an actor in the theatre at Drury Lane about the time of James II., and
died in 1701. There is an account of his life written by Tom Browne.
GW.
[The title-page of _A Fatal Mistake_ states that it was written by Jos.
Hayns; but according to the _Biog. Dramatica_, it is not certain that
Count Haines was the author. The _dramatis personæ_ are: _Men_, Duke,
Duke of Schawden's ambassador, Rodulphus, Baldwin, Eustace, Ladovick,
Albert, Godfrey, Arnulph, Frederick, Welpho, Conradine, Gozelo, Lewis,
Ferdinando. _Women_, Duchess Gertruedo, Lebassa, Clementia, Idana,
Thierrie, Maria, Lords and Ladies, Masquers, Soldiers.]
_Anonymous Plays._--
1. A Match for a Widow; or, the Frolics of Fancy. A Comic
Opera, in Three Acts, as performed at the Theatre Royal,
Dublin. London: C. Dilly, 1788. 8vo.
2. The Indians; a Tragedy. Performed at the Theatre Royal,
Richmond. London: C. Dilly, 1790. 8vo.
3. André; a Tragedy in Five Acts, as now performing at the
Theatre in New York. To which is added the Cow Chase; a
Satirical Poem, by Major André. With the Proceedings of the
Court Martial, and authentic Documents concerning him. London:
Ogilvy & Son, 1799. 8vo.
SERVIENS.
[_A Match for a Widow_ is by Joseph Atkinson, Treasurer of the Ordnance
in Ireland, the friend and associate of Curran, Moore, and the galaxy of
Irish genius. He died in 1818.
{175}
2. _The Indians_ is by William Richardson, Professor of Humanity in the
University of Glasgow, who died in 1814.
3. _André_ is by William Dunlap, an American dramatist.]
_High Commission Court._--Can any of your readers refer me to works
bearing on the proceedings of the High Commission Court? The sort
of information of which I am in search is not so much on the great
constitutional questions involved in the history of this court, as in
the details of its mode of procedure; as shown either by actual books of
practice, or the history of particular cases brought before it.
J. F. M.
[Some account of the proceedings of the High Commission Court is given
in Reeves's _History of the English Law_, vol. v. pp. 215-218. The
Harleian MS. 7516. also contains Minutes of the Proceedings of the High
Commissioners at Whitehall, July 6, 1616, on the question of Commendums,
the king himself being present. It makes twenty-one leaves.]
* * * * *
Replies.
ROSICRUCIANS.
(Vol. vii., p. 619.; Vol. viii., p. 106.)
We frequently see Queries made in these pages which could be
satisfactorily answered by turning to the commonest books of
reference, such as Brand, Fosbroke, Hone, the various dictionaries and
encyclopædias, and the standard works on the subjects queried. Now it
seems to me that "N. & Q." is not intended for going over old ground, and
thus becoming a literary treadmill; but its mission lies in supplying
information _not easily found_, and in perfecting, as far as possible,
our standard works and books of reference. MR. TAYLOR'S Query affords an
opportunity for this, as the ordinary sources of information are very
deficient as regards the Rosicrucians.
According to some, the name is derived from their supposed founder,
_Christian Rosencreutz_, who died in 1484. And they account for the
fact of the Rosicrucians not being heard of till 1604, by saying that
Rosencreutz bound his disciples by an oath not to promulgate his
doctrines for 120 years after his death. The mystical derivation of the
name is thus given in the _Encyc. Brit._:--
"The denomination evidently appears to be derived from the
science of chemistry. It is not compounded, as many imagine,
of the two words _rosa_ and _crux_, which signify _rose_ and
_cross_, but of the latter of these two words and the Latin
_ros_, which signifies _dew_. Of all natural bodies _dew_ was
deemed the most powerful dissolvent of gold; and the _cross_
in the chemical language is equivalent to _light_, because
the figure of the _cross_ exhibits at the same time the three
letters of which the word _lux_, light, is compounded. Now
_lux_ is called by this sect the seed or menstruum of the red
dragon, or, in other words, gross and corporeal _light_, which,
when properly digested and modified, produces _gold_. Hence
it follows, if this etymology be admitted, that a Rosicrucian
philosopher is one who, by the intervention and assistance
of the _dew_, seeks for light; or, in other words, the
philosopher's stone.
"The true meaning and energy of this denomination did not
escape the penetration and sagacity of Gassendi, as appears
by his _Examen Philos. Fludd_, tom. iii. s. 15. p. 261.; and
it was more fully explained by Renaudot in his _Conférences
Publiques_, tom. iv. p. 87."
The encyclopædist remarks that at first the title commanded some respect,
as it seemed to be borrowed from _the arms of Luther, which were a cross
placed upon a rose_.
The leading doctrines of the Rosicrucians were borrowed from the Eastern
philosophers[4]; the Christian Platonists, schoolmen, and mystics: mixed
up with others derived from writers on natural history, magic, astrology,
and especially alchemy. All these blended together, and served up in a
professional jargon of studied obscurity, formed the doctrinal system of
these strange philosophers. In this system _the doctrine of elemental
spirits_, and the means of communion and alliance with them, and _the
doctrine of signatures_, are the most prominent points.
Let me refer MR. TAYLOR to Michael Meyer's _Themis Aurea, hoc est de
legibus Fraternitatis Roseæ Crucis_, Col. 1615; the works of Jacob
Behmen, Robt. Fludd, John Heydon, Peter Mormius, Eugene Philalethes; the
works of the Rosicrucian Society, containing seventy-one treatises in
different languages; the Catalogue of Hermetic books by the Abbé Lenglet
du Fresnoi, Paris, 1762; Manget's _Biblioth. Chem. Curios._, Col. 1702, 2
vols. folio; and the _Theatrum Chemicum_, Argent. 1662, 6 vols. 8vo.
I must make particular mention of the two most celebrated of the
Rosicrucian works; the first is _La Chiave del Cabinetto_, Col. 1681,
12mo. The author, Joseph Francis Borri, gives a most systematic account
of the doctrine of the Rosic Cross in this interesting little volume. He
was imprisoned for magic and heresy, and died in his prison at Rome in
1695 at the age of seventy years. On this work was founded one still more
remarkable--
"Le Compte de Gabalis, ou Entretiens sur les Sciences Secrètes.
'Quod tanto impendio absconditur etiam solum modo demonstrare,
destruere est.'--_Tertull._ Sur la Copie imprimée à Paris, chez
Claude Barbin.--M.DC.LXXI. 12mo., pp. 150."
{176}
This work, thus published anonymously, was from the pen of the Abbé de
Villars. An English translation was published at London in 1714.
The doctrine of the Rosy Cross entered largely into the literature of the
seventeenth century. This applies especially to the masques of James I.
and Charles I. To the same source Shakspeare owes his _Ariel_, and Milton
much of his _Comus_.
It is strange, but instructive, to observe how variously different
minds make use of the same materials. What greater contrast can we have
than _The Rape of the Lock_ and _Undine_?--the one redolent of the
petit-maître and the Cockney; the other a work _sui generis_, of human
conceptions the most exquisite and spirit-fragrant. Wieland's _Idris and
Zenide_, Bulwer's _Zanoni_, and Mackay's _Salamandrine_, are also based
on Rosicrucian principles. Mention of the Rosicrucians occurs in Izaak
Walton's Angler and Butler's _Hudibras_--see Zachary Grey's note and
authorities referred to by him. See also two interesting papers on the
subject in Chambers's _Edinb. Journal_, ed. 1846, vol. vi. pp. 298. 316.
EIRIONNACH.
July 20, 1853.
P. S.--I may as well notice here a very curious book of Rosicrucian
emblems, as I have it beside me:
"Atalanta Fugiens, hoc est, Emblemata Nova de Secretis
Naturæ Chymica. Accommodata partim oculis et intellectui,
figuris cupro incisis, adjectisque sententiis, Epigrammatis
et notis, partim auribus et recreationi animi plus minus 50
Fugis Musicalibus trium vocum, quarum duæ ad unam simplicem
melodiam distichis canendis peraptam correspondeant, non
absq; singulari jucunditate videnda, legenda, meditanda,
intelligenda, dijudicanda, canenda, et audienda. Authore
Michaele Majero, Imperial. Consistorii Comite, Med. D. Eq. Ex.
etc.: Oppenheimii, ex Typographia Hieronymi Galleri, sumptibus
Joh. Theodori de Bry, MDCXVIII." Small 4to. pp. 211.
The title-page is adorned with emblematical figures. The work contains
a portrait of the author, and fifty emblems executed with much spirit.
Amongst others we have a Salamander in the fire, a green lion, a
hermaphrodite, a dragon, &c. Every right page has a motto, an emblem, and
an epigram under the emblem in Latin. The left page gives the same in
German, with the Latin words set to music. After each emblem we have a
"Discursus."
The following remarks on the title occur in the preface:
"Atalanta Poëtis celebrata est propter fugam, qua omnes procos
in certamine antevertit, ideoque ipsis victis pro Virgine,
præmio Victoriæ proposito, mors obtigit, donec ab Hippomene,
Juvene audaciore et provido, superata et obtenta sit trium
malorum aureorum per Vices inter currendum objectu, quæ dum
illa tolleret, præventa est ab eo, metam jam attingente: Hæc
Atalanta ut fugit, sic una vox musicalis semper fugit ante
aliam et altera insequitur, ut Hippomenes: In tertia tamen
stabiliuntur et firmantur, quæ simplex est et unius valoris,
tanquam malo aureo: Hæc eadem virgo merè chymica est, nempe
Mercurius philosophicus a sulfure aureo in fuga fixatus et
retentus, quem si quis sistere noverit, sponsam, quam ambit,
habebit, sin minus, perditionem suarum rerum est interitum,"
&c.--Page 9.
[Footnote 4: The Jewish speculations on the subject of
elemental spirits and angels (especially those that assumed
corporeal forms, and united themselves with the daughters
of men) were largely drawn on by the Rosicrucians. (See the
famous _Liber Zohar_, Sulzbaci, 1684, fol.; and Philo, _Lib. de
Gigantibus_. See also Hoornbeek, _Lib. pro Convert. Jud._, Lug.
Bat., 1665, 4to.)]
* * * * *
SEARSON'S POEMS.
(Vol. vii., p. 131.)
John Searson was a merchant in Philadelphia in the year 1766. A few days
before seeing the inquiry respecting him, I came across his advertisement
in the _Pennsylvania Gazette_; but not having made a note of the date, I
have since been unable to find it. His stock was of a very miscellaneous
character, as "Bibles and warming pans," "spelling-books and swords,"
figured in it in juxtaposition. He taught school at one time in Basking
Ridge, New Jersey.
A copy of his poem on "Down Hill" is before me; and it is quite as
curious a production as the volume of poems which he afterwards published.
He describes himself in the title-page as "Late Master of the Free School
in Colerain, and formerly of New York, Merchant." The volume was printed
in 1794 by subscription at Colerain.
The work is introduced by "A Poem, being a Cursory View of Belfast Town,"
thus commencing:
"With pleasure I view the Town of Belfast,
Where many dear friends their lots have been cast:
The Buildings are neat, the Town very clean,
And Trade very brisk are here to be seen;
Their Shipping are numerous, as I behold,
And Merchants thrive here in riches, I'm told."
Here are some farther specimens from this poem:
"I've walk'd alone, and view'd the _Paper Mill_,
Its walk, the eye with pleasure fill.
I've view'd the Mountains that surround BELFAST,
And find they are romantic to the last.
...
The Church of BELFAST is superb and grand,
And to the Town an ornament does stand;
Their Meeting Houses also is so neat,
The congregation large, fine and complete."
The volume contains a dedication to the Rev. Mr. Josiah Marshall, rector
of Maghera, a preface, a table of contents, and "A Prayer previous to the
Poem."
The whole book is so intensely ridiculous that it is difficult to
select. The following are rather chosen for their brevity than for any
pre-eminent absurdity:
"The Earl of Bristol here some time do dwell,
Which after-ages sure of him will tell."
{177}
"Down Hill's so pleasing to the traveller's sight,
And th' marine prospect would your heart delight."
"The rabbit tribe about me run their way,
Their little all to man becomes a prey.
The busy creatures trot about and run;
Some kill them with a net, some with a gun.
Alas! how little do these creatures know
For what they feed their young, so careful go.
The little creatures trot about and sweat,
Yet for the use of man is all they get."
"He closed his eyes on ev'ry earthly thing.
_Angles_ surround his bed: to heaven they bring
The soul, departed from its earthly clay.
He died, he died! and calmly pass'd away,
His children not at home; his widow mourn,
And all his friends, in tears, seem quite forlorn."
Some of the London booksellers ought to reprint this work as a curiosity
of literature. Some of the subscribers took a number of copies, and one
might be procured for the purpose. The country seats of the largest
subscribers are described in the poem.
The book ends with these lines (added by the "devil" of the
printing-office, no doubt):
"The above rural, pathetic, and very sublime performance was
corrected, in every respect, by the author himself."
This is erased with a pen, and these words written below--"Printer's
error."
UNEDA.
Philadelphia.
* * * * *
"FROM THE SUBLIME TO THE RIDICULOUS," ETC.
(Vol. v., p. 100.)
Since my former communication on the use of the phrase "From the sublime
to the ridiculous there is but a step," I have met with some farther
examples of kindred forms of expression, which you may deem worth
inserting in "N. & Q."
Shakspeare has an instance in _Romeo and Juliet_, where he describes
"Love" as--
"A madness most discreet,
A choaking gall, and a preserving sweet."
Quarles has it in his _Emblems_, Book iv. Epigram 2.:--
"Pilgrim, trudge on; what makes thy soul complain?
Crowns thy complaint; the way to rest is pain:
The road to resolution lies by doubt;
The next way home's the farthest way about."
We find it in this couplet in Butler:
"For discords make the sweetest airs,
And curses are a kind of prayers."
Rochester has it in the line--
"An eminent fool must be a man of parts."
It occurs in Junius's remark--
"Your Majesty may learn hereafter how nearly the slave and the
tyrant are allied."
and in the following well-known passage in the same writer:
"He was forced to go through every division, resolution,
composition, and refinement of political chemistry, before
he happily arrived at the _caput mortuum_ of vitriol in your
grace. Flat and insipid in your retired state; but, brought
into action, you become vitriol again. Such are the extremes
of alternate indolence or fury which have governed your whole
administration."
The thought here (be it said in passing) seems to have been adopted from
these lines in Rochester:
"Wit, like tierce claret, when 't begins to pall,
Neglected lies, and 's of no use at all;
But in its full perfection of decay
Turns vinegar, and comes again in play."
But the most beautiful application of this sentiment that I have met
with, occurs in an essay on "The Uses of Adversity," by Mr. Herman
Hooker, an American writer:--
"A pious lady, who had lost her husband, was for a time
inconsolable. She could not think, scarcely could she speak,
of anything but him. Nothing seemed to take her attention but
the three promising children he had left her, singing to her
his presence, his look, his love. But soon these were all
taken ill, and died within a few days of each other; and now
the childless mother was calmed even by the greatness of the
stroke. As the lead that goes quickly down to the ocean's depth
ruffled its surface less than lighter things, so the blow which
was strongest did not so much disturb her calm of mind, but
drove her to its proper trust."
HENRY H. BREEN.
St. Lucia.
* * * * *
PASSAGE IN THE BURIAL SERVICE.
(Vol. iii., p. 78.)
"In the midst of life we are in death."
A writer in the _Parish Choir_ (vol. iii. p. 140.) gives the following
account of this passage. He says:
"The passage in question is found in the _Cantarium Sti.
Galli_, or choir-book of the monks of St. Gall in Switzerland,
published in 1845, with, however, a slight deviation from the
text, as we are accustomed to it.
'_Mediâ Vitâ of St. Notker._
'Mediâ Vitâ in morte sumus: quem quærimus adjutorem, nisi
Te Domine, qui pro peccatis nostris justè irasceris. Ad te
clamaverunt patres nostri, speraverunt, et liberasti eos.
Sancte Deus: ad te clamaverunt patres nostri, clamaverunt et
non sunt confusi. Sancte Fortis, ne despicias nos in tempore
senectutis: cum defecerit virtus nostra, ne derelinquas nos.
Sancte et misericors Salvator amaræ morti ne tradas nos.'
"On consulting the _Thesaurus Hymnologicus_ of Daniel (vol.
ii. p. 329.) I find the following notice. {178} It is called
'Antiphona pro Peccatis,' or 'de Morte;' and the text there
given corresponds nearly with that in our Burial Service.
"Mediâ vitâ in morte sumus:
Quem quærimus adjutorem nisi Te Domine,
Qui pro peccatis nostris justè irasceris:
Sancte Deus, sancte fortis, sancte et misericors Salvator,
Amaræ morti ne tradas nos.
"Rambach says, '"In the midst of life" occurs in MSS. of the
thirteenth century, as an universally common dirge and song
of supplication on all melancholy occasions, and was in this
century regularly sung at Compline on Saturdays. A German
translation was known long before the time of Luther, and was
enlarged by him by the addition of two strophes.' Martene
describes it as forming part of a religious service for New
Year's Eve, composed about the year 1800.
"Hoffmann says that this anthem 'by Notker the Stammerer,
a monk of St. Gall's (an. 912), was an extremely popular
battle-song, through the singing of which, before and during
the fight, friend and foe hoped to conquer. It was also, on
many occasions, used as a kind of incantation song. Therefore
the Synod of Cologne ordered (an. 1316) that no one should sing
the _Mediâ vitâ_ without the leave of his bishop.'
"Daniel adds that it is not, to his knowledge, now used by the
Roman Church in divine worship; but that the admirable hymn of
Luther, 'Mitten wir im Leben sind,' still flourishes amongst
the Protestants of Germany, just as the translation in our
Prayer-Book is popular with us."
GEO. A. TREVOR.
Your correspondent J. G. T. asks whence comes the expression in the
Burial Service, "In the midst of life we are in death?" There are some
lines in Petrarch which express precisely the same idea in nearly the
self-same words; but as the thought is by no means an unlikely one to
occur to two separate and independent authors, we may not go to the
length of charging the seeming plagiarism upon the compilers of our
Prayer-Book. I have mislaid the exact reference[5], but subjoin the lines
themselves:
"Omnia paulatim consumit longior ætas,
_Vivendoque simul morimur_, rapimurque manendo:
Ipse mihi collatus enim, non ille videbor;
Frons alia est, moresque alii, nova mentis imago,
Voxque aliud mutata sonat."
JOHN BOOKER.
Prestwich.
[Footnote 5: Barbato Sulmonensi, epist. i.--ED.]
* * * * *
PATRICK'S PURGATORY.
(Vol. vii., p. 552.)
Dr. Lanigan, in his learned _Ecclesiastical History of Ireland_ (vol.
i. p. 368.), states that the so-called Patrick's Purgatory is situated
at Lough Derg (Donegal). It is never mentioned in any of the lives of
the apostle, nor heard of till the eleventh century, the period at
which the canons regular of St. Augustine first appeared, for it was to
persons of that order, as the story goes, that St. Patrick confided the
care of that cavern of wonders. Now there were no such persons in the
island in which it is situated, nor in that of St. Davoc [Dabeoc?] in
the same lake, until about the beginning of the twelfth century. This
purgatory, or purging place, of Lough Derg, was set up against another
Patrick's purgatory, viz. that of Croagh Patrick, mentioned by Jocelyn,
which, however ill-founded the vulgar opinion concerning it, was less
objectionable. Some writers have said that it got the name of Patrick's
Purgatory from an Abbot Patrick, that lived in the ninth century; but
neither were there canons regular of St. Augustine at that time, nor were
such abridged modes of atoning to the Almighty for the sins of a whole
life then thought of. It was demolished in the year 1497, by order of the
Pope, although it has since been in some manner restored.
The original Patrick's Purgatory then, it would appear, was at Croagh
Patrick, in Mayo, near Westport; speaking of the pilgrimages made to
which, the monk Jocelyn (in his _Life of St. Patrick_, written A.D. 1180,
cap. 172.) says that--
"Some of those who spent a night there stated that they had
been subjected to most fearful torments, which had the effect,
as they supposed, of purging them from their sins, for which
reason also certain of them gave to that place the name of St.
Patrick's Purgatory."
By the authority of the Lords Justices who governed Ireland in 1633,
previously to the appointment of Wentworth, Lough Derg Purgatory was
once more suppressed; but the sort of piety then fostered among the
members of the Roman communion in Ireland could ill afford to resign
without a struggle what was to them a source of so much consolation.
High influence was, therefore, called into action to procure the
reversal of the sentence; and the Roman Catholic Queen of Charles I.
was induced to address to the Lord Deputy of Ireland a letter in which
she requested that he would be pleased "to allow, that the devotions
which the people of that country have ever been wont to pay to a St.
Patrick's place there, may not be abolished." The Lord Deputy declined
acceding to this request, and said in his reply, "I fear, at this time,
when some men's zeal hath run them already, not only beyond their wits,
_but almost forth of their allegiance too_, it might furnish them with
something to say in prejudice and scandal to his majesty's government,
which, for the present indeed, is by all means to be avoided." And adds,
"your Majesty might do passing well to let this devotion rest awhile."
After this second suppression, the devotion has a second time been "in
some manner restored;" and {179} multitudes throng to the place on
the faith of a false tradition, so long since exposed and exploded by
their own authorities. Three hundred and fifty years ago, the Pope,
the representative of the Bishop of Clogher, and the head of the
Franciscans in Donegal, combined their efforts to put down the scandalous
fabrication; but yet it remains to this day an object of cherished
religious veneration--an object of confidence and faith, on which many
a poor soul casts itself to find consolation and repose. And those
multitudes of pilgrims, year after year, assemble there, no influence
which they look to for guidance forbidding them, to do homage to the vain
delusion.
D. W. S. P. will find farther information on this subject in _The
Catholic Layman_ for April last: Curry, Dublin.
WILLIAM BLOOD.
Wicklow.
* * * * *
LORD WILLIAM RUSSELL.
(Vol. viii., p. 100.)
In answer to W. L. M.'s inquiry, "where the virtuous and patriotic
William Lord Russell was buried?" I beg to state that I possess a
pamphlet entitled:
"The whole Tryal and Defence of William Lord Russel, who Dyed
a Martyr to the _Romish_ Fury in the Year 1683, with the
Learned Arguments of the Council on both sides. Together with
his Behaviour and Speech upon the Scaffold: His Character and
Behaviour. London: printed by J. Bradford, at the Bible in
Fetter Lane."
There is no date to it; but from the appearance of the paper, type, a
rude woodcut of the execution, &c., I doubt not that it was printed soon
after the event, or certainly immediately after the Revolution, to meet
the popular wishes to have information on the subject. It consists of
sixteen octavo pages, very closely printed. The opening paragraph says: