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Read Ebook: Notes and Queries Number 78 April 26 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men Artists Antiquaries Genealogists etc. by Various Bell George Editor
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Balthazar Gerbier was born at Antwerp about 1591, came young into England, and was a retainer of the Duke of Buckingham as early as 1613. Upon the accession of Charles the First, he was employed in Flanders to negociate privately a treaty with Spain. In 1628 he was knighted at Hampton Court; and, as he says himself in one of his books, was promised by the king the office of surveyor-general of the works, after the death of Inigo Jones. In 1637 he was employed in some private transactions of state; and on the 13th of July, 1641, he took the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, having a bill of naturalisation. In 1648 he appears to have projected the above-named academy, the failure of which very soon happened. Sir Balthazar then went to America, where he seems to have been very ill treated by the Dutch, and narrowly escaped with his life. He afterwards returned to England, and designed the triumphal arch for the reception of Charles the Second. He died at Hempsted-marshal, in 1667, whilst engaged in superintending the mansion of Lord Craven, and was buried in the chancel of that church.
In conclusion, it may be as well to mention, that, prior to the establishment of the "Museum Minervae," a committee had been appointed in the House of Lords, consisting of the Duke of Buckingham and others, for taking into consideration the state of the public schools, and method of education. What progress was made in this inquiry is not known, but in all probability the academies of Sir Francis Kynaston and Sir Balthazar Gerbier owed their origin to the meetings of this committee.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
SHAKSPEARE AND FLETCHER.
SAMUEL HICKSON.
That great poets are sometimes obscure, needs no proof. That the greatest poets will necessarily be so to the ordinary reader, seems to me equally indisputable.
Stanza 2. "Dreary gleams:" in apposition with "curlews." I know the construction of this line has puzzled a good many readers.
Stanza 23. "Yet it shall be." Yet "decline" thou certainly wilt.
Stanza 28. "He will answer," &c. With an oath, it may be--at the least with a coarse rebuff.
Stanza 29. "The heart's disgrace." The disgrace, the injury, and degradation the heart has suffered--its prostitution to a mercenary service by a marriage of interest.
Stanza 34. "Never." Alas! I never can.
Stanza 35. "In division of the records of the mind." In dividing my recollections of her into two groups, and erasing the one.
Stanza 38. "The poet is" Dante.
Stanza 40. "He hunts," &c. He--thy husband.
Stanza 42. "Never, never," &c. Never again! sung by the ghosts of years departed.
Stanza 53. "But the jingling of the guinea," &c. But there is no fighting now: the nations get over their quarrels in another way--by the jingling of the guinea, instead of the clang of arms.
Stanzas 54. "Mother-age."; 93. "Mother-age, for mine I know not."
Stanza 70. "Youthful joys." The bright hopes of his youth.
Stanza 75. "Blinder motions," Less rational, less well-guided emotions.
Stanza 91. "The distance." The distant future, the "good time coming."
Compare with "Sure never moon to evening," &c., in the same poem, and I think the same place:
G. P.
FOLK LORE.
The sweetness of Teynt wine would recommend it for children, to whom a stronger wine is generally distasteful; but Port is generally prescribed as a tonic for adults.
It may further be remarked, that the recommendation to give Sacramental wine might arise from the fact, that, as in some parishes more wine is provided than is required, the remainder is put by to be given to the poor who may require it at the hands of the clergyman.
In sending these remarks, I am led to request that your correspondents would make Notes upon such old wives' remedies as are employed upon the principles I have mentioned.
JAMES BUCKMAN.
Cirencester, April 12.
"Vpon the death of that right worthye man, MR. BROWNE, late of Caius and Gonville Colledge disceased. Epicedion."--
"If vowes or teares from heartes or eyes, Could pearce the unpenitrable skyes, Then might he live, that now heere lyes.
But teares are tonguelesse, vowes are vaine, T' recall what fate calls; els how faine 5 What death hath seis'd, wold I regaine.
But sure th' immortal one belaves This wished soule in 's blissfull waves: Ill comes too oft, when no man craves.
Rest, therefore, vrne, rest quietlye, 10 And when my fates shall call on me, So may I rest, as I wish the. "R. CONSTABLE, Caio-Gonvillensis."
I need hardly point out the striking similarity between the expression in Shakspeare--
"and the delighted spirit To bathe in fiery floods,"--
and the third stanza of this poem.
KENNETH R. H. MACKENZIE.
POETICAL COINCIDENCES, ETC.
"May perpetual jealousie Wait on their beds, and poison their embraces With just suspitions; may their children be Deform'd, and fright the mother at the birth: May they live long and wretched; all men's hate, And yet have misery enough for pity: May they be long a-dying--of diseases Painful and loathsome," &c.
"And as a looking-glass, from the aspect, Whilst it is whole, doth but one face reflect, But being crack'd, or broken, there are shown Many half faces, which at first were one; So Love," &c.
"The mind, the music breathing from her face,"
the following from Carew may perhaps be added:
"Methought I heard a voice, Now roaring like the ocean, when the winds Fight with the waves; now in a still small tone Your dying accents fell, as wrecking ships, After the dreadful yell, sink murm'ring down, And bubble up a noise."
T. C. SMITH.
THE REPUBLIC OF SAN MARINO.
Amidst the Apennines, far removed from the ordinary track of tourists, is the diminutive republic of San Marino, which boasts never to have been subjugated. Whether it has escaped invasion because it has escaped notice, or because burglars never attack an empty cottage, is a point which I shall not stop to discuss. Few travellers visit it, but the trouble of doing so would be amply repaid. The situation is highly romantic; and the view from the summit of the bold escarpment, upon which the town is perched, extends over a wilderness of mountains.
The population of the territory is said not to exceed 6,000 or 7,000 souls. Its whole income is derived from a moderate duty on tobacco; and its standing army is chiefly employed in vain attempts to prevent the evasion of that duty.
Among the greatest and most highly esteemed curiosities of the place, is a statue of Christ on the cross, with a head of real hair, which is cut twice a year, and always grows again! This faculty of reproduction is as profitable as it is wonderful; for, besides the resort of pious visitors, drawn by the capillary attractions of such a miraculous piece of sculpture, the locks that are cut off are stated, by the ecclesiastical functionaries in charge of the statue, to be a sure preservative against all harm to the wearer, and are of course in request as an article of commerce. My object in communicating to you these notes, is to introduce to you a copy, which I transcribed myself, of one of the state papers preserved in the archives of the republic. It appears to be a letter of encouragement, addressed by the Priors and Gonfaloniere of the republic of Florence to that of S. Marino, during a siege that the latter was undergoing. Perhaps some of your readers may be able to point out the precise occasion that called for the letter.
SYDNEY SMIRKE.
"Priores libertatis et } Vexillifer Justitiae } Populi Florentinj.
"Barth. Scala.
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