In the pott your nose dedde snewyll; and Magnyfycence, p. 286, The snyte snyueled in the snowte and smyled at the game. P. 133. "Hic notat purpuraria arte intextas literas Romanas in amictibus post ambulonum ante et retro." Mr. Dyce mentions a friend who proposes reading "ambulonum post." We think post to be an abridgement of positas. P. 134.—Such tunges unhappy hath made great diuision of fals fickil tunges such cloked collusion. Should not division be delusion? P. 139. We do not agree with Mr. Dyce in reading "Mary thy mother" for "Mary the mother:" the mother, mater, being an epitheton commune, an usual predicate of the Virgin. P. 163. We cannot decypher the meaning of the three Latin verses beginning"Sicculo lutueris," &c.; but as regards the three following, Chartula stet, precor, hæc nullo temeranda petulco: Hos rapiet numeros non homo, sed mala bos. Ex parte rem chartæ adverte aperte, pone Musam Arethusam hanc, the second line should be See p. 179, Hos rapiet numeros, non homo, sed mulus aut bos. Asinus, mulus velut, et bos; and "hanc," should be placed in hooks [hanc], as we think it is only a misprint for "aut." P. 170. "Et cines socios." Should it not be cives? P. 218. Sed quia non estis de genere bonorum, Qui caterisatis categorias cacodæmoniorum. Mr. Dyce conjectures catarrhizatis, which we do not exactly understand. We should read "cæteris datis." See p. 216, and p. 208, For ye haue enduced a secte With heresy all infecte; For all that they preche and teche Is farther than their wytte wylle reche ; and p. 209, "to publysshe and to preche to people," &c.; and p. 213, Mr. Dyce has justly observed, "A line is wanting to rhyme with this;" probably such a one as see p. 244, 1. 1. Nay, let us our heads together caste; P. 259. "Hic ingreditur Foly, quatiendo crema et faciendo multum, feriendo tabulas et similia." Mr Dyce says, "Crema-If this be the right reading, I am unacquainted with the word. It can hardly be a misprint for cremia, qy. crembalum." Is Mr. Dyce unacquainted with the word Xoñμa? Greek words thus Latinized are common enough in this poet. See vol. ii. p. 2, chaire, xaipe; p. 4, Myden agan, &c. We suppose chrema is his thing or bauble. Nowe take thou my dogge, and giue me thy fowle. Mr. Dyce, whose vigilance never sleepeth, has observed that a line is wanting to rhyme with this. Certainly, and Folly has twice used the word to Fancy, which doubtless made the rhyme. Again, What is this, an owle or a glede ? Ye, for all thy mynde is on owles and apes. P. 263. We doubt Mr. Dyce's proposed alteration of " you there," which we think would make a very bad rhyme to dyser and vyser. We would rather break the line into two short verses. Howe rode he by you? As v. 1131, with same cadence and accent, What callest thou thy dogge? P. 278.-Call for a candell, and cast vp your gorge. Mr. Dyce proposes caudell, but is there any authority for caudell as an emetic ? We think not, and that the text is right. P. 306.-SAD CYR. Then ye repent you of foly in tymes past? MAG. Sothely to repent me I hau grete cause. Howe be it from you I receyued a letter Mr. Dyce, alluding to the third line, says, "Qy. some corruption? This line ought to rhyme with the preceding line but one." True; and we think the proper text stood thus: SAD CYR. Then of foly in tymes past you repent? Howe be it from you I receyued a letter sent, For our expression in the proposed alteration we have the poet's own authority, Syr, this letter ye sent to me at Pountes was enclosed. P. 357.- And saynt Mary Spyttell They set not by vs a whystell. Perhaps "whittle" or "whyttle," a chip, a common word in old poetry. P. 360.-Colinus Cloutus, quanquam mea carmina multis, Mr. Dyce says, "The corruptions in the second and third lines have baffled the ingenuity of the several scholars to whom I have submitted them." This declaration we take as a warning off the premises,-procul este profani,-especially as we possess none of the scholarship of Mr. Dyce and his friends; but nevertheless we wish to try our band at them, and we propose to read thus : Colinus Cloutus, quanquam mea carmina multis We kept an eye, during the progress of parturition, on Skelton's own lines, p. 223 Sed sunt pauci rarique poetæ. Hinc omne est rarum carum: reor ergo poetas Vol. II. p. 3. "Sæpenumero hæc pensitans psittacus ego pronuntio." Mr. Dyce says of pronuntio," Probably not the right reading. The MS. seems to have either po sio or po fio." We think the right word is "pando," and join it with what follows; viz. "ego pando aphorismo quia paronomasia certe incomprehensibilis ;" and Parrot in the text says, “Now pandez mory," &c. P. 12. "In ista cantilena ore stilla plena abjectis frangibulis et aperit.” Mr. Dyce says, "grossly corrupted." But chiefly by the words getting out of order, which is "İsta cantilena, in ore est illa plena.” P. 18.-Psittacus hi notus seu Persius est puto notus, Mr. Dyce says, two lines mean." Nec reor est nec erit licet est erit. "Notus' qy. Motus?' but I have no idea what these We think we can inform him. Psittacus hic notus seu Persius est puto, notus, "Nec" in two places was omitted. P. 21. For of ower regente the regiment he hathe, ex qua vi, Mr. Dyce says of this strange jumble of shapeless words, "Quod' means 'quoth;' of the rest the reader may make what he can." But a reader looks to the editor for a helping hand, in the absence of which we venture our humble assistance. For of ower regente the regiment he hathe, ex qua vi, Mr. Dyce says, I must leave the reader to form his own idea of the meaning of the last two lines, which are beyond my comprehension." The difficulty must be in the last line, which wants connexion with the preceding. We interpret the former as her image drawn or portrayed with 66 Why come ye not to Courte." This satire is entirely personal, and so well aimed at Wolsey that the editor says "We know that he writhed under the wounds which it inflicted." They shote all at one marke, That he ne se can To know God nor man. He is set so hye In his ierarchy That in the Chambre of Starres He sayth, How saye ye, my Lordes ? Good euyn, good Robyn Hood! Some say yes, and some Syt styll as they were dom: With braggynge and with bost; He loueth nothyng but golde; That wanton damosell. What here ye of the Lorde Dakers? Whyles the red hat doth endure, The erle of Northumberlande To holde vp their hande at the bar. He pluckes them by the hode, Theyr wyttes, he saith, are dull; And maketh them to bow theyr kne Juges of the kynges lawes, He countys them foles and dawes; At the Commune Place, Or at the Kynges Benche; He wryngeth them suche a wrenche, Dare nat set theyr penne To plete a trew tryall In the Chauncery where he syttes, And cals them cankerd knaues : Vnder the kynges brode seale; And in the Checker he them cheks; In the Star Chambre he noddes and beks, And bereth him there so stowte, That no man dare rowte, quaries; and it has induced them to divide the Iter in question as he has suggested (strangely in some instances); and thus they have confounded themselves and others upon it. By the 11th and 13th Iters of Richard of Cirencester, which correspond with the 12th of Antoninus, in all essential points, the latter may be effectually explained, and the doubts thrown upon it removed. If there is any error in the 12th Iter of Antoninus, as it is given in Gibson's original edition of the Britannia, it is that the Terminus ad quem is not correctly stated, for Maridunum is there put as such, and yet it is again inserted as 36 miles from that terminus. The fact seems to be that this Iter appears to have commenced at Menapia (St. David's). How Calleva, which is about 100 miles from the line of this journey, could have been presumed to have belonged to it it is impossible to say. This incorrect interpretation of the Iter has arisen, I have no doubt, from the want of distinguishing Maridunum from Moridunum, a station of the 15th Iter of Antoninus, and of the 16th Iter of Richard; and situated 15 miles to the east of Exeter (Isca Danmoniorum). To add to the confusion, we find that Maridunum is erroneously throughout Richard of Cirencester's work written Muridunum, a mistake that pervades some copies of Antoninus. The fact is there was no such place as Muridunum. In Ptolemy it is properly Maridunum. Impressed with the importance of these itineraries to the antiquities of Britain, and with their being more correct than they are generally allowed to be, I am anxious to submit anything that may serve to remove some portion of the obscurity under which these valuable historical records labour, and which has evidently been increased by the unwarrantable liberties that have been taken with them. Yours, &c. J. P. From this error, I believe, your distinguished Correspondent A. J. K. is not free. See his Londiniana, No. VIII. p. 255 of your last volume. MR. URBAN, Grey-street, Newcastle, June 21. DURING some late repairs and cleaning in the fine old church of St. Nicholas, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the workmen, on tearing away some panelling around the altar, under the sill of the great east window, discovered, sunk into the wall, and beneath the two most southern mullions of the window, a finely sculptured stone, representing the crucifixion, surmounted by a beautiful moulding (which has probably extended all along the window), and inscribed below the cross, in black letter, "Merci Thsu." The cross has originally been painted red, and the other prominences black. The stone, which is probably monumental, is about five and a half feet in height. The sculpture within the tablet has originally been very beautiful, and in high relief; but the Goths in 1783, who then beautified the church, in order to make the filthy panelling lie to the wall, ordered the masons to chip off the prominences. The moulding on the top, however, is perfect. Yours, &c. GEO. B. RICHARDSON. |