Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/263

 10 s. XIL SEPT, 11, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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<for he had heap'd up in the Bastile a mount of gold that was as high as a lance) he levied a huge army of 40,000 men, whence came the song

The King of France with fourty thousand men and upon a sudden he put this army in perfect equipage, and some say he invited oiir Prince Henry to come unto him to be a sharer in his exploit. But going one afternoon to the Bastile to see his treasure and ammunition, his coach stopp'd suddenly, by reason of some colliers arid other carts that were in that narow street, whereupon one Ravillac, a lay Jesuit (who had a whole twelve- month watch'd opportunity to do the act), put his foot boldly upon one of the wheels of the coach, and with a long knife stretch'd himself over their shouldiers who were in the boot of the coach, and reach'd the king at the end, and stab'd him right in the left side to the heart, and pulling out the fatal steel, redoubled his thrust."

The "great martiall designe " of 1609-K was the resolution of Henri IV. to make war on the Regents of the Netherlands because they protected his runaway subject Charlotte Marguerite Montmorency, married to the Prince of Conde, who had carried his wife away from France because Henri IV. was trying to seduce her. The King was furious, and even Sully could not make him see that his anger was disgusting to all reasonable people. He placed 6,000 hired Swiss in- fantry under the Duke of Rohan ; a grand train of artillery was under Sully 's son, the Marquis de Rosny ; 30,000 other troops were being levied, and Maurice of Nassau and the Dutch were quite ready to begin another war for the sake of Cleves and Juliers (see Miss Yonge's ' Cameos,' Sixth Series, pp. 57, 58).

As Richard Tarlton died in the year of the Spanish Armada, 1588, he cannot have jested about the events of twenty years later, 1609-10, and the couplet was fathered on him in the ' Pigge's Corantoe ' of 1642, perhaps as being a well-known jester.

G. A. M.

MARGARET OF RICHMOND : INSCRIPTIONS IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY (10 S. xi. 463 ; xii. 15). The text of the ' Elegia ' is given in a more intelligible fashion by Dyce in his edition of ' The Poetical Works of John Skelton,' 1843 (pp. 195-6), where the last line begins " Ceu Juvenalis avet" " Fagoli- doros " is presumably taken from Jerome's Preface to Ezekiel, ad fin. : " Si autem amici mei et hunc subsannaverint ; dicite eis quod nemo eos compellat ut scribant. Sed vereor ne illud eis eveniat quod Grsece significantius dicitur, ut vocentur ayo\oi- Sopoi, quod est, manducantes sannas." The use of the word in the inscription need present no difficulty. EDWARD BENSLY.

Europaischer Hot', Wildungen

" HEN AND CHICKENS " SIGN (10 S. xii. 28, 94). The following are from Mrs. Bury Palliser's ' Historic Devices, Badges, and War-Cries,' 1870 :

"James III (1460). A hen with her chickens under her wing. Non dormit qui custodit" P. 233, s.v. Scotland.

"A hen with her chickens. Servatque fovetque, ' She preserves and fosters,' was also among the devices of this queen." P. 120, s.v. Catherine de Medicis (d. 1589), Queen of Henry II., three times Regent of France.

A foot-note says " On a medal." The reverse of this medal, dated 1582, with this motto, is pictured in ' La France Metallique,' par Jacques de Bie, 1634, plate 60, and is described in the ' Explication,' p. 181. It represents a hen sitting on her chickens, and striking with her wing at a serpent. According to ' Historic Devices,' p. 129,

"Mary de Medicis, second wife ot Henry IV., when declared regent to her son, caused to be embroidered on the hocquetons of her archers an eagle crowned, covering its little ones with its wings. Motto, Tegit virtute minores."

" Hocqueton " ("hoqueton") was a tunic worn by the archers dating from Charles V. of France.

The reverse of a medal of this queen, with this motto, dated 1611, appears in 'La France Metallique,' plate 104, described on p. 312 of the ' Explication.' A pelican pecks and opens its breast so that it may feed its young with the drops of blood.

I have found in ' La France Metauique ' no example of the hen and chickens earlier than that of Catherine de Medicis. Accord- ing to * Historic Devices,' James III. of Scotland adopted the device about 120 years earlier.

In ' La France Metallique ' plate 78

Explication,' p. 232) is the reverse of a medal of Henry III., dated 1585, motto ' Degeneres sol arguit." It represents an eagle on a high rock, spreading its wings to reflect the rays of the sun, towards which he directs the eyes of her young, whom she casts from the top to the bottom, so jhat she may see whether their eyes wink, not being able to endure the brightness of ihe sun's light.

Ibid., plate 105 (' Explication,' p. 315) is he reverse of a medal of Maria Medicea Mary de Medicis), dated 1612, motto 'Meos ad sidera tollo." This represents a bird of paradise (or chameleon of the air) arrying three of her young on her back, ind in rapid flight raising them to the highest egion of the air, where she seems to hold hem poised, so that they may be bathed in the celestial influences : her feet are