Kitabı oxu: «Notes and Queries, Number 02, November 10, 1849», səhifə 5
MACAULAY'S "YOUNG LEVITE."
Sir,—The following passage from the Anatomy of Melancholy, published 1651, struck me as a curious corroboration of the passage in Mr. Macaulay's History which describes the "young Levite's" position in society during the seventeenth century; and as chance lately threw in my way the work from which Burton took his illustration, I take the liberty of submitting Notes of both for your examination.
"If he be a trencher chaplain in a gentleman's house (as it befel Euphormio), after some seven years' service he may perchance have a living to the halves, or some small rectory, with the mother of the maids at length, a poor kinswoman, or a crackt chambermaid, to have and to hold during the time of his life."—Burton, Anat. of Mel. part i. sect. 2. mem. 3. subsect 15.
Burton is here referrng to the Euphormionis Lusinini Satyricon, published anno 1617. It professes to be a satire, or rather A FURIOUS INVECTIVE, on the corrupt manners of the times, and is in four parts: the 1st is dedicated to King James I.; the 2nd to Robert Cecil; the 3rd to Charles Emmanuel of Savoy; the 4th to Louis XIII., King of France.
The use that Burton makes of the name of Euphormio is any thing but happy. He was not a "trencher chaplain" but the slave of a rich debauchée, Callion, sent in company with another slave, Percas, to carry some all-potent nostrum to Fibullius, a friend of Callion, who was suffering from an attack of stone. Euphormio cures Fibullius, not by the drug with which he was armed, but by a herb, which he sought for and found on a mountain. Fibullius, to reward his benefactor, offers him as a wife a most beautiful girl, whom he introduces to him privately while in his sick room. Euphormio looks with no little suspicion on the offer; but, after a few excuses, which are overruled by Fibullius, accepts the lady as his betrothed, "seals the bargain with a holy kiss," and walks out of the room (to use his own words) "et sponsus, et quod nesciebam—Pater," page 100. The next mention of this lady [evidently the prototype of the "crackt chambermaid,"] is in page 138. Callion had paid his sick friend Fibullius a visit, and, on the eve of his departure, had ordered Euphormio to ride post before him, and prepare the inhabitants of the districts through which he was to pass for his arrival. While Euphormio is on the horseblock in the act of mounting his steed, a rustic brings him a letter from Fibullius, and in conversation gives him such an account of his bride as forces upon him the reflection, that even the grim Libitina would be preferable, as a bride, to so confirmed a Thais, so fruitful a partner, as the protegée of Fibullius would be likely to prove. But, as these notes have, in spite of all my attempts at condensation, already grown to a most formidable size, I will not indulge in any moral reflections; but conclude by querying you, or any of your readers, to inform me whether the personages mentioned in the Euphorm. Lus. Satyricon, such as Callion, Pereas, Fibullius, &c., are real characters or not? as, in the former case, I am inclined to think that the work might throw some interesting lights on the private manners and characters of some of the courtiers of the day. "No scandal against any of the maids of honour"—of course. The phrase "To the halves" (in the quotation from Burton) means, inadequate, insufficient; we still talk of "half and half" measures. Montanus inveighs against such "perturbations, that purge to the halves, tire nature, and molest the body to no purpose."—Burton, Anat. of Mel., part. ii. sect. 2. mem. 4. subsect. 6.
MELANION.
[The work referred to by our correspondent was written by Barclay, better known as the author of the Argenis. The First Part of the Satyricon, dedicated to James the First, was published, London, 12mo. 1603; and with the addition of the 2nd Part, Paris, 1605. The best edition of the work (which, really in two parts, is made, by the addition of the Apologia Euphormionis, &c. sometimes into five) is said to be the Elzevir 12mo., 1637. There are two editions of it cum notis variorum, Leyden, 1667 and 1669, 8vo., in two volumes. Of some of the editions (as that of 1623, 12mo.) it is said, "adjecta Clavi sive obscurorum et quasi ænigmaticorum nominum, in hoc Opere passim occurrentium, dilucida explicatione." The Satyricon was twice translated into French; and its literary history, and that of the Censura Euphormionis, and other tracts, which it called forth, might furnish a curious and amusing paper.]
SERMONES SANCTI CAROLI BORROMÆI
Sir,—I have been wanting to get a sight of the following work, "Sermones Sancti Caroli Borromæi, Archiepisc. Mediol. Edidit. J.A. Saxius. 5 Tom. Mediol. 1747." Can I learn through your columns whether the work is any where accessible in London? I sought for it in vain at the British Museum a twelvemonth ago; nor, though then placed in their list of Libri desiderati, has it yet been procured.
C. F. SECRETAN.
LUTHER AND ERASMUS
Mr. Editor,—The following lines, written in a hand of the early part of the seventeenth century, occur on the fly-leaf of a copy of the Translation of Luther on the Galatians, edit. London, 4to. 1577. Can any of your readers oblige me by informing me who was their author?
"Parum Lutherus ac Erasmus differunt
Serpens uterque est, plenus atro toxico;
Sed ille mordet ut cerastes in via,
Hic fraudulentus mordet in silentio."
Your obedient servant,
ROTERODAMUS.
TOWER ROYAL—CONSTITUTION HILL—COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE'S LETTER—TENNISON'S FUNERAL SERMON ON NELL GWYNNE
Sir,—I should be glad to obtain answers to any or all of the following Queries:—
1. What is the origin of the name TOWER ROYAL, as applied to a London locality, and when did our kings (if they ever inhabited it) cease to inhabit it?
2. When was CONSTITUTION HILL first so called, and why?
3. Is there any contemporary copy of the celebrated letter said to have been written by Anne Pembroke, Dorset and Montgomery, to Sir Joseph Williamson? It first appeared in The World.
4. Does a copy exist in MS., or in print, of the sermon which Archbishop Tennison preached at the funeral of Nell Gwynne?
PETER CUNNINGHAM.
GROG—BISHOP BARNABY
Mr. Editor,—I hope you intend to keep a corner for Etymologies.
Query, the origin of the word "Grog?"—And why do the people in Suffolk call a ladybird "Bishop Barnaby?"
If you can enlighten me upon either of these points, I shall feel encouraged to try again.
Yours, &c.
LEGOUR.
NOTES FROM FLY-LEAVES, NO. II
DR. FARMER ON DRAYTON'S WORKS
The following bibliographical memoranda, in the well-known hand of Dr. Farmer, occur in a copy of the edition of Drayton's Poems published in 1619, in small folio, by John Smethwick, which contains "The Barons' Wars; England's Heroical Epistles; Idea; Odes; The Legends of Robert Duke of Normandie, Matilda, Pierce Gaveston, and Great Cromwell; The Owle; and Pastorals, containing Eglogues, with the Man in the Moone."
They may be of use to some future editor of Drayton, an author now undeservedly neglected, whose Nymphidia alone might tempt the tasteful publisher of the "Aldine Poets" to include a selection, at least, of his poems in that beautiful series:—
"The works of Michael Drayton, Esq., were reprinted in folio, 1748. The title-page 'promises all the writings of that celebrated author,' but his Pastorals (p.433. &c., first published imperfectly in 4to. 1593) and many other of his most considerable compositions (Odes, the Owle, &c., see the Appendix), are not so much as spoken of. See his article in the Biog. Brit. by Mr. Oldys, curiously and accurately written.
"Another edition (which is called the best) was printed in 4 vols. 8vo. 1753. Robson, 1765.
"A Poem Triumphant, composed for the Society of the Goldsmiths of London, by M. Drayton. 4to. 1604. Harl. Cat. v.3. p. 357.
"Charles Coffey was the editor of the folio edit. 1748, he had a large< subscription for it, but died before the publication; and it was afterward printed for the benefit of his widow. See Mottley, p. 201.
"The print of Drayton at the back of the title-page, is marked in Thane's Catalogue, 1774, 7s. 6d.
"N.B. The copy of the Baron's Warres in this edition differs in almost every line from that in the 8vo. edit. 1610.
"It was printed under the title of Mortimeriados, in 7 line stanzaes.
"Matilda was first printed 1594, 4to., by Val. Simmes. Gaveston appears by the Pref. to have been publish't before. Almost every line in the old 4to. of Matilda differs from the copy in this edit. A stanza celebrating Shakespeare's Lucrece is omitted in the later edition.
"Idea. The Shepherd's Garland. Fashion'd in 9 Eglogs. Rowland's sacrifice to the 9 Muses, 4to. 1593. But they are printed in this Edition very different from the present Pastorals.
"A sonnet of Drayton's prefixed to the 2nd Part of Munday's Primaleon of Greece, B.L. 4to. 1619."
[The stanza in Matilda, celebrating Shakespeare's Lucrece, to which Dr. Farmer alludes, is thus quoted by Mr. Collier in his edition of Shakespeare (viii. p. 411.):—
"Lucrece, of whom proud Rome hath boasted long,
Lately revived to live another age,
And here arrived to tell of Tarquin's wrong,
Her chaste denial, and the tyrant's rage,
Acting her passions on our stately stage:
She is remember'd, all forgetting me,
Yet I as fair and chaste as e'er was she;"—
who remarks upon it as follows:—
"A difficulty here may arise out of the fifth line, as if Drayton was referring to a play upon the story of Lucrece, and it is very possible that one was then in existence. Thomas Heywood's tragedy, The Rape of Lucrece, did not appear in print until 1608, and he could hardly have been old enough to have been the author of such a drama in 1594; he may, nevertheless, have availed himself of an elder play, and, according to the practice of the time, he may have felt warranted in publishing it as his own. It is likely, however, that Drayton's expressions are not to be taken literally; and that his meaning merely was, that the story of Lucrece had lately been revived, and brought upon the stage of the world: if this opinion be correct, the stanza we have quoted above contains a clear allusion to Shakespeare's Lucrece; and a question then presents itself, why Drayton entirely omitted it in the after-impression of his Matilda. He was a poet who, as we have shown in the Introduction to Julius Cæsar (vol. viii. p. 4.), was in the habit of making extensive alterations in his productions, as they were severally reprinted, and the suppression of this stanza may have proceeded from many other causes than repentance of the praise he had bestowed upon a rival."]
