458 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 267. 



" Monk Felix," which is a literal translation of a 

 fine old German legend, commencing 



" Ein heil'ger Moncli einst vras 

 Der gern' von Gott las, 

 Was er geschrieben fand, 

 Der war Felix genannt. 

 'Nes Morgens ging er 

 Mit einem Buche aus dem Miinster," &c. 



It may be found in Count Mailath's Anserlesene 

 AUdeutsche GedicMe, Stuttg. and Tiibing., 1819, 

 8vo. 

 The editor remarks : 



"Die Idee, dass Zeugen der Wahrheit auf eine wunder- 

 bare Weise durch Jahrhunderte erhalten werden, ist sehr 

 alt und vielsach gestaltet worden. Sie liegt auch dera 

 'Monch Felix' zum Grund. Friedrich Kind hat in seinen 

 Gedichten eine Legende einerlei Inhalts mit dem Monch 

 Felix."— P. 34. 



This legend is identical with that I" gave from the 

 Ars Moriendi, and is related also of the Abbot 

 Erro of Armentaria, of Friar Alfus of Olmutz*, 

 and others. The idea is a favourite one ; we find 

 it embodied in The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus, 

 Peter Klaus, Rip Van Winkle, &c. 



A writer in Brayley's Graphic Ulnstrator, 

 p. 143., gives a Welsh legend of this kind re- 

 specting the trance and rapture of a shepherd's 

 son named Sion Evan o Glanrhyd, but it is too 

 long for transcription. The following passage, 

 however, I shall quote from this paper, though 

 not altogether to my present purpose : 



" The popular German tale of the Slumbers of the Em- 

 peror Frederick Barbarossa is unquestionably only a later 

 version of the Seven Sleepers ; and the old Welsh tradi- 

 tion respecting King Arthur bears a strong likeness to 

 the German legend. For example : the emperor was 

 once compelled to conceal himself with a party of his 

 followers amongst the KyfFhausen Mountains, where he 

 exists, under the influence of magic, in a state of almost 

 perpetual sleep. Sometimes his slumber is interrupted, 

 probably every hundred years or so ; and he sits with his 

 adherents, nodding before a stone table, through which 

 his red beard has grown do^vn to his feet. In Wales the 

 tradition runs that King Arthur also exists in a state of 

 enchanted slumber, but before the last day arrives he will 

 appear again on the earth, and join in the holy wars of 

 the times. The first tradition forms the source of many 

 others of a similar nature (but infinitely varied) in Ger- 

 many ; amongst which is the well-known tale of ' Peter 

 Klaus the Goatherd,' a story which has excited notice, 

 not only from its own merit, but from its being the un- 

 doubted origin of the admirable tale of ' Rip Van Winkle ' 

 in the Skelch-Bouk." 



The writer then gives the Welsh legend of 

 Owen Lawgoch, the Red-handed, which corre- 

 sponds with that of King Arthur.f The late Mr. 

 Faber refers these legends (as he does almost 



* See Duffy's Irish Catholic Magazine, Dublin, 1848, 

 vol. ii. p. 108. 



f Of. "The Home of the Spell-bound Giants," in the 

 Castle of Rushen, as related by Waldron (J9escr. Isle of 

 Man, p. 98.), quoted by Brand, iii. 90. : cf. also Faber, 

 iii. p. 320. 



everything he comes across) to the capacious 

 womb of Noah's ark. Thus with 



" The legend of the Wandering Jew ; who, for insulting 

 the Messiah while upon his mock trial, is doomed to 

 await in the flesh the Second Advent. Like the fabled 

 Great Father, he rambles over the face of the whole 

 globe, and visits every region. At the close of each re- 

 volving century, bowed down with age, he sickens and 

 falls into a death -like slumber ; but from this he speedily 

 awakes in renovated youth and vigour, and acts over 

 again the part which he has so repeatedly sustained. As 

 these romances have originated from the periodical sleep 

 of the Great Father and hisfamily, so that of St. Antony 

 has been copied from the various terrific transformations 

 exhibited in the funeral orgies of Dionusus, or Osiris, or 

 Mithras."*— P. 332. 



EiRIONNACII. 



(To be continued.') 



Satij-ical Prints of Pope, Sfc. — The Query 

 which I propounded (Vol. vi., p. 434.) not having 

 received a reply, I therefore venture to repeat it, 

 because so much inquiry about Pope is now afloat, 

 that the anecdote of which I am in search will 

 probably be discovered by some of the investiga- 

 tors. In a small duodecimo print, Pope is repre- 

 sented in an unhappy plight suspended under the 

 arm of a gentleman ; while another, standing by 

 in laughter, holding both his sides, enjoys the 

 scene. Pope exclaims : " Damn me if I don't 

 put you both in Tlie Duiiciad." Both gentlemen 

 wear ribbons, but not stars. To what does this 

 refer ? 



The investigators of Pope's history may perhaps 

 stumble upon a cotemporaneous anecdote, I think 

 relating to Bolingbroke, which I recollect to have 

 read, but where I know not. I have a satirical 

 print of it, which represents Bolingbroke, if it 

 was he, as having occasion to write a letter, or 

 sign some state paper; and for want of a more 

 commodious writing-desk, making use of the bare 

 back of the partner of his bed. I have been told 

 that the female figure represents a mistress of' 

 Bolingbroke, and the paper he is signing the 

 draft of the Treaty of Utrecht. What are the 

 real circumstances, and who the personages ? 



Gbiffin. 



Pope's SMI (Vol. X., p. 418.).— The following 

 is an extract from Howitt's Homes and Haunts of 

 the British Poets, which throws some light upon 

 the subject of P. S.'s Query : 



" By one of those acts which neither science nor curi- 

 osity can excuse, the skull of Pope is now in the private 



* See a curious chapter in Mr. Faber's learned work On 

 the Origin of Pagan Idolatry, which treats of the " Ori- 

 gination of Romance from old Mythologic Idolatry," 

 vol. iii. p. 314. 



