430 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



[2°'» S. NO 74., May 30. '57. 



puzzled me to find such passages, as in Pepys's 

 Diary, where, on May 4, 1660, " The loud Vive 

 le Roys were echoed from one ships company to 

 another." I- could not understand the sailors 

 crying out in French ; nor why, as on March 28, 

 1660, before Charles II. was proclaimed, "a gen- 

 tleman named Banes was brought as a prisoner, 

 because he called out of the vessel that he went in 

 Vive le Roy!" I have now traced it to an En- 

 glish national song, with Vive le Roy as a burden ; 

 and have printed both words and music in my 

 Popular Music of the Olden Time (Part IX. 

 p. 429.), adding thereto the proofs of its general 

 use. Among the songs which were sung to the 

 tune of Vive le Roy, one on the restoration of 

 Charles II. has the following chorus to each 

 verse : — 



" Then let us sing, boyes, God save the King, boyes, 

 Drink a good health, and sing Vive le Roy." 



Here then is " God save the King " sung to the 

 tune of Vive le Roy. 



I have trespassed largely upon the space of 

 your readers ; but before concluding, I would 

 beg Dr. Gauntlett to be careful in the use of 

 inverted commas. By altering the editorial " we 

 have no reason to believe," into direct assertion, 

 he has given the impression that I was referred to 

 on this subject by the Editor of "N. & Q." in 

 July last, which is not the fact. Dr. Gauntlett 

 is also mistaken as to my not having seen the 

 manuscript before it passed into the late Mr. 

 Clark's hands. He has explained the origin of 

 that mistake to me : there are two manuscripts of 

 Dr. Bull's compositions, and he supposed the only 

 one I had seen to be that still in my possession. 

 The minor point, of some misquotation in my 

 letter of Sept. 12, will be of no interest to your 

 readers. Wm. Ciiappbll. 



3. Harley Place, N. W. 



ITALIAN CITT MENTIONED BY THEMIST0CLE8. 



(2°'^ S. iii. 328.) 



In Xerxes' invasion of Greece, Attica was over- 

 run and Athens destroyed. Athens had been 

 previously deserted by its inhabitants, who re- 

 tired to their fleet and some friendly cities. The 

 Grecian fleet was stationed in the Gulf of Salamis ; 

 but on hearing the destruction of Athens, alarm 

 seized several of the leaders, and the commander, 

 the Lacedaemonian Eurybiades proposed to retire 

 to the Isthmus of Corinth. Themistocles urged 

 him to await the approach of the Persian fleet in 

 the narrow gulf, which would deprive them of the 

 advantage to be derived from their superior force, 

 besides preventing the possible separation of the 

 Grecian fleet. In the course of his argument 

 Themistocles threatened, if bis advice were not 



I acceded to, that the Athenians would embark their 

 families in their ships, and remove with them to 

 Siris in Italy ; which from remote times had been 

 considered as belonging to the Athenians, and 

 where, if the oracle might be credited, they should 

 found a city. The result, and the glorious battle 

 of Salamis, every one knows. 



Siris in Lucania, the modern Basilicata in the 

 kingdom of Naples, situated at the mouth on the 

 left bank of a river of the same name (now Sinno), 

 which falls into the Gulf of Tarentum, was said to 

 have been founded by a Trojan colony, afterwards 

 expelled by lonians from Colophon in tlie time of 

 Alyattes king of Lydia. It rivalled Sybaris in 

 riches and luxury, and reached its height of pros- 

 perity about 540 B.C. Shortly after, it was nearly 

 destroyed in a war with the neighbouring cities 

 Metapontum and Sybaris. At the date of the 

 battle of Salamis, 480 B.C., it would appear, from 

 the expression of Themistocles in his remonstrance 

 with Eurybiades, to have been deserted ; and 

 when the Tarentines settled at Heraclea, founded 

 after its ruin, they removed the Sirites to the new 

 town. Of its present state and the cadavei'a 

 oppidum, Swinburne tells us in his Travels through 

 the Two Sicilies (section 37., vol. i. p. 279., 4to.) : 



" At the wood, near the banks of the Agri, and about 

 three miles from the sea, are some heaps of rubbish that 

 fix the situation of Heraclea. And, according to the 

 most probable conjecture, near the mouth of the Sinno 

 was Siris, the port of that city. At present there is only 

 an open road." 



No vestige of Siris is said to exist. Vide Hero- 

 dotus, book viii. c. 62. ; Cramer's Description of 

 Ancient Italy, vol. i. p. 350., and ancient authors 

 quoted in it. Micali says of the origin of Siris : 



" It is said farther, that in the time of Alj-attes and 

 Croesus, Ionian fugitives of Colophon landed at the mouth 

 of the river Siris, and founded there a city of the same 

 name." — • Antiche Popoli d' Italia, torn. i. p. 324. 



I have not found any farther trace of the con- 

 nexion of the Athenians with Siris. W. H. F. 

 Kirkwall. 



RHOSWITHA. 



(2'"» S. iii. 368.) 



The name of this learned lady is variously 

 written, Roswida, Rosvitis, Roswitha, Hroswitha, 

 Hroswita, Rhosovita, Rhosoita, Hrotsuitha, and 

 Hrosvita. She was a nun of the great abbey of 

 Gandersheim, in Wolfenbuttel, and flourished 

 about the year of our Lord, 980. Lilius Gyraldus 

 (Hist. Poet. Dial. Y, propeJiTiem) describes her as 

 having been learned both in Greek and Latin ; 

 and he states her to have written a Historical 

 Panegyric on the Emperor Otho ; also Six Come- 

 dies ; the Praises of the B. V. M. in elegiac verse; 

 and the Life of St. Dionysius, in the same mea- 

 sure. Cave {ffist. Liter., p. 588.) is somewhat 



