Kitabı oku: «Notes and Queries, Number 34, June 22, 1850», sayfa 2

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FOLK LORE

Death-bed Mystery.—In conversation with an aged widow,—as devout and sensible as she is unlettered,—I yesterday learned a death-bed mystery which appeared new to me, and which (if not more commonly known than I take it to be) you may perhaps think worthy of a place in "Notes and Queries," to serve as a minor satellite to some more luminous communication, in reply to B. H. at Vol. i., p. 315. My informant's "religio" (as she appears to have derived it by tradition from her mother, and as confirmed by her own experience in the case of a father, a husband, several children, and others), is to the effect that a considerable interval invariably elapses between the first semblance of death, and what she considers to be the departure of the soul.

About five minutes after the time when death, to all outward appearance, has taken place, "the last breath," as she describes, may be seen to issue with a vapour, or "steam," out of the mouth of the departed.

The statement reminds me of Webster's argument, in his Display of supposed Witchcraft, chap. xvi., where, writing of the bleeding of corpses in presence of their murderers, he observes:

"If we physically consider the union of the soul with the body by the mediation of the spirit, then we cannot rationally conceive that the soul doth utterly forsake that union, until by putrefaction, tending to an absolute mutation, it is forced to bid farewell to its beloved tabernacle; for its not operating ad extra to our senses, doth not necessarily infer its total absence. And it may be, that there is more in that of Abel's blood crying unto the Lord from the ground, in a physical sense than is commonly conceived," &c.

Sir Kenelm Digby (I think I remember) has also made some curious remarks on this subject, in his observations on the Religio Medici of Sir T. Brown.

J. Sansom.

Easter Eggs.-The custom of dyeing eggs at Easter (alluded to, Vol. i., pp. 244. and 397.) prevails in different parts of Cumberland, and is observed in this city probably more specially than in any other part of England. On Easter Monday and Tuesday the inhabitants assemble in certain adjacent meadows, the children all provided with stores of hard-boiled eggs, coloured or ornamented in various ways,—some being dyed an even colour with logwood, cochineal, &c.; others stained (often in a rather elegant manner) by being boiled in shreds of parti-coloured ribbons; and others, again, covered with gilding. These they tumble about upon the grass until they break, when they finish off by eating them. These they call pace-eggs, being no doubt a corruption for pasche.

This custom is mentioned by Brande as existing among the modern Greeks; but I believe it will be found more or less in almost all parts of Christendom.

I observed when in Syria during Easter quantities of eggs similarly dyed; but it did not occur to me at the time to inquire whether the practice was connected with the season, and whether it was not confined to the native Christians.

Information upon this point, and also upon the general origin of this ancient custom, would be interesting.

A Subscriber.

Carlisle, June 3. 1850.

May Marriages (Vol. i., p. 467.).—This superstition is one of those which have descended to Christianity from Pagan observances, and which the people have adopted without knowing the cause, or being able to assign a reason. Carmelli tells us that it still prevailed in Italy in 1750.² It was evidently of long standing in Ovid's time as it had passed then into a proverb among the people; nearly two centuries afterwards Plutarch (Quæst. Rom. 86.) puts the question: Διὰ τί τοῖ Μαίου μηνὸς οὐκ ἄγονται γυναῖκας, which he makes a vain endeavour to answer satisfactorily. He assigns three reasons: first, because May being between April and June, and April being consecrated to Venus, and June to Juno, those deities held propitious to marriage were not to be slighted. The Greeks were not less observant of fitting seasons and the propitiation of the γαμὴλιοι θεοὶ. Secondly, on account of the great expiatory celebration of the Lemuria, when women abstained from the bath and the careful cosmetic decoration of their persons so necessary as a prelude to marriage rites. Thirdly, as some say, because May was the month of old men, Majus a Majoribus, and therefore June, being thought to be the month of the young, Junius a Junioribus, was to be preferred. The Romans, however, held other seasons and days unpropitious to matrimony, as the days in February when the Parentalia were celebrated, &c. June was the favourite month; but no marriage was celebrated without an augury being first consulted and its auspices proved favourable (Val. Max. lib. ii. c. 1.). It would be well if some such superstitions observance among us could serve as a check to ill-advised and ill-timed marriages; and I would certainly advise all prudent females to continue to think that

"The girls are all stark naught that wed in May."

S. W. Singer.

Mickleham, June 12.

"Trash" or "Skriker."—Many hundreds of persons there are in these districts who place implicit credence in the reality of the appearance of a death sign, locally termed trash or skriker. It has the appearance of a large black dog, with long shaggy hair, and, as the natives express it, "eyes as big as saucers." The first name is given to it form the peculiar noise made by its feet when passing along, resembling that of a heavy shoe in a miry road. The second appellation is in allusion to the sound of its voice when heard by those parties who are unable to see the appearance itself. According to the statements of parties who have seen the trash frequently, it makes its appearance to some member of that family from which death will shortly select his victim; and, at other times, to some very intimate acquaintance. Should any one be so courageous as to follow the appearance, it usually makes its retreat with its eyes fronting the pursuer, and either sinks into the earth with a strange noise, or is lost upon the slightest momentary inattention. Many have attempted to strike it with any weapon they had at hand; but although the appearance stood its ground, no material substance could ever be detected. It may be added that "trash" does not confine itself to churchyards, though frequently seen in such localities.

T. T. W.

Burnley.

NOTES ON MILTON

(Continued from Vol. i., p. 387.)

L'Allegro.

On l. 6. (D.):—

"Where triumphant Darkness hovers
With a sable wing, that covers
Brooding Horror."

Crashaw, Psalm xxiii.

On l. 11. (G.) Drayton has this expression in his Heroical Epistles:—

"Find me out one so young, so fair, so free."

King John to Matilda.

and afterwards,—

"Leave that accursed cell;
There let black Night and Melancholy dwell."

On l. 24. (G.) Most probably from a couplet in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy:—

"And ever and anon she thinks upon the man,
That was so fine, so fair, so blith, so debonaire."

P. 3. Sc. 2. p. 603. ed. 1621. 4to.

And in Randolph's Aristippus,—

"A bowle of wine is wondrous boone chere
To make one blith, buxome, and deboneere."

P. 13. ed. 1630. 4to.

On l. 27. (G.):—

"Manes. Didst thou not find I did quip thee?
"Psyllus. No, verily; why, what's a quip?
"Manes. We great girders call it a short saying of a sharp wit, with a bitter sense in a sweet word."

Alexander and Campaspe, Old Plays,
vol. ii. p. 113. ed. 1780.

"Then for your Lordship's Quippes and quick jestes,
Why Gesta Romanorum were nothing to them."

Sir Gyles Goosecappe, a Com., Sig. G. 2. 4to. 1606.

Crank is used in a different sense by Drayton:—

"Like Chanticleare he crowed crank,
And piped full merily."

Vol. iv. p. 1402. ed. 1753.

On l. 31. (M.):—

"There dainty Joys laugh at white-headed Caring."

Fletcher's Purple Island, C. vi. St. 35.

On l. 42. (G.):—

"The cheerful lark, mounting from early bed,
With sweet salutes awakes the drowsy Light;
The earth shee left, and up to Heaven is fled:
There chants her Maker's praises out of sight."

Purple Island, C. ix. St. 2.

"From heaven high to chase the cheareless darke,
With mery note her lowd salutes the morning larke."

Faery Queene, B. i. c. 11.

On l. 45. (G.):—

"The chearful birds, chirping him sweet good-morrow,
With nature's music do beguile his sorrow."

Sylvester's Du Bartas.

On l. 67. (G.) See note already inserted in "Notes and Queries," p. 316.

On l. 75. (G.):—

"In May the meads are not so pied with flowers."

Sylvester's Du Bartas.

On l. 78. (G.) So in Comus:—

"And casts a gleam over the tufted grove."

v. 225.

On l. 80. (G.):—

"Loadstar of Love and Loadstone of all hearts."

Drummond.

On l. 117. (Anon.) See extracts from the Diary of a Lover of Literature. To me this line seems to allude to the imagination in sleep:—

"Such sights as youthful poets dream."

On l. 121. (G.):—

"Yet served I, gentles, seeing store
Of dainty girls beside."

Albion's England, p. 218. 4to. 1602.

On l. 125. (G.):—

"In saffron robes and all his solemn rites,
Thrice sacred Hymen."

Sylvester's Du Bartas.

and in Spanish Tragedy:—

"The two first the nuptial torches bore,
As brightly burning as the mid-day's sun:
But after them doth Hymen hie as fast,
Clothed in sable and a saffron robe."

On l. 187. (G.):—

"Marrying their sweet tunes to the angels' lays."

Sylvester's Du Bartas.

On l. 144. (D.):—

"Those precious mysteries that dwell
In Music's ravished soul."

Crashaw's Music's Duet.

J. F. M.

COLVIL'S WHIGG'S SUPPLICATION

Heber possessed a curious MS. volume entitled A Poetical Miscellany, selected from the Works of the Men of Genius of the XVIIth Century. In Part XI. of the Bibliotheca Heberiana it is thus described:—

"The first part of this volume was obviously collected by a Scotchman, and it includes pieces by Ben Jonson, Wither, Dr. Donne, &c. It must have been made in the latter part of the reign of Charles I. The second portion of the volume is a later production; a humourous poem, called a Whig's Supplication, by S. C., in which there is a remarkable notice of Cleveland, Donne, and 'Bass Divine.' The latter name somebody has ignorantly altered, not knowing, probably, who 'Bass Divine' was. The poem is in imitation of Hudibras, both in style and metre."

It is somewhat singular that the writer of this notice never suspected that the author of the second part, and the collector of the first part of the volume, was Samuel Colvil, whose celebrated poem, The Whigg's Supplication, or the Scotch Hudibras, went through so many editions, from 1667 to 1796. This "mock poem", as the author terms it, turns upon the insurrection of the Covenanters in Scotland in the reign of Charles the Second. An interesting notice of it, and other imitations of Hudibras, will be found in the Retrospective Review, vol. iii. pp. 317-335.