Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/221

 ii s. vii. MAR. 15,1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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CLARENDON'S 'ESSAY ON WAR' (11 S. vii. 69). The passage referred to as coining from the same philosopher is this :

l< Qu8e nos dementia exagitat et in rautuum com- ponit exitium ? Vela ventis damus bellum petituri et periclitamur periculi causa. Ineertam fortunam experimur, vim tempestatum nulla ope humana euperabilem, mortem sine spe sepulturse."

' Naturales Qusestiones,' v. 18, 6 (4).

Seneca, however, is not denouncing navi- gation generally. He has just said, that one of the ends for which Providence designed winds was to facilitate intercourse between distant nations, but that men in their mad- ness turn this blessing to their own hurt by using it for purposes of war. The thought that it was a daring and impious thing to cross the " estranging sea " is found else- where, as, for instance, in Horace, ' Odes.' I. iii. 9 sqq., and Statins, ' Silvae,' III. ii. 61 sqq., and is a commonplace of Latin poetry.

Servi tua est condicio, ratio ad te riihil, which was also quoted from Clarendon's essay, is apparently a translation of

AouAos 7r<vKa9, ov //,T(m' vot Aoyou,

cited by Philo, 'De Libertate Viri Boni,' 871 C., and by Marcus Aurelius, xi. 30. Aoyos is usually interpreted here, not " reason," but " speech." The line is No. 304 of the ' Adespota ' in August Nauck's 1889. EDWARD BENSLY.
 * Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta,' ed. 2,

REFERENCE WANTED (US. vii. 127). " Courteous [courtois, French], elegant of manners ; polite ; well-bred ; full of acts of respect. "Polite [politus, Latin]. I. Glossy; smooth. "'Some of them are diaphanous, shining and polite; others are not polite, but as if powdered over with fine iron dust.' Woodward.

" ' If any sort of Rays falling on the polite surface of any pellucid medium, be reflected back, the fits of easy reflexion, which they have at the point of reflexion, shall still continue to return.' Newton's ' Opticks.'

" ' The edges of sandholes, being worn away, there are left all over the glass a numberless company of. very little convex polite risings like waves.' ^Newton's 'Opticks.'

" II. Elegant of manners. A nymph of quality admires our knight, He marries, vows at court, and grows polite.

Pope."

Harrison's Edition of Dictionary by Samuel Johnson, MDCCLXXXVI.

Walker's ' Dictionary,' MDCCCXXXI., gives " Polite. Glossy, smooth, in this sense only technically used ; elegant of manners."

Alsager, Cheshire.

M. ELLEN POOLE.

FIRST FOLIO SHAKESPEARE (11 S. vii. 8, 56, 94, 137). Upon reading MR. SPIEL- MANN'S reply I referred to my copy of the Felton engraving (which forms one of a series of extra illustrations in Boaden's ' Inquiry into the Authenticity of Portraits of . Shakespeare,' 1824), and imagine this must be a different engraving. Apparently the top shelf bears demy octavo sized books, and the bottom spacious shelf exhibits folios. The full backs of the books are clearly visible. Unluckily, the engraving bears no date or letterpress (beyond a fac- simile of the poet's autograph).

WM. JAGGARD.

MARSHALSEAS (US. vi. 289; vii. 154). Two allusions are made to the above in the ' Township Booke of Halliwell ' (1640-1763), edited by this writer for the Chetham Society, and published in 1911. Payments made \

(1) For prisoners in Marshalsea goale at Lan- caster, 1652.

(2) For the married souldiers prisoners in the Marshalsey, 1657.

ARCHIBALD SPARKE. F.R.S.L. Reference Library, Bolton.

CURFEW BELL (11 S. vi. 466; vii. 17, 77, 117, 151). The Curfew bell is still rung at Brackley, Northamptonshire, every night, from 8 to 8.5, on the bell at the Town Hall, from Michaelmas to Lady Day.

At Bampton, Oxon, it was rung every night at 8 for a few minutes on the third bell (now the fifth, the ring having been augmented from six to eight in 1906) as late as 1890. Not having resided there since the last -mentioned year, I cannot say for certain if the custom is still retained.

I was informed a few days ago by a resi- dent at Brackley that it is still rung at Buckingham ; the latter town is only eight miles distant from the former. The same person also stated that those were the only two places for many miles around where the Curfew- is still kept up.

In Mr. A. H. Cocks's 'Church Bells of Bucks,' published in 1897, a few places where it was rung at that date are mentioned. The following extracts are taken from that book :

"At Buckingham from Michaelmas Day to Lady Day the fifth is rung for about 5 minutes at 6 A.M., and the common tradition exists here of a person who was lost finding out his or her whereabouts on hearing a bell, and leaving money for this ringing to be continued in perpetuity through the dark half of the year. Rung again as the Curfew at 8 P.M.