Kitabı oku: «Notes and Queries, Number 213, November 26, 1853», sayfa 4

ON PALINDROMES

(Vol vii., p. 178. &c.)

Several of your correspondents have offered Notes upon these singular compositions, and Agricola de Monte adduces

 
"ΝΙΨΟΝ ΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑ, ΜΗ ΜΟΝΑΝ ΟΨΙΝ"
 

as an example. As neither he nor Mr. Ellacombe give it as found out of this country, allow me to say that it was to be seen on a benitier in the church of Notre Dame at Paris. If it were not for the substitution of the adjective ΜΟΝΑΝ for the adverb ΜΟΝΟΝ, the line would be one of the best specimens of the recurrent order.

I notice that a correspondent (Vol. vii., p. 336.) describes the Palindrome as being universally sotadic. Now, this term was only intended to apply to the early samples of this fanciful species of verse in Latin, the production Sotades, a Roman poet, 250 B.C. The lines given by Bœoticus (Vol. vi., p. 209.),

 
"Roma tibi subito motibus ibit amor?"
 

owe their authorship to his degraded Muse, and many others which would but pollute your pages.

The hexameter "Sacrum pingue," &c. given by Ω. Φ. (Vol. vi., p. 36.), is to be found in Misson's Voyage to Italy, copied from an old cloister wall of Santa Maria Novella at Florence. These ingenious verses are Leoline², and it is noted that "the sacrifice of Cain was not a living victim."

I have seen it stated that the English language affords but one specimen of the palindrome, while the Latin and Greek have many. The late Dr. Winter Hamilton, the author of Nugæ Literariæ, gives this solitary line, which at the best is awkwardly fashioned:

 
"Lewd did I live & evil did I dwel."
 

Is any other known?

Some years since I fell in with that which, after all, is the most wonderful effort of the kind; at least I can conceive of nothing at all equal to it.

It is to be found in a poem called Ποίημα Καρκινεκὸν, written in ancient Greek by a modern Greek called Ambrosius, printed in Vienna in 1802, and dedicated to the Emperor Alexander. It contains 455 lines, every one of which is literal palindrome.

I have some hesitation in giving even a quotation; and yet, notwithstanding the forced character of some of the lines, your readers will not fail to admire the classic elegance of this remarkable composition.

 
"Εὖ Ἐλισάβετ, Ἄλλα τ' ἐβασίλευε.
Ἔλαβε τὰ κακὰ, καὶ ἄκακα κατέβαλε.
Ἀρετὰ πήγασε δὲ σᾶ γῆ πατέρα.
Σώματι σῶ φένε φένε φῶς ἰταμῶς.
Σὺ δὴ Ἥρως οἷος ὦ Ῥῶς οἷος ὥρη ἡδύς:
Νοὶ σὺ λαῷ ἀλαῷ ἀλύσιον.
Νέμε ἤθη λαῷ τῷ ἀληθῆ ἔμεν.
Σὺ ἔσο ἔθνει ἐκεῖ ἔνθεος εὖς.
Ὧ Ῥῶς ἔλε τί σὺ λυσιτελὲς ὤρω.
Ἀλλὰ τὰ ἐν νῷ βάλε, λαβῶν νέα τ' ἄλλα
Σωτὴρ σὺ ἔσο ὦ ἔλεε θέε λεῶ, ὃς εὖς ῥητῶς
Σὸν ἅδε σωτῆρα ἰδιὰ ῥητῶς ἐδανὸς."
 

Charles Reed.

Paternoster Row.

Here is a Palindrome that surrounds a figure of the sun in the mosaic pavement of Sa. Maria del Fiori at Florence:

 
"En giro torte sol ciclos et rotor igne."
 

Could any of your correspondents translate this enigmatical line?

Mosaffur.

E. I. Club.

Replies to Minor Queries

The Claymore (Vol. viii., p. 365.).—I believe there is no doubt that the true Scottish claymore is the heavy two-handed sword, examples of which are preserved at Dumbarton Castle, and at Hawthornden, and respectively attributed to William Wallace, and to Robert the Bruce. The latter is a very remarkable specimen, the grip being formed either of the tusk of a walrus or of a small elephant, considerably curved; and the guard is constructed of two iron bars, terminated by trefoils, and intersecting each other at right angles. The blade is very ponderous, and shorter than usual in weapons of this description.

The claymore of modern times is a broadsword, double or single-edged, and provided with a basket hilt of form peculiar to Scotland, though the idea was probably derived from Spain. Swords with basket hilts were commonly used by the English cavalry in the reigns of Charles I. and II., but they are always of a different type from the Scotch, though affording as complete a protection to the hand. I possess some half-dozen examples, some from Gloucestershire, which are of the times of the civil wars. There are many swords said to have been the property of Oliver Cromwell; one is in the United Service Museum: all that I have seen are of this form.

W. J. Bernhard Smith.

Temple.

Temple Lands in Scotland (Vol. viii., p. 317.).—Your correspondent Abredonensis, upon a reference to the undernoted publications, will find many interesting particulars as to these lands, viz.:

1. "Templaria: Papers relative to the History, Privileges, and Possessions of the Scottish Knights Templars, and their Successors the Knights of Saint John of Jerusalem, &c. Edited by James Maidment. Sm. 4to. 1828-29."

2. "Abstract of the Charters and other Papers recorded in the Chartulary of Torphichen, from 1581 to 1596; with an Introductory Notice and Notes, by John Black Gracie. Sm. 4to. 1830."

3. "Notes of Charters, &c., by the Right Hon. Thomas Earl of Melrose, afterwards Earl of Haddington, to the Vassals of the Barony of Drem, from 1615 to 1627; with an Introductory Notice, by John Black Gracie. Sm. 4to. 1830."

4. "Fragmenta Scoto-Monastica: Memoir of what has been already done, and what Materials exist, towards the Formation of a Scottish Monasticon; to which are appended, Sundry New Instances of Goodly Matter, by a Delver in Antiquity (W. B. Turnbull). 8vo. 1842."

The "Introductory Notices" prefixed to Nos. 2. and 3. give full particulars of the various sales and purchases of the Superioritus, &c., by Mr. Gracie and others.

T. G. S.

Edinburgh.

Lewis and Sewell Families (Vol. viii., p. 388.).—Your correspondent may obtain, in respect to the Lewis family, much information in the Life and Correspondence of Matthew Gregory Lewis, two vols. 8vo., London, 1839, particularly at pp. 6. and 7. of vol. i. He will there find that Matthew Lewis, Esq., who was Deputy Secretary of War for twenty-six years, married Frances Sewell, youngest daughter of the Right Hon. Sir Thos. Sewell; that Lieut.-Gen. Whitelocke and Gen. Sir Thos. Brownrigg, G.C.B., married the other two daughters of Sir Thos. Sewell; and that Matthew Gregory Lewis, who wrote the Castle Spectre, &c., was son of Matthew Lewis, Esq., the Deputy Secretary of War.

With regard to the Sewell family. The Right Hon. Sir Thos. Sewell, who was Master of the Rolls for twenty years, died in 1784; and there is, I believe, a very correct account of his family connexions in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1784, p. 555. He died intestate, and his eldest son, Thos. Bailey Heath Sewell, succeeded to his estate of Ottershaw and the manors of Stannards and Fords in Chobham, Surrey. This gentleman was a magistrate for the county of Surrey; and in the spring of 1794, when this country was threatened by both foreign and domestic enemies, he became Lieut.-Col. of a regiment of Light Dragoons (fencibles), raised in Surrey (at Richmond) by George Lord Onslow, Lord-Lieut. of the county, in which he served six years, till the Government not requiring their services they were disbanded. Lieut.-Col. Sewell died in 1803, and was buried in the church at Chobham, where there is a monument to his memory. Of his family we have not farther knowledge than that he had a son, Thos. Bermingham Heath Sewell, who was a cornet in the 32nd Light Dragoons, and lieutenant in the 4th Dragoon Guards during the war of the French Revolution. The History and Antiquities of Surrey, by the Rev. Owen Manning and Wm. Bray, in three vols. folio, 1804, has in the third volume much concerning the Sewell family.

D. N.

Pharaoh's Ring (Vol. viii., p. 416.).—The mention of the ring conferred on, or confided to, Joseph by the Pharaoh of Egypt, as stated in Genesis xli. 42., reminds me of a ring being shown to me some years ago, which was believed by its then possessor to be the identical ring, or at all events a signet ring of the very Pharaoh who promoted Joseph to the chief office in his kingdom.

It was a ring of pure gold, running through a hole in a massive wedge of gold, about the size, as far as I recollect, of a moderate-sized walnut. On one of its faces was cut the hieroglyphic (inclosed as usual with the names of Egyptian kings in an oval), as I was assured, of the king, the friend of Joseph, as was generally supposed by the readers of hieroglyphics: I pretend to no knowledge of them myself.

The possessor of the ring, who showed it to me, was Mr. Sams, one of the Society of Friends, a bookseller at Darlington. Since railroads have whirled me past that town, I have lost my means of periodical communication with him. He had, not long before I saw him last, returned from the Holy Land, where he assured me he had visited every spot that could be identified mentioned in the New Testament. He had also been some time in Egypt, and had brought home a great quantity of Egyptian antiquities. The lesser ones he had in the first floor of a carver and gilder's in Great Queen Street, between the Freemason's Tavern and Lincoln's Inn Fields. He was then anxious that these should be bought for the British Museum, and I think that at his request I wrote to the Earl of Aberdeen to mention this, and that the answer was that there was already so large a collection in the Museum, that more, as they must most of them be duplicates, would be of no use.

What has become of them I know not. I was told that a number of his larger antiquities, stone and marble, were for some time placed on Waterloo Bridge, that being a very quiet place, where people might view them without interruption. I did not happen to be in London that season, and therefore did not see them.

J. Ss.

[The whole of Mr. Sams's collection of Egyptian antiquities were bought by Joseph Mayer, Esq, F.S.A., of Liverpool, about two years ago, to add to his previous assemblage of similar monuments, and are placed by him, with a very valuable collection of mediæval antiquities, in the Egyptian Museum, 8. Colquitt Street, Liverpool. The small charge of sixpence for each visit opens the entire collection to the public; but it is a lamentable fact, that the curiosity or patriotism of the inhabitants does not cover Mr. Mayer's expenses by a large annual amount.]

"Could we with ink," &c. (Vol. iii., pp. 127. 180. 257. 422.).—Have not those correspondents who have answered this Query overlooked the concluding verse of the gospel according to St. John, of which it appears to me that the lines in question are an amplification without improvement? Mahomet, it is well known, imitated many parts of the Bible in the Koran.

E. G. R.

"Populus vult decipi" (Vol. vii., p. 578.; Vol. viii, p. 65.).—As an illustration of this expression the following anecdote is given. When my father was about thirteen years old, being in London he was, on one occasion in company with Dr. Wolcot (Peter Pindar), who, calling him to him, laid his hand on his head, and said, "My little boy, I want you to remember one thing as long as you live—the people of this world love to be cheated."

Uneda.

Philadelphia.

Red Hair (Vol. vii., p. 616.; Vol. viii., p. 86.).—It is frequently stated that the Turks are admirers of red hair. I have lately met with a somewhat different account, namely, that the Turks consider red-haired persons who are fat as "first-rate" people, but those who are lean as the very reverse.

M. E.

Philadelphia.

"Land of Green Ginger" (Vol. viii., p. 227.).—The authority which I am able to afford Mr. Richardson is simply the tradition of the place, which I had so frequently heard that I could scarcely doubt the truth of it; this I intended to be deduced, when I said I did not recollect that the local histories gave any derivation, and that it was the one "generally received by the inhabitants."

To any mind the solution brought forward by Mr. Buckton (Vol. viii., p. 303.) carries the greatest amount of probability with it of any yet proposed; and should any of your correspondents have the opportunity of looking through the unpublished history of Hull by the Rev. De la Pryme, "collected out of all the records, charters, deeds, mayors' letters, &c. of the said town," and now placed amongst the Lansdowne MSS. in the British Museum, I am inclined to think it is very likely it would be substantiated.

In Mr. Frost's valuable work on the town, which by the way proves it to have been "a place of opulence and note at a period long anterior to the date assigned to its existence by historians," he differs materially from Mr. Richardson, in considering that Hollar's plate was "engraved about the year 1630," not in 1640 as he states. There is also another which appeared between the time of Hollar and Gent, in Meisner's Libellus novus politicus emblematicus Civitatum, published in 1638, which though not "remarkable for accuracy of design," is well worthy of notice. It bears the title "Hull in Engellandt," and also the following curious inscriptions, which I copy for the interest of your readers:

"Carcer nonnunquam firmum propugnaculum. Noctua clausa manet in carcere firmo; Insidias volucrum vetat enim cavea."

 
"Wann die Eull eingesperret ist,
Schadet ihr nicht der Feinde list,
Der Kefig ist ihr nicht unnütz,
Sondern gibt wieder ihr Feind schütz."
 

These lines refer to a curious engraving on the left side of the plan, representing an owl imprisoned in a cage with a quantity of birds about, endeavouring to assail it.

R. W. Elliot.

Clifton.

"I put a spoke in his wheel" (Vol. viii., p. 351.).—Does not this phrase mean simply interference, either for good or evil? I fancy the metaphor is really derived from putting the bars, or spokes, into a capstan or some such machine. A number of persons being employed, another puts his spoke in, and assists or hinders them as he pleases. Can a stick be considered a spoke before it is put into its place, in the nave of the wheel at least? We often hear the observation, "Then I put in my spoke," &c. in the relation of an animated discussion. May I venture to suggest a pun on the preterite of the verb to speak?

G. William Skyring.

Pagoda (Vol. viii., p. 401.).—May not the word pagoda be a corruption of the Sanscrit word "Bhagovata," sacred?

Bishop of Brechin.

Dundee.

Passage in Virgil (Vol. viii., p. 270.).—On this part of Johnson's letter, Mr. Croker observes:

"I confess I do not see the object, nor indeed the meaning, of this allusion."

The allusion is to Eclogue viii. 43.:

 
"Nunc scio, quid sit Amor: duris in cotibus illum
Aut Tmarus, aut Rhodope, aut extremi Garamantes,
Nec generis nostri puerum nec sanguinis, edunt."
 

As the shepherd in Virgil had found Love to be not the gentle being he expected, but of a savage race—"a native of the rocks"—so had Johnson found a patron to be "one who looked with unconcern on a man struggling for life," instead of a friend to render assistance.

Supposing Johnson's estimate of Lord Chesterfield's conduct to be correct, I cannot help thinking the allusion to be eminently happy.

J. Kelway.

To speak in Lutestring (Vol. viii., p. 202.).—Lutestring, or lustring, is a particular kind of silk, and so is taffeta; and thus the phrase may be explained by Shakspeare's Love's Labour's Lost, Act V. Sc. 8.:

 
"Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise."
 

Junius intended to ridicule such kind of affectation by persons who were, or ought to have been, grave senators.

J. Kelway.

Dog Latin (Vol. viii., p. 218.).—A facetious friend, alluding particularly to law Latin with its curious abbreviations, says that it is so called because it is cur-tailed!

J. Kelway.

Longevity (Vol. viii., p. 113.).—I recollect seeing an old sailor in the town of Larne, county Antrim, Ireland, in the year 1826-27, of the name of Philip Lake, aged 110, who was said to have been a cabin boy in Lord Anson's vessel, in one of his voyages. If any of your correspondents can furnish the registry of his death it would be interesting.

Fras. Crossley.

Mary Simondson, familiarly known as "Aunt Polly," died recently at her cottage near Shippensburg, Pennsylvania, at the advanced age of 126 years.

M. E.

Philadelphia.

Definition of a Proverb (Vol. viii., p. 243.)—C. M. Ingleby inquires the source of the following definition of proverb, viz. "The wisdom of many, and the wit of one."

"To Lord John Russell are we indebted for that admirable definition of a proverb: 'The wisdom,' &c."—See Notes to Rogers's Italy, 1848.

The date is added since, in an edition of 1842; this remark makes no part of the note on the line, "If but a sinew vibrate," &c.

Q. T.

Ireland a bastinadoed Elephant (Vol. viii., p. 366.).—I venture to suggest whether this expression may not be something more than a bull, as . inclines to call it. If any one will look at a physical map of Ireland at some little distance, a very slight exercise of the "mind's eye" will serve to call up in the figure of that island the shape of a creature kneeling and in pain. Lough Foyle forms the eye; the coast from Bengore Head to Benmore Head the nose or snout; Belfast Lough the mouth; the coast below Donaghdee the chin; County Wexford the knees. The rest of the outline, according to the imagination of the observer, may assume that of an elephant, or something, perhaps, "very like a whale." Some fanciful observation of this kind may have suggested the otherwise unaccountable simile to Curran.

Polonius.

Ennui (Vol. vii., p. 478.; Vol. viii., p. 377.).—The meaning of this admirable word is best gleaned from its root, viz. nuit. It is somewhat equivalent to the Greek ἀγρυπνία, and signifies the sense of weariness with doing nothing. It gives the lie to the dolce far niente: vide Ps. cxxx. 6., and Job vii. 3, 4. Ennui is closely allied to our annoy or annoyance, through noceo, noxa, and their probable root nox, νὺξ. It is precisely equivalent to the Latin tædium, which may be derived from tæda, which in the plural means a torch, and through that word may have a side reference to night, the tædarum horæ: cf. Ps. xci. 5. The subject is worthy of strict inquiry on the part of comparative philologists.

C. Mansfield Ingleby.

Birmingham.

Belle Sauvage (Vol. viii., p. 388.).—Your Philadelphian correspondent asks whether Blue Bell, Blue Anchor, &c., are corruptions of some other emblem, such as that which in London transformed La Belle Sauvage into the Bell Savage.

This is not the fact. The Bell Savage on Ludgate Hill was originally kept by one Isabella Savage. A cotemporary historian, writing of one of the leaders in a rebellion in the days of Queen Mary, says, "He then sat down upon a stone opposite to Bell Savage's Inn."

James Edmeston.

Homerton.

History of York (Vol. viii., p. 125.).—There is a History of York, published in 1785 by Wilson and Spence, described to be an abridgment of Drake, which is in three volumes, and may be a later edition of the same work to which Mr. Elliot alludes.

F. T. M.

86. Cannon Street.

Encore (Vol. viii., p. 387.).—If A. A. knows the meaning of "this French word" I am a little surprised at his Query. Perhaps he means to ask why a French word should be used? It probably was first used at concerts and operas (ancora in Italian), where the performers and even the performances were foreign, and so became the fashion. Pope says:

 
"To the same notes thy sons shall hum or snore,
And all thy yawning daughters cry encore."
 

It was not, I think, in use so early as Shakspeare's time, who makes Bottom anticipate that "the Duke shall say, Let him roar again, let him roar again," where the jingle of "encore" would have been obvious. It is somewhat curious that where we use the French word encore, the French audiences use the Latin word "bis."

C.

"Hauling over the Coals" (Vol. viii., p. 125.).—This saying I conceive to have arisen from the custom prevalent in olden times, when every Baron was supreme in his own castle, of extracting money from the unfortunate Jews who happened to fall into his power, by means of torture. The most usual modus operandi seems to have been roasting the victims over a slow fire. Every one remembers the treatment of Isaac of York by Front-de-Bœuf, so vividly described in Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe. Although the practice has long been numbered amongst the things that were, the fact of its having once obtained is handed down to posterity in this saying, as when any one is taken to task for his shortcomings he is hauled over the coals.

John P. Stilwell.

Dorking.

The Words "Cash" and "Mob" (Vol. viii., p. 386.).—Mr. Fox was right: mob is not genuine English—teste Dean Swift! A lady who was well known to Swift used to say that the greatest scrape she ever got into with him was by using the word mob. "Why do you say that?" he exclaimed in a passion; "never let me hear you say that again!" "Why, sir," she asked, "what am I to say?" "The rabble, to be sure," answered he. (Sir W. Scott's Works of Swift, vol. ix.) The word appears to have been introduced about the commencement of the eighteenth century, by a process to which we owe many other and similar barbarisms—"beauties introduced to supply the want of wit, sense, humour, and learning." In a paper of The Tatler, No. 230., much in the spirit, and possibly from the pen, of Swift, complaint is made of the "abbreviations and elisions" which had recently been introduced, and a humorous example of them is given. By these, the author adds,

"Consonants of most obdurate sound are joined together without one softening vowel to intervene; and all this only to make one syllable of two, directly contrary to the example of the Greeks and Romans, and a natural tendency towards relapsing into barbarity. And this is still more visible in the next refinement, which consists in pronouncing the first syllable in a word that has many, and dismissing the rest. Thus we cram one syllable and cut off the rest, as the owl fattened her mice after she had bit off their legs to prevent their running away; and if ours be the same reason for maiming our words, it will certainly answer the end, for I am sure no other nation will desire to borrow them."

I have only to add (see Blackwood's Magazine, vol. ii., 1842) that "mob is mobile."

Cash appears to be from the French caisse, a chest, cash.

J. W. Thomas.

Dewsbury.

Cash is from the French caisse, the moneychest where specie was kept. So caissier became "cashier," and specie "cash."

Mob, Swift tells us (Polite Conversation, Introd.), is a contraction for mobile.

Clericus Rusticus has not, I fear, Johnson's Dictionary, where both these derivations are given.

C.

Ampers &. (Vol. ii., pp. 230. 284.; Vol. viii. passim).—Mr. Ingleby may well ask what "and-per-se-and" can mean. The fact is, this is itself a corruption. In old spelling-books, after the twenty-six letters it was customary to print the two following symbols with their explanations

 
&c. et cetera.
& (per se), and.
 

Children were taught to read the above "et-cee, et cetera" and "et-per-se, and." Such, at least, was the case in a Dublin school, some ninety years ago, where my informant, now many years deceased, was educated. As se was not there pronounced like cee, but like say, there was no danger of confounding the two names. In England, where a different pronunciation of the Latin word prevailed, such confusion would be apt to occur; and hence, probably, English teachers substituted and for et; from which, in course of time, the other corruptions mentioned by Mr. Lower were developed.

E. H. D. D.

The Keate Family, of the Hoo, Herts (Vol. viii., p. 293.).—The following account is taken from Burke's Extinct and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Lond. 1841: