Page images
PDF
EPUB

SIR THOMAS OVERBURY.

IN an official book, of the time of James the First, recently obtained, I find intermixed with business entries, the following notes, referring to historical events :1615. November 20. The D. of Somersett was committed to the Towre; and the same day, came Sir Geo. Moore, Knighte, to be Leiutenant of the Towre.

1615. November 20th. Sir Jaruis Eluis, late Leiutenant of the Towre, was hanged vpon the Towre-hill, for the poizoninge of Sir Tho. Ouerburie, late prisoner in the Towre.

CLERICAL REMISSION OF BURIAL FEES. ADMIRAL Sir George Rooke, a name resplendent on the roll of England's naval heroes, in the years of his probation served as a captain of marines, when that force was originally organised. While he was quartered upon the Essex coast, the ague made sad havoc with his men, and many cases were fatal. The minister of the village, harassed with the frequent calls thus caused, refused to bury any more of them, unless the accustomed burial fees were paid. Captain Rooke made no reply, but the next who died, he ordered to be conveyed to the minister's house, and the coffin placed on the table in the

There are also the following verses, allusive to the hall, and there left. This greatly added to the clergyperpetrators of this disgraceful transaction :

'I. C. V. R.* Good Monser Carr, Aboute to fall.

V. R. A. K. As most men say, But that's not all.

V. O. 2. P.

With a nullitie,
That naughtie packe,

S. X. Y. F.,

Whose shameless life Hath broke yo' backe.

From Katharine Docke theare launcht a Pincke,
Which soone did leake, but did not sincke;
One while she lay at Essex shore,
Expecting rig`ing, yards, and store.
But all disasters to preuent,

Wth winde in poope she sail'd to Kent.
At Rochest she anchor cast,
Wch Canterburie did distaste;
But Winchester with Erlyes helpe,
Did hale ashoare this Lion's whelpe.
She was weake sided and did reele,
But some are set to mende her keele,
To stope her leake, and mend her porte,
And make her fitt for any sporte.

[blocks in formation]

man's embarrassments, who in the fulness of sadness in his heart, intimated to the captain in a polite message, "that if he would cause the dead man to be taken away, he would never more dispute it with him, but would readily bury him and his whole company for nothing!"

[blocks in formation]

Tartini, born at Pirano in Istria, was from boyhood much disposed to the study of music, and one night dreamed that he made a compact with his Satanic Majesty, who promised on all occasions to be at his service, and during that delusive slumber all passed as he wished; even his desires were promptly accelerated by the agency of his new coadjutor. At length, he fancied, he placed his violin in the hands of the devil, to ascertain his musical qualities, when to his astonishment, he heard him perform a solo so singularly melodious, and executed with such superior taste and precision, that it greatly surpassed all he had ever heard. So exquisite was his delight upon this occasion, that it deprived him of the power of breathing; but awaking with the intensity of the sensation, he instantly arose, and taking his fiddle, hoped to express what he believed he had just heard, but in vain. His best efforts, it is true, helped him to produce a piece considered the most excellent of all his performances, and that he entitled the Devil's Sonata, but it was so greatly inferior to the phantom of his dream, that this distinguished musician stated, he would willingly have broken his instrument, and abandoned music altogether, had he known any other means of obtaining a subsistence.

THE Third Volume of Willis's Current Notes, is now published, price THREE SHILLINGS, in cloth boards. A few copies of the prior volumes remain, but an early application for them is desirable.

No. XL.]

"Takes note of what is done-
By note to give and to receive."-SHAKESPEARE.

LAST HOURS OF QUEEN MARY THE SECOND, From Manuscript Memoranda, by one of the Household MARY, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, was on Thursday, being the 27th day of December, 1694, about 7 o'clock, P.M. ill to extremity, having a little before taken some of the late King Charles's drops, being a high cordial, and the last refuge of the physicians; but these not in the least reviving her spirits, all future means ceased, and a visible declension of her spirits appeared every half hour. About twelve the same night she began to expire, and by one in the morning, or a quarter past, her breath entirely left her body. She bore her sickness with all patience imaginable, and never was heard once to complain, but submitted to the stroke of death with all composedness and serenity of mind, as being well assured of the happiness of her future state, she having some time before received the blessed sacrament of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and eight or ten bishops communicated with her.

Never was so melancholy a place as the palace of Kensington, nothing but sobs and tears in every corner thereof; and much adoe they had to prevail with the King to retire into another room whilst the Queen expired. So excessive was his grief and anxiety of mind, that he several times expressed his wish that he might resign his breath with hers; and he was once or twice so near it, by swooning away, that they had much adoe to support his spirit, and were forced to let him blood. In a word, the King has lost the best of wives, and her subjects the most merciful, the most charitable and the best of queens.

[APRIL, 1854.

PROFESSOR WILSON, the Christopher North, and Edi tor of the Edinburgh Review, expired at his house in Gloucester Place, Edinburgh, shortly after midnight, on the morning of Monday, April 3, in his sixty-ninth year.

The following letter, addressed to the Ettrick Shepherd, in 1815, but not intended for publication, will doubtless amuse many readers of Current Notes:"Edinburgh, September.

"MY DEAR HOGG,-I am in Edinboro', and wish to be out of it. Mrs. Wilson and I walked 350 miles in the Highlands, between the 5th of July and the 26th of August, sojourning in divers glens from Sabbath unto Sabbath, fishing, eating, and staring. I purpose appearing in Glasgow on Thursday, where I shall stay till the Circuit is over. I then go to Elleray, in the character of a Benedictine monk, till the beginning of November. Now pause and attend. If you will meet me at Moffat, on October 6th, I will walk or mail it with you to Elleray, and treat you there with fowls and Irish whiskey. Immediately on the receipt of this, write a letter to me, at Mr. Smith's Bookstore, Hutchison Street, Glasgow, saying positively if you will, or will not do so. If you dont, I will lick you, and fish up Douglas Burn before you, next time I come to Ettrick Lake. I saw a letter from you to M-- the other day, by which you seem to be alive and well. You are right in not making verses when you can catch trout. Francis Jeffrey leaves Edinboro' this day for Holland and France. I presume, after destroying the king of the Netherlands, he intends to annex that kingdom to France, and assume the supreme power of the United Countries, under the title of Geoffrey the First. You, he will make Poet Laureate and Fishmonger, and me admiral of the Musquito Fleet.

Mary the Second was born April 30, 1662; married to the Prince of Orange (our present gracious King) on March 4, 1678; proclaimed Queen of England, France, and Ireland, Feb. 13, 1689; and crowned on April 11th following; on which day she was also proclaimed Queen "If you have occasion soon to write to Murray, pray of Scotland. She died Dec. 28, 1694, in the thirty-introduce something about "The City of the Plague," second year and eighth month of her age, and in the sixth year of her reign.

Quis talia fando, Temperet a lachrymis.

An Epigram on the Queen.
Dum Regina subit constanti pectore mortem
Opprimit imodicus te Gulielme Dolor
Famina virg. animos jam commutasse videntur
Cor habet hic teneræ conjugis illa viri.
Englished thus:-

The Queen so greatly dies, the King so grieves,
You'd think the Hero's dead, the Woman lives.

Thomas Tenison, who had been translated from Lincoln on the 6th of that month; his predecessor Tillotson died on the 22nd of the preceding month, November.

VOL. IV.

as I shall probably offer him that poem, in about a fortnight or sooner. Of course I do not wish you to say that the poem is utterly worthless. I think that a bold eulogy from you (if administered immediately), would be of service to me; but if you do write about it, do not tell him that I have any intention of offering it to him, but you may say, you hear I am going to offer it to a London bookseller.

"We staid seven days at Mr. Iyett's, at Kinnaird, and were most kindly received. Mr. Iyett is a great ally of yours, and is a fine creature. I killed in the Highlands 170 dozen of trouts. One day, 19 dozen and a half, another 7 dozen. I, one morning, killed 10 trouts that weighed nine pounds. In Loch Awe, in three days, I killed 76 pounds weight of fish, all with the fly. The

E

Gael were astonished. I shot two roebucks, and had nearly caught a red-deer by the tail-I was within half a mile of it at farthest. The good folks in the Highlands are not dirty. They are clean, decent, hospitable, ugly people. We domiciliated with many, and found no remains of the great plague of fleas, etc., that devastated the country from the time of Ossian, to the ascension of George the Third. We were at Loch Katrine, Loch Lomond, Inverary, Dalmally, Loch Etive, Glen Etive, Dalness, Appin, Ballaheelish, Fort William, Moy, Dalwhinny, Loch Eericht (you dog), Loch Taynoch, Glen Lyon, Taymouth, Blair-Athol, Bruar, Perth, Edinboro'. Is not Mrs. Wilson immortalized?

[ocr errors]

"I know of Cona.' It is very creditable to our excellent friend, but will not sell any more than the Isle of Palms,' or The White Doe.'* The White Doe is not in season-venison is not liked in Edinboro'. It wants flavour-a good Ettrick wether is preferable. Wordsworth has more of the poetical character than any living writer, but he is not a man of first-rate intellect, his genius oversets him. Southey's Roderic' is not a first-rate work; the remorse of Roderic is that of a Christian devotee, rather than that of a dethroned monarch. His battles are ill fought. There is no processional march of events in the poem-no tendency to one great end, like a river increasing in majesty tiĺl it reaches the sea. Neither is there national character, Spanish or Moorish. No sublime imagery; no profound passion. Southey wrote it, and Southey is a man of talent-but it is his worst poem.

[ocr errors][merged small]

What a

poem!--such bald and nerveless language, mean imagery, common-place sentiments, and clumsy versification! It is beneath criticism. Unless the latter part of the battle be very fine indeed, this poem will injure him.

66

Wordsworth is dished. Southey is in purgatory; Scott is dying; and Byron is married. Herbert is frozen to death in Scandinavia. Moore has lost his manliness. Coleridge is always in a fog. Joanna Baillie is writing a system of cookery. Montgomery is in a madhouse, or ought to be. Campbell is sick of a constipation in the bowels. Hogg is herding sheep in Ettrick Forest; and Wilson has taken the plague. O wretched writers! Unfortunate bards! What is Bobby Millar's back shop to do this winter! Alas! alas! alas! a wild doe is a

noble animal; write an address to one, and it shall be inferior to one I have written, for half a barrel of red herrings! The Highlanders are not a poetical people. They are too national-too proud of their history. They imagine that a colleyshangy between the Macgregors and Campbells is a sublime event; and they overlook mountains four thousand feet high. If Ossian did write the poems attributed to him, or any poems like them, he was a dull dog, and deserved never to taste whiskey as long as he lived. A man who lives for ever among mist and mountains, knows better than to be always prosing

about them. Methinks I feel about objects familiar to infancy and manhood, but when we speak of them, it is only upon great occasions, and in situations of deep passion. Ossian was probably born in a flat country!

Scott has written good lines in the Lord of the Isles,' but he has not done justice to the Sound of Mull, which is a glorious streight.

"The Northern Highlanders do not admire 'Waverley,' so I presume the South Highlanders despise Guy Mannering.' The Westmoreland peasants think Wordsworth a fool. In Borrowdale, Southey is not known to exist. I met ten men at Hawick who did not think Hogg a poet, and the whole city of Glasgow think me a madman. So much for the voice of the people being the voice of God. I left my snuff-box in your cottage.* Take care of it. The Anstruther bards have advertised their anniversary; I forget the day.

*

"I wish Lieutenant Gray of the Marines had been devoured by the lion he once carried on board his ship to the Dey of Algiers, or that he was kept a perpetual prisoner by the Moors in Barbary. Did you hear that Tennant had been taken before the Session for an offence against good morals? If you did not-neither did I! Indeed it is, on many accounts, exceedingly improbable. Yours truly, JOHN WILSON."

HEWING BLOCKS WITH RAZORS.-Observing the quotation, Current Notes, p. 19, from Swift we must look for the phrase, long anterior to the time of the Dean. In Livy, Baker's translation, book i. ch. xxxvi., it is related, that on the occasion of the war with the Sabines, Tarquinius Priscus wished to add to the cavalry, when Accius Nævius, a celebrated augur of the time,

insisted that no alteration or addition could be made without the sanction of the birds. Highly displeased at this, and in ridicule of the art, the king, as we are told, said, "Come, you diviner, discover by your augury whether what I am now thinking of can be accomplished." Having tried the matter according to the rules of augury, the other declared it could be accomplished. "Well," said he, "I was thinking whether you could cut a whetstone in two with a razor? Take these, then, and perform what your birds portend to be practicable.' On which, as the story goes, he without any difficulty fillet on his head, was raised in the Comitium, or place cut the whetstone. A statue of Accius Nævius, with a of assembly, on the steps at the left side of the senatehouse, where the transaction happened. The whetstone, it is also said, was fixed in the same place, there to remain to posterity as a monument of this miracle. MARY P. MERRIFIELD.

Dorset Gardens, Brighton, March 27.

James Hogg, the herder of sheep in Ettrick Forest, to whom this letter was addressed, died in this cottage, at "The White Doe of Rilstone," a poem, by Words- Altrive, on Saturday, Nov. 21, 1835. How fleeting and

[blocks in formation]

CERTAIN CURES FOR HYDROPHOBIA. WITH reference to Mr. Garland's communication, Current Notes, vol. iv. p. 2, the referring to "the practice, in cases of hydrophobia, of putting the patient between two feather beds and smothering him by way of cure," I was present at a Court of Assize and Gaol Delivery held here many years ago, for the county of Down, when three individuals were arraigned on a charge of manslaughter; the facts being that they had caused the death of a relative, who at the time was labouring under hydrophobia, by means of suffocation between two feather beds. The accused parties pleaded guilty, consequently the details did not appear publicly before the Court. But I well recollect the observations of the presiding judge in pronouncing sentence-condemning them to some short durance in the county gaol. His lordship said, that he felt assured the parties then at the bar were actuated by no bad motives; but their conduct was in direct contravention of the law in taking such an extreme, and what must have been to them an exceedingly irksome course, particularly when it was considered the deceased was their own relative. Still the law had been violated, the act was an illegal one, and came under the head of manslaughter. They had unlawfully taken the life of a fellow-creature, although with a merciful intent, and, no doubt, without malice, yet he was bound to tell them, that by that act they had made themselves as much amenable to the offended law as if they had caused death by a quarrel or any other means.

No doubt there have been many such cases. I have heard of one or two, upon authority I have no hesitation in believing, but never knew of any sufficiently authenticated as the one here noticed; nor, indeed, any case of the kind except itself, being made the subject of judicial inquiry.

DISPUTATIVE AUTHORITIES ON CHRIST'S NATIVITY. SINCE I forwarded the article, Current Notes, vol. iv. p. 19, I find, in Gregorii Posthuma, edit. 1649, 4to. quotations on both sides of the question, "Era Christi Nati." Those for the uncertainty of the date are the following, as noted by that writer:

The Alexandrian, and therefore the Ethiopian and Armenian churches, deliver that our Saviour was born on the 6th of Januarie, the same day he was baptized;-the bishop of Middleburgh, setteth down our Saviour born in April;-Bernaldus thinketh hee was born about the beginning of October;-Calvisius about the end of September.

These different opinions concerning the time of our Saviour's nativity, are probably owing to this circumstance, that various zodiacs were referred to, on the calculation of his birth, and wrong signs fixed upon, for the event.

The Chinese Kiang Leou, the western name of the sign Capricorn, when translated literally, is "the perfection or certainty of the promise concerning the coming forth of the Himself from the womb of the woman. The term, "Western Zodiacs" may refer to the Hindoo and Egyptian, beginning with Aries; the Chinese, like our own begins with Aquarius.

In the Western Zodiacs, Virgo or August's head, is under the tail of Leo, or July; and her feet are in Libra, or September. Collate also with Genesis xlix. 10, and Ezekiel xvi. 25. In the Egyptian Zodiac (the Dendera ceiling) a virgin is on the lion's tail; and immediately behind the tail is Virgo, or Isis, with the spike in her hand, and followed by the Balance. Leo is, without doubt, typical of the Messiah. In Cuper's Harpocrates, p. 3, it is said, "Isis, cum se sentiret gravidam, appendisse sibi phylacterium, sexta die mensis Paopi (or September), et peperisse circa solstitium hybernum." The bishop's supposition seems to refer to "sentiret gravidam;" to Taurus, nine signs from Capricorn.

Capricorn is in December, and enters January; and in the Dendera ceiling the spiritual man is on the back of Capricorn.

I know not what to conclude respecting October, unless it may refer to the first appearing of the star Spica Virginis, or Chetra, to the Magi, when she assumed her brilliant corona for that purpose. Chetra will signify "gathering together for a journey."

After all, the truth is, although there have been many asserted supposed and marvellous "cures" for this dreadful malady, none have ever been established. We have in this part of Ireland a fraternity of “ professional gentlemen" called "country doctors," who pretend to be possessed of the faculty of curing hydrophobia, notwithstanding one of them never saw a Materia Medica in the whole course of his life. One of them lately resided in this neighbourhood, and it was his wont to boast that "he never failed in curing the bite of a mad dog." This I could well believe, simply because I do not think any such case ever came Now, if we refer to the Hindoo Zodiac, Asiatic Rewithin his "professional experience." That he may searches, vol. ii. p. 303, we find Virgo (Chinese Sse have cured the wounds caused by the bite of dogs Kong, or Ky Kong Virgo; literally, the house of supposed to have been in a rabid state, but not proved the woman herself) accompanied by such marks as as such, is a matter on which any person can feel satis-show that she should at the stated time bring first the fied, still as to the successfully treating a case of hydrophobia that is quite another thing, and which, up to the present time, I believe, has baffled alike science and every effort of medical skill. Recorder Office, Downpatrick.

JAMES A. PILSON.

Messiah, the Triune God. These marks may have been considered by some of the ancients, as pointing out the month when the Messiah should be born. These various opinions remind me of the walnuts in the dream of Valid Hasen, in the New Arabian Nights. For the other side of the question we may quote Gregory's own words:

How much better had it been for these men to content themselves with the tradition of the church, than by this elaborate unfruitful search to entangle the truth.

The religion of this 25th daie, though Scaliger say it, 'non est nupera neque novitia,' 'tis Apostolical by the Constitutions of Clement, etc.

Nor doth Chrysostom's Oration, Antiquit. lib. ii.; saie much less. The Catholicus Armeniorum in Theorinus dialogue makes this good by ancient monuments brought from Jerusalem to Rome, by Titus Vespasian; or if this authoritie could be rendered suspicious, wee cannot elude the Persian Ephemeris, nor the astronomical tables of Alcas, in both of which our Saviour is set down as born on the

25th of December.

Southwick Vicarage, April 3.

T. R. BROWN.

SUPPLEMENT TO TODD'S JOHNSON'S DICTIONARY. FOR nearly ten years I had been gradually accumulating (chiefly from English works of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries) an extensive series of philological materials, that appeared to be of a character essentially required to the completion of a Dictionary formed on the most excellent basis of Johnson, and supplementary to the valuable additions of Todd, when the announcement that an enlarged publication of the edition of the latter compelled me, either to abandon altogether the hope of making any use of the results of my labours, to print them separately, or to immerge them into the preparations for the new work. The last alternative having been abandoned, and not being willing that so large a collection illustrative of the language should be lost. there only remains the choice of forming a separate publication.

This course merely involves the necessity of the slightest possible labour, my series of upwards of eight thousand entirely new examples not only being indicated, but absolutely ready for the press, the greater portion having been cut out of original editions of black letter and early books at a considerable expense. It is unnecessary to observe, that printing from such extracts will all but preclude the possibility of error, and with the smallest care, will enable me to attain an accuracy unapproachable by any other method. What the public and the practical student require, is not the curious and often uncertain research into the history of words, but evidence respecting their use, derived from writers who are of authority as to that use, at a period when they are most usually met with, and plain, sensible definitions obtained from such authorities. In this conviction, Dr. Johnson, whom I honestly believe to be unequalled as a lexicographer, must to a great extent have worked; and any large additions to his great work, compiled in that spirit, cannot but be aoceptable and useful to the student.

This Supplement, nearly ready for the press, will be printed in one volume quarto, to range with Todd's edition, and with Richardson's Dictionary.

J. O. HALLIWELL.

Avenue Lodge, Brixton Hill, Surrey.

M. GUIZOT AND THE EIKON BASILIKÈ. If my memory is not at fault, you have already, in former Nos. of the Current Notes, given a place to remarks on the claim that Charles I., has to be regarded as the author of the "Eikon Basilikè."

The object of this note is not to discuss the merits or demerits of either side of the question-that has been done more than once with uncommon ability; it is only to make your readers acquainted with the judgment of an authority so competent to pronounce verdict on the question at issue, that I am inclined to believe, it will be held to be decisive of the point.

This judgment is pronounced by M. Guizot in a recent work, "The History of Oliver Cromwell and the English Commonwealth;" but this is not the only occasion on which he has given an opinion against the King's claim. In his "Etudes Biographiques sur la Révolution d'Angleterre," he has a separate treatise on the authenticity of the "Eikon Basilikè;" but it is from the more recent work only that I send the following for insertion in the next number of your interesting Notes.

It is to the "Eikon Basilikè" that Charles I. is principally indebted for the name of the Royal Martyr. The work is not by him; external testimony and internal evidence both combine to remove all doubt on the matter. Dr. Gauden, Bishop, first of Exeter and afterwards of Worcester, under the reign of Charles II., was its real author, but the manuscript had probably been perused and approved, perhaps even corrected, by Charles himself during his residence in the Isle of Wight. In any case it was the real expression and true portraiture of his position, character, and mind, as they had been formed by misfortune; it is remarkable for an elevation of thought which is at once natural and strained; a constant mingling of blind royal pride and sincere Christian humility; heart-impulses struggling against habits of obstinate self-consciousness; true piety in the midst of misguided conduct; invincible, though somewhat inert devotion to his faith, his honour, and his rank; and as all these sentiments are expressed in monotonous language, which, though often emphatic, is always grave, tranquil, and even unctuous with serenity and sadness; it is not surprising that such a work should have profoundly affected all royalist hearts, and easily persuaded them that it was the King himself who addressed

them.-Vol. i. p. 31.

It may be interesting and satisfactory to know that M. Guizot's view coincides with that of our own Hallam, whose authority on all the moot points of the history of literature no one will be disposed to question. Todd also, who has made a careful analysis of the style of the Eikon and that of Dr. Gauden, has detected several phrases which appear to him to settle the authorship conclusively upon the Bishop of Worcester.

J. W.

AUT CLAES]ZAR AUT NULLUS, the new motto adopted by the righteous Nicholas, Emperor of All the Russias, has excited universal admiration; and the omission of all allusion to the aes, or brass, by which it has been assumed, is indeed a master-stroke of Imperial policy.

« PreviousContinue »