Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/115

 9 th S. XL FEB. 7, 1903.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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long and interesting account of two of the above abbots, Hugo and Sampson :

"Old Dominus Hugo sat inaccessible in this way, far in the interior, wrapt in his warm flannels and delusions; inaccessible to all voice of Fact; and bad grew ever worse with us."

"Abbot Samson had found a Convent all in dilapidation ; rain beating through it, material rain and metaphorical, from all quarters of the compass.

He had never in any court given vadium or

pleffinm, says Jocelin ; hardly ever seen a court, when he was set to preside in one. But it is astonish- ing, continues Jocelin, how soon he learned the ways of business ; and, in all sort of affairs, be- came expert beyond others The clear-beaming

eyesight of Abbot Samson, steadfast, severe, all- penetrating, it is like Fiat lux in that inorganic waste whirlpool ; penetrates gradually in all nooks, and of the chaos makes a kosmos or ordered world !" ' Past and Present,' book ii.

CUTHBERT E. A. CLAYTON. Richmond, Surrey.

GOTHS AND HUNS. I have noticed that exception has been taken in some quarters to the phrase employed by Mr. Kipling in his poem of 'The flowers,' which appeared in the Times of 22 December, 1902 " the Goth and the shameless Hun." One influential literary paper pointed out that the Huns were Mongolians, and were always the bit- terest foes of the Germanic race, while a correspondent of the Spectator seemed to look on the line as a slur on the Hungarians, the old allies and friends of the English. Mr. Kipling may perhaps have had in his mind the lines of Campbell :

Where furious Frank and fiery Hun Shout in their sulphurous canopy.

In this passage the term Huns refers to the Austrian army, which at Hohenlinden was, I believe, chiefly composed of Germans. How- ever this may be, there can be no doubt that in literary English Goths and Huns have been linked together since the sixteenth cen- tury. An early instance occurs in Roger Ascham's ' Scholemaster.' Ascham has just been speaking of the "meter and verse of Plautus and Terence," which he characterizes as "verie nieane and not to be followed." The wise urbanity of the following passage, in which I have modernized the spelling of the first edition of 1570, fol. 59 verso, is so agreeable that I will venture to quote it :

" This matter maketh me gladly remember my sweet time spent at Cambridge, and the pleasant talk which I had oft with Master Cheke, and Master Watson, of this fault, not only in the old Latin

poets, but also in our new English rimers at this day. They wished as Virgil and Horace were not wedded to follow the faults of former fathers (a

shrewd marriage in greater matters), but by right imitation of the perfect Grecians had brought Poetry to perfectness also in the Latin tongue

that we Englishmen likewise would acknowledge and understand rightfully our rude beggarly riming, brought first into Italy by Goths and Huns, when all good verses, and all good learning too, were de- stroyed by them : and after carried into France and Germany : and at last received into England by men of excellent wit indeed, but of small learning, and less judgment in that behalf."

Ascham is a strong ally of the advocates of the compulsory study of Greek. He sums up the matter in the following words :

" Though it be not impossible, yet it is very rare, and marvellous hard, to prove excellent in the Latin tongue, for him that is not also well seen in the Greek tongue."

He inveighs strongly against the detestable habit of riming, and says that "when men know the difference, and have the ex- amples, both of the best and of the worst, surely, to follow rather the Goths in riming than the Greeks in true versifying, were even to eat acorns with swine, when we may freely eat wheat bread amongst men."

It is not to be supposed that Ascham really thought that riming was introduced into Italy by the cude soldiers of Attila. In coupling the Huns with the Goths he merely follows a literary convention of his day. But in ancient times the Scourge of God whose name of ^Etla was not unknown in England seems to have been looked on as belonging to the Germanic race. The German Emperor, in naming one of his sons Eitel, seems to have subscribed to this view. In coupling together the Goth and the Hun Mr. Kipling has therefore followed an old literary tradi- tion. They come together as naturally as ducks and drakes, or P's and Q's.

W. F. PEIDEAUX.

WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers maybe addressed to them direct.

THE FIRST EDITION OF 'PARADISE LOST.' I am endeavouring to give a correct account of the various title-pages with which the first edition of ' Paradise Lost ' was issued. There are two of which I can at present find no trace, both bearing the date 1668. The first of these is described by Sotheby in his ' Ram- blings in the Elucidation of the Autograph of Milton,' p. 81, and is said to belong to a copy which formerly was in the possession of Vertue, the engraver. It was sold at Sotheby's in 1860 and bought by Lilly. The second is called the fifth title-page in Bonn's 'Lowndes,' and is distinguished by having