2°* S. VIII. JuM 30, '69.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



91 



I 



and others, that Cromwell was the person to whom 

 Milton sent a copy of his Defensio Secunda by 

 the hands of Marvell. I have no doubt that Brad- 

 shaw, not Cromwell, was the party. Compare 

 this letter of Marvell, June 2, 1654, with a letter 

 written by Milton to Bradshaw, Feb. 21, 1652-3, 

 published by Todd in his Life of Milton. An- 

 drew Marvell, it appears, had occasion to wait 

 upon Bradshaw (who lived at Eton) on some 

 matter of business ; and the poet availed himself 

 of the opportunity to recommend his friend Mar- 

 vell as a fit person to be employed by the State, 

 — particularly to assist himself, then blind, in the 

 duties of Latin Secretary. The recommendation, 

 it is well known, was successful, though no ap- 

 pointment took place at that time. In the sum- 

 mer of 1654, about fifteen months after his former 

 visit, Marvell was again with Bradshaw at Eton, 

 and at this interview he presented the Lord Pre- 

 sident with the copy of the Defensio which Mil- 

 ton had sent, accompanying the book with a 

 letter. Marvell briefly intimated to the poet that 

 he had fulfilled his mission ; but this intimation 

 not giving satisfaction to the sensitive poet, who 

 wished to know how his letter to Bradshaw had 

 been received, the faithful Marvell wrote again, 

 stating that he had delivered the letter along with 

 the book. " To tell you truly mine own imagina- 

 tion," he says, " I thought that he would not open 

 it (the letter) while I was there, because he might 

 suspect that I, delivering it just upon my depar- 

 ture, might have brought in it some second pro- 

 position, like to that which you had before made 

 to him by your letter to my advantage." The 

 reference here is evidently to the letter of Feb. 

 21, 1652-3. The poet and Bradshaw were dis- 

 tantly related*, and it is very probable that it was 

 through Bradshaw's recommendation or sugges- 

 tion that Milton became Latin Secretary. There 

 is no trace of any personal intercourse between 

 Cromwell and Milton, nor do I think there could 

 be much cordiality. The poet had broken off" from 

 the Long Parliament and the Puritans, and Oliver 

 would look with some distrust on the high-minded 

 Latin Secretary, who had written the Treatises on 

 Divorce and the Areopagitica. Have any portion 

 of Bradshaw's papers been preserved ? I hope 

 Mr. Masson, the able biographer of the poet, will 

 make inquiry. R. Cabruthers. 



CI-ASSICAIi COCKNETISM. 



(2»'i S. vi. 89.) 

 The epigram of Catullus, quoted by your cor- 

 respondent, particularly the point in the last two 

 lines, has always been a puzzle to scholars. When 

 we remember how brilliantly, although not always 

 delicately, his Carmina end, we must not suppose 

 this quiz on Arrius fell pointlessly on the ear at 



~ ~~[*"See "N. & Q." 1" S. viii. 318.] 



its conclusion. As even Doering, in his late ad- 

 mirable edition (Altonae, 1834), has not ventured 

 to hint an elucidation, it may appear presump- 

 tuous in me to attempt to do so ; but I always 

 think the domestic affairs of the Romans best un- 

 derstood by a reference to those of the modern 

 Italians, and probably a custom *of the present 

 day will explain the allusion of the past. 



I must entreat my readers quite to forget our 

 own notions as to "poor letter H," and to believe 

 that in Latin, as in modern Italian, it had no 

 aspirate effect at all analogous to ours. In Tus- 

 cany alone is there anything like an aspirate 

 sound, and this has a strong mixture of the gut- 

 tural with it, something like the Arabic pronunci- 

 ation. Casa, for instance, is sounded k'Hasa : the 

 k, however, is nearly silent. So cuoco is very 

 nearly huoco, with the slightest sound of our k. 

 Now we know from the 3rd Satire of Persius, 

 the 8th of Juvenal, the 6th of the First Book of 

 Horace, and many other passages, that in the 

 days of the Emperors it was the fashion for the 

 Romans to boast of being descended from the 

 Etruscans, and to affect their manners, and even 

 their superstitions. If Arrius were one of these, 

 his Tuscan pronunciation of commoda would be 

 KHommoda (not our ch, which we usually pro- 

 nounce as if written tcli) ; and his insidias, VHin- 

 sidias. Exactly as we should hear it at Florence 

 at the present time. 



Let us now turn to the end of the epigram. 

 The poet says were he, Arrius, sent into Syria, 

 and began to talk in his affected way, " suddenly 

 a horrible news would be spread abroad, that the 

 Ionian waves had become Hionian." Now there 

 is no such place or people as Hionia ; and surely 

 the mere cockney misapplication of "poor letter 

 H," Anglice, could convey no idea of horrible 

 news. But if we give it the modern Tuscan pro- 

 nunciation Khionios, which is very nearly the 

 Greek Xioviovs, and remember the rivalry between 

 the people of Ionia and those of the important 

 isle of Chios close on their shores, we see the 

 point. The Ionian waters would become Chio- 

 nian, which would be something like the English 

 Channel becoming a French Channel, or St. 

 George's being called St. Louis' Channel ; and we 

 could understand it as horrible news indeed. 



A. A. 

 Poets' Corner. 



CELTIC REMAINS IN JAMAICA. 



(2'^'^ S. viii. 24. 59.) 

 I fear the remains mentioned by Mr. Pattison 

 are neither Celtic nor celts. They are only stone 

 implements, such as are found all over the world ; 

 and bearing testimony to the truth that every- 

 where the individual members of mankind, when 

 placed in the same circumstances, must take to 



