Notes and Queries, Number 204, September 24, 1853

"LATina Equiuoci Rusticalidi Antonio Malatesti cō-  posti nella sua Villa diTaiano il Settembre dell'L'Anno, 1637.Sonetti CiquantaDedicati all' Illmo SignoreEt Padrone Ossmo Il Signor'Giouanni Milton Nobil'Inghilese."

I copied at the time eight of these equivocal sonnets, and in my former notice gave one as a specimen. They are certainly very ingenious, and may be "graziosissimi" to an Italian ear and imagination; but I cannot think that the pure mind of Milton would take much delight in obscene allusions, however neatly wrapped up.

Milton seems to have dwelt with pleasure on his intercourse with these witty, ingenious, and learned men, during his two-months' sojourn at Florence; and it is remarkable that Nicolas Heinsius has spoken of the same men, in much the same terms, in his dedication to Carlo Dati of the second book of his Italici Componimenti:

"Sanctum mehercules habebo semper Jo. Bapt. Donij memoriam, non tam suo nomine (et si hoc quoque) aut quod Frescobaldos, Cavalcantes, Gaddios, Cultellinos, alios urbis vestræ viros precipuos mihi conciliarit, quorum amicitiam feci hactenus, et faciam porrò maximi, quam quod tibi me conjunxerit, mi Date; cujus opera in notitiam, ac familiaritatem plurimorum apud vos hominum eximiorum mox irreperem."

And, after mentioning others, he adds:

"Quid de Valerio Chimentellio, homine omni literatura perpolita, dicam? Quid de Joanne Pricæo? qui ingens civitati vestræ ornamentum ex ultima nuper accessit Britannia."

One feels some decree of disappointment at not meeting here with the name of Milton.

Of the distinguished men mentioned by Milton, some interesting notices occur in that curious little volume, the Bibliotheca Aprosiana. Benedetto Buommattei and Carlo Dati are well known from their important labours; and of the others there are scattered notices in Rilli Notizie degli Uomini Illustre Fiorentine, and in Salvini Fasti Consolari dell' Accademia Fiorentina. I have an interesting little volume of Latin verses by Jacopo Gaddi, with the following title Poetica Jacobi Gaddii Corona e Selectis Poematiis, Notis Allegoriis contexta, Bononiæ, 1637, 4to.

There is a good deal of ingenious and pleasing burlesque poetry extant by Antonio Malatesti. I have before mentioned his Sphinx: of this I have a dateless edition, apparently printed about the middle of the last century at Florence: the title is La Sfinge Enimmi del Signor Antonio Malatesti. Commendatory verses are prefixed by Chimentelli, Coltellini, and Galileo Galilei. The last, from the celebrity of the writer, may deserve the small space it will occupy in your pages. It is itself an enigma:

"Del Signor Galileo GalileiSonetto.Mostro son' io più strano, e più difforme,Che l'Arpià, la Sirena, o la Chimera;Nè in terra, in aria, in acqua è alcuna fiera,Ch' abbia di membra così varie forme.Parte a parte non hô che sia conforme,Più che s' una sia bianca, e l' altra nera;Spesso di Cacciator dietro hô una schiera,Che de' miei piè van ritracciando l' orme.Nelle tenebre oscure è il mio soggiorno;Che se dall' ombre al chiaro lume passo,Tosto l' alma da me sen fugge, comeSen fugge il sogno all' apparir del giorno,E le mie membra disunito lasso,E l' esser perdo con la vita, è l nome."

Three more sonnets by this illustrious man are printed by Salvini in his Fasti, of which he says:

"I quali esendo parto di si gran mente, mi concederà la gloria il benigno lettore, che io, ad honore della Toscana Poesia, gli esponga il primo alla publica luce."

Dr. Fellowes was not singular in confounding Dati and Deodati; it has been done by Fenton and others: but that Dr. Symmons, in his Life of Milton (p. 133.), should transform La Tina into a wine-press, is ludicrously amusing. La Tina is the rustic mistress to whom the sonnets are supposed to be addressed; and every one knows that rusticale and contadinesca is that naïve and pleasing rustic style in which the Florentine poets delighted, from the expressive nature of the patois of the Tuscan peasantry; and it might have been said of Malatesti's sonnets, as of another rustic poet:

"Ipsa Venus lætos jam nunc migravit in agrosVerbaque Aratoris Rustica discit Amor."

I may just remark that the Clementillo of Milton should not be rendered Clementini, but Chimentelli. As Rolli tells us,—

"Clementillus fu quel Dottore Valerio Chimentelli di cui leggesi una vaghissima Cicalata nel sesto volume delle Prose Fiorentine."

S. W. Singer.

Mickleham.

ATTAINMENT OF MAJORITY

(Vol. viii., pp. 198. 250.)

I greatly regret that there should be anything in the matter or manner of my Query on this subject to induce Mr. De Morgan to reply to it more as if repelling an offence, than assisting in the investigation of an interesting question on a subject with which he is supposed to be especially conversant. I can assure him that I had no other object in writing ninth numerically instead of literally, or in omitting the words he has restored in brackets, or in italicising two words to which I wished my question more particularly to refer, than that of economising space and avoiding needless repetition; and in the use of the word "usage" rather than "law," of which he also complains, I was perhaps unduly influenced by the title of his own treatise, from which I was quoting. But however I may have erred from exact quotation, it is manifest I did not misunderstand the sense of the passage, since Mr. De Morgan now repeats its substance in these words,—

"I cannot make out that the law ever recognised a day of twenty-four hours, beginning at any hour except midnight."

This is clearly at direct issue with Ben Jonson, whose introduced phrases, "pleaded nonage," "wardship," "pupillage," &c., seem to smack too much of legal technology to countenance the supposition of poetic license.

But had I not accidentally met with an interesting confirmation of Ben Jonson's law of usage, or usage of law, I should not have put forth my Query at all, nor presumed to address it to Professor De Morgan; my principal reason for so doing being that the interest attaching to discovered evidence of a forgotten usage in legal reckoning, must of course be increased tenfold if it should appear to have been unknown to a gentleman of such deep and acknowledged research into that and kindred subjects.

In a black-letter octavo entitled A Concordancie of Yeares, published in and for the year 1615, and therefore about the very time when Ben Jonson was writing, I find the following in chap. xiii.:

"The day is of two sorts, natural and artificiall: the natural day is the space of 24 hours, in which time the sunne is carried by the first Mover, from the east into the west, and so round about the world into the east againe."

"The artificiall day continues from sunne-rising to sunne-setting: and the artificiall night is from the sunne's setting to his rising. And you must note that this natural day, according to divers, hath divers beginnings: As the Romanes count it from mid-night to mid-night, because at that time our Lorde was borne, being Sunday; and so do we account it for fasting dayes. The Arabians begin their day at noone, and end at noone the next day; for because they say the sunne was made in the meridian; and so do all astronomers account the day, because it alwayes falleth at one certaine time. The Umbrians, the Tuscans, the Jewes, the Athenians, Italians, and Egyptians, do begin their day at sunne-set, and so do we celebrate festivall dayes. The Babylonians, Persians, and Bohemians begin their day at sunne-rising, holding till sunne-setting; and so do our lawyers count it in England."

Here, at least, there can be no supposition of dramatic fiction; the book from which I have made this extract was written by Arthur Hopton, a distinguished mathematician, a scholar of Oxford, a student in the Temple; and the volume itself is dedicated to "The Right Honourable Sir Edward Coke, Knight, Lord Chiefe Justice of England," &c.

A. E. B.

Leeds, Sept. 10.

JOHN FREWEN

(Vol. viii., p. 222.)

He is supposed to have been the son of Richard Frewen, of Earl's Court in Worcestershire, and was born either at that place or in its immediate vicinity in the early part of the year 1558. Richard Frewen purchased the presentation to Northiam rectory, in Sussex, of Viscount Montague, and presented John Frewen to it in Nov. 1583; and he continued to hold that living till his death, which took place at the end of April, 1628. He was buried in the chancel of his own church, May 2nd; and a plain stone on the floor, with an inscription, marks the place of his interment. He was a learned and pious Puritan divine, and wrote:

1. "Certaine Fruitfull Instructions and necessary Doctrine meete to edify in the feare of God." 1587, 18mo.

2. "Certaine Fruitfull Instructions for the generall Cause of Reformation against the Slanders of the Pope and League, &c." 1589, small 4to.

3. He edited and wrote the preface to—

"A Courteous Conference with the English Catholickes Romane, about the Six Articles administered unto the Seminarie Priestes, wherein it is apparently proved by theire own divinitie, and the principles of their owne religion, that the Pope cannot depose her Majestie, or release her subjects of their alleageance unto her, &c.; written by John Bishop, a recusant Papist." 1598. Small 4to.

4. "Certaine Sermons on the 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 verses of the Eleventh chapter of S. Paule his Epistle to the Romanes." 1612, 12mo.

5. "Certaine choise Grounds and Principles of our Christian Religion." 1621, 12mo.

6. A large unpublished work in MS. entitled "Grounds and Principles of Christian Religion," left unfinished (probably age and infirmity prevented him from completing it): it consisted of seven books, of which two only (the fourth and fifth, of 95 and 98 folio pages respectively) have been preserved.

John Frewen had three wives, and by each of the first two several children, of whom the following lived to grow up, viz. by Eleanor his first wife, (1.) Accepted Frewen, Archbp. of York; (2.) Thankful F., Purse Bearer and Secretary of Petitions to Lord Keeper Coventry; (3.) John F., Rector of Northiam; (4.) Stephen F., Alderman of the Vintry Ward, London; (5.) Mary, wife of John Bigg of Newcastle-upon-Tyne; (6.) Joseph F. By his second wife, Helen, daughter of – Hunt, J. F. had (7.) Benjamin, Citizen of London; (8.) Thomas F.; (9.) Samuel, Joseph, Thomas, and Samuel joined Cromwell's army for invading Ireland; and one of them (Captain Frewen) fell at the storming of Kilkenny; another of them died at Limerick of the plague, which carried off General Freton; the other (Thomas) founded a family at Castle Connel, near Limerick.

John Frewen's Sermons in 1612 are in some respects rare; but the following copies are extant, viz. one in the Bodleian at Oxford; one in the University Library at Cambridge; one in possession of Mr. Frewen at Brickwall, Northiam; and one sold by Kerslake of Bristol, for 7s. 6d., to the Rev. John Frewen Moor, of Bradfield, Berks.

If R. C. Warde, of Kidderminster, has a copy which he would dispose of, he may communicate with T. F., Post-office, Northiam, who would be glad to purchase it.

J. F.

"VOIDING KNIFE," "VOIDER," AND "ALMS-BASKET."

(Vol. vi., pp. 150. 280.; Vol. viii., p. 232.)

In later times (the sixteenth century) the good old custom of placing an alms-dish on the table was discontinued, and with less charitable intentions came the less refined custom of removing the broken victuals after a meal by means of a voiding-knife and voider: the latter was a basket into which were swept by a large wand, usually of wood, or voiding-knife, as it was termed, all the bones and scraps left upon the trenchers or scattered about the table. Thus, in the old plays, Lingua, Act V. Sc. 13.: "Enter Gustus with a voiding-knife;" and in A Woman killed with Kindness, "Enter three or four serving men, one with a voider and wooden knife to take away."

The voider was still sometimes called the alms-basket, and had its charitable uses in great and rich men's houses: one of which was to supply those confined in gaols for debt, and such prisoners as had no means to purchase any food.

In Green's Tu Quoque, a spendthrift is cast into prison; the jailer says to him:

"If you have no money, you had best remove into some cheaper ward; to the twopenny ward, it is likeliest to hold out with your means; or, if you will, you may go into the hole, and there you may feed for nothing."

To which he replies:

"Ay, out of the alms-basket, where charity appears in likeness of a piece of stinking fish."

Even this poor allowance to the distressed prisoners passed through several ordeals before it came to them; and the best and most wholesome portions were filched from the alms-basket, and sold by the jailers at a low price to people out of the prison. In the same play it is related of a miser, that—

"He never saw a joint of mutton in his own house these four-and-twenty years, but always cozened the poor prisoners, for he brought his victuals out of the alms-basket."

In the ordinances of Charles II. (Ord. and Reg. Soc. Ant. 367.), it is commanded—

"That no gentleman whatsoever shall send away my meat or wine from the table, or out of the chamber, upon any pretence whatsoever; and that the gentlemen-ushers take particular care herein, that all the meate that is taken off the table upon trencher-plates be put into a basket for the poore, and not undecently eaten by any servant in the roome; and if any person shall presume to do otherwise, he shall be prohibited immediately to remaine in the chamber, or to come there again, until further order."

The alms-basket was also called a maund, and those who partook of its contents maunders.

W. Chaffers.

Old Bond Street.

THE LETTER "H" IN HUMBLE

(Vol. viii., p. 229.)

The recent attempt to introduce a mispronunciation of the word humble should be resisted by every one who has learned the plain and simple rule of grammar, that "a becomes an before a vowel or a silent h." That the rule obtained a considerable time ago, we have only to look into the Book of Common Prayer to prove, where the congregation are exhorted to come "with an humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart," and I believe it will be admitted that the compilers of that work fully understood the right pronunciation.

It may assist to settle the question by giving the etymology of the word humble. It is derived from the Celtic uim, the ground, Latin humus. Umal in Celtic is humble, lowly, obedient; and the word signifies the bending of the mind or disposition, just as a man would kneel or become prostrate before a superior.

Fras. Crossley.

In the course of a somewhat long life I have resided in the North of England, in the West, and in London, upwards of twenty years each, and my experience is directly the reverse of that of Mr. Dawson. I have very rarely heard the h omitted in humble, and when I have heard it, always considered a vulgarity. The u at the beginning of a word is always aspirated. I believe the only words in which the initial h is not pronounced are derived from the Latin. If that were the general rule, which, however, it is not, as in habit, herb, &c., still, where h precedes u, it would be pronounced according to the universal rule for the aspiration of u.

E. H.

The letter "h" to be passed unsounded in those words which are of Latin origin.—Try it:

"Ha! 'tis a horrible hallucinationTo grudge our hymns their halcyon harmonies,When in just homage our rapt voices riseTo celebrate our heroes in meet fashion;Whose hosts each heritage and habitation,Within these realms of hospitable joy,Protect securely 'gainst humiliation,When hostile foes, like harpies, would annoy.Habituated to the sound of hIn history and histrionic art,We deem the man a homicide of speech,Maiming humanity in a vital part,Whose humorous hilarity would treat us,In lieu of h, with a supposed hiatus."* *.

SCHOOL LIBRARIES

(Vol. viii., p. 220.)

I have great pleasure in removing from the mind of your correspondent an erroneous impression which must materially affect his good opinion of a school to which I am sincerely attached. He asks if in any of the public schools there are libraries of books giving general information accessible to the scholars. Now my information only refers to one, that of Eton. There is a library at Eton consisting of some thousand volumes, filled with books of all kinds, ancient and modern, valuable and valueless. It is open to the 150 first in the school on payment of eighteen shillings per annum, and on their refusal the option of becoming subscribers descends to the next in gradation. The list, however, is never full. The money collected goes to the support of a librarian, and to buy pens, ink, and paper, and the surplus (necessarily small) to the purchase of books. The basis of the library is the set of Delphin classics, presented by George I. The late head master (now provost) has been a most munificent contributor; Prince Albert has also presented several valuable volumes. Whenever the Prince has come to Eton he has always visited the library, and taken great interest in its welfare; and on his last visit said to the provost that he should be quite ready and willing to obey the call whenever he was asked to lay the first stone of a museum in connexion with the library.

Etonensis.

The free grammar school at Macclesfield, Cheshire, has always had a library. It did contain some rare volumes of the olden time; it was at various times more or less supported by a small payment from the scholars. Some years since Mr. Osborn, the then head master, solicited subscriptions from former pupils, and with some success. Of the present state of the school library I know nothing.

Edward Hawkins.

At Winchester there are libraries for the commoners and scholars containing books for general reading: they are under the several charge of the commoner-prefects and the prefect of library, who lend them on application to the juniors.

Mackenzie Walcott, M.A.

Christ's Hospital has a library such as inquired after by Mr. Weld Taylor. The late Mr. Thackeray, of the Priory, Lewisham (who died about two years ago), bequeathed to this school his valuable library of books on general literature for the use of the boys. Previously to this bequest the collection of books was small.

N.

DR. JOHN TAYLOR

(Vol. i., p. 466.)

My attention has been caught by some remarks in the early volumes of your work upon my learned ancestor Dr. John Taylor, minister at Norwich, and subsequently divinity tutor at Warrington. Whatever opinion may have been attributed to Dr. Parr concerning Dr. Taylor, this I know, that on revisiting Norwich he desired my father (the Dr.'s grandson) to show him the house inhabited by him while he was the minister of the Octagon Chapel.

Dr. Parr looked serious and solemn, and in his usual energetic manner pronounced, "He was a great scholar."

Dr. John Taylor was buried at Kirkstead4, Lancashire, where his tomb is distinguished by the following simple inscription:

"Near to this place lies interr'dwhat was mortal ofIohn Taylor, D.DReader,Expect no eulogium from this StoneEnquire amongst the friends ofLearning, Liberty, and Truth;These will do him justiceWhilst taking his natural rest, he fellasleep in Jesus, the 5th of March, 1761,Aged 66."

The following inscription, in Latin, was composed by Dr. Parr for a monumental stone erected by grandchildren and great-grandchildren in the Octagon Chapel, Norwich:

"Joanni Taylor, S.T.PLangovici natoAlbi ostii in agro Cumbriensibonis disciplinis institutoNorviciAd exequendum munus pastoris delecto A.D. 1733Rigoduni quo in oppidoSenex quotidie aliquid addiscensTheologiam et philosophiam moralem docuitMortuoTert. non. MartAnno Domini MDCCLXIÆtat. LXVIViro integro innocenti pioScriptori Græcis et Hebraicis litterisprobe eruditoVerbi divini gravissimo interpretiReligionis simplicis et incorruptæAcerrimo propugnatoriNepotes ejus et pronepotesIn hac CapellaCujus ille fundamenta olim jeceratMonumentum hocce honorariumPoni curaverunt."S. R.

PORTRAIT OF SIR ANTHONY WINGFIELD

(Vol. viii., p. 245.)

It is most likely that Q., who inquired relative to a picture of Sir Anthony Wingfield, may occasionally meet with an engraving of this worthy, though the depository of the original portrait is unknown. The tale told Horace Walpole by the housekeeper at the house of the Nauntons at Letheringham, Suffolk, is not correct. Sir Anthony was a favourite of the monarch, and was knighted by him for his brave conduct at Terouenne and Tournay. A private plate of Sir Anthony exists, the original portrait from which it was taken being at Letheringham at the time the engraving was made. The position of the hand in the girdle only indicates the fashion of portraiture at the time, and is akin to the frequent custom of placing one arm a-kimbo in modern paintings.

The Query of your correspondent opens a tale of despoliation perhaps unparalleled even in the days of iconoclastic fury, and but very imperfectly known.

The estate of Letheringham devolved, about the middle of the last century, upon William Leman, Esq., who, being obliged to maintain his right against claimants stating they descended from a branch of the Naunton family who had migrated into Normandy at the end of the preceding century, was placed in a position of considerable difficulty to defend his occupation of the house and lands. I will not say by whom, but in 1770 down came the residence in which the author of the well-known Fragmenta Regalia had resided, and, what is far worse, the Priory Church, which, after the Dissolution, was made parochial, and which was filled with tombs, effigies, and brasses to members of the family—Bovilles, Wingfields, and Nauntons—was also levelled with the ground. It was stated at the time that the sacred edifice had only become dilapidated from age, and that the parishioners were therefore obliged to do something. What was done, however, was no re-edification of the fabric, but its entire destruction, and the erection of a new church. Fortunately, Horace Walpole saw the edifice before the contractor for the new building had cast his "desiring eyes" upon it, and has recorded his impressions in one of his letters. More fortunate still, the late Mr. Gough and Mr. Nichols visited it, and the former employed the well-known topographical draughtsman, the late James Johnson of Woodbridge, Suffolk, to copy some of the effigies, which were afterwards engraved and inserted in the second volume of the Sepulchral Monuments. The zeal of Johnson, however, led him to preserve, by his minute delineation, not only every monument (only two, I think, are given by Gough), but also the interior and exterior of the church, with the position of the tombs. The interior view may be seen among Craven Ord's drawings in the library of the British Museum; and I am happy to say I possess Johnson's original sketches of all the monuments, and of the exterior of the building. A fair idea of the extent of the destruction may be gained by the mention of the fact, that six hundred-weight of alabaster effigies were beaten into powder, and sold to line water-cisterns. Some of the figures were rescued by the late Dr. W. Clubbe, and erected into a pyramid in his garden at Brandeston Vicarage, with this inscription:

"Fuimus. Indignant Reader, these monumental remains are not (as thou mayest suppose) the ruins of Time, but were destroyed in an irruption of the Goths so late in the Christian era as the year 1789. Credite posteri."

John Wodderspoon.

Norwich.

William Naunton, son and heir of Thomas Naunton (temp. Hen. VII.), and Margery, daughter and heiress of Richard Busiarde, married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Anthony Wingfield. Their only child, Henry Naunton, was the father of two sons, viz. Robert the secretary (temp. James I.), whose son died unmarried, and daughter, married to Paul Viscount Bayning, died without issue; and William Naunton (fil. 2s). His son and heir, who married a Coke, had one daughter, Theophila, married to William Leman (ancestor of the family whose great estates are in search of an owner): their only issue, Theophila, married Thomas Rede, who thereby became possessed of Letheringham in Suffolk, and the whole of the Naunton property. His estates went to his son Robert, who, dying without issue in 1822, left them much diminished to his nephew, the Rev. Robert Rede Cooper, second son of the Rev. Samuel Lovick Cooper and Sarah Leman, youngest daughter, and eventually heiress, of the above Thomas Rede. The Rev. Robert Rede Rede (for he assumed that name) died a few years ago possessed of Ashmans Park, Suff., which was independent of the Naunton property, and of certain heir-looms, the sole remains of the great estates of the "Nauntons of Letheringham," which continue in the possession of the descendants of that family. It is at Ashmans that the portrait inquired for by your correspondent Q. will probably be found. Whether that estate has already been sold by the daughters of the late possessor (four co-heiresses) I am unable to say.