Notes and Queries, Number 79, May 3, 1851

PASSAGES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT ILLUSTRATED FROM DEMOSTHENES

Acts xvii. 21.:

"For all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing."

Can any of your biblical correspondents inform me in what commentary upon the New Testament the coincidence with the following passages in Demosthenes is noticed, or whether any other source of the historical fact has been recorded? In the translation of Petrus Lagnerius, Franc. 1610 (I have not at hand the entire works), we find these words:

"Nihil est omnium, Athenienses, in præsentiâ nocentius, quam quod vos alienati estis a rebus, et tantisper operam datis, dum audientes sedetis, si quid Novi nuntiatum fuerit" (4. contr. Phil.).

Again:

"Nos vero, dicetur verum, nihil facientes, hic perpetuo sedemus cunctabundi, tum decernentes, tum interrogantes, si quid Novi in foro dicatur."—4 Orat. ad Philipp. Epist.

Pricæus, in his very learned and valuable Commentarii in varios N.T. Libros, Lond. 1660, fol., at p. 628, in v. 21., says only—

"Videantur quæ ex Demosthene, Plutarcho, aliis, Eruditi annotarunt."

Matthew xiii. 14.:

"And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive."

This proverb seems to have been common to all ages and countries. It is of frequent occurrence in the New Testament (Mark iv. 12.; viii. 18.; John xii. 40.; Acts xxviii. 25.; Romans xi. 8.), and, as in Matthew, is referred to Isaiah. But, in the Old Testament, there is earlier authority for its use in Deuteronomy xxix. 4. It occurs also in Jeremiah v. 21.; in Ezekiel xii. 2., and, with a somewhat different application, in the Psalms, cxv. 5.; cxxxv. 16.

That it was employed as an established proverb by Demosthenes seems to have been generally overlooked. He says:

"Οἱ μὲν οὕτως ὁρῶντες τὰ τῶν ἠτυχηκότων ἔργα, ὥστε τὸτῆς παροιμίας, ὁρῶντες μὴ ὁρᾶν, καὶ ἀκούοντας μὴ ἀκούειν. (Κατὰ Ἀριστογείτονος, A Taylor, Cantab. vol. ii. pp. 494-5.)

It is quoted, however, by Pricæus (p. 97.), who also supplies exactly corresponding passages from Maximus Tyrius (A.D. 190), Plutarch (A.D. 107-20), and Philo (A.D. 41). Of these, the last only can have been prior to the publication of St. Matthew's Gospel, which Saxius places, at the earliest, in the reign of Claudius.

Hugo Grotius has no reference to Demosthenes in his Annotationes in Vet. Test., Vogel & Doderein, 1776; but cites Heraclitus the Ephesian, who, according to Saxius, flourished in the year 502 B.C., and Aristides, who, on the same authority, lived in the 126th year of the Christian era. Has any other commentator besides Pricæus alluded to the passage in Demosthenes?

    C. H. P.

Brighton, April 21.

THE HOUSE OF MAILLÉ

The house of Maillé (vide Lord Mahon's Life of Condé) contributed to the Crusades one of its bravest champions. Can any of your numerous contributors give me information as to the name and achievements of the Crusader?

Claire Clémence de Maillé, daughter of the Maréchal Duke de Brezé, and niece of Richelieu, was married in 1641 to the Duc d'Enghien, afterwards the Great Condé; and Lord Mahon, somewhere in his life of the hero, makes mention of the princess as the "last of her family."

Claire Clémence had an only brother, who held the exalted post of High Admiral of France, and in 1646 he commanded a French fleet which disembarked 8000 men in the marshes of Sienna, and himself shortly afterwards fell at the siege of Orbitello. The admiral having died unmarried, the Brezé estates became the property of the princess, who transmitted them to her descendants, the last of whom was the unfortunate Duc d'Enghien, who perished at Vincennes.

Thus much is patent; but I think it probable his lordship was not aware that a branch of the family was exiled, and with the La Touches, La Bertouches, &c., settled in the sister kingdom, most likely at the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Their descendants subsequently passed over into this country, and have contributed to the lists of the legal and medical professions. Up to the present century a gentleman bearing the slightly altered name of Mallié held a commission in the British army. Even now, the family is not extinct, and the writer being lately on a visit to a lady, probably the sole representative in name of this once powerful house, noticed in her possession a series of four small engravings, representing the Great Condé; his mother, a princess of Montmorency, pronounced to be the "handsomest woman in Europe;" the old Maréchal de Maillé Brezé; and his daughter, Claire Clémence.

Our Pall Mall is, I believe, derived from Pailée Maillé, a game somewhat analogous to cricket, and imported from France in the reign of the second Charles: it was formerly played in St. James's Park, and in the exercise of the sport a small hammer or mallet was used to strike the ball. I think it worth noting that the Mallié crest is a mailed arm and hand, the latter grasping a mallet.

Be it understood that the writer has no pretensions to a knowledge of heraldic terms and devices; so, without pinning any argument on the coincidence, he thought it not without interest. He is aware that the mere fact of a similarity between surnames and crests is not without its parallel in English families.

    A New Subscriber.

Birmingham, April 22. 1851.

Minor Queries

Meaning of "eign."—What is the meaning of the word "eign" in Presteign, also the name of a street and a brook? Is it connected with the Anglo-Saxon thegen or theign?

    H. C. K.

Hereford.

The Bonny Cravat.—Can any of your readers give a probable explanation of the meaning of the sign of an inn at Woodchurch, in Kent, which is "The Bonny Cravat," now symbolised as a huge white neckcloth, with a "waterfall" tie?

    E. H. Y.

What was the Day of the Accession of Richard III.?—Sir Harris Nicolas, in his Chronology of History (2nd edition, p. 326.) decides for June 26, 1433, giving strong reasons for such opinion. But his primary reason, founded on a fac-simile extract from the Memoranda Rolls in the office of the King's Remembrancer in the Exchequer of Ireland, printed, with fac-simile, in the second Report of the Commissioners on Irish Records, 1812, p. 160., gives rise to a doubt; for, as Sir Harris Colas states,

"It is remarkable that the printed copy should differ from the fac-simile in the identical point which caused the letter to be published, for in the former the 'xxvij

of June' occurs, whereas in the fac-simile it is the 'xxvj

of June.' The latter is doubtless correct; for an engraver, who copies precisely what is before him, is less likely to err than a transcriber or editor."

This is most probably the case; but perhaps some of your correspondents in Ireland will settle the point accurately.

    J. E.

Lucas Family.—Can any of your correspondents inform me what were the names of the sons of John Lucas, of Weston, co. Suffolk, who lived at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century? One of them, Thomas, was Solicitor-General, and a Privy Councillor, to Henry VII., and had estates in Suffolk.

    W. L.

Watch of Richard Whiting.—In Warner's History of Glastonbury mention is made of the watch of Richard Whiting, the last abbot. It is stated in the Gentleman's Magazine of 1805 to have been in the possession of the Rev. Mr. Bowen, of Bath. Since then, I think, it was sold by auction; at least I have heard so. Perhaps some of your readers know what has become of it, and can say where it now is. The name "Richard Whiting" is said to be engraved inside it.

    C. O. S. M.

Laurence Howel, the Original Pilgrim.—The unfortunate Laurence Howel published in 1717 (the year in which he was committed to Newgate) a little volume, entitled Desiderius; or, the Original Pilgrim, a Divine Dialogue, showing the most compendious Way to arrive at the Love of God. Rendered into English, and explained, with Notes. By Laurence Howel, A.M. London; printed by William Redmayne, for the Author, 1717. In the preface he tells us, that the work was originally written in Spanish; afterwards translated into Italian, French, High-Dutch and Low-Dutch, and about the year 1587 into Latin from the High-Dutch, by Laurentius Surius. There were subsequently two more Latin versions: one by Vander Meer, from the French and Dutch copies, compared with the original; and another by Antonius Boetzer in 1617. The author's name, he says, was unknown to all the editors, and the several editions had different titles; by some it was called the Treasure of Devotion, by others the Compendious Way to Salvation. The last, however (Boetzer's, I presume), bears that of Desiderius. As this was the author's title, Mr. Howel adopted it for his translation, adding, he says, that of the Original Pilgrim, to distinguish it from others of the same name, or very like it. He there informs us that Mr. Royston (the distinguished publisher in Charles II.'s and James II.'s reigns) had declared that Bishop Patrick took his Parable of the Pilgrim from it, and that it had formed the ground-work of the writings of many authors in that style.

Can any of your readers give me the titles of the editions in Spanish, or any language, of this interesting little book? I should be much obliged for any information regarding it. Is Howel's little translation scarce? Has the authorship of the original ever been hinted at?

    Richard Hooper.

University Club, March 22. 1851.

The Churchwardens' Accounts, &c., of St. Mary-de-Castro, Leicester.—Nichols, in his History of Leicestershire, has given numerous extracts from the accounts of this ancient collegiate establishment (founded in 1107), and also from a book relating to the religious guild of The Trinity connected with the church. All these documents have now, however, entirely disappeared,—how, or at what period since the publication of the work, is unknown; but I find by a newspaper-cutting in my possession (unfortunately without date or auctioneer's name), that a very large collection of ancient documents, filling several boxes, and relating to this church and others in the county, was sold by auction in London some years ago, probably between the years 1825 and 1830. I shall feel obliged if any of your correspondents can inform me in whose possession they now are, and if they can be consulted.

    Leicestrensis.

Aristotle and Pythagoras.—What reason (if any) is there for supposing that Aristotle derived his philosophy from Pythagoras himself?