as are offshoots of the Sanscrit, as the Hindostanee, Mahratta, Guzeratee,
&c., and the Greek, Latin, German, and English languages, is now well known
to European scholars, more especially since the publication of the
researches of Vans Kennedy, Professor Bopp of Berlin, &c. Indeed, scarcely
a day passes in which the European resident in India may not recognise, in
his intercourse with the natives, many familiar words in all those
languages, clothed in an oriental dress. I am inclined also to think that
new light may be thrown upon some of the impracticable Greek particles by a
reference to the languages of the East; and without wishing to be
understood as laying down anything dogmatically in the present
communication, I hope, through the medium of your valuable publication, to
attract attention to this subject, and invite discussion on it. Taking, as
an illustration, the 233d line of the first book of the _Iliad_, where the
hero of the poem is violently abusing Agamemnon for depriving him of his
prize, the fair maid Briseis, he says,
[Greek: "All' ek toi ereo, kai epi megan horkon homoumai."]
What is the meaning of [Greek: ek] in the above line? It is commonly
construed with [Greek: ereo], and translated, "I plainly tell thee--I
declare to thee;" [Greek: exereo], "I speak out--proclaim." But may it not
be identical with the Sanscrit _ek_, "one," a word, as most of your readers
are doubtless aware, in universal use throughout India, Persia, &c; the
rendering literally running thus:
"But _one_ thing I tell thee," &c.
That this is the original sense of the line appears probable by comparing
it with line 297. of the {419} same book, where in the _second_ speech of
Achilles, that _impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer_, chieftain _again_
scolds "the king of men,"--
"[Greek: Allo de toi ereo, sy d' ene phresi balleo sesi.]"
"And _another_ thing I tell thee."
This rendering receives additional confirmation by a comparison with the
following:
"[Greek: Touto de toi ereo.]"
_Il._ iii. 177., and _Od._ vii. 243.
"[Greek: Panta de toi ereo.]"
_Od._ iv. 410., and x. 289.
In the last three lines [Greek: Allo], [Greek: Touto], and [Greek: Panta]
stand precisely in the same relation to [Greek: ereo] that [Greek: ek] does
in the first, [Greek: All'] merely taking the place of [Greek: de], for the
sake of versification.
"But _one_ thing I tell thee.
And _another_ thing I tell thee.
But _this_ thing I tell thee.
And _all_ things I tell thee."
It is not impossible that [Greek: exereo] may be a compound of [Greek: ek],
"one," and [Greek: ereo], "I speak." There is in the Hindostanee an
analogous form of expression, _Ek bat bolo_, "one word speak." This is
constantly used to denote, speaking plainly; to speak decidedly; one word
only; no display of unnecessary verbiage to conceal thought; no humbug; I
tell thee plainly; I speak solemnly--once for all; which is precisely the
meaning of [Greek: exereo] in all the passages where it occurs in Homer:
_e.g._ _Il._ i. 212. (where it is employed by Minerva in her solemn address
to Achilles); _Il._ viii. 286., _Od._ ix. 365. (where it is very
characteristically used), &c.
The word _ace_ (ace of spades, &c.) I suppose you will have no difficulty
in identifying with the Sanscrit _ek_ and the Greek [Greek: eis], the _c_
sometimes pronounced hard and sometimes soft. The Sanscrit _das_, the Greek
[Greek: dek-a], and the Latin _dec-em_, all signifying _ten_, on the same
principle, have been long identified.
J. SH.
Bombay.
* * * * *
SAMUEL ROWLANDS, AND HIS CLAIM TO THE AUTHORSHIP OF "THE CHOISE OF CHANGE."
Mr. T. Jones in "NOTES AND QUERIES" (Vol. i., p. 39.), describing a copy of
_The Choise of Change_ in the Chetham Library, unhesitatingly ascribes its
authorship to the well-known satirist, Samuel Rowlands, whom he says,
"appears to have been a Welshman from his love of Triads." Mr. JONES'S
dictum, that the letters "S.R.," on the title-page "are the well-known
initials of Samuel Rowlands," may well, I think, be questioned. Great
caution should be used in these matters. Bibliographers and
catalogue-makers are constantly making confusion by assigning works, which
bear the initials only, to wrong authors.
_The Choise of Change_ may with much more probability be given to a very
different author. I have a copy of the edition of 1598 now before me, in
which the name is filled up, in a cotemporary hand, S[imon], R[obson]. And
I find in Lowndes' _Bibliographer's Manual_, that the work in question is
entered under the latter name. The compiler adds,--"This piece is by some
attributed to Dr. Simon Robson, Dean of Bristol in 1598; by others, most
probably erroneously, to Samuel Rowland." An examination of the biography
of Dr. Robson, who died in 1617, might tend to elucidate some particulars
concerning his claim to the authorship of this and several other works of
similar character.
Samuel Rowland's earliest publication is supposed to have been _The
Betraying of Christ_, &c., printed in 1598. If it can be proved that he has
any claim to _The Choise of Change_ (first printed in 1585), we make him an
author _thirteen_ years earlier. In the title-page of the latter, the
writer, whoever he was, is styled "Gent and Student in the Universitie of
Cambridge." This is a fact of some importance towards the elucidation of
authorship and has, I believe, escaped the notice of those writers who have
touched upon Samuel Rowland's scanty biography. But I can hardly conceive
that either of the publications above alluded to came from the same pen as
_Humours Ordinarie_, _Martin Mark-all_, _The Four Knaves_, and many others
of the same class, which are known to have been the productions of Samuel
Rowlands.
Respecting Samuel Rowlands it may be regarded as extraordinary that no
account has been discovered; and though his pamphlets almost rival in
number those of Greene, Taylor, and Prynne, their prefaces--those fruitful
sources of information--throw no light upon the life or circumstances of
their author. The late Mr. Octavius Gilchrist considered that "Rowlands was
an ecclesiastic [?] by profession;" and, inferring his zeal in the pulpit
from his labours through the press, adds, "it should seem that he was an
active servant of the church." (See Fry's _Bibliographical Memoranda_, p.
257.) Sir Walter Scott (Preface to his reprint of _The Letting of Humours
Blood in the Head Vaine_) gives us a very different idea of the nature of
his calling. His words are:
"Excepting that he lived and wrote, none of those industrious
antiquaries have pointed out any particulars respecting Rowland[s]. It
has been remarked that his muse is seldom found in the best company;
and to have become so well acquainted with the bullies, drunkards,
gamesters, and cheats, whom he describes, he must have frequented the
haunts of dissipation in which such characters are to be found. But the
humorous descriptions of low-life exhibited in his satires are more
precious to antiquaries than more grave works, and those who make the
manners of Shakspeare's {420} age the subject their study may better
spare a better author than Samuel Rowlands."
The opinions of both these writers are entitled to some respect, but
they certainly looked upon two very different sides of the question.
Gilchrist's conjecture that he was an ecclesiastic is quite untenable,
and I am fully inclined to agree with Sir Walter Scott, that Rowlands'
company was not of the most _select_ order, and that he must often have
frequented those "haunts of dissipation" which he so well describes in
those works which are the _known_ production of his muse.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
* * * * *
"APRICOT," "PEACH," AND "NECTARINE," ETYMOLOGY OF.
There is something curious in the etymology of the words "apricot,"
"peach," and "nectarine," and in their equivalents in several languages,
which may amuse your readers.
The apricot is an Armenian or Persian fruit, and was known to the Romans
later than the peach. It is spoken of by Pliny and by Martial.
Plin. N.H., lib. xv. c. 12.:
"Post autumnum maturescunt Persica, aestate _praecocia_, intra xxx annos
reperta."
Martial, lib. xiii. Epig. 46.:
"Vilia maternis fueramus _praecoqua_ ramis,
Nunc in adaptivis Persica care sumus."
Its only name was given from its ripening earlier than the peach.
The words used in Galen for the same fruit (evidently Graecised Latin), are
[Greek: prokokkia] and [Greek: prekokkia]. Elsewhere he says of this fruit,
[Greek: tautes ekleleiphthai to palaion onoma]. Dioscorides, with a nearer
approach to the Latin, calls apricots [Greek: praikokia.]
From _praecox_, though not immediately, _apricot_ seems to be derived.
Johnson, unable to account for the initial _a_, derives it from _apricus_.
The American lexicographer Webster gives, strangely enough _albus coccus_
as its derivation.
The progress of the word from west to east, and then from east to
south-west, and from thence northwards, and its various changes in that
progress, are rather strange.
One would have supposed that the Arabs, living near the region of which the
fruit was a native, might have either had a name of their own for it, or at
least have borrowed one from Armenia. But they apparently adopted a slight
variation of the Latin, [Greek: to palaion onoma], as Galen says, [Greek:
exeleleipto].
The Arabs called it [Arabic: brqwq] or, with the article, [Arabic:
albrqwq].
The Spaniards must have had the fruit in Martial's time, but they do not
take the name immediately from the Latin, but through the Arabic, and call
it _albaricoque_. The Italians, again, copy the Spanish, not the Latin, and
call it _albicocco_. The French, from them, have _abricot_. The English,
though they take their word from the French, at first called it _abricock_,
then _apricock_ (restoring the _p_), and lastly, with the French
termination, _apricot_.
From _malum persicum_ was derived the German _Pfirsiche_, and _Pfirsche_,
whence come the French _peche_, and our _peach_. But in this instance also,
the Spaniards follow the Arabic [Arabic: bryshan], or, with the article
[Arabic: albryshan], in their word _alberchigo_. The Arabic seems to be
derived from the Latin, and the Persians, though the fruit was their own,
give it the same name.
Johnson says that nectarine is French, but gives no authority. It certainly
is unknown to the French, who call the fruit either _peche lisse_, or
_brugnon_. The Germans also call it _glatte Pfirsche_.
Can any of your readers inform me what is the Armenian word for _apricot_,
and whether there is any reason to believe that the Arabic words for
_apricot_ and _peach_, are of Armenian and Persian origin? If it is so, the
resemblance of the one to _praecox_, and of the other to _persicum_, will be
a curious coincidence, but hardly more curious than the resemblance of
[Greek: pascha] with [Greek: pascho] which led some of the earlier fathers,
who were not Hebraists, to derive [Greek: pascha] from [Greek: pascho].
E.C.H.
* * * * *
MINOR NOTES.
_Chaucer's Monument._--It may interest those of your readers who are
busying themselves in the praiseworthy endeavour to procure the means of
repairing Chaucer's Monument, especially Mr. Payne Collier, who has
furnished, in the November Number of the _Gentleman's Magazine_ (p. 486.),
so curious an allusion from Warner's _Albion's England_, to
"---- venerable Chaucer, lost
Had not kind Brigham reared him cost,"
to know that there is evidence in Smith's _Life of Nollekens_, vol. i. p.
79., that remains of the painted figure of Chaucer were to be seen in
Nolleken's times. Smith reports a conversation between the artist and
Catlin, so many years the principal verger of the abbey, in which Catlin
inquires,
"Did you ever notice the remaining colours of the curious little figure
which was painted on the tomb of Chaucer?"
M.N.S.
[We have heard one of the lay vicars of Westminster {421} Abbey, now
deceased, say, that when he was a choir boy, some sixty-five or seventy
years since, the figure of Chaucer might be made out by rubbing a wet
finger over it.]
_Robert Herrick_ (Vol. i., p. 291.)--There is a little volume entitled
_Selections from the Hesperides and Works of the Rev. Robert Herrick_.
(_Antient_) _Vicar of Dean-Prior, Devon_. By the late Charles Short, Esq.,
F.R.S. and F.S.A., published by Murray in 1839. I believe it was recalled
or suppressed, and that copies are rare.
J.W.H.
_Epitaph of a Wine Merchant._--The following is very beautiful, and well
deserves a Note. It is copied from an inscription in All Saints Church,
Cambridge.
"In Obitum Mri. Johannis Hammond Oenopolae Epitaphium.
Spiritus ascendit generosi Nectaris astra,
Juxta Altare Calix hic jacet ecce sacrum,
Corporum [Greek: anastasei] cum fit Communia magna
Unio tunc fuerit Nectaris et Calicis."
J.W.H.
_Father Blackhal._--In the _Brief Narration of Services done to Three noble
Ladies by Gilbert Blackhal_ (Aberdeen, Spalding Club, 1844), the
autobiographer states (p. 43.) that, while at Brussels, he provided for his
necessities by saying mass "at Notre Dame _de bonne successe_, a chapel of
great devotion, so called from a statue of Our Lady, which was brought from
Aberdeen to Ostend," &c. It may be interesting to such of your readers as
are acquainted with this very amusing volume, to know that the statue is
still held in honour. A friend of mine (who had never heard of Blackhal)
told me, that being at Brussels on the eve of the Assumption (Aug. 14),
1847, he saw announcements that the _Aberdeen_ image would be carried in
procession on the approaching festival. He was obliged, however, to leave
Brussels without witnessing the exhibition.
As to Blackhal himself, _The Catholic Annual Register_ for the present year
(p. 207.) supplies two facts which were not known to his editor--that he
was at last principal of the Scots College at Paris, and that he died July
1. 1671.
J.C.R.
_The Nonjurors_ (Vol. ii., p. 354.).--May I take the liberty of suggesting
to MR. YEOWELL that his interesting paper on "The Oratories of the
Nonjurors," would have been far more valuable if he had given the
authorities for his statements.
J.C.R.
_Booksellers' Catalogues._--Allow me to suggest the propriety and utility
of stating the weight or cost of postage to second-hand and other books. It
would be a great convenience to many country book-buyers to know the entire
cost, carriage-free, of the volumes they require, but have never seen.
ESTE.
_Bailie Nicol Jarvie._--Lockhart, in his _Life of Scott_, speaking of the
first representation of _Rob Roy_ on the Edinburgh boards, observes--
"The great and unrivalled attraction was the personification of Bailie
Jarvie by Charles Mackay, who, being himself a native of Glasgow,
entered into the minutest peculiarities of the character with high
_gusto_, and gave the west country dialect in its most racy
perfection."
But in the sweetest cup of praise, there is generally one small drop of
bitterness. The drop, in honest Mackay's case, is that by calling him a
"native of Glasgow," and, therefore, "to the manner born," he is, by
implication, deprived of the credit of speaking the "foreign tongue" like a
native. So after wearing his laurels for a quarter of a century with this
one withered leaf in them, he has plucked it off, and by a formal affidavit
sworn before an Edinburgh bailie, the Glasgow bailie has put it on record
that he is really by birth "one of the same class whom King Jamie
denominated a real Edinburgh Gutter-Bluid." If there is something droll in
the notion of such an affidavit, there is, assuredly, something to move our
respect in the earnestness and love of truth which led the bailie to make
it, and to prove him a good honest man, as we have no doubt, "his father,
the deacon, was before him."