Notes and Queries, Number 38, July 20, 1850

Presages of Death.—The Note by Mr. C. FORBES (Vol. ii., p. 84.) on "High Spirits considered a Presage of impending Calamity or Death," reminded me of a collection of authorities I once made, for academical purposes, of a somewhat analogous bearing,—I mean the ancient belief in the existence of a power of prophecy at that period which immediately precedes dissolution.

The most ancient, as well as the most striking instance, is recorded in the forty-ninth chapter of Genesis:—

"And Jacob called his sons and said, Gather yourselves together that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.... And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into his bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people."

Homer affords two instances of a similar kind: thus, Patroclus prophesies the death of Hector (Il. [Greek: p] 852.)[1 - For the assistance of the general reader, I have introduced hasty translations of the several passages quoted.]:—

[Greek: "Ou thaen oud autos daeron beae alla toi aedae
Agchi parestaeke Thanatos kai Moira krataiae,
Chersi dament Achilaeos amnmonos Aiakidao."][2 - (And I moreover tell you, and do you meditate well upon it, that) you yourself are not destined to live long, for even now death is drawing nigh unto you, and a violent fate awaits you,—about to be slain in fight by the hands of Achilles, the irreproachable son of Oacus.]

Again, Hector in his turn prophesies the death of Achilles by the hand of Paris (Il. [Greek: ch.] 358.):—

[Greek: "Phrazeo nun, mae toi ti theon maenima genomai
Aemati to ote ken se Pharis kai phoibus Apollon,
Esthlon eont, olesosin eni Skaiaesi pulaesin."][3 - Consider now whether I may not be to you the cause of divine anger, in that day when Paris and Phoebus Apollo shall slay you, albeit so mighty, at the Scaean gate.]

This was not merely a poetical fancy, or a superstitious faith of the ignorant, for we find it laid down as a great physical truth by the greatest of the Greek philosophers, the divine Socrates:—

[Greek: "To de dae meta touto epithumo humin chraesmodaesai, o katapsaephisamenoi mou kai gar eimi aedae entautha en o malist anthropoi chraesmodousin hotan mellosin apothaneisthai."][4 - Wherefore I have an earnest desire to prophesy to you who have condemned me; for I am already arrived at that stage of my existence in which, especially, men utter prophetic sayings, that is, when they are about to die.]

In Xenophon, also, the same idea is expressed, and, if possible, in language still more definite and precise:—

[Greek: "Hae de tou anthropou psuchae tote daepou theiotatae kataphainetai, kai tote ti ton mellonton proora."][5 - That time, indeed, the soul of man appears to be in a manner divine, for to a certain extent it foresees things which are about to happen.]

Diodorus Siculus, again, has produced great authorities on this subject:—

[Greek: "Puthagoras ho Samios, kai tines heteroi ton palaion phusikon, apephaenanto tas psuchas ton anthropon uparchein athanatous, akolouthos de to dogmati touto kai progignoskein autas ta mellonta, kath hon an kairon en tae teleutae ton apo tou somatos chorismon poiontai."][6 - Pythagoras the Samian, and some others of the ancient philosophers, showed that the souls of men were immortal, and that, when they were on the point of separating from the body, they possessed a knowledge of futurity.]

From the ancient writers I yet wish to add one more authority; and I do so especially, because the doctrine of the Stagirite is therein recorded. Sextus Empiricus writes,—

[Greek: "Hae psuchae, phaesin Aristotelaes, promanteuetai kai proagoreuei ta mellonta—en to kata thanaton chorizesthai ton somaton."][7 - The soul, says Aristotle, when on the point of taking its departure from the body, foretells and prophesies things about to happen.]

Without encroaching further upon the space of this periodical by multiplying evidence corroborative of the same fact, I will content myself by drawing the attention of the reader to our own great poet and philosopher, Shakspeare, whose subtle genius and intuitive knowledge of human nature render his opinions on all such subjects of peculiar value. Thus in Richard II., Act ii. sc. 1., the dying Gaunt, alluding to his nephew, the young and self-willed king, exclaims,—

"Methinks I am a prophet new inspired;
And thus, expiring, do foretel of him."

Again, in Henry IV., Part I., Act v. sc. 4., the brave Percy, when in the agonies of death, conveys the same idea in the following words:—

"O, I could prophesy,
But that the earthy and cold hand of death
Lies on my tongue."

Reckoning, therefore, from the time of Jacob, this belief, whether with or without foundation, has been maintained upwards of 3500 years. It was grounded on the assumed fact, that the soul became divine in the same ratio as its connection with the body was loosened or destroyed. In sleep, the unity is weakened but not ended: hence, in sleep, the material being dead, the immaterial, or divine principle, wanders unguided, like a gentle breeze over the unconscious strings of an Æolian harp; and according to the health or disease of the body are pleasing visions or horrid phantoms (ægri somnia, as Horace) present to the mind of the sleeper. Before death, the soul, or immaterial principle, is, as it were, on the confines of two worlds, and may possess at the same moment a power which is both prospective and retrospective. At that time its connection with the body being merely nominal, it partakes of that perfectly pure, ethereal, and exalted nature (quod multo magis faciet post mortem quum omnino corpore excesserit) which is designed for it hereafter.

As the question is an interesting one, I conclude by asking, through the medium of the "NOTES AND QUERIES," if a belief in this power of prophesy before death be known to exist at the present day?

    AUGUSTUS GUEST.

London, July 8.

Divination at Marriages.—The following practices are very prevalent at marriages in these districts; and as I do not find them noticed by Brand in the last edition of his Popular Antiquities, they may perhaps be thought worthy a place in the "NOTES AND QUERIES."

1. Put a wedding ring into the posset, and after serving it out, the unmarried person whose cup contains the ring will be the first of the company to be married.

2. Make a common flat cake of flour, water, currants, &c., and put therein a wedding ring and a sixpence. When the company is about to retire on the wedding-day, the cake must be broken and distributed amongst the unmarried females. She who gets the ring in her portion of the cake will shortly be married, and the one who gets the sixpence will die an old maid.

    T.T.W.

Burnley, July 9. 1850.

FRANCIS LENTON THE POET

In a MS. obituary of the seventeenth century, preserved at Staunton Hall, Leicestershire, I found the following:—

"May 12. 1642. This day died Francis Lenton, of Lincoln's Inn, Gent."

This entry undoubtedly relates to the author of three very rare poetical tracts: 1. The Young Gallant's Whirligigg, 1629; 2. The Innes of Court, 1634; 3. Great Brittain's Beauties, 1638. In the dedication to Sir Julius Cæsar, prefixed to the first-named work, the writer speaks of having "once belonged to the Innes of Court," and says he was "no usuall poetizer, but, to barre idlenesse, imployed that little talent the Muses conferr'd upon him in this little tract." Sir Egerton Brydges supposed the copy of The Young Gallant's Whirligigg preserved in the library of Sion College to be unique; but this is not the case, as the writer knows of two others,—one at Staunton Hall, and another at Tixall Priory in Staffordshire. It has been reprinted by Mr. Halliwell at the end of a volume containing The Marriage of Wit and Wisdom, published by the Shakspeare Society. In his prefatory remarks that gentleman says,

"Besides his printed works, Lenton wrote the Poetical History of Queene Hester, with the translation of the 83rd Psalm, reflecting upon the present times. MS. dated 1649."

This date must be incorrect, if our entry in the Staunton obituary relates to the same person; and there is every reason to suppose that it does. The autograph MS. of Lenton occurred in Heber's sale (Part xi. No. 724.), and is thus described:

Hadassiah, or the History of Queen Hester, sung in a sacred and serious poeme, and divided into ten chapters, by F. Lenton, the Queen's Majesties Poet, 1638.

This is undoubtedly the correct date, as it is in the handwriting of the author. Query. What is the meaning of Lenton's title, "the Queen's Majesties Poet"?

    Edward F. Rimbault.

Minor Notes

Lilburn or Prynne?—I am anxious to suggest in "Notes and Queries" whether a character in the Second Canto of Part iii. of Hudibras (line 421), beginning,

"To match this saint, there was another,
As busy and perverse a brother,
An haberdasher of small wares,
In politics and state affairs,"

Has not been wrongly given by Dr. Grey to Lilburn, and whether Prynne is not rather the person described. Dr. Grey admits in his note that the application of the passage to Lilburn involves an anachronism, Lilburn having died in 1657, and this passage being a description of one among

"The quacks of government who sate"

to consult for the Restoration, when they saw ruin impending.

    CH.

Peep of Day.—Jacob Grimm, in his Deutsche Mythologie, p. 428., ed. 1., remarks that the ideas of light and sound are sometimes confounded; and in support of his observation he quotes passages of Danish and German poets in which the sun and moon are said to pipe (pfeifen). In further illustration of this usage, he also cites the words "the sun began to peep," from a Scotch ballad in Scott's Border Minstrelsy, vol. ii. p. 430. In p. 431. he explains the words "par son l'aube," which occur in old French poets, by "per sonitum auroræ;" and compares the English expression, "the peep of day."