Notes and Queries, Number 44, August 31, 1850

    Edward F. Rimbault.

DEVOTIONAL TRACTS BELONGING TO QUEEN KATHERINE PARR

In your Number for August 10th, I observe an inquiry regarding a MS. book of prayers said to have belonged to Queen Katherine Parr. Of the book in question I know nothing, but there has lately come into my possession a volume of early English printed devotional works, which undoubtedly has belonged to this Queen. The volume is a small duodecimo, bound red velvet, with gilt leaves, and it has had ornamental borders and clasps of some metal, as the impressions of these are still distinctly visible upon the velvet covering. The contents of this volume are as follows:

1. "A sermon of Saint Chrysostome, wherein besyde that it is furnysshed with heuenly wisedome and teachinge, he wonderfully proueth that No man is hurted but of hym-selfe: translated into Englishe by the floure of lerned menne in his tyme, Thomas Lupsete, Londoner, 1534."

At the bottom of this title-page is written, in the well-known bold hand of Katherine Parr,—"Kateryn the Quene, K.P.," with the equally well-known flourish beneath.

2. "A svvete and devovte sermon of Holy Saynet Ciprian of mortalitie of man. The rules of a Christian life made by Picus, erle of Mirandula, both translated into Englyshe by Syr Thomas Elyot, Knyght. Londini, Anno verbi incarnati MDXXXIX.

3. "An exhortation to yonge men, &c., by Thomas Lupsete, Londener, 1534.

4. "A treatise of charitie, 1534.

5. "Here be the Gathered Counsales of Sainete Isidorie, &c., 1539.

6. "A compendious and a very fruitful treatise teaching the waye of dyenge well, written to a frende by the floure of lerned men of his tyme, Thomas Lupsete, Londoner, late deceassed, on whose sowle Jesu have mercy. 1541."

Almost all these treatises are printed by Thomas Berthelet. I know not if any of these treatises are now scarce. On the fly-leaf opposite the first page we find the following scriptural sentences, which are, in my opinion, and in that of others to whom I have shown the book, evidently written by the hand of the queen.

It will be only necessary to give the first and last of these sentences:

"Delyte not in Þe multytude of ungodly men, and haue no pleasure in Þem, for they feare not God.

"Refuse not Þe prayer of one yt is in trouble, and turne not away thy face from the nedye."

We need not quote more; but on the opposite side of the fly-leaf are some verses of a different character, and which I suspect to be from the royal pen of Henry VIII. The writing is uncommonly difficult to decypher, but it bears a strong resemblance to all that I have seen of Henry's handwriting. A portion of the verses, as far as I can make them out, are here subjoined:

Respect.

"Blush not, fayre nimphe, tho (nee?) of nobell blod,
I fain avoutch it, and of manners good,
Spottles in lyf, of mynd sencere and sound,
In whoam a world of vertues doth abowend,
And sith besyd yt ye lycens giv withall
Set doughts asyd and to some sporting fall,
Therefoor, suspysion, I do banyshe thee"

Then follows a line I cannot decypher, and at the bottom of the page is

"You will be clear of my suspysion."

Are these verses from some old poet, or are they composed as well as written by the royal tyrant? for no other would, I think, have addressed such lines to "Kateryn the Quene."

I have only to add that the volume was given me by the sister of the late President of the English college at Valladolid, and that he obtained it during his residence in Spain. It is not unlikely it may have been carried thither by some of the English Catholics, who resorted to that country for education. In 1625 it seems to have belonged to John Sherrott.

I should be glad of any information about the verses.

    E. Charlton, M.D.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne, August 18. 1850.

SUGGESTIONS FOR CHEAP BOOKS OF REFERENCE

Although your space is generally devoted to the higher and more curious inquiries respecting antiquities and literature, I am sure you will not grudge a little room for facilitating and improving the means of popular information and instruction.

For every man, almost in any station in society, I submit that the followings works for reference are indispensable, in the most convenient corner or shelf of his library:—1. A Biographical Dictionary. 2. A Gazetteer. 3. A Statistical or Commercial Dictionary. With works of that description the public have been very indifferently supplied during the last thirty years: at least, at the moderate prices calculated to bring them within the reach of students in humbler life, forming the great mass of readers. Mr. Constable, of Edinburgh, published in 1817 an abridged Gazetteer, price 18s., but there has been no such work since. Mr. A.K. Johnston's Geographical Dictionary, at 36s., lately published, supplies to a certain class of readers one of the works wanted.

I beg to suggest a few observations for the improvement of works of this description through your valuable channel.

I. I submit that none of the dictionaries of reference now specified should be published without promise of a periodical supplement every five or seven years, containing later matter and intelligence. For example, how easily could this be given in the case of a Biographical Dictionary! Say that such a work has been published in 1830 (which, it is believed, is the date of Gorton's excellent Biographical Dictionary), the compiler of a supplement has only to collect and arrange monthly or annual obituaries of the common magazines since 1830 to make a good and useful supplemental volume.

II. I would suggest to skilful authors and booksellers publishing Biographical Dictionaries to follow the French and American custom of including in them the more eminent contemporary living characters. That would add greatly to the use of the book; and the matter could easily be collected from the current Books of Peerage and Parliamentary Companions, with aid from the numerous magazines as to distinguished literary men.

III. The supplements for Gazetteers could be easily compiled from the parliamentary papers and magazines of the day. I would refer particularly to the supplements published by Mr. McCulloch to his Commercial Dictionary as an example to be followed; while the conduct lately adopted in the new edition of Maunder's Biographical Treasury should be avoided. The old edition of that collection consisted of 839 pages, and it is believed it was stereotyped. A new edition, or a new issue, of the old 839 pages was lately published, the same as the original dictionary, with a supplement of 72 pages. That is not sold separately; so that the holders of the old edition must purchase the whole work a second time in 1850, at 10s., to procure the supplement. The public should not encourage such a style of publication. Any one might publish a supplemental dictionary since 1836, which would equally serve with the old edition. This hint is particularly addressed to Mr. Charles Knight.

These hints are offered to the publishers and encouragers of popular works for general readers, at economical prices; and they might be extended. For example, dictionaries of medicine for family use have great sale. Sometimes, it is believed, they are stereotyped. Why should not later practice and discoveries be published in a cheaper supplement, to preserve the value of the original work? Thus, in my family, I use the excellent Cyclopædia of Popular Medicine published by Dr. Murray in 1842; but on looking into it for "Chloroform" and "Cod Liver Oil," no such articles are to be found, as they were not known in 1842. The skilful will find many other omissions.

IV. There might be a greater difficulty in constructing a popular commercial or statistical dictionary, at a moderate price, to be supplied with supplements at later intervals. But even as to these, there is a good model in Waterston's Small Dictionary of Commerce, published in 1844, which, with a supplement, might afford, for a few shillings, to give all the later information derived from the free-trade measures and extension of our colonies. Waterston's original work is advertised often for sale at 10s. or 12s., and a supplement at 3s. would bring it within the reach of the great bulk of readers.

These suggestions are offered without the slightest intention to depreciate or disparage the greater and more elaborate works of Mr. McCulloch, and others who compile and publish works worthy of reference, and standards of authority among men of highest science. No man who can afford it would ever be without the latest edition (without the aid of supplements) of large works; but it is manifest that there has been a great neglect to supply the mass of readers in ordinary circumstances with books of common reference, at moderate prices; and I hope that some publishers of enterprise and sagacity will see it to be their interest to act on the advice now offered.

    PHILANTHROPOS.

RIB, WHY THE FIRST WOMAN FORMED FROM

Allow me to request a place for the following curious and quaint exposition of the propriety of the selection of the rib as the material out of which our first mother Eve was formed; and the ingenious illustration which it is made to afford of the relation between wife and husband.

"Thirdly, God so ordered the matter betwixt them, that this adhæsion and agglutination of one to the other should be perpetuall. For by taking a bone from the man (who was nimium osseus, exceeded and was somewhat monstrous, by one bone too much) to strengthen the woman, and by putting flesh in steede thereof to mollifie the man, he made a sweete complexion and temper betwixt them, like harmony in musicke, for their amiable cohabitation.

"Fourthly, that bone which God tooke from the man, was from out the midst of him. As Christ wrought saluation in medio terræ, so God made the woman è medio viri, out of the very midst of man. The species of the bone is exprest to be costa, a rib, a bone of the side, not of the head: a woman is not domina, the ruler; nor of any anterior part; she is not prælata, preferred before the man; nor a bone of the foote; she is not serva, a handmaid; nor of any hinder part; she is not post-posita, set behind the man: but a bone of the side, of a middle and indifferent part, to show that she is socia, a companion to the husband. For qui junguntur lateribus, socii sunt, they that walke side to side and cheeke to cheeke, walke as companions.

"Fifthly, I might adde, a bone from vnder the arme, to put the man in remembrance of protection and defense to the woman.

"Sixthly, a bone not far from his heart to put him in minde of dilection and loue to the woman. Lastly, a bone from the left side, to put the woman in minde, that by reason of her frailty and infirmity she standeth in need of both the one and the other from her husband.

"To conclude my discourse, if these things be duely examined when man taketh a woman to wife, reparat latus suum, what doth he else but remember the maime that was sometimes made in his side, and desireth to repaire it? Repetit costam suam, he requireth and fetcheth back the rib that was taken from him," &c. &c.—From pp. 28, 30, of "Vitis Palatina, A sermon appointed to be preached at Whitehall, upon Tuesday after the marriage of the Ladie Elizabeth, her Grace, by the B. of London. London: printed for John Bill, 1614."

The marriage actually took place on the 14th of February, 1612. In the dedication to the Prince of Wales, afterwards Charles I., the Bishop (Dr. John King) hints that he had delayed the publication till the full meaning of his text, which is Psalm xxviii. ver. 3, should have been accomplished by the birth of a son, an event which had been recently announced, and that, too, on the very day when this Psalm occurred in the course of the Church service.

The sermon is curious, and I may hereafter trouble you with some notices of these "Wedding Sermons," which are evidently contemplated by the framers of our Liturgy, as the concluding homily of the office for matrimony is by the Rubric to be read "if there be no sermon." It is observable that the first Rubric especially directs that the woman shall stand on the man's left hand. Any notices on the subject from your correspondents would be acceptable.

In the first series of Southey's Common Place Book, at page 226., a passage is quoted from Henry Smith's Sermons, which dwells much upon the formation of the woman from the rib of man, but not in such detail as Bishop King has done. Notices of the Bishop may be found in Keble's edition of Hooker, vol. ii. pp. 24, 100, 103. It appears that after his death it was alleged that he maintained Popish doctrines. This his son, Henry King, canon of St. Paul's, and Archdeacon of Colchester, satisfactorily disproved in a sermon at Paul's Cross, and again in the dedication prefixed to his "Exposition upon the Lord's Prayer," 4to., London, 1634. See Wood's Athenæ Oxon., fol. edit. vol. ii. p. 294.

As for the marriage of the Princess Elizabeth, afterwards celebrated for her misfortunes as Queen of Bohemia, it was celebrated in an epithalamium by Dr. Donne, Works, 8vo. edit. vol. vi. p. 550. And in the Somer's Tracts, vol. iii., pp. 35, 43., may be found descriptions of the "shewes," and a poem of Taylor the Water Poet, entitled "Heaven's Blessing and Earth's Joy," all tending to show the great contemporary interest which the event occasioned.

    Balliolensis.