Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/182

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146


NOTES AND QUERIES. cio* s. 11. AUG. 20,


ever consecrated in Westminster outside the walls of the Abbey.

FREDERICK T. HIBGAME.

"THE GREAT REAPER DEATH." (See ante, p. 98.) Longfellow has written this line :

There is a reaper, whose name is Death. It is in his poem ' The Reaper and the Flowers.' I thought at first that Pope had used the expression ; but a moment's reflec- tion brought to my mind his actual words,

  • ' the great teacher Death."

E. YARDLEY.

" WORKING CLASS " OFFICIALLY DEFINED. In a revised Standing Order of the House of Commons, adopted on the motion of the Chairman of Ways and Means, at the close of the session of 1902, a much-disputed phrase is thus officially defined :

" The expression 'working class ' means mechanics, artisans, labourers, and others working for wages, hawkers, costermongers, persons not working for wages, but working at some trade or handicraft without eniploying others except members of their own family, and persons, other than domestic servants, whose income in any case does not exceed an average of thirty shillings a week and the families of any of such persons who may be residing with them."

ALFRED F. BOBBINS .

4 CHANSON DE ROLAND.' On the subject of the authorship of the 'Chanson de Roland' and the minstrel depicted and named on the Bayeux tapestry, I received the following note from the late Prof. Julleville :

"Monsieur tant de personnages se sont nomme's Turoldus ou Theroude au Moyen Age qu'il est egalement impossible de nier ou d'affirmer 1'identite 1 du menestrel de la tapisserie de Bayeux et du trouvere qui a composl Roland, si Turoldus n'est pas tout simplement le scribe qui copie ou le jongleur qui recite. Je vous salue monsieur avec distinction. P. J. (13 Mai, 1892)."

E. S. DODGSON.

JOHN OWEN AND ARCHBISHOP WILLIAMS. The author of the life of John Owen, the epi- grammatist, in the * D.N.B.' writes :

" Latterly Owen is said to have owed his main- tenance to his kinsman, Lord-Keeper Williams. It is remarkable that though he addresses epigrams to numerous patrons and relatives, there are none addressed to Williams."

Epigrams 42, 43, and 44 in book iii. of Owen's last volume are addressed to three different Welshmen bearing the name of John Williams. The second of these was the future archbishop. He is clearly de scribed at the head of the distich as " Canta- brigiensem, Theologum, & Collegii S. Joannis Socium." Ep. 45, beginning, " Tres mihi cognati," is addressed to all three men. See Baker, 'Hist, of the Coll. of St. John the


vangelist, Cambridge' (ed. J. E. B. Mayor), p. 207 :

4< Owen the epigrammatist has bestowed two epi- grams upon this master [Owen Gwyn] and his greater pupil [Archbishop Williams]. That upon the pupil is large enough, and peculiar to the person described in it ; the other is common, and will suit any man as well as Dr. Gwyn."

3ne would infer from this that Owen only " bestowed " a single epigram upon Dr. Gwyn. Owen Gwyn's name (Audoenus Gwyn) is above two epigrams lib. iii. 166 of the earliest volume, and No. 89 of the second (dedicated to Arabella Stuart). Either, apparently, would "suit any man as well." We may presume that the same Gwyn is meant, as in both instances Owen describes trim as " cognatum suum " and " Theol[og]." ED.WARD BENSLY. The University, Adelaide, South Australia.

JACOBIN SOUP. The explanation of this word quoted from Phillips, 1706, "a kind of French Potage with Cheese," is the only instance given by the 'KE.D.' An earlier use, and the probable source of Phillips's explanation, is to be found in 'The Com- pleat Cook,' 1696, where on p. 333 is a recipe for "The Jacobins Pottage." The cheese may be either "Parmasant" or cold Holland cheese. E. G. B.

CAXTON AND THE WORD " RICHTER." In Caxton's ' Golden Legend,' in the account of St. Nicholas, there is a narrative of the rescue of three knights unjustly condemned to death. The saint is accompanied by three princes who were his guests :

" And when they had come to where they should be beheaded, he found them on their knees, and blindfold, and the Tighter brandished his sword over their heads. And St. Nicholas, embraced with the love of God, set him hardily against the Tighter, and took the sword out of his hand, and threw it from him, and unbound the innocents, and led them with him all safe."

I quote from the very pretty and convenient edition published in the " Temple Classics " ; but for the purposes of this note I have con- sulted the Latin edition of Voragine (Paris, 1475), the English version of Caxton (1483, 1493, 1527), the French version of Bataillier (Lyons, 1476), and the Dutch version (Gouda, 1480) all of which, with others, are in the John Kylands Library at Manchester. The word in Caxton's editions of 1483 and 1493 is spelt in the first place righttar, and in the second Tighter, although they are only four lines apart. The word was apparently felt to be outlandish, and in the last edition issued by Wynkyn de Worde (1527) offycer is substituted for Tighter. This is evidently the