Notes and Queries, Number 46, September 14, 1850

Tell me truly, what 'tis for.
Spider. 'Tis for curtains for the king,
When he lies in his state bed.
Fly. Spider, 'tis too mean a thing,
Tell me why your toils you spread.
&c. &c. &c.

There were other stanzas, I believe, but these are all I can remember. My notion is, that the verses in question form part of a collection of nursery songs and rhymes by Charles Lamb, published many years ago, but now quite out of print. This, however, is a mere surmise on my part, and has no better foundation than the vein of humour, sprightliness, and originality, obvious enough in the above extract, which we find running through and adorning all he wrote. "Nihil quod tetigit non ornavit."

    S.J.

A Lexicon of Types.—Can any of your readers inform me of the existence of a collection of emblems or types? I do not mean allegorical pictures, but isolated symbols, alphabetically arranged or otherwise.

Types are constantly to be met with upon monuments, coins, and ancient title-pages, but so mixed with other matters as to render the finding a desired symbol, unless very familiar, a work of great difficulty. Could there be a systematic arrangement of all those known, with their definitions, it would be a very valuable work of reference,—a work in which one might pounce upon all the sacred symbols, classic types, signs, heraldic zoology, conventional botany, monograms, and the like abstract art.

    LUKE LIMNER.

Montaigne, Select Essays of.—

"Essays selected from Montaigne, with a Sketch of the Life of the Author. London. For P. Cadell, &c. 1800."

This volume is dedicated to the Rev. William Coxe, rector of Bemerton.

The life of Montaigne is dated the 28th of March, 1800, and signed Honoria. At the end of the book is this advertisement:—

"Lately published by the same Author 'The Female Mentor.' 2d edit., in 2 vols. 12mo."

Who was Honoria? and are these essays a scarce book in England? In France it is entirely unknown to the numerous commentators on Montaigne's works.

    O.D.

Custom of wearing the Breast uncovered in Elizabeth's Reign.—Fynes Moryson, in a well-known passage of his Itinerary, (which I suppose I need not transcribe), tells us that unmarried females and young married women wore the breasts uncovered in Queen Elizabeth's reign. This is the custom in many parts of the East. Lamartine mentions it in his pretty description of Mademoiselle Malagambe: he adds, "it is the custom of the Arab females." When did this curious custom commence in England, and when did it go out of fashion?

    JARLTZBERG.

Milton's Lycidas.—In a Dublin edition of Milton's Paradise Lost (1765), in a memoir prefixed I find the following explanation of than rather obscure passage in Lycidas:—

"Besides what the grim wolf, with privy paw,
Daily devours apace, and nothing said;
But that two-handed engine at the door
Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more."

"This poem is not all made up of sorrow and tenderness, there is a mixture of satire and indignation: for in part of it, the poet taketh occasion to inveigh against the corruptions of the clergy, and seemeth to have first discovered his acrimony against Arb. Laud, and to have threatened him with the loss of his head, which afterwards happened to him thorough the fury of his enemies. At least I can think of no sense so proper to be given to these verses in Lycidas." (p. vii.)

Perhaps some of your numerous correspondents will kindly inform me of the meaning or meanings usually assigned to this passage.

    JARLTZBERG.

Sitting during the Lessons.—What is the origin of the congregation remaining seated, while the first and second lessons are read, in the church service? The rubric is silent on the subject; it merely directs that the person who reads them shall stand:—

"He that readeth so standing and turning himself, as he may best be heard of all such as are present."

With respect to the practice of sitting while the epistle is read, and of standing while the gospel is read, in the communion service; there is in the rubric a distinct direction that "all the people are to stand up" during the latter, while it is silent as to the former. From the silence of the rubric as to standing during the two lessons of the morning service, and the epistle in the communion service, it seems to have been inferred that the people were to sit. But why are they directed to stand during the gospel in the communion service, while they sit during the second lesson in the morning service?

    L.

Blew-Beer.—Sir, having taken a Note according to your very sound advice, I addressed a letter to the John Bull newspaper, which was published on Saturday, Feb. 16. It contained an extract from a political tract, entitled,—

"The true History of Betty Ireland, with some Account of her Sister Blanche of Brittain. Printed for J. Robinson, at the Golden Lion in Ludgate Street, MDCCLIII. (1753)."

In allusion to the English the following passage occurs,—

"But they forget, they are all so idle and debauched, such gobbling and drinking rascals, and expensive in blew-beer," &c.

Query the unde derivatur of blew-beer, and if it is to be taken in the same sense as the modern phrase of "blue ruin," and if so, the cause of the change or history of both expressions?

    H.

Carpatio.—I have lately met with a large aquatinted engraving, bearing the following descriptive title: "Angliæ Regis Legati inspiciuntur Sponsam petentes Filiam Dionati Cornubiæ Regis pro Anglo Principe." The costume of the figures is of the latter half of the fifteenth century. The painter's name appears on a scroll, OP. VICTOR CARPATIO VENETI. The copy of the picture for engraving was drawn by Giovanni de Pian, and engraved by the same person and Francesco Gallimberti, at Venice. I do not find the name of Carpatio in the ordinary dictionaries of painters, and shall be glad to learn whether he has here represented an historical event, or an incident of some mediæval romance. I suspect the latter must be the case, as Cornubia is the Latin word used for Cornwall, and I am not aware of its having any other application. Is this print the only one of the kind, or is it one of a set?

    J.G.N.

Value of Money in Reign of Charles II.—Will any of your correspondents inform me of the value of 1000l. circa Charles II. in present money, and the mode in which the difference is estimated?

    DION X.

Bishop Berkeley—Adventures of Gaudentio di Lucca.—I have a volume containing the adventures of Signor Gaudentio di Lucca, with his examination before the Inquisition of Bologna. In a bookseller's catalogue I have seen it ascribed to Bishop Berkeley. Can any of your readers inform me who was the author, or give me any particulars as to the book?

    IOTA.

Cupid and Psyche.—Can any of your learned correspondents inform me whether the fable of Cupid and Psyche was invented by Apuleius; or whether he made use of a superstition then current, turning it, as it suited his purpose, into the beautiful fable which has been handed down to us as his composition?

    W.M.

Zünd-nadel Guns.—In paper of September or October last, I saw a letter dated Berlin, Sept. 11, which commenced—

"We have had this morning a splendid military spectacle, and being the first of the kind since the revolution, attracted immense crowds to the scene of action."

"The Fusileer battalions (light infantry) were all armed with the new zünd-nadel guns, the advantages and superiority of which over the common percussion musket now admits of no contradiction, with the sole exception of the facility of loading being an inducement to fire somewhat too quick, when firing independently, as in battle, or when acting en tirailleur. The invincible pedantry and amour-propre of our armourers and inspectors of arms in England, their disinclination to adopt inventions not of English growth, and their slowness to avail themselves of new models until they are no longer new, will, undoubtedly, exercise the usual influence over giving this powerful weapon even a chance in England. It is scarcely necessary to point out the great advantages that these weapons, carrying, let us say, 800 yards with perfect accuracy, have over our muskets, of which the range does not exceed 150, and that very uncertain. Another great advantage of the zünd-nadel is, that rifles or light infantry can load with ease without effort when lying flat on the ground. The opponents of the zünd-nadel talk of over-rapid firing and the impossibility of carrying sufficient ammunition to supply the demands. This is certainly a drawback, but it is compensated by the immense advantage of being able to pour in a deadly fire when you yourself are out of range, or of continuing this fire so speedily as to destroy half your opponents before they can return a shot with a chance of taking effect."

This was the first intimation I ever had of the zünd-nadel guns. I should like to know when and by whom they were invented, and their mechanism.

    JARLTZBERG.

Bacon Family, Origin of the Name.—Among the able notes, or the not-able Queries of a recent Number, (I regret that I have it not at hand, for an exact quotation), a learned correspondent mentioned, en passant, that the word bacon had the obsolete signification of "dried wood." As a patronymic, BACON has been not a little illustrious, in literature, science, and art; and it would be interesting to know whether the name has its origin in the crackling fagot or in the cured flitch. Can any of your genealogical correspondents help me to authority on the subject?

A modern motto of the Somersetshire Bacons has an ingenious rebus:

ProBa-conSCIENTIA;