Notes and Queries, Number 52, October 26, 1850

ADDRESS TO OUR FRIENDS

We this day publish our fifty-second Number. Every Saturday, for twelve months, have we presented to our subscribers our weekly budget of "Notes," "Queries," and "Replies;" and in so doing, we trust, we have accomplished some important ends. We have both amused and instructed the general reader; we have stored up much curious knowledge for the use of future writers; we have procured for scholars now engaged in works of learning and research, many valuable pieces of information which had evaded their own immediate pursuit; and, lastly, in doing all this, we have powerfully helped forward the great cause of literary truth.

In our Prospectus and opening address we made no great promise of what our paper should be. That, we knew, must depend upon how far the medium of intercommunication we had prepared should be approved and adopted by those for whose special use it had been projected. We laid down a literary railway: it remained to be seen whether the world of letters would travel by it. They have done so: we have been especially patronised by first-class passengers, and in such numbers that we were obliged last week to run an extra train.

It is obvious that the use of a paper like "Notes and Queries" bears a direct proportion to the extent of its circulation. What it aims at doing is, to reach the learning which lies scattered not only throughout every part of our own country, but all over the literary world, and to bring it all to bear upon the pursuits of the scholar; to enable, in short, men of letters all over the world to give a helping hand to one another. To a certain extent, we have accomplished this end. Our last number contains communications not only from all parts of the metropolis, and from almost every county in England, but also from Scotland, Ireland, Holland, and even from Demerara. This looks well. It seems as if we were in a fair way to accomplish our design. But much yet remains to be done. We have recently been told of whole districts in England so benighted as never to have heard of "Notes and Queries;" and after an interesting question has been discussed for weeks in our columns, we are informed of some one who could have answered it immediately if he had seen it. So long as this is the case the advantage we may confer upon literature and literary men is necessarily imperfect. We do what we can to make known our existence through the customary modes of announcement, and we gratefully acknowledge the kind assistance and encouragement we derive from our brethren of the public press; but we would respectfully solicit the assistance of our friends this particular point. Our purpose is aided, and our usefulness increased by every introduction which can be given to our paper, either to a Book Club, to a Lending Library, or to any other channel of circulation amongst persons of inquiry and intelligence. By such introductions scholars help themselves as well as us, for there is no inquirer throughout the kingdom who is not occasionally able to throw light upon some of the multifarious objects which are discussed in our pages.

At the end of our first twelvemonth we thank our subscribers for the patronage we have received. We trust we shall go on week by week improving in our work of usefulness, so that at the end of the next twelvemonth we may meet them with the same pleasure as on the present occasion. We will continue to do whatever is in our power, and we rely upon our friends to help us.

SHAKSPEARE'S USE OF THE WORDS "CAPTIOUS" AND "INTENIBLE."

In the following passage of All's Well that Ends Well, Act i. Sc. 3., where Helena is confessing to Bertram's mother, the Countess, her love for him, these two words occur in an unusual sense, if not in a sense peculiar to the great poet:—

Johnson was perplexed about the word captious; "which (says he) I never found in this sense, yet I cannot tell what to substitute, unless carious for rotten!" Farmer supposed captious to be a contraction of capacious! Steevens believed that captious meant recipient, capable of receiving; which interpretation Malone adopts. Mr. Collier, in his recent edition of Shakspeare, after stating Johnson's and Farmer's suggestions, says, "where is the difficulty? It is true that this sense of captious may not have an exact parallel; but the intention of Shakspeare is very evident: captious means, as Malone says, capable of taking or receiving; and intenible (printed intemible in the first folio, and rightly in the second) incapable of retaining. Two more appropriate epithets could hardly be found, and a simile more happily expressive."

We no doubt all know, by intuition as it were, what Shakspeare meant; but "the great master of English," as Mr. Hickson very justly calls him, would never have used captious, as applied figuratively to a sieve, for capable of taking or receiving.

Intenible, notwithstanding the hypercriticism of Mr. Nares (that "it is incorrectly used by Shakspeare for unable to hold;" and that "it should properly mean not to be held, as we now use untenable") was undoubtedly used in the former sense, and it was most probably so accepted in the poet's time; for in the Glossagraphia Anglicana Nova, 1719, we have "Untenable, that will not or cannot hold or be holden long."

With regard to captious, it is not so much a matter of surprise that none of all these learned commentators should fail in their guesses at the meaning, as that none of them should have remarked that the sense of the Latin captiosus, and of its congeners in Italian and old French, is deceitful, fallacious; and Bacon uses the word for insidious, ensnaring. There can be no doubt that this is the sense in which Shakspeare used it. Helen speaks of her hopeless love for Bertram, and says:

"I know I love in vain, strive against hope; yet in this fallacious and unholding sieve I still pour in the waters of my love, and fail not to lose still."

When we speak of a captious person, do we mean one capable of taking or receiving? Then how much more absurd would it be to take it in that impossible sense, when figuratively applied in the passage before us! Bertram shows himself incapable of receiving Helena's love: he is truly captious in that respect.

In French the word captieux, according to the Academy, is only applied to language, though we may say un homme captieux to signify a man who has the art of deceiving or leading into error by captious language.

It is not impossible that the poet may have had in his mind the fruitless labour imposed upon the Danaïdes as a punishment, for it has been thus moralised:

"These virgins, who in the flower of their age pour water into pierced vessels which they can never fill, what is it but to be always bestowing over love and benefits upon the ungrateful."

Mickleham, Oct. 4. 1850.

ORATORIES OF THE NONJURORS

As the nooks and corners of London in olden times are now engaging the quiet musings of most of the topographical brotherhood, perhaps you can spare a nook or a corner of your valuable periodical for a few notes on the Oratories of those good men and true—the Nonjurors. "These were honourable men in their generation," and were made of most unbending materials.

On the Feast of St. Matthias, Feb. 24, 1693, the consecrations of Dr. George Hickes and Thomas Wagstaffe were solemnly performed according to the rites of the Church of England, by Dr. William Lloyd, bishop of Norwich; Dr. Francis Turner, bishop of Ely; and Dr. Thomas White, bishop of Peterborough, at the Bishop of Peterborough's lodgings, at the Rev. William Giffard's house at Southgate in Middlesex: Dr. Ken, bishop of Bath and Wells, giving his consent.

Henry Hall was consecrated bishop in the oratory of the Rev. Father in Christ, John B– [Blackburne?], in Gray's Inn, on the festival of St. Barnabas, June 11, 1725.

Hilkiah Bedford was consecrated in the oratory of the Rev. R– R– [Richard Rawlinson], in Gray's Inn, on the festival of St. Paul, Jan. 25, 1720. Ralph Taylor was also consecrated at the same time and place.

Henry Gandy was consecrated at his oratory in the parish of St. Andrew's, Holborn, on the festival of St. Paul, Jan. 25, 1716.

Grascome was interrupted by a messenger whilst he was ministering to his little congregation in Scroope's Court, near St. Andrew's Church.

Jeremy Collier officiated at Broad Street, London, assisted by the Rev. Samuel Carte, the father of the historian.

Mr. Hawkes officiated for some time at his own house opposite to St. James' Palace.

On Easter-day, April 13, 1718, at the oratory of his brother, Mr. William Lee, dyer, in Spitalfields, Dr. Francis Lee read a touching and beautiful declaration of his faith, betwixt the reading of the sentences at the offertory and the prayer for the state of Christ's church. It was addressed to the Rev. James Daillon, Count de Lude, then officiating.

Charles Wheatly, author of A Rational Illustration of the Book of Common Prayer, in a letter to Dr. Rawlinson, the nonjuring titular bishop of London, says:

"I believe most of the books in Mr. Laurence's catalogue were really in his library. Most of his chapel furniture I had seen; but his pix, and his cruet, his box for unguent, and oil, I suppose you do not inquire after."

Roger Laurence was the learned author of Lay Baptism Invalid. Query, Where did he officiate?

The Rev. John Lindsay, the translator of Mason's Vindication of the Church of England, for many years officiated as minister of a nonjuring congregation in Trinity Chapel, Aldersgate Street, and is said to have been their last minister.

Thoresby, in his Diary, May 18, 1714, says, "I visited Mr. Nelson (author of the Fasts and Festivals), and the learned Dr. George Hickes, who not being at liberty for half an hour, I had the benefit of the prayers in the adjoining church, and when the Nonjuring Conventicle was over, I visited the said Dean Hickes, who is said to be bishop of –" [Thetford]. Both Nelson and Hickes resided at this time in Ormond Street; probably the conventicle was at one of their houses. It should be noted that Thoresby, having quitted the Conventicles of the Dissenters, had only recently joined what he calls the Church established by law. He appears to have known as much about the principles of the Nonjurors as he did of Chinese music.

Dr. Welton's chapel in Goodman's Fields being visited (1717) by Colonel Ellis and other justices of the peace, with proper assistants, about two hundred and fifty persons were found there assembled, of whom but forty would take the oaths. The doctor refusing them also, was ordered to be proceeded against according to law.

This reminds me of another Query. What has become of Dr. Welton's famous Whitechapel altar-piece, which Bishop Compton drove out of his church. Some doubts have been expressed whether that is the identical one in the Saint's Chapel of St. Alban's Abbey. A friend has assured the writer that he had seen it about twenty years ago, at a Roman Catholic meeting-house in an obscure court at Greenwich. It is not there now. The print of it in the library of the Society of Antiquaries is accompanied with these MS. lines by Mr. Mattaire:—

One word more. The episcopal seal of the nonjuring bishops was a shepherd with a sheep upon his shoulders. The crozier which had been used by them, was, in 1839, in the possession of John Crossley Esq., of Scaitcliffe, near Todmorden.

Hoxton.

HOGARTH'S ILLUSTRATIONS OF HUDIBRAS

"Butler's Hudibras, by Zach. Grey, LL.D. 2 vols. 8vo. Cambridge, 1744.

"Best edition. Copies in fine condition are in considerable request. The cuts are beautifully engraved, and Hogarth is much indebted to the designer of them; but who he was does not appear."

The above remarks in Lowndes's Bibliographical Manual having caught my attention, they appeared to me somewhat obscure and contradictory; and as they seemed rather disparaging to the fame of Hogarth, of whose works and genius I am a warm admirer, I have taken some pains to ascertain what may have been Mr. Lowndes's meaning.

On examining the plates in Dr. Grey's edition, they are all inscribed "W. Hogarth invt, J. Mynde sct." How, then, can Hogarth be said to be much indebted to the designer of them, if we are to believe the words on the plates themselves—"W. Hogarth invt"?

It is clear that Mr. Lowndes supposes the designer of these plates to have been some person distinct from Hogarth; and he was right in his conjecture; but he was ignorant of the name of the artist alluded to.

Whoever he was, he can have little claim to be regarded as the original designer; he was rather employed as an expurgator; for these plates are certainly copies of the two sets of plates invented and engraved by Hogarth himself in 1726.

All that this second designer performed was, to revise the original designs of Hogarth's, in order to remove some glaring indecencies; and this, no doubt, is what Mr. Lowndes means, when he says that "Hogarth is much indebted to the designer of them."

The following passage in a letter from Dr. Ducaral to Dr. Grey, dated Inner Temple, May 10th, 1743, printed In Nichols's Illustrations, will furnish us with the name of the artist in question:—

"I was at Mr. Isaac Wood's the painter, who showed me the twelve sketches of Hudibras, which he designs for you. I think they are extremely well adapted to the book, and that the designer shows how much he was master of the subject."

In the preface to this edition, Dr. Grey expresses his obligations "to the ingenious Mr. Wood, painter, of Bloomsbury-square."

In the fourth volume of Nichols's Illustrations of Literature are some interesting letters from Thos. Potter, Esq., to Dr. Grey, which throw much light on the subject of this edition of Hudibras.

I cannot conclude these observations without expressing my dissent from the praise bestowed upon the engravings in this work. Mr. Lowndes says "the cuts are beautifully engraved." With the exception of the head of Butler by Vertue, the rest are very spiritless and indifferent productions.

FOLK LORE

Overyssel Superstition.—Stolen bees will not thrive; they pine away and die.

Death-bed Superstitions.—When a child is dying, people, in some parts of Holland, are accustomed to shade it by the curtains from the parent's gaze; the soul being supposed to linger in the body as long as a compassionate eye is fixed upon it. Thus, in Germany, he who sheds tears when leaning over an expiring friend, or, bending over the patient's couch, does but wipe them off, enhances, they say, the difficulty of death's last struggle. I believe the same poetical superstition is recorded in Mary Barton, a Tale of Manchester Life.

Popular Rhyme.—The following lines very forcibly express the condition of many a "country milkmaid," when influence or other considerations render her incapable of giving a final decision upon the claims of two opposing suitors. They are well known in this district, and I have been induced to offer them for insertion, in the hope that if any of your correspondents are possessed of any variations or additional stanzas, they may be pleased to forward them to your interesting publication.

Burnley, Lancashire

Death-bed Mystery.—It may, perhaps, interest Mr. Sansom to be informed that the appearance described to him is mentioned as a known fact in one of the works of the celebrated mystic, Jacob Behmen, The Three Principles, chap. 19. "Of the going forth of the Soul." I extract from J. Sparrow's translations., London, 1648.

"Seeing then that Man is so very earthly, therefore he hath none but earthly knowledge, except he be regenerated in the Gate of Deep. He always supposeth that the Soul (at the deceasing of the Body) goeth only out at the Mouth, and he understandeth nothing concerning its deep Essences above the Elements. When he seeth a blue Vapor go forth out of the Mouth of a dying Man (which maketh a strong smell all over the chamber), then he supposeth that is the Soul."

Bradshaw Family.—There is a popular belief in this immediate part of the country, which was formerly a stronghold of the Jacobites, that no Bradshaw has ever flourished since the days of the regicide. They point to old halls formerly in possession of Bradshaws, now passed into other hands, and shake their heads and say, "It is a bad name,—no Bradshaw will come to good." I heard this speech only yesterday in connexion with Halton Hall (on the Lune); but the feeling is common, and not confined to the uneducated classes.

Haigh Hall remains in the possession of the descendants of the family from which Judge Bradshaw was descended, because, so said my informant, the heiress married a "loyal Lindsay" (the Earl of Balcarras).

Lancaster.

ADVICE TO THE EDITOR, AND HINTS TO HIS CONTRIBUTORS

My signature Σ. having been adopted by another correspondent, I have been obliged to discontinue it.

My other signature Φ., which I have used since your commencement, is in your last number applied to the contribution of another gentleman, although the same number contains two articles of mine with that signature.

As this is palpably inconvenient, pray accept the following