112
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io th s. i. FEB. 6, im
house Lane, and the east end of Fisher's
Lane have been taken in by the Hospital
and Infirmary grounds. ROBERT PARKER.
JOHN DENMAN (9 th S. xii. 447). The Kev. John Denman, M.A. Line. Coll. Oxon., was vicar of Knottingley, Yorks, in 1852.
CH'AS. F. FORSHAW, LL.D.
Baltimore House, Bradford.
GLOWWORM OR FIREFLY (10 th S. i. 47). See Mrs. Hemans's poem ' The Better Land ' : Is it where the flow'r of the orange blows, And the fireflies dance thro' the myrtle boughs ?
Also Southey's 'Madoc,' ed. 1853, part ii. p. 219 (with long note, p. 353) :
She beckon'd and descended, and drew out From underneath her vest a cage, or net It rather might be call'd, so fine the twigs Which knit it, where, confined, two fireflies gave Their lustre. By that light did Madoc first Behold the features of his lovely guide.
In Kirby and Spence's 'Introduction to Entomology,' 1856, p. 506, it is remarked that the brilliant nocturnal spectacle presented by these insects to the inhabitants of the countries where they abound cannot be better described than in the language of Sou they, who has thus related its first effect upon the British visitors of the New World :
Sorrowing we beheld
The night come on ; but soon did night display More wonders than it veil'd : innumerous tribes From the wood-cover swarm'd, and darkness made Their beauties visible : one while they stream'd A bright blue radiance upon flowers that closed * Their gorgeous colours from the eye of day ; Now, motionless and dark, eluded search, Self-shrouded ; and anon, starring the sky, Rose like a shower of fire.
But Southey " confounds the firefly of St. Domingo (Elater noctilucus) with a quite different insect, the lantern-fly (Fulgora lanternaria) of Madame Merian " (p. 507, Kirby and Spence). Madame Merian painted one of these insects by its own light.
And for night-tapers crop their [i.e., the glow- worms'] waxen thighs, And light them at the fiery glowworm's eyes.
Ibid., p. 513.
Tasteful illumination of the night, Bright scattered, twinkling star of spangled earth ; Hail to the nameless coloured dark-and-light, The witching nurse of thy illumined birth.
John Clare's sonnet ' To the Glowworm.'
Shelley somewhere ['To a Skylark'] has :
Like a glowworm golden, in a dell of dew,
Scattering unbeholdeu its aerial blue [hue] Among the flowers and grass that [which] screen it from the view.
J. HOLDEN MAcMlCHAEL.
There is in All the Year Round of 24 October, 1863, a poem entitled 'The Glowworm,' which
well deserves being reprinted. I do not at
present call to mind any English verses on
the firefly, except those referred to by the
Editor. This must be due to my own
ignorance. It is highly improbable that
these beautiful creatures should not have
attracted the attention of other poets than
those named.
It may be well to draw attention to the fact that Italian peasants think " the fire- flies dancing above the ripening wheat are so many tiny living lamps of the sanctuary, lit in honour of its future consecration, and thus offering their anticipatory service of adoration" (Dublin Review, October, 1897, p. 490).
The Malays have a belief that the blood of murdered men turns into fireflies. See ' Malay Magic,' 329, quoted in Folk lore, June, 1902, p. 150n. EDWARD PEACOCK.
There is a poem entitled ' The Glowworm,' translated from Vincent Bourne's Latin, by a poet named Cowper. WALTER W. SKEAT.
The following was in a small collection of children's school-songs in daily use in the practising school of the Chester Diocesan Training College about sixty years ago : Once a little boy was straying
Through the woody lanes at night, And he there its light displaying Saw a pretty glowworm bright.
He a moment stood to wonder What could shed such dazzling light.
Then some green leaves hid it under, And took home this glowworm bright.
Thus through life we see with sorrow
Hopes which seem so bright to-night Fade and die upon the morrow, Like this pretty glowworm bright.
E. CLARK. 4, Lome Street, Chester.
A poem by Lowell called 'The Lesson' draws a grand moral from the firefly in rebuke of human self-sufficiency.
C. B. HOLINS WORTH. "ALL ROADS LEAD TO KoME " (10 th S. i. 48).
So far as I know, this is not strictly an English proverb, but merely a translation of the French one " Tout chemin mene a Rome, 1 '* or the Italian "Tutte le strade conducono a Roma";t and it seems to me only natural that we should go to Italy for the origin of the phrase.
- Some authorities derive the word chemin from
the Italian.
t The equivalent English proverb seems to be " There are more ways to the wood than one " ; Scottish, " There are mae ways to the wood nor
