Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/18

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. vi. JULY 6, 1912.

animal (? a dog) with its forepaws on an open book ; another animal ( ? a kid ) ; a bird. There is a nimbus round the head of each, and over them respectively are the words. . ATHEVS : s. MABCVS : s. LVCAS : s. JOHANN. Is there any interest attaching to this kind of inkpot ? A friend tells me that it illustrates Revelation iv. 7 : " And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle/' If this is correct, why are the figures named after the Evangelists ? If any readers can help me, I shall be glad. WM. T. SANIGAB.

[The use of these Evangelical symbols derived from the four "living things" of the Apocalypse to signify the four Evangelists goes back at least- to Irenasus, who expounds their meaning as answering to the fourfold character of the work of the Eternal Word. The lion represents His sove- reign power ; the calf, His priestly function ; the ma;n. His human nature ; the eagle, the gift of the Spirit. The distribution of the symbols here given is now the usual one ; but both Irena?us and Augustine distribute them differently.]

1. MOSES CHARAS, PHARMACOPCEUS REGIUS. I have an engraved portrait of this man seated in his laboratory at a table, writing. I should be glad of any biographical details.

2. " STEPHANI RODEBICI CASTRBNSIS

LVSITANI ANN. JET AT. LXXVIII." 1 have

an engraved portrait with the above in- scription. He was probably a medical man. Where can I find a full account of his life ? ISBAEL SOLOMONS. 118, Sutherland Avenue, W.

LYNDON EVELYN. Can any of your readers give me the following information : the date of birth of Lyndon Evelyn, M.P. for Wigton 1809-12, Dundalk 1812-18, and St. Ives 1820-26 supposed to be eldest son of Francis Evelyn of Dublin, who entered himself as student of Lincoln's Inn, 11 Nov., 1778, and was Chief Examiner in the Court of Chancery for some years ? I shall be glad of any further details with regard to his family. S. G. EVELYN.

Gorton, Presteign, Radnorshire.

INSCBIPTION IN PARISH CHURCH OF ST. MARY, LLANFAIB-WATEBDINE. Has the in- scription on one of the communion rails in the above church ever been translated ? Many have tried to decipher it, without success, though I understand that Sir John Rhys, of Oxford, discovered a key to a single word. WILLIAM MACARTHUR.

Dublin

ORLOW is a girl's name met with occa- sionally in Sussex and elsewhere at the present day. Can any of your readers supply information as to its origin and meaning ? J. A.

ST. JAMES'S BOAT. (See 11 S. v. 409.) Let me add to my query that Miss K. L. Bates refers, in ' Spanish Highways and Byways ' (p. 411), to a story about the body of St James being conveyed to Spain " in a shell of miraculous size " ; but she adds, " This is not the version that was told us at the shrine."

Mr. C. Bogue Luffmann's book was pub- lished long after that of Miss Bates.

ST. SWITHIN.

' SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER ' : EXPLANA- TIONS WANTED. I should be grateful if your columns could give me help upon the following points, which, in a small Swiss village, I find it hard to determine.

1. Who composed the opera ' Ariadne ' (the minuet in which is referred to in ' She Stoops to Conquer,' Act I.), and in what year was it produced ? The Rev. H. R. Haweis, in ' Music and Morals,' ascribes it to Handel, and says it was produced at the Haymarket in 1733. Burney's ' History of Music ' says Porpora's ' Ariadne ' was first performed in 1733. Is the reference to one of these ? It cannot be to Georg Benda's ' Ariadne auf Naxos,' which was produced in 1774, a year after ' She Stoops to Conquer.'

2. What is the derivation of the phrase " Rabbit me " or " Rabbet me " ( = Con- found me) ?

3. Is " Odso " (a minced form of " God so ") an abbreviation of " God so help me " " God save me " ? Or can any other origin be found ?

4. Are the Grotto Gardens (mentioned in ' She Stoops to Conquer,' Act II.) to be identified with Finch's Grotto and Garden, which, according to ' Curiosities of London,' p. 323, by John Timbs (London, 1855), were established in the present Southwark Bridge Road about 1760 : " Here Suett and Nan Cattley acted and sang," &c. ? Were they the scene of musical and dramatic per- formances ? The only annotation of the passage which I have seen is simply " in Clerkenwell," and I do not know the au- thority for that.

5. What is the precise meaning of crying caro at an opera ? AROSER.