(Vol. ii., p. 286.)
PWCCA, after quoting from Michael Wodde's _Dialogue or Familiar Talke_ the
passage in which he says, "If a wife were weary of her husband _she offred
otes at Paules_ in London to St. Uncumber," asks "who St. Uncumber was?"
St. Uncumber was one of those popular saints whose names are not to be
found in any calendar, and whose histories are now only to be learned from
the occasional allusions to them to be met with in our early
writers,--allusions which it is most desirable should be recorded in "NOTES
AND QUERIES." The following cases, in which mention is made of this saint,
are therefore noted, although they do not throw much light on the history
of St. Uncumber.
The first is from Harsenet's _Discoverie, &c._, p.l34.:
"And the commending himselfe to the tuition of S. Uncumber, or els our
blessed Lady."
The second is from Bale's _Interlude concerning the Three Laws of Nature,
Moses, and Christ_:
"If ye cannot slepe, but slumber,
Geve _Otes_ unto Saynt Uncumber,
And Beanes in a certen number
Unto Saynt Blase and Saynt Blythe."
I will take an early opportunity of noting some similar allusions to Sir
John Shorne, St. Withold, &c.