Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/350

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th IS. XI. MAY 2, 1903.

tuitions to the Satirist, European Magazine, and the Orthodox Churchman's Magazine. In a MS. note at the end of a review of 'Six More Letters to Granville Sharpe,' which appeared in the last-named journal in June, 1803, he says, "My dear father gave me 10 guineas for writing the above paper." The article is signed " Trinitarian," and this gives a sufficient clue to the contents. Mr. Sharpe's strict orthodoxy did not prevent him from having an interest in German literature, which was then generally regarded with suspicion by those holding his views. In March, 1802, he contributed a trans- lation of Herder's apologue of the * Offspring of Mercy,' showing that it is taken from the Bereschith Rabba ' (sect. 8). This is but one of several Talmudical studies. As one of his notes relates to the copies of the Talmud in Sion College, it is possible that he may have used that library. In a series of articles he gave translations of the Targumim of Onkelos, of the pseudo-Jonathan ben Uzziel, and of Jerusalem, on the first seven chapters of Genesis. There is also a general account of the nature of the Talmud, and a translation of the tract 'Joma' and of the tract 'Shekalim.' Of greater interest is a complete version of the ' Pirke Aboth,' which begins in the number for October, 1802. It thus appears that the present learned Master of St. John's had an English predecessor in the translation of this curious and interesting piece of Hebrew literature.* It is another instance of the many things that are hidden away in the files of old periodicals. Mr. Sharpe contributed to the Orthodox Church- man's Magazine several Biblical notes. Per- haps the most interesting is a collection of the Hebrew passages, with the translation in the Septuagint and the English version, bearing, or supposed to bear, upon the inter- mediate state. Two of Mr. Sharpe's com- munications have a personal interest. From one we learn that he considered it his duty to refuse to bury an infant that had been baptized according to the form of the Kirk of Scotland. His view was that baptism was only valid if performed by a person who had been episcopally ordained. From the other it appears that he would have felt bound to refuse burial to any suicide, although the

Pirqe Aboth, in English and Hebrew, with Notes and Excursuses, edited for the Syndics of the Cam- bridge University Press by Charles Taylor, D.D., Master of St. John's College, Cambridge (second edition, Cambridge, 1897)," and ' An Appendix con- taming a Catalogue of MSS. and Notes on the Text of Aboth' (Cambridge, 1900).
 * See " Sayings of the Jewish Fathers, comprising

coroner's jury might have returned a verdict of lunacy.

To the European Magazine Mr. Sharpe contributed an interesting and scholarly series of literary notes under the title of ' Nugse,' extending over thirty-two months. These show a wide range of reading, and exhibit familiarity with Hebrew, French, classical, and the earlier English literature. They are very good specimens of the old- fashioned ana once so popular.

Of the articles in the Satirist the most amusing is one poking fun somewhat broad in character at Lempriere's statement that the ' Golden Ass ' of Apuleius is " replete with morality." Interest of a different cha- racter attaches to the articles dealing with 'Samuel Spitfire, Author.' These form an outrageous attack on Samuel Taylor Coleridge. Whilst most of the statements regarding " Spitfire " are absurdly false and absolutely impossible as applied to the poet, a sufficient number of circumstances are mentioned which show that the satire, such as it is, was meant to be applied by the public to Coleridge. As a specimen of the length to which ill- natured and mendacious criticism will go it has a certain interest of its own. Samuel Spitfire, we are told, was one of 4< a few hare- brained young men, whose irregularities" had led them to contemplate emigration and the formation of a Pantisocracy on the banks of the Susquehanna. He is also identified as a Cambridge man : " Spitfire, who used to be the most dashing buck (it was, however, between you and me, Mr. Satirist, upon tick] that ever lounged upon Clare Piece, or strutted with Fanny Wells at Pot Fair." The only Pantisocrat who had been at Cambridge University was Coleridge, and the choice of the first name further identifies him as the object of the satire. He is represented as a hack author writing books of travel, &c., for Sir Richard Phillips, who is clearly indicated, though not named. Spitfire invites " Ezekiel Jackson " (so the articles are signed) to dine, and introduces his wife and five children : Master Tom Paine Spitfire, Master Benjamin Flower Spitfire, Master Buonaparte Spitfire, Miss Josephine Spitfire, and a child in arms, Master Despard Home Burdett Waithman Spitfire. The dinner provided is so poor and scanty that the guest, " telling Sam that he knew I was always a stickler for old customs, asked if he would permit me to indulge one now and to size my dinner, as we used to do now and then at Cambridge." This, with some show of reluctance, is allowed, and of the more generous viands thus pro- vided Spitfire eats so greedily that he is