Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/515

 9* s. vii. JUNE 29, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

507

istic line was evidently in the mind of Cowper a great bather when he wrote. " Shakspeare says, none ever bathed himself twice in the same stream" ('Letters,' 1820, p. 384). But I do not remember it in Shak- speare. John Smith, the Cambridge Platonist, in his 'Select Discourses,' 1673, p. 79. traces the saying to its source : " It was a famous speech of wise Heraclitus, ts TOV avrbv ra/zov Sis OVK av ffji^aiifj^ a man cannot enter twice into the same river." W. 0. B.

" TAKMI." The Times of 30 May, describing the Royal Military Tournament, writes :

"The Indian Contingent marched in to the

Indian air 'Takmi,' which makes such an excellent march, and which, if we are not mistaken, the North Staffordshire first introduced to military music at the close of the Afghan War of 1878-80." The reference is, I believe, to the Pathan air ' ZakAmi Dil ' (" My wounded heart ").

W. CROOKE.

Langton House, Charlton Kings.

THE COTTVADE. In the Hebrew romance of Alexander' a very curious and interesting document, translated by Dr. M. Gaster in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1898, N.S., vol. xxix. p. 537) there is a reference to the much-discussed "couvade." The Mace- donian comes to a land called Jobilah or Havilah, and hears of the custom :

" When Alexander heard this he was astonished, and sent a messenger to the King of Jobilah, saying : 'Come, let us see each other.' The messenger re- turned to Alexander, and said to him : ' Thus says thy servant the King of Jobilah : Behold, I am to seclude myself for twenty-nine days more, because my wife has borne a son, and I may not go out until my time is fulfilled, viz., four months. I will then come to thee.' When Alexander heard this he was much amused, and scoffed at the king, and said to his servants : ' Prepare yourselves and come with me to the king who is lying in bed.' Alex- ander accordingly went to the king and found him in bed. The queen waited upon him, and served him with food and drink and all kinds of dainties. Alexander on seeing the king laughed, and said : instead of thee. who judges, who sits upon the throne instead of thee ? ' ' My chosen dog sits upon my throne with an interpreter at his side, and before him the people come to obtain justice.' 'But is it right,' said Alexander, 'for a dog to sit on the throne of thy kingdom ?' ' This is the glory of the kingdom,' the king replied, 'that a dog should sit upon the throne and people should obtain justice from him.' 'I entreat thee,' said Alexander, ' to show me the dog which reigns instead of thee.' ' I am not allowed,' answered the king. ' to go out of this bed until the four months are fulfilled, and were I to go out before the time the people would appoint another king in my stead and thrust me from the kingdom.'"
 * During the time that thou liest in bed, who reigns

This romance of ' Alexander ' is one of many interesting documents which have been made

available for the general reader by Dr. Gaster's skill and erudition.

WILLIAM E. A. AXON. Manchester.

[See 7 th S. viii. 442 ; ix. 9, 54 ; 8 th S. iv. 122.]

Music PUBLISHERS' SIGNS. John Walsh, music publisher, was advertised as at the sign of the "Harp and Hoboy" in Catherine Street long after Queen Anne's time (see ante, p. 285). In advertisements in the Craftsman of 20 September, 1729, he describes himself as "servant to his Majesty," and in the same journal later (30 June, 1733) he is "Music Printer and Instrument Maker to his Majesty " King George II. P. Randall was at the "Harp and Hoboy" in Catherine Street in 1709, where he advertises "Mr. Pepusch's Airs for Two Violins" (Tatler, 1 December, 1709). Here Walsh sold the productions of the distinguished composer and violinist Francesco Geminiani, among which was " Concerti Grossi per Due Violini, Viola, e Violoncello di Concertino Obbligati e Due Altri Violini e Basso di Concerto Grosso

da Francesco Geminiani Opera terza."

The sign is not called the " Golden Harp and Hoboy" in advertisements of the time, in which guise it is liable to be confused with the sign of Ben. Cooke (query father of Ben- jamin Cooke, the English composer) near by in New Street, Covent Garden, which was the " Golden Harp " certainly from 1733 to 1742. Joseph Hare was a contemporary of Walsh as a music publisher, at the "Viol and Hoboy" in Cornhill near the Royal Exchange. Other music publishers' signs were the "Viol and Flute," the "Bass Viol," the "Golden Crotchet" (Novello's), the "French Horn," the "Harp," the "David and Harp," the " Golden Harp." John John- son at the "Harp and Crown," Benjamin Cooke at the " Golden Harp," and John Walsh at the " Harp and Hoboy " appear to have been the three leading mid-eighteenth-cen- tury music publishers. Later there were the " Haydn's Head " and the " Purcell's Head " ; and the works of the celebrated composer Arne were published at the " Golden Bass in Middle Row, Holborn. But with the excep- tion of the "Golden Lyre," which is no doubt the crest of the Musicians' Company, the old music publishers' signs appear to be quite extinct. Further interesting statements with regard to Walsh's house in Catherine Street will be found in the Westminster Gazette of 17 February, 1900. He was a craftsman of the old kind, and engraved all his own plates. Some of them are in the possession ot Messrs. Novello & Co., who took over the