Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/348

 NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. iv. DEC., im.

The date and authorship of these lines were discussed at 5 S. ix. 58, where Madame Blavatsky's they are translated from a French original published in 1453. The period of fulfilment is there given as "In twice two hundred years " and " In twice ten years again."
 * Isis Unveiled ' is cited for the statement that

R. J. FYNMORE. Sandgate.

The lines " In twice two hundred years the Bear," &c., appeared in ' N. & Q.' for Aug. 5, 1854 (p. 104), and were quoted from The Bristol Mirror, which stated that the lines were taken " from an old volume of predictions written in the fifteenth century, and now in the possession of a gentleman residing at Chard, Somerset." The contributor to ' N. & Q.' thought that the pro- phecy had " evident marks of modern fabrication about it," and asked that the world might know " who the gentleman referred to is," or at all events that the full title of the book might be supplied.

No reply seems to have been given to this -appeal. G - H. W.

6. There may be heaven, &c.

' The two lines are correctly quoted, with the exception that Browning wrote earth, not "life"^; and they occur at the end of his poem ' Time's Revenges,' being the ninth in the series of Dramatic Romances. C. R. MOORE.

(J. R. H. also thanked for replies.]

'Intensifying Similes in English : Inaugural Dis- sertation. By T. Hilding Svartengren. (Lund, Gleerupska Uni versitetsbokhandeln . )

MR. HILPING SVARTENGREN, who is a Swedish schoolmaster, has made a substantial and very interesting addition to the study of English idiom in his ' Intensifying Similes,' which is a collection of phrases like '' as keen as mustard." He speaks in his Preface of the difficulties of getting hold of English books and of verifying references. He has, however, been assisted by our own columns and correspondents, and reveals, in spite of his handicaps, a wide knowledge of good English sources the novels, for instance, of Mr. Hardy, the greatest living artist in the speech of the' English people. He has also made excellent use of the invaluable stores of informa- tion to be found in the ' N.E.D.' and the ' E.D.D.' The type of simile which he has studied reveals, like the proverb, the intelligence and ways ol thought of homely England. Wit is seldom achieved, the examples being of a universal sort, derived from common experience. Mr. Svarten- gren's deductions from the similes as to the English mind are striking. We find the country, not the town ; no factories, mines, or mills but the farm and its animals, food and drink and the simple details of the house. The typical Englishman fears the Devil, keeps away from politics, and has not much poetry in him. These conclusions are true, we think, to the English character of the past, at any rate. Modern

ndustries and machines and town life are making
 * reat alterations.

How far some of the similes are derived from book-learning rather than observation of life it is difficult to decide. Human nature remains pretty much what it was, and various countries and epochs offer instances of obvious comparisons which belonged and still belong to the world at large. Tennyson's " softer than sleep," quoted p. 2(36, is a direct translation of Virgil's " somno mollior," which again goes back to Theocritus. The average English mind prefers to say as soft as swansdown, or butter, or putty.

Mr. Svartengren seems to have hurried over the production of his book, which is a pity. Its arrangement is sometimes irritating ; and a wrong reference in one instance took us some time to correct. His English is very creditable to him, though naturally enough slips in spelling are numerous. His judgment in philo- logical matters is good, and his book as a whole is full of curious and interesting things, obscured often by popular misunderstanding, vagueness in allusion, or the lapse of time. The number of local characters who did odd things and got into sayings is large. They play a bigger part in these similes than the great events of history. Fashions of the past are revealed in the amount of similes for melancholy, and the virtues attributed to the milkmaid, which Mr. Svartengren finds excessive. The fashions of the future seem to depend on what he calls the " respectless " American humour. '' Disrespectful " would be nearer current English.

We shall do the best service, we think, by noting points which have struck us in reading through the book. Some surprise is expressed at the phrase " as merry as Momus," since that god was a depreciator ; but nearly all primitive humour is malicious a sense of superiority in view of the defects of others. " As vindictive as an elephant " is noted. Lytton in ' Kenelm Chillingly ' has " _as vindictive as a parrot." There is an instructive little excursus on drinking, of which the tinker and the foreigner are accused, Or a man in the next county. These compli- ments between adjacent counties the present reviewer has often heard. " As lazy as Law- rence " is a reference to a tortured saint, which is as odd as anything here. " As brave as a lion " is not a good simile, suggests Sir Rider Haggard in ' The Holy Flower,' one of his African stories. The buffalo, he says, would suit the posi- tion better, and would be alliterative too, which is an important element hi these similes. " As white as a sheet " reminds us that a blanket was originally a little white thing. " As black as ebony," used of a negro, takes us back to Lamb's phrase " images of God in ebony," which he took from Fuller in ' The Holy State and the Profane State,' book ii., chap. xxi. " As quick as thought " has not apparently been found between 1658 and Thackeray. This must, we think, be an accident of search. Lately we have come across " quicker than thought " in chap. v. of ' The Last of the Mohicans,' 1826.

Regarding " a dead lift, as sure as sexton," the compiler asks, " In what way is the sexton surer than other things or people ? " The phrase seems clearly to imply the sexton's duties at a grave, to which all must come. " As fast as hops" is puzzling, but may mean "as fast as