Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/166

 134 NOTES AND QUERIES. [i2.s.vn. AUG. 14,1020. porting on the point a crown of gold with two fleurs de lis of the same. The special device borne by Jeanne was a hand holding a sword, motto Consilio firmata Dei ' strengthened by the -counsel of God ' which Vulson states to have seen upon a medal struck in her honour after she had caused Charles to be crowned at Bheims, and & bee upon a hive crowned : Hcec Virgo Regnum mucrone tuetur : ' This Virgin defends the kingdom with a sword.' In the gallery of the Palais Royal was painted for her device a phoenix with the motto Invito funere vivat ' Her death itself -will make her live.' " (' Historic Devices, Badges, -&c.,' pp. 152, 153). ST. SWITHIN. On Mar. 10 (Saturday), 1430-1 occurred -the first private examination of La Pucelle
 * in prison (the Castle of Rouen) conducted,

in the presence of Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais, by Maitre Jean Delafontaine assisted by two assessors and two witnesses. When asked the question : " Have you not .a shield and arms ? " she replied : "I never had one ; but my King (Charles VII.) has granted arms to my brothers (Jean and Pierre) that is to say, a shield azure, two fleur-de-lys of gold, and a sword betwixt. These arms I described T in this town to a painter, because he asked what arms I bore. The King gave them to my brothers [to please them], without request from me and without revelation." See T. Douglas Murray's 'Jeanne d'Arc ' (1902), p. 59. A. R. BAYLEY. ENGLISH PLAYS PERFORMED IN PARIS (12 S. vii. 89). Hector Berlioz, the com- poser, who subsequently married the lead- ing lady of the English company, Henrietta Smithson, mentions some of the Shakespeare plays performed in which his wife took part, in his " Memoires." There are two English translations of this work. There is also an abundance of material on Shakespeare in Paris in Jules Janin's ' Histoire de la litterature dramatique ' (1858, 6 vols. in 18). The essays are mainly feuilletons which pre- viously appeared in the Journal des Debats and other Parisian newspapers. But the most important of all the first- night's criticisms of Shakespeare's plays will -be found in the files of Goethe's favourite Parisian paper Le Globe (founded by Paul Francois Dubois in 1824). Dubois himself was often in the critic's stall. Alexandre Dumas wrote with enthusiasm of the English plays and players in his his ' Soixante ans de souvenirs.' Alfred de Vigny adapted the ' Merchant of Venice ' -and 'Othello' (1828-29) for the Comedie- after witnessing the originalsJn English, and Guizot's 'Shakespeare et son temps,' though only published in 1858, was really commenced during the engagement of the English actors in Paris. The Bevue Britannique (founded in 1825) likewise contains some brilliant pages on Shakespeare in Paris. An aged French relative, who passed away a quarter of a century ago, often told me that Shakespeare was the English actors' " trump card," and their subsequent failure was entirely due to their producing eighteenth century comedies. Some were even recog- nised as "adaptations" of French plays. " The English actors had set th9 romantic fire alight with the greatest plays ever written," he said, "and had nearly put it out by throwing worn-out old wigs on it." There was at the commencement a prospect of a permanent "Theatre-Anglais" in Paris (like the " Theatre -Italien "for Italian operas), and the French Minister of Fine Arts had even privately promised a Govern- ment grant if the subscriptions reached a cer- tain sum. The most generous of the promised subscribers was the composer Rossini. He probably wished to make some return for the great reception he received in London from George IV. and the English public a few years previously. ANDREW DE TERNANT. 36 Somerleyton Road, Brixton, S.W. PRISONERS WHO HAVE SURVIVED HANG- ING (12 S. vii. 68, 94, 114). My uncle, a Scots- man, educated and living much of his early life in Edinburgh told me, more years ago than I care to remember, that in his child- hood (he was born about 1833) there was in Edinburgh a crazy old woman who went by the name of " Half -hanged Maggie." The story as I heard it was that she had been sentenced to death for stealing (punishable by death in the days of her youth). Accord- ing to a custom prevalent then, women were hanged in a sack, the execution being public. I am quite ignorant as to Maggie's age at the time, but she conceived the idea that if she pushed the stem of a clay pipe down her throat withoiit its being discovered she might save her life. How she did it the story does not say, but when she was cut down (if she were), or at all events when Bhe was found to be still alive, she was pardoned. But the experience she had gone through proved too much for her intellect and she lived a precarious life on the charity of her
 * Memoires,' as did also Ernest Legouve in