Feb. 14. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



153 



depart ; unless you come hither, like another Hercules, 

 to lend him some friendly assistance; for here will be 

 work sufficient to employ yon, and as many as enter 

 this place." 



This inscription was afterwards adopted, for a similar 

 purpose, by the learned Oporinus, a printer of Basil.] 



" The last links are broken^'' — Who is the 

 author of " The last links are broken ? " If they 

 are by Moore, in what part of his works are tliey 

 to be" found ? M. C. 



[This ballad was written by Miss Fanny Steers.] 



Under Weigh or Way. — Does a ship on sailing 



get under " weigh," or under " way ? ' 



E. S. T. T. 



[Webster and Falconer are in favour of way. The 

 latter says, " The wuy of a ship is the course or pro- 

 gress which she makes on the water under sail. Thus, 

 when she begins her motion, she is said to be under 

 way ; and when that motiou increases, she is said to 

 have fresh way through the water ; wliereas, to weigh 

 (leeer Vancre, appareiller) is to heave up the anclior of 

 a ship from the ground, in order to prepare her for 

 sailing."] 



The Pope\s Eye. — Why is it tliat the piece of 

 fat in the middle of a leg of mutton is called the 

 " Pope's eye ? " J. D. G. 



[Boyer, in his French Dictionary, explains it: " Le 

 morceau gras d'une eclanche on d'un gigot de mouton." 

 Others liave derived it from popa, which seems ori- 

 ginally to have denoted that part of the fat of the 

 victim separated from the thigh in sacrificing; and in 

 process of time, the priest who sacrificed.] 



"History is Philosophy" Sfc. — What is the 

 exact source of the often repeated passage, 



" History is philosophy teaching by examples ? " 

 I am aware that it is commonly attributed to Bo- 

 lingbroke, but a distinguished literary friend tells 

 me that he cannot find it in Bolingbroke's writings, 

 and suspects that, as is the case with some other 

 well-known sayings, its paternity is unknown. T. 



[In the Encyclopedia MetropoUtana, vol. ix. p. l;5., 

 this passage is attributed to Dionysius of Halicar- 

 nassus. ] 



iUcpItcS. 



coverdale's bible. 



(Vol. v., pp. 59. 109.) 



Learned disputes about the translation of Bib- 

 lical words might occupy the pages of " N. & Q." 

 to the discomfort of some of its readers. In fact 

 its numbers might be all swallowed up in the 

 important inquiry after those original texts which 

 our eminent translators used when they supplied 

 England with the water of life, by furnishing the 

 country with a faithful translation of the Holy 



Oracles. To the martyr Tyndale, and the vener- 

 able servant of Christ, Coverdale, this nation and 

 the world are indebted to an extent that no honour 

 to their memory can ever repay. Tyndale, fear- 

 less, learned, and devoted, was sacrificed in the 

 prime of life ; while Coverdale, more cautious, 

 went on to old age constantly energetic in pro- 

 moting the Reformation. 



Words and sentences can be produced in which 

 Coverdale claims superiority over Tyndale. While 

 Tyndale's is more suited to this day of fearless 

 enquiry and meridian light, Coverdale's may be 

 preferred as a gentler clearing away of the morning 

 clouds which obscured the horizon after Wickliile 

 had introduced the day s])ring from on high. 



It has become too much the fashion in our day 

 to exalt Tyndale at the expense of Coverdale. 

 This is ungenerous and unjust : they were both 

 of them great and shining lights in the hemisphere 

 of the Reformation. Tyndale's learning and de- 

 cision of character gave him great advantages as a 

 translator from languages then but little known ; 

 while Coverdale's cautious, pains-taking perse- 

 verance enabled him to render most essential ser- 

 vice to the sacred cause of Divine Truth. Our 

 inquiry commenced with the question, why the 

 words " translated out of Douche and Latyn into 

 Englyshe" appeared upon the title-page to some 

 copies of Coverd:ile's Bible, 1535. I must remind 

 my excellent friend, the llev. Henry Walter, 

 that while the copy in the British Museum, and 

 that at Ilolkham, has those words, a finer and un- 

 sophisticated copy in the library of Earl Jersey of 

 the same edition has no such words ; and that the 

 four editions subsequently published by Coverdale 

 all omit the words " Douche and Latyn," and in- 

 sert in their place, " fiiytlifully translated in 

 English." My decided impression is, that the in- 

 sertion of those words on the first title-page was 

 not with Coverdale's knowledge, and that, lest they 

 should mislead the reader, they were omitted when 

 the title was reprinted ; and a dedication and pro- 

 logue were added when the copies arrived in 

 England, the dedication and preface being from a 

 very different fount of type to that used in print- 

 ing the text. 



It must also be recollected tha.t Coverdale 

 altered his prologue to the reader in the copies 

 dedicated to Edward VI. Instead of " To helps 

 me herein I have had sondrye translacyons, not 

 onely in Latyn but also of the Douche interpreters^* 

 the last four words are omitted, and he has in- 

 serted, " in other languages." Coverdale, with 

 indefatigable zeal, made use of every translation 

 in his power. Tyndale's Pentateuch had been for 

 several years published, and had passed through 

 two editions. His translation o^ Jonah., with a long 

 prologue, was printed in 1530 and 1537, and re- 

 published in Matthew's (Tyndale's) Bible in 1549. 

 The prologue is inserted in The Woi-ks of Tyndale^ 



