190
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. VIL MARCH 9, 1907.
it stands seems amply to suit the meaning
of the texts of all charters, without
this seemingly unnecessary explanation and
alteration. WILFRID H. MYERS.
MARLI HORSES. Could you inform me of the history of the Marli horses and some- thing of Marli's life ? I believe they were brought from Italy by Napoleon I.
MARLI.
RUMP OF A GOOSE AND DRINKING BOUTS. In ' English Proverbs with Moral Re- flexions,' by Oswald Dykes, 2nd ed., 1709, p. 12, is the following :
"Both Vices may shake Hands for this scandalous Truth ; that the very Rump of a Goose has created a thousand drinking Bouts.
It is part of the " Reflexion " on " Hungry Dogs will eat dirty Puddings," and refers particularly to gluttony and drunkenness. Does the " rump of a goose " mean only a thing of small importance or value ?
ROBERT PIERPOINT.
CAMOENS, SONNET com. : " FRESCAS BELVEDERES." Among the sonnets trans- lated bj> Mr. J. J. Aubertin in his ' Seventy Sonnets of Camoens ' is the one written in honour of some fair ladies, perhaps of the Court, who were living in a country-house with a beautiful garden. It begins thus : De frescas belvederes rodeadas Estam as puras aguas desta fonte. (By fresh " belvederes " are the pure waters of this fountain surrounded.)
What is the meaning of the word " belve- dere " in this sonnet ? It is not a native Portuguese word, but of Italian origin. We may learn from Florio that the Italian belvedere is used in two distinct senses :
" Belvedere, a goodly sight ; a fair view, a beau- teous prospect ; also the Toad-flax, or Flax- weed which grows to a man's height, and is very beautiful to behold.
' N.E.D.' gives instances of the occurrence of the word in English in the latter sense, In which sense does Camoens use the word ? Aubertin renders: "By landscape-scenes surrounded, fresh and gay." But is it not more probable that the plant was intended ? This meaning seems to be more suitable here, and to explain the gender of the word, trees and plants in Portuguese being generally in the feminine gender. A. L. MAYHEW.
POLINDA AND ALBAROSA. I have a small engraving by Conde of a picture by Coswav with date 1789, and these names under it Can any of your readers tell me in what poem or story these characters appear ?
G. G. G.
EDINBURGH REVIEW' ATTACK ON
OXFORD. (10 S. vii. 128, 175.)
SANDFORD'S attack is in No. 70, in an article on ' Classical Education,' ostensibly directed against " close Fellowships," but really aimed at Oriel College and its Provost Copleston (see Ward's letter to Copleston in ' Lord Dudley's Letters,' p. 291 ; and cf. remark, p. 216, on Elmsley, " a very learned, a sensible, but not very agreeable man "). It was Elmsley who replied to this attack in a ' Letter to Daniel K. Sandford, Esq., Professor of Greek in the University of Glasgow.' Sandford' s rejoinder is printed in No. 41 of The Pamphleteer. The con- troversy was a very piquant, but a some- what puerile one, and it did not excite much public interest, as may be gathered from a volume which happens to be on the same shelf as The Pamphleteer in my library, viz., The Council of Ten, No. 4 (' University Controversies,' p. 437).
The earlier " attacks " were of a different order. They appeared in the Edinburgh, No. 22, in " a masterly analysis of La Place's ' Traite de Mechanique Celeste ' " (Cople- ston, First Reply, p. 14) ; in No. 28, in a criticism of Falconer's 'Strabo' ; in No. 29, in an article by Sydney Smith on ' Professional Education ' based on ' Professional Educa- tion,' by R. Edgeworth (Maria Edgeworth's father) ; and in No. 31, in a rejoinder to Copleston's First Reply. Copleston's " Replies " are three in number, and were published, the first two in 1810, and the third in 1811. Falconer also published a reply in The Gentleman's Magazine for October, 1809, and an important contribu- tion to the discussion was made by Drum- mond in ' Observations on the Strictures of the Edinburgh Review upon Oxford and on the Two Replies.' I call this important, for it refers to the short-lived M.A. examina- tion at Oxford. In Bateman's ' Life of Bishop Daniel Wilson ' there is a full de- scription of this mysterious examination. As it was in all respects identical with the new " Greats "being, in fact, the ad- mission of men who had already passed the old " great " examination for the Bachelor's degree into the same arena as the candidates who, under the new statute, were bound to come in I quote Wilson's account.
Wilson says ('Life,' i. 66) that he was examined with his friend Wheeler (sub-
