Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/33

 11 S. X. JULY 11, 1914.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

27

ROYAL LADIES AS COLONELS-IN-CHIEF. The Daily Telegraph of the 23rd of June calls attention to this new precedent :

" No feature of the list of honours on the King's 'birthday, celebrated this year June 22nd, is of greater interest than that of the appointment of the Queen, Queen Alexandra, the Princess Royal, and Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, to Colonel- cies-in-Chief of British regiments. It is, of course, no new thing for the name of a Royal lady to be associated with that of a famous regiment, as in the case of the Yorkshires, who have long had the privilege of calling themselves 'Alexandra Princess of Wales's Own,' and the Army List will give some other instances of the same kind. But to be gazetted as Colonel-in-Chief is a most notable in- novation in this country, and may be taken as showing a recognition of the greater concern that women are manifesting in the service of the

A. N. Q.

"THE WEAKEST GOES TO THE WALL." I

lately heard an explanation of the origin of this proverb which is new to me. In former days there were no seats in churches, but several of them had (and have) stone benches running along the walls. It is averred that these were intended for the use of such people as were too weak or infirm to stand during the whole service.

E. L. H. TEW.

[This explanation seems an instance of mis- placed ingenuity, for it does not fit in with the actual use of the phrase, which implies the very contrary of protection or consideration.]

A MISQUOTATION IN THACKERAY : COLMAN, GOLDSMITH, AND GRAY. Thackeray in his ' English Humourists,' p. 243, 1.40, Wheeler's Clarendon Press Edition, refers to Gold- smith's " compassion for another's woe " as a quotation from Colman's ' Random Records.' Mr. Wheeler in his note states that he cannot find this quotation from the younger Colman. The only German anno- tated edition (teste Mr. Wheeler), by Prof. Regel (Halle, 1885), suggests that Colman was recollecting (but not remembering) ' The Deserted Village,' 11. 371-2 :

The good old sire, the first prepared to go

To new-found worlds, and wept for others' woe.

Prof. Phelps of Yale, in his edition pub- lished in 1900, affords us no clue.

I venture to suggest that " compassion for another's woe" comes from Gray's The tender for another's pain, Th' unfeeling for his own.

Lord Morley well put .it that English pessimism was beginning to appear in English literature in Gray's work. With all respect, I should suggest reappear, English sepulchral or ghastly wit being

typical of English humour. Gray, anyhow, produced his lines in 1747, and Goldsmith about 1769 or 1770, I think.

CECIL OWEN.

Perth, W.A.

WK must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, 'n order that answers may be sent to them direct.

JUDITH COWPER : MRS. MAD AN. (See 10 S. ix. 323.) In his excellent study of ' Dodsley's Famous Collection of Poetry ' MR. W. P. COURTNEY devoted one entire article to Judith Cowper (later Mrs. Madan), accumulating much more information there than I have been able to find elsewhere. Will some reader of ' N. & Q.' who can come at books now inaccessible to me kindly en- lighten me on three points ?

MR. COURTNEY averred (p. 324) that the poem ' Abelard to Eloisa ' had been assigned both to Judith Cowper and to William Pattison, and quoted a similar assertion from Fawkes and Woty. But are there not two different poems under the same title ? I have not the various books mentioned by MR. COURTNEY ; but I have an anonymous octavo, ' Abelard to Eloisa,' published by T. Warner in 1725, and I have Pattison's poems (H. Curll, 1728, octavo), with an ' Abelard to Eloisa ' on pp. 67-77 ; and these two poems, while they naturally have much of substance in common, are separate and distinct productions.

Twice, in his letters to Judith, Pope refers to her portrait : 18 Oct., 1722, he wrote of "... .verses. . . .which. . . .1 made so long ago as the day you sat for your picture " ; and in an undated letter :

" He [Pope] has been so mad with the idea of her [Judith], as to steal her picture, and passes whole days in sitting before it," &c. The picture, one may assume, was a minia- ture. Is this or any other portrait of Judith Cowper known to be still in existence ? Mr. Arthur E. Popham of the Department of Prints and Drawings tells me the British Museum has no portrait of her, and that he can find no reference to any. It seems probable, then, that none was ever pub- lished, and that if any likeness now exists it is a privately owned picture. George Paston in her ' Mr. Pope ' (1909, pp. 275-90) offers some further contributions concerning Judith from privately owned papers to which she had access (at Rousham), but makes no allusion to a portrait.