Volume 4 — Notes.
Reading edition
PROVERBIAL PHILOSOPHY.
The following "sententious truths" are extracted from Bishop Jewel's grand performance, A Defense of the Apologie of the Churche of Englande, fol. 1571, a work as remarkable for "the pomp and charms" of its eloquence, as for the profound erudition, and the consummate ability, with which its "good doctrine" is exhibited and enforced. In common, however, with the other productions of this illustrious champion of the Reformation, it has an additional and most attractive feature; one, indeed, which, less or more, characterises all the literary achievements of the gigantic geniuses of the Elizabethan period, the "very dust of whose writings is gold."[1] The "Defense" abounds with proverbial folk-lore of the rarest sort; and this is so skilfully and appositely introduced, that the subject-matter presents itself to the reader's mind rather as a corollary, naturally deduced from a self-evident proposition—for who would think for a moment of questioning the truth of what has the semblance of a popular adage?[2]—than as a nicely managed argument, which receives no other help from the latter than that of illustration, employed for the simple and single purpose, not of strengthening such argument, but of rendering it comprehensible by the "meanest capacities."
'Never fail to pluck a peach, Whene'er you find one in your reach.'"
With this little bit of criticism, let me take the liberty of recommending to such of your readers, and I trust they are many, who seek for knowledge and wisdom in the richly-stored tomes, especially of the divines, whose appearance imparted a further glory to the days of our "good queen Bess," to note down the "wise saws and modern instances" which lie scattered along their glowing periods, like "dew-drops on the flow'ry lawn," for the purpose of transferring them to your very appropriate pages.
The remark of our old lexicographer, Florio[3], that "daily both new words are invented, and books still found that make a new supply of old," may, in its latter part, very fitly be applied to our proverbial philosophy; for, great as is the light which has already been thrown upon the subject, it must be admitted that a more systematic examination than they have yet received, of the works of the Elizabethan writers, would elucidate it to an extent that can scarcely be appreciated.
With these observations I offer you my little string of pearls, under the hope that row after row may be added to it.
"1. A contentious man wil never lacke wordes.
2. A Judge must walke with feete of lead.
3. An ignorante Judge was never indifferente.
4. A simple eie is soone beguiled.
5. By a smal draughte of sea-water, though maiste judge the verdure of the whole.
6. Error can not be defended, but by error.
7. Evils must be cured by theire contraries.
8. He is very doumbe, and can speak but little, that cannot speake ill.
9. He that cannot judge Golde by sounde, or in sight, yet may trie it by the poise.
10. Il wil is ever plentiful of il woordes.
11. In the fairest rose thou maiste soonest finde a canker.
12. It is a desperate cause, that with woordes and eloquence maie not be smoothed.
13. It is very course woulle that will take no colour.
14. Let Reason leade thee; let Authoritie move thee; let Truthe enforce thee.
15. Of an Impossibilitie yee maie conclude what yee liste.
16. Oftentimes he is hardiest man to speake, that hathe leaste to saie.
17. One demanded this question of Zoilus the Railer: Why takest thou sutche pleasure in speaking il? Zoilus made answere, Bicause, whereas I woulde doo it, I am not hable.
18. Rashe judgemente argueth somme folie.
19. The Heares of a mannes Bearde, or Heade, never ware white al togeather.
20. The mouthe which speaketh untruth killeth the soule.
21. The report of an enimie maketh no proufe.
22. The slowe paced horses kepe backe the chariot.
23. The Truthe wilbe hable evermore to beare it selfe.
24. To mainteine a fault knowne, is a double faulte.
25. To spende woordes without cause, is affliction of the sprite, and losse of time.
26. Vesselles never geve so great a sounde, as when they be emptie.
27. Untruthe cannot be shielded, but by untruthe.
28. Where the woulfe is broken in, it is beste for the poor sheepe to breake out."
It is as well to remark that the above aphorisms are contained within the first 365 pages of the "Defense." Their orthography and punctuation have been carefully preserved, as they ought always to be in such like cases. Some of them I have not elsewhere met with, and others present variæ lectiones of an interesting character. They are all delivered in a quaint simplicity of style, which admirably illustrates the general tone of thought and language of the period.
COWGILL.
PARAPHRASE ON THE 137TH PSALM BY CHURCHILL.
A paraphrase of the 137th psalm by Charles Churchill may, perhaps, be deemed not unworthy of a place amongst your Notes. It was originally sent to Mrs. Baily of Cadbury, who had remonstrated with him on his devoting his pen exclusively to satire. That lady gave them to my maternal grandfather. Three lines of the last verse are lost.
R. C. H. H.
Thimbleby.
"Our instruments untun'd, unsung, (Grief doth from musick fly) Upon the willow trees were hung, The trees that grew thereby. "'Raise, raise your voice,' the victors say, 'Touch, touch the trembling string, In Sion's manner briskly play, In Sion's manner sing.' "Our voice, alas! how should we raise In Babylonish ground? How should we sing Jehovah's praise In Pagan fetters bound? "If ever, much lov'd Sion, thou Dost from my mind depart, May my right hand no longer know Soft musick's soothing art. "If when in jocund songs I smile, Thou'rt not my choicest theme, May my tongue lose her wonted skill, Nor drink at Siloa's stream. "When Babylon's unhallowed host, Flow'd in with hostile tide, 'Down, down with Sion to the dust,' The sons of Edom cried. "Hear, hear O Lord these sons of spight, Nor let thy anger sleep, Let their own wishes on them light, In turn let Edom weep. "Blest is the man whose fated host Shall Babylon surround, Who shall destroy her impious boast, And raze her to the ground. "Blest is he, whose devouring hand," * * * * * * * * *
UPON THE DESCRIPTION OF THE MEDICEAN VENUS IN THE 4TH CANTO OF CHILDE HAROLD, STANZAS LI. AND LII.
LI. "Appear'dst thou not to Paris in this guise? Or to more deeply blest Anchises? or, In all thy perfect goddess-ship, when lies Before thee thy own vanquished Lord of War? And gazing in thy face as toward a star Laid on thy lap, his eyes to thee upturn, Feeding on thy sweet cheek![4] while thy lips are With lava kisses melting while they burn, Showered on his eyelids, brow, and mouth, as from an urn! LII. Glowing, and circumfused in speechless love, Their full divinity inadequate That feeling to express, or to improve, The gods become as mortals, and man's fate Has moments like their brightest ——" &c. &c.
" Ὀφθαλμοὺς ἐστιᾶν." "Atque oculos pascat uterque suos." OVID. Amor. lib. iii.
It seems to me that the noble poet has condescended to avail himself of a little ruse in referring to this passage of Ovid. It would have been perhaps more honest to have referred his readers to those magnificent lines in the opening address to Venus, by Lucretius, "De Rerum Naturâ," beginning,—
"Æneadum genitrix, hominum divômque voluptas, Alma Venus!" &c.
I subjoin the verses which Lord Byron really had in mind when he wrote the foregoing stanzas:
"Nam tu sola potes tranquillâ pace juvare Mortaleis: quoniam belli fera mœnera Mavors Armipotens regit, in gremium qui sæpe tuum se Rejicit, æterno devictus volnere Amoris: Atque ita, suspiciens tereti cervice reposta Pascit amore avidos, inhians in te, Dea, visus; Eque tuo pendet resupini spiritus ore. Hunc tu, Diva, tuo recubantem corpore sancto Circumfusa super, suaveis ex ore loquelas Funde, petens placidam Romanis, incluta, pacem."
Surely if the author of Childe Harold were indebted to any ancient poet for some ideas embodied in the lines cited, it was to Lucretius and not to Ovid that he should have owned the obligation.
A BORDERER.
Minor Notes.
On the Word "raised" as used by the Americans.
—An American, in answer to an inquiry as to the place of his birth, says, "I was raised in New York," &c. Was it ever an English phrase? And if so, by what English writer of celebrity was it ever used? Dr. Franklin, in a letter to John Alleyne, Esq., Aug. 9, 1768, says:
"By these early marriages we are blest with more children; and from the mode among us, founded in nature, of every mother suckling and nursing her own child, more of them are raised."
JAMES CORNISH.
Contradiction: D'Israeli and Hume.—
"Rousseau was remarkably trite in conversation."—Essay on Literary Character, vol. i. p. 213.
"Rousseau, in conversation, kindles often to a degree of heat which looks like inspiration."
Quoted by D'Israeli in the same vol., p. 230.
JAMES CORNISH.
A Ship's Berth.
—Compilers of Dictionaries have attempted to show, but I think without success, that this word has been derived from one of the meanings of the verb to bear. I conjecture that it has been derived from the Welsh word porth, a port or harbour. This word is under certain circumstances written borth, according to the rules of Welsh grammar. A ship's place in harbour (borth) is her berth. A sailor's place in his ship is his berth.
S. S. S. (2)