2"^ S. VIII. Oct. 1. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



271 



wenstowe church tend to throw some light on 

 this Query on grotesques : — 



" There are two kinds of symbolism in church archi- 

 tecture, which will often astonish and perplex the un- 

 learned : these are the grotesque and the repulsive. To the 

 first of these belongs the lolling tongue and the mocking 

 mouth of these two corbels of stone. The interpretation 

 of a face so distorted when it is shown within a church is 

 called in antiquity- the Grin of Arius ; and the origin of 

 the name is this. The final developement of every strong 

 and baleful passion in the human countenance is a fierce 

 and angry laugh. In a picture of the Council of Nicsea 

 which is said to exist in the Vatican, the bafHed Arius is 

 shown, among the doctors, with his features convulsed 

 into a hideous and demoniac spasm of malignant mirth. 

 Hence it became one of the usages, amid the graphic 

 imagery of interior decoration, to depict the heretic as 

 mocking the mysteries, with that glare of derision and 

 gesture of disdain which admonish and instruct, by the 

 very name of the grin of Arius." 



"Si quid novisti rectius istis, 

 Candidus imperii." 



H. T. Ellacombe. 

 Clyst St. George. 



I have always understood that the design of the 

 grotesques, which are so often seen in churches and 

 in other old buildings, is to drive away evil spirits. 

 Many of these grotesques are what have been 

 called "conventional" representations of savage 

 animals. That is, our mediseval artists, never hav- 

 ing seen the animals they sculptured or portrayed, 

 went on copying one from another, till, for exam- 

 ple, a "conventional" lion came out at length 

 very like a quadrumanous monkey or a starved 

 cat — as may sometimes be seen, not only on coins, 

 but on the British Arms. I am now writing 

 within fifty yards of a church (a modern antique), 

 from around the base of whose spire there stand 

 forth at least a dozen of these grotesques sculp- 

 tured in stone, and bearing, whatever their real 

 design and character, the semblance of conven- 

 tional wolves, eagles or vultures, hyenas, &c., all 

 with open mouth, as if breathing fire, challenging 

 the horizon, and bidding defiance to the four quar- 

 ters of the compass. 



Now it is a well-known fact that these menac- 

 ing conventionalities have a singular power in re- 

 pelling all magical and malignant influences. 

 There is great efficacy, for instance, in the head 

 of a wolf. So sings Balduinus Ronsasus, as cited 

 by Delrius in his Disq. Magic, Book vi. p. 56., ed. 

 1616. "De lupo cecinit, — 



" Nee rostrum virtute caret, nam, muuere quodam 

 Natura; arcano, depellit fascina dira." 



But this same Delrius (Rio, Del-Rio, or Delrio, 

 a Jesuit, and one of the most learned, earnest, and 

 systematic of all writers on magic), farther in- 

 structs us that in repelling evil spirits, not only 

 things terrific, but things derisive, and things /bit/ 

 and offensive, are singularly effective : and this 

 seems to be the reason why on the outside of some 



colleges, and both without and within many 

 churches, we see not only forms and faces of ter- 

 ror, but some which express ridicule and contempt 

 I (like the human heads with lolling tongues raen- 

 j tioned by your correspondents), as well as others 

 I which are calculated to oiTend even a not over- 

 I fastidious taste by their grossness. " Quaecunque 

 I fiunt circa corpora obsessa, dsemones accipiunt ut 

 I facta et vergentia in ipsorum dispectum ac ludi- 



j hrium, maxime si sint irrisiva item omnia 



foeda, et amara et similia ; quare, cum sint intole- 

 I rantes injurite, maluntfvgere, et a molestia in/erenda 

 desistere," p. Q5. 



Under one or other of the three forms, terrific, 

 derisive, and indecorous, thus equally repellent of 

 evil spirits, may be classed most of the grotesques 

 which we have received or copied from the Mid- 

 dle Ages. And, though other explanations have 

 been attempted, I know no satisfactory way, be- 

 sides this, of accounting for the extraordinai'y ob- 

 jects belonging to some churches. 



Some of the specimens which I have seen 

 abroad (for instance, in an inner court of the con- 

 vent of the Penha, near Cintra), are absolutely 

 and utterly indescribable. One of the very fre- 

 quent forms in which these grotesques appear in 

 our own country is that termed in mediaeval archi- 

 tecture the "gargoyle" or"gurgoyle" (med.-L. 

 gargoula, gargoullia, gargalia, old Fr. gargoule, 

 gargouille, all from the Gr. yapyapeuv, or the L. 

 gurgulio). The original gargouille Avas simply a 

 water-spout, "lapideum aquae pluviatilis emissa- 

 rium." But the water-spout in due time assumed 

 the form of an animal. " Gargouille est le petit 

 canal de pierre, ou d'autre chose, issant en forme 

 de couleuvre, ou d'autre beste, hors d'oeuvre, au 

 dessous des couvertures des Eglises, et tels autres 

 grands batiments, pour jetter au loing I'eaue 

 pluviale qui en descend ;" Nicot, cited by Menage, 

 Diet. Etym. — In plate xiv. of the Glossary of 

 Terms used in Architecture, Tilt, 1836, may be 

 seen some curious specimens of these gargoyles. 

 " Gargoyle, Gurgulio, a projecting water-spout, 

 frequently formed of the open mouth of some 

 monster ; but the figure of a man, projecting from 

 the cornice or buttress, with the water issuing 

 from his mouth, is also frequently used, as at 

 Merton Chapel, Oxford." (^Glossary, p. 25.) 



The man or monster thus vomiting, though he 

 vomits nothing but rain-water, is generally so 

 contrived as to bear an appearance which, on 

 squeamish stomachs, might almost act sympatheti- 

 cally ; and if malevolent spirits are to be repelled 

 by what is certainly no very agreeable spectacle, 

 it must be confessed that these gargoyles seem 

 well calculated to answer the purpose. For the 

 derisive process, what more available than the 

 lolling tongue ? The "vorgeschlagene Zunge " or 

 tongue protruded, says Zedler, often occurs in 

 heraldry, but no one can tell u'hat it means 1 



