Notes.
Reading edition
COWPER AND TOBACCO SMOKING.
The following genial and characteristic letter from the poet, having escaped the research of the Rev. T. S. Grimshaw, may be thought worthy of transference from the scarce and ephemeral brochure in which it has, as far as I am aware, alone appeared, to your more permanent and attainable repertory. The little work alluded to is entitled Convivialia et Saltatoria, or a few Thoughts upon Feasting and Dancing, a poem in two parts, &c., by G. Orchestikos: London, printed for the author, 1800, pp. 62. At page 39 will be found
"Nicotiana: a Poetical Epistle in praise of Tobacco; intended as a refutation of the ill-founded remarks of William Cowper, Esq. respecting this plant, in his elegant poem on Conversation. By Phil. Nicot.
"The man I pity who abhors the fume Of fine Virginia floating in his room; For, truly may Tobacco be defined, A Plant preserving Health and Peace of mind. 1800."
Next follows the poem, dedicated "To the Tobacconists in general of England and its colonies," and consisting of some 350 lines, concluding with the following:
"Now by way of a Postscript, for I cannot conclude Without once more entreating, that you'll be so good As to favour me with an Epistle, and soon, Which in my estimation will be such a boon That I'll carefully keep it; and dying, take care To enjoin like Respect from my Son or my Heir; And lest He should forget its great Value to ask, Shall say, It was wrote by the Hand, that first wrote out the Task: No more I need mention, its Worth will appear, And be kept as a Relic I justly hold dear."
Next comes the poet's kindly response:
"Dear Sir,
"It is not in my power to send you an epistle that will entitle itself to any of the honours which you are so good as to promise to one from me. My time is not my own, but is partly engaged in attendance on a dear friend, who has long been in a very helpless state, and partly to the performance of what I owe to the public, a new edition of my Homer, and also of the poetical works of Milton.
"With these labours in hand, together with the common avocations incident to everybody, it is hardly possible that I should have opportunities for writing letters. In fact, I am in debt to most of my friends, and to many of them have been long in debt, whose claims upon me are founded in friendship of long standing. To this cause you will be so good as to ascribe it, that I have not sooner thanked you for your humorous and pleasant contest with me on the subject of Tobacco; a contest in which I have not, at present, leisure to exercise myself, otherwise I am hardy enough to flatter myself, that I could take off the force of some of your arguments.
"Should you execute your design of publishing what you have favoured me with a sight of, I heartily wish success to your muse militant, and that your reward may be—many a pleasant pipe supplied by the profits of your labours.
"Being in haste, I can add no more, except that I am, with respect, and a due sense of the honour you do me,
Your obliged, &c., William Cowper. Weston-Underwood, Oct. 4, 1793."
I hope that the above will be interesting to your Nicotian readers, and not trespass too far upon your valuable space.
William Bates.
Birmingham.
Snuff and Tobacco.—It is perhaps not generally known that the custom of taking snuff is of Irish origin. In a "Natural History of Tobacco," in the Harleian Misc., i. 535., we are told that—
"The Virginians were observed to have pipes of clay before ever the English came there; and from those barbarians we Europeans have borrowed our mode and fashion of smoking.... The Irishmen do most commonly powder their tobacco, and snuff it up their nostrils, which some of our Englishmen do, who often chew and swallow it."
That the clay pipe was the original smoking apparatus in England, is evident from the following lines in Skelton's Eleanor Rummin. After lamenting the knavery of that age compared with King Harry's time, he continues:
"Nor did that time know, To puff and to blow, In a peece of white clay, As you do at this day, With fier and coale, And a leafe in a hole," &c.
These lines are from an edition of 1624, printed in the Harl. Misc., i. 415. Skelton died in 1529, and according to the generally received accounts, tobacco was not introduced into this country till 1565, or thereabouts; so the lines cannot be Skelton's. They are part of an introduction to the tale of Eleanor Rummin. Is the author known?
Erica.
Warwick.
"SHAKSPEARE IN THE SHADES:" A BALLAD.
The ballad, entitled "Shakspeare's Bedside," inserted in your pages (Vol. vii., p. 104.), was printed (probably for the first time) in a collection of poems called The Muse's Mirrour, 2 vols. 8vo., printed for Robert Baldwin, 1778. It occurs at p. 90. of the first volume; and at p. 159. of the same volume I find another Shakspearian ballad, which, as the book is rare, I transcribe for the benefit of your readers. The work in question contains a number of clever effusions by the poets and wits of the last half of the eighteenth century. The anonymous compiler thus commences his preface:
"The editor and collector of the following poems does not conceive it necessary to make any apology for what he has done; but arrogates to himself the right of some attention for the collecting of such pieces as would have died upon their births, although the productions of the best poets and men of genius for the last twenty years."
"SHAKSPEARE IN THE SHADES.
"As Shakspeare rang'd over the regions below, With the Muses attending his side, The first of his critics he met with was Rowe, Tho' to keep out of sight he had try'd.
'How comes it, friend Nicholas,' said the old bard, (While Nic was preparing a speech), 'My ruins so coarsely by you were repair'd, Who grace to the Graces could teach?'
So hiss'd by the critical throng,
Been spent upon mending the holes in my coat,
It had not been ragged so long.'
Rowe blush'd, and made way for diminutive Pope, Whom Shakspeare address'd with a frown, And said—'Some apology sure I may hope From you and your friend in the gown.'
'Had the murderous knife which my plays has destroy'd, By lopping full many a scene, To make you a lover like him, been employ'd, How flat Cibber's letter had been.'
Pope sneak'd off confounded; and Hanmer drew near, Whose softness a savage might melt; So Shakspeare said only, 'Sir Thomas, I fear, With gloves on, my beauties you felt.'
Supported by Caxton, Wynkin upheld, Text Tibbald crept forward to sight. 'Is this,' quoth the poet, 'the thing that rebell'd, And dar'd even Pope to the fight?
'To Kennel, good Tib, for a time will arrive, When all in their senses shall know, That half of your consequence, Tib, you derive From the lash of so envied a foe.
How could'st thou the public so cozen?
Yet the traces I see (spite of what thou hast said)
Of not many more than a dozen.
'If all thou hast dug, how could Farmer, my Tib, Or Stevens, find gold in the mine? Thy trade of attorney sure taught thee to fib, And truth was no client of thine.
'And yet, to appease me for all thou hast done, And show thou art truly my friend, Go watch, and to me with intelligence run, When Johnson and Capell descend.
'For Johnson, with all his mistakes, I must love; Ev'n love from the injured he gains; But Capell a comrade for dulness will prove, And him thou may'st take for thy pains.'"
Edward F. Rimbault.
SWEDISH WORDS CURRENT IN ENGLAND.
In the summer of 1847 I mentioned to my friend Professor Retzius at Stockholm, certain Scandinavian words in use at Whitby, with which he was much pleased, they not being akin to the German. I have since been mostly in the South of Europe, but have not lost sight of these words; and last spring I wrote out in Switzerland upwards of five hundred Swedish words, which greatly resemble the English, Lowland Scots, &c., but I doubt many of them have the same root with the German correspondents. I now beg you kindly to offer to the notice of our Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic scholars, as well as the estimable Northern savans at Copenhagen and elsewhere, the following words in use at Whitby, and I believe throughout Cleveland and Cumberland, where the local accent and manner of speaking is the same.
"Agg orm, Swedish (viper), agg worm, Whitby (pron. wōrrum).—Bloa bær (bilbery), blue berry.—By (village), as a termination to names of towns, occurs, perhaps, more frequently in this district than in others; there are some places in Cleveland called Lund and Upsal.—Bæck (brook), beck.—Djevul (devil), pronounced exactly in the Swedish manner at Whitby.—Doalig (poorly), dowly.—Eldon (tinder-box), applied to faggots.—Fors (waterfall), spelt force and foss in Yorkshire books.—Ful (ugly), pron. fool, usually associated with bigness in Cleveland.—Foane (silly), pron. fond at Whitby.—Giller (snare), guilder.—Gæpen (handful), gowpen.—Harr (grayling), carrling in Ryedale.—Kætt (flesh), kett, applied to coarse meat.—Lek (play), at Whitby, to lake.—Leta (to seek), to late at Whitby.—Lie (scythe), pron. lye.—Lingon (red bilberry), called a ling berry.—Ljung (ling).—Lopp (a flea).—Næbb (beak), neb.—Skaft (handle), skaft.—Skær (rock), Whitby skar.—Smitta (to infect), to smit.—Strandgata (creek), at Whitby ghaut.—Stæd (anvil), steady.—Sæf (a rush), siv.—Tjarn (pool), tarn.—Oenska (to wish for), we say to set one an onska, i.e. longing or wishing."
Will any one inform me which of the above are Anglo-Saxon words? I may add that there are many French words in the Swedish for aught I know, some of them Norman. As we find German words in the Italian, we may expect to find Scandinavian in the French.
Charles Watkins.
SIR DAVID LINDSAY'S VIRIDARIUM.
In Lord Lindsay's very interesting Lives of the Lindsays, vol. i. p. 347., after the description of the very curious "viridarium or garden" of Sir David Lindsay at Edzell, and of the various sculptures and ornaments with which its wall is decorated, the author says: "To show how insecure was enjoyment in that dawn of refinement, the centre of every star along the wall forms an embrasure for the extrusion, if needed, of arrow, harquebuss, or pistol."
Some years before the book was published, I had visited this very interesting spot, and examined these sculptures, and other ornaments, amongst which the pierced stars puzzled me much: however, after a lengthened and very careful investigation, finding that, being at too great a height from the ground, and, moreover, that as the holes in the centre of the stars do not pass through the wall, but merely into small cavities in it, they could not have been used as embrasures, or have served for warlike purposes; and that, as there were no channels or pipes that could have conducted water to them, they could not have been connected with fountains or water-works; I came to the conclusion that the planner of the garden, or at least of its walls, must have been an ardent lover of birds, and that these holes were for providing access for his beloved feathered friends (they would only admit the passage of small birds) to the secure resting-places which the hollow stones afforded; for whose use other niches and recesses seem also to have been planned (though some of the latter were probably intended to hold bee-hives) with a philornithic indifference for the security of the fruit tempting their attacks from all sides, but quite in character with the portrait of Sir David, as depicted by his noble biographer.
W. C. Trevelyan.
Athenæum.