Notes and Queries, Number 69, February 22, 1851

trouthe[13 - Here the orthography changes.]. no small game.
For trouthe told . of tyms ys shent.
And trouthe known . many doth blame.
When trouthe ys tyrned . from trew intent.
Yet trouthe ys trouthe . trewly ment.[14 - Meant.]
But now what call they trouthe . trow ye.
Trowthe ys called colored honestè.

"Trouthe . ys honest without coloure.
Trouthe . shameth not in no condycyon.
Of hymself . without a trespasowre.
By myst and knowne . of evyle condycyon.
But of trouthe thys ys y

conclusyon.
Surely good ordre there ys brokyne.
Where trouthe may not . nor dare be spokyne.[15 - I think there must be some allusion here, which can only be arrived at by knowing the date of its composition.]

"Trouthe many tyms ys cast.
Out of credence . by enformacyon.
Yet trouthe crepthe[16 - An elision for creepeth; possibly an intermediate etymological state of creeps.] out at last.
And ovyr mastrythe cavylacyon.[17 - From "to cavil."]
That I besech Cryst . every nacyon.
May use trouthe . to God and man.
* * that he * not * syn * * ."
*       *       *       *       *       *

I would fill up the lacuna—

"Now that he do not syn . we can."

Perhaps, I repeat, some more able antiquaries will give their attention to this, and satisfy me on the points of punctuation, date, &c.

    Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie.

Minor Notes

Ayot St. Lawrence Church (Vol. iii., pp. 39. 102.). Ayot St. Lawrence, Herts, is another deserted church, like that of Landwade,—in fact a ruin, with its monuments disgracefully exposed. I was so astonished at seeing it in 1850, that I would now ask the reason of its having been allowed to fall into such distress, and how any one could have had the power to build the present Greek one, instead of restoring its early Decorated neighbour. I did not observe the 2 ft. 3 in. effigy alluded to in Arch. Journ. iii. 239., but particularly noted the elegant sculpture on the chancel arch capital.

I would suggest to Mr. Kelke, that the incumbents of parishes should keep a separate register, recording all monuments, &c. as they are put up, as existing, or as found in MS. church notes, or published in county histories. In the majority of parishes the trouble of so doing would be trifling, and to many a pleasant occupation.

    A. C.

Johannes Secundus—Parnel—Dr. Johnson.—In Dr. Johnson's Life of Parnel we find the following passage:—

"I would add that the description of Barrenness, in his verses to Pope, was borrowed from Secundus; but lately searching for the passage which I had formerly read, I could not find it."

I will first extract Parnel's description, and then the passage of Secundus; to which, I suppose, Dr. Johnson referred.

"This to my friend—and when a friend inspires,
My silent harp its master's hand requires,
Shakes off the dust, and makes these rocks resound,
For fortune placed me in unfertile ground;
Far from the joys that with my soul agree,
From wit, from learning—far, oh far, from thee!
Here moss-grown trees expand the smallest leaf,
Here half an acre's corn is half a sheaf.
Here hills with naked heads the tempest meet,
Rocks at their side, and torrents at their feet;
Or lazy lakes, unconscious of a flood,
Whose dull brown Naiads ever sleep in mud."

Secundus in his first epistle of his first book (edit. Paris, p. 103.), thus writes:—

"Me retinet salsis infausta Valachria terris,
Oceanus tumidis quam vagus ambit aquis.
Nulla ubi vox avium, pelagi strepit undique murmur,
Cœlum etiam largâ desuper urget aquâ.
Flat Boreas, dubiusque Notus, flat frigidus Eurus,
Felices Zephyri nil ubi juris habent.
Proque tuis ubi carminibus, Philomena canora,
Turpis in obscœnâ rana coaxat aquâ."

    Varro.
The King's Messengers, by the Rev. W. Adams.—Ought it not to be remarked, in future editions of this charming and highly poetical book (which has lately been translated into Swedish), that it is grounded on one of the "examples" occurring in Barlaam and Josaphat?"

In the third or fourth century, an Indian prince names Josaphat was converted to Christianity by a holy hermit called Barlaam. This subject was afterwards treated of by some Alexandrian priest, probably in the sixth century, in a beautiful tale, legend, or spiritual romance, in Greek, and in a style of great ease, beauty, warmth, and colouring. The work was afterwards attributed to Johannes Damascenus, who died in 760. In this half-Asiatic Christian prose epic, Barlaam employs a number of even then ancient folk-tales and fables, spiritually interpreted, in Josaphat's conversion. It is on the fifth of these "examples" that Mr. Adams has built his richly-glittering fairy palace.

Barlaam and Josaphat was translated into almost every European dialect during the Middle Age, sometimes in verse, but usually in prose, and became an admired folk-book. Among the versions lately recovered I may mention one into Old-Swedish (a shorter one, published in my Old-Swedish Legendarium, and a longer one, not yet published); and one in Old-Norwegian, from a vellum MS. of the thirteenth century, shortly to appear in Christiania.

    George Stephens.

Stockholm.

Parallel Passages.—Under "Parallel Passages" (Vol. ii., p. 263.) there occur in two paragraphs—"There is an acre sown with royal seed," concluding with "living like gods, to die like men," from Jeremy Taylor's Holy Dying; and from Francis Beaumont—

"Here's an acre sown indeed
With the richest royalest seed.
.       .       .       .       .       .
Though gods they were, as men they died."

Which of these twain borrowed the "royal seed" from the other, is a manner of little moment; but the correspondence of living as gods, and dying as men, both undoubtedly taken from Holy Scripture; the phrase occurring in either Testament: "I have said, Ye are gods … But ye shall die like men" (Psalm lxxxii. 6, 7.); quoted by our Saviour (John, x. 34.): "Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are Gods?"

    J. G. M.

Hallamshire.

Cause of Rarity of William IV.'s Copper Coinage.—The copper coinage of William IV. is become so scarce, that possibly a doubt may some day arise, whether any but a very limited issue of it was ever made; it may be well, therefore, to introduce a note on the cause of its disappearance, while the subject is comparatively recent.