Volume 5 / Act 1 — "Troilus and Cressida," Act I. Sc. 3. (Vol. v., pp. 178. 235.).

—The meaning which your correspondent wishes to give the word dividable seems exactly the one wanted in this passage; but need we go so far from its apparent derivation as to derive it from divitias, dare?—One of the meanings of divido is to distribute,—why then should not dividable mean distributive, distributing their riches, &c.?

C. T. A.

Lyndon Rectory, Uppingham.

Stone-pillar Worship (Vol. v., p. 121.).

—The article "Hermae," in Smith's Antiquities, throws some light on this subject. The pillar set up as a witness (see Genesis there quoted, and the Classics passim)[5] is of course closely connected with the idea of sanctity attached to it. The Laplanders in selecting the unhewn stone "in the form in which it was shaped by the hand of the Creator Himself," seem, to a certain extent, unwittingly to have obeyed a command of the Creator: see Exodus, xx. 25.

A. A. D.

John of Padua (Vol. v., pp. 79. 161.).

—I am afraid we are not likely to obtain much additional information about John of Padua. The only account of him which I have ever met with is contained in the Earl of Orford's Works (vol. iii. p. 100. et seqq., edit. 1798). The warrant, dated 1544, is there copied from Rymer's Fœdera?; and from an expression which it contains, the inference is drawn that "John of Padua was not only an architect, but musician." I am not aware whether or no there is any other authority for such inference, but, if there is not, I submit that the evidence is far from conclusive. The words in the warrant run thus: A fee of two shillings per diem is granted to John, "in consideratione boni et fidelis servitii quod dilectus serviens noster Johannes de Padua nobis in architecture, ac aliis in re musica inventis impendit ac impendere intendit."

Now, Sir, I submit that res musica, in this passage, is used in the same sense as the Greek ἡ μουσικὴ for "the fine arts;" and that the passage can have no reference to the art of the musician.

If John of Padua had been a musician, we should most probably meet with his name in some of the accounts of plays and pageants during this reign; and the silence of your correspondents seems to imply that no information concerning him is to be obtained from those sources.

In the absence of further proof, then, I have no hesitation in proposing to the critical readers of "N. & Q.," a resolution that, It is the opinion of this council that there is no sufficient evidence that John of Padua was a musician.

ERICA.

Modern Greek Names of Places (Vol. iv., p. 470.; Vol. v., pp. 14. 209.).

—Your correspondent L. H. J. T. says, at p. 209.:—

"That with the utmost deference to SIR J. EMERSON TENNENT, he must deny that Cos, Athens, or Constantinople have been called by the Greeks Stanco, Satines, or Stamboul. These corruptions have been made by Turks, Venetians, and Englishmen."

This mode of expression would imply that the opinion which he corrects was held by me, whereas I have stated (Vol. v., p. 14.), even more explicitly than he, that—

"The barbarism in question is to be charged less upon the modern Greeks themselves, than upon the European nations, Sclavonians, Normans, and Venetians, and, later still, the Turks; who seized upon their country on the dismemberment of the Roman empire. The Greeks themselves, no doubt, continued to spell their proper names correctly; but their invaders, ignorant of their orthography, and even of their letters, were forced to write the names of places in characters of their own, guided solely by the sound."

J. EMERSON TENNENT.

Beocherie, alias Parva Hibernia (Vol. v., p. 201.).

—Beocera-ig, i.e. the bee-keeper's island, was one of the small islets adjacent to the larger one, Avallon, whereon the Abbey of Glastonbury stood. Glastonbury was early resorted to by Irish devotees; St. Patrick and St. Bridget necessarily resided there. Concerning Beocherie or Bekery, we are told that there "olim sancta Brigida perhendinavit" (MS. Ashmol. 790, quoted in the Monasticon, vol. i. p. 22.). This accounts for the name Parva Hibernia. Beocera-gent, in charter 652, is the name of some landmark or boundary. There can be little doubt that we should read beocera-geat, i.e. bee-keeper's gate, as suggested by Mr. Kemble in the preface to the third vol. of Codex Dipl. p. xxvi. The duties and rights of the beocere, beo-ceorl, or bocherus, are described in the "Rectitudines singularum personarum," Thorpe's Anc. Laws, vol. i. p. 434.

C. W. G.

Ruffles, when worn (Vol. v., pp. 12. 139.).

—Planché, in his History of British Costume, says that during the reign of Henry VIII., "the sleeves were ruffed, or ruffled at the hand, as we perceive in the portrait of Henry. They were not added to the shirt till the next century."

R. S. F.

Perth.

Long Meg of Westminster (Vol. ii., pp. 131. 172.; Vol. v., p. 133.).

—As an instance of this title being applied (as Fuller has it) "to persons very tall," I subjoin the following notice of a death, which appeared in a newspaper of September, 1769:

"At London, Peter Branan, aged 104. He was six feet six inches high, and was commonly called Long Meg of Westminster. He had been a soldier from eighteen years of age."

This notice is extracted in the Edinburgh Antiquarian Magazine, but without mentioning the quarter from which it was taken.

R. S. F.

Perth.

Family Likenesses (Vol. v., p. 7.).

—To trace a family likeness for a century is not at all uncommon. Any one who knows the face of the present Duke of Manchester will see a strong likeness to his great ancestor, through six generations, the Earl of Manchester of the Commonwealth, as engraved in Lodge's Portraits. The following instance is more remarkable. Elizabeth Hervey was Abbess of Elstow in 1501. From her brother Thomas is descended, in a direct line, the present Marquis of Bristol. If any one will lay the portrait of Lord Bristol, in Mr. Gage Rokewode's Thingoe Hundred, by the side of the sepulchral brass of the Abbess of Elstow, figured in Fisher's Bedfordshire Antiquities, they cannot but be struck by the strong likeness between the two faces.

This is valuable evidence on the disputed point, whether portraits were attempted in sepulchral brasses.

VOKAROS.

"A Roaring Meg" (Vol. v., p. 105.).

—In Ghent, in Flanders, there is still to be seen a wrought-iron gun, a sister of Mons Meg, the famous piece of artillery in Edinburgh Castle. She is named Dulle Griete, Mad Margery, or Margaret, and may possible be the elder sister after whom the rest of the family have been named.

NORTHMAN.

Lyte Family (Vol. v., p. 78).

—A painted window representing the arms of the Lytes, and the families with whom they intermarried for many generations, is in the little church of Angersleigh, near Taunton.

E. M.

Nuremberg Token (Vol. v., p. 201).

—The legend of H. C. K.'s medal seems to me to be the following:—

(the name of the issuer of the token).

Possibly a tradesman's token.

G. H. K.

The Old Countess of Desmond (Vol. iv., passim.).

—Your several correspondents whose able remarks have excited much interest with regard to this very extraordinary individual, appear to have overlooked the fact that a cabinet portrait by Rembrandt is to be seen in the collection of the Marquess of Exeter at Burleigh; the age, costume, &c., corresponding exactly with the description given by Pennant, as quoted by A. B. R.

KT.

Pimlico (Vol. i., pp. 388. 474; Vol. ii., p. 13.)

—I find the two following mentions of Pimlico as a public place of entertainment:

1. In A Joviall Crew, or the Merry Beggars, by R. Brome: first acted, 1641, at Drury Lane, edit. 1708:

2. Massinger's City Madam:

G. H. K.

"Wise above that which is written" (Vol. v., p. 228.).

—This phrase is evidently a quotation of 1 Cor. iv. 6., though not according to the authorised translation, the words in the original being μὴ ὑπὲρ ὃ γέγραπται φρονεῖν. Here, however, the verb cannot mean "to be wise," which is the meaning given to it in the phrase in question; for the context requires it to be taken (as in our version) in the sense of "elation of mind, to the despising of others."

The Query of R. C. C. reminds me of another phrase, which in a somewhat similar way one hears continually quoted in sermons, &c., as a text: viz. "that he that runs may read." I should like to know whether this strange perversion of Hab. ii. 2., which seems to be the source whence it is derived, can be accounted for in any way.

F. A.

Sir John Cheke (Vol. v., p. 200.).

—C. B. T. will find an account of Sir John Cheke in Harwood's Alumni Etonenses, under the head of "Provosts of King's College." I send also from an old MS. the following account; not being responsible for its accuracy, nor for the correctness of the references:

"Sir John Cheke put into the Provostship by Edward VI., April 1, 1548, though not qualified, as not of the Society, nor in orders. See his Life by Strype; Fuller, Hist. Camb., 119.; Burnet, ii. 115., who says that in consequence of the controversy with Gardiner about the Gr. Pronuntiation he was either put from the chair, or willingly left it. This was not the case. He did not quit it till sent for by the King, as appears from the Life of his successor, Nic. Carr, p. 59.; see, too, Wood Hist. and Antiq., lib. i. p. 26. His mother stood godmother to the child of a poor woman in Cambridge Gaol on suspicion of murder. (See Latimer's First Serm. p. 125., edit. 1635; Burnet, ii. 213.; Wood, Hist. and Antiq., I. ii. 251.; Burnet, ii. 51., and App. 150.; Fuller, 29. 127.; and Fox, Mart.; Burnet, ii. 155.; Burnet, ii. 8. 203.; Benefices conferred on Laymen, Walker's Attempt, ii. 68.; Wood, Athen., i. 111.) Burnet and Fuller's account of his retiring on the King's death do not agree. For his works see Bale, and his Life, by Dr. Gerard Langbaine, before a work of Cheke's, The True Subject to the Rebel, or the Hurt of Sedition: Oxon, 1641, 4to. Haddon wrote his epitaph. See Ascham's Letters: Oxon, 1703, p. 436., about his recantation. See Leland's Cygnea Cantio, 1558, p. 21.; and Preface to Hickes's Thesaurus, 1. 2."

J. H. L.

Richard Earl of Chepstow (Vol. v., p. 204.).

—H. C. K. will find in the Conquest of Ireland, by Giraldus Cambrensis, my authority for styling Richard Strongbow Earl of Chepstow: e.g. Dermod MacMurrough addresses a letter to him as follows: "Dermon MacMorogh, prince of Leinster, to Richard earle of Chepstoue, and son of Gilbert the Earle, greeting," &c. I quote from Hooker's translation, ed. 1587, p. 11. Hooker, in a note, p. 4., says that Chepstow in times past was named Strigulia, "whereof Richard Strangbow being earle, he took his name, being called Comes Strigulensis."

H. C. K.'s second conjecture, as to the parentage given to Earl Richard in the Ormonde charter, seems to be the correct one. I cannot call to mind an instance of a second Christian name used at so early a date.

The first coat given to the De Clares, in Berry's Encycl., viz. ar. on a chief az. three crosses pattée fichée of the field, occurs on the shield of the effigy in Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin, popularly said to be that of Richard Earl of Pembroke. Query, does Berry's statement rest on the authority of that tradition? if so, it has a very sandy foundation. I have very little doubt that the bearing visible on the shield, as represented on the earl's seal attached to the charter in possession of the Earl of Ormonde, is intended to represent three chevrons.

H. C. K. has my best thanks for his communication. I shall be still more obliged by an extract from the pedigree in his possession.

JAMES GRAVES.

Kilkenny.

Maps of Africa (Vol. v., p. 236.).

—If your correspondent, who inquires about maps of Africa, will consult the twenty-first map in Spruner's Atlas Antiquus, published at Gotha in 1850, I think he will find what he desires.

E. C. H.

Lady Diana Beauclerk.

—I have to thank you for inserting my memorandum respecting my miniature of Oliver Cromwell. I must further trespass on your kindness to correct an error (and a very inexcusable one) in my last statement, to which the kindness of a friend has called my attention.

Lady Diana Beauclerk was not, as I stated, a daughter of the Duke of St. Alban's, but of the Duke of Marlborough (Charles, second duke), and married the Hon. Topham Beauclerk, who was the friend of Dr. Johnson, and a well-known personage in his day.

The miniature therefore may have been "long" either in her own family, or in that of her husband; but I presume she meant in her own. The Churchills were as much connected with the "Stuarts" as afterwards with their successors. I regret this inattention on my part.

C. FOX.

"Litera scripta manet" (Vol. v., pp. 200. 237.).

—I was intimate some time since with a gentleman who had been a student in Maynooth College, and who frequently used to quote the words "Litera scripta manet," with the addition, "Verbum imbelle perit." This may give a clue to the source of the phrase, which may be found probably in some ecclesiastical or theological work of days gone by.

A. L.

"Qui vult plene," &c. (Vol. v., p. 228.).

—The first passage respecting which W. DN. inquires ("Qui vult plenè," &c.) will be found in the first chapter of the first book of Thomas à Kempis, De Imitatione Christi.

L. M. M.

Engraved Portraits (Vol. v., p. 176.).

—In reply to S. S., the best Catalogue of Engraved Portraits is one published by the late Mr. Edward Evans, of Great Queen Street, Lincoln's Inn Fields, many years since; and although the last number is 11,756, yet, as two and three portraits are mentioned under the same figures, the total number noticed greatly exceeds the above.

I believe a new edition is, or shortly will be, in the press.

J. B. WHITBORNE.