332
NOTES AND QUERIES, no s. vra. OCT. 26, 1907.
cannot say, unless on account of the gold
used by binders. " The Three Cupping
Instruments " was a sign, of course, quite
distinct from, and later than, "The Three
Cups." J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.
Deene, Streatham.
In reference to the occurrence of " Three Cups " as a public-house sign, your corre- spondent cannot be unaware that public- house signs used to be taken almost ex- clusively from the heraldic bearings of the territorial nobility and gentry of the neigh- bourhood. Three cups are the cognizance of the various branches of the Butler family. CHARLES A. FEDEBEB.
Bradford.
BACON'S APOPHTHEGMS (10 S. vii. 328, 435 ; viii. 78). As most of the questions raised at the first reference have remained unanswered, the following notes may be of use.
3. Benseler's edition of Pape's ' Worter- buch der griechischen Eigennamen ' refers to several places, beginning with Diodorus Siculus 15, 2-11, for Orontes (No. 6 in the list), the son-in-law of Artaxerxes Mnemon. I have not tested them all, but the com- parison of kings' friends to fingers used in reckoning is attributed to him in Plutarch,
under ' Orontes,' and referred to as his in
Aristides, ' Orat.' 56, p. 423. See, too, the
scholion in Jebb's ed. of Aristides, vol. ii.
p. 257 ; and compare Erasmus, ' Apophtheg-
mata,' lib. v. No. 31 of the first set, under
' Orontes.'
The comparison of kings' friends to counters is ascribed to Solon by Diogenes Laertius, i. 2, 10, 59. Cf. Polybius, V. 26, 13.
5. Bacon had authority for attributing to " one of the Seven " a comparison of the laws to cobwebs. It is given to Solon by Diogenes Laertius, i. 2, 10, 68. The Scythian Anacharsis has the credit of it in Valerius Maximus (vii. 2, ext. 14) as well as in Plutarch's life of Solon, while Stobaeus assigns it to Zaleucus (' Florilegium,' 45, 25). See the notes in J. K. Orelli's ' Opuscula Graecorum Veterum Sententiosa et Moralia,' vol. i. p. 547. Erasmus ('Apophth.,' vii., Solon 5, and Anacharsis 22) quotes it under both names.
6. An examination of the story of the old woman in Plutarch, ' Demetrius,' 42, 909c, will, I think, show that it is fairly easy to confuse the two kings. " Divers times " is presumably due to KCU Seo/xcvov TroAAciKis
Erasmus (' Apophth.' iv. 31 of first set),
while relating the anecdote of Philip, adds,
" Hoc idem Latini tribuunt Hadriano
imperatori."
It is refreshing to find any one thinking that boys at a public school are, or ever have been, " soundly thrashed " for ignorance of these minutiae. Such a belief rarely survives a closer acquaintance with the classics or the public-school boy.
EDWABD BENSLY.
University College, Aberystwyth.
LATEST LINES ON BTJXTON (10 S. viii. 69). In ' A Supplement to the Great Historical Geographical .... Dictionary,' by Jer. Collier, 2nd ed., 1727, s.v. ' Buxton's Well,' is the following :
" Mary, Queen of Scots, when Pris'ner in Eng- land came to see this Place, and made the following distich :
Buxtona, quae calidae celebraris nomine Lymphae, Forte mihi posthac non adeunda, vale."
This is the distich as given in the query, except that " celebraris " takes the place of " celebrabere."
The lines partly copied by Queen Mary refer to Feltria (now Feltre), not Filtria. They are given in ' Dictionarium, His- toricum, Geographicum, Poeticum,' begun by Charles Stephens ("a Carolo Stephano "), revised, &c., by Nicolas Lloyd, London, 1686, s.v. ' Feltria ' :
Feltria perpetuo niveum damnata rigore Atque imhi posthac haud adeunda, vale.
They are attributed to Julius Caesar.
They are also given in ' Collectio Pisau- rensis,' Pisauri (Pesaro), 1766, vol. iv. p. 411, where, however, " rigori " stands for "rigore," and "Forte" for "Atque." There also they are attributed to Caesar. It would appear from a note on p. Is. (vol. i.) that they were by some attributed to C. Julius Caesar Strabo.
A different version is to be found among the Fragmenta at the end of the ' Works of Caesar,' 1819, inValpy's "Dolphin Classics" entitled " The Regent's Edition," p. 877 :
Feltria, perpetuo nivium damnata rigore, Terra mihi posthac non habitanda, vale.
They are said to be falsely attributed to Caesar, " though some say that they are extant on a parchment, others on a stone." The last version and the comment thereon appear to have been taken word for word from ' Scriptores Historiae Romanae,' &c., with notes by C. H. de Klettenberg et Wildeck, Heidelberg, 1743-8, vol. iii. p. 570.
ROBEBT PlEBPOINT.
