Notes and Queries, Number 56, November 23, 1850

Notes and Queries, Number 56, November 23, 1850
Various

Various

Notes and Queries, Number 56, November 23, 1850

NOTES

THE OLDENBURG HORN

The highly interesting collection of pictures at Combe Abbey, the seat of the Earl of Craven, in Warwickshire, was, for the most part, bequeathed by Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, the daughter of James I., to her faithful attendant, William, Earl of Craven. The collection has remained, entire and undisturbed, up to the present time. Near the upper end of the long gallery is a picture which doubtless formed a part of the bequest of the Queen of Bohemia, and of which the following is a description:—

Three quarters length: a female figure, standing, with long curling light hair, and a wreath of flowers round the head. She wears a white satin gown, with a yellow edge; gold chain on the stomacher, and pearl buttons down the front. She has a pearl necklace and earrings, with a high plaited chemisette up to the necklace; and four rows of pearls, with a yellow bow, round the sleeve. She holds in her hands a large highly ornamented gold horn. The back-ground consists of mountains. Underneath the picture is this inscription:

"Anno post natum Christum 939. Ottoni comiti Oldenburgico in venatione vehementer sitibundo virgo elegantissima ex monte Osen prodiens cornu argenteum deauratum plenum liquore ut biberet obtulit. Inspecto is liquore adhorruit, ac eundum bibere recusavit. Quo facto, subito Comes a virgine discedens liquorem retro super equum quem mox depilavit effudit, cornuque hic depictum secum Oldenburgum in perpetuam illius memoriam reportavit. Lucretio de Sainct Simon pinxit."

The painting is apparently of the first part of the seventeenth century. The ordinary books of reference do not contain the painter's name.

The same legend as that contained in this inscription, though with fuller details, is given by the brothers Grimm, in their collection of Deutsche Sagen, No. 541. vol. ii. p. 317., from two Oldenburg chronicles. According to this version Otto was Count of Oldenburg in the year 990 or 967. [The chronicles appear to differ as to his date: the inscription of the Combe Abbey picture furnishes a third date.] Being a good hunter, and fond of hunting, he went, on the 20th of July, in this year, attended by his nobles and servants, to hunt in the forest of Bernefeuer. Here he found a deer, and chased it alone from this wood to Mount Osen: but in the pursuit he left his companions and even his dogs behind; and he stood alone, on his white horse, in the middle of the mountain. Being now exhausted by the great heat, he exclaimed: "Would to God that some one had a draught of cold water!" As soon as the count had uttered these words, the mountain opened, and from the chasm there came a beautiful damsel, dressed in fine clothes, with her hair divided over her shoulders, and a wreath of flowers on her head. In her hand she held a precious silver-gilt hunting-horn, filled with some liquid; which she offered to the count, in order that he might drink. The count took the horn, and examined the liquid, but declined to drink it. Whereupon the damsel said: "My dear lord, drink it upon my assurance; for it will do you no harm, but will tend to your good." She added that, if he would drink, he and his family, and all his descendants, and the whole territory of Oldenburg, would prosper: but that, if he refused, there would be discord in the race of the Counts of Oldenburg. The count, as was natural, mistrusted her assurances, and feared to drink out of the horn: however, he retained it in his hand, and swung it behind his back. While it was in this position some of the liquid escaped; and where it fell on the back of the white horse, it took off the hair. When the damsel saw this, she asked him to restore the horn; but the count, with the horn in his hand, hastened away from the mountain, and, on looking back, observed that the damsel had returned into the earth. The count, terrified at the sight, spurred on his horse, and speedily rejoined his attendants: he then recounted to them his adventure, and showed them the silver-gilt horn, which he took with him to Oldenburg. And because this horn was obtained in so wonderful a manner, it was kept as a precious relic by him and all his successors in the reigning house of Oldenburg.

The editors state that richly decorated drinking-horn was formerly preserved, with great care, in the family of Oldenburg; but that, at the present time [1818], it is at Copenhagen.

The same story is related from Hamelmann's Oldenburg Chronicle, by Büsching, in his Volksagen (Leips. 1820), p. 380., who states that there is a representation of the horn in p. 20. of the Chronicle, as well as in the title-page of the first volume of the Wunderhorn.

Those who are accustomed to the interpretation of mythological fictions will at once recognise in this story an explanatory legend, invented for the purpose of giving an interest to a valuable drinking-horn, of ancient work, which belonged to the Counts of Oldenburg. Had the story not started from a basis of real fact, but had been pure fiction, the mountain-spirit would probably have left, not silver gilt, but a gold horn, with the count. Moreover, the manner in which she suffers herself to be outwitted, and her acquiescence in the loss of her horn, without exacting some vengeance from the incredulous count, are not in the spirit of such fictions, nor do they suit the malignant character which the legend itself gives her. If the Oldenburg horn is still preserved at Copenhagen, its date might doubtless be determined by the style of the work.

Mount Osen seems to have been a place which abounded in supernatural beings. Some elves who came from this mountain to take fresh-brewed beer, and left good, though unknown money, to pay for it, are mentioned in another story in the Deutsche Sagen, (No.43. vol. i. p. 55.)

    L.

[Having had an opportunity of inspecting a copy of Hamelmann's Chronicle, at present belonging to Mr. Quaritch, in which there is a very interesting engraving of the horn in question (which may possibly have been a Charter Horn), we are not disposed to pronounce it older than the latter end of the fifteenth century. If, however, it is still preserved at Copenhagen, some correspondent there will perhaps do us the favour to furnish us with a precise description of it, and with the various legends which are inscribed upon it.—ED.]

GREEK PARTICLES ILLUSTRATED BY THE EASTERN LANGUAGES

The affinity which exists between such of the vernacular languages of India as are offshoots of the Sanscrit, as the Hindostanee, Mahratta, Guzeratee, &c., and the Greek, Latin, German, and English languages, is now well known to European scholars, more especially since the publication of the researches of Vans Kennedy, Professor Bopp of Berlin, &c. Indeed, scarcely a day passes in which the European resident in India may not recognise, in his intercourse with the natives, many familiar words in all those languages, clothed in an oriental dress. I am inclined also to think that new light may be thrown upon some of the impracticable Greek particles by a reference to the languages of the East; and without wishing to be understood as laying down anything dogmatically in the present communication, I hope, through the medium of your valuable publication, to attract attention to this subject, and invite discussion on it. Taking, as an illustration, the 233d line of the first book of the Iliad, where the hero of the poem is violently abusing Agamemnon for depriving him of his prize, the fair maid Briseis, he says,

"Αλλ' εκ τοι ερεω, και επι μεγαν ‛ορκον ‛ομουμαι."

What is the meaning of εκ in the above line? It is commonly construed with ερεω, and translated, "I plainly tell thee—I declare to thee;" εξερεω, "I speak out—proclaim." But may it not be identical with the Sanscrit ek, "one," a word, as most of your readers are doubtless aware, in universal use throughout India, Persia, &c; the rendering literally running thus:

"But one thing I tell thee," &c.

That this is the original sense of the line appears probable by comparing it with line 297. of the same book, where in the second speech of Achilles, that impiger, iracundus, inexorabilis, acer, chieftain again scolds "the king of men,"—

"Αλλο δε τοι ερεω, συ δ' ενε φρεσι βαλλεο σησι."
"And another thing I tell thee."

This rendering receives additional confirmation by a comparison with the following:

"Τουτο δε τοι ερεω."

    Il. iii. 177., and Od. vii. 243.
"Παντα δε τοι ερεω."

    Od. iv. 410., and x. 289.
In the last three lines Αλλο, Τουτο, and Παντα stand precisely in the same relation to ερεω that εκ does in the first, Αλλ' merely taking the place of δε, for the sake of versification.

"But one thing I tell thee.
And another thing I tell thee.
But this thing I tell thee.
And all things I tell thee."

It is not impossible that εξερεω may be a compound of εκ, "one," and ερεω, "I speak." There is in the Hindostanee an analogous form of expression, Ek bat bolo, "one word speak." This is constantly used to denote, speaking plainly; to speak decidedly; one word only; no display of unnecessary verbiage to conceal thought; no humbug; I tell thee plainly; I speak solemnly—once for all; which is precisely the meaning of εξερεω in all the passages where it occurs in Homer: e.g.Il. i. 212. (where it is employed by Minerva in her solemn address to Achilles); Il. viii. 286., Od. ix. 365. (where it is very characteristically used), &c.

The word ace (ace of spades, &c.) I suppose you will have no difficulty in identifying with the Sanscrit ek and the Greek εις, the c sometimes pronounced hard and sometimes soft. The Sanscrit das, the Greek δεκ-α, and the Latin dec-em, all signifying ten, on the same principle, have been long identified.

    J. SH.
    Bombay.

SAMUEL ROWLANDS, AND HIS CLAIM TO THE AUTHORSHIP OF "THE CHOISE OF CHANGE."

Mr. T. Jones in "NOTES AND QUERIES" (Vol. i., p. 39.), describing a copy of The Choise of Change in the Chetham Library, unhesitatingly ascribes its authorship to the well-known satirist, Samuel Rowlands, whom he says, "appears to have been a Welshman from his love of Triads." Mr. JONES'S dictum, that the letters "S.R.," on the title-page "are the well-known initials of Samuel Rowlands," may well, I think, be questioned. Great caution should be used in these matters. Bibliographers and catalogue-makers are constantly making confusion by assigning works, which bear the initials only, to wrong authors.

The Choise of Change may with much more probability be given to a very different author. I have a copy of the edition of 1598 now before me, in which the name is filled up, in a cotemporary hand, S[imon], R[obson]. And I find in Lowndes' Bibliographer's Manual, that the work in question is entered under the latter name. The compiler adds,—"This piece is by some attributed to Dr. Simon Robson, Dean of Bristol in 1598; by others, most probably erroneously, to Samuel Rowland." An examination of the biography of Dr. Robson, who died in 1617, might tend to elucidate some particulars concerning his claim to the authorship of this and several other works of similar character.

Samuel Rowland's earliest publication is supposed to have been The Betraying of Christ, &c., printed in 1598. If it can be proved that he has any claim to The Choise of Change (first printed in 1585), we make him an author thirteen years earlier. In the title-page of the latter, the writer, whoever he was, is styled "Gent and Student in the Universitie of Cambridge." This is a fact of some importance towards the elucidation of authorship and has, I believe, escaped the notice of those writers who have touched upon Samuel Rowland's scanty biography. But I can hardly conceive that either of the publications above alluded to came from the same pen as Humours Ordinarie, Martin Mark-all, The Four Knaves, and many others of the same class, which are known to have been the productions of Samuel Rowlands.

Respecting Samuel Rowlands it may be regarded as extraordinary that no account has been discovered; and though his pamphlets almost rival in number those of Greene, Taylor, and Prynne, their prefaces—those fruitful sources of information—throw no light upon the life or circumstances of their author. The late Mr. Octavius Gilchrist considered that "Rowlands was an ecclesiastic [?] by profession;" and, inferring his zeal in the pulpit from his labours through the press, adds, "it should seem that he was an active servant of the church." (See Fry's Bibliographical Memoranda, p. 257.) Sir Walter Scott (Preface to his reprint of The Letting of Humours Blood in the Head Vaine) gives us a very different idea of the nature of his calling. His words are:

"Excepting that he lived and wrote, none of those industrious antiquaries have pointed out any particulars respecting Rowland[s]. It has been remarked that his muse is seldom found in the best company; and to have become so well acquainted with the bullies, drunkards, gamesters, and cheats, whom he describes, he must have frequented the haunts of dissipation in which such characters are to be found. But the humorous descriptions of low-life exhibited in his satires are more precious to antiquaries than more grave works, and those who make the manners of Shakspeare's age the subject their study may better spare a better author than Samuel Rowlands."

The opinions of both these writers are entitled to some respect, but they certainly looked upon two very different sides of the question. Gilchrist's conjecture that he was an ecclesiastic is quite untenable, and I am fully inclined to agree with Sir Walter Scott, that Rowlands' company was not of the most select order, and that he must often have frequented those "haunts of dissipation" which he so well describes in those works which are the known production of his muse.

    EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

"APRICOT," "PEACH," AND "NECTARINE," ETYMOLOGY OF

There is something curious in the etymology of the words "apricot," "peach," and "nectarine," and in their equivalents in several languages, which may amuse your readers.

The apricot is an Armenian or Persian fruit, and was known to the Romans later than the peach. It is spoken of by Pliny and by Martial.

Plin. N.H., lib. xv. c. 12.:

"Post autumnum maturescunt Persica, æstate præcocia, intra xxx annos reperta."

Martial, lib. xiii. Epig. 46.:

"Vilia maternis fueramus præcoqua ramis,
Nunc in adaptivis Persica care sumus."