Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/361

 ii s. XIL NOV. 6, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

353

LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1915.

CONTENTS. No. 306.


 * NOTES : Danteiana : " The Pantomime of Hell," 353

Hell-Fire Clubs, 354 Inscriptions in the Churchyard of St. Mary's, Lambeth, 355 Sir Thomas Tresham's House- hold : " Other Necessaries "Clarendon and Swallowfield Epigram on Cardinal Bona The Making of Folk-Poetry, 358 Thomas Ellwood : Date of Death Moliere : "La Croix blanche," 359.

cQUERIES : Francis Meres and John Florio Bronze Statuettes of Napoleon "Anastatic Printing " D'Israeli : Thames Street, 359 Quotation from Browning Antwerp and Constantinople Author Wanted The Table of Affinities Burial-Place of Sir John Mundy ' The Ladies of Castlemarch 'Disraeli : References Sought Churches used for Election of Municipal Officers Biographical Information Wanted Dr. Hotton, 360 Tree Folk-Lore : the Elder Drawings of Malefactors, 361.

^REPLIES : Nelson Memorial Rings, 361 Authorized Version Dr. Allen, 362 Stinging Nettles and Rheu- matism Efftct of Opening a Coffin H. Meidinger, 363 King of Poland" Lienin "Arch at Constitution Hill, 364 'Hymn of Hate' Edgar Allan Poe " Gladiolus " Fabric of Cathedrals, 365 Words in Douglas's ' Eneados ' Sow Metal : Pig Iron French " of Stratford-atte-Bowe " Wedding Ring and " Left-Handed" Marriage Etruscan Surgical Instruments, 366 William Haward Author of Quotation Wanted Virtues of Onions, 367 "The Bloody Snirt " Clerks in Holy Orders as Combatants, 368 Mawman Celtic and Coptic Monasticism Napoleon and the Bellerophon Knights made at Anne Boleyn's Coro- nationCat Queries, 369 Prussian Blue Joseph Sturge France and England Quarterly Mrs. Foote Book- worms" I don't think " ' The Norman People 'Authors Wanted Prof, de Vericour, 370.


 * NOTES ON BOOKS :-' Rosalba's Journal ' Fleetwood

Family Records 'Reviews and Magazines.

Notices to Correspondents.

DANTEIANA : "THE PANTOMIME OF

HELL."

" INF.' xxi. 1-3, &c :

Cosl di ponte in ponte, altro parlando Che la mia commedia cantar non cura, Venimmo ....

1. Thus the Florentine and Mantuan poets journeyed together, iter fabulis fallendo, until they stood before

1'altra fessura

Di Malebolge

E vidila mirabilmente oscura. Here is the entrance to the fifth Bolgia of the Eighth Circle, the Star Chamber of Barterers, Jobbers, or Peculators, and from the nomen- clature and demeanour of the executioners not inaptly called the " Pantomime of Hell," filled with an atmosphere of " grim buffoonery," and a veritable "Infernal Comedy " in which the " Pranks of the Demons " provide both the scenes and the dramatis personce. Evidently even the austere Dante seems to have felt that the unbearable tension inflicted upon himself

and his readers by the hideous tortures of the preceding cantos demanded relief, and he wisely supplies it here though after his own fashion. He cannot part with his beloved tortures feither for his victims or for himself. The former must be immersed in boiling pitch ; he himself be agonized by a very human terror. But he does relieve the situation by the " grim buffoonery " of the antics of the demons and their victims, and the humour of the nomenclature, which is all the more refreshing as it is unexpected, a grotesqueness probably, as Dean Plumptre suggests, copied or reproduced from the gargoyles and misereres of mediaeval art and from the mystery plays of the same period, and carried into the next canto in the comic escape of Ciampolo. There is even a touch of playful irony in the offer of Malacoda, the leader in this Bolgia (1. 115), to provide an escort for the poets :

Io mando verso la di questi miei A riguardar se alcun se ne sciorina,

on which Scartazzini observes :

" Malacoda si mostra molto generoso verso i due Poeti. La generosita del diavolo ! "

The felicitous choice of the demon-actors' names is on the same lines as those in ' The Pilgrim's Progress ' : Malebranche (" Wicked -Claws " ; less accurately, Mr. Tozer prefers " Ugly-Claws " ; Rossetti and Dean Plumptre, " Evil-Claws ") ; Malacoda (" Wicked-tan " ) ; Scarmiglione (" Wrest- ler " ; " Rough-and-tumble," Tozer ; " La- cerator," Plumptre a name for the devil) ; Alichino (" Wing-folder," or [Plumptre] " Wing - drooper " ) ; Calcabrina (" Snow- trampler " ) ; Barbariccia (" Frizzled -beard ") ; Cagnazzo (" Dog - faced ") ; Libicocco ("Devil-moor"); Draghinazzo ("Dragon- faced ") ; Ciriatto (" Swine-faced ") : Graf- fiacane ( " Dog - scratcher " ) ; Farfarello (" Brawler ") ; Rubicante (" Red-faced ").

2. Line 38 :

Ecco un degli anzian' di Santa Zita. What was Ampere's authority (as quoted by Scartazzini) for saying of this saint that she was " une pauvre servante que son maitre voulait seduire " ? Neither Butler nor Baring-Gould gives any hint of such treat- ment or conduct. On the contrary, the ! latter says (vol. iv. p. 354, 27 April) that ' St. Zita died at the ago of 60 (1218-78) " beloved by all in the house where she had 1 served so faithfully for forty-eight years." 1 Plumptre also quotes Ampere, but charitably omits his tit-bit of scandal. Though both the hagiologists quoted profess to have