Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/157

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s. m. FEB. 25,

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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but the intrusion of a c into the date xvi the original date thus being 916 a Passione not 996.* Even more decisive than this i the fact, already pointed out by MR. C. S TAYLOR, that a charter of 993 could no possibly be witnessed, as this is, by God wine Bishop of Rochester. We may, therefore dismiss MR. ANSCOMBE'S fanciful calculations even if the charter is, as he holds, genuine.

It is true that MR. ANSCOMBE states that I " believed the document to be genuine." A> I have never said so, I am at a loss to account for this assertion, unless MR. ANSCOMBE has deduced it from the fact that Mr. DuignanV book contains no statement that the chartei is spurious. But to refrain from condemning a text as a forgery is logically not the same thing as to maintain its authenticity. It must be evident to any one that the 'Monasticon text is manifestly corrupt, unintelligible, and nonsensical in places. It leaves the impres- sion that the transcriber has occasionally overlooked words and clauses. It is also ob- viously a mixture of two or more documents, including even a fragment of the Canon of the Mass. I had, therefore, doubts about the text at the time when I endeavoured to make an intelligible English version of it. At that time my knowledge of diplomatics was very slender, and I had not access to the materials necessary for its prosecution. I therefore refrained from expressing an opinion upon the charter. Now I know that it is a clumsy forgery, made up principally of an ancient Papal formulary of confirmation for a monas- tery.t The "notarius et scriniarius" of the bull before the forger has been converted into an impossible official of King ^Ethelred. The English portion shows by its phonology that it was written down in the latter part of the eleventh or beginning of the twelfth century. The spurious nature of the charter is, as has been perceived by so clear-sighted a scholar as MR. C. S. TAYLOR, the explanation of the irreconcilable chronological data. That MR. ANSCOMBE is able to explain away the diffi- culties about these bogus data is a proof of

See the transcript of Sir Henry Spelman's in 'Hist. MSS. Com., Twelfth Report,' Appendix ix. p. 159, which seems to be the source of the ' Monas- ticon ' text.

t.The whole of the text from Desiderio (for dexidemum] to scriniarii is derived, with modifica- tions, from "this formula, which may be found in Liber Diurnus Romanorum Pontificum ' (ed. Sickel, Vienna, 1889), p. 133, the oldest Papal formulary extant. An example of the use of the formula with the scriptum clause as in this charter may be found m an eleventh-century Florentine bull in Pflugk- Harttung's ' Acta Pontificum Romanorum Inedita ' (Stuttgart, 1884), ii. 104.

the untrustworthy nature of his methods of dealing with questions of chronology.

W. H. STEVENSON.

WORDSWORTH (9 th S. iii. 47). The line in- quired for by LIESE M. SHERRING (whether Mr., Mrs., or Miss I do not know)

That earth can offer to declining man,

' Michael,' 147,

is in both my editions of Wordsworth's 'Poems,' namely, the six- volume pocket edi- tion, 1858, and the edition, complete in one volume, 1888. Its omission from your corre- spondent's edition would accordingly seem to be accidental., JONATHAN BOUCHIER.

The line italicized,

That earth can offer to declining man, may be seen in the edition of Wordsworth's ' Poems ' published by Moxon, 1847, p. 97. In the pocket edition of 'Selections,' pub- lished by Kent & Co., 1880, it is omitted. See vol. i. p. 120.

C. LAWRENCE FORD, B.A. Bath.

The line

That earth can offer to declining man appears in the edition of 1836. C. C. B.

TOLLING CHURCH BELLS (9 th S. ii. 507 ; iii. 31). The bells of Totnes Parish Church are rung for the council meetings, magistrates' meetings, and on Saturdays for the market as well as the curfew and day bells.

A. J. DAVY.

Torquay.

REFERENCE TO QUOTATION WANTED (9 th S. ii. 8).

Their breath is agitation, and their life A storm whereon they ride. 'Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, 'canto iii. st. xliv.

M. C. H.

ANCESTRY OF SIR THOMAS MORE (9 th S. ii.
 * 88). More or Moore is a topographical name

ound in every county, and it is not likely hat the Chancellor, with a most penetrating ntellect, would have been satisfied with a utative female descent, even from De Ley- ester, if he could have done better. The John More, mercer, of 1397, also of Gobions, where he Chancellor was born, would have been ufficiently known to Sir John, the justice, rhom we find at Gobions in 1510, to prevent bscu ration if really connected. This com- dnation of names is therefore a mere coinci- ence. Further, it is probable that the nercer's line ended in females, because a Irs. Plomer quartered a coat for More