Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 4.djvu/68

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[12 8. IV. FEB., 1918.

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WAXTED (12 S. iii. 480).

1. Nescis, mi fill, quantilla sapientia regitur nuindus ?

The account of this saying given in King's ' Classical and Foreign Quotations ' can, it seems, no longer be accepted. Following an earlier edition of Biichmann's ' Gefliigelte Worte,' King "took the statement in Lundblad's ' Svensk Plutark ' (1826) that the original was addressed by Oxenstierna to his son, when the latter hesitated to undertake a high diplomatic mission.

But Biichmann's invaluable work has since passed through several more editions. The latest I have seen that of 1912, the 25th bears on its title-page the names of four successive editors who have supplemented Biichmann's researches. In this the attribution of the saying to Oxenstierna is decisively rejected. We are told that he was first credited with it in Johann Arkenholtz's ' Historische Merkwiirdigkeiten ' (Leipzig and Amsterdam, 1751-60), but that Arkenholtz acknowledged he had never seen the Chancellor's letter in which he was supposed to have given his son this piece of advice. We learn further that no such words can be discovered either in 'Gjdrwell's edition of Oxenstierna's letters, 1810-19, or in the Swedish Academy's collection of his works and letters, begun in 1888. Finally, we are informed that Dr. Per Sonden, the Swedish historian and archivist, proved that Oxenstierna was not the author of the saying, and com- municated his results by letter to Dr. Arnheim of Berlin, and that this was evidently the source of an article in the Frankfurter Zeitung for Oct. 26, 1910. According to that, in a memorial to Oxenstierna, dated from Frankfurt, August, 1633, Willem Usselinx quotes a remark that Viglius Zuichemus, President at Brussels, who died in 1577, is said to have made to a relative who, on the plea of insufficient ability, had declined a good post that he had coffered him. Zuichemus told him that he ought to try what he could make of it, and the result would be much better than he thought. " For," said he, " you could not believe with how little wisdom the world is governed."

As a possible original, Buchmann (and he is quoted to this effect by King) refers to a Portuguese collection of apophthegms, ' Collecc.am politica de apophtegmas memoraveis,' by Pedro Jos. Suppico de Moraes (Lisbon, 1733), 2, 2, 44, in which there is a story that when a Portuguese monk com- miserated Julius III. on having to bear the burden of the government of the world, the Pope replied : " You would be amassed if you knew at the cost of how little intelligence the world is governed."

The article in the 25th edition of ' Gefliigelte Worte ' concludes with the general statement that there are other persons too who have been named as originating the saying. At one time (e.g., in his 10th edition, 1877) Buchmann men- tioned that in Zincgref's ' Apophthegmata,' vol. ii. p. 107 in the 1693 edition, the author is said to have been a certain nobleman called von Orselaer, tutor to the sons of a Markgraf of Baden. As J. W. Zincgref died in 1635, if the above attribution occurs in any edition of the ' Apophthegmata ' for which he was responsible, this is another argument against Oxenstierna's claim to have originated it, either at the time of

the Congress of Miinster in 1648 (as King sa>s), or in 1641 (as Biichrnann says in his 20th edition).

The Latin is found in various forms : " pru- dentia " or " sapientia," " orbis " or " mundus." " regatur " or the ungrammatical <; regitur." Fumagalli, in the 4th edition of ' Chi 1'ha detto ? ' has a variety : " Videbis, fili mi, quam parva sapientia regitur mundus."

Possibly fresh light may still be shed on this obscure problem. It will be recognized that the history of the saying is more complicated than might appear at first sight. It is a case of waiting and seeing what further evidence may show. But the majority of the reading public, as far as it interests itself in these matters, dislikes a suspended judgment, and prefers something quite definite. EDWARD BENSLY.

University College, Aberystwyth.

(12 S. iii. 510; iv. 32.)

1. Quinque sumus fratres, uno de stipite nati. This riddle was discussed in ' N. & Q.' many

years ago ; but as I have not hit on the clue word

I cannot track the articles to their hiding-places.

An English version which I have seen quoted

runs :

Of us five brothers at the same time born, Two from our birthday ever beards have worn ; On other two none ever have appeared, While the fifth brother wears but half a beard.

ST. SWITHIN.

(12 S. iv. 18.)

The source of No. 1 is W. S. Gilbert's 'The Mikado,' Act II. It should read : Her terrible tale You can't assail, With truth it quite agrees ; Her taste exact For faultless fact Amounts to a disease.

ERNEST A. FULLER.

[Several other correspondents thanked for replies.]

3. Too wise to err, too good to be unkind.

A hymn of seven verses was composed by Samuel Medley, and published in 1789. Each verse has a refrain :

God shall alone the refuge be, And comfort of my mind ;

Too wise to be mistaken He, Too good to be unkind.

In all His holy sovereign will

He is, I daily find, Too wise to be mistaken still,

Too good to be unkind, &c.

Medley as a midshipman served under Admiral Boscawen. After his conversion through White- field about 1760, he became a Baptist minister at Watford, Herts. In 1772 he became pastor of Byrom Street Chapel, Liverpool, where he pub- lished his hymns, and remained until his dearth in 1799. Miller's ' Singers and Songs of the Church ' gives a memoir of him, pp. 269-71 ; and a portrait accompanied his memoir published by his daughter, Sarah Medley, in 1800. B. H.