Notes and Queries, Number 39, July 27, 1850

Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty."

    Romeo and Juliet, Act iv. Sc. 3.
"Thus ornament is but the guiled shore
To a most dangerous sea."

    Merchant of Venice, Act iii. Sc. 2.
"Then, in despite of brooded watchful day,
I would into thy bosom pour my thoughts."

    King John, Act iii. Sc. 3.
"And careful hours, with time's deformed hand,
Have written strange defeatures in my face."

    Comedy of Errors, Act v. Sc. 1.
In all these passages, as well as in that in Measure for Measure, the simple remark, that the poet employed a common grammatical variation, is all that is required for a complete explanation.

    J.O. HALLIWELL.

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES

Execution of Charles I.—Sir T. Herbert's "Memoir of Charles I." (Vol. ii. pp., 72. 110.).—Is P.S.W.E. aware that Mr. Hunter gives a tradition, in his History of Hallamshire, that a certain William Walker, who died in 1700, and to whose memory there was an inscribed brass plate in the parish church of Sheffield, was the executioner of Charles I.? The man obtained this reputation from having retired from political life at the Restoration, to his native village, Darnall, near Sheffield, where he is said to have made death-bed disclosures, avowing that he beheaded the King. The tradition has been supported, perhaps suggested, by the name of Walker having occurred during the trials of some of the regicides, as that of the real executioner.

Can any one tell me whether a narrative of the last days of Charles I., and of his conduct on the scaffold, by Sir Thomas Herbert, has ever been published in full? It is often quoted and referred to (see "NOTES AND QUERIES," Vol. i., p. 436.), but the owner of the MS., with whom I am well acquainted, informs me that it has never been submitted to publication, but that some extracts have been secretly obtained. In what book are these printed? The same house which contains Herbert's MS. (a former owner of it married Herbert's widow), holds also the stool on which King Charles knelt at his execution, the shirt in which he slept the night before, and other precious relics of the same unfortunate personage.

    ALFRED GATTY.

Ecclesfield, July 11. 1850.

Execution of Charles I. (Vol. ii., p 72.).—In Ellis's Letters illustrative of English History Second Series, vol. iii. p. 340-41., P.S.W.E. will find the answer to his inquiry. Absolute certainty is perhaps unattainable on the subject; but no mention occurs of the Earl of Stair, nor is it probable that any one of patrician rank would be retained as the operator on such an occasion. We need hardly question that Richard Brandon was the executioner. Will P.S.W.E. give his authority for the "report" to which he refers?

    MATFELONENSIS.

Simon of Ghent (Vol. ii., p. 56.).—"Simon Gandavensis, patria Londinensis, sed patre Flandro Gandavensi natus, a. 1297. Episcopus Sarisburiensis."—Fabric. Bibl. Med. et Infint. Latin., lib. xviii. p. 532.

Chevalier de Cailly (Vol. ii., p. 101.)—Mr. De St. Croix will find an account of the Chevalier Jacque de Cailly, who died in 1673, in the Biographie Universelle; or a more complete one in Goujet (Bibliothèque Françoise, t. xvii. p. 320.).

    S.W.S.

Collar of Esses (Vol. ii., pp. 89. 110.).—The question of B. has been already partly answered in an obliging manner by [Greek: ph]., who has referred to my papers on the Collar of Esses and other Collars of Livery, published a few years ago in the Gentleman's Magazine. Permit me to add that I have such large additional collections on the same subject that the whole will be sufficient to form a small volume, and I intend to arrange them in that shape. As a direct answer to B.'s question—"Is there any list extant of persons who were honoured with that badge?" I may reply, No. Persons were not, in fact, "honoured with the badge," in the sense that persons are now decorated with stars, crosses, or medals; but the livery collar was assumed by parties holding a certain position. So far as can be ascertained, these were either knights attached to the royal household or service, who wore gold or gilt collars, or esquires in the like position, who wore silver collars. I have made collections for a list of such pictures, effigies, and sepulchral brasses as exhibit livery collars, and shall be thankful for further communications. To [Greek: ph].'s question—"Who are the persons now privileged to wear these collars?" I believe the reply must be confined to—the judges, the Lord Mayor of London, the Lord Mayor of Dublin, the kings, and heralds of arms. If any other officers of the royal household still wear the collar of Esses, I shall be glad to be informed.

    JOHN GOUGH NICHOLS.

[To the list of persons now privileged to wear such collars given by Mr. Nichols, must be added the Serjeants of Arms, of whose creation by investiture with the Collar of Esses, Pegge has preserved so curious an account in the Fifth Part of his Curialia.]

Hell paved with good Intentions (Vol. ii., p. 86.).—The history of the phrase which Sir Walter Scott attributed "to a stern old divine," and which J.M.G. moralises upon, and asserts to be a misquotation for "the road to hell," &c., is this:—Boswell, in his Life of Johnson (sub 15th April, 1775), says that Johnson, in allusion to the unhappy failure of pious resolves, said to an acquaintance, "Sir, hell is paved with good intentions." Upon which Malone adds a note:

"This is a proverbial saying. 'Hell,' says Herbert, 'is full of good meanings and wishings.'—Jacula Prudentum, p. 11. ed. 1631."

but he does not say where else the proverbial saying is to be found. The last editor, Croker, adds,—

"Johnson's phrase has become so proverbial, that it may seem rather late to ask what it means—why 'paved?' perhaps as making the road easy, facilis descensus Averni."

    C.

The Plant "Hæmony" (Vol. ii., p. 88.).—I think MR. BASHAM, who asks for a reference to the plant "hæmony", referred to by Milton in his Comus, will find the information which he seeks in the following extract from Henry Lyte's translation of Rembert Dodoen's Herbal, at page 107, of the edition of 1578. The plant is certainly not called by the name of "hæmony," nor is it described as having prickles on its leaves; but they are plentifully shown in the engraving which accompanies the description.

"Allysson.—The stem of this herbe is right and straight, parting itself at the top into three or foure small branches. The leaves be first round, and after long whitish and rough, or somewhat woolly in handling. It bringeth foorth at the top of the branches little yellow floures, and afterward small rough whitish and flat huskes, and almost round fashioned like bucklers, wherein is contained a flat seede almost like to the seed of castell or stocke gilloflers, but greater.

"Alysson, as Dioscorides writeth, groweth upon rough mountaynes, and is not found in this countrey but in the gardens of some herboristes.

"The same hanged in the house, or at the gate or entry, keepeth man and beast from enchantments and witching."

    K.P.D.E.

As a "Note" to DR. BASHAM'S "Query", I would quote Ovid's Metamorph., lib vii. l. 264-5.:

"Illic Hæmoniá radices valle resectas.
Seminaque, et flores, et succos incoquit acres."

    T.A.
Practice of Scalping amongst the Scythians—Scandinavian Mythology.—In Vol. ii., p. 12., I desired to be informed whether this practice has prevailed amongst any people besides the American Indians. As you have established no rule against an inquirer's replying to his own Query, (though, unfortunately for other inquirers, self-imposed by some of your correspondents) I shall avail myself of your permission, and refer those who are interested in the subject to Herodotus, Melpomene 64, where they will find that the practice of scalping prevailed amongst the Scythians. This coincidence of manners serves greatly to corroborate the hypothesis that America was peopled originally from the northern parts of the old continent. He has recorded also their horrid custom of drinking the blood of their enemies, and making drinking vessels of their skulls, reminding us of the war-song of the savage of Louisiana:—

"I shall devour their (my enemies') hearts, dry their flesh, drink their blood; I shall tear off their scalps, and make cups of their skulls." (Bossu's Travels.) "Those," says this traveller through Louisiana, "who think the Tartars have chiefly furnished America with inhabitants, seem to have hit the true opinion; you cannot believe how great the resemblance of the Indian manners is to those of the ancient Scythians; it is found in their religious ceremonies, their customs, and in their food. Hornius is full of characteristics that may satisfy your curiosity in this respect, and I desire you to read him."—Vol. i. p. 400.

But the subject of the "Origines Americanæ" is not what I now beg to propose for consideration; it is the tradition-falsifying assertion of Mr. Grenville Pigott, in his Manual of Scandinavian Mythology (as quoted by D'Israeli in the Amenities of English Literature, vol. i. p. 51, 52.), that the custom with which the Scandinavians were long reproached, of drinking out of the skulls of their enemies, has no other foundation than a blunder of Olaus Wormius, who, translating a passage in the death-song of Regner Lodbrog,—

"Soon shall we drink out of the curved trees of the head,"

turned the trees of the head into a skull, and the skull into a hollow cup; whilst the Scald merely alluded to the branching horns, growing as trees from the heads of aninals, that is, the curved horns which formed their drinking cups.

    T.J.

Cromwell's Estates.—Magor (Vol. ii., p. 126.).—I have at length procured the following information respecting Magor. It is a parish in the lower division of the hundred of Caldicot, Monmouthshire. Its church, which is dedicated to St. Mary, is in the patronage of the Duke of Beaufort.

    SELEUCUS.

"Incidis in Scyllam," &c. (Vol. ii., p. 85.).—MR. C. FORBES says he "should be sorry this fine old proverb should be passed over with no better notice than seems to have been assigned to it in Boswell's Johnson," and then he quotes some account of it from the Gentleman's Magazine. I beg leave to apprise MR. FORBES that there is no notice whatsoever of it in Boswell's Johnson, though it is introduced (inter alia) in a note of Mr. Malone's in the later editions of Boswell; but that note contains in substance all that MR. FORBES'S communication repeats. See the later editions of Boswell, under the date of 30th March, 1783.

    C.

Dies Iræ (Vol. ii., p. 72. 105.).—Will you allow me to enter my protest against the terms "extremely beautiful and magnificent," applied by your respectable correspondents to the Dies Iræ, which, I confess, I think not deserving any such praise either for its poetry or its piety. The first triplet is the best, though I am not sure that even the merit of that be not its jingle, in which King David and the Sybil are strangely enough brought together to testify of the day of judgment. Some of the triplets appear to me very poor, and hardly above macaronic Latin.

    C.

Fabulous Account of the Lion.—Many thanks to J. EASTWOOD (Vol. i., p. 472.) for his pertinent reply to my Query. The anecdote he refers to is mentioned in the Archæological Journal, vol. i. 1845, p. 174., in a review of the French work Vitraux Peints de S. Etienne de Bourges, &c. No reference is given there; but I should fancy Philippe de Thaun gives the fable.

    JARLTZBERG.

Caxton's Printing-office (Vol. ii., p. 122.).—The abbot of Westminster who allowed William Caxton to set up his press in the almonry within the abbey of Westminster, was probably John Esteney, who became abbot in the year 1475, and died in 1498. If the date mentioned by Stow for the introduction of printing into England by Caxton, viz. 1471, could be shown to be that in which he commenced his printing at Westminster, Abbot Milling (who resigned the abbacy for the bishopric of Hereford in 1475) would claim the honour of having been his first patron: but the earliest ascertained date for his printing at Westminster is 1477. In the Gentleman's Magazine for April, 1846, I made this remark: