(Vol. iv., p. 20.)
The inscription on the tombstone of Christ. Burraway, in Martham Church,
copied by your correspondent E. S. T., singular as it is, and startling
as the story attached to it seems, is not without a parallel, for we
have a similar inscription on another _mysterious mother_ of the name of
Marulla in ancient times, which is given by Boxhornius in his _Monumenta
Illustrium Virorum et Elogia_, Amst. 1638, fol. 112. He appears to have
found it on a ruined sarcophagus at Rome, of which he has given
representation, and in his Index thus refers to it:
"Hersilus cum Marulla, quae ei mater, soror, et sponsa fuit."
Your correspondent has not mentioned the source of his explanation of
the enigma: I presume it is traditional. The ancient inscription, it
will be seen, solves it in the last two lines. The coincidence of these
two inscriptions is not a little remarkable.
"SENICAPRI QVICVMQVE SVBIS SACRARIA FAVNI
HAEC LEGE ROMANA VERBA NOTATA MANV.
HERSILVS HIC IACEO MECVM MARVLLA QVIESCIT
QVAE SOROR ET GENITRIX, QVAE MIHI SPONSA FVIT
VERA NEGAS, FRONTEMQVE TRAHIS: ENIYGMATA SPHYNGOS
CREDIS, SVNT PYTHIO VERA MAGIS TRIPODE.
ME PATER E NATA GENVIT, MIHI IVNGITVR ILLA,
SIC SOROR ET CONIVNCX, SIC FVIT ILLA PARENS."
In that entertaining volume _La Sylva Curiosa de Julian de Medrano,
Cavallero Navarro_, first printed in 1583, and reprinted at Paris in
1608, a somewhat similar story is related, and the monumental
inscription in French is given. Some of these stories must surely be
apocryphal.[2]
[Footnote 2: Stories of the same nature are told in the
_Heptameron of the Queen of Navarre, 3me Journee, Nouvelle 30e_,
where the scene is laid in Languedoc; and by Jeremy Taylor in his
_Ductor Dubitantium_, B. i. C. iii. Sect. 3., who cites Comitolus
as his authority: here the scene is laid in Venice. By others the
scene has been placed in London, and also in Scotland. Horace
Walpole's Postscript to his Tragedy will of course be known to
most of your readers.]
"Passing through the Bourbonnese country I was told, that many
years since a young gentleman there had, by some fortuitous
accident, lain with his own mother, who became pregnant by him.
That some time after, a favourable opportunity offering, he went
to the wars, and was absent from his home some fourteen or fifteen
years. At the expiration of that time returning home, he found his
mother well stricken in years, who had a few days previous taken
into her service a handsome lass, who had been brought up from
infancy in the mountains of Auvergne. This young woman being of a
naturally affectionate disposition, seemed much attached to her
mistress, and relieved her of all her household cares, without
knowing how nearly they were related; for she was her daughter,
the fruit of the intercourse with her son, now master of the
house; notwithstanding there was no one in those parts that knew
it. The young man seeing her virtuous, graceful, and handsome,
became enamored of her, in so much that, although his relations
wished him to marry a rich wife, and all that his friends
endeavoured to divert his passion, and counselled him to bestow
his love elsewhere, it was all to no purpose, but, preferring her
to all others he had seen, he married her. They lived together
many years, had several children, and were buried in the same
tomb, without either of them having ever known that they were
father and daughter, brother and sister! until after a lapse of
time, a shepherd from Auvergne coming into the Bourbonnese
country, told the history to the inhabitants of the place where
this doubly incestuous couple lived. When I passed through the
country I was shown the spot where they dwelt, and the church
where they were interred; and a copy of the epitaph which was
placed upon their tomb was given me, which was as follows:
"'Cy gist la fille, cy gist le pere,
Cy gist la soeur, cy gist le frere,
Cy gist la femme et le mary,
Et si n'y a que deux corps ici.'"