Notes and Queries, Number 76, April 12, 1851

    Jarltzberg.

"Stick at Nothing."—The expression "stop at nothing" occurs in the following couplet in Dryden's Aurengzebe:

"The world is made for the bold impious man,
Who stops at nothing, seizes all he can."

And Pope, in one of his letters, has the expression "stick at nothing," where he says:

"The three chief qualifications of party-writers are, to stick at nothing, to delight in flinging dirt, and to slander in the dark by guess."

Can any of your correspondents explain the origin of the word "stick" in the sense in which it is used by Pope; and how it came to supplant altogether the more intelligible word "stop," as employed by Dryden?

    Henry H. Breen.

St. Lucia, January, 1851.

"Ejusdem Farinæ."—Your readers are acquainted with the expression "ejusdem farinæ," and the derogatory sense in which it is employed to describe things or characters of the same calibre. It was in common use among clerical disputants after the Reformation; and Leland has it in the following remarks respecting certain fabulous interpolations in the Black Book at Cambridge:

"Centum sunt ibi, præterea, ejusdem farinæ fabulæ."

I have no doubt, however, that the origin of the expression may be traced to the scholastic doctors and casuists of the Middle Ages.

Will any of your correspondents be good enough to explain the circumstances which gave rise to the adoption of "farina" as a term expressive of baseness and disparagement?

    Henry H. Breen.

St. Lucia, January, 1851.

Batail.—Favine, in his Theatre of Honour (b. ii. c. 13), in speaking of a bell at Menda, says of the clapper of a bell, that "it is a Bataill in Armes." Was this word ever introduced into English heraldry? The only instances of bells in English arms that I can discover in the books to which I have access at present are in the coats of Bell, Porter, Osney, and Richbell.

    H. N. E.

The Knights of Malta.—On the stone corbels which support the roof of one of the aisles of a church in my neighbourhood, there are carved the armorial badges of persons who are supposed to have contributed to the building of the church, which was erected in the thirteenth century. On one of the corbels (the nearest to the altar, and therefore in the most honourable place) there is a lamb bearing a flag. The lamb has a nimbus round its head, and the staff of the flag terminates in a cross like the head of a processional cross. The device, I have reason to think, was the badge of the knights of the order of Saint John of Jerusalem, who had a preceptory in this neighbourhood during the thirteenth century. In the history of these knights, first of Jerusalem, then of Rhodes, and afterwards of Malta, I find it stated, that in the year 1130 Pope Innocent II. commanded that the standard of the knights (at that time settled at Jerusalem) should be "gules, a full cross argent."

Will any of your correspondents be so kind as to inform me if the device on the corbel was the badge of the knights of the order of St. John of Jerusalem? and if so, at what time they first assumed it?

    S. S. S.

General Pardons.—Has any example of a general pardon under the great seal been ever printed at length? particularly any of those granted after the restoration of Charles II.?

    J. G. N.

"Too wise to err."—You will oblige many of your readers if you will inform them from whence the words

"Too wise to err, too good to be unkind,"

are quoted.

    T. W. A.

Replies

THOMAS MAY

(Vol. iii., p. 167.)

Thomas May, famous amongst the busy characters of his age, both as a politician and a poet, was the eldest son of Sir Thos. May, Knt., of Mayfield, in Sussex, where he was born in 1595. At the usual period of life, he was admitted a fellow-commoner of Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge; and having taken the degree of B.A. he entered himself at Gray's Inn, with the intention of studying the law, which, however, it is uncertain whether he ever pursued as a profession. Whilst he was a student of the law, he made the acquaintance of Edward Hyde, afterwards Earl of Clarendon; and became the intimate associate of Ben Jonson, Selden, Cotton, Sir K. Digby, Thos. Carew[1 - The Life of Edward, Earl of Clarendon, &c., Oxf. 1827.], "and some others of eminent faculties in their several ways."

"His parts of nature and art," writes Clarendon[2 - The same.], in describing his character, "were very good, as appears by his translation of Lucan (none of the easiest work of that kind), and more by his Supplement to Lucan, which being entirely his own, for the learning, the wit, and the language, may be well looked upon as one of the best epic poems in the English language."

As an elegant writer, indeed, of Latin verse, he is justly numbered amongst the most successful of the accomplished poets of our nation—Ben Jonson, Cowley, Milton, Marvell, Crashaw, Addison, Gray, Smart, T. Warton, Sir W. Jones, &c.—who have devoted their leisure to this species of composition. Clarendon goes on to say that May was "born to a fortune, if his father had not spent it; so that he had only an annuity left him, not proportionable to a liberal education:"

"Yet since," continues this illustrious authority, "his fortune could not raise his mind, he brought his mind down to his fortune, by a great modesty and humility in his nature, which was not affected, but very well became an imperfection in his speech, which was a great mortification to him, and kept him from entering upon any discourse but in the company of his very friends," of whom he had not a few, for "he was cherished by many persons of honour, and very acceptable in all places."

From Charles I., no mean judge of poetry, and a liberal patron of the Muses, May received much encouragement, and many substantial marks of favour in the shape of donatives; and it was at the express command of this monarch that he wrote his historical poem entitled The Victorious Reigne of Edward III. From disgust, however, at the appointment of D'Avenant to the Laureateship, on the death of Jonson in 1637,—a post to which, according to what he considered to be his own superior deserts[3 - Southey calls May "the very able competitor of D'Avenant," and describes him as "a man so honourably known by his translation of Lucan, and his Supplement to that poet, that it were to be wished he were remembered for nothing else."—Biog. Sketches.], he was himself justly entitled,—"May fell from his duty, and all his former friends," and became an active agent in promoting the designs of the so-called popular leaders. Through the interest of Cromwell, he was nominated Secretary to the Parliament, in which capacity he wrote a History of its transactions, a work which was published in 1647. This performance, which is highly commended by Granger, rendered its author extremely obnoxious to the royal party, who exercised all their powers of pen to disparage both the book and its compiler. He is represented by Clarendon, for instance, "as prostituting himself to the vile office of celebrating the infamous acts of those who were in rebellion against the king; which he did so meanly, that he seemed to all men to have lost his wits, when he left his honesty." Anthony à Wood's account[4 - Athenæ Oxon. Bliss's edit.] of these matters, and of May himself, is that

"He was graciously countenanced by K. Charles I. and his royal consort; but he, finding not that preferment from either which he expected, grew discontented, sided with the Presbyterians, and, upon the turn of the times, became a debauchee ad omnia; entertained ill principles as to religion, spoke often very slightly of the Trinity, kept beastly and atheistical company, of whom Thos. Challoner, the regicide, was one, and endeavoured to his power to asperse and invalidate the king and his cause."

His acquaintance with Challoner is also alluded to by Aubrey who says[5 - In MSS. Ashmol., as quoted in Biog. Britann., from which, and Chalmer's Biog. Dict., the dates, and such of the facts above given, not otherwise authenticated, are principally derived.], "that his translation of Lucan's excellent poem, made him in love with the republique." Aubrey adds, he was—

"A handsome man, debauched, and lodged in the little square by Cannon Row, as you go through the alley."

Clarendon concludes his notice of May by observing that—

"Shortly after the publication of his parliamentary history he died, miserable and neglected, and deserves to be forgotten."

The fact is, he was found dead in his bed in Nov. 1650; but that he was "neglected" is not altogether correct. At any rate, he was honoured with a public funeral, a marble monument, and a laudatory epitaph in Westminster Abbey,—short-lived dignities! for, at the Restoration, the memorial of his fame was torn down, whilst his body was exhumed, and, after being treated with much ignominy, hurled into a large pit in St. Margaret's churchyard adjoining.—Besides the works above noticed, May also wrote The Description of Henry II., in verse, with A Short Survey of the Changes of his Reign, and The Single and Comparative Character of Henry and Richard his Sons, in prose. Nor was that of Lucan his only translation, for he rendered into English verse Virgil's Georgics and Selected Epigrams of Martial. He was also the author of five dramas, two of which are given in Dodsley's Old Plays. A now forgotten critic, Henry Headley, B.A., of Norwich, observes concerning his historical poetics, that May—

"Has caught no small portion of the energy and declamatory spirit which characterises the Roman poet, whom, as he translated, he insensibly made his model. His battle pieces," our critic continues, "highly merit being brought forward to notice; they possess the requisites, in a remarkable degree, for interesting the feelings of an Englishman. While in accuracy they vie with a gazette, they are managed with such dexterity, as to busy the mind with unceasing agitation, with scenes highly diversified and impassioned by striking character, minute incident, and alarming situation."[6 - Biographical Sketches, Lond., 12mo. 1787.]

In confirmation of the general propriety and justness of these remarks, I would refer to the description of "The Den of the Vices" (H. II. b. i.), and to the accounts of "The Death of Rosamond" (H. II. b. v.), "The Battle of Cressy" (E. III. b. iii.), and "The Capture of Mortimer" (E. III. b. i.). These pieces can only be thus vindicated, being much too long for extracting; but I think a republication of the entire poems would be an acceptable boon to the public.

    Cowgill.

Although May's version of Cato's soliloquy is immeasurably below Addison's, I am inclined to agree with J. H. L., that, on comparing them, it is more than probable, Addison had May's description of Cato's death in his mind at the same time he penned the justly celebrated soliloquy in the 5th Act of his Cato.

    E. B. Price.

Cow Cross.

Thomas May, the author of the Supplement to Lucan (Vol. iii., p. 167), was the secretary and historian of the Long Parliament. He was born at Mayfield in 1595; took the degree of B.A. at Sydney-Sussex College, Cambridge, and afterwards entered Gray's Inn, but devoted himself to literature. He translated Virgil's Georgics, Selected Epigrams of Martial, and in 1627 Lucan's Pharsalia; to the latter, in 1630, he supplied an English continuation of his own in seven books; intituled, A Continuation of the Subject of Lucan's Historical Poem till the Death of Julius Cæsar. It was dedicated to Charles. He afterwards published at Leyden a Latin translation of the seven additional books; this was added to the Amsterdam and other editions of Lucan, and has established May's fame as a classic scholar. Andrew Marvell, who saw only an apology for the doings of the tyrannical parliament in the continuation of Lucan's poem, calls May—

"Most servile wit, and mercenary pen,
Polydore, Lucan, Allan, Vandal, Goth.
Malignant poet and historian both.
Go seek the novice statesmen and obtrude
On them some Roman cast similitude."