1 Latin Epigram. - I should be much obliged to any of your readers who can inform me who was the author and what is the date of the following epigram. The peculiarity of it, your readers will observe, consists in the fact, that while read directly it contains a strong compliment; yet it is capable of being read backwards, still forming the same description of verse, but conveying a perfect reverse of the compliment: " Laus tua, non tua fraus; virtus non copia rerum, Scandere te fecit hoc decus eximium, Pauperibus tua das; nunquam stat janua clausa ; Fundere res quæris, nec tua multipiicas. Conditio tua sit stabilis; non tempore parvo Vivere te faciat hic Deus omnipotens." When reversed, it reads thus: "Omnipotens Deus hic faciat te vivere parvo Copia, non virtus; fraus tua, non tua laus." REPLIES. GRAY'S ALCAIC ODE. O. Circumstances enable me to give a reply, which I believe will be found correct, to the inquiry of "C. B." in p. 382. of your 24th Number, "Whether Gray's celebrated Latin Ode is actually to be found entered at the Grande Chartreuse?" The fact is, that the French Revolution - that whirlwind which swept from the earth all that came within its reach and seemed elevated enough to offer opposition-spared not the poor monks of the Chartreuse. A rabble from Grenoble and other places, attacked the monastery; burnt, plundered, or destroyed their books, papers, and property, and dispersed the inmates; while the buildings were left standing, not from motives of respect, but because they would have been troublesome and laborious to pull down, and were not sufficiently combustible to burn. In travelling on the Continent with a friend, during the summer of 1817, we made a pilgrimage to the Grande Chartreuse, reaching it from the side of the Echelles. It was an interesting moment; for at that very time the scattered remains of the society had collected together, and were just come again to take possession of and reinhabit their old abode. And being their jour de spaciment, the whole society was before us, as they returned from their little pilgrimage up the moun1tain, where they had been visiting St. Bruno's chapel and spring; and it was impossible not to think with respect of the self-devotion of these men, who, after having for many years partaken (in a greater or less degree) of the habits and comforts of a civilised life, had thus voluntarily withdrawn themselves once more to their stern yet beautiful solitude (truly, as Gray calls it, a locus severus), there to practise the severities of their order, without, it may be supposed, any possessions or means, except what they were themselves enabled to throw into a common stock; for nearly the whole of their property had been seized by the government during the Revolution, and was still held by it. Our conversation was almost wholly with two of the fathers (they use the prefix Dom), whose names I forget, and have mislaid my memorandum of them. One of these had been in England, when driven out; and was there protected by the Weld family in Dorsetshire, of whom he spoke in terms of sincere gratitude and respect. The other told us that he was a native of Chambery, and had done no more than cross the mountains to get home. On asking him for Gray's Ode, he shook his head, saying, the Revolution had robbed them of that, and every thing else; but repeated the first line of it, so that there was no mistake as to the object of my inquiry. From what occurred afterwards, it appears, however, to be questionable whether he knew more than the first line; for I was informed that later English travellers had been attempting, from a laudable desire of diffusing information, to write out the whole in the present Album of the Chartreuse, by contributing a line or stanza, as their recollection served; but that, after all, this pic-nic composition was not exactly what Gray wrote. Of course, had our friend the Dom known how to supply the deficiencies, he would have done it. There is a translation of the Ode by James Hay Beattie, son of the professor and poet, printed amongst his poems, which is much less known than its merits deserve. And I would beg to suggest to such of your readers as may in the course of their travels visit this monastery, that books (need I say proper ones?) would be a most acceptable present to the library; also, that there is a regular Album kept, in which those who, in this age of "talent" and "intelligence," consider themselves able to write better lines than Gray's, are at liberty to do so if they please. A very happy conjecture appeared in the European Magazine some time between 1804 and 1808, as to the conclusion of the stanzas to Mr. Beattie. The corner of the paper on which they had been written was torn off; and Mr. Mason supplies what is deficient in the following manner, the words added by him being printed in Italics: "Enough for me, if to some feeling breast This, it will be seen, is prosaic enough; but the correspondent of the E. Mag. supposes the lines to have ended differently; and that the poet, in some peculiar fit of modesty, tore off the name. His version is this : " Enough for me, if to some feeling breast, My lines a secret sympathy convey; And as their pleasing influence is imprest, A sigh of soft reflection heave for Gray." One word upon another poet, Byron v. Tacitus, in p. 390. of your 24th Number. There can be no doubt that the noble writer had this passage of Tacitus in his mind, when he committed the couplet in question to paper; but, in all probability, he considered it so well known as not to need acknowledgment. Others have alluded to it in the same way. The late Rev. W. Crowe, B.C.L., of New College, Oxford, and public orator of that University, in some lines recited by his son at the installation of Lord Grenville, has the following: "And when he bids the din of war to cease, He calls the silent desolation peace." I wonder where Lord Byron stole stanzas 1, 2, 3, 4, of the second canto of The Bride of Abydos; to say nothing of some more splendid passages in the first and second cantos of Childe Harold? REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES. W. (1). di Chapels. - Perhaps the following remarks will be of service to "MR. GATTY" in the solution of his Queries touching the word Chapel (No. 21.). Spelman (Glossary, sub voce) endeavours to convince ns that capella is the same as capsella, the diminutive of capsa; thus making chapel, in the first instance, "a small repository" (sc. of relics). Richardson is also in favour of this etymon, notwithstanding its harshness and insipidity. I think the common derivation (from capella, minutive of capa) very much preferable to any other, both on the score of philology and of history. Ducange has quoted several passages, all tending to evince that capella (explained by the Teutonic voccus) was specially applied to the famous vestment of St. Martin, comprising his cloak and hood (not merely his hat, as some writers mention). The name was then metonymically transferred to the repository in which that relic was preserved, the ordinary designation of the smaller sanctuaries. and afterwards, by a natural expansion, became This derivation is distinctly affirmed by Walafred 695), the word capella seems to mean a sacred building - " in oratorio suo seu capella Sancti Marthina." And in a charter of Charles the Simple, circ. 900, the term unquestionably occurs in this latter signification, disconnected from St. Martin. Other illustrations may be seen in Ducange, who has bestowed especial industry on the words capa and capella. With respect to the legal definition of the modern chapel, I may mention that in stat. 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 29. s. 10., it signifies, according to Mr. Stephens (Eccl. Statutes, p. 1357.), "a chapel where the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England are performed, and does not include the chapels of Dissenters." In stat. 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 30., we read, notwithstanding, of "any chapel for the religious worship of persons dissenting from the United Church of England and Ireland." С. Н. St. Catharine's Hall, Cambridge. "idea of either assistance Chapels (No.20. p. 333., and No. 23. p. 371.).The opinion of the "BARRISTER" that this term had come into use as a designation of dissenting places of worship from no or opposition to the Church of England," but only as a supposed means of security to the property, is probably correct. Yet it is likely different reasons may have had weight in different places. However, he is inistaken in "believing that we must date the adoption of that term from about" forty years ago. I am seventy-six years old, and I can bear testimony, that from my infancy it was the term universally employed in Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, and, I think probable, in the more northern counties. In common speech, it was used as the word of discrimination from the Methodist places of worship, which bore the name of Meeting-houses, or, more generally, Meetings. But within period (forty period years) assigned by your learned correspondent, I think that I have observed the habit to have extensively obtained of applying the term Chapels to the latter class of places. the pe I have abundant evidence of the general use of the term for dissenting buildings, back to the seventeenth century. From my early life, I remember the current opinion to have been that Chapel was the word in use north of the Trent, and Meeting-house in Nottingham and southwards. antiquary, Rev. Joseph Hunter, F.S.A., could cast a full light upon this subject. J. P. S. Homerton, April 15. Beaver (No. 21. p. 338.). - The earliest form of this word is fiber, which is used to signify the animal, the Castor, by Varro and Pliny. The fabulous story of the self-emasculation by which the beaver eludes pursuit, is thus introduced by Silius, in illustrating the flight of Hasdrubal: " Fluminei veluti deprensus gurgitis undis, Avulsâ parte inguinibus caussâque pericli, Enatat intento prædæ fiber avius hoste." Punica, xv. 415-8., where see Ruperti. The scholiast on Juvenal, xii. 34., has the low Latin vebrus. (See Forcellini, Lex. in Fiber et Castor, Ducange in Bever, and Adelung in Biber.) Derivations of the word bebrus occur in all the languages of Europe, both Romanic and Teutonic; and denote the Castor. Beaver, in the sense of a hat or cap, is a secondary application, derived from the material of which the hat or cap was made. W. Poins and Bardolph (No. 24. p. 385.). - Mr. Collier (Life prefixed to the edit. of Shakspeare, p. 139.) was the first to notice that Bardolph, Fluellen, and Awdrey, were names of persons living at Stratford in the lifetime of the poet; and Mr. Halliwell (Life of Shakspeare, pp. 126-7) has carried the subject still further, and shown that the names of ten characters in the plays are also found in the early records of that town. Poins was, I believe, a common Welsh name. S. God tempers the Wind (No. 22. p. 357.). - Le Roux de Lincy, Livre des Proverbes Français (Paris, 1842), tom. i. p. 11., cites the following proverbs "Dieu mesure le froid à la brebis tondue, ου, Dieu donne le froid selon la robbe," Lollius. In answer to "J. M. B." (No. 19. p. 303.) as to who was the Lollius spoken of by Chaucer, I send you the following. Lollius was the real or fictitious name of the author or translator of many of our Gothic prose romances. D'Israeli, in his admirable Amenities of Literature. vol. i. p. 141., says: " In some colophons of the prose romances the names of real persons are assigned as the writers; but the same romance is equally ascribed to different persons, and works are given as translations which in fact are originals. Amid this prevailing confusion, and these contradictory statements, we must agree with the editor of Warton, that we cannot with any confidence name the author of any of these prose romances. Ritson has aptly treated these pseudonymous translators as 'men of straw. We may say of them all, as the antiquary Douce, in the agony of his baffled researches after one of their favourite authorities, a Will o' the Wisp named LOLLIUS, exclaimed, somewhat gravely, Of Lollius it will become every one to speak with diffidence.'" 6 Perhaps this "scrap" of information may lead from Henri Estienne, Prémices,, &c., p. 47., a col- to something more extensive. lection of proverbs published in 1594. He also quotes from Gabriel Meurier, Trésor des Sentences, of the sixteenth century: "Dieu aide les mal vestus." Sterne's Koran (No. 14. p. 216.). - An inquiry respecting this work appeared in the Gent. Mag., vol. lxvii. pt. ii. p. 565; and at p. 755. we are told by a writer under the signature of "Normanus," that in his edition of Sterne, printed at Dublin, 1775, 5 vols. 12mo., the Koran was placed at the end, the editor honestly confessed that it was not the production of Sterne, but of Mr. Richard Griffith (son of Mrs. Griffith, the Novellettist), then a gentleman of large fortune seated at Millecent, co. Kildare, and married to a daughter of the late Ld. C. B. Burgh. I possess a copy of an indifferent edition of Sterne's works, in point of paper and type, "Printed for J. Mozley, Gainsborough, 1795. 8 vols. 12mo." The Koran is in the sixth vol., termed "The Posthumous Works of L. Sterne," dedicated the the Earl of Charlemont by the editor, who, in his address to the reader, professes to have received the MS. from the hands of the author some time before his untimely death. EDWARD F. RIMBAULT. Henry Ryder, Bishop of Killaloe (No. 24.p. 383.). Henry Ryder, D.D., a native of Paris, and Bishop of Killaloe, after whose paternity "W.D.R." inquiries, was advanced to that see by patent dated June 5. 1693 (not 1692), and consecrated on the Sunday following in the church of Dunboyne, in Ecclesiæ Hibenice, vol. i. p. 404., who gives an account of his family. W. (1) See Archdeacon Cotton's Fasti Brown Study (No. 22. p. 352.). - Surely a corruption of brow-study, brow being derived from the old German, braun, in its compound form aug-braun, an eyebrow. (Vide Wachter, Gloss. Germ.) HERMES. Seven Champions of Christendom. - Who was the author of The Seven Champions of Christendom? R. F. JOHNSON, [The Seven Champions of Christendom, which Ritson describes as "containing all the lies of Christendom in one lie," was written by the well-known Richard Johnson. Our correspondent will find many curious particulars of his various works in the Introduction which Mr. Chappell has prefixed to one of them, viz. The Crown Garland of Golden Roses, edited by him from the edition of 1612 for the Percy Society.] 66 Tempora mutantur nos et mutamur in illis.""E. V." (p. 215.) is referred to Cicero De Officiis, lib. i. cap. 10., and Ovid, Met. lib. xv. 165. et seqq. "Vox præterea nihil." - "C. W. G." (p. 247.) is also referred to Ovid, Met. lib. iii. 397., and Lactantius, lib. iii. Fab. v. These are the nearest approximations I know. A. W. Vox Populi Vox Dei. -The words "Populi vox, VOX DEI," stand as No. 97. among the "Aphorismi Politici ex Ph. Comineo," in a small volume in my possession, entitled, "Aphorismi Politici et Militares, etc. par Lambertum Danæum collecti. Lugduni Batavorum. CID IOC XXX Ix." There is no reference given to book or chapter; and, judging from the manner in which the aphorisms of Thucydides and Tacitus (which I have been able to examine) are quoted, I fear it may be found that the words in question are rather a condensation of some paragraph by Des Comines than the ipsissima verba that he employed. Temple. C. FORBES. p. 357.).-Has the word "Gourders" any connection with Gourtes, a stream, or pool? See Cotgrave's Dict., and Kelham's Dict. of the Norman Language. Geotere is the A.-S. word for "melter;" but may not the term be applied to the pourer out of anything? Gourd is used by Chaucer in the sense of a vessel. (See Prol. to the Manciple's Tale.) C. I. R. Urbanus Regius (No. 23. p. 367.). The "delightful old lady" is informed that "Urbanus Regius" (or Urban le Roi) was one of the reformers, a native of Langenargen, in Germany. His works were published under the title of Vita et Opera Urbani Regii, &c., Norib. 1562. His theological works have been translated into English, as the lady is aware. W. FRANKS MATHEWS. Kidderminster, April 7. 1850. Horns (No. 24. p. 383.). - Rosenmüller ad Exodum xxxiv. 29. "Ignorabat quods plenderet cutis faciei ejus. Vulgatus interpres reddidit. Ignorabat quod cornuta esset facies sua, quia verbum Karan denominativum nominis Keren, cornu; opinatus est denotare, cornua habere ; hine nata opinio, Mosis faciem fuisse cornutam. Sed nomen קֶרֶן ob similitudinem et ad radios transferri, ducet Habac. III. 4. ubi de fulminibus dicitur. Hic denotat emisit radius, i. e. splenduit." LXX. δεδόξασται. Our version, shone. The Cuckoo. In respect to the Query of "G." (No. 15. p. 230.), on the cuckoo, as the Welsh Ambassador, I would suggest that it was in allusion to the annual arrival of Welshman in search of summer and other employment. As those wanderers may have entered England about the time of the cuckoo's appearance, the idea that the bird was the precursor of the Welsh might thus become prevalent. Also, on the quotation given by "PETIT ANDRÉ" (No. 18. p. 283.) of Welsh parsley, or hempen halters, it may have derived its origin from ❘tively for power, as elsewhere. the severity practised on the Welsh, in the time of their independence, when captured on the English side of the border,-the death of the prisoner being inevitable. GOMER. Ancient Titles (No. 11. p. 173.).-It may be interesting to your querist "B." to know that the seal of the borough of Chard, in the county of Somerset, has two birds in the position which he describes, with the date 1570. S. S. S. Daysman (No. 12. p. 188., No. 17. p. 267.). -For quoted instances of this, and other obsolete words, see Jameson's Bible Glossary, just published by S. S. S. Wertheim in Paternoster Row. Safeguard (No. 17. p. 267.). - The article of dress for the purpose described is still used by farmers' wives and daughters in the west of England, and is known by the same name. S. S. S. Finkle (No. 24. p. 384.) - means fennel. Mr. Halliwell (Dict. p. 357.) quotes from a MS. of the Nominale, "fynkylsede, feniculum." L. Gourders of Rain (No. 21. p. 335., No. 22. ... R. ad Psal. xxii. seems to say, that in Arabic there is the like metaphor, of the sun's rays to a deer's horns. R. adds that the Jews also attributed horns to Moses in another sense, figura Tauriformis. The old scholiasts on Horace say that rivers are always represented with horns, " propter impetum et mugitum æquarum." "Corniger Hesperidum fluvius." An old modern commentator observes, that in Virgil "Rhenus bicornis," rather applies to its two æstuaries. When Milton says (xi. 831.) "push'd by the horned flood," he seems rather to mean, as Newton explains him, that "rivers, when they meet with anything to obstruct their passage, divide themselves and become horned as it were, and hence the ancients have compared them to bulls." С. В. ["M." (Oxford) refers our correspondent to Facciolati, Lexicon, ed. Bailey, voc. Cornu.] Horns (No. 24. p. 383.). — 1. Moses' face, Ex. ch. xxxiv.(karan, Heb.), shot out beams or horns of light (from keren, Heb.); so the first beams of the rising sun are by the Arabian poets compared to horns. Absurdly rendered by Aqu. and vulg. (facies) cornuta erat. Whence painters represent Moses as having horns.-Gesenius, Heb. Lex. 2. There appear many reasons for likening rivers to bulls. Euripides calls Cephisus τανρόμορφος, and Horace gives Aufidus the same epithet, for the same reason, probably, as makes him call it also "longe sonans," "violentus," and "acer; " viz., the bull-like roaring of its waters, and the blind fury of its course, especially in flood time. Other interpretations may be given: thus, Milton, Dryden, and others, speak of the "horned flood," i. e., a body of water which, when it meets with any obstruction, divides itself and becomes horned, as it were. See Milt. P. L. xi. 831., and notes on the passage by Newton and Todd. Dryden speaks of the seven-fold horns of the Nile," using the word as equivalent to winding stream. It would be tedious to multiply examples. 3. Of this phrase I have never seen a satisfactory explanation. "Cornua nasci" is said by Petronius, in a general sense, of one in great distress. As applied to a cuckold, it is common to most of the modern European languages. The Italian phrase is "becco cornuto" (horned goat), which the Accademici della Crusca explain by averring that that animal, unlike others, can without anger bear a rival in his female's love. " Dr. Burn, in his History of Westmoreland, would trace this crest of cuckoldom to horns worn as crests by those who went to the Crusades, as their armorial distinctions; to the infidelity of consorts during their absence, and to the finger of scorn pointed at them on their return; crested indeed, but abused."- Todd's Johnson's Dictionary. R. T. H. G. Why Moses represented with Horns. You may inform your querist "L.C." (No. 24. p. 383.), that the strange practice of making Moses appear horned, which is not confined to statues, arose from the mistranslation of Exod. xxxiv. 30. & 35. in the Vulgate, which is to the Romanist his authenticated scripture. For there he reads " faciem Moysi cornutum," instead of "the skin of Moses' face shone." The Hebrew verb put into our type is is coran, very possibly the root of the Latin cornu: and its primary signification is to put forth horns; its secondary, to shoot forth rays, to shine. The participle is used in its primary sense in Psalms, Ixix. 31.; but the Greek Septuagint, and all translators from the Hebrew into modern European languages, have assigned to the verb its secondary meaning in Exod. xxxiv. In that chapter the nominative to coran is, in both verses, undeniably skin, not head nor face. Now it would obviously be absurd to write "his skin was horned," so that common sense, and the authority of the Septuagint, supported by the language of St. Paul in his paraphrase and comment on this passage in 2 Cor. iii. 7-13., ought to have been sufficient to guide any Christian translator as to the sense to be attached to coran in the mention of Moses. H. W. Oxford, April 16. 1850. [We have since received replies to a similar effect from "SIR EDMUND FILMER," "J. E.," &c. "R. G." refers our Querist to Leigh's Critica Sacra, Part. L. r. 219. London, 1662; and "M." refers him to the note on this passage in Exodus in M. Polus' Synopsis Criticorum. Το "Τ. Ε." we are indebted for Notes on other portions of "L. C.'s" Queries.] The Temple or A Temple. -" Mr. Foss" says (No. 21. p. 335.) that in Tyrwhitt's edition of Chaucer, and in all other copies he has seen, the reading is " A gentil manciple was there of a temple." In an imperfect black-letter folio copy of Chancer in my possession (with curious wood-cuts, but without title-page, or any indications of its date, printer, &c.), the reading is Ecclesiastical Year (No. 24. p. 381.). -The following note on the calendar is authority for the statement respecting the beginning of the ecclesiastical year: "Note that the Golden Number and Dominicall letter doeth change euery yeere the first day of January. Note also, that the yeere of our Lord beginneth the xxv. day of March, the same supposed to be the first day upon which the world was created, and the day when Christ was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary." As in the Book of Common Prayer, Lond. 1614, p. 2. Rishop Cosins remarks, "beginneth the 25th day of March." "Romani annum suum auspicantur ad calendas Januarias. Idem faciunt hodierni Romani et qui in aliis regnis papæ authoritatem agnoscunt. Ecclesia autem Anglicana sequitur supputationem antiquam a Dionysio Exiguo inchoatum, anno Christi 532," Nicholl's commentary on the Book of Common Prayer, additional notes, p. 10. Fol. Lond. 1712, vid. loc. In the Book of Common Prayer, Oxford, 1716, the note is, "Note. The supputation of the year of our Lord in the Church of England beginneth the five-andtwentieth day of March." This note does not now appear in our Prayer Books, being omitted, I suppose, in consequence |