Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/461

 9 th S. II. DEC. 3, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

453

effort of Gray's ('Gray and his Friends/ p. 299), to the effect that they are a free translation of Gilbert Cowper's (or Cooper's)

' '^ way ' let nou S ht to love displeasing." But Mitford is wrong in attributing these lines to John Gilbert Cooper. They first appeared in a volume of miscellaneous poems in 1726, when Cooper was only three years old. See'N. & Q.,' !<* S. ii., iii., iv., v. '

I may perhaps add that it is not Warburton but Woolston, probably, whom Gray, in a letter of July, 1742, to Chute, calls "a very impudent fellow"; whilst it may interest Walpolian students to know that the lady who reconciled Gray and Walpole may be conjectured to be Mrs. Chute, John Chute's

maiden sister.

D. C. TOVEY.

THKEE SISTERS MARRIED AT ONCE (9 th S. ii. 246). Here is another instance :

" Wednesday was married at Brill in Bucks, Lieut. -Col. Manners Sutton, second son of the Archbishop of Canterbury, to Mary, eldest daughter of the late Laver Oliver, Esq. At the same time and place the Rev. W. S. Gilly to Eliza, the second daughter, and William Mansel, Esq., eldest son of Sir William Mansel, Bart., to Harriett, the third daughter of the said Laver Oliver, Esq. Ipswich Journal, 30 July, 1814 : Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 19,143, fo. 319.

V. L. O.

Sunniughill.

FRENCH VERSES (1 st S. ii. 71). I should imagine that the following must be unique or nearly so in the history of 'N. & Q.' I am going to reply to an apparently un- answered query that appeared forty-eight years ago. A correspondent signing E. R, C. B. inquired for the authorship of these lines :

La Mort a des rigueurs a nulle autre pareilles ;

On a beau la prier, La cruelle qu'elle est se bouche les oreilles,

Et nous laisse crier.

Le pauvre en sa cabane, ou le chaume le couvre,

Est sujet a ses lois ; Et la garde qhi veille aux barrieres du Louvre

N'en defend point nos rois.

The lines are from 'Consolation a Du Perrier,' by Frangois de Malherbe (ob. 1628). Compare Horace, 'Carm.'i. iv. 13, 14.

This query appeared a few days before the death of Sir Robert Peel, and more than two years before the death of the Great Duke ! JONATHAN BOUCHIER.

Ropley, Hampshire.

"HELPMATE" (9 th S. ii. 105, 185, 310). Where did MR. BAYNE find the assertion that "helpmate" is "only a dictionary word " ? Certainly not in the note to which he referred. The obvious meaning of what is said there is that the use of the word can be

defended on no other ground than that.it has obtained such a degree of public favour as to be recognized by the dictionaries as standard English. Did any reader of 'N. & Q.' need telling that it is used by Wordsworth and Tennyson 1 ? Of course not. It is, however, an equally pertinent fact that "helpmeet" is used by Newman ;.and it may be presumed that neither word would have found its way into the dictionaries if it had not been used by somebody. Newman uses "helpmeet" with direct reference to Eve ; and there can be little doubt that, consciously or unconsciously, both Wordsworth's and Tennyson's use of the alternative form was influenced by Gen. ii. 18.

MR. BAYNE says that "helpmate" is as good a word as "playmate." "Helpmate, 1 ' however, in the sense of wife, differs from "playmate" (and from every other word

compounded with "mate" that I can think of) in this : it applies to one only of the related parties. All who play together are playmates, but the husband is not usually spoken of as the helpmate of the wife.

C. C. B.

PREDICTION TO NEWLY ELECTED POPES (9 th S. ii. 388). The formula "Non videbis annos Petri" is not to be found in any of the ancient canons, ordinals, ceremonials, or rituals. See Macri, 'Notizia de Vocab. Eccl.,' under the word 'Papa'; Mabillon, ' Mus. Ital.,' t. ii ; Spondano. ' Annal. Eccl.,' an. 1421, No. 3 ; also Papebroech, ' Conat. Diss. 2, ad S. Petrum.' The supposed cere- mony of striking the forehead of a deceased Pope with a silver hammer by the Camerlengo is also apocryphal. Pius IX. and the founder of the University of St. Andrews, the Anti- Pope Benedict XIII. (Peter de Luna), are the only two who have as yet surpassed the 25 years, 2 months, and 7 days of Peter, and in the latter case St. Antoninus refers with considerable sarcasm to the fact (see 'Chron. S. Antonini,' p. 3, tit. 22, cap. 7). The following list of Popes illustrates the truth of these well-known lines when they were written

Sint licet assumpti juvenes ad Pontificatum Petri annos potuit nemo videre tamen

for Alexander L, elected at twenty, reigned 10 years, 7 months, and 3 days ; John XL, elected at twenty-five, reigned 4 years and 10 months ; John XII., elected when only sixteen, reigned 7 years and 9 months ; Gregory V., elected at twenty-four, reigned only 2 years and 8 months ; Benedict IX., elected at eighteen or twenty, reigned 11 years ; St. Leo IX., elected when forty -nine,