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We have entered at some length upon this Plan of a Church-History Society, and have quoted largely from DR. MAITLAND's pamphlet, because we believe the subject to be one likely to interest a large body of our readers, who might otherwise not have their attention called to a proposal calculated to advance one of the most important branches of historical learning.
BURNET AS A HISTORIAN
The following extract from Charles Lamb ought to be added to the testimonia already given by "NOTES AND QUERIES" (Vol. i., pp. 40. 181. 341. 493.):—
"Burnet's Own Times.—Did you ever read that garrulous, pleasant history? He tells his story like an old man past political service, bragging to his sons on winter evenings of the part he took in public transactions when his 'old cap was new.' Full of scandal, which all true history is. So palliative; but all the stark wickedness that actually gives the momentum to national actors. Quite the prattle of age and outlived importance. Truth and sincerity staring out upon you perpetually in alto relievo. Himself a party-man, he makes you a party-man. None of the cursed philosophical Humeian indifference, 'so cold and unnatural and inhuman.' None of the cursed Gibbonian fine writing, so fine and composite. None of Dr. Robertson's periods with three members. None of Mr. Roscoe's sage remarks, all so apposite and coming in so clever, lest the reader should have had the trouble of drawing an inference. Burnet's good old prattle I can bring present to my mind; I can make the Revolution present to me."—Charles Lamb: Letters.
GUSTAVE MASSON.
Hadley, near Barnet.
Bishop Burnet.—An Epigram on the Reverend Mr. Lawrence Eachard's and Bishop Gilbert Burnet's Histories. By MR. MATTHEW GREEN, of the Custom-House.
"Gil's History appears to me
Political anatomy,
A case of skeletons well done,
And malefactors every one.
His sharp and strong incision pen,
Historically cuts up men,
And does with lucid skill impart
Their inward ails of head and heart.
Lawrence proceeds another way,
And well-dressed figures does display:
His characters are all in flesh,
Their hands are fair, their faces fresh;
And from his sweet'ning art derive
A better scent than when alive;
He wax-work made to please the sons,
Whose fathers were Gil's skeletons."
From a Collection of Poems by several hands. London: Dodsley, 1748.
J.W.H.
EPIGRAMS FROM BUCHANAN
A beautiful nymph wish'd Narcissus to pet her;
But he saw in the fountain one he loved much better.
Thou hast look'd in his mirror and loved; but they tell us
No rival will tease thee, so never be jealous.
J.O.W.H.
There's a lie on thy cheek in its roses,
A lie echo'd back by thy glass,
Thy necklace on greenhorns imposes,
And the ring on thy finger is brass.
Yet thy tongue, I affirm, without giving an inch back,
Outdates the sham jewels, rouge, mirror and pinchbeck.
J.O.W.H.
MISTAKES ABOUT GEORGE CHAPMAN THE POET
Dr. W. Cooke Taylor, in the introduction to his elegant reprint of Chapman's Homer, says of George Chapman, that "he died on the 12th of May, 1655, and was buried at the south side of St. Giles's Church." The date here is an error; for 1655 we should read 1634.
Sir Egerton Brydges, in his edition of Phillip's Theatrum Poetarum (Canterbury, 1800, p. 252.), says of the same poet, "A monument was erected over his grave by Inigo Jones, which was destroyed with the old church." Here also is an error. Inigo Jones's altar-tomb to the memory of his friend is still to be seen in the churchyard, against the south wall of the church. The inscription, which has been imperfectly re-cut, is as follows:—
"Georgius Chapman
Poëta
MDCXX
Ignatius Jones,
Architectus Regius
ob honorem
bonarum Literarum
familiari
suo hoe mon
D.S.P.F.C."
There is no proof that Inigo Jones's tomb now occupies its original site. The statement that Chapman was studied on the south side of the church is, I believe, mere conjecture.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
MINOR NOTES
Shakspeare and George Herbert.—Your correspondent D.S. (Vol. ii., p. 263.) has pointed out two illustrations to Shakspeare in George Herbert's poems. The parallel passages between the two poets are exceedingly numerous. There are one or two which occur to me on the instant:—
The Church Porch:
"In time of service, seal up both thine eyes,
And send them to thy heart; that, spying sin,
They may weep out the stains, by them did rise."
Cf. Hamlet, III. 4.:
"O Hamlet, speak no more;
Thou turnst mine eyes into my very soul,
And there I see such black and grained spots
As will not leave their tinct."
Gratefulness:
"Thou, that hast given so much to me,
Give one thing more, a grateful heart."
Cf. Second Pt. Henry Sixth, I. i.:
"O Lord, that lends me life,
Lend me a heart replete with thankfulness;
For Thou hast given me, in this beauteous face,
A world of earthly blessings to my soul."
The Answer:
"All the thoughts and ends
Which my fierce youth did bandy, fall and flow
Like leaves about me, or like summer friends,
Flies of estate and sunshine."
Cf. Troil. and Cressida, III. S.:
"Men, like butterflies,
Show not their mealy wings but to the summer;
And not a man, for being simply man,
Hath any honour."
Also, Third Pt. Henry Sixth, II. 6.:
"The common people swarm like summer flies,
And whither fly the gnats, but to the sun?
And who shines now, but Henry's enemies?"
S.A.Y.
Old Dan Tucker.—In a little book entitled A Thousand Facts in the Histories of Devon and Cornwall, p. 50., occurs the following passage:
"The first governor [of Bermuda] was a Mr. Moore, who was succeeded by Captain Daniel Tucker."
Does this throw any light on the popular negro song—
"Out o' de way, old Dan Tucker," &c.?
H.G.T.
Lord John Townsend.—I have a copy of the Rolliad, with the names of most of the contributors, taken from a copy belonging to Dr. Lawrence, the editor of the volume, and author of many of the articles. In the margin of "Jekyll," lines 73. to 100. are stated to be "inserted by Tickle;" and lines 156. to the end, as "altered and enlarged by Tickle:" and at the end is the following note:—
"There are two or three other lines in different parts of the foregoing eclogue, which were altered, or inserted by Tickle—chiefly in the connecting parts. The first draft (which was wholly Lord John Townsend's) was a closer parody of Virgil's 18th eclogue; especially in the beginning and conclusion, in the latter of which only Jekyll was introduced as 'the poet.'
"Tickle changed the plan, and made it what it is. The title (as indeed the principal subject of the eclogue) was in consequence altered from 'Lansdown' to 'Jekyll.' The poetry and satire are certainly enriched by Tickle's touches; but I question whether the humour was not more terse and classical, and the subject more just, as the poem originally stood."—L.
Probationary Odes No. XII. is by "Lord John Townsend."
"Three or four lines in the last stanza, and perhaps one or two in some of the former, were inserted by Tickle."—L.
Dialogue between a certain Personage and his Minister (p. 442. of the 22nd edition) is by "Ld. J.T."
A new ballad, Billy Eden, is by "Ld. J.T., or Tickle."
Ode to Sir Elijah Impey (p. 503.):
"Anonymous—I believe L'd. J.T."—L.
Ministerial undoubted Facts (p. 511.):
"Lord J. Townsend—I believe."—L.
W.C. TREVELYAN.
Croker's Boswell (Edit. 1847, p. 721.).—Mr. Croker cannot discover when a good deal of intercourse could have taken place between Dr. Johnson and the Earl of Shelburne, because "in 1765, when Johnson engaged in politics with Hamilton, Lord Shelburne was but twenty." In 1765 Lord Shelburne was twenty-eight. He was born in 1737; was in Parliament in 1761; and a Privy Councillor in 1763.
L.G.P.
Misquotation—"He who runs may read."—No such passage exists in the Scriptures, though it is constantly quoted as from them. It is usually the accompaniment of expressions relative to the clearness of meaning or direction, the supposititious allusion being to an inscription written in very large characters. The text in the prophet Habakkuk is the following: "Write the vision and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it." (Ch. ii. 2.) Here, plainly, the meaning is, that every one reading the vision should be alarmed by it, and should fly from the impending calamity: and although this involves the notion of legibility and clearness, that notion is the secondary, and not the primary one, as those persons make it who misquote in the manner stated above.
MANLEIUS.
Tindal's New Testament.—The following Bibliographical Note, by the late Mr. Thomas Rodd, taken from a volume of curious early Latin and German Tracts, which will be sold by Messrs. Sotheby and Wilkinson on Friday next, deserves a more permanent record than the Sale Catalogue.
"I consider the second tract of particular interest and curiosity, as it elucidates an important point in English literature, viz., the place (Worms) where Tindal printed the edition of the New Testament commonly called the first, and generally ascribed to the Antwerp Press.
"This book is printed in a Gothic letter, with woodcuts and Initial Letters (in the year 1518).
"I have carefully examined every book printed at Antwerp, at the period, that has fallen in my way; but in no one of them have I found the same type or initial letters as are used therein.
"In the present tract I find the same form of type and woodcuts, from the same school; and also, what is more remarkable, an initial (D) letter, one of the same alphabet as a P used in the Testament. These initial letters were always cut in alphabets, and in no other books than these two have I discovered any of the letters of this alphabet.
"The mistake has arisen from the circumstance of there having been a piratical reprint of the book at Antwerp in 1525, but of which no copy is known to exist."
The following is the title of the tract referred to by Mr. Rodd:—
"Eyn wolgeordent und nützlich buchlin, wie man Bergwerck suchen un finden sol, von allerley Metall, mit seinen figuren, nach gelegenheyt dess gebirgs artlich angezeygt mit enhangendon Berchnamen den anfahanden" and the colophon describes it as "Getruckt zu Wormbs bei Peter Schörfern un volendet am funfften tag Aprill, M.D.XVIII."
The Term "Organ-blower."—In an old document preserved among the archives of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, is an entry relative to the celebrated composer and organist HENRY PURCELL, in which he is styled "our organ-blower." What is the meaning of this term? It certainly does not, in the present case, apply to the person whose office it was to fill the organ with wind. Purcell, at the time the entry was made, was in the zenith of his fame, and "organist to the king." Possibly it may be the old term for an organist, as it will be remembered that in the fifteenth century the organ was performed upon by blows from the fist.
At the coronation of James II., and also at that of George I., two of the king's musicians walked in the procession, clad in scarlet mantles, playing each on a sackbut, and another, drest in a similar manner, playing on a double curtal, or bassoon. The "organ-blower" had also a place in these two processions, having on him a short red coat, with a badge on his left breast, viz. a nightingale of silver, gilt, sitting on a sprig.
In a weekly paper, entitled the Westminster Journal, Dec. 4. 1742, is a letter subscribed "Ralph Courtevil, Organ-blower, Essayist, and Historiographer." This person was the organist of St. James's Church, Piccadilly, and the author of the Gazetteer, a paper written in defence of Sir Robert Walpole's administration. By the writers on the opposite side he was stigmatized with the name of "Court-evil."
At the present time, as I am given to understand, the organist of St. Andrew's Church, Holborn, is styled in the vestry-books, the "organ-blower."
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
"Singular" and "Unique."—The word singular, originally applied to that of which there is no other, gradually came to mean extraordinary only, and "rather singular," "very singular indeed," and such like phrases, ceased to shock the ear. To supply the vacancy occasioned by this corruption, the word unique was introduced; which, I am horror-struck to see, is beginning to follow its predecessor. The Vauxhall bills lately declared Vauxhall to be the "most unique place of amusement in the world." Can anything be done to check this ill-fated word in its career? and, if not, what must we look to for a successor?
M.
