Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/439

 11 S. XI. JUNE 5, 1915.;

NOTES AND QUERIES.

429

JOHN FOXE.

It cannot be inappropriate to introduce under this heading a reference to the resting- place of John Foxe the martyrologist. He is buried in the Church of St. Giles, Cripple - gate, London, probably on the south side of the chancel. The plain tablet to his memory now, however, occupies a prominent position on the west wall of the north aisle. It is thus inscribed :

Christo S.S.

JohanniFoxOjEcclesise Anglican | Martyrologo fidelissimo, antiqvi- | tatis historic^ indicator! sagaciss- | imo, Evangelicae veritatis propvgna- | tori acerrimo, thavmatvrgo admirabili, J qvi Martyres Marianos tanqvam | Phoenices ex cineri- bvs rediyivos | Praestitit, patri svo onini pietatis primogenitvs hoc | monvmentvm posvit non sine
 * officio imprimis eolendo | Samvel Foxvs, illivs
 * lachrymis.

Obiit die xvm mens : April. An | Salvtis 1587, iam septvagenarivs. |

Vita vitae mortalis est spes | vita) immortalis.

Rev d John Foxe, M.A.,

sometime Vicar of this parish,

original Avthor of the History

of the Christian Martyrs, buried in the Chancel of this Church.

Beneath the tablet a brass plate has been placed containing a translation of the Latin inscription :

John * Foxe

The most faithful Martyrologist of the Church of England, | the most sagacious investigator of Historical Antiquity, the most | valiant defender of the Evangelical Truth, a wondrous worker of Miracles, | who presented the Marian Martyrs, like Phoenixes, alive from their ashes. I Chiefly to fulfil every duty of filial affection, | Samuel Foxe, his eldest son, erected this momi- ment, not without tears. | He died the 18 th April, A.D. 1587, a septuagenarian. | The life of mortal life is the hope of immortal life.

JOHN T. PAGE.

(To be continued.)

"CURMUDGEON." The story of Johnson's " unknown correspondent " and Dr. Ash's disastrous appropriation of the cceur mschant theory is pretty well known. The guess may, however, be right after all. The word is not found till the sixteenth century, but in ' The Ramsey Cartulary ' ( vol. iii. p. 262) I find Boselin Curmegen as the name of a tenant in the fourteenth century. His fi?sfc name, a diminutive of the Old German BJSD, " bad," suggests that he was a, dis- agreeable person ; and Curmegen is, for a mediaeval register, quite a good shot at Cuer-mescheant (co&ur mzchant). Names in CoBur- are common both in Old French and Middle English. ERNEST WEEKLEY.

University College, Nottingham.

" CHILDREN TO BED AND THE GOOSE TO* THE FIRE." As to this proverb W. Carew Hazlitt, in his ' English Proverbs,' second edition, 1882, p. 108, quotes from Ray's- ' Collection of Proverbs,' 1737 :

<% I cannot conceive what might be the occasion,, nor what is the meaning of this saying. I take it to be senseless and nugatory."

In his 1907 edition, p. 116, Hazlitt quotes aix observation supplied to him by Mr. Raymond H. Vose:

" I take it to mean that when the children are in bed, and the work done, the adults of the household are junketing."

The proverb is curiously applied by Sir Winston Churchill in his ' Divi Britannici/ 1675, p. 278, to Richard III.'s determination to have the Princes murdered :

" And now being King, who would not but have him so : It was high time (as the Vulgar Proverb- hath it) to put the Children to bed, and lay the Goose to the fire : For after having seen them thus undrest and strip'd naked, there remains no more but to draw the Curtains, and leave them to their rest, like Lambs in the Lions Den, who could not sleep at all, till he was ascertain' d they had slept their last. For which black pur- pose he call'd a bloody Villain out of his Bed to> smother them in theirs."

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

" COCK " : " COCKBOAT." In an account of 1420, enrolled on the ' Foreign Account Roll ' of 3 Henry VI., are the following,, which seem a useful addition to the ' O.E.D'* :

" De j. paruo batello vocato Cok. ij : Scoupe* j. Rolle teldes j. par de Garnettes vj. tribulis (mem. F/ 2 dorso).

" Vna cum batello et Cokbote " (ibid.).

"In....j. parua batella vocata Coke. x.. Bemis pro eodem Coke " (mem. K/ 2 dorso).

Q. V.

LEATHER AND ALGEBRA : WILLIAM GIF" FORD. In his autobiography Gifford records- a very pathetic incident of his apprentice- days. His sole intellectual possession was- a book on algebra, which he furtively studied during sundry shoe-making opera- tions.

" i had not a farthing on earth, nor a friend to- give me one ; pen, ink, and paper were completely out of my reach. There was one resource ; but the utmost caution and secrecy were necessary. I beat out pieces of leather as smooth as possible and wrought my problems on them with a blunted awl ; for the rest, my memory was .tenacious, and I could multiply and divide by it to a great extent. I wonder whether any hard-pressed student could do as much with modern "bends." M. L. R. BEESLAR.

Percy House, South Hackney.


 * Also for Garnet, sb 4.