Notes and Queries, Number 38, July 20, 1850

Minor Queries

Charade.—Can any one tell who is the author of the following charade? No doubt, the lines are well known to many of your readers, although I have never seen them in print. It has been said that Dr. Robinson, a physician, wrote them. It strikes me that the real author, whoever he be, richly deserves to be named in "Notes and Queries."

"Me, the contented man desires,
The poor man has, the rich requires;
The miser gives, the spendthrift saves,
And all must carry to their graves."

It can scarcely be necessary to add that the answer is, nothing.

    Alfred Gatty.

July 1. 1850.

"Smoke Money."—Under this name is collected every year at Battle, in Sussex, by the Constable, one penny from every householder, and paid to the Lord of the Manor. What is its origin and meaning?

    B.

"Rapido contrarius orbi."—What divine of the seventeenth century adopted these words as his motto? They are part of a line in one of Owen's epigrams.

    N.B.

Lord Richard Christophilus.—Can any of your readers give any account of Lord Richard Christophilus, a Turk converted to Christianity, to whom, immediately after the Restoration, in July, 1660, the Privy Council appointed a pension of 50l. a-year, and an additional allowance of 2l. a-week.

    CH.

Fiz-gigs.—In those excellent poems, Sandys's Paraphrases on Job and other Books of the Bible, there is a word of a most destructive character to the effect. Speaking of leviathan, he asks,

"Canst thou with fiz-gigs pierce him to the quick?"

It may be an ignorant question, but I do not know what fiz-gigs are.

    C.B.

Specimens of Erica in Bloom.—Can any of your correspondents oblige me by the information where I can procure specimens in bloom of the following plants, viz. Erica crescenta, Erica paperina, E. purpurea, E. flammea, and at what season they come into blossom in England? If specimens are not procurable without much expense and trouble, can you supply me with the name of a work in which these plants are figured?

    E.S.

Dover.

Michael Scott, the Wizard.—What works by Michael Scott, the reputed wizard, (Sir Walter's Deus ex Machina in The Lay of the Last Minstrel), have been printed?

    X.Y.A.

Stone Chalices.—Can any of the readers of "Notes and Queries" inform me whether the use of stone chalices was authorised by the ancient constitutions of the Church; and, if so, at what period, and where the said constitutions were enacted?

    X.Y.A.

Replies

ULRICH VON HUTTEN AND THE "EPISTOLÆ OBSCURORUM VIRONUM."

(Vol. ii., p. 55.)

I have never seen the article in the Quarterly Review to which your correspondent H.B.C. alludes: he will probably find it by reference to the index, which is not just now within my reach. The neat London edition, 1710, of the Epistolæ was given by Michael Mattaire. There are several subsequent reimpressions, but none worth notice except that by Henr. Guil. Rotermund, Hanover, 1827, 8vo.; and again, with improvements, "cum nova præfatione, nec non illustratione historica circa originem earum, atque notitia de vita et scriptis virorum in Epistolis occurentium aucta," 1830, both in 8vo.

The best edition, however, is that given by Dr. Ernst Münch, Leipsic, 1827, 8vo., with the following title:

"Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum aliaque Ævi Decimi sexti Monimenta Rarissima. Die Briefe der Finsterlinge an Magister Ortuinus von Deventer, nebst andern sehr seltenen Beiträgen zur Literatur-Sitten-und-Kirchengeschichte des xvi'n Jahrhunderts."

This contains many important additions, and a copious historical introduction. Both the editors write in German.

That this admirable satire produced an immense effect at the period of its publication, there can be no doubt; but that it has ever been thoroughly understood and relished among us may be doubted. Mr. Hallam, in his Literature of Europe, vol. i., seems to have been disgusted with the monkish dog-Latin and bald jokes, not recollecting that this was a necessary and essential part of the design. Nor is it strange that Steele, who was perhaps not very well acquainted with the history of literature, should have misconceived the nature of the publication, when we learn from an epistle of Sir Thomas More to Erasmus, that some of the stupid theologasters themselves, who were held up to ridicule, received it with approbation as a serious work:

"Epist. Obs. Viror. operæ pretium est videre quantopere placeant omnibus, et doctis joco, et indoctis serio, qui dum ridemus, putant rideri stylum tantum, quem illi non defendunt, sed gravitate sententiarum dicunt compensatum, et latere sub rudi vagina pulcherrimum gladium. Utinam fuisset inditus libello alius titulus! Profecto intra centum annos homines studio stupidi non sensissent nasum, quamquam rhinocerotico longiorem."[8 - "Ubi primum exissent Ep. Ob. V. miro Monachorum applausu exceptæ sunt apud Britannos a Franciscanis ac Dominicanis, qui sibi persuadebant, eas in Reuchlini contumeliam, et Monachorum favorem, serio proditus: quamque quidam egregie doctus, sed nasutissimus, fingeret se nonnihil offendi stylo, consulati sunt hominem."—Erasm. Epist. 979.]

Erasmus evidently enjoyed the witty contrivance, though he affects to disapprove it as an anonymous libel. Simler, in his life of Bullinger, relates that on the first reading Erasmus fell into such a fit of laughter as to burst an abscess in his face with which he was at that time troubled, and which prevented the necessity of a surgical operation.

The literary history of the Epistolæ and the Dialogue is involved in obscurity. That Ulrich von Hutten had a large share in their concoction there can be no doubt; and that he was assisted by Crotus Rubianus and Hermann von Busch, if not by others, seems highly probable. The authorship of Lamentationes Obscurorum Virorum is a paradox which has not yet been solved. They are a parody, but a poor one, of the Epistolæ, and in the second edition are attributed to Ortuinus Gratius. If they are by him, he must have been a dull dog indeed; but by some it has been thought that they are the work of a Reuchlinist, to mystify the monks of Cologne, and render them still more ridiculous; yet, as the Pope's bull against the Epistolæ, and Erasmus's disapproving letter, find a prominent place, and some other well-grounded inculpations occur, it appears to me that some slender-witted advocate of the enemies of learning has here shown his want of skill in handling the weapons of the adversary.

How much Sir Thomas More was pleased with the writings of Hutten we may gather from the opening of a letter which Erasmus addressed to Hutten, giving an interesting account of his illustrious friend, in August, 1519:

"Quod Thomæ Mori ingenium sic deamas, ac penè dixerim deperis, nimirum scriptis illius inflammatus, quibus (ut verè scribis) nihil esse potest neque doctius neque festivius; istue mibi crede, clarissime Huttene tibi cum multis commune est, cum Moro mutuum etiam. Nam is vicissim adeò scriptorum tuorum genio delectatur, ut ipse tibi plopemodum invideam."

The Dialogue (Mire Festivus), which in the edition of 1710 occurs between the first and second parts of the Epistolæ, bears especial marks of Hutten's manner, and is doubtless by him. The interlocutors are three of the illustrious obscure, Magisters Ortuinus, Lupoldus, and Gingolphus, and the first act of the comedy consists in their observations upon the promoters of learning, Reuchlin, Erasmus, and Faber Stapulensis, who afterwards make their appearance, and the discussion becomes general, but no impression can be made upon the stupid and prejudiced monks. The theme is, of course, the inutility of the new learning, Hebrew and Greek and correct Latinity. One short passage seems to me admirable:

"M. Ging. Et Sanctus Ambrosius, Sanctus Augustinus, et alii omnes zelossimi doctores non sciebant ipsi bene tot, sicut iste Ribaldi? M. Ort. Ipsi deberent interponere suis. M. Lup. Non bene indigemus de suo Græco. M. Ging. Videtur eis, qui sciunt dicere tou, tou, logos, monsotiros, legoim, taff, hagiotatos, quod ipse sciunt plus quam Deus. M. Ort. Magister noster Lupolde, creditis, quod Deus curat multum de iste Græco? M. Lup. Certe non, Magister noster Ortuine, ego credo, quod Deus non curat multum."

Ranke, in his History of the Reformation, has very justly estimated the merits and character of these remarkable productions:

"We must not look for the delicate apprehension and tact, which can only be formed in a highly polished state of society, nor for the indignation of insulted morality expressed by the ancients: it is altogether a caricature, not of finished individual portraits, but of a single type;—a clownish sensual German priest, his intellect narrowed by stupid wonder and fanatical hatred, who relates with silly naïveté and gossiping confidence the various absurd and scandalous situations into which he falls. These letters are not the work of a high poetical genius, but they have truth, coarse strong features of resemblance, and vivid colouring."

Ranke mentions another satire, which appeared in March, 1520, directed against John Eck, the opponent of Luther, the latter being regarded in the light of a successor of Reuchlin, under the title of Abgehobelte Eck, or Eccius dedolatus, "which, for fantastic invention, striking and crushing truth, and Aristophanic wit, far exceeded the Literæ Obsc. V., which it somewhat resembled." I have not yet been able to meet with this; but such high praise, from so judicious a critic, makes me very desirous to see and peruse it.

    S.W. Singer.

Mickleham, July 3. 1850.

Epistolæ Obscurorum Virorum.—Your Querist H.B.C. (Vol. ii., pp. 55-57.) will find, in the 53rd vol. Edinb. Rev. p. 180., a long article on these celebrated letters, containing much of the information required. It is worthy of remark, that in page 195. we are told

"In 1710 there was printed in London the most elegant edition that has ever appeared of these letters, which the editor, Mich. Mattaire, gravely represents as the productions of their ostensible authors."

Now this edition, though neat, has no claim to be termed most elegant, which is hardly to be reconciled with what the reviewer says in a note, p. 210., "that the text of this ed. of 1710 is of no authority, and swarms with typographical blunders."

The work on its first appearance produced great excitement, and was condemned by Pope Leo X. See Dict. des Livres Condamnés, &c., par Peignot, tom. ii. p. 218.

Many amusing anecdotes and notices are to be found in Bayle's Dict. See particularly sub nomine Erasmus. Burton, in his Anatomy of Mel. pt. i. sec. 2. Mem 3 sub 6. citing Jovius in Elogiis, says,