Kitabı oku: «Notes and Queries, Number 66, February 1, 1851», sayfa 5
Replies to Minor Queries
The Frozen Horn (Vol. ii., p. 262.; Vol. iii., p. 25.).—In an old edition of Hudibras now before me, I find the following note on the lines quoted by J. M. G.:—
"Some report that in Nova Zembla and Greenland men's words are wont to be frozen in the air, and at the thaw may be heard."
The application of the idea by Charles Dickens, in his Old Curiosity Shop, is also, I think, extremely felicitous.
"'Don't be frightened, mistress,' said Quilp, after a pause. 'Your son knows me: I don't eat babies; I don't like 'em. It will be as well to stop that young screamer though, in case I should be tempted to do him a mischief. Holloa, Sir! will you be quiet?' Little Jacob stemmed the course of two tears which he was squeezing out of his eyes, and instantly subsided into a silent horror.... The moment their [Quilp and Swiveller] backs were turned, little Jacob thawed, and resumed his crying from the point where Quilp had frozen him."—Vol. i. pp. 207-9.
J. B. Colman.
To Pose.—In Vol. ii., p. 522., your correspondent F. R. A. points out some passages in which the word "posing" appears to be used in a sense equivalent to "parsing." Neither the etymology nor the exact meaning of the word "to pose," are easy to determine. It seems to be abbreviated from the old verb "to appose;" which meant, to set a task, to subject to an examination or interrogatory; and hence to perplex, to embarrass, to puzzle. The latter is the common meaning of the word to pose; thus in Crabbe's Parish Register:—
"Then by what name th' unwelcome guest to call,
Was long a question, and it posed them all."
Hence, too, the common expression, that a question which it is difficult to answer, or an argument which seems to decide the controversy, is a poser. The word "posing" in the passages cited by F. R. A. may refer to the examination of the pupil by the teacher of grammar. Thus, Fuller, in his Worthies, art. Norfolk, says that—
"The University appointed Dr. Cranmer, afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury, to be the poser-general of all candidates in divinity."
Roquefort, Gloss. de la Langue Romaine, has "apponer, appliquer, poser, plaier." See Richardson in appose and pose.
L.
Culprits torn by Horses (Vol. ii., p. 480.).—In reply to Mr. Jackson's question respecting culprits torn by horses, I beg to inform him that Robert François Damiens was the last criminal thus executed in France. He suffered on the 28th March, 1757, for an attempt on the life of Louis XV. The awful penalty of the law was carried out in complete conformity with the savage precedents of former centuries. Not one of the preparatory barbarities of question, ordinary and extraordinary, or of the accompanying atrocities of red-hot pincers, melted lead, and boiling oil, was omitted. The agony of the wretched man lasted for an hour and a half, and was witnessed, as Mercier informs us, by all the best company in Paris.
The men amused their leisure with cards, while waiting, as he says, for the boiling oil; and the women were the last to turn their eyes from the hideous spectacle. Your correspondent may be glad to be informed that the same punishment was inflicted on Poltrot de Méré for the murder of the Duke of Guise, in 1563; on Salcède, in 1582, for conspiring against the Duke of Alençon; on Brilland, in 1588, for poisoning the Prince de Condé; on Bourgoing, Prior of the Jacobins, as an accessory to the crime of Jaques Clément, in 1590; and on Ravaillac, for the murder of Henry IV. in 1610. These, with the case of Jean Chastel, are all of which I am aware. If any of your readers can add to the list, I shall feel obliged.
As I am upon the subject of judicial horrors, I would ask, whether any of your correspondents can supply me with a reference to the case of a woman executed, I think in Paris, and, if my recollection serves, for a systematic series of infanticides.
She was put to death by being suspended over a fire in an iron cage, in which a number of wild cats were shut up with her.
I read the story many years ago, and for some time have been vainly endeavouring to recover it.
J. S.
Torn by Horses (Vol. ii., p. 522.).—This cruel mode of execution was practised both in antiquity and the middle ages. Livy, speaking of Tullus Hostilius, says:—
"Exinde, duabus admotis quadrigis, in currus earum distentum illigat Mettum; deinde in diversum iter equi concitati, lacerum in utroque curru corpus, qua inhæserant vinculis membra, portantes. Avertere omnes a tantâ fœdidate spectaculi oculos."—L. i., c. 28.
Livy adds, that this was the first and last example of so savage a punishment among the Romans. The punishment, however, must have been well-known in antiquity, as it is alluded to by Seneca among the tortures which accompanied death.
"Cogita hoc loco carcerem, et cruces, et equleos, et uncum; et adactum per medium hominem, qui per os emergat, stipitem; et distracta in diversum actis curribus membra."—Epist. xiv. 4.
Grimm (Deutsche Rechtsalterthümer, p. 692.) quotes the following instance of this punishment from Gregory of Tours, Hist. France, iii. 7.:
"Puellas crudelinece interfecerunt ita ut ligatis brachiis super equorum cervicibus, ipsique acerrimo moti stimulo per diversa petentes diversas in partes feminas diviserunt"
He adds that it occurs frequently in the legends of the Carolingian period. Thus Turpin, c. 26., describes as follows the punishment of the traitor Gannalon:—
"Jussit illum Carolus quatuor equis ferocissimis totius exercitus alligari, et super eos quatuor sessores agitantes contra quatuor plagas cœli, et sic dignâ morte discerptus interiit."
Almost all cruel punishments have been used in the East, and it is not improbable that execution by means of horses may be mentioned in some oriental narrative.
L.
The Conquest (Vol. ii., p. 440.).—In Cambria Triumphans, by Percy Enderbie, at p. 283, will be found a copy of a deed, the conclusion of which runs thus:—
"Sigilla nostra apposuimus in Castro nostro de Burgavenny vicessimo secundo die Julii, anno regni Regis Henrici sexti, post Conquestum vicessimo septimo."
The word is here used for the accession of the King.
S. K.
Mayors—their correct Prefix (Vol. i., p. 380.).—Since propounding my Query in Vol. i., p. 380., relative to this subject, I have to inform your readers, that I have been favoured with the opinion of gentlemen very high in official authority on all points connected with heraldry and the rules of precedence; which is, that the proper style of the mayor of a borough is "the worshipful;" and they are further of opinion, that there can be no ground for styling the mayor of a city "the right worshipful."
J.
True Blue (Vol. iii., p. 27.).—On the origin of this expression, I must claim the right to dissent from your correspondent G. F. G., who appears to have fallen into the error of confining a form of very wide application to one particular case, in which he discovers a trifling coincidence of fact. The connexion of the colour blue with truth is of very ancient date, of which the following may for the present suffice as an example:—
"And by hire beddes hed she made a mew
And covered it with velouettes blew,
In signe of trouth, that is in woman sene."
Chaucer, Squiere's Tale.
Blue, in the early practice of the tinctorial art, appears to have been the most humble of the colours in use, and the least affected by any external influence; and, down to the present day, if certain tints of recent invention be excepted, the same character may be claimed for it. What then more natural, than that it should be taken as the type of immutability, or that every party, political or religious, should in turn assume it as the badge of honesty of purpose, and of firm adherence to their principles?
F. S. Q.
Modum Promissionis (Vol. ii., pp. 279, 347, 468.).—This phrase is perhaps connected with the promissivus modus, i.e. tempus promissivum or futurum of Diomedes and other mediæval grammarians.
T. J.
Fronte capillatâ, &c. (Vol. iii., pp. 8. 43.).—The representation of "Occasio," or "Opportunity," with hair in front, and bald behind, is far more ancient than the drama referred to by your correspondent G. A. S.
In the Anthologia (Brunck's edition, vol. ii. p. 49.) the following beautiful epigram is the 13th by Posidippus:—
"Ἐις Ἄγαλμα τοῦ Καιροῦ.
Τίς, πόθεν ὁ πλάστης; Σικυώνιος. Οὔνομα δὴ τίς;
Λύσιππος. Σὺ δὲ, τίς; Καιρὸς ὁ πανδαμάτωρ.
Τίπτε δ' ἐπ' ἄκρα βέβηκας; Ἀεὶ τροχάω. Τί δὲ ταρσοὺς
Ποσσὶν ἔχεις διφυεῖς; Ἵπταμ' ὑπηνέμιος.
Χειρὶ δὲ δεξιτερῇ τί φέρεις ξυρόν; Ἄνδρασι δεῖγμα
Ὧς ἀκμῆς πάσης ὀξύτερος τελέθω.
Ἡ δὲ κόμη, τί κατ' ὄψιν; Ὑπαντιάσαντι λαβέσθαι,
Νὴ Δία. Ταξόπιθεν πρὸς τί φαλακρὰ πέλει;
Τὸν γὰρ ἅπαξ πτηνοῖσι παραθρέξαντά με ποσσὶν
Οὔ τις ἔυ' ἱμείρων δράξεται ἐξόπιθεν.
Τούνεχ' ὁ τεχνίτης σε διέπλασεν; Εἵνεκεν ὑμέων,
Ξεῖνε, καὶ ἐν προθύροις θῆκε δικασκαλίην."
The same epigram, with an inconsiderable alteration, is given in Bosch's Anthologia Græca, vol. ii. p. 478., with a close Latin translation by Grotius.
The following English version of the Greek is as nearly literal as the idioms of the two languages will allow.
"Who is the sculptor, say, and whence?
From Sicyon. What is he
By name? Lysippus. Who art thou?
I am Opportunity.
"Why is thy step so high and light?
I am running all the day.
Why on each foot hast thou a wing?
I fly with the winds away.
"Why is a razor in thy hand?
More keen my edge is set.
Why hast thou hair upon thy brow?
To seize me by, when met.
"Why is thy head then bald behind?
Because men wish in vain,
When I have run past on wingèd feet
To catch me e'er again.
"Why did the artist form thee so?
To place me in this hall,
That I a lesson thus might give
To thee, friend, and to all."
Ausonius, in the fourteenth century of the Christian era, imitates this in his 12th epigram.
Phædrus (lib. v., fab. 8), in the Augustine age, speaks of the same representation as already sanctioned by antiquity:—
"OCCASIO DEPICTA.
"Cursu veloci pendens in novaculâ,
Calvus, comosâ fronte, nudo corpore;
Quem si occuparis, teneas: elapsum semel
Non ipse possit Jupiter reprehendere;
Occassionem rerum significat brevem.
Effectus impediret ne segnis mora,
Finxere antiqui talem effigiem temporis."
T. C.
Durham, Jan. 20. 1851.
Cross between a Wolf and a Hound (Vol. iii., p. 39.).—There is no doubt that a dog and a wolf are capable of breeding together. The fact is well known, and has been long ascertained. See Penny Cyclopædia, art. "Dog." The only question is whether the offspring of this cross is a mule, and, like other mules, incapable of continuing its race; or whether it is prolific? The latter position is maintained by Mr. Bell, in his History of British Quadrupeds. "The dog and wolf will readily breed together (he says), and their progeny is fertile." But query, can any authentic instance be produced of a cross between a dog and a wolf, which has produced a prolific animal?
L.
Professor Thomas Bell states that the dog and wolf will readily breed with each other, and that their progeny thus obtained will again mingle with the dog.
W. J. Bernard Smith.
Temple, Jan. 19. 1851.
I have read somewhere (in Kohl's Russia, if I mistake not) that this cross is not uncommon in the southern portions of European Russia, but I have not the book at hand to refer to.
Diss.
Your correspondent, T–n, will find this fact referred to in Sir John Franklin's Narrative of a Journey to the Shores of the Polar Sea, vol. i., p. 268., 2nd edition, London. Murray, 1824. Lieutenant Hood says—
"On our way to the tent a black wolf rushed out upon an Indian, who happened to pass its den. It was shot, and the Indians carried away three black whelps, to improve the breed of their dogs."
W. H. H. K.
Drayton Beauchamp, Jan. 22. 1851.
Touching for the Evil (Vol. iii., p. 42.).—I have seen an illuminated MS. containing the form of prayer in use previous to the Reformation. As far as I remember, the MS. in question must have been of the fifteenth century. Where it may now be found I am not aware. At the time of my seeing it, it was in the possession of Mr. Toovey of Piccadilly.
A somewhat curious field for inquiry on this subject is opened by a passage in Voltaire's Siècle de Louis XIV. Speaking of James II. touching for the evil while in exile at the French court, he says—
"Soit que les Rois Anglais se soient attribué ce singulier privilège, comme prétendans à la couronne de la France; soit que cette cérémonie soit établie chez eux depuis le temps du premier Edouard."
Have we any evidence of the ceremony having been performed by any French monarchs? I am not aware of any.
J. Sn.
Old Booty (Vol. iii, p. 40.).—In 1830 there appeared a humorous versification, by W. T. Moncrieff, of this story, for the authenticity of which he prudently says he cannot vouch. He furnishes a sort of account of the affair, and of an action at the suit of Booty's widow, the records of which, it says, are at Westminster, Jan. 2. 1687.
Notwithstanding this apparent circumstantial account, we find in a very entertaining anonymous work, entitled The History of Man; or, the Wonders of Human Nature, 2nd edit. Edinb. 1790, 8vo., vol. i. p. 376., a similar incident related of a Mr. Gresham, an eminent merchant of London, which happened in the reign of Hen. VIII., the authorities for which are cited, Sandy's Trav. l. 4. p. 248. Clark's Mir. c. 33. p. 115.
F. R. A.
Breeches Bible (Vol. iii., p 17.).—The first edition of this Bible is now before me. The title-page and portions of the addresses to Queen Elizabeth and to the reader are unfortunately wanting, as is also the first leaf of Genesis. But the title of the New Testament as follows:—
"The Newe Testament of ovr Lord Jesus Christ [***] Conferred diligently with the Greke, and best approued translacions in divers languages. At Geneva: Printed by Rouland Hull. M.D.LX."
There is a woodcut of the Egyptians pursuing the Israelites on the shore of the Red Sea, surrounded with texts from scripture. It is a small quarto in Roman type, and divided into verses.
Echo.
Separation of Sexes in Church (Vol. ii., p. 94.).—This custom appears to be of considerable antiquity. Sir Thomas More, in his Utopia (p. 285. of the edition of 1639), says—
"When they be come thither, the men goe into the right side of the church, and the women into the left side."
J. Sn.
Defender of the Faith (Vol. iii., p. 9.).—By a hasty perusal of the letter of Col. Anstruther in your number of the 4th of January, I perceive that some doubt has been raised whether any of our sovereigns have used the title of Defender of the Faith, prior to the time of King Henry VIII.
