Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/432

 424

NOTES AND QUERIES. p s. x. NOV. 29, 1902.

with some Mediators in Yorkshire, not to infringe his Vow, for he did not ask him so much as to nanie him in his last Will and Testament ; but to furnish him with Three thousand Pounds while he lived, and the Sum was paid to his Son to a Peny."

The next quotation gives us a little insight into contemporary life, and although the incident is not altogether of an elevating character, our good bishop does not hesitate to report it. The conversation was in con- nexion with the trip which Charles and his friend Buckingham made into Spain :

" ' Sir,' says the Keeper [Williams], ' I will go on directly with you. Another perhaps would Blush, when I tell you with what Heifer I Plow ; but know- ing mine Innocency, the worst that can happen is to expose my self to be Laugh'd at. Your Highness [Prince of Wales, afterwards Charles L] hath often seen the Secretary Don Francisco Carondelet. He loves me, because he is a Scholar ; for he is Arch- Deacon of Cambray. And sometimes we are plea- sant together for he is a Walloon by Birth, and not a Castilian. I have discover'd him to be a Wanton, and a Servant to some of our English Beauties, but above all to one of that gentle Craft in Mark-Lane. A Wit she is, and one that must be Courted with News and Occurrences at home and abroad, as well as with Gifts. I have a Friend that hath brib'd her in my Name, to send me a faithful conveyance of such Tidings as her Paramour Carondelet brings to her. All that I instructed the Duke in, came out of her Chamber. And she hath well earn'd a piece of Plate or two from me, and shall not be un- recompenced for this Service, about which your Highness doth use me, if the Drab can help me in it. Truly, Sir, this is my Dark Lanthorn, and 1 am not asham'd to inquire of a Dalilah to Resolve a Riddle ; for in my Studies of Divinity I have glean'd up this Maxim, Licet uti alieno peccato ; though the Devil make her a Sinner, I may make good use of her Sin.' ' Yea,' says the Prince Merrily, ' do you deal in such Ware? ' In good Faith Sir,' says the Keeper, ' I never saw her Face.' So this Con- ference Ended."

We are told that Racket's father was " a prosperous tailor of Scottish descent." The following bit of autobiography from the bishop's pen is interesting :

" We English are observ'd to be too credulous of vain Prophecies, such as are Father'd upon Merlin, and no better Authors. I remember an old Scotch man called Monypenny, (if it were his right Name) taught me this Rhime, when I was Fourteen years old:

After Six is One,

Ard after One is None ;

But Hay-ho and Weal-a-day

To the day of Dooms-day."

The rapid progress the consumption of tobacco made in this country may be gathered from the following :

" Like Tobacco, every man stopt his Nose at it, when Sir W. Raleigh brought it first into England ; now the Pipe is in every man's Mouth."

That Hacket was an omnivorous reader there can be no manner of doubt ; but I was

somewhat surprised to find him quoting ' Guzman d'Alfarache.' It may be mentioned that the first English translation of this veracious history appeared in folio as early as 1623. Here are the passages :

"Or else marry the Lady, and leave her behind, till the Business for the Palsgrave's Patrimony were accommodated, which is like Velez's Trick in Gusman of Alfarach, to steal away both the Bride, and the Bride-cake."

"A mighty part had a Religion (I mean equivo- cally called so) that was a Picture looking equally upon all Sects that pass'd by it ; and as indifferent as Gusmans Father, that being taken by the Pirates of Argiers, for quietness sake, and as one that had not the Spirit of Contradiction, renounced Christ, and turned Turk."

What an observant man our bishop must have been ! Here is an illustration taken from the nursery :

"For every one of his Adversaries had a Recom- pence given them, like a Coral to rub their Gums, and make their Teeth come the faster."

An observation by the bishop " when they saw he was not Selfish (it is a word of their own new Mint") was made the text of a com- ment by Coleridge in his ' Notes on English Divines ' (vol. i. p. 165) :

" Singular ! From this passage it would seem that our so very common word ' selfish ' is no older than the latter part of the reign of Charles I."

I think I could gather a pretty fair number of epigrammatic phrases from these pages ; but oftentimes they are so interlaced with the context that they could not be dissevered without losing much of their point. A few, for example, may be here noted : " The mourning of that Dove [Lamentations of Jeremiah] is sweeter than the warbling of any Nightingale"; "Our time is but a Span long, but he that doth much in a short Life products his Mortality " ; " Prudence is a kind of Divination ; let it Tast a little, and it can guess at all": "Envy, like a Kite, sits upon the top of the tallest tree in the Wood"; " Afflictions are Fetters for a Fool, and Brace- lets for them that know how to wear them." A. S.

"PKA.IA."-- Perhaps one of the few re- minders of former Portuguese mercantile activity survives in the above name of the quays or esplanade on the south of Hong Kong harbour. It obtained from the adjacent Portuguese colony of Macao, which furnished clerks to the early China merchants. The word, of course, = Ital. piaggia, from Lat. plaga. The later colony of Shanghai adopted the Indian word bund = embankment, for the quay opposite the merchants' "godowns " warehouses or sheds, a word from Malay godong. H. P. L.