Notes and Queries, Number 47, September 21, 1850

"One of the savage remains of Norman policy, disgracing our statute book, as the practice did the common law."

He noticed that the sheriff who did not execute the sentence of burning alive was liable to a prosecution; but he thanked Heaven there was not a man in England who would carry such a sentence into effect. He obtained leave to bring in a bill for altering this cruel law; and in that session the Act 30 G. III. c. 48. was passed—

"For discontinuing the judgment which has been required by law to be given against women convicted of certain crimes, and substituting another judgment in lieu thereof."

A debt of gratitude is due to the memory of Sir Benjamin Hammett, for his exertions, at that period, in the cause of humanity. Thank God, we now live in times when the law is less cruel, and more chary of human life.

    OCTOGENARIUS.

A NOTE ON MORGANATIC MARRIAGES

Grimm (Deutsche Rechts Alterthumer, vol. ii., p. 417.), after a long dissertation, in which it appears that the money paid by the bridegroom to the wife's relations (I believe subsequently also to the wife herself) had every form of a purchase, possibly derived also from some symbolic customs common to all northern tribes, offers the following as the origin of this word "morganatic:"—

"Es gab aber im Alterthum noch einen erlaubten Ausweg für die Verbindung vorneluner Männer mit geringen (freien und selbst unfreien) Frauen, den Concubinat, der ohne feierliches Verlöbniss, ohne Brautgabe und Mitgift eingegangen wurde, mithin keine wahre und volle Ehe, dennoch ein rechtmässiges Verhältniss war.

"Da jedoch die Kirche ein solches Verhältniss missbilligte durch keine Einsegnung weihte, so wurde es allmählich unerlaubt und verboten als Ausnahme aber bis auf die neueste Zeit für Fürsten zugelassen—ja durch Trauung an die linke Hand gefeiert. Die Benennung Morganatische Ehe,—Matrimonium ad Morganaticam (11. Feud. 29.), rührt daher, dass den Concubinen eine Morgangabe (woraus im Mittelalter die Lombarden 'Morganatica' machten)—bewilligt zu werden pflegte—es waren Ehen auf blosse Morgengabe. Den Beweis liefern Urkunden, die Morganatica für Morgengabe auch in Fallen gebrauchen wo von wahrer Ehe die Rede ist." (See Heinecius, Antiq. 3. 157, 158.)

The case now stands thus:

It was the custom to give money to the wife's relations on the marriage-day.

It was not the custom with respect to unequal marriage (Misheirath): this took place "ohne Brautgabe und Mitgift," which was also of later origin.

The exception made by the Church for princes, restored the woman so far, that the marriage was legally and morally recognised by the Lombard law and the Church, with exceptions as regards issue, and that the left hand was given for the right.

With regard to this latter, it would be desirable to trace whether giving of the land had any symbolic meaning. I think the astrologists consider the right as the nobler part of the body; if so, giving of the left in this case is not without symbolic significance. It must be remembered how much symbolism prevailed among the tribes which swept Europe on the fall of the Roman empire, and their Eastern origin.

The Morgengabe, according to Cancianus (Leges Barbarorum, tom. iv. p. 24.), was at first a free gift made by the husband after the first marriage night. This was carried to such excess, that Liutprand ordained

"Tamen ipsum Morgengabe volumus, ut non sit amplius nisi quarta pars ejus substantia, qui ipsum Morgengabe dedit."

This became subsequently converted into a right termed justitia.

Upon this extract from a charter,—

"Manifesta causa est mihi, quoniam die ilio quando te sposavi, promiseram tibi dare justitiam tuam secundum legem meam [qr. my Lombard law in opposition to the Roman, which he had a right to choose,] in Morgencap, id est, quartam portionem omnium rerum mobilium et immobilium," &c.

Cancianus thus comments:—

"Animadverte, quam recte charta hæc cum supra alligatis formulis conveniat. Sponsus promiserat Morgencap, quando feminam desponsaverat, inde vero ante conjugium chartam conscribit: et quod et Liutprandi lege, et ex antiquis moribus Donum fuit mere gratuitum, hic appellatur Justitia secundum legem Langobardorum."

The Morgencap here assumes, I apprehend, somewhat the form of dower. That it was so, is very doubtful. (Grimm, vol. ii. p. 441. "Morgengabe.")

"An demselben Morgen empfängt die JungFrau von ihrem Gemahl ein ansehnliches Geschenk, welches Morgengabe heisst. Schon in der Pactio Guntherammi et Childeberti, werden Dos und Morganagiba unterschieden, ebenso Leg. Rip. 37. 2. Alaman. 56. 1, 2. Dos und Morgangeba; Lex Burgend. 42. 2. Morgangeba und das 'pretium nuptiale;' bei den Langobarden, 'Meta und Morgengab.'"

I do not say this answers the question of your correspondent G., which is, what is the derivation of the word?

Its actual signification, I think, means left-handed; but to think is not to resolve, and the question is open to the charitable contributions of your learned and able supporters.

As regards the Fairy Morgana, who was married to a mortal, I confess, with your kind permission, I had rather not accept her as a satisfactory reply. It is as though you would accept "once upon a time" as a chronological date! She was married to a mortal—true; but morganatically, I doubt it. If morganatic came from this, it should appear the Fairy Morgana was the first lady who so underwent the ceremony. Do not forget Lurline, who married also a mortal, of whom the poet so prettily sings:

"Lurline hung her head,
Turned pale, and then red;
And declared his abruptness in popping the question
So soon after dinner had spoilt her digestion."

This lady's marriage resembled the other in all respects, and I leave you to decide, and no man is more competent, from your extensive knowledge of the mythology of Medieval Europe, whether Morgana, beyond the mere accident of her name, was more likely than Lurline to have added a word with a puzzling etymology to the languages of Europe. The word will, I think, be found of Eastern origin, clothed in a Teutonic form.

After all, Jacob Grimm and Cancianus may interest your readers, and so I send the Note.

    S.H.

Athenæum, Sept. 6. 1850

MINOR NOTES

Alderman Beckford.—Gifford (Ben Jonson, vol. vi. p. 481.) has the following note:—

"The giants of Guildhall, thank heaven, yet defend their charge: it only remains to wish that the citizens may take example by the fate of Holmeby, and not expose them to an attack to which they will assuredly be found unequal. It is not altogether owing to their wisdom that this has not already taken place. For twenty years they were chained to the car of a profligate buffoon, who dragged them through every species of ignominy to the verge of rebellion; and their hall is even yet disgraced with the statue of a worthless negro-monger, in the act of insulting their sovereign with a speech of which (factious and brutal as he was) he never uttered one syllable." … "By my troth, captain, these are very bitter words."

But Gifford was generally correct in his assertions; and twenty-two years after his note, I made the following one:—

"It is a curious fact, but a true one, that Beckford did not utter one syllable of this speech. It was penned by Horne Tooke, and by his art put on the records of the city and on Beckford's statue, as he told me, Mr. Braithwaite, Mr. Seyers, &c., at the Athenian Club.

"ISAAC REED.

"See the Times Of July 23. 1838, p. 6."

The worshipful Company of Ironmongers have relegated their statue from their hall to a lower position: but it still disgraces the Guildhall, and will continue to do so, as long as any factious demagogue is permitted to have a place among its members.

    L.S.

The Frozen Horn.—Perhaps it is not generally known that the writer of Munchausen's Travels borrowed this amusing incident from Heylin's Mikrokosmos. In the section treating of Muscovy, he says:—

"This excesse of cold in the ayre, gave occasion to Castilian, in his Aulicus, wittily and not incongruously to faine that if two men being smewhat distant, talke together in the winter, their words will be so frozen that they cannot be heard: but if the parties in the spring returne to the same place, their words will melt in the same order that they were frozen and spoken, and be plainly understood."

    J.S.

Salisbury.

Inscription from Roma Subterranea.—If you deem the translation of this inscription, quoted in Lord Lindsay's fanciful but admirable Sketches of the History of Christian Art, worth a place among your Notes, it is very heartily at your service.

"Sisto viator
Tot ibi trophæa, quot ossa
Quot martyres, tot triumphi.
Antra quæ subis, multa quæ cernis marmora,
Vel dum silent,
Palam Romæ gloriam loquuntur.