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BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
1. A pleasant Dialogue between a Soldier of Barwicke and an English Chaplain; wherein are largely handed such reasons as are brought in for maintenance of Popish traditions in our English Church. 8vo. circa 1581.
This work is frequently attributed to Barnaby Rich; but from Bancroft's Dangerous Positions, p. 42, the author is ascertained to have been Anthony Gilby.
2. The Trumpet of Fame; or Sir Francis Drake's and Sir John Hawkin's Farewell: with an encouragement to all Sailors and Souldiers that are minded to go in this worthie enterprise, &c. 12mo. London, by T. Creede, 1595.
This poetical tract is of the greatest rarity, and was unknown to Ames, Herbert, Warton and Ritson. A MS. note, in a contemporary hand, says the author was one Henry Roberts, whose initials are appended to the work.
3. The Mastive, or Young Whelpe of the Olde Dogge. Epigrams and Satyrs, by H.P. 4to. London, by T. Creede, circa 1600.
As an Epigram in this collection also appears in Henry Peacham's Minerva Britanna, with a slight variation, it is fair to surmise that he was the author of this very rare volume, in preference to Henry Parrott.
4. Pasquil's Jests, mixed with Mother Bunch's Merriments. Whereunto is added a dozen of Gulles. Pretty and pleasant to drive away the tediousnesse of a winter's evening. 4to. 1608.
In the British Bibliographer, vol i., may be seen an account of the edition of 1609, with extracts from it, and a statement that "an earlier edition is without the Gulls." The present copy (which passed through my hands some years ago), although earlier, has the Gulls.
5. Holie Historie of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ's Nativitie, Life, Actes, Miracles, Doctrine, Death, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension. Gathered into English Meeter, and published to withdraw all vajne wits from all unsaverie and wicked rimes and fables &c. 12mo. London, by R. Field, 1594.
Ames and Herbert say this book was written by Henry Holland; but the author's name was Robert Holland. It is not mentioned by Warton.
6. News from the Stars; or, Erra Pater's Ghost, by Meriton Latroon. 12mo. 1673.
"Richard Head, a broken bookseller, and the author of the English Rogue, writ this. He turned Papist, and in his voyage to Spain was drowned."—MS. note in a contemporary hand.
Edward F. Rimbault.
POPE, PETRONIUS, AND HIS TRANSLATORS
The vindication of Pope from the charge of borrowing his well-known sentiment—"Worth makes a man," &c.—from Petronius, is not so completely made out by "P.C.S.S." as it might be; for surely there is a sufficient similitude of idea, if not of expression, between the couplet of Pope and the sentence of Petronius, as given in all four of the translations cited by him (No. 23. p. 362.)—"The heart makes the man," &c.—to warrant a notion that the one was suggested by the other. But the surmise of plagiarism originates in a misconception of the terms employed by the Latin author—virtus, frugalitas, and more especially corcillum,—which have been misunderstood by every one of these translators. Virtus is applied to mental as well as bodily superiority (Cic. Fin. v. 13.).—The sense in which frugalitas is employed by Petronius may be collected from a preceding passage in the same chapter, where Trimalchio calls his pet puerum frugalissimum—a very clever lad—as he explains the epithet by adding that "he can read at sight, repeat from memory, cast up accounts, and turn a penny to his own profit." Corcillum is a diminutive of corculum (like oscillum, from osculum), itself a diminutive of cor, which word, though commonly put for "the heart," is also used by the best authors, Lucretius, Horace, Terence, &c, in the same sense as our wit, wisdom, intellect. The entire passage, if correctly translated, might then be expressed as follows:
"The time has been, my friends, when I myself was no better off than you are; but I gained my present position solely by my own talents (virtute). Wit (corcillum) makes the man—(or, literally, It is wisdom that makes men of us)—everything else is worthless lumber. I buy in the cheapest and sell in the dearest market. But, as I said before, my own shrewdness (frugalitas) made my fortune. I came from Asia no taller than that lamp stand; and used to measure my height against it day by day, and grease my muzzle (rostrum) with oil from the lamp to make a beard come."
Then follow some additional examples of the youth's sagacity, not adapted for translation, but equally instances of worldly wisdom. Thus every one of the actions which Trimalchio enumerated as the causes of his prosperity are emanations from the head, not the heart; the results of a crafty intellect, not of moral feeling; so that the sentiment he professes, instead of being similar to, is exactly the reverse of that expressed by Pope.
This explanation seems so satisfactory that we might be well contented to rest here. But some MSS. have the reading coricillum instead of corcillum. If that be received as the genuine one, and some editors prefer it, the interpretation above given will only be slightly modified, but not destroyed, by the introduction of another image, the essential point remaining the same. The insertion of a vowel, i, precludes all connection with cor and its diminutives, but suggests a derivation from [Greek: korukos], dim. [Greek: korukion], a leathern sack or bag, which, when well stuffed, the Greeks used to suspend in the gymnasium, like the pendulum of a clock (as may be seem on a fictile vase), to buffet to and fro with blows of the fist. The stuffed bag will represent the human head on the end of its trunk; and the word may have been a slang one of the day, or coined by the Asiatic Trimalchio, whose general language is filled with provincial patois. The translation would then be, in the familiar style of the original,—"The noddle makes the man," &c.
Anthony Rich, Jun.
QUERIES
WHEN WERE UMBRELLAS INTRODUCED INTO ENGLAND?
Thomas Coryat, in his Crudities, vol. i. p. 134., gives us a curious notice of the early use of the umbrella in Italy. Speaking of fans, he says:
"These fans are of a mean price, for a man may buy one of the fairest of them for so much money as countervaileth one English groat. Also many of them (the Italians) do carry other fine things of a far greater price, that will cost at the least a ducat, which they commonly call in the Italian tongue umbrellaes, that is, things that minister shadow unto them for shelter against the scorching heat of the sun. These are made of leather, something answerable to the form of a little canopy, and hooped in the inside with diverse little wooden hoops that extend the umbrella in a pretty large compass. They are used especially by horsemen, who carry them in their hands when they ride, fastening the end of the handle upon one of their thighs: and they impart so long a shadow unto them, that it keepeth the heat of the sun from the upper parts of their bodies."
Lt.-Col. (afterwards Gen.) Wolfe, writing from Paris, in the year 1752, says:
"The people here use umbrellas in hot weather to defend them from the sun, and something of the same kind to secure them from snow and rain. I wonder a practice so useful is not introduced in England, (where there are such frequent showers,) and especially in the country, where they can be expanded without any inconveniency."
Query, what is the date of the first introduction of the umbrella into England?
Edward F. Rimbault
MINOR QUERIES
Duke of Marlborough.—The Annual Register for the year 1758 (pp. 121-127.) contains an account of the circumstances connected with the trial of one Barnard, son of a surveyor in Abingdon Buildings, Westminster, on a charge of sending letters to the Duke of Marlborough, threatening his life by means "too fatal to be eluded by the power of physic," unless his grace "procured him a genteel support for his life." The incidents are truly remarkable, pointing most suspiciously toward Barnard; but he escaped. Can any of your readers refer me to where I can find any further account or elucidation of this affair?
Buriensis.
"M. or N."—Of what words are "M. or N." the initials? Vide the answers to be given in the Church Catechism, and some of the occasional offices in he liturgy.
J.C.
[It has been suggested that "M. or N." originated in a misreading of "NOM," a contraction for "nomen." This is certainly an ingenious explanation, though not a satisfactory one.]
Song of the Bees.—Who was the author of the lines under this title beginning,
"We watch for the light of the moon to break
and colour the grey eastern sky
With its blended hues of saffron and lake," &c.
I have always understood them to be Dr. Aikin's, but latterly that has been contradicted.
Buriensis.
William Godwin.—Can any of your correspondents tell me where I can find an account of the leading events of the life of William Godwin, author of Caleb Williams, St. Leon, Mandeville &c., or any reference to his last hours? His sentiments, political and religious, are said to have been peculiar.
N.
Woodbridge, April 15.
Regimental Badges.—When were the regimental badges granted to the first nine infantry corps of the line, and under what circumstances were they so granted?
J.C.
London, April 15. 1850.
Mother of Thomas à Becket.—The well-known romantic legend of the origin of this lady has been introduced into the Pictorial History of England, on the authority of "Brompton in X. Scriptores." And on the same page (552. vol. i.) is a pictorial representation of the "Baptism of the Mother of Becket, from the Royal MS. 2 B. vii."
Now, Lord Campbell, in his Lives of the Chancellors, repudiates the story in toto; but without assigning any other reason for doing so, than an inference from the silence of Becket himself and his secretary, Fitzstephen, on the point.
Can any of the learned gentlemen, whose distinguished names adorn your valuable pages, direct an humble student to the fountain of truth, for the settlement of this verata questio?
W. Franks Mathews.
Kidderminster, April 7. 1850.
Swords worn in public.—Can any of your correspondents say when swords ceased to be worn as an article of ordinary dress, and whether the practice was abolished by act of parliament, or that they gradually went out of fashion.
J.D.A.
April 17. 1850.
Emblem and National Motto of Ireland.—How long has the harp been the emblem, and Erin-go-bragh the national motto of Ireland? To this I give another query,—What is the national motto of England?
E.M.B.
Latin Distich and Translation.—Who were the authors of the following Latin Distich, and its English translation?
"Mittitur in disco mihi piscis ab archiepisco—
—Po non ponatur, quia potus non mihi datur."
"I had sent me a fish in a great dish by the archbish—
—Hop is not here, for he gave me no beer."
E.M.B.
Verbum Græcum.—Who was the author of
"Like the verbum Græcum
Spermagoraiolekitholukanopolides,
Words that should only be said upon holidays,
When one has nothing else to do."
The verbum Græcum itself is in Aristophanes' Lysistrata, 457.
E.M.B.
Pope Felix.—Who is "Pope Felix," mentioned in Ælfric's Homily on the Birthday of St. Gregory? Ælfric, in speaking of the ancestors of St. Gregory, states that "Felix se eawfaesta papa waes his fifta faeder,"—"Felix the pious pope was his fifth father," (i.e. great grandfather's grandfather).
E.M.B.
April 15. 1850.
"Where England's Monarch," and "I'd preach as though."—Will any of your subscribers have the kindness to inform me who was the author of the lines
"Where England's monarch all uncovered sat
And Bradshaw bullied in a broad-brimm'd hat."
And also of these, quoted by Henry Martyn as "well-known:"
"I'd preach as though I ne'er should preach again,
I'd preach as dying unto dying men."
H.G.
Milford, April 15. 1850.
Latin Epigram.—I should be much obliged to any of your readers who can inform me who was the author and what is the date of the following epigram. The peculiarity of it, your readers will observe, consists in the fact, that while read directly it contains a strong compliment; yet it is capable of being read backwards, still forming the same description of verse, but conveying a perfect reverse of the compliment:—
"Laus tua, non tua fraus; virtus non copia rerum,
Scandere te fecit hoc decus eximium,
Pauperibus tua das; nunquam stat janua clausa;
Fundere res quæris, nec tua multiplicas.
Conditio tua sit stabilis! non tempore parvo
Vivere te faciat hic Deus omnipotens."
When reversed, it reads thus:—
"Omnipotens Deus hic faciat te vivere parvo
Tempore! Non stabilis sit tua conditio.
Multiplicas tua, nec quæris res fundere; clausa
Janua stat, nunquam das tua pauperibus.
Eximium decus hoc fecit te scandere rerum
Copia, non virtus; fraus tua, non tua laus."
Any additional information would much oblige.
O.
April 15. 1850.
