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Read Ebook: Notes and Queries Vol. IV Number 101 October 4 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men Artists Antiquaries Genealogists etc. by Various Bell George Editor
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Ebook has 260 lines and 21727 words, and 6 pages
Gray, when alluding to Shakspeare, in his Pindaric ode on "The Progress of Poesy," had probably Cowley in memory:
Wakefield, in one of his notes, remarks on this--
"An allusion perhaps, to that verse of Virgil,
"'Incipe, parve puer, risu cognoscere matrem.'"
Instead of Virgil, I suspect that Gray was thinking of the first Nemean Ode of Pindar, wherein the infant Hercules is described as strangling the snakes sent to destroy him by Juno:
"? ?' ????? ??? ???????? ????, ??????? ?? ?????? ?????, ???????? ?????? ??????? ?????? ???????? ?????? ???? ?????."
Let me give a portion of Cowley's translation:
"The big-limb'd babe in his huge cradle lay, Too weighty to be rock'd by nurse's hands, Wrapt in purple swaddling bands; When, lo! by jealous Juno's fierce commands, Two dreadful serpents come.
"He did the utmost bounds of knowledge find; He found them not so large as was his mind, But, like the large Pellaean youth, did mone Because that art had no more worlds than one. And when he saw that he through all had past, He dy'd, lest he should idle grow at last."
And with Dr. Johnson's sixth line--
"Panting Time toil'd after him in vain,"
we may, I think, compare Cowley's description of King David's earlier years:
Gray must now speak for himself. He says in a note:
"The image was taken from a well-known picture of Raphael, representing the Supreme Being in the Vision of Ezekiel. There are two of these paintings, both believed originals, one at Florence, the other at Paris."
And Mr. Mason adds, in a note to his edition of Gray, vol. i. p. 75. Lond. 1807:
"Moses breaking the Tables of the Law, by Parmegiano, was a figure which Mr. Gray used to say came still nearer to his meaning than the picture of Raphael."
I cannot help thinking that Cowley too was not forgotten. Speaking of the angel Gabriel, he says:
"Methinks I hear," &c.
remind one a little of Cowley's "Anacreontic to the Grasshopper?"
or the following lines
In his notes to "Spring," Wakefield gets quite pathetic at the words--
"Poor moralist, and what art thou? A solitary fly," &c.
I have always believed that Gray was imitating Bishop Jeremy Taylor:
"Here let me careless and unthoughtful lying Hear the soft winds above me flying, With all their wanton boughs dispute, And the more tuneful birds to both replying, Nor be my self too mute.
"A silver stream shall roll his waters near; Gilt with the sunbeams here and there, On whose enamel'd bank I'll walk, And see how prettily they smile, and hear How prettily they talk."
And--
"Soft-footed winds with tuneful voices there Dance through the perfumed air, There silver rivers through enamel'd meadows glide, And golden trees enrich their side."
Or let him compare Gray's Latin and English verses upon the death of his friend Mr. West with Cowley's upon the death of Mr. William Harvey and Mr. Crashaw:
"Hail, Bard Triumphant! and some care bestow On us the Poets Militant below," &c.
"At Tu, sancta anima, et nostri non indiga luctus," &c.
To these lines on Crashaw Pope is indebted for a sentiment which in his hands assumes a very infidel form:
"For modes of faith let senseless bigots fight; His can't be wrong whose life is in the right."
Crashaw had become a Roman Catholic, and was a canon of Loretto when he died; but Cowley's Protestant feelings could not blind him to his worth, and he says:
How much the two last-mentioned poems of Gray's owe to Milton's "Lines to Mansus" and his "Epitaphium Damonis," any one acquainted with them may remember. I have only been alluding to Gray's reproductions of Cowley.
RT.
Warmington.
Minor Notes.
"Against Sir Hugh Montgomery, So right his shaft he set, The grey goose wing that was thereon In his heart's blood was wet."
Having lately visited the sea-bathing town of Largs, my attention was attracted to a building in the churchyard forming the present burying ground. In this building, bearing date of erection 1636 by Sir Robert Montgomery , there is an elaborately carved tomb of mason work, beneath which is a strongly arched stone vault, where, besides the founder and others, tradition has placed the remains of the brave Sir Hugh Montgomery. It is difficult to reconcile this with the long prior date of the battle of Chevy Chase, unless the vault, which has certainly a very ancient look, can be substantiated to have existed before the above building. Taking matters as they go, the remains of the warrior now appear in the most humiliating condition--reduced to a hard, dry bony skeleton deprived of legs and thighs, with the singular appearance of the skull having been cloven by a battle-axe, the skull being held together by some plate or substance and rude stitching. The body is said to have been originally embalmed, and enclosed in a lead coffin, which was barbarously torn off some forty years ago, as sinks for fishing nets. The building, tomb, and vault, taken altogether, present perhaps one of the finest specimens of this species of architecture in Scotland, and are additionally curious from the cone roof of the building being highly ornamented with descriptive paintings in a tolerable state of preservation. It is understood that some historical notices of the whole have been privately printed by a Scotch antiquarian, of which some of your learned readers may be aware, and may furnish more ample details than the foregoing.
Glasgow, Sept. 23, 1851.
Possibly the next entry, which is in Michaelmas in the following year, of a payment of five marks yearly "to John Englissh, Edward Maye, Richard Gibson, and John Hamond, 'lusoribus Regis' otherwise called in English the players of the king's interludes, for their fees,"--has some connexion with "the disguisyings."
DESSAWDORF.
A. L.
West Indies, Aug. 11. 1851.
Verse 4. ... "??? ? ????? ??? ???? ???????, ??? ???? ??????."
He said that the word ???????, which we have translated "locusts," means rather the "young and tender parts of plants." Since that time I have looked into various Lexicons and Dictionaries both of the ancient and modern Greek, but have been unable to find anything to assist me in fixing this meaning. In that of Hedericus, it is thus given: "?????, ????, ?, Locusta." There is also, however, "?????, ???, ?, Summitas, cacumen montis. Ab ?????, summus." Whether there may be any confusion between these two words I know not; and here, possibly, I may be assisted by some obliging reader. I have consulted, along with a clergyman who is well skilled in Greek literature, and who is perfectly acquainted with Romaic, many commentaries; but in every one we found this passage either entirely passed over, or very unsatisfactorily noticed.
??????.
Queries.
COINAGE OF VABALATHUS, PRINCE OF PALMYRA.
A great boon would be conferred on numismatists if some of your correspondents would endeavour to elucidate the puzzling legend sometimes found on coins of this prince.
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