Various
Notes and Queries, Number 208, October 22, 1853
Notes
A PROPHET
What a curious book would be "Our Prophets and Enthusiasts!" The literary and biographical records of the vaticinators, and the heated spirits who, after working upon the fears of the timid, and exciting the imaginations of the weak, have flitted into oblivion! As a specimen of the odd characters such a work would embrace, allow me to introduce to your readers Thomas Newans, a Shropshire farmer, who unhappily took it into his head that his visit to the lower sphere was on a special mission.
Mr. Newans is the author of a book entitled A Key to the Prophecies of the Old and New Testament; showing (among other impending events) "The approaching Invasion of England;" "The Extirpation of Popery and Mahometisme;" "The Restoration of the Jews," and "The Millennium." London: printed for the Author (who attests the genuineness of my copy by his signature), 1747.
In this misfitted key he relates how, in a vision, he was invested with the prophetic mantle:
"In the year 1723, in the night," says Mr. Newans, "I fell into a dream, and seemed to be riding on the road into the county of Cheshire. When I was got about eight miles from home, my horse made a stop on the road; and it seemed a dark night, and on a sudden there shone a light before me on the ground, which was as bright as when the sun shines at noon-day. In the middle of that bright circle stood a child in white. It spoke, and told me that I must go into Cheshire, and I should find a man with uncommon marks upon his feet, which should be a warning to me to believe; and that the year after I should have a cow that would calve a calf with his heart growing out of his body in a wonderful manner, as a token of what should come to pass; and that a terrible war would break out in Europe, and in fourteen years after the token it would extend to England."
In compliance with his supernatural communication, our farmer proceeded to Cheshire, where he found the man indicated; and, a year after, his own farm stock was increased by the birth of a calf with his heart growing out. And after taking his family, of seven, to witness to the truth of what he describes, he adds with great simplicity: "So then I rode to London to acquaint the ministers of state of the approaching danger!"
This story of the calf with the heart growing out, is not a bad type of the worthy grazier himself, and his hearty and burning zeal for the Protestant faith. Mr. Newans distinctly and repeatedly predicts that these "two beastly religions," i. e. the Popish and Mahomedan, will be totally extirpated within seven years! And "I have," says he, "for almost twenty years past, travelled to London and back again into the country, near fifty journies, and every journey was two hundred and fifty miles, to acquaint the ministers of state and several of the bishops, and other divines, with the certainty, danger, and manner of the war" which was to bring this about. Commenting on the story of Balaam, our prophet says: "And now the world is grown so full of sin and wickedness, that if a dumb ass should speak with a man's voice, they would scarce repent:" and I conclude that the said statesmen and divines did not estimate these prophetic warnings much higher than the brayings of that quadruped which they turned out to be. Mr. Newan professes to gave penned these vaticinations in the year 1744, twenty-one years after the date of his vision; so that he had ample time to mature them. What would the farmer say were he favoured with a peep at our world in 1853, with its Mussulman system unbroken; and its cardinal, archbishops, and Popish bishops firmly established in the very heart of Protestant England?
J. O.
FOLK LORE
Folk Lore in Cambridgeshire.—About twenty years ago, at Hildersham, there was a custom of ringing the church bell at five o'clock in the leasing season. The cottagers then repaired to the fields to glean; but none went out before the bell was rung. The bell tolled again in the evening as a signal for all to return home. I would add a Query, Is this custom continued; and is it to be met with in any other place?
F. M. Middleton.
New Brunswick Folk Lore:—Common Notions respecting Teeth.—Among the lower orders and negroes, and also among young children of respectable parents (who have probably derived the notion from contact with the others as nurses or servants), it is here very commonly held that when a tooth is drawn, if you refrain from thrusting the tongue in the cavity, the second tooth will be golden. Does this idea prevail in England?
Superstition respecting Bridges.—Many years ago my grandfather had quite a household of blacks, some of whom were slaves and some free. Being bred in his family, a large portion of my early days was thus passed among them, and I have often reverted to the weird superstitions with which they froze themselves and alarmed me. Most of these had allusion to the devil: scarcely one of them that I now recollect but referred to him. Among others they firmly held that when the clock struck twelve at midnight, the devil and a select company of his inferiors regularly came upon that part of the bridge called "the draw," and danced a hornpipe there. So firmly did they hold to this belief, that no threat nor persuasion could induce the stoutest-hearted of them to cross the fatal draw after ten o'clock at night. This belief is quite contrary to that which prevails in Scotland, according to which, Robin Burns being my authority, "neither witches nor any evil spirits have power to follow a poor wight any farther than the middle of the next running stream."1
C. D. D.
New Brunswick, New Jersey.
North Lincolnshire Folk Lore.—Here follow some shreds of folk lore which I have not seen as yet in "N. & Q." They all belong to North Lincolnshire.
1. Death sign. If a swarm of bees alight on a dead tree, or on the dead bough of a living tree, there will be a death in the family of the owner during the year.
2. If you do not throw salt into the fire before you begin to churn, the butter will not come.
3. If eggs are brought over running water they will have no chicks in them.
4. It is unlucky to bring eggs into the house after sunset.
5. If you wear a snake's skin round your head you will never have the headache.
6. Persons called Agnes always go mad.
7. A person who is born on Christmas Day will be able to see spirits.
8. Never burn egg-shells; if you do, the hens cease to lay.
9. If a pigeon is seen sitting in a tree, or comes into the house, or from being wild suddenly becomes tame, it is a sign of death.
10. When you see a magpie you should cross yourself; if you do not you will be unlucky.
Edward Peacock.
Bottesford Moors.
Portuguese Folk Lore.—
"The borderer whispered in my ear that he was one of the dreadful Lobishomens, a devoted race, held in mingled horror and commiseration, and never mentioned without by the Portuguese peasantry. They believe that if a woman be delivered of seven male infants successively, the seventh, by an inexplicable fatality, becomes subject to the powers of darkness; and is compelled, on every Saturday evening, to assume the likeness of an ass. So changed, and followed by a horrid train of dogs, he is forced to run an impious race over the moors and through the villages; nor is allowed an interval of rest until the dawning Sabbath terminates his sufferings, and restores him to his human shape."—From Lord Carnarvon's Portugal and Gallicia, vol. ii. p. 268.
E. H. A.
POPE AND COWPER
In Cowper's letter to Lady Hesketh, dated January 18, 1787, occurs a notice for the first time of Mr. Samuel Rose, with whom Cowper subsequently corresponded. He informs Lady Hesketh that—
"A young gentleman called here yesterday, who came six miles out of his way to see me. He was on a journey to London from Glasgow, having just left the University there. He came, I suppose, partly to satisfy his own curiosity, but chiefly, as it seemed, to bring me the thanks of some of the Scotch professors for my two volumes. His name is Rose, an Englishman."
Prefixed to a copy of Hayley's Life and Letters of William Cowper, Esq., in the British Museum, is an extract in MS. of a letter from the late Samuel Rose, Esq., to his favourite sister, Miss Harriet Rose, written in the year before his marriage, at the age of twenty-two, and which, I believe, has never been printed. It may, perhaps, merit a corner of "N. & Q."
"Weston Lodge, Sept. 9, 1789.
"Last week Mr. Cowper finished the Odyssey, and we drank an unreluctant bumper to its success. The labour of translation is now at an end, and the less arduous work of revision remains to be done, and then we shall see it published. I promise both you and myself much pleasure from its perusal. You will most probably find it at first less pleasing than Pope's versification, owing to the difference subsisting between blank verse and rhyme—a difference which is not sufficiently attended to, and whereby people are led into injudicious comparisons. You will find Mr. Pope more refined: Mr. Cowper more simple, grand, and majestic; and, indeed, insomuch as Mr. Pope is more refined than Mr. Cowper, he is more refined than his original, and in the same proportion departs from Homer himself. Pope's must universally be allowed to be a beautiful poem: Mr. Cowper's will be found a striking and a faithful portrait, and a pleasing picture to those who enjoy his style of colouring, which I am apprehensive is not so generally acceptable as the other master's. Pope possesses the gentle and amiable graces of a Guido: Cowper is endowed with the bold sublime genius of a Raphael. After having said so much upon their comparative merits, enough, I hope, to refute your second assertion which was, that women, in the opinion of men, have little to do with literature. I may inform you, that the Iliad is to be dedicated to Earl Cowper, and the Odyssey to the Dowager Lady Spencer but this information need not be extensively circulated."
J. Yeowell.
50. Burton Street.
SHAKSPEARE CORRESPONDENCE
"As You Like It."—Believing that whatever illustrates, even to a trifling extent, the great dramatic poet of England will interest the readers of "N. & Q.," I solicit their attention to the resemblance between the two following passages:
"All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players."
"Si rectè aspicias, vita hæc est fabula quædam.
Scena autem, mundus versatilis: histrio et actor
Quilibet est hominum—mortales nam propriè cuncti
Sunt personati, et falsâ sub imagine, vulgi
Præstringunt oculos: ita Diis, risumque jocumque,
Stultitiis, nugisque suis per sæcula præbent.
. . . . . . . .
"Jam mala quæ humanum patitur genus, adnumerabo.
Principiò postquam è latebris malè olentibus alvi
Eductus tandem est, materno sanguine fœdus,
Vagit, et auspicio lacrymarum nascitur infans.
. . . . . . . .
"Vix natus jam vincla subit, tenerosque coërcet
Fascia longa artus: præsagia dire futuri
Servitii.
. . . . . . . .
"Post ubi jam valido se poplite sustinet, et jam
Ritè loqui didicit, tunc servire incipit, atque
Jussa pati, sentitque minas ictusque magistri,
Sæpe patris matrisque manu fratrisque frequenter
Pulsatur: facient quid vitricus atque noverca?
Fit juvenis, crescunt vires: jam spernit habenas,
Occluditque aures monitis, furere incipit, ardens
Luxuriâ atque irâ: et temerarius omnia nullo
Consilio aggreditur, dictis melioribus obstat,
Deteriora fovens: non ulla pericula curat,
Dummodo id efficiat, suadet quod cœca libido.
. . . . . . . .
"Succedit gravior, melior, prudentior ætas,
Cumque ipsâ curæ adveniunt, durique labores;
Tune homo mille modis, studioque enititur omni
Rem facere, et nunquam sibi multa negotia desunt.
Nunc peregrè it, nunc ille domi, nunc rure laborat,
Ut sese, uxorem, natos, famulosque gubernet,
Ac servet, solus pro cunctis sollicitus, nec
Jucundis fruitur dapibus, nec nocte quietâ.
Ambitio hunc etiam impellens, ad publica mittit
Munia: dumque inhiat vano malè sanus honori,
Invidiæ atque odii patitur mala plurima: deinceps
Obrepit canis rugosa senecta capillis,
Secum multa trahens incommoda corporis atque
Mentis: nam vires abeunt, speciesque colorque,
Nec non deficiunt sensus: audire, videre
Languescunt, gustusque minor fit: denique semper
Aut hoc, aut illo morbo vexantur—inermi
Manduntur vix ore cibi, vix crura bacillo
Sustentata meant: animus quoque vulnera sentit.
Desipit, et longo torpet confectus ab ævo."
It would have only occupied your space needlessly, to have transcribed at length the celebrated description of the seven ages of human life from Shakspeare's As You Like It; but I would solicit the attention of your readers to the Latin verses, and then to the question, Whether either poet has borrowed from the other? and, should this be decided affirmatively, the farther question would arise, Which is the original?
Arterus.
Dublin.
[These lines look like a modern paraphrase of Shakspeare; and our Correspondent has not informed us from what book he has transcribed them.—Ed.]
Passage in "King John" and "Romeo and Juliet."—I am neither a commentator nor a reader of commentators on Shakspeare. When I meet with a difficulty, I get over it as well as I can, and think no more of the matter. Having, however, accidentally seen two passages of Shakspeare much ventilated in "N. & Q.," I venture to give my poor conjectures respecting them.
1. King John.—
"It lies as sightly on the back of him,
As great Alcides' shows upon an ass."
I consider shows to be the true reading; the reference being to the ancient mysteries, called also shows. The machinery required for the celebration of the mysteries was carried by asses. Hence the proverb: "Asinus portat mysteriæ." The connexion of Hercules—"great Alcides"—with the mysteries, may be learned from Aristophanes and many other ancient writers. And thus the meaning of the passage seems to be: The lion's skin, which once belonged to Richard of the Lion Heart, is as sightly on the back of Austria, as were the mysteries of Hercules upon an ass.
2. Romeo and Juliet.—
"That runaways eyes may wink."
Here I would retain the reading, and interpret runaways as signifying "persons going about on the watch." Perhaps runagates, according to modern usage, would come nearer to the proposed signification, but not to be quite up with it. Many words in Shakspeare have significations very remote from those which they now bear.
Patrick Muirson.
Shakspeare and the Bible.—Has it ever been noticed that the following passage from the Second Part of Henry IV., Act I. Sc. 3., is taken from the fourteenth chapter of St. Luke's Gospel?
"What do we then, but draw anew the model
In fewer offices; or, at least, desist
To build at all? Much more, in this great work,
(Which is almost to pluck a kingdom down,
And set another up) should we survey
The plot, the situation, and the model;
Consult upon a sure foundation,
Question surveyors, know our own estate,
How able such a work to undergo.
A careful leader sums what force he brings
To weigh against his opposite; or else
We fortify on paper, and in figures,
Using the names of men, instead of men:
Like one that draws the model of a house
Beyond his power to build it."
The passage in St. Luke is as follows (xiv. 28-31.):
"For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?
"Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,
"Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
"Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?"
I give the passage as altered by Mr. Collier's Emendator, because I think the line added by him,
"A careful leader sums what force he brings,"
is strongly corroborated by the Scripture text.
Q. D.