TO QUESTIONS FOR FURTHER STUDY IN THE JANUARY NUMBER OF “THE
CHAUTAUQUAN.”
By ALBERT M. MARTIN, GENERAL SECRETARY C. L. S. C.
1. The expression, “Possession is nine points in the law,” probably
had its origin in an old Scottish proverb, “Possession is eleven
points in the law, and they say there are but twelve.” It is found in
a play by Colley Cibber, called “Woman’s Wit,” reading “Possession is
eleven points of the law.” Later, DeQuincey uses the expression in a
criticism of Shakspere’s drama of “King Lear,” in the form employed
by our author. DeQuincey says: “The best of Shakspere’s dramas, ‘King
Lear,’ is the least fitted for representation, and even for the vilest
alteration. It ought, in candor, to be considered that possession is
nine points in the law.” It occurs in the writings of a number of
writers of the present century with a change of the numeral.
2. The preying sadness that Cowper sought to escape from by the work of
translating Homer was occasioned by disappointment in youth; attempted
suicide; dread of everlasting punishment, and fear of insanity. A
romantic attachment for his cousin in his youth met with the disfavor
of his father. Doubts of his ability to fill the requirements of an
office for which he was named so preyed upon his mind that he attempted
suicide. After this he believed that in that act he had committed
a deadly sin, and he could only see between him and heaven a high
wall which he despaired of ever being able to scale. He possessed a
naturally melancholy temperament, and was subject to insanity, of which
he had a great dread. He began the translation of Homer into blank
verse to divert his mind from morbid introspection, and he succeeded so
well that the six years he spent in this labor were among the happiest
of his life.
3. The original of the quotation, “From the center to the utmost pole,”
is to be found in Milton’s “Paradise Lost,” book I, line 74. The
quotation is not, however, literally made. In Milton it reads:
“As far removed from God and light of heav’n,
As from the center thrice to th’ utmost pole.”
Pope also uses a similar expression in his lines reading:
“Speed the soft intercourse from soul to soul,
And waft a sigh from Indus to the pole.”
4. Macedonia’s madman was Alexander the Great. He was so called because
he was dazzled or crazed with his own success; from his rash and
impetuous disposition, and the many acts of inhumanity he perpetrated;
because his horrible butchery and cruelty at times indicated a species
of madness; because his brilliant successes so turned his head that
he sought to be worshiped as the son of a god. Byron, in his Age of
Bronze, refers to him as the madman in these lines:
“How vain, how worse than vain, at length appear
The madman’s wish, the Macedonian tear.
He wept for worlds to conquer—half the earth
Knows not his name, or but his death and birth.”
5. Some of the features of the Cathedral of Cologne that render it
famous are as follows: It is considered one of the finest monuments
of Gothic architecture in existence. It contains the shrine of the
three kings, or magi, who visited and worshiped the infant Savior, and
their reputed bones. It is the largest Gothic church in the world.
It was begun in 1248 and finished in 1881—six hundred and thirty-two
years in building. It is the loftiest building in the world, the tower
being about five hundred feet high. Its beauty is in its exquisite
proportions, and it does not invite long study to appreciate its
grandeur. It has beautiful stained-glass windows, a double range of
flying buttresses, a perfect forest of pinnacles. Under a slab in the
pavement the heart of Maria de Medici is buried. The cathedral is
in the form of a cross, 510 feet long and 231 feet broad. The roof
rests on 100 columns, of which the four center ones are 30 feet in
circumference.
6. The expression “Perish the thought” probably had its origin in a
speech of Gloucester, interpolated by Colly Cibber, in Shakspere’s
“Richard the Third.” The reading there is “Perish that thought,” and
is to be found in Bell’s edition of Shakspere’s plays as performed at
Drury Lane Theater. The part of the speech containing the expression is
as follows:
“Perish that thought! No, never be it said
That fate itself could awe the soul of Richard,
Hence, babbling dreams; you threaten here in vain;
Conscience, avaunt, Richard’s himself again!”
7. The lines of Pope in his paraphrase of the moonlight scene, given
in the closing part of the eighth book of the Iliad, are “false and
contradictory” in the following particulars: The planets do not
revolve around the moon. The stars do not make bright the pole. Those
near the pole are scarcely visible on such a night. It is not a correct
translation of the original. The light on a moonlight scene is mild,
subdued and silvery, and therefore is not glorious, yellow and golden.
It is contradictory, because he says the stars gild the pole, and cast
a yellow verdure o’er the trees, and at the same time tip with silver
the mountain heads. He speaks of a flood of glory bursting from all the
skies which he calls blue. The night filled with the noises of neighing
coursers and ardent warriors, waiting for the morn, could not be like
the one “when not a breath disturbs the deep serene.”
8. Webster’s famous seventh of March speech was delivered in the
United States Senate on the seventh of March, 1850. The occasion was
the discussion of a series of resolutions submitted by Mr. Clay in
reference to the admission of California as a State, and embodying
a basis of a proposed compromise of all differences relating to the
territories and to slavery. In this speech Mr. Webster took ground
against the abolitionists; against further legislation prohibitory of
slavery in the territories; against secession or disunion; against
whatever seemed calculated to produce irritation or alienation between
the North and the South. In consideration of its character, and the
manner in which it was received by the people throughout the country,
it has been entitled, “For the Constitution and the Union.”
9. Athene was called the “Stern-Eyed” because she was considered the
goddess of pure reason, raised above every feminine weakness, and
disdaining love; because of her martial mein; also, that no flattery
or other influence could deter her from executing justice alike on
friend or foe. She watched over Athens to protect it from outward foes;
consequently she was watchful, or “stern-eyed.” She generally appeared
with a countenance full more of masculine firmness and composure than
of softness and grace.
* * * * *
Correct replies to all the questions for further study in the January
number of THE CHAUTAUQUAN have been received from Maggie V. Wilcox,
605 North Thirty-fifth Street, West Philadelphia, Pa.; Margaret D.
Mekeel, Trumansburg, N. Y.; A. U. Lombard, 382 Oak Street, Columbus,
Ohio; Eleanor A. Cummins, 243 Tenth Street, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Addie L.
Crocker, 439 Sixth Street, Brooklyn, N. Y.; Mrs. D. W. Eaton, Allston,
Mass.; Mrs. W. D. Beaman, Winchendon, Mass.; Abbie L. Wheeler, West
Gardner, Mass.; Alice M. Hyde, Gardner, Mass.; the Alpha C. L. S. C.,
of Lewistown, Me.; “Right Angle” of the Trumansburg, N. Y., “Triangle;”
and the Phillipsburg, Pa., local circle.