2'"5 S. No C7., April U. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



295 



particular house or town, even a good telescope 

 would not enable an observer to determine 

 promptly that it was not equally in the zenith of 

 a considerable circle round that house or town. 



Nor does the simple narrative of the evangelist, 

 telling how " the star went before" the Magi, " till 

 it came and stood over" a particular place, not 

 only compel the scientific reader to perceive that 

 the stellar appearance must have had a low eleva- 

 tion ; but it thereby satisfies him that the absence 

 of any notice of such an extraordinary star by 

 the astronomers or registrars of rare phenomena, 

 whether Greek, Roman, or Egyptian, cannot rea- 

 sonably be regarded as any disparagement to the 

 credibility of the narrative. Henry Waltbb. 



THE OLD HUNDREDTH TUNE. 



(2°'i S. iii. 58. 234.) 



This tune is not one of Luther's, but M. Y. L. 

 ought to give some authority for " rather posi- 

 tively " asserting it is neither French nor Flemish. 

 We shall not get the origin of this melody from 

 New York ; but what we may get will be a reprint 

 of Mr. Havergal's remarks on its origin, which Mr. 

 Lowell Mason took away from London some few 

 years since, and which he told me he should re- 

 print in America. It is possible there may be 

 some little addition to Mr. Havergal's work, for 

 Mr. Mason had purchased Rinck's Library, which 

 was known to be rich in choral books, and some 

 of them early and rare. 



What authority has M. Y. L. for declaring 

 Goudimel framed none of the melodies in the 

 Genevan Psalter ? What authority for declaring 

 the copy of 1561 the earliest known copy ? and 

 why does he guess at this date ? 



Clement Marot translated the first fifty psalms 

 only. Theodore Beza supplied the rest. I ask 

 M. Y. L. the date of that edition of Marot which 

 first had the music therein ? Marot printed the 

 first thirty Psalms in 1538 or 1540. The Ant- 

 werp edition is 1541, Lyons 1543-1544, and there 

 was an edition at Stra&burg in 1545, with the 

 music, which was a reprint of the fifty Psalms is- 

 sued from Geneva in 1543. Calvin says these 

 Psalms with the music were first printed in 

 Geneva ; and Beza in 1552 writes that Guillaume 

 Franc set the melodies to Marot's Psalms. I ask 

 M. Y. L. the date of the first edition of Beza's 

 work, for it is clear the tune would be in this 

 portion of the Psalter ? There is an edition of 

 1563 at Lyons: the edition of 1562, mentioned by 

 M. Y. L., I do not know. But the Genevan 

 edition of 1564 has the licence of Gallatin declaring 

 that Quillaume Franc is the author of all the tunes. 

 There is also a Lyons edition of 1564. Calvin 

 adopted Marot's Psalms for public worship in 



1553, and Strada tells us the tunes were set 

 thereto by " excellent composers." But is there 

 not a Strasburg edition of all the Psalms as early 

 as 1545? Ravenscroft calls the Old Hundredth 

 the French \00th tune, and he well knew what he 

 was about. H. J. Gauntlett. 



AUREA CATENA HOMERI (2"'^ S. iii. 63. 81. 104. 



158.) : NAMES OF PLANETS (1" S. vii. 132.) 



" It would," observes Eirtonnach, " much en- 

 hance the value of ' N. & Q.,' as a book of re- 

 ference, if every subject of real interest and 

 importance once taken up in its pages, \fQre fol- 

 lowed up as opportunities occur." Agreeably to 

 this sensible suggestion, I would follow up the 

 investigation after passages both in ancient and 

 modern works in which the Golden Chain of 

 Homer has in various senses been introduced. 

 That the subject of his interesting communica- 

 tions is worthy of this consideration is unques- 

 tionable. 



" For letting down the Golden Chain from high, 

 He drew his audience upward to the sky.* 

 He hurls the weapons of the God -of Day, 

 And dissipates the clouds of Earth away. 

 He breaks the bonds of sublunary care 

 In which the senses have excessive share, 

 And bids us rest on ' Providence's Chair.' 

 But rest is motion, as we well may learn 

 From orbs celestial circling round their Sun. 

 For sensuous pleasures and dissolving scenes 

 He gives us substance, he gives gold that sheens ; 

 And this is in his philosophic lore 

 A mind divested of terrestrial ore." 



I have not succeeded in finding the passage in 

 Lucian referred to by Burton (p. 55.). There 

 are others in that author as follow : " Maxime ex 

 Homeri poette et Hesiodi versibus discat aliquis 

 de quibus olim cum Astrologis convenerit. Quando 

 vero catenam Jovis refert et solis jacula, hos 

 utique dies esse conjicio." This is illustrated in 

 the notes in loc. (De Astrologia, 22.) by the ex- 

 tract given by your correspondent from Plato's 

 Theatetm (p. 82.). Lucian's exposition is cited by 

 an anonymous author in Gale's Opuscula Mytho- 

 logica, etc. p. 93. In Lucian's Jupiter Confutatus, 

 Cyniscus alludes to Jupiter's threat, and retorts 

 on him that he was himself dependent on the 

 Parcae. 



" Modo vero ipsum te jam video una catena ilia et 

 minis, a tenui filo, ut ais, suspensum. Videtur ergo 

 mihi justius gloriari posse Clotho, ut quae ipsum te quo- 

 que pendulum de colo sua libret, ut piscatores de arun- 

 dine pisciculos." 



In Jupiter Tragcedus the god's threat is fre- 

 quently introduced. 



* " And oft with hoi}' hymns he charm'd their ears, 

 A music more melodious than the spheres." 



Dryden's Character of a Good Parson, 



