Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/129

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io s. xi. FEB. G, 1909.] XOTES AND QUERIES.


101


LOS DOS, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY ti, 1909.


CONTENTS. No. 267.

NOTES : John Barclay, Theodorus Prodromus, and Robert Burton, 101 Signs of Old London, 1O2 Dr. Johnson's Ancestors, 103 The Liquid N in English British Museum Library Catalogue, 105 Vanishing London Major Hull Wind and Crucifixion " Paddies " in the U.S., 100 Church Plate "That "s another story," 107.

QUERIES : Sir Walter Scott on the Scotch and the Irish " Realm " : its Pronunciation Murat's Widow : Empress Marie Louise Sea-NamesFig Tree in the City Mohammedan and Christian Chronology, 107 Corsley, Wilts Burial half within and half without a Church An American Anthology R. M. Atkinson C. J. Auriol Thomas, fourth Lord Camoys Sir Thomas Warner of Antigua Walton Castle, Clevedon, Somerset " May I through this blest day of Thine," 108 "Before one can say Jack Robinson" Strugnell Surnames " Jack Ketch's Address Card " Suffragan Bishops Patron Saints Spanish Money in Nubia Gloucestershire Definition of a Gentleman, 109 Thiebault and "s'ennuyer," 110.

REPLIES : "Brokenselde," 110 Broken Cross, West- minster Curious House, Greenwich Elihu Yale's Epitaph, 111 The Duff Advertising Epitaph Worksop Epitaphs Moon -Legends, 112 Travel- ling under Hadrian Yew Trees Chamber-Horse for Exercise, 113 Mrs. Gordon Carlyle on the Griffin Vincent Alsop Rudge Family, 114 "Christinas pig" Village Names Sir J. Sydenham ' Girl of the Period,' 115 Dickens's "Knife-Box" Barnard "Spanish Strapps" Thimbles Field Memorials to Sportsmen 4 Millennial Star' Rod of Brickwork, 116 Bp. Sampson- Sneezing Superstition Mitred Abbots Adrian Scrope Clement's Inn Knocker Caroline as a Masculine Name Sir R. Fletcher German Leather Bindings Steepe, 117.

NOTES ON BOOKS : ' Wells and Glastonbury 'Wright's Translation of the ' yEneid ' Reviews and Magazines.

Booksellers' Catalogues.


JOHN BARCLAY, THEODORUS PRO- DROMUS, AND ROBERT BURTON. IN 1625 there appeared at Paris the first printed edition of that curious Greek metrical romance ' The Story of Rhodanthe and Dosicles,' by the mediaeval monk Theodorus Prodromus. The editor, Gilbert Gaulmin, a French lawyer, who a few years before had brought out the editio princeps of Eumathius or Eustathius's ' Ismenias and Ismene,' was indebted for the greater part of his text to a MS. in the Palatine Library, -of which a copy had been sent him by Salmasius. But, as he adds (sig. e v verso, in the address to the reader), " Quae deerant, Amplissimus de Peirez senator ex Vaticano Codice describi curauit opera TOV /xaxapiTow Barclaij." It is pleasant to be able to recognize the author of ' Argenis ' in this friend of Peirescius who supplemented Saumaise's copy with the aid of the Vatican MS. Gaulmin mentions that he himself began his work six years before. This -would take us back to 1619, and we know Barclay to have lived in Rome from Feb- ruary or March, 1616, to his death in August, 1621. On examining the seven volumes of


the ' Lettres de Peiresc ' published by M. Philippe Tamizey de Larroque (Paris, 1888- 1898), in the second series of the ' Collection de Documents inedits sur 1'Histoire de France' issued under the direction of the Minister of Public Instruction, I found in vol. vii. (p. 400) a letter from Peirescius to Barclay in which he asks his friend, on behalf of Gaul- min, to supply from a Vatican manuscript a lacuna in Theodorus Prodromus's ' Amours de Rhodante et de Dosiclee.' The letter is dated Paris, 22 Sept., 1619. M. Tamizey de Larroque gives no reference to the passage in Gaulmin's preface which proves that Barclay responded to the application.*

Gaulmin's Latin translation facing the Greek, which, according to his own account, was thrown off in a week, has a special interest for an English reader because of its use by Robert Burton. Not only is this version, and that of Prodromus's ' Ama- rantus ' which is contained in the same volume, cited several times in the 'Anatomy ' under the Greek writer's name (Gaulmin's name also receives mentionf), but the romance is the source of more than one of Burton's anonymous quotations in Latin vers.e (in several places Gaulmin gives a metrical rendering of his original).

In Partition 2, Sect. 3, Memb.l (subs. 1), p. 285,1. 4ined. 3(1628),

Insana stulta- mentis hseo solatia is from p. 284 of lib. vii.

Nondum experta noui gaudia prima tori (2, 3, 5, p. 319, ed. 3) is from lib. i. p. 20. Certa sequi Charum corpus vt umbra solet (3, 2, 3, p. 487, 1. 16) is from lib. vii. (p. 292, misprinted 262). This line was evidently based on Plautus, ' Casina,' 91, 92 :

quia certumst mihi. Quasi umbra, quoquo tu ibis te semper sequi.

A more curious piece of indebtedness on Burton's part may be traced. From what source were the lines taken that occur on p. 30 (first numbering) of ed. 3 ?

Virgines noridum Thalamis iugatae, & Comis nondum positis ephoebi.

Shilleto in his note (vol. i. p. 61) is satisfied with referring the reader to Seneca, ' Here.


  • English proper names in text and notes have a

bad time with the French editor. " Saulcy " (Lord Hay of Sawley is meant), " Kinstrid," "milord Hich," and "Wanloz" are scarcely convincing samples of British nomenclature.

t See the first marginal note on p. 256 (ed. 3, 1628). It is hardly necessary to say that the mis- print of "Ganlinio" for Gaulmino has enjoyed a very long life.