Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/259

 ii s. vm. SEPT. 27, MS.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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So far as my studies in Roman law en- lighten me, it was the same in ancient times. As to 1 Cor. xiii., Bishop Ellicott in his commentaries gives a full explanation. This completely shows what was in St. Paul's mind, but it has nothing whatever to do with the legal aspect of the matter.

SAMUEL WATSON.

ILLEGITIMACY IN THE MIDDLE AGES (11 S. viii. 9, 96). The subjoined may be of use to I. Y. in his researches under this heading. The late Rev. J. Conway Walter in his ' Records of Parishes round Horncastle,' 1904, p. 162, writes under ' Revesby ' :

" By deed 24, Matilda, daughter of Roger de Huditoft, widow of William of Stickney, gives half a bovate of land in Stickney ' in the time of my widowhood,' i.e., when the property became at her own disposal. The witnesses are two women, Christiana, wife of*Henry de Claxby, and Eda, wife of Richard, priest of Mareham ; not, therefore, a celibate."

And in a sketch of Mareham -le -Fen Church, contributed to The Horncastle News of 30 Dec., 1899, the same author had written :

" Among the deeds and charters of Revesby Abbey, privately printed by the Right Hon. E. Stanhope a few years ago, No. 24 gives, among the witnesses to a deed of gift, the name of Eda, wife of Richard, priest of Mareham (temp. Henry II. or Richard I.). Hence it is evident that celibacy was not strictly enforced on the clergy at that period. At this early period, partly owing to laxity of morals, but partly because the papal supremacy was not fully recognized, celibacy of the clergy was not strictly enforced. On the accession of Queen Mary, great numbers of them were found to be married .... In the Lincoln Lists of Institutions to Benefices at that period [1553] many of the vacancies are stated to have occurred owing to deprivation of the previous incumbents ; and in some cases, as at Knebworth, Herts, and at Haversham, Bucks (then in the diocese), it is specified that the in- cumbent was married (sacerdos conjugatus). Lines. N. & Q., vol. v. p. 174."

I have seen it stated somewhere that Pius VII. legitimated many clerical mar- riages contracted during the French Revo- lution. J. B. McGovERN.

St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester.

RINGS WITH A DEATH'S HEAD (11 S. viii. 170, 217). The following illustrations may be noted.

In ' 1 Henry IV.,' III. iii., Falstaff, speaking of Bardolph's face: "I make as good use of it as many a man doth of a death's head or a memento mori."

Again, in ' 2 Henry IV..' II. iv., Doll asks

Falstaff: "When wilt thou begin to

patch up thine old body for heaven ? " Sir John replies : " Peace, good Doll ! do not

speak like a death's head ; do not bid me remember mine end."

Also Beaumont and Fletcher, ' The Chances,' I. v. :

I will keep it

As they keep death's head in rings, To cry memento to me.

These rings were also commonly worn by procuresses. In Massinger. ' Old Law,' IV. i. Gnotho, the clown, wants his wife to die before her time, and bids her to

" sell some of thy clothes to buy thee a death's head, and put upon thy middle finger ; your least considered bawd does so much."

In ' Northwood Hoe ' (1607) : " And, as if I were a bawd, no ring pleases me but a death's head." Also in Marston's ' Dutch Courtesan ' (1605), I. ii. :

" So much for her vocation, trade, and life as for their death, how can it be bad, since their wickedness is always before their eyes, and a death's head most* commonly on their middle finger."

Of a different character, in Fletcher's 'A Wife for a Month,' I. ii., is the reference to Evan the and the contents of her cabinet : These are all rings, death's heads, and such

mementos, Her grandmother and worm-eaten aunts left to-

her, To tell her what her beauty must arrive at.

These examples are sufficient to show that rings bearing a death's head were in great favour in those grim times.

See 10 S. xi. 306 for another bequest in. 1647 of one of these rings. TOM JONES.

MARKYATE (11 S. viii. 188). In ' Ther Place -Names of Bedfordshire ' (Cambridge Antiquarian Society's octavo publication, No. XLIL, 1906) the late Prof. Skeat re- marks (p. 65) :

" 49. YATE. Yate is the A.-S. geat, a gate. It occurs in Markyate. Markyate ; transferred to Herts in 1897. Spelt Markyate, E[cclesiastica] T[axatio] (1291), I[nquisitiones] p[ost] m[ortem]. Formerly called Markyate Street, often con- tracted to Market Street, because it lies on the famous old road called Watling Street. The word mark means ' boundary ' ; and the sense is ' boundary gate.' It is just on the boundary between Beds, and Herts."

ALFRED ANSCOMBE.

THE IDENTITY or EMELINE DE REDDES- FORD (US. viii. 66, 171). It having been brought to my notice that in my communica- tion on this subject I had not made it clear that the date of Bertram de Verdun'a marriage with his second wife Rose namely, c. 1140 is only that given by MR. RELTON in. his note (p. 67), I should like to venture the