178
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. ix. MARCH i, 1902.
the want of a tail, which seems to have
crippled Ailmer, the monk of Malmestfury,
in his earlier attempt, but the grovelling
propensities of the domestic fowl, whose
feathers he had thoughtlessly used to fashion
his wings.
An ambassador was sent to France by King James in September, 1507, when the abbot of Tungland
"tuik in hand to flie with wingis, and to be in Fraunce befoir the saidis ambassadouris. And to that effect he causet mak ane pair of wingis with fedderis, quhilkis beand fessinit apoun him, he flew of the Castell wall of Strivelling [Stirling], hot shortlie he fell to the ground, and brak his thee [thigh] bane; hot the wyt [blame] thairof he ascryvit to that thair was sum hen fedderis in the wingis quhilk yarnit and covet the mydding [dung- heap] and not the skyis."
J. G. WALLACE-JAMES.
MILTON : A TRACT ON LOGIC (9 th S. ix. 107). Milton's 'Artis Logicae,' &c., is reprinted in the sixth volume of the edition of Milton's prose works by Symmons, London, 1806.
MEMA.
HERRICK : SILVER-PENCE (9 th S. ix. 49). I think this may refer to the custom of cutting a membrane under the tongue of an infant to ensure the freedom of its " little member." If so, a silver penny must have been a popular instrument for the operation. In France matrons and sages-femmes make use of the nail of the little finger when they do not venture to employ scissors. ST. SAVITHIN.
The reference is to tongue-tied children. The "tie" is cut by the sharp edge of a much-worn silver coin. The note to the line in Grosart's ' Herrick ' confirms this. By the same means the tongues of starlings are loosened. ARTHUR MAYALL.
The allusion seems to be to the practice of using a silver coin for cutting the superfluous ligament in the mouth of a tongue-tied infant. This practice was probably due to a primitive prejudice against the employment of a metal instrument, and so allied to the survival among the Jews of the use of a sharp flint tor performing the rite of circumcision.
JOHN HOBSON MATTHEWS.
NOTES ON BOOKS, &o.
The Works of Lord Byron. Poetry. Vol V Edited
by Ernest Hartley Coleridge, M.A. (Murray ) 1KB penultimate volume of Mr. Ernest Hartley Coleridge s authoritative edition of Byron's poetry now sees the light, and will, according to the rate of progress hitherto maintained, be succeeded during the present year by the concluding volume. It com"
S rises works belonging to the last two years of
yron's life as a poet, and constitutes in itself a
remarkable accomplishment. When it is considered
that cantos vi. to xv. of ' Don Juan,' ' The Vision
of Judgment,' ' The Blues,' ' The Irish Avatar,' and
other poems were written during the same period
one marvels at such industry and productiveness.
The principal portion of the volume is occupied
by the dramas, six of which appear ' Sardanapalus,'
'The Two Foscari,' 'Cain,' 'Heaven and Earth,'
' Werner,' and ' The Deformed Transformed.' It
is to be feared that, as Mr. Coleridge says, the
greater part of the contents of this volume has
been "passed over and left unread by at least two
generations of readers." None the less, he holds,
"these forgotten works of the imagination are full
of hidden treasures." We ourselves read them
all duly something less than two generations ago.
Feeling the justice of his observations, and moved,
mayhap, by some implication of rebuke, we have
reread a considerable portion of the volume, a task
facilitated by the type in which the whole is printed
and the companionship of Mr. Coleridge's intro-
ductions and notes. Not wholly pleasurable was
the exertion. In l The Island,' the weakest of
Byron's tales and the last sustained flight his muse
was to make, positive resolution was requisite to
get through it. " On the other hand, by ' The
Deformed Transformed,' all of which except
the opening lines, full of Byron's moody intro-
spection, had faded from memory, we were
stimulated, feeling a distinct regret that the
work was left incomplete. Unlike * Manfred,' it
trenches on nothing uncomfortable in domestic
relations, and the obligation to 'Faust,' though
real, is far from being so great as has been assumed.
It does not seem likely that any of these plays will
be seen again on the stage. ' Werner ' has been
given under the Irving management at the Lyceum,
and 'Manfred,' which belongs to an earlier epoch,
was more than once revived in the latter half
of the century. 'Sardanapalus' was produced by
Charles Kean at the Princess's in 1853, the tempta-
tion to mount it being found in the then recent
discoveries in Nineveh. The performance of either
' Cain ' or ' Heaven and Earth ' is not conceivable
under existing conditions ; and the Venetian play
has, so far as we recall, slept since its per-
formance in the year of its production. That
Byron was careful in his investigation of autho-
rities is to his credit, but scarcely atones for lack
of interest in his dramas. The frontispiece con-
sists of a portrait of Byron by W. E. West. Other
portraits are of Goethe, from a drawing by Maclise ;
of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire, after Sir
Joshua Reynolds; and Mary Wollstonecraft, by
R. Bothwell. Assur-Bani-Pal, from a slab in the
British Museum, illustrates ' Sardanapalus,' and the
Lion of St. Mark's 'The Two Foscari.' Mr. Cole-
ridge's labours remain interesting and illuminative.
The Tower of London. By Lord Ronald Sutherland
Gower, F.S.A. Vol. II. (Bell & Sons.) NOT long have the readers of Lord Ronald Suther- land Gower's history of the Tower had to wait for the second and concluding volume. The first volume (see an(<', p. 38) carried the story through Norman, Plantagenet, and Tudor times ; the second prolongs the tale from the accession of the Stuarts until the present day. Though less pathetic than the early record, since we have now 110 innocent female victims of a king's unbridled licentiousness or a
