2°« S. X Dec. 15. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



475 



fragrant contents ; for do we not read in the Evan- 

 gelist, that " the house was filled with the odour of 

 the ointment ! " Acting on this hint, I carefully 

 inspected as many paintings and engravings of St. 

 Mary Magdalen as I could obtain access to ; and, 

 finding that she was almost invariably represented 

 with a covered cup, or, as we ordinarily say, a cup 

 and cover, I came to the conclusion that a Maud- 

 len Cup was no other than a cup and cover, and 

 derived its name from St. Mary Magdalen being 

 almost invariably depicted with a cup of that de- 

 scription. 



On consulting what has often proved a true 

 friend in many difficulties, — I allude to Randle 

 Holme's Academie of Armory, — tie omnibus rebus, 

 et quibusdam uliis — I found, among " the descrip- 

 tions and cognizances of several women saints, 

 that St. Mary Magdalen is depicted " weeping 

 and clasping her hands, her hair loose, hanging 

 down, a cup by her, and a crucifix before her." 



But we have another and still better authority 

 than Randle Holme even. The late lamented Mrs. 

 Jameson, whose recent death has been so great a 

 loss to literature in general, but more particularly 

 to that of art, in her splendid work on Sacred and 

 Legendary Art, when speaking of the pictorial 

 representations of the Magdalen, derived from 

 gospel history, says : — 



"In all these subjects, the accompanying attribute is 

 the alabaster-box of ointment, which has a double signi- 

 ficance : it may be the perfume which she poured over 

 the feet of the Saviour, or the balm and spices which she 

 had prepared to anoint his body. Sometimes she carries 

 it in her hand, sometimes it stands at her feet or near her ; 

 frequently, in latter pictures, it is borne b}' an attendant 

 angel. The shape varies with the fancy of the artist ; it 

 is a small vase, a casket, a box, a cup with a cover ; more 

 or less graceful in form; but always there — the symbol 

 at once of her conversion and her love, and so peculiar 

 that it can leave no doubt of her identity." 



That the cups represented in the paintings of 

 the Magdalen are covered cups there can be no 

 manner of doubt, for not unfrequently she is de- 

 picted holding the cup in one hand, and the cover 

 in another. Thus, in the celebrated print by 

 Lucas V. Leyden, she holds the cup in her right 

 hand, the cover in her left. Nor was a gold or 

 silver cup out of character with the legendary 

 account of the Magdalen, the gay widow of the 

 lordly owner of the town and castle of Magdala in 

 Galilee. Some painters represent her attired with 

 the utmost magnificence, much more resembling a 

 proud meretricious Aspasia than a humble and 

 penitent saint. Brother Michael of Kildare, a 

 Bernardine monk, in a poem (MS. Harleian 913.) 

 written about the commencement of the fourteentla 

 century, thus addresses her : — 

 " Seint Mari .... the Maudlen .... 



To be wel iclothid wel was thi wone, 



Thou berist a box ipeintid al of gold, 



Woued thou wer to be hend, give us sum of thi spicis. 

 This vers is makid wel, 

 Of consonans and vowel." 



Few painters, indeed, have been sufficiently in- 

 spired to place upon canvas the pure, refined, 

 spiritual character of Mary Magdalen. In many 

 of her pictures, where she is represented in the 

 penitent weeping mood, if it were not for the 

 crucifix, we might reasonably suppose that the sub- 

 ject of the artist was no other than our old classical 

 acquaintance Niobe ; while in her gay, dashing, 

 Aspasia-like representations, if it were not for the 

 saintly aureola, we might take her for Pandora. 



In Her Majesty's State Paper Office there is an 

 inventory of the household effects of the unfortu- 

 nate Lord Leonard Grey when Lord-Deputy of 

 Ireland in 1540. In this inventory, which I edited 

 for the Ulster Journal of Archaology, there are 

 enumerated the following descriptions of plate 

 used as drinking vessels : — 



" Twoo greate potts dooble gylte, and a grete cuppe 

 dooble gylte. 



" Six bolles under a coover dooble gylte. 



" Seven standing cupps, dooble gylt with coovers. 



" Four cuppes dooble gylte, with coovers to drink wyne 

 or ale in. 



"Two S3'lver gobelettes, without any coover. 



"Two cupps of asaye, the one dooble gylte. 



" Three chales, two gilte and one parcell gilte." 



And to pour the liquor out into those vessels 

 there were " two sylver fflaggons." 



Curiously enough Harrison, writing about the 

 middle of the sixteenth century, mentions all of 

 the above, with the exception of the chalices used 

 for religious purposes, as common drinking vessels. 

 He says : — 



" Drink is usually filled in goblets, jugs, bols of silver, 

 in noblemen's houses, all of which notwithstanding are 

 seldom set upon the table, but each one, as necessitie 

 urgeth, calleth for a cup of such drinke as him listeth to 

 drinke : so that, when he have tasted of it, he delyvereth 

 the cup againe to some of the standers bye, who making 

 it cleane by pouring out the drinke that remayneth, re- 

 storeth it to the cupboard from whence he fetched the 

 same. By this device much idle tipling is cut off; for if 

 the full potts should continuallie stand at the elbowe, or 

 neare the trencher, divers would alwaies be dealing with 

 them, whereas now they drinke seldome and onelte when 

 necessitie urgeth, and so avoid the note of grete drynkinge 

 or often troubling the servitors with filling their bolls." 



1 had intended to have said a few words on the 

 Monteith, but this communication has, almost im- 

 perceptibly, extended to so great a length, that I 

 must defer them to another opportunity. 



William Pinkebton. 



Hounslow. 



The cup given by Sir William Heyricke in 1613 

 was probably melted down when Charles I. was at 

 Oxford. But there were at St. John's five and 

 thirty years ago, and I hope there are still, many of 

 the same make. I must observe, however, that 

 the two ears of these mugs were not spouts, but 

 handles, of a circular form, to put one finger 

 through. The. more modern cups were in the 



