12 S. IV. MAV, 1918.]
NOTES AND QUERIES.
143
" CORRTTPTIO OPTIMI PESSIMA" (12 S.
iii. 503). The Optima corrupta pessima form of the saying is followed by Farquhar in ' The Constant Couple ; or, A Trip to the Jubilee,' where Col. Standard ends the opening scene of the third act with the couplet,
Thus our chief joys with base allays [sic] are curst, And our best things, when once corrupted, worst.
Possibly Denham's lines may have been at work in the writer's mind.
EDWARD BENSLY.
ST. GEOR&E : Two INCIDENTS IN HIS LIFE (12 S. iv. 13). An American would call it a " tall order " if he were asked to give authorities for two incidents in the life of a saint who, according to a Protestant writer,
- was not only no saint, but not even a man,
having never been ha existence " (R. T. Hampson, ' Medii JEvi Kalendarium ' [1841], vol. i. p. 183).
After a very careful investigation of the whole question, the Bollandist Father Delehaye came to the conclusion that all that can be affirmed safely about the patron saint of England may be summed up in the statement that he suffered martyrdom at or near Lydda (also known as Diospolis) in Palestine, probably before the time of Constantine (' Saints Militaires,' Paris, 1909, pp. 45-76).
If your correspondent requires descriptions of the two scenes represented on the stained glass at St. Neots, he should study the long account given " De S. Georgio Megalo- Martyre," in the Bollandists' ' Acta Sanc- torum ' (vol. xii. of the whole series, pp. 101 to 165). This author's remark about the story of the fight with the dragon is that " fabula haec abest a Graecis et Latinis MSS. antiquis." His opinion is that the fable was introduced into Europe from Syria in the twelfth century " post recuperationem Terrae Sanctse," and owes its origin to the characteristic love of the Syrians to em- bellish the lives of the saints with fanciful tales " more istiua sevi " ; and he thinks that the story was diffused throughout Europe by means of ' The Golden Legend.'
L. L. K.
The story of St. George as told in ' The Golden Legend ' is mainly founded on the early Greek and Coptic Acts, but there were Syriac, Latin, and Arabic versions also, and many variants.
According to an early version of the story, before St. George fought and slew the dragon he had himself been killed by the Gauls, and
the Virgin had raised him again to life...
This is why he was so often called her knight
and painted kneeling by her side.
A representation of St. George being armed by angels and knighted by the Virgin (Spanish, fifteenth century) is in the South Kensington Museum. F. G. B.
NEW SHAKSPERE SOCIETY'S PUBLICA- TIONS (12 S. iv. 77). I was an original sub- scriber to this Society's books during its existence. On leaf 3 of the cover of Series VI. No. 14, we read that No. 11 was a chromo- lithograph of Shakspere's monument in Stratford Church, while No. 13 was a reproduction of the Droeshout portrait of Shakspere. Both appeared in 1883, and both are in my set unmounted, and without any text.
My set lacks No. 14 of Series I., which is given in some booksellers' lists. Did this part ever appear ? Perhaps MR. SPARKE can enlighten me. If MR. SPARKE desires, I will send him a complete detailed list of my set. I have several parts in duplicate, which I could make over to him, if his set lacks them. W. A. B. COOLIDGE.
Grindelwald, Switzerland.
I was never a member of this Society, but I have been glad to pick up some of its publications. I lack a section in Series VI. of Harrison's valuable work, but do not know what number it should bear. It is often difficult "to see the wood for trees '" in books edited for the N.S.S.
ST. SWITHIN
THE CHIMNEY SWEEPER'S CLIMBING BOYS (12 S. iii. 347, 462 ; iv. 28). When I was a boy in the West of Ireland, the annual visits of the sweep and his climbing boy were great events, not unmixed with terror. This must have been about 1877 or a year or so later ; for I was born in 1874. In my old home the chimneys wound about through the thick walls of the house, and they were so large that even the sweep himself, who was a man of average size, could ascend : while his miserable-looking, thin, stunted little boy could stand upright in the hori- zontal shafts.
I well remember the climbing dress of the boys. It was a sort of short smock, reach- ing nearly to the knees. On their heads they wore a kind of helmet something like what is known as a Balaclava helmet which made them look very strange and awe-inspiring. This curious head-dress was kept in position by a running tape, which was tied round the neck ; and its full.
