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LACEDÆMONIAN BLACK BROTH

Your correspondent "R.O." having inquired after the author of the conjecture that the Lacedæmonian Black Broth was composed wholly, or in part, of coffee, such an idea appearing to me to have arisen principally from a presumed identity of colour between the two, and to have no foundation in fact, I have endeavoured to combat it, in the first instance by raising the question, whether it was black or not?

This has brought us to the main point, what the [Greek: zomos melas] really was. And here "R.O." appears to rest content upon the probablity of coffee having been an ingredient. Permit me to assign some additional reasons for entertaining a different opinion.

We read nothing in native writers of anything like coffee in Greece, indigenous or imported; and how in the world was it to get into Laconia, inhabited, as it is well known to have been, by a race of men the least prone of any to change their customs, and the least accessible to strangers. Lycurgus, we are told, forbade his people to be sailors, or to contend at sea⁶, so that they had no means of importing it themselves; and what foreign merchant would sell it to them, who had only iron money to pay withal, and dealt, moreover, as much as possible by way of barter?⁷

But it may be said they cultivated the plant themselves; that is, in other words, that the Helots raised it for them. If so, how happens it that all mention of the berry is omitted in the catalogue of their monthly contributions to the Phiditia, which are said to have consisted of meal, wine, cheese, figs, and a very little money?⁸ and when the king of Pontus⁹ indulged in the expensive fancy of buying to himself (not hiring, let it be recollected) a cook, to make that famous broth which Dionysius found so detestable, how came he not at the same time to think of buying a pound of coffee also? Moreover, if we consider its universal popularity at present, it is hardly to be supposed that, in ancient times, coffee would have suited no palate except that of a Lacedæmonian.

With respect to the colour of the broth, I am reminded of my own reference to Pollux, lib. vi. who is represented by your correspondent to say that the [Greek: melas zomos] was also called [Greek: aimatia], a word which Messrs. Scott and Liddell interpret to denote "blood broth," and go on to state, upon the authority of Manso, that blood was a principal ingredient in this celebrated Lacedæmonian dish. Certainly, if the case were really so, the German writer would have succeeded in preparing for us a most disagreeable and warlike kind of food; but my astonishment has not been small, upon turning to the passage, to find that "R.O.'s" authorities had misled him, and that Pollux really says nothing of the kind. His words (I quote from the edition 2 vols. folio, Amst. 1706) are these,

[Greek: "O de melas kaloumenos zomos Lakonikon men hos epi to poly to edesma. esti de hae kaloumenae haimatia. to de thrion hode eskeuazon, k.t.l."]

The general subject of the section is the different kinds of flesh used by man for food, and incidentally the good things which may be made from these; which leads the writer to mention by name many kinds of broth, amongst which he says towards the end, is that called [Greek: melas zomos] which might be considered almost as a Lacedæmonian dish; adding further, that there was a something called hæmatia (and this might have been a black pudding or sausage for anything that appears to the contrary); also the thrium, which was prepared in a manner he proceeds to describe. Now the three parts of the sentence which has been given above in the original do, to the best of my judgment, clearly refer to three different species of food; and I would appeal to the candid opinion of any competent Greek scholar, whether, according to the idiom of that language, the second part of it is so expressed, as to connect it with, and make it explanatory of, the first. We want, for this purpose, a relative, either with or without [Greek: esti]; and the change of gender in hæmatia seems perfectly unaccountable if it is intended to have any reference to [Greek: zomos].

It may not be unimportant to add that the significant silence of Meursius, (an author surely not to be lightly thought of) who in his Miscellanea Laconica says nothing of blood broth at the Phiditia, implies that he understood the passage of Pollux as intended to convey the meaning expressed above.

Another lexicographer, Hesychius, informs us that [Greek: Bapha] was the Lacedæmonian term for [Greek: zomos]; and this, perhaps, was the genuine appellation for that which other Greeks expressed by a periphrasis, either in contempt or dislike, or because its colour was really dark, the juices of the meat being thoroughly extracted into it. That it was nutritive and powerful may be inferred from what Plutarch mentions, that the older men were content to give up the meat to the younger ones, and live upon the broth only¹⁰, which, had it been very poor, they would not have done.

When these remarks were commenced, it was for the purpose of showing, by means of a passage not generally referred to, what the ancients conceived the "black broth" to be, and that consequently, all idea of coffee entering into its composition was untenable. How far this has been accomplished the reader must decide: but I cannot quit the subject without expressing my sincere persuasion, founded upon a view of the authorities referred to, that the account given by Athenæus is substantially correct. Pig meat would be much in use with a people not disposed to take the trouble of preparing any other: the animal was fit for nothing but food; and the refuse of their little farms would be sufficient for his keep. Athenæus also, in another passage, supplies us with a confirmation of the notion that the stock was made from pig, and this is stronger because it occurs incidentally. It is found in a quotation from Matron, the maker of parodies, who, alluding to some person or other who had not got on very well at a Lacedæmonian feast, explains the cause of his failure to have been, that the black broth, and boiled odds and ends of pig meat, had beaten him;

"[Greek: Damna min zomos te melas akrokolia t' hephtha.]"¹¹

That their cookery was not of a very recondite nature, is evident from what is mentioned by Plutarch, that the public meals were instituted at first in order to prevent their being in the hands of artistes and cooks¹², while to these every one sent a stated portion of provisions, so that there would neither be change nor variety in them. Cooks again were sent out of Sparta, if they could do more than dress meat¹³; while the only seasoning allowed to them was salt and vinegar¹⁴; for which reason, perhaps, Meursius considers the composition of the [Greek: zomos melas] to have been pork gravy seasoned with vinegar and salt¹⁵, since there seemed to have been nothing else of which it could possibly have been made.

For MR. TREVELYAN's suggestion of the cuttlefish, I am greatly obliged to him; but this was an Athenian dish, and too good for the severity of Spartan manners. It is impossible not to smile at the idea of the distress which Cineparius must have felt, had he happened to witness the performances of any persons thus swallowing ink bottles by wholesale.

The passages which have been already quoted, either by R.O. or myself, will probably give Mr. T. sufficient information of the principal ones in which the "black broth" is mentioned.

W.

QUERIES

TEN QUERIES CONCERNING POETS AND POETRY

1. In a curious poetical tract, entitled A Whip for an Ape, or Martin displaied; no date, but printed in the reign of Elizabeth, occurs the following stanza:—

 
"And ye grave men that answere Martin's mowes,
He mockes the more, and you in vain loose times.
Leave Apes to Dogges to baite, their skins to Crowes,
And let old LANAM lashe him with his rimes."
 

Was this old Lanam, the same person as Robert Laneham, who wrote "a Narrative of Queen Elizabeth's Visit to Kenilworth Castle in 1575"? I do not find his name in Ritson's Bibliographica Poetica.

2. In Spence's Anecdotes of Books and Men (Singer's edit. p. 22.), a poet named Bagnall is mentioned as the author of the once famous poem The Counter Scuffle. Edmund Gayton, the author of Pleasant Notes upon Don Quixote, wrote a tract, in verse, entitled Will Bagnall's Ghost. Who was Will Bagnall? He appears to have been a well-known person, and one of the wits of the days of Charles the First, but I cannot learn anything of his biography.

3. In the Common-place Book of Justinian Paget, a lawyer of James the First's time preserved among the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum, is the following sonnet:—

 
"My love and I for kisses play'd;
Shee would keepe stakes, I was content;
But when I wonn she would be pay'd,
This made me aske her what she ment;
Nay, since I see (quoth she), you wrangle in vaine,
Take your owne kisses, give me mine againe."
 

The initials at the end, "W.S.", probably stand for William Stroud or Strode, whose name is given at length to some other rhymes in the same MS. I should be glad to know if this quaint little conceit has been printed before, and if so, in what collection.

4. What is the earliest printed copy of the beautiful old song "My Mind to me a Kingdom is?" It is to be found in a rare tract by Nicholas Breton, entitled The Court and Country, or A Briefe Discourse betweene the Courtier and Country-man, 4to. 1618. Query, is Breton its author?

5. Mr. Edward Farr, in his Select Poetry, chiefly Devotional, of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth (vol. i, p. xix.), calls Nicholas Breton, Sir Nicholas. Is there any authority for Breton's knighthood?

6. Can John Davies, the author of Sir Martin Mar-people, 1590, be identified with John Davies of Hereford, or Sir John Davies, the author of Nosce Teipsum, 1599?

7. In whose possession is the copy of Marlow and Chapman's Hero and Leander, 1629, sold in Heber's sale (Part iv., No. 1415)? Has the Rev. Alex. Dyce made use of the MS. notes, and the Latin Epitaph on Sir Roger Manwood, by Marlow, contained in this copy?

8. Has any recent evidence been discovered as to the authorship of The Complaynt of Scotland? Is Sir David Lindsay, or Wedderburn, the author of this very interesting work?

9. In the Rev. J.E. Tyler's Henry of Monmouth (vol. ii Appendix, p. 417.), is a ballad on The Battle of Agincourt, beginning as follows:—

 
"Fair stood the wind for France,
When we our sails advance;
Nor now to prove our chance,
Longer will tarry;
But, putting to the main,
At Kaux, the mouth of Seine,
With all his martial train,
Landed King Harry."
 

The author of this old ballad, the learned editor says, was Michael Drayton; but I have not been able to find it in any edition of his works which I have consulted. Can Mr. Tyler have confounded it with Drayton's Poem on the same subject? Any information on this point will be very acceptable.

10. On the fly-leaf of an Old Music Book which I lately purchased is the following little poem. I do not remember to have seen it in print, but some of your correspondents may correct me.

"TO THE LORD BACON WHEN FALLING FROM FAVOUR

 
"Dazel'd thus with height of place,
Whilst our hopes our wits beguile;
No man marks the narrow space
'Twixt a prison and a smile.
 
 
"Then since fortune's favours fade,
You that in her arms do sleep,
Learn to swim and not to wade,
For the hearts of kings are deep.
 
 
"But if greatness be so blind,
As to burst in towers of air;
Let it be with goodness lin'd,
That at least the fall be fair.
 
 
"Then, though dark'ned you shall say,
When friends fail and princes frown;
Virtue is the roughest way,
But proves at night a bed of down."
 

It is in the hand-writing of "Johs. Rasbrick vic. de Kirkton," but whether he was the author, or only the transcriber, is uncertain.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

BISHOP COSIN'S FORM OF CONSECRATION OF CHURCHES

We learn from Wilkins (Concilia, tom. iv. p. 566, ed. Lond. 1737), also from Cardwell (Synodal. pp. 668. 677. 820. ed. Oxon. 1842), and from some other writers, that the care of drawing up a Form of Consecration of Churches, Chapels, and Burial-places, was committed to Bishop Cosin by the Convocation of 1661; which form, when complete, is stated to have been put into the hands of Robert, Bishop of Oxon, Humphrey, Bishop of Sarum, Robert, Bishop of Lincoln, and John, Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, for revision.

I should feel much obliged if (when you can find space) you would kindly put the query to your correspondents—"What has become of this Form?"

There is at Durham a Form of Consecration of Churches, said to be in the hand-writing of Basire; at the end of which the following notes are written:

"This forme was used at the consecration of Christ's Church, neare Tinmouth, by the Right Rev. Father in God, John, Lord Bishop of Duresme, on Sunday, the 5th of July, 1668.

"Hæc forma Consecrationis consonant cum formâ Reverendi in Christo Patris Lanceloti Andewes, edit. anno 1659.

"Deest Anathema, Signaculum in antiquis dedicationibus.

 
"Deest mentio (Nuptiarum.
(Purificationis Mulierum."
 

As this, however, can hardly be the missing Form of Consecration of Churches, &c., which Cosin himself seems to have drawn up for the Convocation of 1661, but which appears to have been no more heard of from the time when it was referred to the four bishops for revision, the question still remains to be answered—What has become of that Form? Can the MS. by any chance have found its way into the Library of Peterhouse, Cambridge, or into the Chapter Library at Peterborough—or is any other unpublished MS. of Bishop Cosin's known to exist in either of these, or in any other library?

J. Sansom.

8. Park Place, Oxford, Feb. 18, 1850.

PORTRAITS OF LUTHER, ERASMUS, AND ULRIC VON HUTTEN

I am very much indebted to "S.W.S." for the information which he has supplied (No. 15. p. 232.) relative to ancient wood-cut representations of Luther and Erasmus. As he has mentioned Ulric von Hutten also (for whom I have an especial veneration, on account of his having published Valla's famous Declamatio so early as 1517), perhaps he would have the kindness to state which is supposed to be the best wood-cut likeness of this resolute ("Jacta est alea") man. "S.W.S." speaks of a portrait of him which belongs to the year 1523. I have before me another, which forms the title-page of the Huttenica, issued "ex Ebernburgo," in 1521. This was, I believe, his place of refuge from the consequences which resulted from his annexation of marginal notes to Pope Leo's Bull of the preceding year. In the remarkable wood-cut with which "[Greek: OYTIS, NEMO]" commences, the object of which is not immediately apparent, it would seem that "VL." implied a play upon the initial letters of Ulysses and Ulricus. This syllable is put over the head of a person whose neck looks as if it were already the worse from unfortunate proximity to the terrible rock wielded by Polyphemus. I should be glad that "S.W.S." could see some manuscript verses in German, whcih are at the end of my copy of De Hutten's Conquestio ad Germanos. They appear to have been written by the author in 1520; and at the conclusion, he has added, "Vale ingrata patria."

R.G.