Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/232

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. m. MAR. 25, m

" ' 1700 belong to 1600 !' cried the Colonel indig- nantly 'why then I suppose Friday belongs tc Thursday, and Wednesday to Tuesday ! Bless us here's such a set of new doctrines, a man won't know soon whether he 's alive now or was alive the last age ! '

" Madame la Fite now attempted a fuller explana- tion, but was so confused in her terms, and so much at a loss for words, that, though perfectly right, the Colonel looked at her as if he thought her half mad.

"'0 dear, yes, ma'am ! yes,' cried he, bowing with mock submission, '1 dare say it's all very right! only it's a little new that's all 11700 makes 1600 ! O, vastly right ! A little like Mr. Rust ! '

' ' No, sir : give me leave only just to say'

" ' 0, no, ma'am ! ' cried he, turning away in haste, ' I don't understand anything of these mat- ters ! they 're too deep for me ! I know nothing about them.'

" ' Mais, monsieur Sir if you will give me leave Si monsieur veut bien me permettre '

" ' 0, no, ma'am, don't trouble yourself ! I am not worth the pains ; I am quite in the dark in these things. I was franking a parcel of letters yesterday, and I thought I franked them all for this year ; but I suppose now I franked them all in the last century ! ' "

RICHARD EDGCUMBE.

Hotel Minerva, Florence.

A PROVENCAL MIRACLE-PLAY. A miracle- play of a striking character, which originated at Aix (capital of the ancient " Provence ") in the fifteenth century, and was still observed there up to the middle of the last century, may deserve to be briefly recorded. It had the popular name of 'The Devils' Play,' or in Proven9al ' Lou Juec deis Diable's ' (' Le Jeu des Diables '), and was represented by a boy with naked arms and legs, embodying a little soul, who held a cross of about five feet high in his hand. When commencing the play, he fixed the cross upon the ground, and took hold of it with the left hand. There was an angel, clad in white, and adorned with an aureola, or crown of glory, on his head, with wings and a large cushion on his back, and an iron plate above it. Three devils pursued the little soul ; a fourth devil appeared to be furious against the angel, who held likewise the cross with the left hand, and received from this devil several hard blows on his back, on the iron plate. These blows caused the angel, together with the little soul, standing opposite each other, with the cross held fast between them, to jump up repeatedly. At the third stroke the play was finished, and the angel jumped up once more, to express his satisfaction that he had prevented the devils from carrying off this soul.

This play, as well as some others, which were especially performed on the occasion of the festival of Corpus Christi or " Fete-Dieu," and served as a kind of intermezzo to enter- tain the people, is fully described and

illustrated by Gaspar Grdgoire in his ' Explication des Ceremonies de la Fete-Dieu d'Aix en Provence ' (printed at Aix in 1777).

H. KREBS.

A LONG TENURE OF OFFICE. The following instance of an office having been held for an exceptionally long period, copied from the Herts and Essex Observer of 4 February, deserves record in the columns of 'N. &Q.':

" Alderman J. G. Emson, J.P., of Saffron Walden,

borough of Saffron Walden. He was elected in 1849 under the old system, when the corporation was composed of all aldermen, and he has had an unbroken term of office."

Romford.

THOS. BIRD.

" STEADING." When Burns became tenant of Ellisland farm the dwelling-house was uninhabitable, and the poet had to content himself for a time with what accommodation he could find. Bonnie Jean had to be absent till a satisfactory place of abode was provided ; and inspired by reflection on her distant charms her youthful husband produced his exquisite and touching ' Of a' the airts the wind can blaw' and 'Oh, were I on Parnassus' Hill.' Referring to this episode in his mono- graph on Burns, p. 115 ("Great Writers" series, Walter Scott), Prof. Blackie writes thus :

" He passed muster before the Board of Excise in the spring of the year, and on 13 June we find him at work on the banks of the Nith. The old farm- house, or steading, as we call it in Scotland, being in disrepair, the poet was obliged to lodge himself as he best could in an extempore way till the new house should be ready."

Now, the steading is just the part of the farm-buildings that is not the dwelling-house. In the old arrangement, no doubt, the farmer's residence was flanked (in small farms, at any rate) by the other buildings, and so might be considered a part of the whole ; but even under such conditions it was the house as distinct from the rest of the premises. Sitting at his fireside, the farmer whose colt might look in from his ben-end upon his kitchen over a fence of slabs, while his pigs grunted in his closet could still talk, without fear of misinterpretation, of what was " oot aboot the steadin'." Stable, barn, byre, &c., are all included in that compre- hensive term, but not the dwelling-house. On large farms no confusion is possible, and it is this that makes it important to draw attention to Prof. Blackie's statement.

THOMAS BAYNE.

DANTE'S WIFE. This involves a pet theory which I have occasionally tried to exploit