Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/447

 ii s. m. JUNE 10, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

441

LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 1911.

CONTENTS.-No. 76.

NOTES: Roger Ascham and Textor, 441 B and G con- fused in Domesday, 443 Bully vanb : Bulfin : Bulflnch Macaulay and Silius Italicus, 444 Carlyle on Cromwell's Head Henry, Duke of Suffolk, 445 Bedford Library Auguste Jal Hockley-in-the-Hole : Broadsword Contests A Murderous London Boatman of 1586, 446 Rousseau and Voltaire, 446.

QUERIES : " Sefton," a Carriage Peter the Great's Portrait Manzoni's ' II Cinque Maggio 'Mistress Kathe- rine Ashley, 447 Commander Hume Chevalier Comyn John Sylvester Chartres Cathedral Macaulay's Ances- try Swammerdam's ' History of Insects ' Prebendary Patrick Gordon Job or Jope Family, 448 'A Sentimental Journey to Margate ' : ' Rhoda ' Commonwealth Church in Wilts" Souchy "Elizabeth Harrison's ' Miscellanies ' Col. Mason's Coffee-HouseRalph Piggott, Catholic Judge T. Gent, Printer R. Dann P. Dehany G. Dela- place Ewbank Family, 449 Voltaire on the Bible- Worcester House, Thames Street Archbishop Stone of Armagh Moor, More, and Moory-Ground, 450

REPLIES : Duroure Family, 450 Dogs and other Effigies on Brasses, 451 Judge Jeffreys and the Temple Organ Father Quiroga " That man is thought a dangerous knave," 452 Milton in Ireland Fishing in Classical Times Ananias as a Christian Name Coronation Biblio- graphySuppressions in ' Pickwick' The Collar of SS, 453 Clarkson Stanfield Clergymen as Esquires Uttoxeter's First Book Authors Wanted ' Ralph Roister Doister,' 454 Horsewhipping of the Duke of Bedford Roeites and Wroeites, 455 Weight of 1588 Christian Names used by Men and Women Co wper's 'Charity,' 456 Ballantyne's Kelso Press " Perth roat " Hanoverian Regiment Siege of Derry Bonar & Co. ' The British Critic ' " O.K.," 458.

NOTES ON BOOKS :-'The Fortunes of Nigel' Reviews and Magazines.

Booksellers' Catalogues.

Notices to Correspondents.

ROGER ASCHAM AND IOANNES RAVISIUS TEXTOR,

IN his ' Toxophilus,' printed A.D. 1545, Ascham says on p. 83 (Mr. Arber's reprint, 1868):

" And here I must nedes remember a certaine French man called Textor, that writeth a boke whiche he nameth Officina, wherin he weueth vp many brokenended matters and settes out much rifraffe, pelfery, trumpery, baggage and beggerie ware clamparde vp of one that would seme to be fitter for a shop in dede than to write any boke."

The following passage shows how Ascham's ire was excited :

"But why I bringe in Textor was this : At laste when he hath rekened all shoters that he can, he sayeth thus, Petrus Crinitus wryteth, that the Scottes which dwell beyonde Englande be verye excellent shoters, and the best bowmen in warre. This sentence whether Crinitus wrote it more leudly of ignoraunce, or Textor con- firmeth it more piuyshlye of enuye, may be called in question and doubte : but this surelye do I knowe very well that Textor hath both red in

Gaguinus the Frenche hystorie, and also hath hearde his father or graundfather taulke (except perchaunce he was borne and bred in a Cloyster) after that sort of the shotynge of Englishe men, that Textor neded not to have gone so piuishlye beyonde Englande for shoting, but might very soone, euen in the first towne of Kent, haue founde suche plentie of shotinge, as is not in al the realme of Scotland agayne. The Scottes surely be good men of warre in theyr owne feate as can be : but as for shotinge, they neyther can vse it for any profyte, nor yet wil chalenge it for any prayse, although master Textor of his gentlenesse would give it them. Textor neaded not to haue fylled vppe his booke with suche lyes, if he hadde read thestorye of Scotlande, which loamiesMaiordoeth wryte : wherein he myghte haue learned, that when lames Stewart fyrst Kyng of that name, at the Parliament holden at Saynt lohnnes towne or Perthie, commaunded vnder payne of a greate forfyte, that euerye Scotte shoulde learne to shote : yet neyther the loue of theyr countrie, the feare of their enemies, the auoy dying of punishment, nor the receyuinge of anye profyte that myght come by it, coulde make them to be good Archers : whiche be vnapte and vnfytte therunto by Gods prouidence and nature. Ther- fore the Scottes them selues proue Textor a Iyer, bothe with authoritie and also daily experience, and by a certayne Prouerbe that they haue amonges them in theyr communication, wherby they gyue the whole prayse of shotynge honestlye to Englysshe men, saying thus : that euery Englysshe Archer beareth vnder hys gyrdle. xxiiii. Scottes." P. 84.

Now who was this man whom Ascham so fiercely attacks and brands as a liar ? Jean Tixier, seigneur de Ravisi, latinized into Joannes Ravisius Textor, was a dis- tinguished scholar in his day. He was not born in a cloister, as Ascham sneeringly suggests, but at Saint Saulge, Nievre, whence he calls himself " Nivernensis," about the year 1480, and died at Paris on 4 December, 1524, when the author of ' Toxophilus ' was about nine years old. In 1520 he was Rector of the University of Paris. The best- known of his works is his ' Officina, vel Naturae Historia per Locos,' which was published in 1522, and was often reprinted. It is a sort of encyclopaedia, and contains, much curious information very well arranged and fortified by references to the autho- rities quoted. Ascham's acquaintance with this work was very slight, if we believe what he says : " I loked on [it] by chaunce in the bokebynders shope, thynkynge of no suche matter" (p. 83). The Jew Apella may believe that ; I do not for good reasons. I have a copy of the edition in two volumes, printed at Venice in 1574, and am able to name the chapter which the author of ' Toxophilus ' must have carefully read, and from which he got some hints for his more extended treatment of the subject. The heading is ' Sagittarii et laculatores