NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th & xn. JULY 4, 1903.
She is she was, what can there more be said ?
On earth the first, in heaven the second maid." The writer furnishes no authority for her general statement, which seems to be devoid of any foundation. It would appear to have been suggested by a passage m Granger s ^graphical History of England ' (second edition, published in 1775, vol. i. p. 178), which runs thus :
" Shpe was shee is, what can there more be said, In earth thftirst, in heaven the second maid.
These lines, which are under the head, are the last
verses of an inscription on a cenotaph of Queen
Elizabeth which was in
ov. Theophil Gibber
tells us in his ' Lives of the Poets' (vol. v. p. 16)
t they are an epigram of Budget's upon the death ofa very fine'young lady, and that he did not remember to have seen them published. It is no wonder that Granger was somewhat puzzled with the spelling of the word "shee to which he appends in a foot-note the expression" Sic Orig," and that he doubted the ascription of the lines to Eustace Bud gel, who, born in 1685, died in 1736, This authors of course, could have had nothing to do with the composition of the piece, inasmuch as it was in existence at least three-quarters of a century before he appeared on this sublunary scene It therefore follows that, it he employed the two verses in an elegy on the untimely death of a fair young creature who would be better entitled to the compliment than the aged Tudor queen, he was a plagiarist. The poem, if it deserves the name, was however, actually written in memory of Elizabeth by H. Holland, as we learn from Camden, who quotes it in full in the second edition of his ' Remaines,' published in 1614. I subjoin an exact copy of it for tuture reference in these pages : Weeue greatest Isle, and for thy mistresse death Swim in a double sea of brakish water : Weepe, little world, for great Elizabeth ; Daughter of warre, for Mars himselfe begat her ; Mother of peace, for shee brought forth the later. Shee was and is, what can there more be said? On earth the chief e, in heaven the second maide.
The great queen, who was not deficient in taste would assuredly have been displeased with such fustian stuff as this, and yet it is one of the best epitaphs that Camden could find written about her. What she really wanted may be gathered from Bacon's 'Character of Queen Elizabeth,' where he says she
"would often discourse about the inscription sh( had a mind should be on her tomb : she gave oul that she was no lover of glory and pompous titles but only desired her memory might be recorded ir a line or two which should very briefly express he name, her virginity, the time of her reign, the
reformation of religion, and her preservation of the
ace."
Camden quotes the two Latin inscriptons 'vpon the stately monument which King lames erected to her memorie," in which we ind four of these points eloquently described ; 3ut of the second no mention is made, unless Lt be implied in the words "pietatis studiosissima."
It is very strange to learn from Henry ^hettle's 'England's Mourning Garment'* low silent were the great writers on the death of the famous queen. At that epoch were living Daniel, Chapman, Ben Jonson, Shakespeare, Drayton, and others, and yet what does he say ?
Nor doth one poet seek her name to raise, That, living, hourly strived to sing her praise.
This is a most interesting subject, which I hope to treat, if allowed, on some other occasion not far distant, as I have gathered many notes about it. JOHN T. CUKHY.
PKESIDENT LOUBET. The Sun appears to
have stated that the name of Loubet should
rime with "may," and Mr. G. R. Sims seems
to have come to the rescue of a correspondent
who said that it did not. It is difficult
indeed to say that any French word rimes
with any English word, and Loubet certainly
does not rime with "may." But the Sun
now seems to think that Loubet " is one of
the few names in France which is pronounced
as it is spelt," and its writer goes on to say
that, while in Paris and the North the t is not
sounded, this is wrong. There is, in fact, no
right and wrong about French names. Suffren
is an example. The avenue in Paris and the
man-o'-war are both named after the same
distinguished person, but they are differently
pronounced. The practice of the extreme
South, to which from his citizenship of
Montelimar President Loubet belongs, is to
sound the final letter. But in the case of the
President this would lead to the unfortunate
result that his name would mean " the silly
fool," lou being the substitute for le at
Montelimar ; arid, except by his enemies
when lie was first in office, long before he
became President, the name has never been
so pronounced. The accentuation, however,
being on the first syllable, the second syllable
is swallowed in such fashion that to make it
rime to " may " is a cockney absurdity.
P. L.
- Published in 1603. The author died in the
following year. I quote from the reprint in ' The Harleian Miscellany,' vol. ii.
