Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/179

 ii s. ix. FEB. 28, 1914.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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that quite a number of slaves (probably Jews) were called " apella." This is evi- dence, not against, but strongly in favour of, the word having a real meaning ; and PROF. BENSLY admits that it was used about 1605, the date of the emblem, in the sense of " sine pelle."

It seems strange that so many literary men continue resolutely to shut their eyes to the fact that Bacon's great task was to create an English language capable of ex- pressing the highest thoughts, and that such a language did not exist until he created it. Therefore in the golden age of Elizabeth there was not, and there could not be, any writer of importance outside of Bacon's workshop. Surely all must be able to perceive that the very numerous translations of the classics which were issued at that period could not have been sold for even a fraction of their cost, but must have been produced, not for gain, but for the good and profit of mankind.

The Shakespeare plays are to-day being acted five times as often in Germany as they ever were in this country, and the leading German professors are now declar- ing that the plays are (with their 22,000 different words), changing the language, the literature, and even the character of the German nation. Well might Bacon leave his name and his fame to foreign nations and to future ages.

EDWIN BURNING-LAWRENCE.

13, Carl ton House Terrace, S.W.

To the explanation of Sylvester's lines already given by MR. J. DENHAM PARSONS and C. C. B., it may be added that there is a reference in them to a story about the Greek painter Apelles that may be read in Cicero and the elder Pliny. Apelles, after painting his famous Venus Anadyomene, began another picture of Venus with the intention of surpassing his previous per- formance. He died before he could finish it, and no artist could be found to complete his work. See Cicero, ' De Officiis,' iii. 2, 10, and Pliny, ' Nat. Hist..' xxxv. 92. The application to Sidney and his translation of Du Bartas is obvious. There is nothing sur- prising in the words " Apelles Table," tabula being the ordinary Latin word for picture. Qualis Apelleis est color in tabulis.

In the last communication ante, p. 74, the statement is made that " ' trahere pellem ' means ' to unmask,' and is a well - known classical phrase." I think that detrahere pellem must be intended, which is used in a metaphorical sense by

Horace, ' Satires,' II. i. 64, where, it has been pointed out, there is probably a reference to some such fable as that of the ass in the lion's skin. "Trahere pellem" might suggest to some readers a challenge from Hercules to tread on the tail of his coat. EDWARD BENSLY.

If " Milton tells us quite clearly that ' Bacon is Shakespeare,' " why did he write in ' L'Allegro ' :

Or sweetest Shakespeare, fancy's child, Warble his native wood notes wild ?

These lines seem hardly to fit at all the sedate and learned Bacon, but they are very applicable to the untaught man of Stratford-on-Avon. Moreover, Milton in the line previous to those I quote seems to use " Jonson's learned sock " as a foil to Shakespeare's " wood notes wild," as if to imply that a difference between the two men was that one was a scholar and the other was not. W. H. PINCHBECK.

OCTOPUS, VENUS'S EAR, AND WHELK (11 S. ix. 128). The octopus and the whelk, and shell-fish of various kinds, have been largely used in medicine. I am not sure about Venus's ear, which I cannot find in any of my books, but the whelk was at one time official in this country, and both it and the octopus (polypus) are included in Le- mery's ' Traite Universel des Drogues Simples,' 1723. In many cases both the fish themselves and their shells were used, the latter mainly, no doubt, for the sake of the lime in them. The flesh of the octopus was thought to be good for colic.

C. C. B.

[MR. TOM JONES who refers to W. T. Fernie's ' Animal Simples' thanked for reply.]

THE CANDLE (11 S. viii. 502). There is a very valuable history of candle-making in the ' Reports of the Juries (Exhibition 1851),' drawn up by Mr. Warren De la Rue and Prof. A. W. Hofman, which embodies all the information then existing as to the technical side of the question. Snufness candles were invented by Cambaceres, an officer in the Department of Roads and Bridges, who took out a French patent for the invention in February, 1825. A method of accomplishing the same object was also included in an English patent granted to Moses Poole on behalf of Gay-Lussac, the eminent French chemist, on 9 June of the same year (No. 5183). Full particulars of this important invention may be found at p. 620 of the above-mentioned Reports.