Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 6.djvu/596

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. vi. DEC. 21, 1912.

On the sinister side the devils drag a group to the Jaws of Hell and torment. In the lower sinister portion is a furnace, full of "souls/' being heated. Five "souls" bear scrolls labelled " Avaricia," " Ira," " Supbia," " Invedua " (sic), " Gula." There is no soul-weighing here. If Fisher's water- colour reproductions be accurate, the artistic level of the whole is, to the lay mind, below that of the Wenhaston Doom. The figures of Our Lord, the B.V.M., St. John, and St. Peter are gigantic in comparison with the rest. Complexions are fairer than at Wen- haston. Possibly here, though no trace remains in the drawing, all seven deadly sins were represented, and the inscriptions may in other cases have worn off. At St. Michael's, St. Albans, " Ebrietas " occurred, either as a variant of Gula, or in pursuance of another scheme.

At Chaldon, Surrey, the Doom is divided into sections by the " Ladder of Salvation." Hell and its torments occur on the dexter side, and the weighing of souls by St. Michael on the sinister. In the top sinister is Our Lord fighting Satan; also the Tree of Life, and Usury in the flames. The number of lost souls in this picture leads to the local nomenclature of " The Devils."

In the triforium of Gloucester Cathedral is a Doom discovered in 1718. The Classic style of architecture of the Mansions of the Blest, and the absence of the B.V.M. or any other intercessory figure, lead one to suppose it to be a rare example of post-Reformation work.

In a mediaeval " Priests' Book," the name of which I have mislaid, occurs an adjura- tion to the parson in want of a text, running something like this : " Thinke of thy Dome, and loke to it where it hangeth in the chirche before all folk." But the Doom in literature is outside the scope of this query, as also is any conjecture as to the number of the Dooms that have ever been in England, and whose were the cunning hands that limned them.

E. M. F.

There is a fine example over the chancel arch at Lutterworth, Leicestershire. H. H. will find brief notices, without sizes, of more than a hundred examples in ' A List of Buildings in Great Britain and Ireland having Mural and Other Painted Decora- tions,' by C. E. Keyser, M.A., F.S.A., published by the Science and Art Depart- ment (S.K.M.). The third and latest edi- tion is elated 1883. All the examples are not now in existence, but Mr. Keyser quotes his authorities. A. W. ANDERSON.

Not inside the building, but in the tym- panum of the exterior doorway leading directly into the small graveyard of St. Stephen's Church from Coleman Street, City, is one of the most remarkable old wood-carvings to be seen in all London. The late George Godwin, F.S.A., in his ' Churches of London ' (1839) thus describes it :

" It is a very curious piece of sculpture of alto relievo, embodying the Last Judgment. The tombs are giving forth their tenants, and angels are assisting to free from their coffins those that have arisen, and to aid their approach to the Creator, who is seen in the upper part of the com- position, delivering judgment."

HARRY HEMS. Fair Park, Exeter.

The fresco at Lutterworth representing the Last Judgment was discovered during a restoration of the church by the late Sir George Gilbert Scott, R.A., in 1868.

JOHN T. PAGE.

Long Itchington, Warwickshire.

[R. B., MK. G. C. HINDLEY, Mr. W. HOWARU- FLANDERS, and MB. FRANCIS P. MARCHANT also thanked for replies.]

NOVALIS AND JOHN STUART MILL ON SUICIDE (11 S. vi. 369). I do not think that Novalis can be said to have recommended to mankind the simultaneous act of suicide. It is well known that, after the death of his betrothed, Sophie von Kiihn, in 1797, he believed he could will himself to die, and resolved to follow her to the grave by that means. In ' Die Lehrlinge zu Sais,' written not long after Sophie's death, he contrasts the attitude of different persons to Nature. Some are indefatigable in their efforts to develop her resources and comprehend her mysteries, others despair at the complexity and infinitude of the problems. To such persons Nature becomes " an awful mill of death " ; she stimulates their curiosity, goads them to madness, and their only way o f escape is by suicide :

" Nur innre Uneinigkeit der Naturkrafte habe die Menschen bis jetzo erhalten, indes konne jener grosse Zeitpunkt nicht ausbleiben, wo sich die samtlichen Menschen durch einen grossen gemeinschaftlichen Entschluss aus dieser pein- lichen Lage, aus diesem furchtbaren Gefangnisse reissen und durch eine freiwillige Entsagung ihrer hiesigen Besitzttimer auf ewig ihr Geschlecht aus diesem Jammer erlosen, und in eine gliick- lichere Welt, zu ihrem alten Vater retten wiirden. So endeten sie doch ihrer wiirdig, und kamen ihrer notwendigen, gewaltsamen Vertilgung oder einer noch entsetzlicheren Ausartung in Tiere, durch stufenweise Zerstorung der Denkorgane, durch Wahnsinn, auvor."