2"* S. NO 97., Nov. 7. '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



371 



on this passage in the Agamemnon, who with Heath 

 took this view. Professor Blackie, too, in his me- 

 trical translation, follows them. It is true more- 

 over that the Greek scholiast passes this verse 

 without any geographical reference ; but this was 

 because the' scholiast read (uaKicTTj ireu/crj, taking 

 the word as an adjective and not as a proper 

 noun. On the other hand, however, the more 

 recent editors, Wellauer, Klausen, Blomfield, 

 Scholefield, Peile, are all of opinion tliat Macistus 

 is the name of the mountain, and not of the person 

 on guard ; and last and greatest of them all, Her- 

 mann, who, on all questions upon iEschylus, is 

 truly " the king of those that know," in his note 

 upon the passage, after referring to the mention 

 by Pliny {H. iV., v. 39.) of Macistus a mountain 

 of Lesbos, and of a lofty mountain inTriphylia with 

 a city built upon it, both bearing the same name, 

 says : " ^schylo, qui mons hie dictus est, situs ille, 

 ut ordo locorum monstrat, in Euboea." There is 

 appai'ently no reference to this mountain in any 

 other writer. Paley, in his recent edition of 

 .a^^schylus, speaks of it as " an unknown mountain 

 in Euboea," and probably the conjecture of Blom- 

 field is right: "Eretria Euboea colonia erat ex 

 Macisto Elidensi (Strabo, x. 10.) et forte sic di- 

 cebatur mons aliquis Euboea." 



This city of Macistus in Elis is referred to in 

 Dr. Smith's Dictionaries. W. Billson. 



Leicester. ^ 



MILTON S AUTOGRAPH. 



(2°'» S. iv. 287.) 



My query respecting John Milton's autograph 

 has elicited some interesting information, though, 

 with one exception, giving no definite reference to 

 undoubted specimens of the signature in question. 

 There seems every reason to believe that Milton 

 was blind — I mean totally blind — in 1652, and 

 therefore the signature bearing date 1654 cannot 

 be looked on in this light. Mr. Offor's may turn 

 out to be genuine ; but it is possible that the " five 

 or six " referred to by Mr. Hopper may bear no 

 stricter test than the preceding. The treatise de 

 Doctrind Christiana alone must certainly present 

 the specimen required, inasmuch as the Second 

 Book commences in these words — " John Milton, 

 to all the churches, &c." It would be worth while 

 to have a correct facsimile of that passage made 

 for the benefit of future Nicholses and Thanes ; 

 and I may add that " the gentleman in the coun- 

 try " would confer a great boon on the literary 

 public by communicating copies of the letters he 

 is said to have in his possession to the pages of 

 " N. & Q. ;" and perhaps Mr. Hopper will kindly 

 say where he has seen the five or six that he re- 

 fers to. Meantime, in connexion with this in- 

 teresting subject, I beg to state that«since my 



query was inserted I have met with a reference 

 to another alleged specimen. In one of Puttick 

 and Simpson's catalogues of autographs sold by 

 them, and dated April 20, 1849, I find the follow- 

 ing article, which I quote entire : — " ' 322. Rosse's 

 Mel Heliconium, or Poetical Honey, gathered 

 out of the Weeds of Parnassus. Sm. 8vo. 1646.' 

 On the reverse of a preliminary leaf there is, in 

 the autograph of John Milton, the following in- 

 scription : — 



" ' Oti 3fel Heliconium, written by Mr. Rosse, chaplain to 

 his Mtie. 



" ' Those shapes of old, transfigur'd by y" charmes 

 Of wanton bard wak'n'd ■w*^ th' alarmes 

 Of powerful Rosse, gaine nobler formes, and try 

 The force of a diviner Alchemy. 

 Soe the queint Chimist \v"' ingenious powre, 

 From calcyn'd herbes extracts a glorious flowre ; 

 Soe bees, to fraight their thimj' cells, produce 

 Fro poisnous weeds a sweet and wholsome Jvuce. 



" J. M.' 



And at the bottom of p. 5. are two lines in the 

 same hand. 



" The autograph of Milton is of the highest de- 

 gree of rarity. The only specimen in the British 

 Museum consists of a few words in a copy of Ly- 

 cidas. The present is in excellent preservation." 

 The above lines are not without merit for their 

 conceit, but that Milton wrote them requires 

 proof. At all events the antiquated spelling is quite 

 against the supposition, unless he was amusing 

 himself by a kind of imitation of Chaucer's style. 

 However, the book was sold, on the faith of the 

 assertion made, for no less a sum than 18Z. 5s. to 

 Mr. Sainsbury. Lethrediensis. 



TRIFORIUM. 



(2"^ S. iv. 320.) 



Seeing in a late number a communication on 

 the origin of this word, reminded me that in the 

 year 1852 I had occasion to collect notes upon 

 the subject for a paper which I read before the 

 Oxford Architectural Society. The derivation 

 was evidently a mystery. One author only had 

 used the word, namely, Gervase. He either in- 

 vented it, or, as is more probable, received it from 

 the workmen engaged on the cathedral. Ducange 

 I found held to the theory of tres-fores ; but unfor- 

 tunately the triforia Gervase was describing had 

 two or four openings. In taking a survey of all 

 our cathedrals, three openings are the exception 

 rather than the rule. Ducange also, as I conceive 

 without authority, gives as the Greek equivalent 

 TpiGvpov, a word used by Macarius, but with a 

 very different meaning. It was the antiquary 

 Sumner who suggested the notion of the Latini- 

 sation of " thoroughfare." 



First I attempted to determine to what Gervase 

 applied the najne. Io_a careful examination of 



