Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/264

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. i. MAR. 25,

Parquhar imagined nothing of the kind. What he meant to portray was a mau of cheerful counten- ance, trimmed in jollity, and of Falstaffian propor- tions ; and to emphasize this fact, as a reference to the ' Beaux' Stratagem ' of 1707 clearly shows, the author wrote ' Bonny face,' with twon's a totally different word, and the correct spelling as well."

W. B. H.

Brewer's ' Dictionary of Phrase and Fable ' mentions St. Boniface's cup :

" An extra cup of wine (to the health of the Pope). Pope Boniface [there were, I think, nine of this title J ( we are told in the * Ebrietatis Encomium,' instituted an indulgence to those who drank his good health after grace, or the health of the Pope of the time being. An excuse for an extra glass." Can some memory of this have caused Farquhar to christen the innkeeper of his ' Beaux' Stratagem ' Boniface ?

A. R. BAYLEY.

MEMOKY AT THE MOMENT or DEATH (12 S. i. 49, 97, 177). When 22 years of age I came very near being drowned, and, in fact, had lost consciousness, so that I had no recollec- tion even of my rescuer having reached me. I had before that heard that the past events of one's life are generally recalled by people losing their lives by drowning, but had no such experience myself. C. J. B.

Nagpur.

THE ROMANS IN KENT (12 S. i. 148). The following may be useful :

Archa;ologia Cantiana ; being Transactions of the Kent Archaeological Society. London, 1858, &c. In progress.

Somner (William), A Treatise of the Roman Ports and Forts in Kent. Oxford, 1693.

Vine (F. T.), Cresar in Kent. London, 1887.

Codrington (Thomas), Roman Roads in Britain. London, S.P.C.K., 1903.

All these books are in the British Museum. ARCHIBALD SPABKE.

SIR JOHN SCHORNE (12 S. i. 4, 56). In pur earliest English drama we have two references to this saint, which are not without some interest.

John Hey wood's ' The Four P.P.' opens with the Palmer giving a lengthy list of holy places he has visited. Amongst others he has been 'At Saint Matthew, and Saint Mark in Venice ;

At Master John Shorn at Canterbury ;

The great God of Catwade, at King Henry

At Saint Saviour's ;

The line in question should undoubtedly be punctuated :

At Master John Shorn ; at Canterbury ; If this is not done, there is no mention of St. Thomas in the whole speech, and it is impossible that the most famous of al English shrines should have been omitted

There is no connexion between Sir John Schorne and Canterbury. " At King Henry " is, of course, King Henry VI.

Later we have :

And at Our Lady that standeth in the oak. This must, I think, refer to Notre Dame de Montaigu in Brabant.

We are not surprised to find that " bilious Bale " has a scoff at so popular a saint as Sir John Schorne, and in that dull farrago ' King John ' amongst the relics Sedition details is :

The devil that was hatched in Master John Shorn's boot.

MONTAGUE SUMMERS.

TAVOLARA : MORESNET : GOUST ( ? LLIVIA) :; ALLEGED SMALL REPUBLICS (12 S. i. 42, 129, 195). See US. vi. 48, 135. According to H. K. at the latter of these two references,, Goust and Tavolara still existed as republics in 1912, " the population of Gpust comprising 70 inhabitants (in 1902), that of Tavolara c. 180 (in 1907)."

JOHN B. WAINE WRIGHT.

JSofcs on

East and West through Fifteen Centuries, B.C. 4^ to A.D. 1453. By Brigadier-General G. F. Young. In 4 vols. Vote. I. and II. (Long- mans & Co., II. 16s. net.)

IT would be an easy matter to riddle this work with sarcasm. It bears only too many of the characteristics of hack-work. The writing is rough, often ungrammatical, often banal, and wearisome with the reiteration of half-a-dozen adjectives, of which the most tediously frequent' is " capable." The opinions of Gibbon, his general interpretation of these strange and stormy centuries, suffer frequent and radical correction ; but slabs from the ' Decline and Fall ' crop up verbatim or nearly so in page after page. The classical scholar may be astonished to learn that Augustus died in a family residence of his at No la on the coast of Dalmatia ; and may desire to see some qualification of the statements made about the Roman toleration of alT religions until' such time as Christianity appeared. A foot-note to the mention of the Crucifixion : " The report to the emperor of this execution is still extant " so much, and not a word more is calculated to excite a very great desire for more explicit information or a somewhat derisive incredulity. If the author could but produce that document and satisfactorily authenticate it, what a large amount of recent controversy might be swept into oblivion! We do not notice Dollinger's name among the list of authorities consulted ; a reference to his ' Fables respecting the Popes of the Middle Ages ' might have afforded some correction to the remarks about Liberius. Much space is taken up with showing the struggle between the Catholic and the divers heretical forms of Christianity. We do not complain of that far from it^ but it is strange that witJt so much. insistence on the mafttei? Tertullian and 4 Origen.