Notes and Queries, Number 55, November 16, 1850
TextQUERIES
DRYDEN'S "ABSALOM AND ACHITOPHEL."
In my small library I have neither Malone's Life of Dryden, nor that of more recent date by Sir Walter Scott; and, possibly, either of those works would render my present Query needless. It relates to a copy of Absalom and Achitophel now lying before me, which is a mere chap-book, printed on bad paper, in the most economical manner, and obviously intended to be sold at a very reasonable rate: indeed, at the bottom of the title-page, which is dated "1708," we are told that it was "Printed and sold by H. Hills, in Black-fryars, near the Water-side, for the Benefit of the Poor." It consists of twenty-four pages, small 8vo., and, in order that the poem should not occupy too much space, one of the pages (p. 22.) is in a smaller type, and in double columns. At the end is the following singular
"ADVERTISEMENT.
"To prevent the publicks being impos'd on, this is to give notice that the book lately published in 4to. is very imperfect and uncorrect, in so much that above thirty lines are omitted in several places, and many gross errors committed, which pervert the sense."
The above is in Italic type, and the body of the tract consists of only the first part of Absalom and Achitophel, as ordinarily printed: allowing for misprints (which are tolerably numerous), the poem stands very much the same as in several common editions I have at hand. My Query is, Is the work known to have been so published "for the benefit of the poor," and in order to give it greater circulation, and what is the explanation of the "Advertisement?"
THE HERMIT OF HOLYPORT.
N.B. A short "Key" follows the usual address "To the Reader."
MINOR QUERIES
Edward the Confessor's Crucifix and Gold Chain.—In 1688 Ch. Taylour published A Narrative of the Finding St. Edward the King and Confessor's Crucifix and Gold Chain in the Abbey Church of St. Peter's, Westminster. Are the circumstances attending this discovery well known? And where now is the crucifix and chain?
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
The Widow of the Wood.—Benjamin Victor published in 1755 a "narrative" entitled The Widow of the Wood. It is said to be very rare, having been "bought up" by the Wolseleys of Staffordshire. What is the history of the publication?
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
Cardinal Erskine.—I am anxious to obtain some information respecting Cardinal Erskine, a Scotchman, as his name would impart, but called Cardinal of England? I suppose he was elevated to the sacred college between Cardinal Howard, the last mentioned by Dodd in his Church History, and the Cardinal of York, the last scion of the house of Stuart.
And is the following a correct list of English Cardinals since Wolsey, who died in 1530?
Both the latter were born abroad, the former at Naples, the latter at Seville; but they were born of British subjects, and were brought to England at an early age to be educated. The Cardinal of York was born in Rome; but being of the royal family of England, was always styled the Cardinal of England.
G.W.
October 26. 1850.
Thomas Regiolapidensis.—Where can I find any information as to the saint who figures in the following curious story? Regiolapidensis may probably mean of Königstein, in Saxony; but Albon Butler takes no notice of this Thomas.
"Incipit narratiuncula e libro vingto, cui titular Vita atq. Gesta B. Thomæ Regiolapidensis, ex ordine FF. Prædicatorum, excerpta.
"Quum verò prædicator indefensus, missionum ecclesiasticarum causâ, in borealibus versaretur partibus, miraculum ibi stupendum sanè patravit. Conspexit enim taurum ingentem, vaccarum (sicut poëta quidam ex ethnicis ait) 'magnâ comitante catervâ,' in prato quodam graminoso ferocientem, maceriâ tantum bassâ inter se et belluam istam horrendam interpositâ. Constitit Thomas, constitit et bos, horribiliter rugiens, caudâ erectâ, cornibus immaniter sæviens, ore spumam, naribus vaporem, oculis fulgur emittens, maceriam transsilire, in virum sanctum irruere, corpusque ejus venerabile in aëra jactitare, visibiliter nimis paratus. Thomas autem, eaptâ occasione, oculos in monstrum obfirmat, signumque crucis magneticum in modum indesinenter ducere aggreditur, En portentum inauditum! geminis belluae luminibus illico palpebrae obducuntur, titubat taurus, cadit, ac, signo magnetico sopitus, primò raucum stertens, mox infantiliter placidum trahens halitum, humi pronus recumbit. Nec moratus donec hostis iste cornutus somnum excuteret, viv sanctus ad hospitium se propinquum laetus inde incolumisque recepit."
RUSTICUS.
"Her Brow was fair."—Can any of your many readers inform me of the author of the following lines, which I copy as I found them quoted in Dr. Armstrong's Lectures:
"Her brow was fair, but very pale,
And looked like stainless marble; a touch methought would soil
Its whiteness. On her temple, one blue vein
Ran like a tendril; one through her shadowy hand
Branched like the fibre of a leaf away."
J.M.B.
Hoods warn by Doctors of Divinity of Aberdeen.—Will you allow me to inquire, through the pages of your publication, of what colour and material the exterior and lining of hoods were composed which Doctors in Divinity, who had graduated at Aberdeen, Glasgow, and St. Andrew's, prior to the Reformation, were accustomed to wear? I imagine, the same as those worn by Doctors who had graduated at Paris: but what hoods they wore I know not. I trust that some of your correspondents will enlighten me upon this subject.
LL.D.
Irish Brigade.—Where can I find any account of the institution and history of the Irish brigade, a part of the army of France under the Bourbons?
J.D.
Bath.
Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.—In the charge delivered by the Bishop of London to his clergy, on the 2nd instant, the following passage occurs:
"It is not easy to say what the members of that Church [the Church of Rome] are required to believe now; it is impossible for men to foresee what they may be called upon to admit as an article of faith next year, or in any future year: for instance, till of late it was open to a Roman Catholic to believe or not, as he might see reason, the fanciful notion of the immaculate conception of the Blessed Virgin; but the present Bishop of Rome has seen fit to make it an article of their faith; and no member of his church can henceforth question it without denying the infallibility of his spiritual sovereign, and so hazarding, as it is asserted, his own salvation."
Can any of your correspondents inform me where the papal decision on this point is to be found?
L.
Gospel Oak Tree at Kentish Town.—Can you inform me why an ancient oak tree, in a field at Kentish Town, is called the "Gospel Oak Tree." It is situated and grows in the field called the "Gospel Oak Field," Kentish Town, St. Pancras, Middlesex. Tradition says Saint Augustine, or one of the ancient Fathers of the Church, preached under its branches.
STEPHEN.
Arminian Nunnery in Huntingdonshire.—Where can I find an account of a religious academy called the Arminian Nunnery, founded by the family of the FERRARS, at Little Gidding in Huntingdonshire? I have seen some MS. collections of Francis Peck on the subject, but they are formed in a bad spirit. Has not Thomas Hearne left us something about this institution?
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
Ruding's Annotated Langbaine.—Can any of your readers inform me who possesses the copy of Langbaine's Account of the English Dramatic Poets with MS. additions, and copious continuations, by the REV. ROGERS RUDING? In one of his notes, speaking of the Garrick collection of old plays, that industrious antiquary observes:
"This noble collection has lately (1784) been mutilated by tearing out such single plays as were duplicates to others in the Sloane Library. The folio editions of Shakespeare, Beaumont and Fletcher, and Jonson, have likewise been taken from it for the same reason."
This is a sad complaint against the Museum authorities of former times.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
Mrs. Tempest.—Can any of your correspondents give me any account of Mrs. (or, in our present style, Miss) Tempest, a young lady who died the day of the great storm in Nov., 1703, in honour of whom Pope's early friend Walshe wrote an elegiac pastoral, and invited Pope to give his "winter" pastoral "a turn to her memory." In the note on Pope's pastoral it is said that "she was of an ancient family in Yorkshire, and admired by Walshe." I have elsewhere read of her as "the celebrated Mrs. Tempest;" but I know of no other celebrity than that conferred by Walshe's pastoral; for Pope's has no special allusion to her.
C.
Sitting cross-legged.—In an alliterative poem on Fortune (Reliquiæ Antiquæ, ii. p. 9.), written early in the fifteenth century, are the following lines:—
"Sitte, I say, and sethe on a semeli sete,
Rygth on the rounde, on the rennyng ryng;
Caste kne over kne, as a kynge kete,
Comely clothed in a cope, crouned as a kyng."
The third line seems to illustrate those early illuminations in which kings and great personages are represented as sitting cross-legged. There are numerous examples of the A.-S. period. Was it merely assumption of dignity, or was it not rather intended to ward off any evil influence which might affect the king whilst sitting, in his state? That this was a consideration of weight we learn from the passage in Bede, in which Ethelbert is described as receiving Augustine in the open air:
"Post dies ergo venit ad insulam rex, et residens sub divo jussit Augustinum cum sociis ad suum ibidem adveire colloquium; caverat enim ne in aliquam domum ad se introirent, vetere usus augurio, ne superventu suo, si quid maleficæ artis habuissent, eum superando deciperent."—Hist. Eccles., l. i. c. 25.
It was cross-legged that Lucina was sitting before the floor of Alemena when she was deceived by Galanthes. In Devonshire there is still a saying which recommends "sitting cross-legged to help persons on a journey;" and it is employed as a charm by schoolboys in order to avert punishment. (Ellis's Brand, iii. 258.) Were not the cross-legged effigies, formerly considered to be those of Crusaders, so arranged with an idea of the mysterious virtue of the position?
RICHARD J. KING.
Twickenham—Did Elizabeth visit Bacon there?—I believe all the authors who within the last sixty years have written on the history of Twickenham, Middlesex (and among the most known of these I may mention Lysons, Ironside, and John Norris Brewer), have, when mentioning Twickenham Park, formerly the seat of Lord Bacon, stated that he there entertained Queen Elizabeth. Of this circumstance I find no account in the works of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His lordship entertained her at Gorhambury in one of her progresses; and I would ask if it be possible that Twickenham may have been mistaken for his other seat of Gorhambury? It is well known Queen Elizabeth passed much of the latter part of her life at Richmond, and ended her days there; and in Mr. Nares' Memoirs of Lord Burghley there is an account of her visit to Barn-Elms; and there is also a curious description of her visit to Kew (in that neighbourhood) in the Sydney Papers, published by Arthur Collins, in two vols. folio, vol. i. p. 376., in a letter from Rowland Whyte, Esq. Had Lord Bacon received her majesty, it must most probably have been in 1595. But perhaps some of your readers may be able to supply me with information on this subject.
D.N.
Burial towards the West.—The usual posture of the dead is with the feet eastward, and the head towards the west: the fitting attitude of men who look for their Lord, "whose name is The East," and who will come to judgement in the regions of the dawn suddenly. But it was the ancient usage of the Church that the martyr, the bishop, the saint, and even the priest, should occupy in their sepulture a position the reverse of the secular dead, and lie down with their feet westward, and their heads to the rising sun. The position of the crozier and the cross on ancient sepulchres of the clergy record and reveal this fact. The doctrine suggested by such a burial was, that these mighty men which were of old would be honoured with a first resurrection, and as their Master came on from the east, they were to arise and to follow the Lamb as He went; insomuch that they, with Him, would advance to the Judgement of the general multitudes,—the ancients and the saints which were worthy to judge and reign. Now, Sir, my purpose in this statement is to elicit, if I may, from your learned readers illustrations of this distinctive interment.
R.S. HAWKER.
Morwenstow.
Medal struck by Charles II.—Voltaire, in his Histoire de Charles XII., liv. 4., states that a medal was struck in commemoration of a victory which Charles XII. gained over the Russians, at a place named Hollosin, near the Boresthenes, in the year 1708. He adds that on one side of this medal was the epigraph, "Sylvæ, paludes, aggeres, hostes victi;" on the other the verse of Lucan:—
"Victrices copias alium laturus in orbem."
The verse of Lucan referred to is in lib. v. l.238.:
"Victrices aquilas alium laturus in orbem."
Query, Is the medal referred to by Voltaire known to exist? and if so, is the substitution of the unmetrical and prosaic word copias due to the author of the medal, or to Voltaire himself?
L.
National Debt.—What volumes, pamphlets, or paragraphs can be pointed out to the writer, in poetry or prose, alluding to the bribery, corruption, and abuses connected with the formation of the National Debt from 1698 to 1815?
F.H.B.
Midwives licensed.—In the articles to be inquired into in the province of Canterbury, anno 1571 (Grindal Rem., Park. Soc. 174-58), inquiry to be made
"Whether any use charms, or unlawful prayers, or invocations, in Latin or otherwise, and namely, midwives in the time of women's travail of child."
In the oath taken by Eleanor Pead before being licensed by the Archbishop to be a midwife a similar clause occurs; the words, "Also, I will not use any kind of sorcery or incantations in the time of the travail of any woman." Can any of your readers inform me what charms or prayers are here referred to, and at what period midwives ceased to be licensed by the Archbishop, or if any traces of such license are still found in Roman Catholic countries?