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SYMBOLS OF THE FOUR EVANGELISTS

Horne, in his Introduction, vol. iv. p. 254., says that Irenæus was the first to discover the analogy between the four animals mentioned by Ezekiel (i. 5. 10.) and the four Evangelists, which gave rise to the well-known paintings of these latter. He quotes from Iren. adv. Hoer. lib. iii. cap. 11.:—

"The first living creature, which is like a lion, signifies Christ's efficacy, principality, and regality, viz. John; the second, like a calf, denotes His sacerdotal order, viz. Luke; the third, having as it were, a man's face, describes His coming in the flesh as man, viz. Matthew; and the fourth, like a flying eagle, manifests the grace of the Spirit flying into the Church, viz. Mark."

There is also an interesting passage in Dionys Carthus. in Apocal. Enarr. iv. 7., from which the following is an extract:—

"Although the above exposition of Gregorius, in which by the man in meant Matthew, by the calf Luke, &c., be the common one, yet other holy men have held a different opinion, for as Bede relates on this point, Augustine understood by the lion Matthew, because in the beginning of his Gospel he describes the royal descent of Christ; by the calf he also understood Luke, because he wrote of the priestly descent of Our Lord; by the man Mark, because he omits the question of Christ's birth, and confines himself more especially to describing His acts as a man; by the eagle, all understand John, on account of the sublimity to which his Gospel soars. Others again understand by the lion Matthew; by the calf Mark, on account of the simplicity of his style; and by the man Luke, because he has more fully treated of Christ's human generation."

Would "JARLZBERG" kindly favour me with a reference to his interesting anecdote of the lion's whelps?

J. EASTWOOD.

Ecclesfield, May 9. 1850.

Your correspondent "JARLZBERG" (No. 24. p. 385.) inquires for the origin of the Evangelistic symbols. The four living creatures, in Ezekiel, i. 10., and Revelations, iv. 7., were interpreted from the earliest times to represent the four Gospels. Why the angel is attributed to St. Matthew, the lion to St. Mark, and so on, is another question: but their order in Ezekiel corresponds with the order of the Gospels as we have them. Durandus would probably furnish some information. The fabulous legend of the lion savours of a later origin. Some valuable remarks on the subject, and a list of references to early writers, will be found in Dr. Wordsworth's Lectures on the Canon of Scripture (Lect. VI. p. 151.), and his Lectures on the Apocalypse (Lect. IV. pp. 116, 117.)

C.R.M.

Symbols of the Evangelists (No. 24. p. 385.).—The symbols of the four Evangelists are treated of by J. Williams, Thoughts on the Study of the Gospels, p. 5—22. Lond. 1842.

M.

Oxford.

With regard to the symbols of the four Evangelists, "JARLZBERG" may consult a Sermon by Boys on the portion of Scripture appointed for the Epistle for Trinity-Sunday. (Works, p. 355. Lond. 1622.)

R.G.

[To these Replies we will only add a reference to Mrs. Jameson's interesting and beautiful volume on Sacred and Legendary Art, vol. i. p. 98., et seq., and the following Latin quatrain:—

 
"Quatuor hæc Dominum signant animalia Christum,
Est Homo nascendo, Vitulusque sacer moriendo,
Et Leo surgendo, coelos Aquila que petendo;
Nec minus hos scribas animalia et ipsa figurant."]
 

COMPLEXION

Complexion is usually (and I think universally) employed to express the tint of the skin; and the hair and eyes are spoken of separately when the occasion demands a specific reference to them. "NEMO" (No. 22. p. 352.), moreover, seems to confound the terms "white" and "fair," between the meanings of which there is considerable difference. A white skin is not fair, nor a fair skin white. There is no close approach of one to the other; and indeed we never see a white complexion, except the chalked faces in a Christmas of Easter Pantomime, or in front of Richardson's booth at Greenwich or Charlton Fair. A contemplation of these would tell us what the "human face divine" would become, were we any of us truly white-skinned.

The skin diverges in tint from the white, in one direction towards the yellow, and in another towards the red or pink; whilst sometimes we witness a seeming tinge of blue,—characteristic of asphyxia, cholera, or some other disease. We often see a mixture of red and yellow (the yellow predominating) in persons subject to bilious complaints; and not unfrequently a mixture of all three, forming what the painters call a "neutral tint," and which is more commonly called "an olive complexion."

The negro skin is black; that is, it does not separate the sun's light into the elementary colours. When, by the admixture of the coloured races with the negro, we find coloured skins, they always tend to the yellow, as in the various mulatto shades of the West Indies, and especially in the Southern States of America; and the same is true of the "half-castes" of British India, though with a distinct darkness or blackness, which the descendant of the negro does not generally show.

Though I have, in accordance with the usual language of philosophers, spoken of blue as an element in the colour of the skin, I have some doubt whether it be a "true blue" or not. It is quite as likely to arise from a partial participation in the quality of the negro skin—that of absorbing a large portion of the light without any analysis whatever. This may be called darkness.

However, to return to the Query: the term pale is applied to the yellow-tinted skin; fair, to the red or pink; brown, to the mixture of red and yellow, with either blue or such darkness as above described; sallow, to yellow and darkness; and the only close approach to whiteness that we ever see, is in the sick room of the long-suffering fair complexion. In death, this changes to a "blackish grey," a mixture of white and darkness.

The pale complexion indicates a thick, hard, dry skin; the fair, a thin and soft one; and all the shades of dark skin render a large amount of ablution essential to health, comfort, or agreeableness to others. If any of your readers should feel curious about the characters of the wearers of these several skins, they must inquire of Lavater and his disciples.

D.V.S.

Home, April 1. 1850.

BALLAD OF DICK AND THE DEVIL

Looking over some of your back numbers, I find (No. 11. p. 172.) an inquiry concerning a ballad with this title. I have never met with it in print, but remember some lines picked up in nursery days from an old nurse who was a native of "the dales." These I think have probably formed a part of this composition. The woman's name was curiously enough Martha Kendal; and, in all probability, her forebears had migrated from that place into Yorkshire:—

 
"Robin a devil he sware a vow.
He swore by the sticks² in hell—
By the yelding that crackles to mak the low³,
That warms his namsack⁴ weel.
 
 
"He leaped on his beast, and he rode with heaste,
To mak his black oath good;
'Twas the Lord's Day, and the folk did pray
And the priest in cancel stood.
 
 
"The door was wide, and in does he ride,
In his clanking gear so gay;
A long keen brand he held in his hand,
Our Dickon for to slay.
 
 
"But Dickon goodhap he was not there,
And Robin he rode in vain,
And the men got up that were kneeling in prayer,
To take him by might and main.
 
 
"Rob swung his sword, his steed he spurred,
He plunged right through the thrang.
But the stout smith Jock, with his old mother's crutch⁵,
He gave him a woundy bang.
 
 
"So hard he smote the iron pot,
It came down plume and all;
Then with bare head away Robin sped,
And himself was fit to fall.
 
 
"Robin a devil he way'd⁶ him home,
And if for his foes he seek,
I think that again he will not come
To late⁷ them in Kendal kirk."⁸
 

Y.A.C.

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES

Cavell.—In the time of Charles I., a large tract of land lying south-eastward of Doncaster, called Hatfield Chace, was undertaken to be drained and made fit for tillage and pasture by one Sir Cornelius Vermuyden, a celebrated Flemish engineer of that day, and his partners, or "participants," in the scheme, all or most of them Dutchmen. The lands drained were said to be "cavelled and allotted" to so and so, and the pieces of land were called "cavells." They were "scottled," or made subject to a tax or assessment for drainage purposes. Two eminent topographical writers of the present day are inclined to be of opinion that this word cavell is connected with the Saxon gafol, gavel-tributum—money paid—which we have in gavel-kind and gavelage. One of them, however, suggests that the word may be only a term used in Holland as applicable to land, and then introduced by the Dutch at the time of the drainage in question. I shall be obliged if any of your readers can inform me if the word "cavell" is so used in Holland, or elsewhere, either as denoting any particular quantity of land, or land laid under any tax, or tributum, or otherwise.

J.

[Our correspondent will find, on referring to Kilian's Dictionarium Teutonico-Latino-Gallicum, that the word Kavel is used for sors, "sors in divisione bonorum:" and among other definitions of the verb Kavelen, "sorte dividere terram," which corresponds exactly with his cavelled and allotted.]

Gootet (No. 25. p. 397.).—Is not this word a corruption of good-tide, i.e. holiday or festival? In Halliwell's Archæological Dictionary I find,—

"Good-day, a holiday; Staff.

"Gooddit, shrovetide; North. Shrove Tuesday is called Goodies Tuesday.

"Good-time, a festival; Jonson."

C.W.G.

Salt ad Montem (No. 24. p. 384.) as meaning Money.—Salt is an old metaphor for money, cash, pay; derived, says Arbuthnot, from salt's being part of the pay of the Roman soldiers; hence salarium, salary, and the levying contributions at Salt Hill. Your Querist will find several explanations of the Eton Montem in the Gentleman's Magazine; and a special account of the ceremony, its origin and circumstances, in Lyson's Mag. Brit. i. 557.

C.

Pamphlets respecting Ireland (No. 24. p. 384.)—I would refer "I." to No. 6161. in the Catalogue of Stowe Library, sold by Leigh Sotheby and Co., in January 1849. That lot consisted of two vols. of twenty-six tracts, 4to. Amongst them is "Gookin, the Author and Case of Transplanting the Irish in Connaught Vindicated, from Col. R. Lawrence, 1655." Messrs. Leigh Sotheby will probably be able to inform the Querist into whose hands these two vols. passed. The lot sold for the large sum of 4l. 18s.

Pimlico (No. 24. p. 383.).—The derivation of this word is explained from the following passage in a rare (if not unique) tract now before me, entitled Newes from Hogsdon, 1598:—

"Have at thee, then, my merrie boyes, and hey for old Ben Pimlico's nut-browne."

Pimlico kept a place of entertainment in or near Hoxton, and was celebrated for his nut-brown ale. The place seems afterwards to have been called by his name, and is constantly mentioned by our early dramatists. In 1609 a tract was printed, entitled Pimlyco, or Runne Red Cap, 'tis a Mad World at Hogsdon. Isaac Reed (Dodsley's Old Plays, ed. Collier, vii. 51.) says,—

"A place near Chelsea is still called Pimlico, and was resorted to within these few years, on the same account as the former at Hogsdon."

Pimlico is still, I believe, celebrated for its fine ale.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

Pimlico (No. 24. p. 383.).—I see, by a passage in Lord Orrery's Letters, that there was a place called Pemlicoe in Dublin:—

"Brown is fluctuant; he once lay at a woman's house in Pemlicoe, Dublin." (Earl of Orrery to Duke of Ormond, Feb. 5. 1663, in Orrery's State Letters.)

This may be of use to "R.H.," who inquires about the origin of Pimlico. Ranelaugh, in the same parts, is doubtless also of Irish origin.

C.H.

[Pimlico in Dublin still exists, as will be seen by reference to Thom's Irish Almanac, where we find "Pimlico, from Coombe to Tripoli."]

Bive and Chute Lambs (No. 6. p. 93.).—I do not know whether my answer to your correspondent's inquiry about bive and chute lambs will be satisfactory, inasmuch as the price he gives of "bive" lambs "apeece" is larger than the price of the "chute." Twin lambs are still called bive lambs on the borders of Sussex and Kent; and chute lambs are fat lambs.

Chuet is an old word signifying a fat greasy pudding. It is rightly applied to Falstaff:—

 
"Peace, chewet, peace."
 

1st Part K. Hen. IV.

WM. DURRANT COOPER.

Latin Names of Towns.—"M." (No. 25. p. 402.) wishes for some guide with reference to the Latin names of towns. A great deal of assistance may be obtained from an octavo volume, published anonymously, and bearing the title "Dictionnaire Interprète-manuel des Noms Latins de la Géographie ancienne et moderne; pour servir à l'Intelligence des Auteurs Latins, principalement des Auteurs Classiques; avec les Désignations principales des Lieux. Ouvrage utile à ceux qui lisent les Poëtes, les Historiens, les Martyrologes, les Chartes, les vieux Actes," &c. &c. A Paris, 1777.

R.G.

Le Petit Albert (No. 24. p. 385.).—I suspect this Petit Albert, in 32mo.—a size in harmony with the cognomen—is only a catchpenny publication, to which the title of Le Petit Albert has been given by way of resembling its name to that of Albertus Magnus, who wrote a work or works of a character which gave rise, in the middle ages, to the accusation that he practised magical arts; and hence, probably, any abridgement or compendium of them, or any little work on such arts, would be styled by the French compiler Le Petit Albert. In the Biographie Universelle, it is affirmed that the rhapsodies known under the name of Secrets du Petit Albert are not by Albertus Magnus; a statement which favours the belief that the work mentioned by your correspondent "JARLZBERG" is one of that vulgar class (like our old Moore's Almanack, &c.) got up for sale among the superstitious and the ignorant, and palmed on the world under the mask of a celebrated name. According to Bayle, Albertus Magnus has, by some, been termed Le Petit Albert, owing, it is said, to the diminutiveness of his stature, which was on so small a scale, that when he, on one occasion, paid his respects to the pope, the pontiff supposed he was still kneeling at his feet after he had risen up and was standing erect.

J.M.

Oxford, April 19.

[Of Le Petit Albert, of which it appears by Grässe's Bibliotheca Magica there were editions printed at Cologne in 1722, Lyons 1775, and even at Paris in 1837, we are told in Colin de Plancy's Dictionnaire Infernal, s. v. Albert le Grand, "On a quelquefois défendu ce livre, et alors il s'est vendu énormément cher."]

Walter Lynne (No. 23. p. 367.).—"G.P." may look for Walter Lynne into Johnson's Typographia, i. 556., of which copies may be had very reasonably at Mr. Miller's (see end of No. 15.), 43. Chandos Street.

Your intimation of brevity is attended to; though, in truth, little more could come from

NOVUS.

Emancipation of the Jews (No. 25. p. 491.).—"H.M.A." inquires—1. If the story mentioned in the Thurloe State Papers, that the Jews sought to obtain St. Paul's Cathedral for a Synagogue, has been confirmed by other writers? In Egan's Status of the Jews in England, I find the following passage:—

"Monteith informs us, that during the Commonwealth, overtures were made on behalf of the Hebrews to the Parliament and Council of War, through the medium of two popular adherents of the parliamentarians; the Jews offered to pay for the privileges then sought by them, the sum of 500,000l.; several debates took place on the subject, but the ultimatum of the Puritans being 800,000l., the negotiation was broken off."

The authorities cited on this point by the learned writer are, Monteith's History of Great Britain, p. 473.; and Thurloe's State Papers, vol. ii. p. 652.

On reference to Monteith, I find the following passage:—

"What is very remarkable in this is, that the Jews, who crucified the Son of God, by whom Kings reign, took then occasion of the conjuncture which seemed favourable to them. They presented a petition to the Council of War, who crucified Him again in the person of the King, His Vicegerent in the kingdoms over which God had set him. By their petition, they requested that the act of their banishment might be repealed and that they might have St. Paul's Church for their synagogue, for which, and the library of Oxford, wherewith they desired to begin their traffic again, they offered five hundred thousand pounds, but the Council of War would have eight."—Monteiths's Hist. of the Troubles of Great Britain, p. 473.

I conclude that the author of the Status of the Jews, by omitting to notice the alleged desire of the Jews to obtain St. Paul's Cathedral, considered that the acrimonious statements of Monteith were not borne out by accredited or unprejudiced authorities; for it is but justice to state, it has been admitted by some of our most eminent critics, that Mr. Egan's book on the Jews displays as dispassionate and impartial a review of their condition in this country as it evinces a profundity of historical and legal research.

"H.M.A.'s" second question I am unable to answer, not being sufficiently versed in the religious dogmas of the Jews.

B.A.

Christ Church, Oxford.

Emancipation of the Jews (No. 25. p. 401.).—"MR. AUSTEN," who inquires (p. 401.) about the Jews during the Commonwealth will do well to refer to a chapter on the Jews in Godwin's History of the Commonwealth, and to Sir Henry Ellis's notes on a remarkable letter describing a Jewish synagogue in London immediately after the Restoration, in the second series of his Letters; and in these two places he will, I think, find references to all known passages on the subject of Cromwell's proceedings as regards the Jews.

C.H.

As lazy as Ludlum's Dog (No. 24. p. 382.).—This proverb is repeated somewhat differently in The Doctor, &c., "As lazy as Ludlum's dog, as leaned his head against a wall to bark." I venture to suggest that this is simply one of the large class of alliterative proverbs so common in every language, and often without meaning. In Devonshire they say as "Busy as Batty," but no one knows who "Batty" was. As I have mentioned The Doctor, &c., I may was well jot down two more odd sayings from the same old curiosity-shop:—"As proud as old COLE's dog which took the wall of a dung-CART, and got CRUSHED by the wheel." And, "As queer as Dick's hat-band, that went nine times round his hat and was fastened by a rush at last."