Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/423

 9 th S. I. MAY 21, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

415

But in another poem, * Un Souvenir,' h traverses the sentiment altogether : Dante, pourquoi dis-tu qu'il n'est pire niisere Qu'un souvenir heureux dans les jours de douleur Quel chagrin t'a dicte cette parole amere,

Cette offense au malheur ?

Dante's "truth" is also to be found in Landor's ' Pericles and Aspasia '; and manj more references of the kind could no doub easily be found, for I have only given part o those which I have noted. JAMES HOOPER. Norwich.

Another poetical parallel is R. Hawker' (of Morwenstow) * Tendrils : a Poem,' ' Poeti cal Works,' Lond., 1879, p. 329 : There are moments in life which we cannot forget, Which for ever in memory's brightness shine on ; Though they seem to have been but to teach u

regrets

And to sadden our hearts when their beauty ii gone.

ED. MARSHALL, F.S.A.

REV. CHARLES BERNARD GIBSON (9 th S. i 308). He died 17 Aug., 1885, aged seventy seven. W. D. MACRAY.

UNIQUE COLLECTION OF WORKS ON TOBACCO (9 th S. i. 362). Surely there is no need to suggest that Pindar is styled " poeta religiosissimus ' by way of a joke. To his undying credil among the heathen writers, " the poems oj Pindar show that he was penetrated with a strong religious feeling " (Smith's ' Greek and Roman Biography'). This, if not now fin de siecle as a poetic fashion, is very far from being a joke.

EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A.

[The intention in the editorial foot-note was to say that the ascription to Pindar of a quotation concerning tobacco must be a joke. ]

POPE AND THOMSON (8 th S. xii. 327, 389, 437 ; 9 th S. i. 23, 129, 193, 289, 353). Once more I repeat that I do not in any sense decide in favour of Pope. I combat the con- tention that, independently of all questions about handwriting, these corrections, <kc., cannot possibly be Pope's. I am reproached with "resolving the affair into a mystery," and under that reproach I am content, at present, to lie.

1. On what ground would a "properly con- stituted tribunal " find for Thomson ? They might decide against Pope on the balance of expert evidence. But if the disputed work is Thomson's, the handwriting is either his or that of an amanuensis. I have disposed of the hypothesis of an amanuensis by argu- ments which it would be mere weariness to repeat, though I could add to them if neces- sary. I have in my critical notes expressed

a strong opinion, backed by details, that the large rough hand of Thomson is very distinct from the manuscript in question, which may be described by contrast as small and scholarly ; I have shown also that the two sets of notes are practically contemporary, so that the difference cannot be accounted for by the change often noticed in hand- writings in process of time. If both the hypotheses give way, one or the other of which must be adopted before such a finding could be given, how could' the properly constituted tribunal find for Thomson?

2. But I am so little of a partisan in this business that I am quite ready, as any honest student ought to be, to point out to those who argue that these notes are Thomson's the only line upon which, as I conceive, they can by any possibility make their contention good. They must prove that the hand- writing, spite of appearances, is Thomson's. I have admitted (Appendix, vol. i. p. 194) that in some places, where the handwriting is small, I have been unable to make up my mind whether it is Thomson's or the other man's. Let them maintain that in all cases it is the hand of Thomson when he wrote small. They will have some diffi- ulties to face. For since the difference is not to be accounted for by lapse of time, some other explanation must be given of this com- parative smallness, to say no thing of the other discrepancies which I have pointed out in my notes. I am not sure, for example, that ihese notes can be explained as afterthoughts "nserted when the page was already almost filled with the larger and bolder hand. If my memory serves me right, some of them are to be found where there was ample space to write them larger. And I imagine that uch a note as " Quere does there not want > better connection here ? " and others of the ame sort, will still be best explained as the uggestions of a critical friend, and will make n favour of the hypothesis of a second hand- writing. D. C. TOVEY.

OXFORD UNDERGRADUATE GOWNS (9 th S. i. 47, 292). In my time when Plancus was Tice-Chancellor the streamers were not ailed liripipes, but leading-strings. They ere supposed, on a Darwinian theory, to be urvivals of disused sleeves. I think I have eard of unconscious freshmen being tied by hem to the backs of their chairs (see ' Ver- ant Green ').

EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A.

ARMORIAL (8 th S. xii. 467 ; 9 th S. i. 313). 'eathers and wings are common in foreign eraldry. A wing in the helmet was probably