54 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2»* 8. YIII. JuLT 16. '59. 



it was first made an article of commerce from the North 

 to the metropolis in 1381 (4 Rich. II.) The consumption 

 of the mineral, so far South, must nevertheless have 

 been very limited ; for we find that in the time of Henry 

 VIII., it was only allowed in the private apartments of 

 " the king, queen, and Lady Mary." (Vide Archceologia, 

 iii. 156.) Coal was not in common use in England until 

 the reign of Charles I., 1625. Consult "N. & Q." !»' S. 

 y. 513. 568.; vi. 147.; 2nd g. yij. 24. 303.] 



Elizabeth Woodville. — In the picture gallery 

 at Hampton Court is a small contemporary por- 

 trait of Queen Elizabeth Woodville, with this 

 inscription upon the ledge on which the hands 

 rest: "Elizabeth MuQnms Grdmdrmrshi." Can 

 any of your numerous readers enlighten me as to 

 the meaning of these words ? The initial letter of 

 the last word, may be c or g ; the last letter but 

 two is like the letter e placed upside down. Zz. 



[Elizabeth MiiQnms Grdmdr|mr|'3 |hi. 

 =Elizabeth Magnmi Edvrdi|mr|&|hi. 

 =EI)zabeth Magnanimi Edwardi mulier et hasres. 



Observe 1. ^ an old form of &. The Germans still 

 write 3t' ^* 



2. In words connected with the Latin haeres, an i was 

 sometimes substituted for the diphthong se. Thus, in old 

 French, iretg (a heritage), iretaulement (h^reditairement, 

 haereditabiliter). 



3. There is a peculiar reason why her Majesty should 

 be stj'led the hares as well as mulier of King Edward. 

 He made a will in which, " with man}' affectionate ex- 

 pressions," he bequeathed to her " all the furniture, 

 jewels, and other moveables she had used at various 

 places." (Strickland's Queens of England, ii. 353.) If 

 she knew of the king's intentions before his death, this 

 may account for her being styled " mulier et hseres," not 

 "ri'rfua et haeres."] • 



"the style is the man himself." 

 (2"<» S. vi. 308.; vii. 502.; viii. 37.) 



The object of my Note on this dictum was not 

 only to deny its fitness, but also to show that 

 Buffon was not its utterer. Exception was taken 

 to both positions by the Philadelphia correspon- 

 dent C. J. B.; and Mb. J. Macray somewhat 

 authoritatively now pronounces for the Philadel- 

 phian " vindication." Nevertheless I am com- 

 pelled to believe that BufFon himself never uttered 

 nor wrote that dictum, and that nothing but "le 

 style est de Vhomme " can accord with the passage. 

 Here is the whole paragraph : — 



" Les ouvrages bien ecrits seront les seuls qui passeront 

 k la posterity La quantity des connaissances, la singu- 

 larite des faits, la nouveaut^ meme des decouvertes ne 

 sont pas de surs garants de I'immortalite ; si les ouvrages 

 qui les contiennent ne roulent que sur de petits objets, 

 s'ils sont ecrits sans goiit, sans noblesse, et sans genie, ils 

 pdriront, parceque les connaissances, les faits et les de- 

 couvertes s'enlevent aisdment, se transportent, et gagnent 

 meme h, etre mis en oeuvre par des mains habiles. Ces 

 choses sont hors de Vhomme ; — le style est de Phomme meme. 

 Le style ne peut done ni s'enlever, ni se transporter, ni 

 b'alterer," &c. &c. 



Here is, evidently, as before pointed out, a 

 contradistinction between the subject and its treat- 

 mejit by the writer. The whole of the continu- 

 ation insists upon the necessity that the writer 

 must be able to adapt his style to the subject — 

 embracing it at all points : — Uii beau style n'est tel, 

 en effet, que par le nombre injini des verites qiCU 

 presente. His meaning is, that the subject alone 

 will be no guarantee of immortality to the writer: 

 this depends entirely upon his treatment of it, and 

 must result from his adequate genius: — Le style 

 ne peut done ni s'enlever, ni se transporter, ni s'en- 

 lever ; — s'il est Sieve, noble, sublime, Vautewr sera 

 egalement admire dans tons les terns. 



Is there the slightest ground in the passage to 

 uphold the idea conveyed by the dictum, " the 

 style is the man himself?" If this means any- 

 thing, as applied in the original paragraph to which 

 I drew attention, it means that an author's style 

 is the very representative of the man himself; 

 so that in reading his book we cannot be mistaken 

 in the " what manner of a man " he is, and this too 

 in the face of the notorious fact of almost con- 

 stant disappointment in the estimate we have 

 made of the men whose works we have admired. 

 Undoubtedly there are and have been forceful 

 characters who write as they speak, — speak as 

 they write, — and do both as they think, unmis- 

 takeably ; — but even here Buffon's dictum is the 

 only true expression of the fact — le style est de 

 I'homme — style results from the mental organisa" 

 tion of the man himself. 



C. J. B. says that "le style est de I'homme " 

 "may seem an obvious truism, unlivened {sic) by 

 any vivacity or sententiousness (sic) in the ex- 

 pression of it." This is a very queer phrase, but 

 I pass it by, and farther submit the opinion that 

 le style est Vhomme meme is not good French — 

 certainly not of the age when Buffon wrote, al- 

 though it may pass current in that of Flourens — 

 as quoted by Mr. Machat — in its present degra- 

 dation. Had Buffon spoken or written it he 

 would have said le style, c'est Thomme. Clearly it 

 was but a printer's omission of the preposition de 

 which suggested the thoroughly modern French 

 concoction — " The style is the man himself." 

 The context proves that Buffon could not even 

 say le style, c'est Thomme meme. 



C. J. B. upholds his opinion by quoting Words- 

 worth's dictum that language is " the incarnation 

 of thought." I submit that this expression is even 

 far more objectionable than the one" in question. 

 Cicero advises us to contemplate our tropes and 

 metaphors before we adopt and apply them. Ap- 

 ply this phrase — translate it — and what does it 

 say ? Why, that language is thought " made 

 flesh ! " Is it not a monstrou^dictum ? And is 

 it palliated by the use of the Latin woi*d " incar- 

 nation ? " It is akin to that other horrid excla- 

 mation of Wordsworth to the Deity — " Yea. 



