Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/363

 9 th S. X. Nov. 1, 1902.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

355

trators ' (p. 74), refers to the two first- mentioned " booklets," but gives as the name of the writer of the 'Sketches of Young Ladies,' E. Caswell. At one time it was, according to Kitton, thought that Dickens was the author of ' Sketches of Young Ladies,' but it is clear that he was not, and it is equally clear that he was the author of ' Sketches of Young Gentlemen.' See ' Dickens's Letters ' (vol. iii. p. 9) and the ' Bibliography of Dickens.' 1 believe it is not generally known who " Quiz," Junior, was, but this note may perhaps assist some of the correspondents of ' N. & Q.' in answer- ing XYLOGRAPHER'S query. I should like to add a query : Who wrote ' Sketches of Young Ladies ' ? for that does not seem to be settled. There is a preface to it signed " M. P."

HARRY B. POLAND. Inner Temple.

"THE BEATIFIC VISION" (9 th S. ix. 509 ; x. 95, 177). Possibly the phrase originated with Thomas Aquinas. Scartazzini (' II Paradiso,' xiv. 51) notes a passage from the ' Summa Theologise,' " circa beatitudinem perfectam, quse in Dei visione consistit." J. DORMER.

DE LA POLE OR POLE FAMILY (9 th S. ix. 128). The Nevills of Hornby descend from Geoffry, second son of Geqffry, son of Robert Fitz Maldred, of the ancient Saxon stock, who married Isabella de Nevill, heiress of a Nevill of Lincolnshire and the De Bulmer family. The pedigree can be found anywhere. RALPH NEVILL, F.S.A.

Guildford.

HEBREW INCANTATIONS (9 th S. x. 29, 78, 158). Marlowe seems to have had abundant authority for mentioning the Hebrew Psalter as a source of magic spells. I get the follow- ing information from a book entitled 'De Prodigiosis Naturae et Artis Operibus Talis- manes et Amuleta Dictis,' by P. F. Arpe, 8vo, Hamburg, 1717.

Magic was early practised among the Jews, and they began in every necessity of life to place reliance on such mystic phrases as Mezuza, Totaphro, Pittacice, or Pittociola. They believed that a certain collection of letters written or spoken in a certain way would have a certain effect. The chief virtue they placed in the names of the Supreme Being, the name Jehovah constituting the centre of all the others an arrangement called Schemhamphorce. These sacred names and other secrets they sought *from the Pentateuch, which was venerated as the fount of all the sciences. Next in authority came the Psalms, treated by the same method.

In 1556 there appeared at Sabionetta a book called ' Sepher Hakkolot,' on the use of the Psalms for occult purposes, attributed to Isaac Luria, a celebrated Rabbi. It appeared again, in 4to, at Amsterdam in 1608, edited by Aaron Nathan Bar Jacob, and was much used in the making of Jewish amulets. Ama Plantavitius considered Ps. xix. the portal of the occult sciences (pp. 10-13).

Christians also made use of amulets, sup- posed to have been introduced by the Jews first among those of the Gnostic heresy, and then to have spread to the others.

" Illi nomen Dei Tetragrammaton : hi Jesu Sal- vatoris adhibent. Illi nomina Patriarcharum Regum et Prophetarum ; hi sanctorum suorum adjiciunt, utrique in morbis curandis, singularibusque per- petrandis, preces arcanas fere unisonas intonant." *

Joannes Goropius Becanus once saw an ancient Psalter ruled with red lines for the cure of all kinds of diseases by the divine word. Pelagius, a hermit of Majorca, who died in 1480, left behind him a MS. on the method of cure by*prayer, a method not unheard of in our day. Besides this there was used a ' Libro del Oro delle Grand Vertu, dell a Salmi de David,' and a ' Usus Practicus Psalmorum.' issued in MS. under the name of Paracelsus. Some attributed special virtue to Ps. cix. (pp. 45-6). Thus far my authority, which, of course, gives copious references.

Paracelsus himself did not employ Hebrew much in his charms. However, I give one in which this language occurs. It is in the ' Archidoxis Magica,' and is against mice : ALBOMATATOX.

sntnv

10. NATVRA SVA > IL.'Con. 3. %. ABEXta.

W. R. B. PRIDEAUX.

'THE .PAGEANT' (9 th S. x. 249). R. B. P. has been correctly informed. An action was brought against the author of this book, and it had to be withdrawn from circulation. distinctly remember reading an account of this action in the John Bull of the day, and am sorry I cannot give the exact reference. Further, I have seen a copy of the book with a report of the action pasted into the cover.

W. BENHAM.

St. Edmund's Rectory, Finsbury Square.

In his preface to 'The Pageant' Mr. Paget suggested, inter alia, that a Mrs. S., of H. S., was among the dressmakers who overworked their assistants. Mr. S., the husband, promptly brought an action for libel, and Mr. Paget, refusing to give up his informant, offered no defence, and was very properly