Notes and Queries, Number 186, May 21, 1853

The second is in Cymbeline, Act V. Sc. 4., where Jupiter tempers his love with crosses, in order to make his gifts—

"The more delayed, delighted."A. E. B.

Minor Notes

Portrait of Luther.—A portrait of Luther, perhaps original, certainly nearly cotemporary with the Reformer, possessing many excellent qualities, was some time since shown me. It is in the possession of Mr. Horne, of Morton in Marsh, Gloucestershire: it was received by him from an elderly gentleman still living in London, who purchased it many years since at a sale of pictures. The picture is very dark, on canvass, with a black frame having a narrow gilt moulding. As the existence of this portrait is perhaps not known, mention of the fact might interest some of your readers. The picture, including frame, is perhaps in size thirty inches by twenty-four; and the age of the sitter, whose features are delineated with remarkable effects is probably under fifty years.

B. H. C.

Randle Wilbraham.—Randle Wilbraham, Esq., the grandfather of Lord Skelmersdale, who died upon the 3rd of April last, was a lawyer of great eminence, and held the office of treasurer of Lincoln's Inn. The university of Oxford conferred, by diploma, the degree of D.C.L. upon him in these notable terms:

"Placuit nobis in Convocatione die 14 mensis Aprilis 1761, solenniter convocatis spectatissimum Ranulphum Wilbraham, Arm. Coll. Ænæi Nasi quondam commensalem, in agendis causis pro diversis Tribunalibus per multos retro annos hodieque versatissimum, Subsenescallum nostrum et Consiliarium fidissimum, Gradu Doctoris in Jure Civili insignire. Cujus quidem hæc præcipua ac prope singularis et est, et semper fuit, quod propriis ingenii et industriæ suæ viribus innixus Aulici favoris nec appetens, nec particeps, sine ullo magnatum patrocinio, sine turpi Adulantium aucupio, ad summam tamen in Foro, in Academia, in Senatu, tum gloriam, tum etiam authoritatem facilem sibi et stabilem munivit viam, Fortunæ suæ si quis alius Deo Favente vere Faber", &c.

The above is copied from the original diploma, which Mr. Randle Wilbraham gave to his nephew, the late Dr. William Falconer of Bath. On the death of Mr. R. Wilbraham, Chief Justice Wilmot wrote "I have lost my old friend Mr. Wilbraham: he died in the seventy-seventh year of his age, and has not left a better lawyer, or an honester man behind him."

Anon.

Unpublished Epigram by Sir W. Scott.—

"Earth walks on Earth,Glittering in gold:Earth goes to Earth,Sooner than it wold:Earth builds on Earth,Palaces and towers:Earth says to Earth:Soon, all shall be ours."

The above, by Sir W. Scott, I believe, has never appeared in print to my knowledge. It was recited to me by a friend of Sir W. Scott.

R. Vincent.

Crassus' Saying.—I find in the Diary of the poet Moore (in Lord John Russell's edition), vol. ii. p. 148., a conversation recorded with Dr. Parr, in which the Doctor quotes "the witticism that made Crassus laugh (the only time in his life): 'Similes habent labra lactucas.'"

It appears (see the quotations in Facciolati) that this sage and laughter-moving remark of Crassus was made on seeing an ass eating a thistle; whereon he exclaimed, "Similes habent labra lactucas."

In Bailey's edition of Facciolati it is said, "Proverbium habet locum ubi similia similibus contingunt,… quo sensu Angli dicimus, 'Like lips like lettuce: like priest like people.'"

Out of this explanation it is difficult to elicit any sense, much less any "witticism."

I suggest that Crassus' saying meant, "His (the ass's) lips hold thistles and lettuces to be both alike;" wanting the discrimination to distinguish between them. Or, if I may put it into a doggerel rhyme:

"About a donkeys taste why need we fret us?To lips like his a thistle is a lettuce."Wm. Ewart.

University Club.

Queries

BEES AND THE SPHYNX ATROPOS

Huber, in his Observations on the Natural History of Bees, avers that the moth called the Sphynx atropos invades and plunders with impunity a hive containing thousands of bees, notwithstanding the watchfulness, pugnacity, and formidable weapons of those insects. To account for this phenomenon, he states that the queen bee has the faculty of emitting a certain sound which instantly strikes the bees motionless; and he conjectures that this burglarious moth, being endowed with the same property, uses it to produce a similar effect, first on the sentinels at the entrance of the hive, and then on the bees within.

In another part of his book (2nd edit. 1808, p. 202.) he relates what he himself witnessed on introducing a strange queen into a hive. The bees, greatly irritated, pulled her, bit her, and chased her away; but on her emitting the sound and assuming an extraordinary attitude, "the bees all hung down their heads and remained motionless." On the following day he repeated the experiment, and the intrusive queen was similarly maltreated; but when she emitted her sound, and assumed the attitude, from that moment the bees again became motionless.

Have more modern observers verified this curious fact? Is it not a case of mesmerism?

Sydney Smirke.

"THE CRAFTSMAN'S APOLOGY."

When Bolingbroke published his Final Answer to the Remarks on the Craftsman's Vindication, and to all the Libels which have come, or may come from the same quarter against the Person last mentioned in the Craftsman of the 22nd May, 1731, he was answered in five Poetical Letters to the King, which in keenness of wit, polished satire, and flowing ease of versification, have not been since surpassed. The title of the tract in which they are contained is The Craftsman's Apology, being a Vindication of his Conduct and Writings in several Letters to the King, printed for T. Cooper, 1732, 8vo. pages 32. By whom were these very clever and amusing letters written? Lord Hervey or Sir Charles Hanbury Williams are the parties one would think most likely to have written them; but they do not appear in the list of Lord Hervey's works given by Walpole, or amongst those noticed by Mr. Croker, or in Sir C. H. Williams's Collected Works, in three volumes. Independently of which, I question whether the versification is not, in point of harmony, too equal for either of them. If they be included in the collected works of any other writer of the time, which I have no immediate recollection of, some of your correspondents will no doubt be able to point him out. Should it appear that they have not been reprinted, I shall be disposed to recur again to the subject, and to give an extract from them, as, of all the attacks ever made upon Bolingbroke, they seem to me the most pleasant, witty, and effective.

Jas. Crossley.

PALISSY AND CARDINAL WISEMAN

On April 28, Cardinal Wiseman, at the Manchester Corn Exchange, delivered a lecture "On the Relation of the Arts of Design to the Arts of Production." It occupies thirteen columns of The Tablet of May 7, which professes to give it "from The Manchester Examiner, with corrections and additions." I have read it with pleasure, and shall preserve it as one of the best discourses on Art ever delivered; but there is a matter of fact, on which I am not so well satisfied. In noticing Bernard Palissy, the cardinal is reported to have said:

"For sixteen years he persevered in this way; and then was crowned with success, and produced the first specimens of coloured and beautiful pottery, such as are to this day sought by the curious; and he received a situation in the king's household, and ended his days in comfort and respectability."

In the review of "Morley's Life of Palissy the Potter," Spectator, Oct. 9, 1852, it is said:

"The period of the great potter's birth is uncertain. Mr. Morley fixes it, on probable data, at 1509; but with a latitude of six years on either side. Palissy died in 1589 in the Bastile, where he had been confined four years as a Hugenot; the king and his other friends could defer his trial, but dared not grant him liberty."

All the accounts which I have read agree with Mr. Morley and the Spectator. Are they or the cardinal right, supposing him to be correctly reported?

H. B. C.

U. U. Club.

Minor Queries

Polidus.—Can you tell me where the scene of the following play is laid, and the names of the dramatis personæ?—Polidus, a Tragedy, by Moses Browne, 8vo. 1723. The author of this play, who was born in 1703, and died in 1787, was for some time the curate of the Rev. James Harvey, author of Meditations, and other works. Mr. Browne was afterwards presented to the vicarage of Olney, in Bucks, where the Rev. John Newton was his curate for several years.

A. Z.

Glasgow.

[Moses Browne was subsequently Chaplain of Morden College. The piscatory brotherhood are indebted to him for having revived Walton's Complete Angler, after it had lain dormant for upwards of eighty years; and this task, he tells us, was undertaken at the request of Dr. Samuel Johnson.—Ed.]

St. Paul's Epistles to Seneca.—It has frequently been affirmed that Seneca became, in the last year of his life, a convert to Christianity—his canonisation by St. Jerome is undoubted and there was stated to be a MS. of the above epistle in Merton College. May I ask any of your contributors whether this MS. has ever been printed?

J. M. S.

Hull.

Meaning of "folowed."—Inside the cover of an old Bible and Prayer-Book, bound in one quarto, Robert Barker, 1611, is the following inscription:

"July eight I was much folowed when I lay in bed alone att Mistris Whitmore's house, wee haveing agreed too bee married nextt daye.

"God, even our own God, shal bless us. This incouriged mee too hope for God's favour and blessing through Christ.

"Christopher Curwen and Hannah Whitmore was married att Lambe's Chapel, near Criplegate, July ninth, 1712."

An entry of his marriage with his first wife, Elizabeth Sutton, 1704, is on the cover at the beginning of the book.

Can any one of your correspondents enlighten me as to the meaning of the word folowed? The letters are legibly written, and there can be no mistake about any of them. Is it an expression derived from the Puritans?

H. C. K.

—– Rectory, Hereford.

Roman Catholic Registers.—Can any of your correspondents inform me where I can find the registers of births, marriages, and burials of Roman Catholic families living in Berks and Oxon in the reigns of Charles I. and II.?

A. Pt.

St. Alban's Day.—At p. 340. of the Chronicles of London Bridge, it is stated that Cardinal Fisher was executed on St. Alban's day, June 22, 1535. How is it that in our present calendar St. Alban's day is not June 22, but June 17? On looking back I see Sir W. C. Trevelyan, in our first volume, inquired the reason of this change, but I do not find any reply to his Query.

E. H. A.

Meigham, the London Printer.—J. A. S. is desirous of obtaining information regarding a printer in London, of the name of Meigham, about 1745-8, or to be directed where to search for such. Meigham conversed, or corresponded, about Catholicity with Dr. Hay, the then vicar-apostolic of the Eastern District of Scotland.

Adamsoniana.—Is anything known of the family of Michel Adamson, or Michael Adamson, the eminent naturalist and voyager to Senegal, who, though born in France, is said to have been of Scottish extraction?

Where is the following poem to be met with?

"Ode in Collegium Bengalense, præmio dignata quod alumnis collegiorum Aberdonensium proposuit vir reverendus C. Buchanan, Coll. Bengalensis Præfectus Vicarius. Auctore Alexandro Adamson, A.M., Coll. Marisch. Aberd. alumno."

Allow me to repeat a Query which was inserted in Vol. ii., p. 297., asking for any information respecting J. Adamson, the author of a rare tract on Edward II.'s reign, published in 1732, in defence of the Walpole administration from the attacks of the Craftsman.

Who was John Adamson, author of Fanny of Caernarvon, or the War of the Roses, an historical romance, of which a French translation was published in 1809 at Paris, in 2 vols. 12mo.?

E. H. A.

Canker or Brier Rose.—Can any of your correspondents tell me why the brier or dog-rose was anciently called the canker? The brier is particularly free from the disease so called, and the name does not appear to have been used in disparagement. In Shakspeare's beautiful Sonnet LIV. are the lines:

"The canker-blooms have full as deep a dye,As the perfumed tincture of the roses."

In King Henry IV., Act I. Sc. 3., Hotspur says:

"Shall it for shame be spoken in these days,Or fill up chronicles in times to come,That men of your nobility and power,Did 'gage them both in an unjust behalf,(As both of you, God pardon it! have done)To put down Richard, that sweet lovely roseAnd plant this thorn, this canker Bolingbroke."

And again, Don John, in Much Ado about Nothing, Act I. Sc. 3.:

"I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose in the grave."

Anon.

"Short red, god red."—In Roger of Wendover's Chronicle, Bohn's edition, vol. i. p. 345., is a story how Walchere, Bishop of Durham, was slain in his county court, A.D. 1075, by the suitors on the instigation of one who cried out in his native tongue "Schort red, god red, slea ye the bischop."

Sir Walter Scott, in his Tales of a Grandfather (vol. i. p. 85.), tells the same story of a Bishop of Caithness who was burned for enforcing tithes in the reign of Alexander II. of Scotland (about 1220).

What authority is there for the latter story? Did Sir Walter confound the two bishops, or did he add the circumstance for the amusement of Hugh Littlejohn? Was this the formula usually adopted on such occasions? How came the Caithness people to speak such good Saxon?

G.

Overseers of Wills.—I have copies of several wills of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, in which one set of persons are appointed executors and another overseers. What were the rights and duties of these latter?

J. K.

Lepel's Regiment.—Can your correspondent Mr. Arthur Hamilton inform me what is the regiment known in 1707 as Lepel's Regiment? It was a cavalry regiment, I believe.

J. K.

Vincent Family.—Can any of your correspondents give me any information respecting the descendants of Francis Vincent, grandson of Augustine Vincent, Rouge Croix Pursuivant at Arms. His sister Elizabeth has, or had very lately, a representative in the person of Francis Offley Edmunds of Worsborough, Yorkshire; but nowhere have I been able to obtain any information respecting himself. If you could give any information on this subject, you would much oblige

C. Wilson.

Passage in the First Part of Faust.—

"Faust. Es Klopft? Herein! Wer will mich wieder plagen?Mephistopheles. Ich bin's.Faust. Herein!Mephis. Du musst es dreimal sagen.Faust. Herein denn!Mephis. So gefällst du mir."

Why must he say it three times? Is this a superstition that can be traced in other countries than Germany? In Horace we have Diana thus addressed:

"Ter vocata audis, adimisque letho,Diva triformis."—Lib. iii. Ode 22.

But she is there the benign Diana, not Hecate.

Are we to understand the passage to mean, that the number three has a magical influence in summoning spirits; or to teach that the power of evil is so overruled by a higher Power, that he cannot approach to begin his work of temptation and ruin unless he be, not once merely, or twice, but three times, called by the free will and act of the individual who is surrendering himself to his influence? The subject seems worthy of elucidation.

W. Fraser.

Tor-Mohun.

Lady Anne Gray.—Who was the "Lady Anne Gray," or "Lady Gray," who was one of the attendants on Queen Elizabeth when princess, and is mentioned first in Sir John Harrington's poem in praise of her ladies?

N. A.

Continental Brasses.—At a recent meeting of the Archæological Institute, Mr. Nesbitt exhibited rubbings of some fine brasses at Bamberg, Naumberg, Meissen, and Erfurt. Mr. Nesbitt would confer a favour on the readers of "N. & Q." by stating the names and dates of those sepulchral memorials, and the churches from which he obtained the rubbings, and thus aid in carrying out Mr. W. Sparrow Simpson's excellent suggestion for obtaining a complete list of monumental brasses on the Continent.

William W. King.

Peter Beaver.—In the early part of the last century, a gentleman named Peter Beaver, whose daughter was married in 1739 to Latham Blacker, Esq., of Rathescar, lived in the old and fashionable town of Drogheda. Can any one inform me as to the year of his death, and whether he left a son? The name has disappeared in Drogheda. I would likewise be glad to know the origin of the name; and, if it be a corruption of Beauvoir, at what time, and for what reason, was it changed? The crest is the animal of the same name.

Abhba.

Cremonas.—Can any of your numerous correspondents kindly supply me with a list of the earliest and the latest of the instruments of each of the famous cremona makers? Such a list would be a valuable contribution to "N. & Q."

Mr. Dubourg's work on the Violin, excellent as it is in many respects, contains but a meagre account of the instrument itself, and is sadly deficient on the subject of my Query. May I ask him, and I have reason for so doing, on what authority he gives 1664 as the year of the birth of Antonius Stradivarius, in his last edition?

H. C. K.

Cranmer and Calvin.—In the Christian Observer for March 1827 (No. 303. p. 150.) it is stated that the late Rev. T. Brock, of Guernsey, had been assured by an eminent scholar of Geneva, afterwards a clergyman in our church, that he had met with, in a public library at Geneva, a printed correspondence in Latin between Archbishop Cranmer and Calvin, in which the latter forewarned the former, that though he perfectly understood the meaning of the baptismal service, yet "the time would come when" it "would be misconceived, and received as implying that baptism absolutely conveyed regeneration;" and that Cranmer replied, "that it is not possible such a construction can be put upon the passage, the church having sufficiently explained her meaning in the Articles and elsewhere." I have heard that search was made for these documents by M. D'Aubigné and others, but without success; one of the reports being, that "the documents had been apparently cut out." Mr. Brock's informant, I hear, was a Rev. Marc De Joux, who afterwards became an Irvingite, left Guernsey, and went to the Mauritius, where it is believed he still resides. With the theological question I wish not here to meddle, or to express an opinion. But I should be glad if you will kindly permit me to inquire whether any of your readers can give any information as to the existence of the supposed "printed" correspondence referred to? whether or not it does exist? and, if so, where?

C. D.

Minor Queries with Answers

"A Letter to a Convocation Man" (Vol. vii., pp. 358. 415.).—I beg to thank "N. & Q." for the answer to my inquiry respecting the authorship of this letter. I should be very glad to learn further particulars respecting Sir Bartholomew Shower. Was he a member of the House of Commons, as the author of the Letter intimates that he himself was? I shall also be very thankful if Tyro, or any other correspondent, will answer for me these Queries, suggested by the same Letter.

"It was the opinion, indeed, of a late great preacher, that Christians under a Mahometan or Pagan government, ought to value the peace of the country above the conversion of the people there."

Who is the preacher here referred to?

Who were the authors, and what were the titles of the many Defences of Sherlock's Vindication of the Holy and Ever Blessed Trinity, and The Divinity and Death of Christ?2

And what farther is to be learned of Mr. Papin, a Socinian, who jointed the Church of Rome about that period? †

Who was Chief Justice in 1697? Was it Chief Justice Treby? ‡

Trelawney, Bishop of Exeter, excommunicated Dr. Bury. When was the living the latter enjoyed "untouched and even unquestioned by another bishop?" §

In case the answers to these should not appear of sufficient importance to be put into type, I enclose an envelope.

W. Fraser.

Tor-Mohun.

P.S.—The misprint you point out, Vol. vii., p. 409., of Oxoniensis for Exoniensis, occurred in the Appendix to Wake's State of the Church and Clergy of England, p. 4.

Prester John.—I should be glad, through the medium of "N. & Q.," to be favoured with some information relative to this mysterious personage.

Strath Clyde.

[The history of Prester John, or of the individuals bearing that appellation, appears involved in considerable confusion and obscurity. Most of our Encyclopædias contain notices of this mysterious personage, especially Rees's, and Collier's Great Historical Dictionary. "The fame of Prester or Presbyter John," says Gibbon, "a khan, whose power was vainly magnified by the Nestorian missionaries, and who is said to have received at their hands the rite of baptism, and even of ordination, has long amused the credulity of Europe. In its long progress to Mosul, Jerusalem, Rome, &c., the story of Prester John evaporated into a monstrous fable, of which some features have been borrowed from the Lama of Thibet (Hist. Généaologique des Tartares, part ii. p. 42.; Hist. de Gengiscan, p. 31. &c.), and were ignorantly transferred by the Portuguese to the emperor of Abyssinia (Ludolph. Hist. Æthop. Comment. l. ii. c. 1.). Yet is is probable that, in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Nestorian Christianity was professed in the horde of the Keraites."]

Homer's Iliad in a Nut.—On the tomb of those celebrated gardeners, Tradescant father and son, these lines occur in the course of the inscription:

"Whilst they (as Homer's Iliad in a nut),A World of Wonders in one closet shut."

Will you explain the comparison implied in the words "as Homer's Iliad in a nut?"

David.

[It refers to the account given by Pliny, vii. 21., that the Iliad was copied in so small a hand, that the whole work could lie in a walnut-shell: "In nuce inclusam Iliada Homeri carmen, in membrana scriptum tradidit Cicero." Pliny's authority is Cicero apvd Gellium, ix. 421. See M. Huet's account of a similar experiment in Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xxxix. p. 347.]

Monogram of Parker Society.—What is the meaning of the monogram adopted by the Parker Society on all their publications?

Tyro.

[The monogram is "Matthew Parker," Archbishop of Canterbury in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.]

The Five Alls.—Can any of your readers give me an interpretation of a sign on an inn in Oxford, which bears this inscription?

"THE FIVE ALLS."

I can make nothing of it.

Curiosus.

Oxford.

[Captain Grose shall interpret this Query. He says, "The Five Alls is a country sign, representing five human figures, each having a motto. The first is a king in his regalia, 'I govern all.' The second, a bishop in pontificals, 'I pray for all.' Third, a lawyer in his gown, 'I plead for all.' Fourth, a soldier in his regimentals, 'I fight for all.' Fifth, a poor countryman with his scythe and rake, 'I pay for all!'"]

Corvizer.—In a deed of the middle of the last century, I find this addition to the name of a person residing at Conway. The word is similarly employed in a list of interments of some "common people," contained in Browne Willis's account of Bangor Cathedral. What does it mean, and whence is it derived?

H. B.

Bangor.

[An obsolete word for a cordwainer or shoemaker. See Ash's Dictionary.]

Replies

ENGLISH COMEDIANS IN GERMANY

(Vol. ii., pp. 184. 459.; Vol. iii., p. 21.; Vol. vii., pp. 114. 360.)

In 1605 the English comedians first appeared in Prussia. In October they performed before the Duchess Maria Eleonora at Koningsberg, for which they were well paid; they then proceeded to Elbing, whence they were dismissed with twenty thalers, since they produced scandalous things ("weil sie schandbare Dinge fürgebracht"). In 1607, they were again sent away, after they had performed the preceding year at Rostock. Some time after, the Elector of Brandenburg, Joh. Sigismund, employed a certain noble, Hans von Stockfisch, to obtain a theatrical company from England and the Netherlands. A troop of nineteen comedians, under the direction of John Spencer, came with sixteen musicians to add lustre to the electoral feasts. In 1611, they received 720 marks, as well as many hundred ells of various stuffs for costumes and decorations; of which great quantities were used in 1612. Many a time was it necessary to ransom them at great cost from inns and lodging-houses; so that the prince, in 1613, resolved to rid himself of these dear guests, and gave them a recommendation to the Elector of Saxony. In 1616 we find them in Dantzic, where they gave eight representations; and two years later, the Electress of Brandenburg, through Hans von Stockfisch, procured eighteen comedians, who performed at Elbing, Koningsberg, and other places, and were paid for their trouble ("für ihre gehabte Mühe eins für alles") 200 Polish guilders.