2°'J S. X. Nov. 10. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



367 



the extract many years ago from a sermon by Dr, 

 Tobias Crisp, on "Free Grace the Teacher of 

 Good Works." He is speaking of the prodigal 

 son : — 



"The son's pace is slow, he arose and came; the 

 Father's is swift, he ran. The son has most need to run ; 

 bowels moving with mercy outpace bowels pincht with 

 want. God makes more haste to shew mercy than w-e to 

 receive ; whilst misery walks, mercy tiies ; nay, he falls 

 on his son's neck, hugging and embracing him. Oh ! the 

 depth of grace ! who would not have loathed such a per- 

 son to touch or come near him, whilst he smells of the 

 swine kept? Could a man come near him without slop- 

 ping his nose? Would it not make a man almost rid his 

 stomach to smell his nastiness? Yet behold the Father 

 of sinners falls upon the neck of such filthy wretches; 

 mercy and grace is not squeamish ; the prodigal comes 

 like a rogue, yet the father clips him like a bride ; he 

 falls a kissing of him, even those lips that had lately been 

 lapping in the hog-trough, and had kissed baggage har- 

 lots. A man would have thought he should rather have 

 kick'd him than kiss'd him," &c. 



Tobias Crisp Avas considered the head of the 

 Antinomians : his works were first published after 

 his death, in 1643. Fancy the above preached to 

 a fashionable modern congregation ! 



J. Eastwood. 

 "For youngth is a bubble," etc. — In the 

 Shepherd's Calendar of Spenser (vv. 87 — 90.), the 

 generally-received text runs thus : — 



" For youngth is a bubble blowne up with breath, 

 Whose witte is weaknesse, whose wage is death, 

 Whose way is wildernesse, whose ynne penaunce, 

 And stoope gallaunt Age, the hoast of greevaunce." 



On the last of these four lines Warton has the 

 following explanatory note : — 



" * A7id stoope gallaunt Age,' Sfc."] The tamer of whose 

 gay gallantries is Old Age, the guest or companion [ !] 

 of Misery." 



To the best of my recollection Dr. Todd, in his 

 elaborate edition of the poet, agrees with this ex- 

 planation, at least as to the Expression " stoope 

 gallaunt." I venture to think that both commen- 

 tators have here missed their author's meaning, 

 and thereby damaged his metaphor. Spenser, I 

 believe, wrote " stoup-ff'A\a,nt" i. e. " boon-com- 

 panion," compotator. Certainly Warton has in- 

 verted the usual meaning of the word host, as if 

 lie had forgotten the custom of Spenser's day (and 

 indeed long after), that the inn-keeper should sit 

 and drink with his guests. E^rj^uepos. 



Odd Titles of Books. — Mr. Pinkerton says, 

 in The Treasury of Wit (London, 1786, vol. ii. p. 

 46.) : — 



" Burlesque has even reigned in the titles of French 

 Books of piet3', as— The Snuffers of Divine Love; The 

 Spiritual Mustard-Pot to make the Soul sneeze toith Devo- 

 tion ; The Capuchin booted and spurred for Paradise." 



Such are akin to some of those near home often 

 named, as — Heel-pieces for Limping Sinners ; 

 •Crttmbs of Comfort for Sparrows in the Spirit, Sfc 



G.N. 



The Felbrigg Brass. — A few weeks ago I 

 visited Felbrigg church. The present condition 

 of the celebi-ated Felbrigg brass is as follows : 

 Of the pinnacle work around the figures, a large 

 and important piece on the right side, more than 

 a foot long, has disappeared ; the right coi ner of 

 the inscription is cracked through and through, 

 and only held loose in its place by a single nail 

 underneath, and when it has been kicked away 

 (which it soon will be) a great part of the name 

 and style of Dame de Felbrigg will go with it ; 

 cracks and signs of loosening appear also in other 

 parts of the brass ; and the stone slab in which it 

 rests is worn on all sides so far below the level of 

 the metal, that there is no portion of the latter 

 which the toe of an enterprising iconoclast may 

 not, with judicious effort, disturb. 



AVhen I add that the British rustic — a tho- 

 roughly hobnailed person — scrapes his way every 

 Sunday over this perishing monument as he passes 

 up the aisle, I have possibly said enough to war- 

 rant the insertion of this paragraph in "N. & 

 Q." A. J. M. 



Ancient Ballad. — The XVIth of Royal and 

 Historical Letters during the Reign of Henry IV., 

 edited by Mr. Hingeston, thus concludes : — 



" But we hoope we shalle do the a pryve thyng, 

 A roope, a ladder, and a ring. 

 Heigh on gallowes for to henge. 



And thus shalle be your endyug. 

 And he that made the be there to helpyng. 

 And we on our part shall be well willyng. 

 For thy lettre is knowledyng." 



All this is printed as plain prose, without note 

 or comment. B. H. C. 



BEN JONSON. " 



Rare old Ben Jonson has met with much de- 

 traction of late. The old adage would seem 

 to be reversed, and to be read now — " De 

 mortuis nil nisi malum." He has been asso- 

 ciated with the complicity of Felton. (Vide the 

 examination in the State Paper Office, 1628, Oct. 

 26) He has been dragged into the Gunpowder 

 Plot upon the evidence of a dark and mysterious 

 letter to the Earl of Salisbury (also in the same 

 office), the real purport of which was doubtless 

 only known to the writer and to the person ad- 

 dressed. Plots of all kinds were hatching at that 

 eventful period ; and may it not have been some 

 other in which Jonson was the accredited agent for 

 the government, he alluding to the " business " 

 wherein he might do, " (besides his Majesty and 

 my country), all Christianity a good service ?" 



I shall be glad to know if in the original the 

 date in the holograph (not endorsement) is really 

 1605. If so, and Jonson was "running with the 

 hare, t?4pvigh holding with the hounds," perhaps 



