Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 6.djvu/391

 12 s. vi. JUNE 19, 1920.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

323

Judas." Years later, unless I greatly err, Prof. Skeat condemned the whole invention in ' N. & Q.', but I cannot track the refer- ence. It may perhaps serve to quote what he wrote in his ' Etymological Dictionary ' to show what he thought of the bit of mystery play erudition which has such popular charm. " Judy no more stands for Judsei or Judas than Punch for Pontius." The history of the words should be studied in the ' N.E.D.' and the blunder buried.

ST. SWITHIN.

A SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY BOOKSELLER'S LABEL (12 S. vi. 205, 280). Speaking of a recipe which contained ironfilings, sage, agrimony, sea scurvy grass, garden scurvy grass, worm wood, &c., with white wine and sherry wine added, and which he recom- mends as an invaluable antidote for dropsy and scurvy, Dr. George Bate (1608-69), the court physician, and fellow of the Royal Society says :

" Though this is a good tincture, yet that is much stronger which is made with the best spirit of scurvy grass .... It not only cures deplorable dropsies and inveterate scurvies, but also the gout, jaundice, rheumatism, t.-emblings. palsies, and many other distempers of the nerves " (' Pharmacopoeia Bateana,' translated by W. Salmon, M.P., p. 184).

N. W. HILL.

INSCRIPTIONS IN CITY CHPRCHES (12 S. vi. 294). The following books should be of use :

Rushen (P. C.) Churchyard Inscriptions of the City of London. 8vo. 1910.

Fisher (Payne) Catalogue of Tombs in the Churches of the City of London. 1666. London, 1668; revised and edited by G. B. Morgan. 4to. 1885.

Weever (J.) Antient Funeral Monuments of Great Britain. 4to. 1767. (London, pp. 141- 456).

Rushen (P. C.) Transcripts of Monumental In- scriptions in and about the late Church of the United Parishes of SS. George and Botolph, Botolph Lane. 4to. 1904.

Denham (J. F.) Views exhibiting the Exterior, Interior, and Principal Monuments, with His- torical Account of St. Dunstan in the West. Imp. 4to. No date (c. 1829).

Murray (T. B.) Chronicles of a City Church : St. Dunstan in the East. Sm. 4to. 1859.

Staples (J.) Notes on St. Botolph's, Aldersgate. Svo. 1881.

For inscription on, and illustration of monumental brass in St. Dunstan's in the West, 1530, see E. R. Suffiing's 'English Church Brasses' (1910), p. 195.

Fs)- H. G. HARRISON.

Aysga rth~,|[Sevenoaks.

mi

English Madrigal Verse, 1588-1632. Edited from the Original Song Books by E. H. FelloweSi (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 12s. 6d. net.)

THIS work falls into two parts : (1) the Madri- galists; (2) the Lutenists. Each part is virtually a book by itself having its own List of the Authors r Notes and Index of First Lines. The sets of lyrics are arranged alphabetically under the names of the musical composers. The work of the Madrigalists ranges in date from 1588 (William Byrd's : Psalmes, Sonets, and Songs of Sadnes and Pietie ') to Martin Peerson's ' Motets or Grave Chamber Musique ' published in 1630; that of the Lutenists from John Dowland's ' First Booke of Songes or Ayres ' of 1597 to Walter Porter's-; ' Madrigales and Ayres ' of 1632.

A few of these Sets have been published before notably in Herr Wilhelm Bolle's ' Die gedruck- ten englischen Liederbiicher bis 1600 ' : and a certain number of madrigal "words" have a recognised place in English literature. But what Mr. Fellowes gives us here has been on the whole almost unknown or difficult to obtain, hitherto, and this volume is certain of a hearty welcome from lovers of music and poetry, as well ' as from the student of literature.

The Preface reminds us as of " a fact too little known to the ordinary man of letters " that afc the turn of the seventeenth century English music was " in the forefront of the music of Europe." The last word has not by any means, we think, been said upon the theory of the relation between music and words; and the Elizabethan and Jacobean lyrics, written or chosen to be set to music, offer an excellent field for the study of the problem. The composers of madrigals brought the closest attention to bear upon the words : the music, far from obscuring or submerging their sense and force, was designed to enhance these. No doubt, the keen appreciation of good verse, common at this time, contributed much towards the practice of marrying verse with music upon, - more or less equal terms.

Yet a perusal of this collection drives home the conviction that the obstacle, whatever it is, - to real equality in that marriage remains in- superable.

These songs are, in a high proportion, genuinely poetry. Their syllables are apt for singing : in fact, this book illustrates with great felicity the possibilities of roundness and sonorousness in English. But, with one or two exceptions, they lack the crowning something which enables poetry to live by its own right. They are, in fact, true songs in that they postulate music; leaving a reader unsatisfied with them as they stand. Ifc would, we think, have been possible if one had not known it to conjecture that they belonged to fully developed, highly self-conscious and elaborate music : just as it would probably occur to an intelligent reader, who should be told that the Psalms, or the choruses in a Greek tragedy, were intended to be sung, that they would be found set to music relatively simple and sub- ordinate.

In considering the madrigals the licence allowed the composer in dealing with the verse,