S52 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°<i S. No 70., May 2. '57, 



work in which a series of fac-similes of autographs 

 appeared was Sir John Fenn's Original Letters 

 from the Archives of the Paston Family, 1787. 

 For further particulars on the subject, see the 

 Penny Cydopcedia, art. Autograph ; D'Israeli's 

 Curiosities of Literature, vol. ii. pp. 207 — 214., and 

 the preface to J. G. Nichols's Autographs of Per- 

 sons conspicuous in English History, Lond. 1829. 



J. Ctpkian Rust. 

 Norwich. 



THE OLD HUNDREDTH TUNE. 



(2"i S. iii. 58. 234. 295.) 

 A good history of congregational singing would 

 be very interesting and amusing. About the 

 close of the seventeenth century there were great 

 doubts as to the propriety of singing in divine 

 worship on the Lord's day, to clear up which 

 Benj. Keach wrote his book called The Breach 

 Repaired; or Singing an Holy Ordinance. In 

 my boyish days it was never questioned that the 

 Old Hundredth was a composition of Luther's : 

 now this is denied; but it is certain this tune 

 was used by the Reformers from his time. The 

 first printed copy of it, in my possession, is in the 

 French- German Psalter, the preface to which 

 says : 



" Toiichant la raelodie, il a semble le meilleur, qu'elle 

 fast moder^e, eu la sorte que nous I'avons mise, pour em- 

 porter poids et majestd convenable au sujet : Et mesme 

 pour estre propre h chanter en I'Eglise, selon qu'il a est^ 

 dit. De Geneae, ce 10. de Juin, 1543." 



This preface was written by Calvin. See 

 Marsh's Works* The Old Hundredth is put to 

 Psalm cxxxiiii., and so continued in subsequent 

 editions, of which I have those of Crespin, 1555 ; 

 Vincent, 1562; Le Bas, 1567; and Estienne, 

 1567 and 1568. In the early Scotch Service- 

 books, Edinb. 1615 and 1635 ; Aberdeen, 1633, 

 the Old Hundredth is placed to the 100th psalm, 

 " All people that on earth do dwell," &c. It will 

 also be so found appended to the early Genevan 

 English Bibles from 1576, and to the Jubilate 

 (Ps. 100.) in that printed at Geneva by Crespin, 

 1568, " with apt notes to sing withall." 



Geohge Opfoe. 



[The Marloweand Keach controversy touching Psalm- 

 singing is of all curiosities the most remarkable. It runs 

 through about thirty little volumes. The arguments of 

 Hanserd Knollys [and Isaac Marlowe took this course : 

 " The church [Baptist] never sang until Mr. Keach came 

 among us. There is no such thing in the Old Testament 

 that the Church of God, minister and people, men and 

 women, did ever vocally sing together in church wor- 

 ship." Richard Allen came out in defence of Keach, and 

 his Singing of Psalms a Christian Duty deserves to be 

 reprinted.] 



* In the roj'al patent to print this Psalter in France 

 granted, 19 Oct. 1561, to Antoine Vincent of Lyons it is 

 described as having " bonne musique comme a este bien 



WHAT WAS A JACK OF DOVEE .'' 



(2"'i S. iii. 228.) 



" And many a Jacke of Dover hast thou sold. 

 That hath been twies hot, and twies cold." 



" Roger the coke " announces himself a few 

 lines before as " Hodge of Ware." Apparently in 

 sportive allusion to this announcement, " Our 

 Hoste " alleges that " Hodge of Ware " had sold 

 " many a Jacke of Dover. ^^ 



Let us first identify '■'■Jacke" and then try 

 whether we can in any way connect him with 

 Dover. 



" Jacke of Dover," then, I take to be an inferior 

 kind of saltfish or stockfish ; namely, that called 

 " Poor John ; " — in other words, hake salted and 

 dried. 



" Poor John " has been ingeniously derived 

 from pauvres gens, because dried hake was con- 

 sidered an inferior dish, and was the food of poor 

 people. But this derivation overlooks the fact 

 that we have a special reason for employing the 

 name of John, in connexion with hake. 



The Latin for hake is merlucius. Now lucius is 

 a pike, or jack. Therefore merlucius, instead of 

 which we sometimes have lucius marinus, signifies 

 a sea jack. Hence the term " Poor John " stands 

 naturally connected with lucius marinus and mer- 

 lucius, as being this sea jack salted and dried. 

 This tends to connect ^'- J ache of Dover" with 

 hake. 



Indeed the' word hake itself might be satis- 

 factorily shown (though not without going some- 

 what into detail) to be connected with "Jack." 

 To clear up this part of the subject, we shall have 

 to inquire in the first place how far Jacke stood 

 originally for John, how far for James ( Jac-obus). 



[N.B. Of course we must not confound the 

 merlucius or lucius marinus, of former times, with 

 what is now called by naturalists the sea-pike 

 (Lat. belone), which is an esox. There is, how- 

 ever, a curious connexion between the old names 

 of the pike and the hake. Thus hakot, in our 

 own language, is a kind of hake ; and hacod in 

 A.-S. is a jack.] 



But, supposing the " Jacke " of which Chaucer 

 speaks in the passage before us to be "Poor 

 John," or dried hake, why " Jacke of Dover ? " 



The poet has a specific plea for employing this 

 specific phrase. We find in Hasted an account of 

 the "Priory of 'Dover" (Priory of the Blessed 

 Virgin and St. Martin) ; and, annexed to this 

 account, a list of the priors (vol. iv. 1799. p. 106). 

 Now several of these priors took the name of 

 Dover. Thus we have "Thomas Dover," and 

 "William Dover " (bis). But during Chaucer's 

 life, and about the time when he may be sup- 



vue et cognue par gens doctes en I'art de musique.* 

 There is no mention of the composers. 



