Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/401

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ii s. in. MAT 20, i9iL] NOTES AND QUERIES.


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Church's, and the Geneva were also carefully examined. This preparatory work occupied about three years Anderson, ' English Bible,' says "four years" ; but this must be a mistake. Their labours terminated an 1607, when six different portions of Scrip- ture were submitted for final revision.

The second period the period of revision or reconstruction began in the spring of 1607. It was carried on by twelve scholars, two being chosen from each of the six former companies. Their work, it is said, occupied them for nine months, sitting day after day until it was finished. The result, or first draft of the Authorized Version, was then submitted for final correction to two of their number, Dr. Miles Smith and Bilson, Bishop of Winchester.

It may be added that the Bible of 161 1 was not entered on the Stationers' Registers because it was only a revised edition. The best and most recent writers on the whole subject are, I believe, Mr. H. W. Hoare in ' Our English Bible, the Story of its Origin and Growth,' and Mr. A. W. Pollard in 4 Records of the English Bible.'

W. SCOTT.

In the Introduction to the Official Guide to the Bible Exhibition in the British Museum '(pp. 16-17) it is stated that, though six com- panies of translators (forty-seven names) had been formed for the purpose in 1604, it was not until 1607 that the work of translation was " definitely " taken in hand.

C. C. B.

[MR. TOM JONFS sends a long extract from the Guide, which we have forwarded to the querist.]

MEDIEVAL " OBERAMMERGATJS " (11 S. iii. 267, 333). In the York mystery play of

  • Corpus Christi ' (1415) and doubtless

in the corresponding cycles at Towneley, Chester, and Coventry pageant 34, pro- vided by the Tunners, represented Jesus bearing His cross to Calvary, &c. ; pageant 35, provided by the Pinners, Latoners, and Painters, the cross, Jesus stretched upon it on the earth, four Jews scourging and dragging Him with ropes, and afterwards uplifting the cross and the body of Jesus nailed to it, on Mount Calvary ; pageant 36, provided by the Butchers and Poulterers, the cross, two thieves crucified, Jesus hung on the cross between them, Mary the mother of Jesus, John, Mary, James and Salome, a centurion, Joseph of Arimathea And Nicodemus laying Him in the tomb, &c.

The extant Cornish mystery plays consist of a connected series of three sub-cycles,


the central one of which is the Passio Domini, the life of Christ from the tempta- tion to the crucifixion.

An English play (composed about the middle of the fifteenth century, and extant in a MS. which dates from the beginning of the sixteenth) deals with the lowering of Christ from the cross, and was intended for performance on Good Friday.

A grotesque dance, performed by Jews, with accompaniment of music, round the cross on which Christ hangs, is to be met with not only in the Coventry Mysteries, but likewise in some German mystery plays.

Prof. Creizenach says :

"If in a processional play (such as the York Mysteries, for example) one character appeared in several scenes, it was, necessarily, represented by different persons : Christ on the Mount of Olives was a different individual fro in Christ before Pilate or on Golgotha."

Nowadays at Oberammergau the same actor takes the part of Christus or the Virgin, as the case may be, throughout the entire drama. A. R. BAYLEY,

[U. also thanked for reply.]

ANANIAS AS A CHBISTIAN NAME (11 S. iii. 266, 333). I do not for a moment suggest that the Puritans knew anything about the * Acta Sanctorum,' but as a matter of fact there has been a St. Ananias whose day is kept in the Roman Catholic Church on 16 December (Festum Triam Puerorum). The three boys in question were Ananias, Azarias, and Misael.

L. L. K.

In the ' Kent Parish Registers, Marriages,' Phillimore series, Staplehurst, p. 115, is this entry : " Ananias Homard of Maydston and Susana Glover, 27 Dec., 1688."

R. J. FYNMORE.

For the use of Sapphira it is difficult to devise an explanation, but for Ananias why should we not assume that the good Ananias of Acts ix. and xxhv-12 was he whose name was chosen ? S. S. BAGSTEB.

Higher Turnpike, Marazion, Cornwall.

" SEGUNDO " (11 S. iii. 3*7). A Segundo bridle must refer to a. bridle with a Segundo bit, which is the iron part of a bridle. The important improvement introduced was in giving to the mouthpiece a partial rotary movement on the branches, by which means its position is always horizontal to the tongue ('The Loriner,' Latchford on 'Bridle Bits,' 1871). In the list of engravings are a Segundo bit, No. 41, and a Buxton Segundo,