Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/477

 12 s. i. JUNE io, me.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

471

third stanza may be quoted in full, as it explains why Audley is so quaintly bidden "' sound " his " silver strings " :

They be the stringes of sober sound, Whose musicke is harrnonica.ll : Their tunes declare a time from ground I came, and how thereto I shall. Wherefore I ioie that you may see Upon my head such stringes to be.

I should like to take this occasion to emend another doubtful reading in our play. In II. ii. 102 the King announces his warlike determination with the words Lets with our coullours sweete the Aire of Fraunce. " Sweete " has justly been questioned. Capell proposed " sweep," Delius " beat." I believe the author wrote " floute " (or " flowte "). Cf. ' Macbeth,' I. ii. 49 :

Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky And fan our people cold ;

and ' King John,' V. i. 72 :

Mocking the air with colours idly spread. WALTER WOBBALL.

THE EFFECT OF OPENING A COFFIN (11 S. xii. 300, 363, 388, 448, 465 ; 12 S. i. 91, 113, 192, 295). Fresh details have come to my notice on this subject, and I send them as a further contribution to the discussion.

Bishop Bossuet, the eminent French divine, died in Paris in 1704, and was buried in his own cathedral at Meaux. On Tuesday, Nov. 14, 1854, the leaden coffin that contained the body of Bossuet was opened. The head was found to be covered with four folds of linen, and these being cut away with a pair of scissors, the features were then shown. They were much less changed than might have been expected, considering that a century and a half had elapsed since the burial. The head was leaning a little to the right, like that of a person asleep. The mouth was open, the -eyes closed, the nose was somewhat fallen in, the hair white. The skull had been sawn across, to allow of the removal of the brain and the placing in the opening some aromatic substance. An artist who was present took a sketch of the face. When it became known that the features of the celebrated bishop could be seen, a number of persons hastened to the cathedral. After mass had been performed, the crowd walked round to view the features, and in the evening the coffin was replaced in the vault (Willis's Current Notes, December, 1854).

Another case which I have come across may be found in a pamphlet entitled :

" Some Reflections on the Causes and Circum- stances occasioned by an account of a Body

found entire and imputrid at Staverton in Devon- shire, eighty -one years after its interment, in a letter to the Society of Navy Surgeons, with an attestation of the fact, and of a similar state of three Bodies discovered 14 years since in St. Martin's, Westminster. By J. Kirkpatrick, M.D. London, 1751."

I take the details as graphically given in the pamphlet :

" In the Beginning of February last [1750J, a Vault was opened in the Church of Staverton, about three miles from Totness, in the County of Devon, being the Burying-place of the ancient Family of the Worths. In this was found a single wooden Coffin, which being opened out of Curiosity, discovered the Body of a Man entire and incorrupt. His Flesh solid and not hard, his Joints flexible, as if just dead ; which appeared in moving his Shoulder and Elbow Joints, and every Joint of his Fingers. His Fibres retain their natural Elasticity, and likewise his Flesh ; all which appeared by drawing out the Skin upon his Throat, and by making Impressions with our Fingers upon his Thighs and Belly, which imme- diately returned to their former Fullness, and Extension. The Body never was embalmed, as there is not the least Sign of any Incision, and the Bowels seem to be still entire. His Beard is black, and about four Inches in length, and his Flesh not at all discoloured in any Part. The Body was carefully wrapt up in a Linen Sheet, over which was a Tar-cloth, or something like it ; a Piece of each you have here inclosed for your greater Satisfaction. The Vault was opened, as I mentioned before, in February last, in order to drain off the Water, which was nine Feet deep, tho' the Coffin did not swim, having a Weight upon it to keep it down. The Tar-cloth was very much torn, and likewise the Sheet ; so that when I saw it, which was full two months after, Part of it had lain exposed to the Air all that Time, and the other Part under Water and Mud : The whole was so dirty, that I was forced to have Part of it washed, in order to see distinctly what it was. A Gentleman was with me, who had seen it when first opened, and declared it had not suffered the least Alteration during the two months. We found, by the Parish Register, that the last Person who had been buried hi the said Vault, was one Simon Worth, in the Year 1669. An old man who lives in the Parish, says, that the said Gentleman, whose Body this is supposed to be, died in France or Flanders, and was brought over to be interred in the Burying-place of his Ancestors. There are many Bones and Pieces of Coffins quite rotten in the same Vault, which they say is dry in Summer, and full of Water in the Winter. As the upper Part of the Head, and the Eyes are under Water, I can give you no Descrip- tion of them ; the Lips are sound, and some of the Teeth loose. It is not my Business to enquire into the Causes, which produced such an extraordinary and uncommon Effect." P. viii.

The matter attracted a good deal of attention in the scientific world at the time of the discovery, and in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, vol. xlvii. pp. 253 ff. (1753), there is a correspondence printed by Thomas Stack, M.D., F.R.S., which contains letters from John Huxham,