Notes and Queries, Number 41, August 10, 1850

    T.E.L.L.

19th July, 1850.

"De male quæsitis," &c.—Spelman's striking argument, that spoliated church property is seldom enjoyed for more than three generations, seems but a special application of a general principle,—

"De male quæsitis gaudet non tertius hæraes."

Can any of your readers tell me who is the author of the above verse? I find it quoted as "an adage" by John Gadsbury, in his work On the Doctrine of Nativities, 1658.

    R.P.

Westminster Abbey.—The late Sir Harry Englefield is known to have had access to some of the original fabric accounts of this venerable structure. Can any of your readers inform me whether he published the information he may have obtained from those documents; and, if so, where it may be found?

    J.BT.

Haberdasher—Martinet.—Can any of your correspondents suggest an etymology for the word haberdasher? I ought, perhaps, to say that I am acquainted with the derivations propounded by Mr. Richardson, but consider them all unsatisfactory. While on the subject, I would also ask if Mr. Richardson's Dictionary is considered the best source extant of information on English etymology, because I cannot help thinking that it has very many faults and deficiencies. The very word, for instance, on the derivation of which your valuable correspondent MR. FORBES offered a suggestion in No. 38., viz. Martinet, I had in vain sought for in Mr. Richardson's Dictionary, at least in his quarto edition, 1887.

    PRISCIAN.

"Querela Cantabrigiensis."—Is anything known of the authorship of the Querela Cantabrigiensis: or, a Remonstrance by way of Apologie for the banished Members of the late flourishing University of Cambridge. By some of the said Sufferers. Anno Dom. 1647? This seems a favourable time for inserting this Query, as there is a chance of a second series of "The Universities' Complaint" making its appearance before the year is out.

    J.M.B.

Long Lonkin.—Can any of your readers give me a clue to the personality of Long Lonkin, the hero of a moss-trooping ballad popular in Cumberland, which commences—

"The Lord said to his ladie,
As he mounted his horse,
Beware of Long Lonkin
That lies in the moss."

And goes on to tell how Long Lonkin crept in at "one little window" which was left unfastened, and was counselled by the wicked maiden to—

"Prick the babe in the cradle"

as the only means of bringing down the poor mother, whom he wished to kill.

Are there any other traditions of him, and can he have any connection with the name bestowed by children on the middle finger, in the following elegant rhyme?—

"Tom Thumbkin,
Will Wilkins,
Long Lonkin," &c.?

This I had always supposed merely to refer to the length of the finger, but the coincidence of names is curious.

    SELEUCUS.

REPLIES

TREATISE OF EQUIVOCATION

I can now inform you that the MS. Treatise of Equivocation, about which J.M. inquired (Vol. i., p. 263.), is preserved in the Bodleian Library (Laud, Miscellaneous MSS. 655.). Dodd, in his Church History (vol. ii. pp. 381. 428.), under the names Blackwell and Francis Tresham, mentions the work by its second title, A Treatise against Lying and fraudulent Dissimulation, and states that the MS. is in the Bodleian. Through the kindness of Dr. Baudinel, I have seen the tract; and as there is a certain historical interest attached to it, some information on the subject may be acceptable to your readers. But it may be as well first to give the account of its production at the trial of Guy Fawkes and the conspirators, Jan. 27, 1606. (See State Trials, vol. ii. col. 180.) After Coke had introduced under the seventh head of his speech, as the fourth means for carrying on the plot, "their perfidious and perjurious equivocating," there follows:—

"And here was showed a Book, written not long before the Queen's death, at what time Thomas Winter was employed into Spain, entituled, 'A Treatise of Equivocation,' which book being seen and allowed by Garnet, the superior of the Jesuits, and Blackwell, the Archpriest of England, in the beginning thereof Garnet with his own hand put out those words in the title of 'Equivocation,' and made it thus; 'A Treatise against Lying and fraudulent Dissimulation.' … And in the end thereof, Blackwell besprinkles it with his blessing, saying, 'Tractatus iste valde doctus, et vere pius et Catholicus est. Certe S. Scripturarum, patrum, doctorum, scholasticorum, canonistarum, et optimarum rationum præsidiis plenissime firmat æquitatem æquivocationis; ideoque dignissimus est qui typis propagetur, ad consolationem afflictorum Catholicorum, et omnium piorum instructionem.'"

Coke referred to it again at Garnet's trial, March 28, 1606 (State Trials, vol. ii. p. 234.); and the importance attached to the discovery of the work may be judged of by Morton's Full Satisfaction, 1606: a very large part of which is occupied in discussing it.

The copy in the Bodleian is the one which was produced at the trial. It is a small quarto in a vellum cover, on the outside of which is written, on the front side, in a later hand, "Blackwell de Equivocatione, &c.;" on the other side, in Sir E. Coke's hand, "Equivocations." It consists of sixty-six pages in all; i.e. two leaves at the beginning originally left blank, and not numbered; sixty-one pages numbered continuously, and fifty-nine of them written on: p. 61., that is, the fly-leaf at the end, contains Blackwell's imprimatur as described by Coke. On the first fly-leaf, at the beginning, is the following memorandum:—

"This booke, contening 61 pages, I founde in a chamber in the Inner Temple, wherein Sr Thomas Tresham used to lye, and whiche he obteyned for his two younger sonnes. This 5 of December, 1605." EDW. COKE.

"Os quod mentitur occidit animam."

It may be enough to remind the reader, that after Nov. 5, 1605, Coke, being Attorney-General, was engaged in prosecuting the discovery of the plot and seeking for evidence. Francis Tresham, to whom the authorship is attributed by Dodd (vol. ii. p. 427, 428.), was a son of Sir Thomas Tresham; his connection with Garnet and the plot is well known. Sir T. Tresham died Sept. 11, 1605. (Dodd, vol. ii. p. 58.) Francis had been committed to prison, and died Nov. 20, 1605; and Coke found this in searching his chambers a fortnight after. The title originally stood thus:—

"A TREATISE OF EQUIVOCATION, wherein is largely discussed the question, whether a Catholicke or any other person before a Magistrate being demaunded uppon his oath whether a Prieste were in such a place, may (notwithstanding his perfect knowledge to the contrary), without Perjury, and securely in conscience answere, No: with this secreat meaning reserved in his minde, That he was not there so that any man is bound to detect it."

The words in small capitals and Italics occupying the first two lines are crossed out, and "whe-," the first syllable of whether, re-written at the beginning of line 3. At the end of this title, interlined by another hand, follow the words "newly, overseer … ignorants;" but these words are also struck through and re-written on the preceding leaf, on which, written by the same hand by which the interlineation was made (Garnet's, as it would seem), the title stands,—

"A Treatise of against Lying and fraudulent Dissimulation. Newly overseen by the Authour, and published for the defence of Innocency and for the Instruction of Ignorants."

The "of", in Italics, is struck out. The MS. has other corrections throughout in the same (Garnet's) hand; and was evidently prepared for the press, as Blackwell's imprimatur implies.

I have to apologise for some incorrect dates in my last communication.

    J.B.

BOETHIUS' CONSOLATIONS OF PHILOSOPHY

The celebrated treatise De Consolatione Philosophiæ, was translated into English verse by John Walton, otherwise called Johannes Capellanus, in the year 1410. A beautiful manuscript on parchment, of this translation, is preserved in the British Museum (Harl. MS. 43.). Other copies are amongst the archives of Lincoln Cathedral, Baliol College, &c. It was printed in the Monastery of Tavestok in 1525, a copy of which impression is of the utmost rarity. There is an English prose translation by "George Colvil, alias Coldewell," printed by John Cawood, 4to. 1556. And again, Boethius' Five Bookes of Philosophicall Comfort, translated by J.T., and printed at London in 12mo., 1609.

Viscount Preston's translation was first printed in 8vo., 1695. The edition of 1712, mentioned by your correspondent, was the second. Boethius was again translated by W. Causton in 1730, and with notes and illustrations, by the Rev. P. Ridpath, 8vo., 1785. The latter is, I believe, an excellent translation; it is accompanied by a Life of Boethius, drawn up with great care and accuracy. In 1789 a translation by R. Duncan appeared at Edinburgh; and in 1792, an anonymous translation was printed in London. The latter is said to be a miserable performance.

King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version, with an English translation and notes, by J.S. Cardale, was printed at London, in 8vo., 1829.

    EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

Queen Elizabeth's Translation of Boethius (Vol. ii., p. 56.).—One of JARLTZBERG'S inquiries is, "Has Queen Elizabeth's work (which she executed during her captivity before she ascended the throne) been printed?" Certainly not: if it had been, it would have been well known. May we venture to anticipate an affirmative reply to another parallel question—Does Queen Elizabeth's translation of Boethius exist in manuscript? But where did JARLTZBERG learn that it was "executed during her captivity before she ascended the throne?" We know that she made such a translation when she was sixty years of age, that is, in October and November, 1593, (see Nichols's Progresses, &c., of Queen Elizabeth, vol. iii. p. 564., and the Gentleman's Magazine for February last, p. 143.), and it is a very interesting proof of the continuance of her learned studies at that advanced period of her life; and, as the curious document which records this fact is unnoticed in the last edition of Royal and Noble Authors by Mr. Park, it is probably a misapprehension that the same task had engaged some of the hours of her captivity; or rather is it not one of those dove-tailing conjectures in which some of our most popular lady-biographers have recently exhibited such extravagant and misplaced ingenuity?

    JOHN GOUGH NICHOLS.

Boethius' Consolations of Philosophy (Vol. ii., p. 56.).—JARLTZBERG is wrong in supposing that Richard Viscount Preston's translation appeared first in 1712. I have now before me an edition in 8vo. "London: printed by J.D. for Awnsham and John Churchill, at the Black Swan, in Paternoster row; and Francis Hildyard, bookseller in York, MDCXCV." Horace Walpole, in his Royal and Noble Authors, states that the publication in 1712 was the "second edition corrected;" and Mr. Park says in a note, that the first edition was in 1695, 8vo.

    C.H. COOPER

Cambridge, June 24. 1850.

ETYMOLOGICAL QUERIES ANSWERED

J. MN. (Vol. ii., p. 153.) has propounded a dozen of most recondite and puzzling archaisms, upon which I have to offer a few notes.