I parted with thee one autumnal day,
When o'er the woods the northern tempest beat--
The spoils of autumn rustling at our feet,
And Nature wept to see her own decay.
The pliant poplar bent beneath the blast;
The moveless oak stood warring with the storm,
Which bow'd the pensive willow's weaker form;
And naught gave token that thy love would last,
Save the mute eloquence of forcing tears;
Save the low pleading of thy ardent sighs,
The fervent gazing of thy glowing eyes;
A firm assurance, spite of all my fears,
That, as the sunshine dries the summer rain,
Thy _future_ smile should bless for parting pain.
* * H.
* * * * *
ILLUSTRATION OF SOME OLD PROVERBS, &c.
(_For the Mirror_.)
_"Ax." To ask_. This word which now passes for a mere vulgarism, is the
original Saxon form, and used by Chaucer and others. See "Tyrwhitt's
Glossary." We find it also in Bishop Bale's "God's Promises." "That their
synne vengeaunce _axed_ continually." Old Plays. i. 18. Also in the "Four
P.'s," by Heywood, "And _axed_ them thys question than." Old Pl. i. 84. An
_axing_ is used by Chaucer for a request. Ben Jonson introduces it
jocularly:
"A man out of wax,
As a lady would ax."
_Masques_, vol. 6, p. 85.
"_Between the Cup and the Lip_." The proverb that many things fall out
between the cup and the lip, is a literal version of one in Latin. _Multo
inter pocula ac libra cadunt_. The origin of which was as follows:--A king
of Thrace had planted a vineyard, when one of his slaves, whom he had much
oppressed in that very work, prophesied that he should never taste of the
wine produced in it. The monarch disregarded the prediction, and when at
an entertainment he held a glassful of his own wine made from the grape of
that vineyard, he sent for the slave, and asked him what he thought of his
prophecy now; to which the other replied, "Many things fall out between
the cup and the lip," and he had scarcely delivered this singular response,
before news was brought that a monstrous boar was laying waste the
favourite vineyard. The king, in a rage, put down the cup which he held in
his hand, and hurried out with his people to attack the boar; but being
too eager, the boar rushed upon him and killed him, without having tasted
of the wine. Such is the story related by some of the Greek writers, and
though evidently apocryphal, it certainly is productive of a good
practical moral.
"_In the merry pin_." This is said of those who have drunk freely and are
cheerful in their cups. Among the ancient northern nations, it was
customary to drink out of large horns, in which were placed small pins,
like a scale of distances, and he who quaffed most was considered as a
toper of the first magnitude, and respected accordingly. The merry pin was
that which stood pretty far from the mouth of the horn, and he who, at a
draught, reduced the liquor to that point, was a man of no ordinary
prowess in bacchanalian contest.
"_Under the Rose be it spoken_." The rose being dedicated by Cupid to
Harpocrates, the god of Silence, to engage him to conceal the amours of
Venus, was an emblem of Silence; whence to present it or hold it up to any
person in discourse, served instead of an admonition, that it was time for
him to hold his peace; and in entertaining rooms it was customary to place
a rose above the table, to signify that what was there spoken should be
kept private. This practice is described by the following epigram:--
Est rosa flos, Veneris cujus quo facta laterunt,
Harpocrati matri dona dicavit Amor,
Inde rosam mensis hospes suspendit amicis
Convivii et sub ea dicta tacenda sciat.
_Potter's Ant. Greece_.
"_Cant_." This word, which is now generally applied to fanatical preachers,
and hypocritical apprentices in religion, derives its name from two Scotch
Presbyterian ministers, in the reign of Charles II. They were father and
son, both called Andrew Cant; and Whitelocke in his "Memoirs," p. 511,
after narrating the defeat at Worcester, in 1651, says, "Divers Scotch
ministers were permitted to meet at Edinburgh, to keep a day of
humiliation, as they pretended, for their too much compliance with the
King," and in the same month when Lord Argyll had called a parliament, Mr.
Andrew Cant, a minister, said in his pulpit, that "God was bound to hold
this parliament, for that all other parliaments was called by man, but
this was brought about by his own hand."
"_An't please the Pigs_." In this phrase there is not only a peculiarity
of dialect, but the corruption of a word, and a change of one thing for
another. In the first place, _an_, in the midland counties, is used for if;
and pigs is evidently a corruption of Pyx, the sacred vessel containing
the host in Roman Catholic countries. In the last place, the vessel is
substituted for the power itself, by an easy metonymy in the same manner
as when we talk of "the sense of the house," we do not mean to ascribe
intelligence to a material building; but to the persons in it assembled
for a deliberate purpose; the expression therefore signifies no more than
"_Deo volente_," or God willing.
"_Bumper_." In many parts of England any thing large is called a bumper.
Hence a bumping lass is a large girl of her age, and a bumpkin is a
large-limbed, uncivilized rustic; the idea of grossness of size entering
into the idea of a country bumpkin, as well as that of unpolished rudeness.
Dr. Johnson, however, strangely enough deduces the word bumpkin from bump;
but what if it should prove to be a corruption of bumbard, or bombard: in
low Latin, bombardus, a great gun, and from thence applied to a large
flagon, or full glass. Thus the Lord Chamberlain says to the porters who
had been negligent in keeping out the mob.
"You are lazy knaves:
And here ye lie, baiting of bombard, when
Ye should do service."
_Shaks. Hen_. VIII. _Act_ 5, _Scene_ 3.
"Baiting of bombard" is a term for sitting and drinking, which Nash in his
"Supplycacyon to the Deuyll," calls by the like metaphor, "bear baiting."
So Shakspeare again in the "Tempest," says,
"Yond same black cloud, yond huge one,
Seems like foul bombard, that would shed his liquor."
_Tempest, Act_ 2, _Scene_ 2.
Which Theobald rightly explains thus: "A large vessel for holding drink,
as well as the piece of ordinance so called."
"_Latter Lammas_." Lammas day is the first day of August, so called quasi,
Lamb-mass, on which day the tenants that hold lands of the Cathedral of
York, which is dedicated to St. Peter, ad Vincula, were bound by that
tenure to bring a living lamb into the church at high mass.--_Cornell's
Interpreter_. Lammas day was always a great day of account, for in the
payment of rents our ancestors distributed the year into four quarters,
ending at Candlemas, Whitsuntide, Lammas, and Martinmas, and this was as
common as the present divisions of Lady day, Midsummer, Michaelmas, and
Christmas. In regard to Lammas, in addition to its being one of the days
of reckoning, it appears from the Confessor's laws, that it was the
specific day whereon the Peter-pence, a tax very rigorously executed, and
the punctual payment of which was enforced under a severe penalty, was
paid. In this view then, Lammas stands as a day of account, and Latter
Lammas will consequently signify the day of doom, which in effect, as to
all payments of money, or worldly transactions in money, is never. Latter
here is used for last, or the comparative for the superlative, just as it
is in a like case in our version of the book of Job, "I know that my
redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth,"
meaning of course the last day, or the end of the world. That the last day,
or Latter Lammas, as to all temporal affairs is never, may be illustrated
by the following story:--A man at confession owned his having stolen a sow
and pigs; the father confessor exhorted him to make restitution. The
penitent said some were sold, and some were killed, but the priest not
satisfied with this excuse, told him they would appear against him at the
day of judgment if he did not make restitution to the owner, upon which
the man replied, "Well, I'll return them to him then."
"_Lydford Law_." In Devonshire and Cornwall this saying is common:
"First hang and draw,
Then hear the cause by Lydford Law."
Sometimes it is expressed in this manner; "Lydford Law, by which they hang
men first, and try them afterwards." Lydford was formerly a town of note,
but now an inconsiderable village on the borders of Dartmoor, not far from
Tavistock. It is famous for a ruined castle, under which is a dungeon that
used to be a prison for the confinement of persons who offended against
the Stannary Courts of Tavistock, Ashburton, Chapford, and Plimpton. These
Stannary Courts were erected by a charter of Edward III. for the purpose
of regulating the affairs of the tin mines in Devonshire, and of
determining causes among the tinners, whether criminal, or actions for
debt. The proceedings were very summary, and the prison horribly offensive.
Near Lydford is a famous waterfall, and a most romantic view down the
river Lyd; over which is a curious bridge built with one arch. The parish
is the largest in the kingdom, including the whole Forest of Dartmoor.
William Browne of Tavistock, and the author of _Britannia's Pastorals_,
gives a humorous description of Lydford in the reign of James I.
* * * * *