Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/387

 2< S. N 19., MAY 10. '56.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

379

Hey, is still to be found in the church at Moret, in France, I can give no answer ; but I suspect that such a version never existed there at all.

His second Query contains in reality three questions :

1. What are the two Prayer-Books mentioned by Dr. Hey ?

2. Are they two, or two copies of the Livre cCEglise. . . . de Reims ?

3. What is this Livre <fEglise de Reims f To these I answer :

1. I gather from" the text, that the Livre d'Eglise . . . . de Reims is what Dr. Hey describes as the " large " Prayer-Book, " containing all the three creeds." The other French Prayer-Book in his possession was, I suppose, a smaller one, with a different title, which he does not give.

2. It follows that the books were not two copies of one book, but two different books. It could not have been worth while to refer to two copies of the same Prayer-Book.

3. The Livre cFJZglise de Reims is the usual Prayer-Book containing the offices of the church according to the usage of Rheims. There are others for other dioceses, such as Paris, Rouen, Tours, &c.

The third Query is whether Dr. Key's state- ment is correct. I suspect it is much otherwise. The inscription at Moret is not likely to differ from the common and well-known versified form of the Commandments, used all over France, which is as follows :

" Les Commandemens de Dieu. " 1. Un seul Dieu tu adoreras, Et aimeras parfaitement.

2. Dieu en vain tu ne jureras, Ni autre chose pareillement.

3. Les Dimanches tu garderas, En servant Dieu devotement.

4. Tes pere et mere honoreras, Afin de vivre longuement.

5. Homicide point ne feras, De fait ni volontairement.

6. Luxurieux point ne seras, De corps ni de consentement.

7. Le bien d'autrui tu ne prendras, Ni retiendras a ton escient.

8. Faux temoignage ne diras, Ni mentiras aucunement.

9. L'oeuvre de chair ne desireras, Qu'en mariage seulement.

10. Biens d'autrui ne convoiteras, Pour les avoir injustement."

The second Commandment is not here left out, but reckoned as part of the first; for when it is commanded to adore only one God, it is equiva- lently forbidden to adore any idols or images, or give to any creature whomsoever, or whatsoever, the honour due to God. Jt appears pretty evi- dent that Dr. Hey relied on the MS. travels of some friend who had miscopied or misunderstood the inscription very strangely.

I may remark that the above French jingle was contrived of course to enable the children and common people to learn and repeat the Decalogue more easily. But in most French Prayer-Books, Commandments are given also at length in prose, and then the first is thus expressed :

" Je suis le Seigneur votre Dieu, qui vous ai tire' de la terre d'Egypte, de la maison de servitude. Vous n'aurez point d'autres dieux devant moi. Vous ne vous ferez poiat d'image taille'e, ni aucune figure pour 1'adorer, ni pour la servir."

F. C. H.

DOOR-HEAD AND OTHER INSCRIPTIONS. (2 nd S. 1. 10. 103.)

The following inscriptions are extracted from that valuable but ill-assorted store-house of new things and old, Compitum, book i. pp. 231. 336. 371. 401. :

At Rouen, over the staircase of a house in the Rue des Arpens:

" Cui domus est, victusque decens et patria dulcis Sunt satis haac, vita? caetera cura, labor."

At Verneuil, over a house staircase :

" Velut ascendent! descendendum, ita et viventi mori- endum." ^

At Abbeville, over a house in the Rue de Verone : " Fais le bien pour le raal, car Dieu te lie commande."

At Moulins, over a house in the Rue des Gre- nouilles :

" Ut nos junxit amor, nostro sic parta labore Unanirnos animos operit una domus."

And again :

" Fac bene, dictisque ne cures." At Viltre, on a house in the Rue d'En-bas :

" Pax huic domui et habitantibus in ea." At Beauvais, on the gate of a house :

" Haec dicit Domiuus 1. H. S. Quamcunque domum intraveritis Primum dicite : Pax huic domui."

In the same place, on a turret at the corner of two streets, under a carved flower called pensee :

" Plus penser que dire." At Bourges, in a curious old house :

" A vaillans cceurs rien impossible." Also near it : " Bouche close, neutre. Entendre dire. Faire. Faire."

The physician to three German emperors, John of Crato, being raised to high hereditary honours, placed these lines on his house :

" Tu quoque fac timeas ; et quae tibi lasta videntur, Duui legis luce, fieri tristia posse putes."