[The topographical collections made by the Rev. Daniel Lysons for the
_Magna Britannia_ and the _Environs of London_, making sixty-four volumes,
are in the British Museum, Add. MSS. 9408-9471. They were presented by that
gentleman.]
"_Luke's Iron Crown_" (Goldsmith's _Traveller_, last line but two). To whom
does this refer, and what are the particulars?
P. J. (A Subscriber).
[This Query is best answered by the following note from Mr. P.
Cunningham's new edition of _Goldsmith_:
"When Tom Davies, at the request of Granger, asked Goldsmith about this
line, Goldsmith referred him for an explanation of 'Luke's iron crown'
to a book called _Géographie Curieuse_; and added, that by 'Damiens'
bed of steel' he meant the rack. See Granger's _Letters_, 8vo., 1805,
p. 52.
"George and Luke Dosa were two brothers who headed an unsuccessful
revolt against the Hungarian nobles at the opening of the sixteenth
century: and George (not Luke) underwent the torture of the {58}
red-hot iron crown, as a punishment for allowing himself to be
proclaimed King of Hungary (1513) by the rebellious peasants (see
_Biographie Universelle_, xi. 604.). The two brothers belonged to one
of the native races of Transylvania called Szecklers, or Zecklers
(Forster's _Goldsmith_, i. 395., edit. 1854)."]
"_Horam coram Dago._"--In the first volume of _Lavengro_, p. 89.:
"From the river a chorus plaintive, wild, the words of which seem in
memory's ear to sound like 'Horam coram Dago.'"
I have somewhere read a song, the chorus or refrain of which contained
these three words. Can any of your readers explain?
[Sigma].
[Our correspondent is thinking of the song "Amo, amas," by O'Keefe,
which will be found in _The Universal Songster_, vol. i. p. 52., and
other collections. We subjoin the chorus:
"Rorum coram,
Sunt divorum,
Harum scarum
Divo!
Tag rag, merry derry, perriwig and hat-band,
Hic hoc horum genitivo!"]
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