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signed Paleophilus, is most probably correct in deducing this nick-name of the devil from a malevolent sea Deity, worshipped by the antient Germans and Danes under the name of Nocca or Nicken, styled in the Edda, which contains the Pagan creed of Scandinavia, Niken, which Keysler derives from the German nugen, answering to the Latin necare.

Another vulgar name, Old Scratch, has probably been given from the common pictorial representations of him with enormous crooked talons or claws; and a third appellation sometimes applied to him, of Old Harry, appears to be derived from the verb to harrie, to lay waste, to destroy. (To be continued.)

Mr. URBAN,

June 5..

THE city of Bayeux, in Normandy,

Ause, about a league and a half from the sea, is old and very indifferently built. Previous to the Revolution it contained seventeen parish Churches, including the suburbs, and seven convents.

The Cathedral (see Plate II.) which was built in 1159 by Bp. Philip de Harcourt, and dedicated to the Virgin, is large, in form of a cross, with pointed arches. In the centre of the transepts is a handsome square tower, surmounted by a light and elegant spire. The portal at the West end is flanked by two square towers, each of which terminates in a very lofty spire; and the lower part of the whole is formed by five porches. That in the middle has a pointed arch formed by five ogives, the reins and mouldings whereof are enriched with carvings, representing the figures of the principal persons in the Old and New Testament. The mouldings of the sweeps of all the other porches are plain. In the centre pier of the portal stands a statue of the Virgin; and each side are six apostles as large as life. This portal, with the statues thereon, appears to be coeval with

the Cathedral.

At Bayeux is preserved the famous embroidered tapestry of Matilda, consort of William the Conqueror, representing the histories of Harold king of England and William duke of Normandy; a particular account of which (compiled chiefly from Montfaucon) GENT. MAG, July, 1819.

may be seen in your vol. LXXIII. pp. 1156, 1226; vol. LXXIV. p. 18; with farther remarks on it by Mr. Gough, in p. 313 of the latter volume. Very accurate drawings of this tapestry have lately been made for the Society of Antiquaries by Mr. Stodart; and it is to be farther illustrated by Mr. Dibdin, in his "Bibliographical Tour," now preparing for the press. Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

L

D.

June 10.

ATELY taking up my Horace, and accidentally turning to the third Ode of the first book, my eye was caught by the passage

Qui siccis oculis monstra natantia, Qui vidit mare turgidum," &c.

This reading displeased Bentley, who wished to substitute "rectis

lis," but for this reading tectis oc

not appear sufficient authority to justify the alteration. The objection to the present reading is, that the sight of the dangers or the horrors of the sea was not likely to produce tears, however it might scare or terrify him other classical authors, where the who contemplated them. But if, in the same idea, it seems unreasonable lection was never disputed, we have to refuse to Horace that which is

Illi

conceded to another. Let us consider the text. Horace is not speaking of one who, from a situation of perfect safety, should view an object so turn his eyes aside; and that, therehorrid in itself as to tempt him to fore, he who had magnanimity enough to look at it with unaverted eyes, must have an heart of brass. robur et æs triplex," &c. But he supposes him who looks at these horrors to be in a state of danger from them, as being in the midst of them, and exposed to them in the navigating those seas. The sense of his own tears: and the sorrows which even danger, therefore, might excite his the greatest heroes of antiquity feel, are, by the poets, represented as venting themselves in tears.

Thus in the Odyssey, Book E. verse 151, speaking of Ulysses, Homer says, ἐδε πολύ όσσε

Δακρυόφιν τερσονίο, καλειβεῖο δὲ γλυκυς

αίων

Νοσῖον ὀδυρομένῳ.
And numberless other instances of the

same

same kind might be adduced. Here it was grief that made Ulysses weep. In the Iliad, Achilles is represented weeping, as the question Txλ6865 plainly shews, Book 2. v. 73. In Horace, we are not to consider simply the Vidit monstra natantia," &c. but the "commisit pelago ratem," which connects the destiny of him that weeps with the evil which he contemplates. Thus, in the 137th Psalm, the captive Jews are represented as weeping at the recollection of Sion, from the circumstance of their destiny being involved in the calamities of Sion.

If this interpretation of the text be correct, there seems not the smallest reason for any alteration; it stands on the same foundation as numberless other passages, and, consequently, ought to be left undisturbed. H. H.

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Mr. URBAN,

Kilkenny, May 12.

AM induced to hope that you may consider the following observa

tions not unworthy of insertion in the pages of your valuable Magazine, which, from its commencement, has greatly contributed to the advancement and diffusion of English Literature. Some of the ensuing remarks may prove not wholly uninteresting to those who are critically skilled in the writings of our antient Dramatic Authors: and some, although explanatory of passages, which to well-informed persons are neither difficult or obscure, may yet be acceptable to readers less conversant with such

pro

ductions, and superficially acquainted with the language and customs of our

ancestors.

In volume IX. page 58, of Mr. Gifford's excellent edition of Ben Jonson's Works, we meet with a Note explanatory of a difficult pas

Scene 2:

to the octavo edition of Cartwright's Works, 1651. As this book is scarce, and the verses beautiful, many of your readers may be pleased to ineet a transcript of them:

"I cannot keep my purpose, but must give [grieve Sorrow and Verse their way; nor will I Longer in silence; no,that poor, poor part Of Nature's legacy, verse void of art, And undissembled teares, Cartwright shall have [grave. Fixt on his hearse, and wept into his Muses, I need you not; for Grief and I Can in your absence weave an Elegy: Which we will do; and often interweave Sad looks and sighs; the ground-work must receive

Such characters, or be adjudg'd unfit For my Friend's shroud; others have shew'd their wit,

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Learning, and language fitly; for these be Debts due to his great merits; but for me, My aymes are like myself, humble and low, [to show Too mean to speak his praise, too mean The World what it hath lost in losing thee, [harmony. Whose words and deeds were perfect But now 't is lost; lost in the silent grave, [have Lost to us mortals, lost, till we shall Admission to that Kingdom where he sings [Kings. Harmonious anthems to the King of Sing on, blest Soul! be as thou wast below, [show A more than common instrument to Thy maker's praise; sing on, whilst I

lament

Thy loss, and court a holy discontent, With such pure thoughts as thine, to Then I may hope to live and dye like dwell with me, [thee, To live belov'd, dye mourn'd, thus in my grave; [cannot have.” Blessings that Kings have wished, but

The 4th, 5th, and 6th lines (especially the words in Italic letters) are

sage in Shakspeare's Henry V. Act i. quite decisive of the truth of Mr. Gifford's assertion, that the custom of affixing short poems to the hearse or grave of eminent persons was once prevalent in England.

"Either our History shall, with full mouth, [grave, Speak freely of our acts; or else, our Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongue

less mouth,

Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph."

The verses quoted from John Eliot and the Bishop of Chichester support the correctness of Mr. Gifford's interpretation, which is strongly determined by Izaak Walton's exquisite poem on the death of Wil liam Cartwright. It is the last of the 55 commendatory poems prefixed

In page 202 of the same volume, a passage in Jonson's "Discoveries" is thus printed:

"Have I not seen the pomp of a whole Kingdom, and what a foreign King could bring hither? Also to make himself gazed and wondered at, laid forth as it were to the shew, and vanish all away in a day.".

A gross error has plainly crept in here; no stop whatever should inter

vene between the words “hither" and "also:" by this arrangement of the text, Jonson's allusion to the vain and fleeting splendour of two great Monarchs becomes intelligible.

In volume VIII. page 29, of the same work, Mr. Weber is justly ridiculed for presenting us with these lines in his late edition of Beaumont and Fletcher; see vol. II. p. 55:

monger

"May't rain above all almanacks, till The carriers sail, and the King's fish [London." Ride like Bike Arion upon a trout to Mr. Weber unquestionably conceived that Bike was the prænomen of Arion; but it is (as Mr. Gifford observes) merely an accidental repetition of the preceding word "like" in the old copies. I suspect that Mr. Weber was actually ignorant of the correct pronunciation of Arīon's name, as he has given it with a false prosody in this passage, and also in another occurring at page 151 of vol. VII. in "The Bloody Brother," where the Cook humourously boasts to his companions,

"For fish, I'll make you a standing

Jake of white broth, And pikes come ploughing up the plums before them; [chrymæ." Arion-like on a dolphin, playing LaThe very rare first quarto copy of this play, printed at London in 1639, is in my possession; it reads, “Arion, like a dolphin, playing Lachrymæ;" but the second quarto, printed at Oxford in 1640, gives us, "Arion on a dolphin, playing Lachrymæ." The latter is plainly the correct text; for the figure of Arion upon the dolphin's back was a favourite in the spectacles exhibited upon the water in Eliza beth's time; and the Cook, with ludicrous pomposity, assures his friends that his skill can furnish this capital embellishment. As the lines now stand in Mr. Weber's edition they are destitute of meaning; the semicolon at the end of the second line alone prevents us from concluding that Mr. Weber had supposed that “the pikes" were to sit "Arion-like on a dolphin," playing popular tunes!

In "The Knight of the Burning Pestle,” Act iii. Sc. 2, the Host of the Bell-inn says to Ralph, "Therefore, gentle Knight, twelve shillings you must pay, or I must cap you." The concluding words have surely puzzled

Mr. Weber, who declares himself ut. terly ignorant of the nature of the punishment (as he terms it) threatened against Ralph. The phrase "lo cap" is still in general use throughout Ireland, amongst the keepers of publichouses and those persons who sell goods at standings in the streets, by whom the punishment is frequently inflicted upon fraudulent customers, when attempting to retire without making a fair payment: it consists in forcibly taking off the hat from the insolvent's head, and detaining it as a pledge for the money. Of this prac tice, which is also common amongst schoolboys, I have witnessed many instances. On examination of the context, it will be found that this interpretation correctly and fully explains the term: the Host proceeds to seize Ralph's cap, when the Citizen interferes to prevent his apprentice from suffering so foul a disgrace, and exclaims, "Cap Ralph no; hold your hand, Sir Knight of the Bell! there's your money," &c. The word " ping," which occurs in Mr. Weber's quotation from "Ward's London Spy," is used in precisely the same sense..

cap

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Follow his chariot, like the greatest spot Of all thy sex; most monster-like be shown

For poor'st diminutives, to dolts!"

The closing words of this extract are very obscure, and have, in my opinion, baffled the acumen of Warburton and Tyrwhitt; Steeveus (who in fact perceived not their great difficulty) agrees with Tyrwhitt; but Malone candidly avows that none of the comments afford a satisfactory expla nation. I regret that no notice of this obscure passage occurs amongst the many admirable remarks explanatory of Shakspeare's language, which Mr. Gifford has introduced in his notes upon Massinger and Jonson, in which he has evinced such sound judgment and masterly knowledge of our antient language and customs, as prove him fully competent to give to his native country an edition of her favourite Poet, surpassing in solid worth isaac Reed's celebrated variorum edition of 1803. But I much fear, from Mr. Gifford's

a

Act iv. Sc. 2, Lusurioso assures the
brothers of a lady that he had indig-
nantly resisted the arts of a pander
who had encouraged him to debauch
her:

Especially knowing her to be as chaste
"I, far from thinking any virgin harm,
As that plant which scarce suffers to be
touch'd;

The Eye, would not endure him."

ludicrous specimen of a commentator The notes upon these lines are a tortured by his own absurdity: "Plant

Gifford's expressions in his Memoirs of Jonson (vol. I. p. 244), that he has finally abandoned his intention of executing a work which would be joy fully received by every lover of English literature, and that Shakspeare must continue for some time encumbered by the ponderous ignorance of his commentators. As to the lines before us, I am convinced that Warburton and Tyrwhitt have affixed a meaning to the word "diminutives" which it never bore in any author; the term also occurs in a pas--the sensitive plant. The quarto sage of "Troilus and Cressida," where Shakspeare uses it in the very sense which it appears to bear in the verses under consideration: "How this poor world is pestered with such waterflies! diminutives of nature!" Act v. Sc. 1. I understand "diminutives" to mean dwarfs, or persons by any striking deformity "curtailed of man's fair proportion," who were often in former times, and are in our own days, the unhappy subjects of public exhibition.

The received interpretation cannot be correct; it is far-fetched, and irreconcileable with the tenor of the whole passage; for if the word "dimibutives" really signified "the smallest pieces of money," then Shakspeare has made Antony express the exact reverse of what he intended, which unquestionably was to threaten Cleopatra with being exhibited grutuitously to the Roman populace, as the "shouting Plebeians" were to behold her following Cæsar's chariot in open disgrace. I therefore propose the following explanation, not as satisfactory, but as more fairly deducible than any hitherto advanced :-"Be thou, who in beauty, elegance, and dignity of personal appearance, excellest all mortals, exhibited in the place of monsters, and as a substitute for deformed and hideous creatures, to the gaze of the stupid and brutal rabble of Rome."-I trust the candid reader will allow that this interpretation has not been elicited by wresting words from their usual signification. The

passage appears corrupt, and calls

reads Part. S." (i. e. George Steevol. XII. p. 394, he adds, "I believe vens.) Then in the Additional Notes, here is some corruption. I do not understand the passage. Perhaps we should read,

'As that plant which scarce suffers to be touch'd

By the Eye."

"Touch him but with thine Eye,' is a threat in some dramatic performance that has passed through my hands: I think in one of Shakspeare's. S."

It is surprising that any man of learning could have written such wretched nonsense, and so grossly mistake the grammar of a plain passage. Dodsley's first edition follows the reading of the quarto copy, which is perfectly correct, except in having a comma after "touched," which must be omitted; "the Eye" is "that part" of the human frame to which the Poet justly ascribes a delicate sensitiveness that shrinks from the slightest touch. As the passage now stands in the modern copies (for the Editor of "The Antient British Drama" has not removed the blemish from his text), the words "The Eye," in the last line of the extract, are left in an unintelligible state which (thanks to hypercriticism!) defies explication.

Yours, &c. W. SHANAHAN, M.D. (The second Letter shall appear in our next Number.)

ON THE CLERICAL DRESS.
Mr. URBAN,
July 4.
YOUR Correspondent Sigismund

for the aid of a skilful commentator. Y has afforded me much entertain

In Isaac Reed's edition of Dodsley's Old Plays (1780), vol. IV. p. 383, we find the text of a passage strangely spoiled by a capricious departure from the old copy of "The Revenger's Tragedy" in the following lines,

ment and information, in his researches and recommendations to the Clergy, to wear their clerical dress in common. I bave followed him through his Letters with pleasure, though they have not any where con

vinced me of the propriety of their adopting his plan. In the Worship established in the Church I most fully accord to the propriety of a distinguished habit, though my Salvation does not rest upon any such exterior institutions. and if any accident should prevent a Minister from putting on his band or even surplice, the Liturgy would to me lose nothing of its sublimity and devotion ;-if it be thus merely secondary to the more important and serious service of piety and decency in public worship, how much less must it appear essential in society at large.

Sigismund assuredly would not omit preaching his Sermon if by some mischance he had left his band at home and could not procure any other, however censurable he might be for having forgotten to provide it? Although every thing should be done decently and in order, yet every nonessential should keep its proper place, and not intrude into a higher station than has been assigned to it:- the converse of this proposition is, that as the appropriate Clerical Dress is a devout adjunct to the Established Service, and to no other, it should be preserved and laid up carefully for those rites to which it belongs, and not be familiarly subjected to abuse or remark, by being habitually worn on any other or general occasion : — the very decency which it is meant to administer to the services would cease to have that effect, if it was publicly exposed by daily use in the street, in the road, in the theatre, and in the drawing room.-The time is now far more enlightened than to admit of any respect to the wearer by reason of his clerical garb.-Gentlemen of the long robe are not always exempt from the geer and laugh of ignorant persons, when they are passing from Court to Court, or from the Forum to the Coffee House in their wig and gown but this is disregarded, and has no ill effect, except to themselves for the moment.-Examine the same disposition among the low-minded, whom the garb of religion is not grave enough to awe; and you will find that it would be exposed to ridicule, offensive to the priest, injurious to his sacred function, and ultimately baneful to the cause of Christianity! On the Sabbath Day, Clergymen were formerly accustomed to walk in

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their gown and cassock through the streets of the city to their respective Churches; and in villages in the country this is now not unusual; and the sacredness of the day gave them a free and undisturbed course; but if they were now to mingle during the days of the week in their clerical dress in the public streets, amid the noise and hurry of trade, pleasure, and business-amid carts, carriages, and brutes of all kinds, and " men more brute than they," it must be expected that their sacred vestments would be very soon rendered unfit for the holy rites for which they were made; and even that their persons would not be exempted from either ridicule or insult, alike injurious to themselves as to the sacred office to which they are properly set apart. It does not appear, to me at least, that they would by this general adoption obtain the object set forth in Sigismund's 5th means (p. 398), of setting a good example to the other Clergymen, and of exposing to shame those who prefer the gaieties of the world to the sober babit, &c."-for, I much fear that if all the Clergy followed this example, they would not by that means purify the manners of the people, or render them accessary to that respect which Sigismund desires to cultivate by a custom introduced so late in life, and now become obsolete, since the supercession of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in this country; nor would this habit put to shame those less sober brethren of our priesthood who prefer the gaieties of the world--for if an order of this kind should issue from the Convocation itself, it could not command the concurrence of the people; and those Clergymen who were too devoted to gaiety, or to their farms, or to their pursuits of the chace, would rather risk the displeasure of their diocesan than comply with the requisition;-and this exterior would then become a source of continual animosity between them, and eud in the latter being obliged to relinquish his authority, as the only alternative of suspending or dismissing his reverend flock!

But exclusive of this reasoning, another objection seems to have escaped your Correspondent's arrangement; the expence of always appearing in some or one of the clerical habits;

.he

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