Various
Notes and Queries, Number 182, April 23, 1853 / A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc

Notes

POETICAL EPITHETS OF THE NIGHTINGALE

Having lately been making some research among our British poets, as to the character of the nightingale's song, I was much struck with the great quantity and diversity of epithets that I found applied to the bird. The difference of opinion that has existed with regard to the quality of its song, has of course led the poetical adherents of either side to couple the nightingale's name with that very great variety of adjectives which I shall presently set down in a tabular form, with the names of the poetical sponsors attached thereto. And, in making this the subject of a Note, I am only opening up an old Query; for the character of the nightingale's song has often been a matter for discussion, not only for poets and scribblers, but even for great statesmen like Fox, who, amid all the anxieties of a political life, could yet find time to defend the nightingale from being a "most musical, most melancholy" bird.

Coleridge's onslaught upon this line, in his poem of "The Nightingale," must be well known to all lovers of poetry; and his re-christening of the bird by that epithet which Chaucer had before given it:

"'Tis the merry nightingale,
That crowds, and hurries, and precipitates,
With fast thick warble, his delicious notes,
As he were fearful that an April night
Would be too short for him to utter forth
His love-chant, and disburthen his full soul
Of all its music!"

The fable of the nightingale's origin would, of course, in classical times, give the character of melancholy to its song; and it is rather remarkable that Æschylus makes Cassandra speak of the happy chirp of the nightingale, and the Chorus to remark upon this as a further proof of her insanity. (Shakspeare makes Edgar say, "The foul fiend haunted poor Tom in the voice of a nightingale."—King Lear, Act III. Sc. 6.)

Tennyson seems to be almost the only poet who has thoroughly recognised the great variety of epithets that may be applied to the nightingale's song, through the very opposite feelings which it seems to possess the power to awaken. In his Recollections of the Arabian Nights, he says,—

"The living airs of middle night
Died round the Bulbul as he sung;
Not he; but something which possess'd
The darkness of the world, delight,
Life, anguish, death, immortal love,
Ceasing not, mingled, unrepress'd,
Apart from place, withholding time."

Again, in the In Memoriam:

"Wild bird! whose warble, liquid, sweet,
Rings Eden through the budded quicks,
Oh, tell me where the senses mix,
Oh, tell me where the passions meet,

"Whence radiate? Fierce extremes employ
Thy spirit in the dusking leaf,
And in the midmost heart of grief
Thy passion clasps a secret joy."

With which compare these lines in The Gardener's Daughter:

"Yet might I tell of meetings, of farewells,—
Of that which came between, more sweet than each,
In whispers, like the whispers of the leaves
That tremble round a nightingale—in sighs
Which perfect Joy, perplexed for utterance,
Stole from her sister Sorrow."

But the most singular proof that, I think, I have met with, concerning the diversity of opinion touching the song of the nightingale, is to be found in the following example. When Shelley (Prometheus Unbound) is describing the luxurious pleasures of the Grove of Daphne, he mentions (in some of the finest lines he has ever written) "the voluptuous nightingales, sick with sweet love," to be among the great attractions of the place: while Dean Milman (Martyrs of Antioch), in describing the very same "dim, licentious Daphne," is particular in mention that everything there

"Ministers
Voluptuous to man's transgressions"

(even including the "winds, and flowers, and waters"); everything, in short,

"Save thou, sweet nightingale!"

The question is indeed a case of "fierce extremes," as we may see by the following table of epithets, which are taken from the British poets only:

Amorous. Milton.

Artless. Drummond of Hawthornden.

Attick ("Attica aedon"). Gray.

Beautiful. Mackay.

Charmer. Michael Drayton, Philip Ayres.

Charming. Sir Roger L'Estrange.

Cheerful. Philip Ayres.

Complaining. Shakspeare.

Conqueror. Ford

Dainty. Carshaw, Giles Fletcher.

Darkling. Milton.

Dear. Ben Jonson, Drummond of Hawthornden.

Deep. Mrs. Hemans.

Delicious. Crashaw, Coleridge.

Doleful. Shakspeare.

Dusk. Barry Cornwall.

Enchanting. Mrs. T. Welsh.

Enthusiast. Crashaw.

Evening. Chaucer.

Ever-varying. Wordsworth.

Fervent. Mrs. Hemans.

Fond. Moore.

Forlorn. Shakspeare, Darwin, Hood.

Full-hearted. Author of The Naiad (1816).

Full-throated. Keats.

Gentle. The Spanish Tragedy, Dunbar (Laureate to James IV. Scot.), Mrs Charlotte Smith.

Good. Chaucer, Ben Jonson.

Gushing. Campbell.

Hapless. Milton.

Happy. Keats, Mackay.

Harmless. Crashaw, Browne.

Harmonious. Browne.

Heavenly. ¹ Chaucer, Dryden, Wordsworth.

Holy. Campbell.

Hopeful. Crashaw.

Immortal. Keats.

Joyful. Moore.

Joyous. Keble.

Lamenting. Shakspeare, Michael Drayton, Drummond of Hawthornden.

Light-foot. Crashaw.

Light-winged. Keats.

Liquid. Milton, Bishop Heber, Tennyson.

Listening. Crashaw, Thomson.

Little. James I. Scot., Philip Ayres, Crashaw.

Lone. Beattie, Mrs. Hemans, Miss London, Mrs. Fanny Kemble, Milman.

Lonely. Countess of Winchilsea (1715), Barry Cornwall.

Loud. Shelley.

Loved. Mason.

Lovely. Bloomfield.

Love-lorn. Milton, Scott, Collins.

Lowly. Mrs. Thompson.

Lusty. Chaucer.

Melancholy. Milton, Milman.

Melodious. Chris. Smart, Ld. Lyttelton, Southey.

Merry. Red Book of Ossory, fourteenth century (quoted in "N. & Q.," Vol. ii., No. 54.), Chaucer, Dunbar, Coleridge.

Minstrel. Mrs. Charlotte Smith.

Modest. Keble.

Mournful. Shakspeare, Theo. Lee, Pope, Lord Thurlow, Byron.

Musical. Milton.

Music-panting. Shelley.

New-abashed. ² Chaucer.

Night-warbling. Milton, Milman.

Pale. Author of Raffaelle and Fornarina (1826).

Panting. Crashaw.

Passionate. Lady E. S. Wortley.

Pensive. Mrs. Charlotte Smith.

Piteous. Ambrose Philips.

Pity-pleading (used ironically). Coleridge.

Plaintive. Lord Lyttelton, Thomson, Keats, Hood.

Pleasant. An old but unknown author, quoted in Todd's Illustrations to Gower and Chaucer, p. 291., ed. 1810.

Poor. Shakspeare, Ford.

Rapt. Hon. Julian Fane (1852).

Ravished. Lilly.

Responsive. Darwin.

Restless. T. Lovell Beddoes (in The Bride's Tragedy, 1822).

Richly-toned. Southey.

Sad. Milton, Giles Fletcher, Drummond of Hawthornden, Graves, Darwin, Collins, Beattie, Byron, Mrs. Hemans, Mrs Fanny Kemble, Hood, T. L. Beddoes.

Shrill. Chaucer, Crashaw.

Silver-sounding. Richard Barnfield.

Single. ³ Southey.

Skilled. Ford.

Sleepless. ⁴ Atherstone.

Sober-suited. Thomson.

Soft. Milton, James I. Scot., Crashaw, Mrs. Charlotte Smith, Byron.

Solemn. Milton, Otway, Graingle.

Sole-sitting. Thomson.

Sorrowing. Shakspeare.

Soul-entrancing. Bishop Heber.

Supple. Crashaw.

Sweet. Chaucer, James I. Scot., Milton, Spenser, Crashaw, Drummond, Richard Barnfield, Ambrose Philips, Shelley, Cowper, Thomson, Young, Darwin, Lord Lyttelton, Mrs. Charlotte Smith, Moore, Coleridge, Wordsworth, L. E. L., Milman, Hood, Tennyson, P. J. Bailey, Kenny, Hon. J. Fane.

Sweetest. Milton, Browne, Thomson, Turnbull, Beattie.

Sweet-voiced. Wither.

Syren. Crashaw.

Tawny. Cary.

Tender. Crashaw, Turnbull.

Thrilling. Hon. Mrs. Wrottesley (1847).

Tuneful. Dyer, Grainger.

Unseen. Byron.

Vaunting. Bloomfield.

Voluptuous. Shelley.

Wakeful. Milton, Coleridge.

Wailing. Miss Landon.

Wandering. Mrs. Charlotte Smith, Hon. Mrs. Wrottesley.

Wanton. Coleridge.

Warbling. Milton, Ford, Chris. Smart, Pope, Smollett, Lord Lyttelton, Jos. Warton, Gray, Cowper.

Welcome. Wordsworth.

Wild. Moore, Tennyson, J. Westwood (1840).

Wise. Waller.

Wondrous. Mrs. Fanny Kemble.

In addition to these 109 epithets, others might be added of a fuller character; such as "Queen of all the quire" (Chaucer), "Night-music's king" (Richard Barnfield, 1549), "Angel of the spring" (Ben Jonson), "Music's best seed-plot" (Crashaw), "Best poet of the grove" (Thomson), "Sweet poet of the woods" (Mrs. Charlotte Smith), "Dryad of the trees" (Keats), "Sappho of the dell" (Hood); but the foregoing list of simple adjectives (which doubtless could be greatly increased by a more extended poetical reading) sufficiently demonstrates the popularity of the nightingale as a poetical embellishment, and would, perhaps, tend to prove that a greater diversity of epithets have been bestowed upon the nightingale than have been given to any other song-bird.

Cuthbert Bede, B.A.

ON A PASSAGE IN OROSIUS

In King Alfred's version of Orosius, book ii. chap. iv. p. 68., Barrington, we have an account of an unsuccessful attempt made by one of Cyrus the Great's officers to swim across a river "mid twam tyncenum," with two tynkens. What was a tyncen? That was the question nearly a hundred years ago, when Barrington was working out his translation; and the only answer to be found then was contained in the great dictionary published by Lye and Manning, but is not found now in Dr. Bosworth's second edition of his Dictionary: "Tynce, a tench."

How the Persian nobleman was to be supported by two little fishes, which were more likely to land their passenger at the bottom of the river than on the opposite bank, we are left to guess. But, before we proceed with the experiment, let us see that we have got the fishes. That tench was in the Gyndis we have no authority for denying; but, if its Anglian or Saxon name was such as the dictionary exhibits, we have no trace of it in the text of Alfred; for under no form of declension, acknowledged in grammar, will tynce ever give tyncenum. We have no need, then, to spend time in calculating the chance of success, when we have not the means of making the experiment.

As either tync or tynce would give tyncum, not tyncenum, the latter must come out of tyncen (query, tynkin or tunkin, a little tun, a barrel, or a cask?). Such was the form in which the question presented itself to my mind, upon my first examination of the passage three or four years ago, but which was given up without sufficient investigation, owing to an impression that if such had been the meaning, it was so simple and obvious that nobody could have missed it.

An emergency, which I need not explain here, has within these few days recalled my attention to the subject; and I have no reason to be ashamed, or to make a secret, of the result.

Tyncen, the diminutive of tunne, is not only a genuine Anglo-Saxon word, but the type of a class, of whose existence in that language no Saxonist, I may say no Teutonist, not even the perspicacious and indefatigable Jacob Grimm himself, seems to be aware. The word is exactly analogous to Ger. tönnchen, from tonne, and proves three things:—1. That our ancestors formed diminutives in cen, as well as their neighbours in ken, kin, chen; 2. That the radical vowel was modified: for y is the umlaut of u; 3. That these properties of the dialect were known to Alfred the Great when he added this curious statement to the narrative of Orosius.

E. Thomson.

NOTES ON SEVERAL MISUNDERSTOOD WORDS

(Continued from p. 376.)

Imperseverant, undiscerning. This word I have never met with but twice,—in Shakspeare's Cymbeline, with the sense above given; and in Bishop Andrewes' Sermon preached before Queen Elizabeth at Hampton Court, A.D. 1594, in the sense of unenduring:

"For the Sodomites are an example of impenitent wilful sinners; and Lot's wife of imperseverant and relapsing righteous persons."—Library of Ang.-Cath. Theology, vol. ii. p. 62.

Perseverant, discerning, and persevers, discerns, occur respectively at pp. 43. and 92. of Hawes's Pastime of Pleasure (Percy Society's edition). The noun substantive perseverance=discernment is as common a word as any of the like length in the English language. To omit the examples that might be cited out of Hawes's Pastime of Pleasure, I will adduce a dozen other instances; and if those should not be enough to justify my assertion, I will undertake to heap together two dozen more. Mr. Dyce, in his Critique of Knight and Collier's Shakspeare, rightly explains the meaning of the word in Cymbeline; and quotes an example of perseverance from The Widow, to which the reader is referred. Mr. Dyce had, however, previously corrupted a passage in his edition of Rob. Greene's Dramatic Works, by substituting, "perceivance" for perseverance, the word in the original quarto of the Pinner of Wakefield, vol. ii. p. 184.:

"Why this is wondrous being blind of sight,
His deep perseuerance should be such to know us."

I subjoin the promised dozen:

"For his dyet he was verie temperate, and a great enemie of excesse and surfetting; and so carelesse of delicates, as though he had had no perseuerance in the tast of meates," &c.—"The Life of Ariosto," Sir John Harington's Translation of Orlando Furioso, p. 418.

"In regarde whereof they are tyed vnto these duties: First by a prudent, diligent, and faithfull care to obserue by what things the state may be most benefited; and to haue perseuerance where such marchandize that the state most vseth and desireth may be had with greatest ease," &c.—The Trauailer, by Thomas Palmer: London, 1606.

"There are certain kinds of frogs in Egypt, about the floud of Nilus, that have this percewerance, that when by chance they happen to come where a fish called Varus is, which is great a murtherer and spoiler of frogs, they use to bear in their mouths overthwart a long reed, which groweth about the banks of Nile; and as this fish doth gape, thinking to feed upon the frog, the reed is so long that by no means he can swallow the frog; and so they save their lives."—"The Pilgrimage of Kings and Princes," chap. xliii. p. 294. of Lloyd's Marrow of History, corrected and revised by R. C., Master of Arts: London, 1653.

"This fashion of countinge the monthe endured to the ccccl yere of the citie, and was kepte secrete among the byshops of theyr religion tyl the time that C. Flauius, P. Sulpitius Auarrio, and P. Sempronius Sophuilongus, then beinge Consuls, against the mynde of the Senatours disclosed all their solemne feates, published the in a table that euery man might haue perseuerauce of them."—An Abridgemente of the Notable Worke of Polidore Vergile, &c., by Thomas Langley, fol. xlii.

"And some there be that thinke men toke occasion of God to make ymages, whiche wylling to shewe to the grosse wyttes of men some perceiueraunce of hymselfe, toke on him the shape of man, as Abraham sawe him and Jacob also."—Id., fol. lxi.

In this passage, as in others presently to be alleged, "notification" seems to be the drift of the word.

"Of this vnreuerent religio, Mahomete, a noble mane, borne in Arabie, or, as some report, in Persie, was authour: and his father was an heathen idolater, and his mother an Ismaelite; wherfore she had more perceuerance of the Hebrues law."—Id., fol. cxlii.

"Where all feelyng and perseuerace of euill is awaie, nothyng there is euill or found a misse. As if a manne be fallen into a sound slepe, he feleth not the hardenesse or other incommoditie of his cabon or couche."—"The Saiynges of Publius, No. 58.," The Precepts of Cato, &c., with Erasmus Annotations: London, 1550.

"Wherfore both Philip and Alexander (if ye dead haue anie perceuerance) woulde not that the rootes (rooters) out of them and theyre issue, but rather that the punnishers of those traitors, should enioye the kingdom of Macedone."—"The XVI Booke of Justine," fol. 86., Golding's Translation of the Abridgement of the Historyes of Trojus Pompeius: London, 1578.

"And morouer bycause his setting of vs here in this world is to aduaunce vs aloft, that is, to witte to the heauenly life, whereof he giueth vs some perceyuerance and feeling afore hande."—Io. Calvin. "Sermon XLI., on the Tenth Chap. of Job," p. 209., Golding's Translation: London, 1574.

"And so farre are wee off from being able to atteine to such knowledge through our owne power, that we flee it as much as is possible, and blindfold our own eyes, to the intent we might put away all perceyuerance and feeling of God's judgement from vs."—Id., "Sermon XLII.," p. 218.

"For (as I haue touched already) God of his goodnesse doth not vtterly barre vs from hauing any perceyuerance at all of his wisdome: but it behoueth vs to keepe measure."—Id., "Sermon XLIII.," p. 219.

I shall not cite any more from Golding, but simply observe that the word occurs again and again in his translations. The remaining three examples exhibit the noun in a somewhat different sense, viz. "notification," or "means of discerning:"

"The time most apt in all the yeare, and affoording greatest perseuerance for the finding out of the heads of wells and fountaines, are the moneths of August or September."—The First Booke of the Countrie Farme, p. 8., by Stevens and Liebault, translated by Svrflet, and edited by G. Markham: London, 1616.

"He may also gather some perceiuerance by the other markes before specified; that is to say, by the prints of his foote vpon the grasse, by the carriages of his head, his dung, gate," &c.—Id., booke vii. p. 685.

"And this lyfe to men is an high perseveraunce,

Or a lyght of faythe wherby they shall be saved."

"God's Promises," by John Bale; Dodsley's Old Plays (Collier's edition), vol. i. Part II. Act I.

By-the-bye, as a specimen of the value of this edition, take the following passage of this very play:

"O perfyght keye of David, and hygh scepture of the kyndred of Jacob; whych openest and no man speareth, that speakest and no man openeth."—Act VII. p. 40.

On the word speareth the commentator treats his reader to a note; in which he informs him that speareth means "asketh," and in proof of this cites one passage from Chaucer, and two from Douglas's Virgil. It might almost appear to be upbraiding the reader with stupidity to mention that speareth signifieth "bolteth, shutteth;" and that "speaketh" is a misprint for speareth. This verb was a favourite with Bale. One word more closes my budget for the present.

More, a root. Still in use in Gloucestershire, once of frequent occurrence. To the examples alleged by Richardson, in his Dictionary, add the following:

"I se it by ensaunple
In somer tyme on trowes;
Ther some bowes ben leved,
And some bereth none,
There is a meschief in the more
Of swiche manere bowes."

The Vision of Piers Ploughman, edited by Thomas

Wright, vol. ii. p. 300.

At p. 302. you find the sentiment in Latin:

"Sicut cum videris arborem pallidam et marcidam, intelligis quod vitium habet in radice"—"a meschief in the more."

The Glossary of the editor is silent.

"It is a ful trie tree, quod he,
Trewely to telle;
Mercy is the more therof,
The myddul stok is ruthe;
The leves ben lele wordes,
The lawe of holy chirche;
The blosmes beth buxom speche,
And benigne lokynge;
Pacience hatte the pure tree," &c.

Id., vol. ii. p. 330.

"It groweth in a gardyn, quod he,
That God made hymselve,
Amyddes mannes body,
The more is of that stokke,
Herte highte the herber,
That it inne groweth."

Id., vol. ii. p. 331.

There should not be any comma, or other stop, at body, because the sense is—"The root of that stock is amid man's body."

Mr. Wright's Glossary refers to these last two instances as follows:

"More (A.-S.) 330, 331., the main or larger part, body (?)"

At p. 334. we meet with the word again:

"On o more thei growed."

And again, at p. 416.:

"And bite a-two the mores."

May I, in passing, venture to inquire of the editor on what authority he explains waselede (p. 476.) to be "the pret. of waselen (A.-S.) to become dirty, dirty oneself?"

"This Troilus withouten rede or lore,
As man that hath his joies eke forlore,
Was waiting on his lady evermore,
As she that was sothfast croppe and more,
Of all his lust or joyes here tofore."

Chaucer's Troilus and Creseide, b.v.

Afterwards, in the same book, a few stanzas further on, he joins "crop" and "root" together.

"Last of all, if these thinges auayle not the cure, I do commend and allow above all the rest, that you take the iuyce of Celendine rootes, making them cleane from the earth that doth vse to hang to the moores."—The Booke of Falconrie, by George Turbervile, 1611, p. 236.

"Chiefely, if the moare of vertue be not cropped, but dayly rooted deepelyer."—The Fyrste Booke of the Nobles or of Nobilitye, translated from Laurence Humfrey.

The next and last example from the "Second Booke" of this interesting little volume I will quote more at large:

"Aristotle mencioneth in his Politikes an horrible othe vsed in certaine states, consistinge of the regimente of fewe nobles, in maner thus: I will hate the people, and to my power persecute them. Which is the croppe and more of al sedition. Yet too much practised in oure liues. But what cause is there why a noble man should eyther despise the people? or hate them? or wrong them? What? know they not, no tiranny maye bee trusty? Nor how yll garde of cotinuance, feare is? Further, no more may nobilitie misse the people, then in man's body, the heade, the hande. For of trueth, the common people are the handes of the nobles, sith them selues bee handlesse. They labour and sweate for them, with tillinge, saylinge, running, toylinge: by sea, by lad, with hads, wt feete, serue them. So as w'oute theyr seruice, they nor eate, nor drink, nor are clothed, no nor liue. We reade in ye taleteller Esope, a doue was saued by the helpe of an ant. A lyon escaped by the benefit of a mowse. We rede agayne, that euen ants haue theyr choler. And not altogether quite, the egle angered the bytle bee."

The reader will notice in this citation another instance of the verb miss, to dispense with. I have now done for the present; but should the collation of sundry passages, to illustrate the meaning of a word, appear as agreeable to the laws of a sound philology, as conducive to the integrity of our ancient writers, and as instructive to the public as brainspun emendations, whether of a remote or modern date, which now-a-days are pouring in like a flood—to corrupt long recognised readings in our idolised poet Shakspeare, in order to make his phraseology square with the language of the times and his readers' capacities—I will not decline to continue endeavours such as the present essay exhibits with a view to stem and roll back the tide.

W. R. Arrowsmith.

Broad Heath, Presteign, Herefordshire.

A WORK ON THE MACROCOSM

I intended to have contributed a series of papers to "N. & Q." on the brute creation, on plants and flowers, &c.; and in a Note on the latter subject I promised to follow it up. However, as circumstances have changed my intentions, I think it may be well to mention that I have in hand a work on Macrocosm, or World of Nature around us, which shall be published in three separate parts or volumes. The first shall be devoted to the Brute Creation; the second shall be an Herbal, with a Calendar of dedicated Flowers prefixed; the third shall contain Chapters on the Mineral Kingdom: in the last I shall treat of the symbolism of stones, and the superstitions respecting them. I purpose in each case, as far as possible, to go to the fountain-head, and shall give copious extracts from such writers as St. Ildefonso of Toledo, St. Isidore of Seville, Vincent of Beauvais, St. Basil, Origen, Epiphanius, and the Christian Fathers.

As the work I have sketched out for myself will require time to mature, I shall publish very shortly a small volume, containing a breviary of the former, which will give some idea of the manner in which I shall treat the proposed subject.

Many correspondents of "N. & Q." have evinced great interest in the line I intend to enter upon. (See Vol. i., pp. 173. 457.; Vol. iv., p. 175.; Vol. vi., pp. 101. 272. 462. 518.) Their Queries have produced no satisfactory result. I myself made a Query in my "Chapter on Flowers," some months ago, respecting Catholic floral directories, and two works in particular, about which I was most anxious, and which were quoted in The Catholic Florist, London, 1851, and I have received no answer. Mr. Oakley, indeed, wrote to me to say that he "only edited it, and wrote a preface," and that he forwarded my Query "to the compiler:" the latter personage, however, has not favoured me with a reply.

In spite of all these discouragements, I have taken the step of bringing my contemplated work before the readers of "N. & Q.," and I shall gratefully acknowledge any communications relative to legends, folk-lore, superstitions, symbolism, &c. bearing on the subjects proposed. As I intend inserting a bibliographical list of the chief works which come under the scope of each volume, I might receive much valuable assistance on this point, especially as regards Oriental and other foreign books, which might escape my researches. As regards the brute creation, I have gotten, with the kind assistance of the editor of "N. & Q.," Hildrop's famous reply to Father Bougeant; and I have sent to Germany for Dr. Kraus's recent work on the subject.

Eirionnach.

DR. SOUTH'S LATIN TRACT AGAINST SHERLOCK

None of South's compositions are more striking or characteristic than his two English tracts against Sherlock, his Animadversions on Sherlock's Vindication of the Trinity, 1693-94, 4to., and his Tritheism charged on Sherlock's new Notion of the Trinity, 1694, 4to. For caustic wit and tremendous power of vituperation, I scarcely know any controversial works which surpass, or even equal them. South looked upon Sherlock with profound scorn as a Sciolist, and hated him most cordially as a heretic and a political renegade. He accordingly gives him no quarter, and seems determined to draw blood at every stroke. Mrs. Sherlock is of course not forgotten, and one of the happiest passages in the Tritheism charged is the well-known humorous illustration of Socrates and Xantippe, p. 129. It is somewhat curious that, notwithstanding these two works of South have attracted so much notice, it seems to be quite unknown that he also published a Latin tract against Sherlock, in further continuation of the controversy, in which the attack is carried on with equal severity. The title of the tract in question is, Decreti Oxoniensis Vindicatio in Tribus ad Modestum ejusdem examinatorem modestioribus Epistolis a Theologo Transmarino. Excusa Anno Domini 1696, 4to., pp. 92. The tract, of which I have a copy, is anonymous, but it is ascribed to South in the following passages in The Agreement of the Unitarians with the Catholic Church, part i. 1697, 4to., which is included in vol. v. of the 4to. Unitarian Tracts, and evidently written by one who had full information on the subject. His expressions (p. 62.) are—"Dr. South, in his Latin Letters, under the name of a Transmarine Divine;" and a little further on, "Dr. South, in two (English) books by him written, and in three Latin letters, excepts against this (Sherlock's) explication of the Trinity." In confirmation of this ascription, I may observe that the Latin tract is contained in an extensive collection of the tracts in the Trinitarian Controversy formed by Dr. John Wallis, which I possess, and in which he has written the names of the authors of the various anonymous pieces. He took, as is well known, a leading part in the controversy, and published himself an anonymous pamphlet (not noticed by his biographers), also in defence of Oxford decrees. On the title-page of the Latin tract he has written "By Dr. South." I have likewise another copy in a volume which belonged to Stephen Nye, one of the ablest writers in the controversy, and who ascribes it in the list of contents in the fly-leaf, in his handwriting, to Dr. South. These grounds would appear to be sufficient to authorise our including this tract in the list of South's works, though, from the internal evidence of the tract itself alone, I should scarcely have felt justified in ascribing it to him.

Jas. Crossley.

SHAKSPEARE CORRESPONDENCE

Parallel Passages.—

"You leaden messengers,
That ride upon the violent wings of fire,
Fly with false aim; move the still-piecing air,
That sings with piercing,—do not touch my lord!"

All's Well that Ends Well, Act III. Sc. 2.

"the elements,
Of whom your swords are tempered, may as well
Wound the loud winds, or with bemock'd at stabs
Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish
One dowle that's in my plume."

The Tempest, Act III. Sc. 3.

There can be little doubt that the clever corrector of Mr. Collier's folio had the last of these passages in view when he altered the word move of the first, into wound of the second: but in this instance he overshot the mark, in not perceiving the nice and subtle distinction which exists between them. The first implies possibility: the second impossibility.

In the second, the mention of, to "wound the loud wind, or kill the still-closing water," is to set forth the absurdness of the attempt; but in the first passage there is a direct injunction to a possible act: "Fly with false aim, move the still-piecing air." To say "wound the still-piecing air" would be to direct to be done, in one passage, that which the other passage declares to be absurd to expect!

If it were necessary to disturb move at all, the word cleave would be, all to nothing, a better substitution than wound.

Whether the annotating of Mr. Collier's folio be a real or a pseudo-antique, it is impossible to deny that its executor must have been a clever, as he was certainly a slashing hitter. It cannot, therefore, be wondered that he should sometimes reach the mark: but that these corrections should be received with that blind and superstitious faith, so strangely exacted for them, can scarcely be expected. Indeed, it is to be regretted that they have been introduced to the public with such an uncompromising claim to authority; as the natural repugnance against enforced opinion may endanger the success of the few suggestive emendations, to be found amongst them, which are really new and valuable.

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1

Footnote 1:

The epithets "heavenly," "holy," "solemn," &c., represent the nightingale's song, as spoken of by Keats, as the bird's "plaintive anthem;" by Mackay, as its

"Hymn of gratitude and love;"

and by Moore also, in his account of the Vale of Cashmere, as

"The nightingale's hymn from the Isle of Chenars."

In A Proper New Boke of the Armony of Byrdes (quoted by Dibdin, Top. Antiq., iv. 381.), of unknown date, though probably before 1580, the nightingale is represented as singing its Te Deum:

"Tibi Cherubin
Et Seraphin
Full goodly she dyd chaunt,
With notes merely
Incessabile
Voce Prœclamant."

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2

(Troilus and Creseide) imagines the nightingale to "stint" at the beginning of its song, and to be frightened at the least noise.

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3

This, and the epithets of "sole-sitting" and "unseen," refer to the nightingale's love of solitary seclusion.

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4

"He slep no more than doth the nightingale."

Chaucer, Cant. Pil.

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