Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 7.djvu/520

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [t2s.vn.Nov.27,i92o.

declaration de guerre elle n'eut lieu que peu avant la surprise, ou, si 1'on veut, la revolte de Toulon. Un cerveau brule, brutal, sans pre"- voyance aucune, ignorant le droit des gens conxme le plus miserable corsaire, Sidney Smith et je le nomme pour qu'on ne le confonde pas avec 1'esclave d'une courtisane detested, la Messaline de la mer, 1'impudique Hamilton."

Jean Landrieux was born at Lavaur in 1756, and died in 1826. He devoted the declining years of his life to writing his 'Memoires,' but being unable to place his MS. with a publisher, it was handed by his widow after his death to the National Library in Paris. It was, however, issued in two volumes sixty-five years afterwards (1893) by the Parisian publishing firm of Albert Savine, with a lengthy ' Introduction biographique et historique ' (340 pp.), by Leonce Grasilier.

ANDREW DE TERNANT. 36 Somerleyton Road, Brixton, S.W.

EAST HUSTON, NORFOLK. -According to the newspapers, the new Lord Mayor of London, Alderman James Roll, was born at this village in 1846. Is it worth while recording that the same village was the birthplace of one of the greatest of English

scholars, 1759

Richard Porson,

born Dec. 25, C. W. B.

earlier than his time being from the pro- logue of 'Nobody and Somebody.' David Erskine Baker's ' Biographia Dramatica/ 1782 edition, says of this play, "acted by the Queen's servants, 4to, no date." I sup- pose that the Queen means Elizabeth. The year of Felltham's birth is uncertain- Dictionaries put it at 1602-1610.

ROBERT PIERPOINT.

ygtrerus.

We must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries,, in order that answers maybe sent to them direct.

SHADOW OF A SHADOW. There was a correspondence about "The Shadow of a Shade" at 7 S. x. 427 :. xi. 74, 273, 395: xii. 275. ^Eschylus and Sophocles were quoted for ei'6 > u)Aoi> cr/ctas, but excepting the quotation in the query and one from Scott's ' Guy Mannering ' at the third reference no English quotation was given.

The following is taken from Owen Fell- tham's 'Resolves, Divine, Moral, Political,' llth edn., 1696, p. 316, in the essay 'Some- thing upon Eccles. ii. 1 1 ' :

" Agreeable to this [i.e. all is Vanity, Vexation, Nothing] is that which Lipsius left "and begg'd his friends would fix upon his grave : - Vis altiore voce me tecum loqui ? Cuncta Humana, Fumus, Umbra, Vanitas, Scena & Imago : & verbo ut absolvam, Nibil. Shall I spr-ak truly, what I now see below ? The World is all a Carkass, Smoak and Vanitv, The Shadow of a Shadow, a Flay : and in one

word just Nothing."

Jeremy Collier in his 'Great Historical

Dictionary,' 2nd edn., 1701, s.v. Lipsius,

has "Humana cuncta " for "Cuncta Humana," and " Et Scense Imago" for ' Scena et Imago."

Felltham died in 1668 or later. Probably the quotation given in the 7 S. query is

EMERSON'S 'ENGLISH TRAITS.' (See 12 S^ v. 234, 275, 302, 327; vi. 9,73, 228, 257,1276,. 297; vii. 19, 31, 57, 76, 114.) I should be- grateful for elucidations or references explain- ing any of this final batch of puzzles from the- above work. References given here to pages and lines follow the " World's Classics " edition. Phrases in brackets are my own ;

1. P. 162, 1. 16. For the science, he [Carlyle} bad. if possible, even less tolerance, and compared the savants of Somerset House to the boy who asked Confucius " how many stars in the sky ? '*"

What did Carlyle mean by " the savants of Somerset House " ?]

2. P. 167, 1. 33. [In describing some building: operations ha Boston, Emerson says] the men were common masons, with Paddies to help. [Why " Paddies " ? Is it a term applied to unskilled labourers in America ? If so, why ?]

3. P. 170, 1. 12. [During a conversation with. Carlyle and Helps, Emerson said] that as to our secure tenure of our mutton-chop and spinage in London or in Boston, the soul might quote Talleyrand, " Monsieur, je n'en vois pas la neces- site." [In a footnote Emerson quotes the words which evoked Talleyrand's satirical reply, " Mais Monseigneur, il faui que j'existe." Who said this^ and on what occasion '?~\

4. P. 171, 1. 21. Here [Winchester] was Canute bviried, and here Alfred the Great was crowned and buried, and here the Saxon king. [Who is "the Saxon king"? Emerson is evidently referring to someone other than Alfred.]

5. P. 171, 1. 28. Sharon Turner says, " Alfred was buried at Winchester, in the Abbey he had founded there, but his remains were removed by Henry I. to the new Abbey in the meadows at Hyde, on the northern quarter of the city, and! laid under the high altar. The building was destroyed at the Reformation, and what is left of Alfred's body now lies covered by modern buildings, or buried in the ruins of the old/ [In a footnote Emerson gives as a reference for this quotation, ' History of the Anglo Saxons I. 599.' I have searched through different editions of this work of Sharon Turner's without finding any such passage. Is it to be found in any other work of his or of any other writer ?]