Sept. 1. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



1^5 



Coincidences. — In a work named The Private 

 Life of an Eastern King, whicli has lately ap- 

 peared, we are told that an elepliant having in a 

 fit of passion killed his keeper, the widow ran up 

 to him with her young son, and cried out, " O 

 Mallear, Malleer ! savage beast, see what you 

 have done. Here finish our house at once ; you 

 Lave taken off the roof, now break down the walls ; 

 you have killed my husband whom you loved so 

 well, now kill me and his son." Now it is rather 

 remarkable that Horace has employed this very 

 figure where {Carm. ii. 17.) he represents Mae- 

 cenas and himself as forming an edifice of which 

 the former was the roof-tree (^columen), roof, or 

 protecting part on which the whole depended for 

 its conservation. 



In my Life of Milton I have endeavoured to 

 show that Horace, in his Ode to Pyrrha, compares 

 that lady to the sea on account of the uncertainty 

 of her temper, and not of her inconstancy, as is 

 generally supposed. Since those remarks were 

 printed, I have met in the Parnaso Lusitano 

 (iii. p. 29.) with a very pleasing sonnet by D. M. 

 Torres, written on this very idea, and I cannot 

 discern in it any trace of imitation of Horace, or 

 anything that would lead me to suppose that the 

 Portuguese poet was aware of what I regard as 

 the true sense of that ode. Thos. Keightley. 



Chi s wick. 



Mixxax Queries. 



Greek Poet quoted by Wordsworth. — The late 

 poet laureate, William Wordsworth, in his Poems 

 of the Imagination, " The River Duddon," Son- 

 net 34., last line, has the following line : 



" We feel that we are greater than we know." 



(P. 292. large 8vo. edition, published by 

 Edwai-d Moxon, Dover Street, 1845.) 



and in his note on the poem has the following : 



" • We feel that we are greater than we know.' 



' And feel that I am happier than I know.' 



Milton. 



" The allusion to the Greek poet will be obvious to the 

 classical reader." — P. 550. (same edition). 



The line from Milton is to be found Par. Lost, 

 viii. 1. 282. But the allusion to the Greek poet 

 has not been obvious to maiiy classical readers of 

 my acquaintance. W. F. R. 



Meaning of Wether, Sfc. — Can any reader of 

 " N. & Q." give me the meaning of the word 

 weather or wether when occurring in local nomen- 

 clature? We find it in Wetherby, Wethersfield, 

 Wetheral, Wetherhill, Wetherley, Wetherhead, 

 Wetherstone, Weatherlam Crags and Grey Wea- 

 thers (rocks so called), Wetherden, Weathercoat 

 cave, Mereweather, Fairweather, Foweather, &c. 



No. 305.] 



&c. In Switzerland also is a mountain named 

 Wetterhorn. 



Hargrove, In his History of Knaresborough, de- 

 rives the name of Wetherby from A.S. weder, 

 flexuosus, sinuosus ; the word, he adds, when ap- 

 plied to rivers, ranges of hills, &c., denoting a 

 turning, bending, winding course or direction ; 

 and hence that Wetherby obtained its name from 

 being situate on an extensive bending or sweep of 

 the river Wharfe. Bounos. 



Sepulchral Monttment in Barytes. — I am in 

 possession of a small sepulchral monument, tole- 

 rably perfect, of Roman style in about the third 

 century, which was found in England. It is en- 

 tirely devoid of letters, and the only clue afforded 

 In regard to the place of Its original execution is 

 the peculiar quality of the stone, being barytes. 

 May I ask your correspondents versed in geology, 

 whether barytes is found in England ? Or is 

 there any known Roman settlement, In England 

 or elsewhere, where this stone is so abundant as 

 to make it probable that the sculptor would use It 

 for sepulchral monuments ? Intestigatob. 



Servetus. — It Is stated in the current Quarterly 

 (p. 31.), that a copy, believed to be unique, of 

 the work entitled Christianismi Restitutio, lor the 

 publication of which at the Instigation of Calvin 

 the magistrates of Geneva ordered Servetus to 

 be burnt, is preserved In the Imperial Library of 

 France.* It is said to have belonged to CoUadon, 

 one of the accusers of Servetus, and to have been 

 at one time in the possession of our countryman 

 Dr. Mead. E. H. A. 



Scandinavian Antiquity. — In the History of 

 Greenland, by Crantz, mention Is made of an oar, 

 which, about the middle of the seventeenth cen- 

 tury, drifted on the coast of Iceland; and was 

 found to bear the following inscription, carved In 

 Runic characters : " Oft var ek dasa, dur ek dro 

 thik." Can any reader of " N. & Q." inform me 

 whether the paddle in question Is preserved in 

 any northern museum, or whether any engraving 

 of it exists ? ^• 



Shelley's " Queen 3Iab." — Why, In Mrs. Shel- 

 ley's one-volumed, double-columned, " complete 

 edition " of her great husband's Poems, published 

 by Moxon In 1839, is what should have been the 

 fortieth line of the ninth and concluding section of 

 " Queen Mab " omitted ? It Is the only omission ; 

 but any reasons which could justify it would also 

 justify the reduction of the entire poem to a mere 

 sketch and skeleton. Let the line be restored In 

 future editions. A Desultoey Reader. 



Jersey. 



[* See also « K & Q.," Yol. ii., pp. 152. 187.] 



