Notes and Queries, Number 62, January 4, 1851 by Various
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Various >> Notes and Queries, Number 62, January 4, 1851
{1}
NOTES AND QUERIES:
A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES,
GENEALOGISTS, ETC.
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"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.
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No. 62.]
SATURDAY, JANUARY 4, 1851.
[Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4d.
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CONTENTS.
NOTES:-- Page
Old Ballads upon the "Winter's Tale," by J. Payne Collier 1
Crossing Rivers on Skins, by Janus Dousa 3
Folk Lore of South Northamptonshire, No 3. 3
Minor Notes:--Kentish Town in the last Century--
Murray's Hand-book for Devon and Cornwall--Judges'
Walk, Hampstead--Gray's Alcaic Ode--Fleet Marriages 4
QUERIES:--
Histoire des Severambes 4
Origin of present Penny Postage, by E. Venables 6
Red Book of the Irish Exchequer 6
Minor Queries:--Abbey of Shapp, or Hepp--"Talk
not of Love"--Lucy and Colin--Chapel, Printing-office
--Cockade--Suem, Ferling, Grasson--Cranmer's
Descendants--Collections of Pasquinades--
Portraits of Bishops--The Butcher Duke--Rodolph
Gualter--Passage in St. Mark--"Fronte capillata," &c. 7
REPLIES:--
"God speed the Plough" 8
"Defender of the Faith," by Robert Anstruther 9
Beatrix Lady Talbot, by Sir F. Madden 10
Replies to Minor Queries:--Passage in Hamlet--Passage
in Tennyson--Was Quarles pensioned?--Old Hewson
the Cobbler--The Inquisition--Mrs. Tempest--Cardinal
Allen's Declaration--Scandal against Queen
Elizabeth--Church of St. Saviour, Canterbury--Pope
Ganganelli-Nicholas Ferrar's Digest--Nicholas Ferrar--
Cardinal Erskine--The Author of "Peter Wilkins"
--"The Toast," by Dr. King--"The Widow of the
Wood"--Damasked Linen 10
MISCELLANEOUS:--
Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 13
Notices to Correspondents 14
Books and Odd Volumes Wanted 14
Advertisements 15
* * * * *
OUR THIRD VOLUME.
The commencement of our Third Volume affords an opportunity, which we
gladly seize, of returning our best thanks to those kind friends and
correspondents to whom we are indebted for our continued success. We thank
them all heartily and sincerely; and we trust that the volume, of which we
now present them with the First Number, will afford better proof of our
gratitude than mere words. Such improvements as have suggested themselves
in the course of the fourteen months during which NOTES AND QUERIES has
been steadily working up its way to its present high position shall be
effected; and nothing shall be wanting, on our part, which may conduce to
maintain or increase its usefulness. And here we would announce a slight
change in our mode of publication, which we have acceded to at the
suggestion of several parties, in order to meet what may appear to many of
our readers a trivial matter, but which is found very inconvenient in a
business point of view--we allude to the diversity of price in our Monthly
Parts.
To avoid this, and, as we have said, to meet the wishes of many of our
friends, we propose to publish a fifth or supplementary number in every
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Trusting that this, and all the other arrangements we are proposing to
ourselves, may meet with the approbation of our friends and subscribers, we
bid them Farewell! and wish them,--what we trust they wish to NOTES AND
QUERIES--a Happy New Year, and many of them!
* * * * *
NOTES.
OLD BALLAD UPON THE "WINTER'S TALE."
Some of your correspondents may be able to give me information respecting
an old ballad that has very recently fallen in my way, on a story similar
to that of Shakspeare's _Winter's Tale_, and in some particulars still more
like Greene's novel of _Pandosto_, upon which the _Winter's Tale_ was
founded. You are aware that the earliest known edition of Greene's novel is
dated 1588, although there is room to suspect that it had been originally
{2} printed before that year: the first we hear of the _Winter's Tale_ is
in 1611, when it was acted at court, and it was not printed until it
appeared in the folio of 1623.
The ballad to which I refer has for title _The Royal Courtly Garland, or
Joy after Sorrow_: it is in ordinary type, and was "Printed and sold in
Aldermary Churchyard, London." It has no date, and in appearance does not
look older than from perhaps, 1690 to 1720; it may even be more recent, as
at that period it is not easy to form a correct opinion either from
typography or orthography: black-letter has a distinguishing character at
various periods, so as to enable a judgment to be formed within, perhaps,
ten years, as regards an undated production: but such is not the case with
Roman type, or white-letter. What I suspect, however, is that this ballad
is considerably older, and that my copy is only a comparatively modern
reprint with some alterations; it requires no proof, at this time of day,
to show that it was the constant habit of our old publishers of ephemeral
literature to reprint ballads without the slightest notice that they had
ever appeared before. This, in fact, is the point on which I want
information, as to _The Royal Courtly Garland, or Joy after Sorrow_. Can
any of your correspondents refer me to an older copy, or do they know of
the existence of one which belongs to a later period? I cannot be ignorant
of DR. RIMBAULT'S learning on such matters, and I make my appeal especially
to him.
It is very possible that it may bear a different title in other copies, and
for the sake of identification I will furnish a few extracts from the
various "parts" (no fewer than six) into which the ballad is divided;
observing that they fill a closely printed broadside, and that the
production is entirely different from Jordan's versification of the
_Winter's Tale_, under the title of _The Jealous Duke and the injured
Duchess_, which came out in his _Royal Arbor of Loyal Poesie_, 8vo. 1664.
It is singular that two ballads, hitherto wholly unknown, should have been
written upon the same incidents of the same drama, although we are yet
without evidence that Jordan's effusion was ever published as a broadside.
Not a single name is given to any of the persons in my _Royal Courtly
Garland_, but the places of action are reversed exactly in the same way as
in Greene's novel of _Pandosto_, where what Shakspeare represents as
passing in Sicily occurs in Bohemia, and _vice versa_; moreover, the error
of representing Bohemia as a maritime country belongs to my ballad, as well
as to the novelist and the dramatist. The King of Bohemia, jealous of an
"outlandish prince," who he suspected had intrigued with his queen, employs
his cup-bearer to poison the prince, who is informed by the cup-bearer of
the design against his life.
"For fear of the king the prince dare not stay:
The wind being fair, he sailed away,
Saying, I will escape from his blood-thirsty hand
By steering away to my native land."
Not long after his departure, the queen, "who had never conceived before"
(which varies both from Greene and Shakspeare), produces a daughter, which
the king resolves to get rid of by turning it adrift at sea in "a little
boat." He so informs the queen, and she in great grief provides the outfit
for the infant voyager:
"A purse of rare jewels she placed next her skin,
And fasten'd it likewise securely within;
A chain round her neck, and a mantle of gold,
Because she her infant no more should behold."
It is revealed to the king in a dream that his wife is innocent, but she
soon dies of a broken-heart. Meanwhile, the prince, on his return to his
own dominions, marries, and has a son. The infant princess is driven on
shore in his kingdom, and is saved by an old shepherd, and brought up by
him and his wife as their own child, they carefully concealing the riches
they had found in the "little boat."
"This child grew up, endued with grace,
A modest behaviour, a sweet comely face;
And being arrived at the age of fifteen,
For beauty and wisdom few like _her_ were seen."
"Her" is misprinted _him_ in the original, and the whole, as may be
expected, is not a first-rate specimen of typography. The son of the prince
sees and falls in love with the supposed shepherd's daughter, and, to avoid
the anger of the prince his father, he secretly sails away with her and the
old shepherd. By a storm they are driven on the coast of Bohemia:
"A violent storm on the sea did arise,
Drove them to Bohemia; they are took for spies;
Their ship was seized, and they to prison sent:
To confine them a while the king's fully bent."
Here we arrive at an incident which is found in Greene, but which
Shakspeare had the judgment to avoid, making the termination of his drama
as wonderful for its art, as delightful for its poetry. Greene and my
ballad represent the king of Bohemia falling in love with his own daughter,
whom he did not recognise. She effectually resisted his entreaties, and he
resolves "to hang or burn" the whole party; but the old shepherd, to save
himself, reveals that she is not his daughter, and produces "the mantle of
gold" in which he had found her:
"He likewise produced the mantle of gold.
The king was amazed the sight to behold;
Though long time the shepherd had used the same,
The king knew it marked with his own name."
This discovery leads directly to the unwinding of the plot: the young
prince makes himself known, and his father being sent for, the lovers are
{3} "married in triumph" in Bohemia, and the old shepherd is made "a lord
of the court."
If any of your readers can inform me of another copy of the above ballad,
especially unmodernised (the versification must have suffered in the
frequent reprints) and in black-letter of an early date, they will do me a
favour. At present I am unable to decide whether it was founded upon
Greene's novel, Shakspeare's play, or upon some independent, possibly
foreign, narrative. I am by no means satisfied that Greene's novel was not
a translation, and we know that he was skilful in Italian, Spanish, and
French.
J. PAYNE COLLIER.
I cannot find the particular Number of NOTES AND QUERIES, but unless I am
greatly mistaken, in one of them, a correspondent gave praise (I am the
last to say it was not deserved) to DR. MAGINN for suggesting that _miching
mallecho_, in _Hamlet_, Act III. Sc. 2., was from the Spanish _mucho
malhecho_. I never heard of DR. MAGINN's opinion until I saw it in your
pages; but if you happen to be able to refer to the Shakspeare I
superintended through the press in 1843, vol. vii. p 271., note 9., you
will see that I propose the Spanish word _malhecho_ as the origin of
"mallecho." I did not think this point worth notice at the time, and I
doubt whether it is worth notice now. If you leave out this postscript, as
you are at perfect liberty to do, I shall conclude that you are of my
opinion.
J.P.C.
[The passage to which our valued correspondent refers is in our Second
Volume, p. 358., where J.M.B. points out that the suggestion of a
writer in the _Quarterly Review_ for March 1850, that Shakspeare's
_miching mallecho_ was a mere misprint of the Spanish words _mucho
malhecho_, had been anticipated by DR. MAGINN. It now appears that he
had also been anticipated by MR. COLLIER.]
* * * * *
CROSSING RIVERS ON SKINS.
The mode of crossing a river on skins, mentioned by Layard (_Nineveh and
its Remains_, 5th edition, vol. i. p. 129., vol. ii. p. 381.) is also
referred to in the works of the following ancient writers. I quote
_Facciolati Lexicon Totius Latinitatis_, in vocibus _Uter_ et
_Utricularius_. [Edit. _Furlanetto_, 4to.]
"Frequens fuit apud veteres utrium usus ad flumina trananda, _Liv._ 21. 27.
Hispani, sine ulla mole, in utres vestimentis conjectis, ipsi cetris
suppositis incubantes, flumen tranavere, _Caes._ B.G. i. 48. Lusitani,
peritique earum regionum cetrati citerioris Hispaniae, consectabantur,
quibus erat proclive transnare flumen, quod consuetudo eorum omnium est, ut
sine utribus ad exercitum non eant, (Cf. _Herzog._, qui longam huic loco
adnotationem adscripsit), _Curt._ 7. 5. Utres quam plurimos stramentis
refertos dividit; his incubantes transnavere amnem, _Plin._ 6. 29. 35.
Arabes Ascitae appellati, quoniam bubulos utres binos sternentes ponte
piraticam exercent, _h.e._ utribus junctis tabulas instar pontis
sternentes. Adde _Front. Strat._ 3. 13., et _Ammian._ 30. 1. _med._"
"Utricularii vocabantur qui utriculos, seu utres inflatos ratibus ita
subjiciebant, ut iisdem flumina transnare possent. Eorum collegium in
quibusdam urbibus ad flumen aliquod sitis habebatur, ideoque utricularii
saepe cum nautis conjunguntur, _Inscr._ ap. _Mur._ 531, n. 4. Ex voto a solo
templum ex suo fecerunt collegio utriculariorum."
JANUS DOUSA.
Manpadt House, near Haarlem.
* * * * *
FOLK LORE OF SOUTH NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, NO. 3.
_Hedgehog._--Among other animals looked upon in a superstitious light, we
have the hedgehog, who, in addition to his still credited attribute of
sucking cows, is looked upon by our rustics as the emblem of craft and
cunning; playing the same part in our popular stories as Reynard in the
more southern _fabliaux_. They tell concerning him, the legend given by
M.M. Grimm, of the race between the Hare and Hedgehog. The Northamptonshire
version makes the trial of speed between a _fox_ and hedgehog. In all other
respects the English tale runs word for word with the German.
_Hares._--Besides the ancient superstition attached to the crossing of the
path by one of these animals, there is also a belief that the running of
one along the street or mainway of a village, portends fire to some house
in the immediate vicinity.
_Toads._--Belief in their venomous nature is yet far from being extinct.
This, added to the ill-defined species of fascination which they are
supposed to exercise, has caused them here, as elsewhere, to be held in
great abhorrence. I have heard persons who ought to have known better,
exclaim on the danger of gazing upon one of the harmless reptiles. The idea
respecting the fascinating powers of the toad, is by no means confined to
our district. Witness the learned Cardan:
"Fascinari pueros fixo intuitu magnorum bufonum et maxime qui e subterraneo
specu aut sepulchris prodierint, utque ob id occulto morbo perire, haud
absurdum est."--_De Rerum Varietate_, lib. xvi. c. 90.
_Crickets_, contrary to the idea prevailing in the western counties, are
supposed to presage good luck, and are therefore most carefully preserved.
Their presence is believed to be a sure omen of prosperity; while, on the
other hand, their sudden departure from a hearth which has long echoed with
their cry, betokens approaching misfortune, and is regarded as the direst
calamity that can happen to the family.
_Magpies._--To see one magpie alone bodes bad luck; two, good luck; three,
a "berrin;" four, a wedding. This is our version of the saying: Grose gives
it differently.
_Spiders._--When a spider is found upon your {4} clothes, or about your
person, it signifies that you will shortly receive some money. Old Fuller,
who was a native of Northamptonshire, thus quaintly moralises this
superstition:
"When a spider is found upon our clothes, we use to say, some money is
coming towards us. The moral is this: such who imitate the industry of
that contemptible creature may, by God's blessing, weave themselves
into wealth and procure a plentiful estate."--_Worthies_, p.58. Pt. 2.
ed. 1662.
Omens of death and misfortune are also drawn from the howling of dogs--the
sight of a trio of butterflies--the flying down the chimney of swallows or
jackdaws; and swine are sometimes said to give their master warning of his
death by giving utterance to a peculiar whine, known and understood only by
the initiated in such matters. Gaule, in his _Mag-astromancers Posed and
Puzzled_, Lond. 1652, p. 181, ranks among evil omens "the falling of
swallows down the chimney" and "the grunting of swine."
T.S.
* * * * *
MINOR NOTES.
_Kentish Town in the last Century_--
"Thursday night some villains robbed the Kentish Town Stage, and
stripped the passengers of their money, watches, and buckles. In the
hurry they spared the pockets of Mr. Corbyn, the druggist; but he,
content to have neighbour's fare, called out to one of the rogues,
'Stop, friend, you have forgot to take my money'."--_Morning Chron. and
Land Advertiser_, Jan. 9. 1773.
_Murray's Hand-book for Devon and Cornwall._--The author does not mention
Haccombe Chapel or the Oswell Rocks, both near Newton; the latter is a most
picturesque spot, and the view near and far most interesting!--A notice of
the tiles, and of the 2ft. 2in effigy at Haccombe, appears in the _Arch.
Journal_, iii. 151. 237.--The monuments are in fine preservation up to the
last of the "Haccombes" _ante_ 1342, which is _perfect_. The chapel would
be improved by the removal of the two pews and of the family arms from the
velvet cloth on the communion-table!--Tavistock Church has an east window
by Williment; pattern, and our Saviour in the centre.--The church by
Dartmouth Castle contains a brass and armorial gallery; the visitor should
sail round the rock at the harbour entrance, it's appearance from seaward
is fine.--Littleham Church has a decorated wooden screen, very elegant.--A
work on the Devonshire pulpits and screens would be valuable.
A.C.
_Judges Walk, Hampstead._--A friend of mine, residing at Hampstead, has
communicated to me the following information, which I forward to you as
likely to instruct your readers.
He states that the oldest inhabitant of Hampstead, Mr. Rowbotham, a clock
and watchmaker, died recently, at the age of ninety. He told his son and
many other persons, that in his youth the _Upper Terrace Avenue_, on the
south-west side of Hampstead Heath was known by the name of "The Judges'
Walk," from the circumstance of prisoners having been tried there during
the plague of London. He further stated, that he had received this
information from his grandmother.
C.R. WELD
Somerset House.
_Gray's Alcaic Ode._--A question asked in Vol. i., p. 382, whether "Gray's
celebrated Latin Ode is actually to be found entered at the Grande
Chartreuse?" is satisfactorily answered in the negative at p. 416. of the
same volume, and its disappearance traced to the destructive influence of
the first French Revolution.
It may not, however, be without interest to some of your readers to know,
that this elegant "Alcaic" was to be found at the Chartreuse not very long
before the outbreak of that great political tempest, proof of which will be
found in the following extract taken from the 9th volume of Malte-Brun's
_Annales des Voyages_, Paris, 1809. It is found in a paper entitled "Voyage
a la Grande Chartreuse en 1789. Par M. T*******," and is in p. 230:
"L'Album, ou le grand livre dans lequel les etrangers inscrivent leurs
noms, presente quelquefois une lecture interessante. Nous en copiames
quelques pages. Le morceau le plus digne d'etre conserve est sans doute
l'Ode latine suivante du celebre poete anglais Gray. Je ne crois pas
qu'elle ait ete publiee encore."
Then follows the ode, as usually printed, excepting that in the third line,
"Nativa nam certe fluentia,"
the words "nam certe" are transposed.
G.B.
_Fleet Marriages._--_The General Evening Post_, June 27-29, 1745, contains
the following singular Note of a Fleet Marriage:--
"Yesterday came on a cause at Doctors' Commons, wherein the plaintiff
brought his action against the defendant for pretending to be his wife.
She in her justification pleaded a marriage at the Fleet the 6th of
February, 1737, and produced a Fleet certificate, which was not allowed
as evidence: she likewise offered to produce the minister she pretended
married them, but he being excommunicate for clandestine marriages,
could not be received as a witness. The court thereupon pronounced
against the marriage, and condemned her in 28l., the costs of the
suit."
Y.S.
* * * * *
QUERIES.
_HISTORIE DES SEVARAMBES._
The authorship of _Gaudentio di Lucca_ has recently been discussed by some
of your correspondents, and it has been shown that this _Voyage Imaginaire_
{5} was written by Simon Berington, a Catholic priest, and the member of a
family resident for many years in Herefordshire. The following Query will
relate to another work of the same class, but of an earlier date.
The _Histoire des Sevarambes_ is a fictitious account of a nation in the
Southern Ocean, visited by a supposed navigator named Siden. It's first
appearance was as an English work, with this title:
"The History of the Sevarites or Sevarambi, a nation inhabiting part of
the third continent, commonly called Terrae Australes Incognitae; with an
account of their admirable government, religion, customs, and language.
Written by one Captain Siden, a worthy person, who, together with many
others, was cast upon those coasts, and lived many years in that
country. London: printed for Henry Brome, at the Gun, at the west end
of St. Paul's Churchyard, 1675. 12mo. pp. 114." No preface.
There is a second part, "more wonderful and delightful than the first,"
published in 1679 (pp. 140.). The licence by Roger Lestrange bears date
Feb. 25. 1678/9. There is a short preface, without signature, arguing that
the country of the Sevarites is not fabulous.
A copy of the original edition of these two parts is in the British Museum.
Shortly after its publication in England, this work appeared in France with
the following title:--
"Histoire des Sevarambes, peuples qui habitent une partie du troisieme
continent ordinairement appelle Terre Australe, contenant un compte
exact du gouvernement, des moeurs, de la religion et du langage de
cette nation, jusques aujourd'hui inconnue aux peuples de l'Europe.
Traduite de l'Anglois." First Part, Paris, 1677. 2 vols. 12mo. Second
Part, 1678-9. 3 vols. 12mo.
Both parts are dedicated to Monsieur Riquet, Baron de Bonrepos; and the
dedications are both signed with the initials D.V.D.E.L.
The British Museum contains no French edition of this work earlier than an
Amsterdam reprint of 1716. The above account of the early French edition is
taken from the _Dictionnaire Historique_ of Prosper Marchand (La Haye,
1758), tom. i. p. 11., art. ALLAIS. This article (which may be cited as a
model of bibliographical research) attributes the authorship of the
_Histoire des Sevarambes_, upon evidence, which, if not conclusive, is very
strong, to Denis Vairasse, or Vayrasse. Marchand explains the initials
appended to the dedications of the French edition to mean, _Denis Vairasse
d'Allais en Languedoc_. He likewise considers _Siden_ as the anagram of
_Denis_; and _Sevarias_, the legislator of the Sevarambians, as the anagram
of _Vairasse_. Some of the religious opinions expressed in this fiction
were thought bold, and the authorship of the work was at one time much
discussed: it was attributed both to Isaac Vossius and Leibnitz. It was
translated into Dutch, German, and Italian; and there is an English
edition, London, 1738, in 1 vol. 8vo., in which the preface from the French
edition, alluding to Plato's _Republic_, More's _Utopia_, and Bacon's _New
Atlantis_, not to be found in the original English edition, is introduced.
This volume is entitled--
"The History of the Sevarambians, a people of the south continent, in
five parts, containing, &c. Translated from the Memoirs of Capt. Siden,
who lived fifteen years amongst them."
The work is included in the collection of _Voyages Imaginaires_, tom. v.,
where the editor speaks of the distinguished place which it holds among the
fictions of that class; but he says that its authorship was unknown or
uncertain. An account of another fictitious voyage to the Terra Australis,
with a description of an imaginary people, published in 1692, may be seen
in Bayle's _Dict._, art. SADEUR, _Voyages Imaginaires_, tom. xxiv.