2. What does Byron mean us to infer that Lara saw in his hall that midnight, when he so alarmed his household with
"A sound, a voice, a shriek, a fearful call,
A long loud shriek—and silence."?
The poet, it is true, seems to refuse, purposely, to let his readers into the truth, telling them:—
"Whate'er his frenzy dream'd or eye beheld,
If yet remember'd, ne'er to be reveal'd.
Rests at his heart."
But still, I conceive there can be no doubt that he knew the truth (I speak as of realities),—knew what he intended to represent by so full and elaborate a delineation of a scene. And it is the author's meaning and intention that I wish to come at.
I will ask one more question relative to this magnificent poem (which I don't think has had justice done it by the critics), but one respecting which I hardly think there can be any doubt as to the author's secret meaning:—Is not the Kaled of Lara the Gulnare of the Giaour?
Before concluding, I will add a query on a very different subject.
3. Many of your readers have, doubtless, seen the large marble tablet erected by the Vallaisians in honour of Napoleon, in the Convent of the Great St. Bernard. A recent traveller in Switzerland (Dr. Forbes) has, I find, noticed the inscription, and questioned, as I had done, both its meaning and Latinity. I extract this author's note as expressing exactly the points on which I desiderate information:—
"Having doubts both as to the precise meaning and lingual purity of the compound epithet Bis Italicus, here applied to Napoleon, I subjoin the passage in which it occurs, for the judgment of the learned:—'napoleoni . . . . ægyptiaco bis italico semper invicto . . . . grata respublica.'"—A Physicians Holiday, p. 468.
Athenæeum, January 26. 1850.
MINOR QUERIES.
Howkey or Horkey.—Can anybody explain the etymology of the word Howkey or Horkey, generally used to denote a harvest-home merriment in our eastern counties? Forbes speaks of it as an intractable word, and neither he nor Sir J. Cullum have succeeded in explaining it satisfactorily.
Audley End, Feb. 16.
Lord Bacons Metrical Version of the Psalms.—The answer in No. 15. p. 235. to A Cornish-man's Query (No. 13. p. 202.) respecting "Bacon's Metrical Version of the Psalms," suggests another query. The work in question was a mere "exercise of sickness;" it contains only seven psalms (the 1st, 12th, 90th, 104th, 126th, 137th, and 149th), and is, without pretension of any kind, a very proper diversion for a mind that could not be inactive and yet required rest; and very good verses for a man unpractised in metrical composition. The Collection of Apophthegms (also a recreation in sickness), though considerably larger and altogether weightier, was considered so trifling a work that Dr. Rawley, in his "perfect list of his Lordship's true works, &c.," appended to the first edition of the Resuscitatio (1657), either forgot or did not think fit to mention it. Yet both these trifles were not only written but published, by Bacon himself the year before his death—a thing quite contrary to his practice; for though he had written and carefully preserved and circulated in manuscript so much, he had till then published nothing that was not of the weightiest and most solid kind. Can any of your correspondents inform me how much two such books may possibly have been worth to a publisher in the year 1625; being works of low price and popular character, proceeding from an author of great name? How much is it reasonable to suppose that a publisher may have given for the copyright? or how far may it have gone towards the payment of a book-seller's bill? J. S.
Feb. 7. 1850.
Treatise of Equivocation.—I shall feel happy if, through your very opportune medium, I can obtain some information respecting a very extraordinary and mysterious book, as to its existence, local habitation, and any other material circumstance, which has the title of A Treatise of Equivocation. The first recognition of the work is in the Relation of the Proceedings in the Trial for the Powder Plot, 1604. At signat. I. the Attorney-General, Sir E. Coke, appeals to it, and affirms that it was allowed by the Archpriest, Blackwel, and that the title was altered to A Treatise against Lying and Fraudulent Dissimulation. He proceeds to describe some of its contents, as if he were himself acquainted with the book. Thomas Morton, Bishop of Lichfield, and Coventry, afterwards of Durham, in his Full Satisfaction concerning a double Romish Iniquitie; Rebellion and Equivocation, 1606, refers to the work as familiarly acquainted with it. (See Ep. Dedic. A. 3.; likewise pages 88 & 94.) He gives the authorship to Creswell or Tresham. He refers likewise to a Latin work entitled Resolutio Casuum, to the same effect, possibly a translation, to which he subjoins the names of Parsons and Allen. Robert Abbot, in his Antilogia, 1613, pp. 13, 14. emphatically and at length produces the same book and facts; but they are merely copied from the Relation of the Powder-treason Trial. Henry Mason, in his most satisfactory work, The New Art of Lying, &c., 1624, has spoken of the Trea-
