Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/161

 io- s. v. FEB. IT, 1906. j NOTES AND QUERIES. 129

I also, to Ralph's statement that on May Day "butter with a leaf of sage is good to purge the blood " (p. 214). Was there any super- stition connected with the notion that green ginger was of especial potency in curing bruises, particularly "peppernel m the bead See p. 164.
 * carduus benedictus and mare's milk (p. 186) ;

I have likewise been unable to discover the legend or incident implied in the Wites words, ''They say 'tis present death for these fiddlers to tune their rebecks before the great Turk's grace" (p. 153).

Lastly, I can find no exposition^! the idea that a ring was useful in discovering enchant- ments (p. 166). though mediaeval literature contains abundant illustrations, of course, of other magical properties in rings.

I shall be glad if readers of ' N. & Q. will aid me in any degree in elucidating these points of the play, and should esteem it a favour to receive communications direct.

HERBERT S. MURCH. 78, Lake Place, New Haven, Conn., U.S.A.

"FROM THE THICK FILM." I have had in my possession for several years the following quotation, attributed to "Richard Bright, M.P., March 19, 1869":-

" We cannot reillumine the extinguished lamp of reason ; we cannot make the deaf to hear ; we cannot make the dumb to speak ; it is not given to us

From the thick film to purge the visual ray, And on the sightless eyeball pour the day ; but at least we can lessen the load of affliction, and we can make life more tolerable to vast numbers who suffer."

Are the words correctly given 1 and is the ascription right? ALFRED BURTON.

Devonshire Club, St. James's Street.

KIRK, GLASGOW SHIPBUILDER. I shall be glad if any of your readers will kindly tell ne what would be the best local sources for information concerning one Alexander Kirk, either of Glasgow or of Falkirk (where his "aunt McKenzie'' resided), who, according to tradition, was a shipbuilder on the Clyde, supplying Napoleon with ships, and who certainly emigrated from Scotland to Mon- treal in 1819. with his wife Margaret Forrester, his son James (born 1818), and other children. ETHEL LEGA WEEKES.

Sunny Nook, Rugby Mansions, West Kensington.

POPE LINUS IN ST. PAUL'S OUTSIDE THE WALLS, HOME. Can any reader tell me the name of the Englishman who caused diamonds to be set in the eyes of the statue of Pope Linus the second in the row of Popes round the walls of this church ? I do not see any

it? he that died o' Wednesday" ('1 Henry IV.,' V. i ). What is meant by the italicized words] G. KRUEGER.

Berlin.

[No explanation is judged necessary in average English editions. "A trim reckoning" may per- haps be held to signify that there is not much gain in the bargain that purchases "air"; while "he that died o' Wednesday' 1 in like fashion indicates that honour comes to the man recently dead, and so to a sensible man is of little account. There is no special reference to Wednesday it is simply a day that is past.]

OIL PAINTING, c. 1660. I should feel extremely obliged for any information regard- ing the subject of an oil painting in my possession. It is on canvas, 51 by 69 inches. In the centre of a circle of richly dressed ladies and gentlemen, assembled on a paved terrace, a couple perform a dance of the minuet character ; to right another lady plays a spinet. There, is an architectural background, with an artificial cascade and woods in the distance.

The late Mr. Graves, of Pall Mall, ascribed the picture to " H. Janssens and Van Bassen." All the figures (about thirty-four) appear to be portraits, and it strikes me that tfie scene represents a family gathering or fete at one of the French royal palaces or very great chateaux about the year 1660. The portraits are very lively and distinctive, although no military uniforms or orders are worn. Among them are two or three children.

H.

REV. WILLIAM SEWELL, D.D. Dr. Sewell published an article on 4 The Clouds' of Aristophanes in Blackwood s Magazine. Can any of your readers tell me when this article appeared 1 MOUNTAGUE C. O\VEN.

141, High Street, Oxford Road, Manchester.

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER : FOLK-LORE MEDICINE. In Beaumont and Fletcher's ! number of instances of old folk-lore medi- cine, the origin and significance of which I have not been able to trace. Can you give me assistance, either by way of direct ex- planation or by pointing me to analogous instances in the literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries'? I refer to the belief of the Citizen's Wife that a cure for chilblains may be found in rubbing the feet with a mouse's skin, or rolling them in the warm embers ; also, to the virtue of " put- ting his fingers between his toes, and smell- ing to them" (see Act III. sc. ii., Dyce's ed. of B. and F.'s Wks., vol. ii. p. 181) ; also, to the relief of " worms : ' through the use of
 * Knight of the Burning Pestle' there are a