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REPLIES:-Porcelain Memorial of Charles II., 37-Robert Bowman, the alleged Centenarian, 38-Passage attributed to St. Ignatius, 39-Mural Painting in Starston Church, Norfolk, 49-Roscoe's "Novelists' Library" and George Cruikshank-Changes of Names in Ireland-"God made Man." &c. The Advent Hymn "Hierusalem! my happie Home!"-"Pigs may Fly," &c. - Sir Thomas Browne: Archer's Court The Irish Planxty-Lhwyd's Irish MSS.Post Prophecies - Indexes-"It's a far Cry to Loch Awe" — Lake Dwellings on Louch Much-Dr. Johnson "As Cold as a Maid's Knee" - A Nursery Tale-Negro Proverbs, &c., 40.

Notes on Books, &c.

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Notes.

BLUEBEARD: ORIGIN OF THE STORY.

The story of Bluebeard forms one of a collection of the popular nursery tales of France for which we are indebted to Perrault. How far he preserved the exact form in which these tales must have been related to him by some old crone, it is, of course, impossible at the present time to say. It has been asserted that the story is founded on the atrocities imputed to a certain Gilles de Retz, or de Raiz, Sieur de Laval, who lived in the reign of Charles VII. of France; but

the enormities of which this nobleman is said to have been guilty bear but little resemblance to the crimes of our hero of the nursery. An incident related in the life of S. Gildas, Abbot of Rhuys, in Brittany, in the sixth century, comes much nearer to the tale which interested us so

much in our childish days. A certain Count Conomor was fond of matrimony, but was not desirous of being troubled with the consequences; so whenever his wife gave signs of being likely to become a mother, he made away with her. He was a widower for the fourth, or as some say for the seventh, time, when he sought the hand of Triphyna, daughter of Count Guerech, of Vannes, a young lady of great beauty, who had been educated under the eye of S. Gildas. Both the father and daughter would willingly have declined the proffered honour, but Count Conomor, who was Childebert's lieutenant in Brit

[* See "N. & Q.'' 1st S. xii. 66,-ED.]

tany, and had powerful friends at court, insisted in his suit, and gave it to be understood that if his demand were not acceded to he was quite ready to enforce it at the point of the sword. S. Gildas, wishing to avert a disastrous war, undertook to intercede, and was successful in bringing about the desired alliance, on the condition, however, that if Conomor should get tired of his wife he should send her back to her father. The wedding was kept at Vannes with great pomp, and Conomor carried off his bride to his own castle, but before many months had elapsed, the countess, who was far advanced in her pregnancy, perceived that her husband's manner towards her was entirely changed, and, fearing the fate of his former wives, resolved to take refuge with her father. Watching her opportunity, she mounted one morning on a fleet horse, and, accompanied by a few faithful followers, galloped off in the direction of Vannes. Her husband was informed of her flight, and pursued her. As he gained upon her, and she perceived that her capture was almost inevitable, she threw herself from her horse and endeavoured to conceal herself in the deep recesses of a forest, but she was discovered by her brutal lord, who, with one stroke of his sword, severed her head from her body. S. Gildas, on being informed of what had happened, hastened to the spot, replaced the head on the body, and by his prayers restored the lady to life. She was shortly afterwards safely delivered of a son, who was baptised by S. Gildas, and called by his name, to which, by way of distinction, was afterwards added that of Trech-meur or Tremeur. Such is the legend as told by the Breton hagiographers Père Albert le Grand and Dom Guia fact, as related by M. Hippolyte Violeau, in a work entitled Pélerinages de Bretagne, which renders it almost certain that Perrault's tale is founded on the legend. He says that in January, 1850, in repairing the vault of the chapel of S. Nicolasde-Bieuzy, some ancient frescoes were discovered with scenes from the life of S. Triphyna: the marriage-the husband taking leave of his wife, and entrusting a key to her-a room with an open door, through which are seen the corpses of seven wife while another female is looking out of a women banging-the husband threatening his window above-and finally, in the last picture, when the husband has placed a halter round the neck of his victim, the opportune arrival of her friends, accompanied by S. Gildas. If these frescoes are really of the early date assigned to them, they probably represent the popular form of the legend,

Alexis Lobineau. But now comes

with some additional incidents which have not been thought worthy of record by the hagiographers, and there can be no doubt whence the nursery tale derives its origin. Guernsey.

EDGAR MACCULLOCH.

TYNDALE'S NEW TESTAMENT, FYNESSHED IN
THE YERE 1535.*

This is no doubt the last New Testament cor-
rected by the translator, as his martyrdom took
place in the year 1536. The text is considerably
altered from the edition of 1534.
shown at p. 190 of A General View of the History
of the English Bible, by Brooke Foss Westcott,
B.D., 1868.

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This is

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taeme

tame

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It is remarkable for the peculiar orthography adopted in the work.

It is uncertain why this spelling was introduced, what it is, or the object of it.

Anderson in his Annals of the English Bible, vol. i. pp. 455-6, after alluding to this New Testament, says:

"But is it possible that this could have been part of Tyndale's occupation within the walls of the castle at Vilvorde? While warring with these doctors of Louvain on the one hand, was he, on the other, at the same time

say safe sake

The second column is the spelling in the New Testament of 1534, and shows how designedly it has been altered.

If any of your readers can give any explanation or information on this subject, or show where such spelling has been used at any time, either in print or MS., I shall be much obliged by a commu

engaged in earnest pity for the ploughboy and husband-nication being made to me. I believe no Bible man in Glostershire? This orthography being regarded or any other New Testament exhibits such spellas provincial, so it has been supposed. If the conjecture ing, especially with after a vowel. be well founded, and Tyndale himself had to do with this edition, it is but seldom that in the history of any man

such an instance of the true sublime can be produced. The book has never been assigned to any Antwerp printer; but if Tyndale only furnished a list of words, to be employed whenever they occurred in the translation, the volume could have been printed in Holland or any other place in Brabant."

This sublime conjecture requires evidence to show that it is well founded, and if a list of words was given by Tyndale, the compositor did not follow it whenever the words occur-for many of the words so peculiarly spelt occur but seldom, others more often, some frequently, and others generally.

I have made a list of about 300 words exhibiting this spelling. These are an example :—

hastily

1535.

aboede

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abroed

abrod

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abyede

abyde

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bliend

blynd

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boedy

body

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boeke

boke

haest

hast

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haestily

choese

chose

haet

hate

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heath

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haeve

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haeven

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maeke

decaevable

decevable

maekinge

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maev

faele

faule

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naedeth naeked

maesters

have

haven

make

makynge

masters maye

nedeth naked

*This is part of the second title. No copy is known with a title or imprint. The place where it was printed, by whom, or the year, is unknown.

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SIGNIFICATIVE NAMES.

It has often struck me as a blemish, and sometimes as an absurdity, that novelists, poets, and dramatists should so frequently adopt names significative of character. Such a practice often

"lets the cat out of the bag," and enables us to guess at the dénouement of a story. In a farce or in an autobiographical form of late, where the leading personage is solus, we may excuse or even tolerate Steady, Diddler, Greedy, Graball, Pry, Muffincap, Easy, and such like. But where the hero is a family man or woman, the adoption of such names becomes in general an absurdity. There is no objection to "Mrs. Malaprop"; but if that learned lady had possessed relatives who figured as dramatis persone and spoke good

king's English," the name so appropriate to her would have been an absurdity for them. Sheridan certainly erred when, in the School for Scandal, he adopted the name of "Surface"; it was a good one for that surface-fellow, the sneaking, canting, hypocritical, sentimental Joseph; but it becomes a bad and inappropriate name when we find it borne by his open-hearted, generous, noble

brother.

In Warren's novel, Ten Thousand a Year, we have a "Mr. Tittlebat Titmouse." The name is an

absurdity altogether. No one, not even a Hoxton shop-walker or a tallyman's counter-jumper, could have had such an appellative. But when, in a subsequent part of the same tale, the author is necessitated to give a pedigree, the surname of Titmouse borne by esquires and men of high family becomes perfectly ridiculous and unnatural. The name of Smith, Brown, Jones, or any of our numerous sons, would have been infinitely better. Our old standard novelists avoided such "tell-tale" names. Harlowe, Andrews, Grandison, Trim, Jones, Adams, &c., are quite unexceptionable. Dickens in general keeps clear of significatives. Pickwick, Weller, Snodgrass, Nickleby, Gamp, Brodie, Squeers, Dombey, Mantalini, these were all genuine surnames, and there is no impropriety in their adoption, but quite the contrary. Miss Braddon (of whose "" sensation tales I am no admirer) never adopts significative names for her heroes and heroines.

The classical names in use by poets and others of the last century were learned absurdities, and of course thoroughly un-English. Hurdis in his Village Curate has "the Reverend Antenor." 2 Hurdis is much neglected, and most undeservedly 80. He was a genuine poet of the Cowper or didactic school. The Village Curate contains some exquisite English descriptive scenes that are only inferior to those in The Task. poems of Hurdis are sadly marred by the Greek and Latin derivatives. However, such names have an advantage over Surfaces and Titmouses. To the unlearned (classically), who always form the majority, they convey no meaning whatever. STEPHEN JACKSON.

But the

"FRASER'S MAGAZINE": PORTRAITS, circa 1835.

In or before the year 1835, and subsequently, there appeared in Fraser's Magazine a series of caricatures and characteristic portraits of literary men, contemporary or recently deceased. I have no idea whether the following list is complete, cr approaching completeness, or whether it can only be called a selection. But it may interest your readers if you can find room for it, and I should much like to know what additions ought to be made to it. Those portraits which I have marked bear the name of Alfred Croquis (Maclise); those marked † have a cipher composed of A and C in Roman capitals; those marked have no artist's mark, but are undistinguishable in style, manner, or merit from Maclise's portraits. All the

This is a common Italian name, and is borne by at least one patrician family in Tuscany. We find a milliner of the name in Florence.

Fancy an announcement in The Times that Sir Hildebrand Snooks had presented "the Reverend Antenor" to the living of Fudley-cum-Pipeton, or that he had been appointed Bishop of Dahomey!

Who was the artist ?

Lockhart, J. G.§
Lodge, Edmund.‡
Lyndhurst, Lord.‡
Macnish, R.

Maginn, Dr.+

above are printed on toned paper; those marked
S and are on paper of a yellower tint, and I think
they seem to me of inferior merit, and to be in
form a later series. With one or two exceptions
imitation of Maclise's style and manner. The
former are without mark, and the latter have
letters W and R in script hand. By whom were
what I take to be a monogram composed of the
the various classes I have indicated executed?
There are also several extensive groups of por-
traits.
but it is known to be by Maclise. See Theodore
That of "The Fraserians" has no mark,
Taylor's Thackeray as a Humourist. I am sorry
I have not a reference to the page. The author
refers to Mahony (Father Prout) as having writ-
ten an account of this picture in 1859. Where is
this account to be found? The group entitled
"A Few of our F.S.A.s" bears the name of
Alfred Croquis. That of "Regina's Maids of
Honour" has no name, and differs very much in
manner from the others.
Beranger, J. P. de.‡
Ainsworth, W. H.*
Bowles, Rev. W. L.
Blessington, Countess of.*
Brewster, Sir David.*
Brydges, Sir S. E.
Buckstone, J. B.‡
Bulwer, Sir E. L.*
Campbell, Thos.§
Carlyle, Thomas.*
Cobbett, William.
Coleridge, S. T.*
Croker, J. Wilson
Croker, T. Crofton.§
Cruikshank, G.*
Cunningham, Allan.*
De Trueba y Cosio, Don T.§
Disraeli, I.*
Disraeli, B.*
D'Orsay, Count.†
Dunlop, W.*
Egerton, Lord Francis.
Galt, John.§
Faraday, Michael.‡
Gleig, Rev. G. R.+
Godwin, William.†
Goethe, J. W.
Hill, Thomas.*
Hall, Anna Maria.‡
Hobhouse, J. C.‡
Hogg, James.*
Hook, Theodore E.*
Hunt, Leigh.*
Irving, Washington.*
Jerdan, W.S
Lamb, Charles
Knowles, J. S.‡
Landon, L. E.*
Lardner, Dr.*

Martineau, Harriet.*
Mitford, Mary R.||
Moir, D. M.*
Molesworth, W.‡
Moore, Thomas.§
Montgomery, Robert.‡
Morgan, Lady.‡
Morier, James.*
Mulgrave, Earl of.‡
Munster, Earl of.§
Norton, Hon. Mrs.||
O'Brien, Henry.‡
O'Connell and Sheil.*
Place, Francis.‡
Porter, Jane.‡
Rogers, Samuel.§
Roscoe, William.*
Ross, Captain.*
Russell, Lord John.‡
Sadler, M. T.‡
Scott, Sir Walter.§
Smith, James.‡
Smith, Sydney.‡
Soane, Sir John.t
Talfourd, T. N.‡
Talleyrand, C. M. de.*
Thorburn, Grant.‡
Ude, L. E.*
Watts, Alaric A.t
Westmacott, C. M.*
Wilson, John.§
Wordsworth, William.*
Tydus Pooh-Pooh, our man
of Genius.

J. F. M.

A STORY AND ITS EXPANSION.

"A New Mode of keeping a Prisoner under Restraint.A Frenchman, who had been several years confined for debt in the Fleet Prison, found himself so much at home within its walls, and was withal of so harmless and inoffensive a character, that the jailor occasionally permitted him to spend his evenings abroad without any apprehension of the forfeiture of his verbal engagement. His little earnings as a jack-of-all-trades enabled him to form several pot-house connections; and these led him by degrees to be less and less punctual in his return at the appointed time. I'll tell you what it is, Mounseer,' at length said the jailor to him; you are a good fellow, but I am afraid you have lately got into bad company; so I tell you once for all, that if you do not keep better hours and come back in good time, I shall be under the necessity of locking you out altogether.'"-Sweepings of my Study, p. 137. Edinb. 1824.

This Mr. Weller tells in nearly two pages of "the little dirty-faced man in the brown coat." I quote only the conclusion, as everybody has or can refer to Pickwick:

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At last he began to get so precious jolly that he did not know how the time vent, or care nothin at all about it, and he wos getting later and later, till one night, as his old friend wos just a shutting the gate had turned the key, in fact- he come up. Hold hard, Bill,' he says. Wot, aint you come in yet, Twenty?' says the turnkey. I thought you was in long ago.' 'No, I wasn't.' says the little man, with a smile. Well, then, I'll tell you what it is, my friend,' says the turnkey, opening the gate wery slow and sulky, it's my opinion that you have got into bad company o' late, which I'm wery sorry to see. Now I don't wish to do anything harsh,' he says, but if you can't confine yourself to steady circles, and find your way back at reglar hours, as sure as you're a standing there I'll shut you out altogether.' The little man was seized with a wiolent fit o' trembling, and never went outside the prison walls arterwards."-The Pickwick Papers, p. 139. Lond. 1837.

Garrick Club.

FITZHOPKINS.

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THE PROPHECIES OF THOMAS MARTIN.-It will be remembered by some readers of "N. & Q.” that in the year 1816 Thomas Martin, a labouring man of La Beauce, had a private audience of Louis XVIII., in which he told the king in proof of his mission a secret known to the king alone; that he also warned him not to attempt a coronation, and delivered important admonitions to him for his future government, one of which resanctification of Sundays and holidays. lated to the suppression of servile work, and the The whole account may be seen in the work entitled Le Passé et l'Avenir, published in 1832. But my present purpose is to draw attention to one remarkable prediction, which really seems now to be approaching its accomplishment. I give it in the words of the above work:

"Le mardi, 12 mars (1816), sur les sept heures du matin, comme Martin finissait de s'habiller, l'Ange se montra près de la fenêtre et lui parla ainsi : 'On ne veut rien faire de ce que je dis: plusieurs villes de France seront détruites; il n'y restera pas pierre sur pierre; la France sera en proie à tous les malheurs ; d'un fléau on tombera dans un autre."-Chap. ii. p. 28.

F. C. H.

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