Volume 4 — Replies.

ARCHBISHOP OF SPALATRO. (Vol. iv., p. 257.)

Audi alteram partem is too excellent and equitable a rule, not to find ample scope given for its exercise in "NOTES AND QUERIES," especially where the memory of a foreigner is concerned, who, after dwelling awhile among us under the protection of our hospitality, and in the communion of our Church, was content eventually to sacrifice his life, rather than forsake the truth, or repudiate the Church of England.

I am led to this remark by observing the tone of depreciation in which Chalmers speaks of Antonius de Dominis, Archbishop of Spalatro, in the extract produced at p. 257. out of the Biographical Dictionary, for the satisfaction of MR. W. FRAZER.

The words of Chalmers, which I conceive to be objectionable, alike ungenerous and inaccurate—such as Fuller might rejoice in (conf. Church History, book x.)—are:

"He returned to Rome in 1622, where he abjured his errors; but on the discovery of a correspondence which he held with some Protestants, he was thrown into prison, where he died in 1625. He was a man of great abilities and learning, although remarkable for a fickleness in religious matters."

This reproach against the good archbishop, of having renounced the English communion (for that is doubtless what is meant), is clearly an unjust accusation, and appears to be based upon no better authority than a spurious book, published in the Low Countries under Spalatro's name, but without his knowledge or sanction, and bearing the following title: Marc. Ant. de Dominis sui reditus ex Angliâ concilium exponit, 4to. Dilingæ, 1623. This book at the time of its publication deceived Bishop Hall, and gave occasion to the Alter Ecebolius M. Ant. de Dominis, pluribus dominis inservire doctus: 4to. Lond. 1624.

It is only fair, certainly, to Spalatro's memory, that the calumnies thus raised against him in his lifetime should not now be perpetuated by the inadvertency of modern writers, for so far at least the means are at hand to refute them. Now there is one writer especially who has done much to vindicate the name of Ant. de Dominis from this charge of "fickleness in religious matters." That writer is Bishop Cosin, whose testimony herein is of the more value from the fact of his having been present (as Bishop Overall's secretary) at the "Conference between Spalato and Overall," which "Conference" the following particulars were collected by Mr. Gutch, e Schedis MSS. Cosini, and are preserved in the Collectanea Curiosa, vol. ii. p. 18.:

"A. Spalato came into England in 1616, being desirous to live under the protection of King James, having before been recommended by Padre Paolo. By King James's bounty and care he was safely conveyed through Germany into England, and lodged in Lambeth Palace: Abbot thinking fit to retire to Croydon, till either Bishop Andrewes or Bishop Overall had conferred with him. The king sent Bishop Overall to him, who took in his company his secretary, and commanded him to be near him the same morning Spalato arrived, to hear what passed between them. After dinner, some other being present, the discourse began about the state of the Church of England; of which Overall having given a large account, Spalato received great satisfaction, and made his protestation that he came into England then to live with us in the union and profession of that Catholic religion which was so much obstructed in his own country, that he could not with safety and peace of conscience live there any longer. Then he added what satisfaction he had received from the monitory preface of King James [Vid. Apol. for the Oath of Allegiance, ed. 4to. Lond. 1609] to all the estates and churches of Christendom; wherein the true ancient faith and religion of the Catholic Church is set forth, and no heterodoxies or novelties maintained: to the defence of which faith, and service of which Church, as he had already a long time applied his studies, and wrote ten books, De Republicâ Ecclesiasticâ, so, by the favour of God, and King James, he was now come into England to review and publish them, together with the History of the Council of Trent, which he had brought with him from Padre Paolo of Venice, who delivered it into his hands; by whom he was chiefly persuaded and encouraged to have recourse to the king and the Church of England, being the best founded for the profession of true Catholic doctrine, and the freest from error and novelties, of any Church in all places besides. Then they descended to the particular points of doctrine," &c.

It is, however, not with the doctrinal question which would, of course, be inadmissible in "NOTES AND QUERIES," but with the historical fact, that we have to do; the question being, whether Antonius Spalateasis was "fickle" in respect of the Church of England.

There is an interesting sketch of Spalatro's after history in Cosin's Treatise against Transubstantiation, chap. ii. § 7.; from Luke de Beaulieu's translation of which (Cosin's Collected Works, vol. iv. p. 160., Oxford, 1851) I quote the following:

"Antonio de Dominis, Archbishop of Spalato, (was) a man well versed in the Sacred Writings, and the records of antiquity; who, having left Italy (when he could no longer remain in it, either with quiet or safety) by the advice of his intimate friend, Paulus Venetus, took sanctuary under the protection of King James of blessed memory, in the bosom of the Church of England, which he did faithfully follow in all points and articles of religion. But, being daily vexed with many affronts and injuries, and wearied by the unjust persecutions of some sour and over-rigid men, who bitterly declaimed everywhere against his life and actions, he at last resolved to return into Italy with a safe conduct. Before he departed he was, by order from the king, questioned by some commissionated bishops, what he thought of the religion and church of England, which for so many years he had owned and obeyed, and what he would say of it in the Roman court. To this query he gave in writing this memorable answer, 'I am resolved, even with the danger of my life, in profess before the Pope himself, that the Church of England is a true and orthodox Church of Christ.' This he not only promised, but faithfully performed; for though, soon after his departure, there came a book out of the Low Countries, falsely bearing his name, by whose title many were deceived, even among the English, and thereby moved to tax him with apostacy, and of being another Ecebolius; yet, when he came to Rome (where he was most kindly entertained in the palace of Pope Gregory XV., who formerly had been his fellow-student), he could never be persuaded by the Jesuits and others, who daily thronged upon him, neither to subscribe the new-devised tenets of the Council of Trent, or to retract those orthodox books which he had printed in England and Germany, or to renounce the communion of the Church of England, in whose defence he constantly persisted to the very last. But, presently after the decease of Pope Gregory, he was imprisoned by the Jesuits and Inquisitors in Castle St. Angelo, where, by being barbarously used, and almost starved, he soon got a mortal sickness, and died in a few days, though not without suspicion of being poisoned. The day following, his corpse was by the sentence of the Inquisition tied to an infamous stake, and there burnt to ashes, for no other reason but that he refused to make abjuration of the religion of the Church of England, and subscribe some of the lately-made decrees of Trent, which were pressed upon him as canons of the Catholic faith. I have taken occasion (Cosin adds) to insert this narration, perhaps not known to many, to make it appear that this reverend prelate, who did great service to the Church of God, may justly (as I said before) be reckoned among the writers of the Church of England."

In the first collection of Lord Somers's Tracts, vol. iv. p. 575., there is a curious paper bearing the title: A relation sent from Rome, of the process, sentence, and execution done upon the body, pictures, and books of Marcus Ant. de Dominis, Archbishop of Spalato, after his death. There are some notices of De Dominis, also, among the Birch and other MSS. in the British Museum.

MR. FRAZER might possibly ascertain the other particular about which he inquires, viz. whether Spalatro "acted as a bishop in England," by consulting some of the numerous tracts written at the time, both against and in vindication of the archbishop; and, more particularly, a tract entitled: De pace religionis M. Ant. de Dominis Spalateus. Archiepisc. Epist. ad venerabilem virum Jos. Hallum, Archipresbyterum Vigorn, &c.: edit. Ves. Sequan. 1666.

J. SANSOM.

Perhaps it may be doubted whether it was the wish of Antonius de Dominis to reunite the churches of Rome and England: however this may be, as Dean of Windsor, he accused one of the canons, Richard Mountagu (afterwards successively Bishop of Chichester and Norwich) of preaching the Roman doctrine of the invocation of saints and angels. Mountagu replied in a pamphlet, the title of which is, Immediate Addresse unto GOD Alone. First delivered in a Sermon before his Majestie at Windsore, since reuised and inlarged to a just Treatise of Invocation of Saints. Occasioned by a false imputation of M. Antonius de Dominis upon the Authour, Richard Mountagu. London, 1624.

Mountagu had evidently no high opinion of his accuser: for he writes in his Epistle Dedicatory to John Williams, Bishop of Lincoln, and Visitor of the collegiate church of Windsor: "There was present at my sermon that infamous Ecebolius of these times, Religionis desultor, Archbishop sometime of Spalata, then Deane of that church, Marcus Antonius de Dominis;" and he goes on to abuse him in no measured terms. Collier (Ecc. Hist., vol. ii. p. 726., ed. 1714) mentions that Antonius assisted at the consecration of some English bishops in the chapel at Lambeth Palace. He was afterwards reconciled to the Church of Rome, but was soon imprisoned on suspicion of heresy. After he was dead, he passed through the forms of the Inquisition, was pronounced a lapsed heretic, and his corpse was publicly burnt.

ROVERT.

Withyham.

ANAGRAMS. (Vol. iv., p. 226.)

I know not whether the art of composing anagrams was much practised in the days of Swift; the description, however, of one of the employments at the Academy of Lagado—the "project for improving speculative knowledge by practical mechanical operations," which was carried into operation by covering the superficies of a large frame with wooden letters, which, by the turning of a handle, were constantly shifted into new places—so aptly satirises this practice, that it seems likely that it was to this he alluded, the more so as the one employment would be as profitable as the other. MR. BREEN, however (Vol. iv., p. 226.) having challenged the production of half a dozen good specimens of the art, perhaps you will afford him an opportunity of amending his judgment. The following twelve, whether new or not, will at least stand the test he has propounded:—

Who will deny that Old England is a golden land; or that lawyers are sly ware?

There are many who deem radical reform a rare mad frolic; and when asked to guess a fearful ruin, would reply universal suffrage.

Every one will admit that astronomers are moon-starers; and that a telegraph is a great help.

We have long been accustomed to consider that a revolution is to love ruin; and that nine thumps constitute a punishment.

What answer more fitting in the penitentiary than Nay, I repent it?

Is there a more comical trade than the democratical? and what is more likely to make bakers fat than a good breakfast.

But, in conclusion, I am compelled to confess that I can see no affinity between potentates and ten tea pots.

C. A.

That on Daniel R. may be otherwise rendered Erin lad.

D. Q.

Your interesting correspondent MR. BREEN challenges the world to produce "six good anagrams." It may help him in his search for them to be referred to two curious papers on the subject in the Bengal Moofussul Miscellany, reprinted in London in 1837. Or, as perhaps he may not have the book within reach, he may not be displeased at my extracting a few of the best of them. The first is a compliment paid to one of the Ptolemies: Πτολεμαῖος, ἀπὸ μέλιτος. Lycophron, in a similar vein, calls Ἀρσινόη, ἴον Ἥρας. Out of William Noy, Charles I.'s Ship-Money Attorney-General, we have, I moyl in law. Loraine produces alerion, which is assigned as the reason for that house bearing eaglets in their arms. Sir Edmundbury Godfrey gives, I fynd murder'd by rogues. The tale about Lady Eleanor Davies, lately referred to by one of your contributors, occurs in the first of these papers; as does another of somewhat later date, which really deserves to be preserved among your "Notes."

"When young Stanislaus, afterwards king of Poland, returned home from his travels, all the illustrious family of Leczinki assembled at Lissa to congratulate him on his arrival. Festivals, shows, and rejoicings of every kind took place: but the most ingenious compliment that graced the occasion, was the one paid by the College of Lissa. There appeared on the stage thirteen dancers, dressed as youthful warriors; each held in his hand a shield, on which was engraved in characters of gold, one of the thirteen letters which compose the two words 'Domus Lescinia.' They then commenced their dance, and so arranged it, that at each turn their row of bucklers formed different anagrams. At the first pause they presented them in the natural order:

Domus Lescinia

At the secondAdes Incolumis

At the thirdOmnis es lucida

At the fourthMane Sidus Loci

At the fifthSis Columna Dei

At the lastI, scande Solium."

I fear I have already asked for too much of your space, yet must I beg the least bit more for an anagram which, unless the sacredness of the subject be accounted a drawback, may well claim a foremost place among the "six." It is found in Pilate's question to our Lord, Quid est veritas? which contains its own best answer: Est Vir qui adest.

PHILIP HEDGELAND.

DISCOVERING THE BODIES OF THE DROWNED. (Vol. iv., p. 251.)

The mode of doing this, as shown by S. W. to be practised by the North American Indians, is very common amongst ourselves. About five-and-twenty years ago, an Eton boy, named Dean, who had lately come to the school, imprudently bathed in the river Thames where it flows with great rapidity under the "playing fields," and he was soon carried out of his depth, and disappeared. Efforts were made to save him or recover the body, but to no purpose; until Mr. Evans, who was then, as now, the accomplished drawing-master, threw a cricket bat into the stream, which floated to a spot where it turned round in an eddy, and from a deep hole underneath the body was quickly drawn. This statement is entirely from memory, but I believe it to be substantially correct.

I heard the following anecdote from the son of an eminent Irish judge. In a remote district of Ireland a poor man, whose occupation at certain seasons of the year was to pluck feathers from live geese for beds, arrived one night at a lonely farmhouse, where he expected to glean a good stock of these "live feathers," and he arose early next morning to look after the flock. The geese had crossed the river which flowed in front of the house, and were sitting comfortably in the sunshine on the opposite bank. Their pursuer immediately stripped off the few clothes he had, deposited them on the shore, and swam across the river. He then drove the birds into the water, and, boldly following them, he maintained a long contest to keep then together on their homeward voyage, until in the deep bed of the river his strength failed him, and he sank. The farmer and his family became aware of the accident, the cries of the drowning man, and the cackling of the geese, informed them, in the swimmer's extremity, of his fate, and his clothes lay on the shore in witness of his having last been in their company. They dragged the river for the body, but in vain; and in apprehension of serious consequences to themselves should they be unable to produce the corpse, they applied to the parish priests, who undertook to relieve them, and to "improve the occasion" by the performance of a miracle. He called together the few neighbours, and having tied a strip of parchment, inscribed with cabalistic characters, round a wisp of straw; he dropped this packet where the man's head was described to have sunk, and it glided into still water where the corpse was easily discovered.

ALFRED GATTY.

The discovery of drowned bodies by loading a loaf with mercury, and putting it afloat on a stream, or by casting into the river, as the Indians do, "a chip of cedar wood, which will stop and turn round over the exact spot," is referrible to natural and simple causes. As there are in all running streams deep pools formed by eddies, in which drowned bodies would be likely to be caught and retained, any light substance thrown into the current would consequently be drawn to that part of the surface over the centre of the eddy hole.

J. S. C.

MARRIAGE OF ECCLESIASTICS. (Vol. iv., pp. 57. 125. 193. 196.)

In the early ages, your correspondent H. WALTER assumes that the primitive Christians knew "that their Scriptures said of marriage that it was honourable in all" (Vol. iv., p. 193.). H. WALTER is under more than one mistake with regard to the text of St. Paul (Heb. xiii. 4.) on which he grounds his assertion. This whole chapter being full of admonitions, the apostle, all through it, speaks mostly in the imperative mood. He begins with, "Let brotherly love continue;" "Be not forgetful," &c.; "Remember them that are in bonds," &c. Then he says: Τίμιος ὁ γάμος ἐν πᾶσι, καὶ ἡ κοίτη ἀμίαντος, that is: "Let (the laws of) marriage be revered in all things, and the marriage bed be undefiled;" and as a warning to those who might not heed such an admonition, he adds, "whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." H. WALTER mistakes the adjective feminine ἐν πᾶσι as meaning "all men," whereas it signifies here, "in all things;" according to which sense St. Paul uses the same form of speech in 2 Corinthians xi. 6. True it is, the authorised version translates thus: "Marriage is honourable in all;" but the is is an insertion of the translators, and therefore printed in Italics. Parkhurst, however, in his Lexicon, at the word Γάμος, says: "Wolfius has justly remarked, the imperatives preceding and following show that we should rather understand ἔστω than ἐστί. See also Hammond and Macknight; and observe that the Alexandrian and two other MSS., for δὲ in the following sentence read γάρ, and the Vulgate translates by enim, "for."

I cannot but think that the makers of the authorized version advisedly inserted is instead of let, to forward their own new doctrines, as this their rendering would seem to countenance the marriage of priests. Curiously enough, when they had no interest in putting in the indicative instead of the imperative mood, those same translators have of themselves inserted, in the verse following, the latter, thus: "Let your conversation be without covetousness," &c. Moreover, in translating ἐν πᾶσι, in another passage of St. Paul, 2 Cor. xi. 6., they render it, "in all things;" in which same sense it is to be understood in the above place, Heb. xi. 4.

CEPHAS.

In lately reading that very curious book, Whiston's Autobiography, I met with some remarks on this subject, which I made a note of, and which are at the service of A. B. C. Whiston quotes the well-known Dr. Wall as follows:—

"The Greek Church still observe the rule of allowing their clergy to marry but once, and before the Council of Nice made a further rule that none after his orders should marry; and I believe it is hard to find in church history an instance of any one who married after he was in priest's orders for a thousand (in reality for above a thousand four hundred) years before Martin Luther."

The interpolation marked by a parenthesis is Whiston's, who proceeds:—

"The Church of England allows their very bishops to be twice—nay thrice—nay even four times married without any impediment to their episcopal functions, whereas the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople would not admit the Emperor Leo, a layman, into the church, because he had married a fourth wife."

Whiston, though a "fanciful man," as Burnet calls him, was well read in Christian antiquity, and his opinion is therefore of some weight. Wall's authority no one would willingly undervalue.

I cannot call to mind any English bishop who was four times married; yet Whiston would hardly have asserted the fact if he had not had some example in view. I should be obliged to any one who would inform me on the subject.[1]

This may give a clue to our correspondent.

When on the subject of Whiston, I should be glad to know if his edition of our Common Prayer Book published in 1713, and his Primitive New Testament published in 1745, still exist.[2]

The former he entitled The Liturgy of the Church of England reduced nearer to the Primitive Standard. The latter contains, besides the Canonical Books of the New Testament, the Apostolic Constitutions, Epistles of Ignatius, the Epistle of Timothy to Diognetus, &c. &c., all of which he considered as of equal authority with the Canonical Books. The Apostolic Constitutions indeed he terms "the most sacred of the Canonical Books of the New Testament."

K. S.

Replies to Minor Queries.

Robert Douglas (Vol. iv., p. 23.).

—There is no truth in the report that this person was a grandson of Mary Queen of Scots. His diary during the march of the Scots troops to England, 1644, is printed in a work entitled Historical Fragments relative to Scotish Affairs from 1635 to 1664, Edin., 1833, 8vo., published by Stevenson of Edinburgh, and edited by James Maidment, Esq., of that city, who has enriched the volume with many notes and illustrations, and has given in addition a pretty copious account of Douglas. His letters and papers fell into the hands of Wodrow. (See Analecta Scotica, vol. i. p. 326.) Allow me to correct an error. The Bannatyne Club did not print Wodrow's Analecta. This very amusing collection was a munificent present from the late Earl of Glasgow to the members of the Maitland Club, of which his lordship was president; it is in four thick 4to. volumes, and full of all sorts of out-of-the-way information. It seems very little known at present south the Tweed. I question whether Mr. Macaulay has gone through it, although he is no doubt familiar with Wodrow's one-sided work on the Sufferings of the Scotish Presbyterian clergy.

J. MT.

The Leman Baronetcy (Vol. iv., pp. 58. 111.).

—The attempt in Scotland to give a right to an English title of honour is exposed fully in Mr. Turnbull's Anglo-Scotia Baronets, Edin. 1846, P. XXXII. iii. The "certified court proceedings" are worth nothing, and would not be sustained in a court of law. The party called Sir Edward Godfrey Leman may or may not be the next heir of the Lord Mayor, but he must prove his right in England by such evidence as may be required there, and not by reference to what would not even be looked at in the Scotish law courts.

J. MT.

Cachecope Bell (Vol. iii., p. 407.).

—Is it possible that this word may be a corruption of the low Latin "Catascopus" (Gr. κατάσκοπος), and that it was applied to a bell which a watchman tolled to give an alarm of fire, &c.? I have seen a bell set apart for this duty, in churches on the continent.

C. P. PH***.

May not this have been a bell specially rung at funerals, and deriving its name (as has been suggested to me) from cache corps, "cover the body" (in the ground)? And why not, since we have got "curfew" out of couvre feu, "cover the fire?"

A. G.

Ecclesfield.

[E. V. has suggested a similar explanation of this term.]

"Dieu et mon Droit" (Vol. iii., p. 407.).

—In Bishop Nicolson's English Historical Library, part iii. chap. i., under the section treating of Charters appears the following paragraph:

"The same king (Edward III.), as founder of the most noble order of Knights of the Garter, had his arms sometimes encircled with their motto of 'Honi soit,' &c., that of 'Dieu et mon Droit' having formerly been assumed by Richard the First, intimating that the Kings of England hold their empire from God alone. But neither of those ever appeared on the Broad Seal, before the days of Henry the Eighth."

FRANCISCUS.

Defoe's House at Stoke Newington (Vol. iv., p. 256.).

—This house is the one which was occupied by the late William Frend, M.A., of the Rock Life Office, and which now belongs to his widow. It is on the south side of Church Street, a little to the east of Lordship Lane or Road, and has about four acres of ground attached, bounded on the west by a narrow footway, once (if not still) called Cutthroat Lane. Or it may be identified thus: take the map of Stoke Newington in Robinson's history of that place, London, 1820, 8vo., and look directly below the first "e" in "Church Street." Among the papers by which the house is held is the copy of the enrolment of a surrender to the lord of manor, dated February 26, 1740, in which the house is described as "heretofore in the tenure or occupation of Daniel Defoe." The history just mentioned stated that he was living at Newington in 1709. There appears no reason to suppose that he built the house. Dr. Price lived for some years in it, as the domestic chaplain of a subsequent owner.

M.

Study of Geometry in Lancashire (Vol. ii., p. 57.).

—Your correspondent Mr. T. T. WILKINSON, in his interesting article on this subject, attributes the first rise of the study of geometry in Lancashire to the Oldham Mathematical Society. But he is not perhaps aware, that half a century before a Mathematical Society existed at Manchester. I have a thin 8vo., entitled—

"Mathematical Lectures; being the first and second that were read to the Mathematical Society at Manchester. By the late ingenious Mathematician John Jackson. 'Who can number the Sands of the Sea, the Drops of Rain, and the Days of Eternity?' Ecclus. i. 2. 'He that telleth the Number of the Stars, and calleth them all by their Names.' Psalm cxlvii. 4. Manchester, printed by Roger Adams, in the Parsonage, and sold by William Clayton, Bookseller, at the Conduit. 1719."

The book is dedicated to the "Virtuous and Religious Lady Bland." The Preface states that

"There having been lately set up in Manchester a Mathematical Society, which was encouraged by many (and some Honorable) subscribers, and the composing of the Lectures being undertaken by the late ingenious Mathematician Mr. John Jackson, and he having discharged himself well becoming his parts and character in the reading of several extraordinary ones in Geometry, we thought it would be great pity, as well as ingratitude, to let such worthy performances expire with him."

Then follow the two Lectures, which terminate at p. 41. The first was read Aug. 12, 1718; the second, Aug. 19, 1718. The Manchester Mathematical Society would be one of the earliest in the kingdom. Perhaps the Oldham Society might be a branch of the Manchester.

JAMES CROSSLEY.

Coke, how pronounced (Vol. iv., pp. 24. 74. 93. 138. 244.).

—I think that the pronunciation of Cook for Coke is not a "modern affectation," as in a MS. journal of the proceedings in parliament of the session of 1621, now in my possession, there is, amongst other amusing things, an account of a quarrel between Mr. Clement Coke, son of Sir Edward, and Sir Charles Moryson, in which Mr. Coke's name is frequently spelt Cooke. I should judge that the pronunciation was by no means settled at that time; for, as the journal was evidently written whilst the debates were going on, it appears to me that the pronunciation of each speaker was followed, and the name is spelt differently in speeches that succeed each other. I send you an exact copy of one example of this:

"Mr Whittbye.—That Mr Coke will submitt and satisfy in acknowg his wrong don, if Sr Chars will say he ment it not a disgrace.

"Sr Ro. Philps.—I would any way mitigate ye censure: I should need no other inducet but to remembr he is ye soun of such a father. But I must say, I thinke Sr Chars hath not given ye least occasn to Mr Cooke," &c. &c.

C. DE D.

Quistourne (Vol. iv., p. 116.).

—Here is a word so very like the Devonshire one which has puzzled a correspondent, that it may be the same one in sense as well in sound. In one of the Low-Norman insular dialects, it denotes a slap with the back of the hand; in French-British,[3] KIS DOÛRN, revers de main.

G. M.

Seneca's Medea (Vol. i., p. 107.; Vol. iii., p. 464.).

—I cannot feel much doubt that the prophecy ascribed to Medea was a mere allusion to events actually past. It was a compliment to Claudius upon the recent reduction of Britannia under the Roman arms, with nothing future, unless it were an encouragement to bring Caledonia, Ireland, and the small islands, into similar subjection. The Oceanus was supposed to extend indefinitely westward, beyond the world, into the regions of Night and Chaos, and was not only dreaded for its stormy navigation, but from feelings of religious awe. The expedition to Britain was peculiar from being ultra-mundane, and an invasion of the ocean, so that

For that reason only they called the Britons "penitus toto divisos orbe." "Britain (said the pseudo-Hegesippus) lying out of the world, was by the power of the Roman empire reduced into the world," cit. Camden. And the same is implied in another place of Seneca himself—

But the "Poemata Pithæana," reprinted in Camden, form the most lively commentary on the chorus of the Medea. They are likewise of the Claudian age, they relate to the conquest of Britain, and they are nothing but an expansion of that one idea, the trans-oceanic voyage and ultra-mundane conquest—

"Oceanus.... Qui finis mundo, non erit imperio. Oceanus mêdium venit imperium. At nunc Oceanus geminos interluit orbes, Pars est imperii, terminus ante fuit. Et jam Romano cingimur Oceano. Oceanus jam terga dedit, etc. Conjunctum est, quod adhuc (i.e. nunc) orbis, et orbis erat," &c.

The Chorus of Seneca has no more of prophecy, or sagacious conjecture, or other anticipation of the future, than Gray's "Bard," or the prophecy of Medea in Pindar's "Pythians," both of them fulfilled before the poet's time. Whatever may seem of a larger import, in Seneca's language, than events had fully justified, belongs to the obscure and lofty strain of remote vaticinations, or to the exaggerations of flattery.

A. N.

The Editor of Jewel's Works in Folio (Vol. iv., p. 225.).

—Colet speaks of the editions of Jewel published in 1609 and 1611 as "edited by Fuller." On meeting with the statement elsewhere, I supposed it to be a mistake, as Fuller was born in 1608; but when I found it apparently countenanced by the notice of Jewel in Fuller's Abel Redivivus (Camb. 1651, p. 313.), I was much puzzled, until, on turning to the Introduction, § 11., I discovered that the writer of that notice, and editor of the folios, was not Fuller, but Featley.

J. C. R.

Poetaster (Vol. iv., p. 59.).

—In reply to A BORDERER, I do not think poetaster to be a genuine Latin word, though where first used I do not know. The French equivalent is poëtereau; the Italian poëterio; both formed according to the analogies of the respective languages. Poetaster seems to me to be formed upon the model of oleaster, pinaster, &c., as though to indicate that the person to whom the name is applied is as unlike a true poet as the wild olive to the true olive, or the wild pine to the true pine. What then is the derivation of aster as a termination? Some punster will say, respecting oleaster, that it is olea sterilis. Is it not ἄγριος? or is it rather a form cognate to the Greek termination -αζω, which generally means the performance of some energy, or the exhibiting of some state, implied in the substantive; as though the wild olive affected the characteristics and condition of the genuine olive? I am fully aware of many difficulties in the admission of these derivations. I would suggest another. Does aster signify that which affects or approaches the characteristics of the substantive to which it is added, as the terminations -estis or -estris, whereby adjectives are formed; as agrestis, sylvestris, campestris, at the same time that the forms are allied, -aster, -estris, -estis?

THEOPHYLACT.

Post Pascha (Vol. iv., p. 151.).

—A parallel to the "hypertautology" noticed by M. may be found in the determination of the University of Orleans on the question of Henry VIII.'s divorce, which is dated "die quinto mensis Aprilis, ante pascha," from which it has been argued, that that document must have been drawn up in 1530, not (as stated in the printed copies) in 1529, when Easter fell on March 28.

J. C. R.

Linteamina and Surplices (Vol. iv., p. 192.).

—It seems probable that the surplice became an ecclesiastical vestment at an early date, though the exact period of its introduction into the Christian church it is difficult to ascertain; it may not unlikely have been taken from the white linen ephod of the Jewish priests. Wheatly (c. ii. § 4.) quotes a passage from Jerome to the following effect: "What offence can it be to God for a bishop or priest to proceed to communion in a white garment;" and he considers it not improbable that it was in use in Cyprian's days. Bingham (French Churches' Apology, book iii. chap. vii.) cites a letter of Peter Martyr to Bishop Hooper on the vestment controversy, in which he states that a distinction of habits may be proved by many passages of Eusebius, Cyprian, Tertullian, and Chrysostom. By the twelfth canon of the Council of Narbonne, A.D. 589, the clergy were forbidden to take the albe off until after mass was ended. In ancient times, as Mr. Palmer observes (Orig. Lit. ii. 409.), the surplice probably differed not from the albe; it differs now only in having wider sleeves.

N. E. R. (a Subscriber.)

Climate (Vol. iv., p. 231.).

—A climate was a zone contained between two parallels of latitude. The climates were made to contain various arcs of latitude, in different systems. See Hutton's Mathematical Dictionary at Climate, or any work which efficiently explains old astronomical terms. Thus a climate originally meant a certain range of latitude; and as we now speak of warm and cold latitudes, so it became customary to speak of climates, until the last word became wholly meteorological.

M.

"Climate or Clime in geography is a part of the surface of the earth, bounded by two circles parallel to the equator, and of such a breadth as that the longest day in the parallel nearer the pole exceeds the longest day in that next the equator by some certain spaces, viz. half an hour.

"The ancients, who confined the climates to what they imagined the habitable parts of the earth, only allowed of seven. The first they made to pass through Meroë; the second, through Sienna; the third, through Alexandria; the fourth, through Rhodes; the fifth, through Rome; the sixth, through Pontus; and the seventh, through the mouth the Borysthenes."—Encyclopædia Britannica, art. "CLIMATE."

S. C. C.

Corfe Castle.

Ancient Language of Egypt (Vol. iv., pp. 152. 240.).

—The only works on the language of ancient Egypt preserved in the hieroglyphical inscriptions that possess any authority are the Grammaire Egyptienne of Champollion,[4] and the appendix to the first volume of the Chevalier Bunsen's Egypt's Place in Universal History. Much, however, is known to individuals who have studied the language, which has not been published, or perhaps digested into a system; and the works mentioned are by no means to be depended on as to matters of detail, especially as respects the verbs and pronouns, though the general principles of interpretation may be considered as settled. There was another language used by the ancient Egyptians, and expressed in what is called the demotic or enchorial character. Brugsch of Berlin is the highest authority as to this; his work, De natura et indole linguæ popularis Ægyptiorum, is, I believe, incomplete, but he has published others in Latin and German.

The work on Egyptian chronology, from which most seems to be expected, is that of Lepsius; but he has yet published only the first volume, which consists of preliminary matter. Le Sueur's treatise, though crowned by the French Académie, is a failure. Bunsen's less palpably erroneous, but a great part of the second and third volumes, which were published in German in 1844, would require to be re-written. Those who wish to study the chronology, as systematised by the Egyptians themselves, should consult the Turin Book Of Kings, of which an accurate fac-simile, with explanatory text, has been lithographed, and is about to be published by subscription, under the superintendence of a committee, of which Sir Gardner Wilkinson is the most prominent member.

E. H. D. D.

Welwood's Memoirs (Vol. iv., p. 70.).

—The edition referred to by MR. ROSS I have not seen, but there is one in my library printed at London in 1702, and which bears to be "the fourth edition," with the dedication to the king, and an address "to the reader" commencing as follows:—

"These sheets were writ some years ago, by the encouragement of one whose memory will be ever sacred to posterity. It's needless to mention the occasion; and they had not been published now, if a surreptitious copy of a part of the manuscript had not crept abroad."

The volume, which is very well got up in 8vo., is printed for "Tim. Goodwin, and sold by James Round at the Seneca's Head in Exchange Alley."

It may be fairly inferred that this edition came out under the superintendence of Welwood, and it would be interesting to ascertain whether there are any alterations in the sixth edition. Welwood was a Scotchman, and a letter from him to James Anderson, the eminent Scotish antiquary, will be found amongst the Anderson Papers in the Library of the Faculty of Advocates. It has been printed in the appendix to the Catalogues of Scotish Writers, Edinburgh, 1833.

J. MT.