Sept. 16. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



229 



seen on the mountains, whicli rise above the table lands 

 of Quito." — Milner's Gallery of Nature, p. 533. 



BlBIilOTHSCAB. ChETHAM. 



DEATH AND SLEEP. 



(Vol. iv., p. 435. ; Vol. ix., p. 346.) 



The following passages, illustrative of this idea, 

 may prove acceptable : 



" Idem [Socrates] dicere solet, mortem esse similem 

 profundo somno, aut diutina; peregrinationi. Somnus 

 profundior adimit omnem sensum, et animus a corpore 

 digressus, aliquando in suum domicilium rediturus est." — 

 Apophihegmatum per Erasmum collectormn, 1551, p. 183. 



"Death and sleep be cosin-germannes." — Quin. Cur.; 

 Bauldwin and Palfreymau's Morall Fhilosophy, London, 

 1651, p. 184. 



A cursory glance at the " Index Verborum" to a 

 copy of Quintus Curtius failed to discover the ori- 

 ginal passage. 



" As madnesse and anger differ nothing but in continn- 

 ance and length of time, so neither doe death and sleepe." 

 — Politeuphnia, or Wits Common- Wealth, London, 1634, 

 p. 735. 



" Waking we burst, at each return of mom. 

 From death's dull fetters, and again are bom." 



And also : 



" Why fear ye death, the parent of repose ? " 

 quoted in Bland's Proverbs (Lond., 1814, p. 284.), 

 from Translations from the Greek Anthology. 



" We are never better or freer from cares than when we 

 sleep, and yet, which we so much avoid and lament, death 

 is but a perpetual sleen." — Burton's Anatomy of Melan- 

 choly, London, 1849, p.* 407. 



1 have somewhere read that Hesiod reckons it 

 amongst the prerogatives of the Golden Age, that 

 men died in the arms of sleep. Ovid makes no 

 mention of this happiness. Sigma (Customs). 



Add to the examples already quoted the follow- 

 ing from Kacan, the oldest of the minor French 

 poets : 



" En mon sommeil, aucune fois les songes 

 Trompent mes sens par de si doux mensonges, 

 Qu'ils donnent h mes maux un peu de reconfort. 

 Dieux ! de quel remfede est ma douleur suivie, 



De ne tenir la vie 

 Que des seules faveurs du frire de la mort" 



Henrt H. Bbeest. 



St. Lucia. 



VESEEABLE BEDE. 



(Vol. X., p. 139.) 

 " Aecipe tuum calamum, tempera, et scribe velociter." 

 "Takej'onr pen, mend it, and write quickly." — Lin- 

 gard, Angl.-Sax. 



The four translations alluded to by RtrpicAS- 

 TRENSis you may give to the winds ; the homely 



translation above is the correct one. The last 

 words of the dying master to his secretary are 

 sufficiently clear and comprehensive. 



" Tempera " governs " calamum ; " to say it 

 governs " atramentum " because Cicero said 

 " atramento temperato " is incorrect. 



" 'Not to put too fine a point upon it," as 

 Charles Dickens says, " tempera " means mend 

 your " pen " or " reed ; " temper it. 



The quotation, 



" Calamo, et atramento temperato, charta etiam dentata 

 res agetur," 



is incorrectly punctuated. I believe there are 

 few compositors (and those gentlemen punctuate 

 more correctly than authors) who would place a 

 comma between a noun and a conjunction con- 

 junctive : it must read, " Calamo et atramento," 

 &c. 



RupicASTKENSis will forgive these minor stric- 

 tures by one who is merely anxious to give the 

 true reading to a disputed sentence. It is curious 

 to observe how extensively authors have been 

 misinterpreted and misunderstood by their com- 

 mentators. The exercise of a little common sense 

 in these matters outweighs the evidences of the 

 most learned ; and 



" The bookful blockhead ignorantly read, 

 With loads of learned lumber in his head," 



oftentimes arrives at conclusions as repugnant to 

 good taste as they are to common sense. 



G. M. B. 



Mitcham, Surrey. 



With reference to the article headed Venerable 

 Bede, in Vol. x., p. 139., an illustration of the 

 phrase temperare calamum (rightly Englished by 

 Lingard, to mend a pen) will be found in Dante 

 ilnjf. xxiv. 6.) : 



" Quando la brina in su la terra assempra 

 L' immagine di sua sorella bianca. 

 Ma poco dura alia sua penna tempra." 



The passage describes the transient resemblance 

 of hoar-frost to snow, which, however, it cannot 

 long maintain from its rapid melting ; and the 

 hoar-frost is, by a singular metaphor, compared to 

 a writer, the point or temper (tempra) of whose 

 pen will not last, so that he is unable to continue 

 his work af copying. W. P. P- 



Of the three translators who have noticed the 

 important word tempera, not one approaches the 

 truth, in my very humble opinion. Lingard's ap- 

 pears very absurd ; for it is not probable that the 

 saint, when on the verge of eternity, would notice 

 the trifling particular of mending a reed or pen. 

 As to the two others, they are beneath comment. 

 However, the Rev. Joseph Stevenson's version is 

 worthy of attention : " Take your pen, and be at- 



