Notes and Queries, Number 76, April 12, 1851

Latin Epigram on the Duchess of Eboli (Vol. iii., p. 208.).—This beautiful epigram, which C. R. H. has somewhat mutilated even in the two lines which he gives of it, was written by Jerome Amaltheus, who died in 1574, the year in which Henry III. of France came to the throne; so that it is unlikely at least that the "Amor" was meant for Mangirow, his "minion." In the edition of the poems of the three brothers Amalthei, which I possess, and which was printed at Amsterdam in 1689, the epigram runs—

"DE GEMELLIS FRATRE ET SORORE LUSCIS

"Lumine Acon, dextro, capta est Leonilla sinistro,
Et potis est forma vincere uterque Deos.
Blande puer, lumen, quod habes concede puellæ,
Sic tu cæcus Amor, sic erit illa Venus."

I have seen it thus translated:

"One eye is closed to each in rayless night,
Yet each has beauty fit the gods to move,
Give, Acon, give to Leonill thy light,
She will be Venus, and thou sightless Love."

The relationship between the Duchess of Eboli and Mangirow I do not remember. Were they brother and sister? or was she ever known as Leonilla?

Among Jerome Amaltheus's other epigrams I find several about this "Acon;" and one, entitled "De duabus Amicis," begins—

"Me lætis Leonilla oculis, me Lydia torvis
Aspicit."

The mistress of Philip II. (who here, by the by, seems to have recovered her lost eye) would hardly have been the mistress of an Italian poet.

    H. A. B.

Trin. Coll. Cam.

"Harry Parry, when will you marry" (Vol. iii., p. 207.).—E. H. has omitted the last line, which, however, is well known. May it not have the same meaning as the lines in the "Marquis de Carabas" of Béranger:

"Et tous vos tendrons,
Subiront l'honneur
Du droit du seigneur?"

The nursery rhyme may have been sung to the young Baron to teach him his feudal privileges, as the lines—

"Hot corn, baked pears,
Kick nigger down stairs,"

are used to inculcate the rights of a white man on the minds of infant cotton planters in the Southern States.

    J. H. L.

Visions of Hell (Vol. iii., p. 70.).—In solving the Query propounded by F. R. A. as to "whether Bunyan was the author of the Visions?" it is very necessary that all the editions should be known of and collated. I have one not yet referred to, styled The Visions of John Bunyan, being his last Remains, giving an Account of the Glories of Heaven, the Terrors of Hell, and of the World to come, London, printed and sold by J. Hollis, Shoemaker Row, Blackfriars, pp. 103., with an address to the reader, subscribed "thy soul's well-wisher, John Bunyan," without date. "Thomas Newby, of Epping, Essex," is written in it; he might have been only the first owner of the book, which was certainly published before the year 1828 or 20, but I should say not much earlier.

    Blowen.

"Laus tua non tua Fraus," &c. (Vol. i., p. 416.). Verse Lyon.—Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie, published in 1589, contains an earlier allusion to this epigram than any of those mentioned by your correspondents at Vol. ii., p. 77., and assigns to Pope Alexander [Qy. VI.] the doubtful honour of being the subject of it. The passage is at p. 11., and is as follows:—

"Another of their pretie inuentions was to make a verse of such wordes as lay their nature and manner of construction and situation might be turned backward word by word, and make another perfit verse, but of quite contrary sence, as the gibing monke that wrote of Pope Alexander these two verses:

'Laus tua non tua fraus, virtue non copia rerum,
Scandere te faciunt hoc decus eximium:'

which if ye will turne backward, they make two other good verses, but of a contrary sence, thus:

'Eximium decus hoc faciunt te scandere, rerum
Copia, non virtus, fraus tua, non tua laus;'

and they call it Verse Lyon."

Query, Why? and where else is Verse Lyon alluded to?

    J. F. M.

[Is not "Verse Lyon" Puttenham's translation of Leonine Verse?]

Passage from Cymbeline (Vol. ii., p. 135.).—

"Some jay of Italy,
Whose mother was her painting, hath betrayed him."—Act III. Sc. 4.

The word painting (your correspondent's stumbling-block) evidently means resemblance—resemblance of character, and as such exactly corresponds to the German word Ebenbild, an image or painting, which is used in the same sense; e.g.Sie hat das Ebenbild ihres Mutters, "She is the very image of her mother."

    Cranmore.

Rue de Cerf, 6. Brussels.

Engraved Warming-pans (Vol. iii., pp. 84. 115.).—As an earlier instance of this custom, it may be worth notice that I have one which was purchased some years ago at the village of Whatcote in Warwickshire; it is engraved with a dragon, and the date 1601. I think it probable that it originally came from Compton Wyniatt, the ancient seat of the Earls [now Marquis] of Northampton; the supporters of the Compton family being dragons, and Whatcote being the next village to Compton Wyniatt.

    Spes.

Symbolism of the Fir-cone (Vol. i., p. 247.).—The Fir-cone on the Thyrsus—a practice very general throughout Greece, but which is very prevalent at Athens, may perhaps, in some degree, account for the connexion of the Fir-cone (surmounting the Thyrsus) with the worship of Bacchus. Incisions are made in the fir-trees for the purpose of obtaining the turpentine, which distils copiously from the wound. This juice is mixed with the new wine in large quantities; the Greeks supposing that it would be impossible to keep it any length of time without this mixture. The wine has in consequence a very peculiar taste, but is by no means unpleasant after a little use. This, as we learn from Plutarch, was an ancient custom (Sympos. Quæst. iii. and iv. p. 528. edn. Wytten); the Athenians, therefore, might naturally have placed the Fir-cone in the hands of Bacchus. ("Lord Aberdeen's Journals," Appendix to Walpole's Memoirs of Turkey, &c., vol. i. p. 605.)

    F. B. Relton.

Dr. Robert Thomlinson (Vol. i., p. 350.).—The gentleman who is very anxious for the communication of any matter illustrative of the life of the doctor, his family, &c., will find considerable useful and interesting information relating to him, his widow, and brother, by referring to the under-mentioned Reports from the Commissioners for inquiring concerning Charities:

5th Report, pages 67. 69.; 23rd Report, pages 56. 450.; 31st Report, pages 754. 757.

There is a slight allusion to the doctor in the Returns of Corporate Offices and Charitable Funds, &c., p. 375.

    H. Edwards.

Touching for the Evil (Vol. iii., p. 93.).—St. Thomas Aquinas refers the practice of touching for the evil by French kings to Clovis. See a work published in 1633, by Simon Favoul, entitled, Du Pouvoir que les Rois de France ont de guérir les Ecrouelles; also a work by Du Laurens, entitled, De Mirabili Strumas sanandi vi, regibus Galliarum Christianis divinitus concessa, libri duo, Paris, 1609, in 8vo.

Edward the Confessor is said to have been the first English king who touched for the evil. Consequently the English can hardly be said to have owed their supposed power to their pretensions to the crown of France.