XOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 114. 



semicolon he subsequently met with, was in a book 

 printed by Tliomas Marsha in 1568, on Chess. 

 Ibid. p. 358. 



Herbert says, both seem to have been used 

 accidentally. 



Puttenham, in his Arte of English Poesie, 4to., 

 1589, in his chapter of " Cesure," says : — 



" The ancient reformers of language invented these 

 names of pauses, one of lesse leasure than another, and 

 such several intermissions of sound, to serve (besides 

 easement to the breath) for a treble distinction of sen- 

 tences or parts of speach, as they happened to be more 

 or lesse perfect in sense. The shortest pause, or inter- 

 missioa, they called comma, as who would say a piece 

 of a speech cut off. The second they called colon, not 

 a piece, but as it were a member, for his larger length, 

 because it occupied twice as much time as the comma. 

 The third they called periodvs, for a complement or 

 fi»ll pause, and as a resting place and perfection of so 

 much former speech as had been uttered, and from 

 whence they needed not to passe any further, unless it 

 were to renew more matter to enlarge the tale." 



The " three pauses, comma, colon, and periode," 

 with the interrogative point, appear to have been 

 all which were known to Puttenham. 



Puttenham's Aiie of Poesie has been already 

 mentioned as printed in 1589. In the Countess of 

 Pembroke's Arcadia, printed by W. Ponsonby in 

 the very next year, 1590, the semicolon may be 

 seen in the first page. 



A book printed at Edinburgh in 1594 has not 

 the semicolon ; the use of it had not, apparently, 

 arrived in Scotland. 



That an earlier use of the semicolon had been 

 made upon the Continent is probable. It occurs 

 in the Sermone di Beato Leone Papa, 4to., Flor. 

 1485, the last point in the book. 



The interrogative point, or note of interroga- 

 tion, probably derived from the Greek, occurs 

 frequently in Wilson's Arte of Rhetorique, 4to. 

 15^. 



Some reader of your " Notes and Queries," 

 better informed than myself, may possibly throw 

 further light upon the English adoption of stops 

 in literature. Henry Ellis. 



PKEACHING FEOM TEXTS IN COBNWAXL. 



Your correspondents have already pointed out 

 the very early prevalence of this usage, but the 

 inquiry has brought to my recollection an instance 

 ■wluch incidentally affords some curious informal 

 tiop respecting the several languages formerly 

 current in the western parts of this island. It 

 was lately published, among numerous other ex- 

 tracts, f^'oni the registers of the see of Exeter, in 

 the valuable Monastieon Diacesis Exoniensis of 

 Dr. OliTer, pp. 11, 12. 



In 1336, Grandison, then Bishop of Exeter, 

 naade a risitation of his diocese. At the westara 



extremity of it, is situate the deanery or collegiate 

 church of St. Burian, which has always claimed 

 to be exempt from episcopal visitation, or at least 

 from ordinary jurisdiction. It is probable that, 

 on one occasion of this disputed exemption, the 

 parishioners of this remote district at the Land's 

 End had given offence to the Bishop or his func- 

 tionaries. 



In company with the Lords Mortimer, D'Awney, 

 and Bloyhon (probably an ancestor of your corre- 

 spondent Blowen), and a large staff of archdea- 

 cons, chancellors, canons, chaplains, and familiars, 

 the Bishop visited the church of St. Burian, and 

 obtained from the parishioners a solemn promise 

 of future obedience to his spiritual authority. 

 The promise was made by the greater parishioners 

 in English and French, and by the rest injCornish, 

 which the rector of St. Just (a parish which has 

 lately obtained some celebrity by the Goiham 

 controversy) interpreted to his lordship. Having 

 absolved them, he then preached a long sermon 

 on the text, " Eratis sicut oves errantes conversi 

 ad pastorem episcopum animarum x:estrarum" which 

 the rector of St. Just then interpreted in Cornish. 



It is not stated in the record what language was 

 used by the Bishop in his sermon ; but if he 

 preached, as one of his successors. Bishop Lacy, is 

 known to have done, in the language of his text, 

 the business of explanation must have been rather 

 troublesome. As he is said to have "successively" 

 preached this sermon there, — '■'■ successive ibidem 

 publice praedicavit supra sumpto themate" — ^it is 

 possible that he had to repeat his sermon in more 

 languages than one. It is at all events certain, 

 that three languages at least were employed, and 

 that the Bishop did not undei'stand Cornish, nor 

 the Cornish men the Bishop. The names of the 

 " major parishioners," that is, of the gentlemen of 

 the district, are appended to the document, and 

 are all (except perhaps one) genuine Cornish 

 families, including the Boscawens and Vyvyana of 

 the present day. , They gave in their adhesion to 

 the Bishop in English and French, and must 

 therefore have understood one or both of those 

 languages. Of the Bishop's chaplains, only one 

 has a Cornish name ; and the interpreter and 

 rector of the adjacent parish of St. Just, Henry 

 Marseley, was also probably not a Cornubian. 



I may mention that the penitent parishioners 

 very prudently reserved the king's rights. As 

 the king claimed the deanery of St. B"»'ian as a 

 royal peculiar exempt from ordina^-y jurisdiction, 

 and eventually made good his claim, it is plain 

 that neither the promises of the parishioners nor 

 the polyglot sermon of the Bishop, could have had 

 any lasting effect. The patronage was soon after 

 conferred on the Black Prince, and through him 

 transmitted to the present Duke of Cornwall, by 

 whose spontaneous act this obnoxious exemption 

 fK»m episcopal control was wholly and for ever 



