Notes and Queries, Number 19, March 9, 1850

    W.B. RYE.

A NOTE ON ROBERT HERICK, AUTHOR OF "HESPERIDES."

In the summer of 1844, I visited Dean Prior in company with my brother, in order to ascertain if we could add any new fact to the scanty accounts of the Life of Herrick recorded by his biographers. The events of his life have been related by Dr. Drake, (Literary Hours, vol. iii., 1st edit. 1798.—3rd edit. 1804), by Mr. Campbell, by Dr. Nott (Select Poems from the Hesperides, &c. Bristol, 1810,) by a writer in the Quarterly Review, vol. iv. 1810, by Mr. Wilmott in his elegantly written Lives of Sacred Poets, vol. i., 1834, and in the memoirs prefixed to the recent editions of Herrick's Poems published by Clarke (1844), and Pickering (1846). On examining any of these biographies, it will be found that the year and place of Herrick's death have not been ascertained. This was the point which I therefore particularly wished to inquire into.

Dean Prior is a village about six or seven miles from Totnes: the church, with the exception of the tower, had been recently rebuilt. The monuments and inscribed stones were carefully removed when the old fabric was taken down, and restored as nearly as could be to corresponding situations in the new building. I sought in vain, amongst these, for the name of Herrick. On making inquiry of the old sexton who accompanied us, he said at first in a very decided tone, "Oh, he died in Lunnun," but afterwards corrected himself, and said that Herrick died at Dean Prior, and that an old tombstone in the churchyard, at the right hand side of the walk leading to the south side of the church, which was removed several years ago, was supposed to have covered the remains of the former vicar of Dean Prior.

Being baffled in our search after "tombstone information," we called at the vicarage, which stands close by the church, and the vicar most courteously accorded us permission to search the registers of the marriages, births, and burials, which were in his custody. The portion of the dilapidated volume devoted to the burials is headed thus:—

"Dean Prior

"The names of all those y't have been buried in y'e same parish from y'e year of our Lord God 1561, and so forwards."

After some careful search we were gratified by discovering the following entry:—

"Robert Herrick Vicker was buried y'e 15th day October, 1674."

I fancy I met with a selection from Herrick's Poems edited by Mr. Singer, several years ago, comprised in a small neat volume. Can any of your readers inform me whether there is such a book? I possess Mr. Singer's valuable editions of Cavendish, More, and Hall's Satires, and would wish to place this volume on the same shelf.

    J. MILNER BARRY.

Totnes, Feb. 21. 1850.

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF "LÆRIG?"

This query, evidently addressed to our Anglo-Saxon scholars by the distinguished philologist to whom we are all so much indebted, not having been hitherto replied to, perhaps the journal of "NOTES AND QUERIES" is the most fitting vehicle for this suggestive note:—

TO DR. JACOB GRIMM.

Allow me, though an entire stranger to you, to thank you for the pleasure I have derived, in common with all ethnological students, from your very valuable labours, and especially from the Geschichte der Deutschen Sprache. At the same time I venture, with much diffidence, to offer a reply to your question which occur in that work at p. 663.:—"Was heisst lærig?"

Lye says, "Hæc vox occurrit apid Cædm. At interpretatio ejus minime liquet." In the Supplement to his Dictionary it is explained "docilis, tyro!" Mr. Thorpe, in his Analecta A.-S. (1st edit. Gloss), says, "The meaning of this word is uncertain: it occurs again in Cædmon;" and in his translation of Cædmon he thus renders the passage:—"Ofer linde lærig=over the linden shields." Here then lærig, evidently an adjective, is rendered by the substantive shields; and linde, evidently a substantive, is rendered by the adjective linden. In two other passages, Mr. Thorpe more correctly translates lindum=bucklers.

Lind, which Lye explained by the Latin labarium, vexillum, that excellent scholar, the late lamented Mr. Price, was the first, I believe, to show frequently signified a shield; which was, probably for lightness, made of the wood of the lime tree, and covered with skin, or leather of various colours. Thus we have "sealwe linde" and "hwite linde" in Cædm., "geolwe linde" in Beowulf.

All this is superfluous to you, sir, I know—"Retournons à nos moutons," as Maistre Pierre Pathelin says.

The sense required in the passage in Brythnoth seems to me to be:—

"bærst bordes lærig=the empty (hollow concave) shields

"and seo byrne sang=and the armour (lorica) resounded."

And in Cædmon:—

"ofer linde lærig=over the empty (hollow concave) shield."

In Judith, Th. Anal. 137, 53. we have a similar epithet:—

"hwealfum lindum=vaulted (arched concave) shields."

We should remember that Somner has ge-lær, void, empty, vacuus; and Lye, with a reference to the Herbarium, lær-nesse, vacuitas. In the Teuthonista we have lær, vacuus, concavus. In Heiland, 3, 4. "larea stodun thar stenuatu sehsi=empty stood there stone-vats six." I need not call to your mind the O.H.G. lári.

I think, therefore, we cannot doubt that what is intended to be expressed by the A.-S. lærig is empty, hollow, concave. But if we wanted further confirmation, leer, leery, leary are still in use in Devonshire, Dorsetshire, and perhaps elsewhere, for empty, hollow, as the provincial Glossaries will show. Skinner has the word leer, vacuus, and says, "foeliciter alludit Gr. [Greek: lagaros], laxus, vacuus." In Layamon we have (244, 16.), "the put wæs i-lær." I have found but one instance in Middle English, and that is in the curious old Phrase-Book compiled by William Horman, Head Master of Eton School in the reign of Henry VIII:—

"'At a soden shyfte leere barellis, tyed together, with boardis above, make passage over a streme.' Tumultuario opere, inanes cuppæ colligatæ et tabulatis instratæ fluminis transitu perhibent."—Hormanni Vulgaria, Lond. 1519, f. 272 b.

Instances of the word are not frequent, possibly because we had another word for empty (toom) in common with the Danes; but perhaps there was no necessity for dwelling upon it in the sense of empty; it was only its application as an epithet to a concave or hollow shield that your question could have had in view.

Once more thanking you most heartily for the pleasure and profit I have derived from the Deutsche Grammatik, and all your other important labours, I am, sir, your grateful and obliged servant,

    S.W. SINGER.

Mickleham, Nov. 23. 1849.

FOLK LORE

ST. VALENTINE IN NORWICH—COOK-EELS, &c. &c

The day appropriated to St. Valentine is kept with some peculiarity in the city of Norwich. Although "Valentines," as generally understood, that is to say billets sent by means of the post, are as numerously employed here as in other places, yet the custom consists not in the transmission of a missive overflowing with hearts and darts, or poetical posies, but in something far more substantial, elegant and costly—to wit, a goodly present of value unrestricted in use or expense. Though this custom is openly adopted among relatives and others whose friendship is reciprocated, yet the secret mode of placing a friend in possession of an offering is followed largely,—and this it is curious to remark, not on the day of the saint, when it might be supposed that the appropriateness of the gift would be duly ratified, the virtue of the season being in full vigour, but on the eve of St. Valentine, when it is fair to presume his charms are not properly matured. The mode adopted among all classes is that of placing the presents on the door-sill of the house of the favoured person, and intimating what is done by a run-a-way knock or ring as the giver pleases.

So universal is this custom in this ancient city, that it may be stated with truth some thousands of pounds are annually expended in the purchase of Valentine presents. At the time of writing (February 2.) the shops almost generally exhibit displays of articles calculated for the approaching period, unexampled in brilliancy, taste and costliness, and including nearly every item suitable to the drawing room, the parlour, or the boudoir. The local papers contain numerous advertising announcements of "Valentines;" the walls are occupied with printed placards of a similar character, and the city crier, by means of a loud bell and an equally sonorous voice, proclaims the particular advantages in the Valentine department of rival emporiums. All these preparations increase as the avator of St. Valentine approaches. At length the saint and his eve arrives—passes—and the custom, apparently expanding with age, is placed in abeyance until the next year. I am inclined to believe that this mode of keeping St. Valentine is confined to this city and the county of Norfolk.

As regards priority of occurrence this year, I should have first mentioned, that on Shrove Tuesday a custom commences of eating a small bun called cocque'els—cook-eels—coquilles—(the name being spelt indifferently) which is continued through the season of Lent. Forby, in his Vocabulary of East Anglia, calls this production "a sort of cross bun," but no cross is placed upon it, though its composition is not dissimilar. My inquiries, and, I may add, my reading, have not led me to the origin of either of the customs now detailed (with the exception of a few unsatisfactory words given by Forby on cook-eels), and I should be glad to find these brief notices leading by your means to more extended information on both subjects, not only as regards this part of the country, but others also.

    JOHN WODDERSPOON.

Norwich.

Old Charms.—I think that, if you are anxious to accumulate as much as you can of the Folk Lore of England, no set of men are more likely to help you than the clergy, particularly the younger part, viz., curates, to whom the stories they hear among their flock have the gloss of novelty. I send you a specimen of old charms, &c. that have come under my notice in the south-eastern counties.

No. 1. is a dialogue between the Parson and the old Dame:—

"P. Well, Dame Grey, I hear you have a charm to cure the toothache. Come, just let me hear it; I should be so much pleased to know it.

"Dame. Oh, your reverence, it's not worth telling."

(Here a long talk—Parson coaxing the Dame to tell him—old lady very shy, partly suspecting he is quizzing her, partly that no charms are proper things, partly willing to know what he thinks about it.) At last it ends by her saying—

"Well, your reverence, you have been very kind to me, and I'll tell you: it's just a verse from Scripture as I says over those as have the toothache:—

"'And Jesus said unto Peter, What aileth thee? and Peter answered, Lord, I have toothache. And the Lord healed him.'"

"P. Well, but Dame Grey, I think I know my Bible, and I don't find any such verse in it."

"Dame. Yes, your reverence, that is just the charm. It's in the Bible, but you can't find it!"

No. 2. To avert sickness from a family, hang up a sickle, or iron implement, at the bed head.