482 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 268. 



HIPPOLTTUS TO SEVEEINA. 



At a time when the elaborate work of Cheva- 

 lier Bunsen is attracting so much attention, the 

 following note will not be unacceptable. 



A statue of Hippolytus was dug up in 1551 

 near Rome, inscribed with a list of works by that 

 eminent man. Among them is one styled an 

 Histittory (discourse) to Severina. Respecting 

 this there have been many conjectures. (See 

 Cave, Hist. Lit, p. 64., ed. 1720 ; Neander, vol. ii. 

 p. 473. of the Church History, ed. Clark, &c.) 

 The remark of Bunsen is, — 



«' This is undoubtedly the letter which Theodoret says 

 Hippolj'tus addressed to a certain princess. This is not 

 an expression for the empress (Sebaste) ; nor is Severina 

 the name of an empress of his time." — Hippolytus and 

 his Age, vol. i. p. 276., 1st ed., or vol. i, p. 454., new edition. 



The obscurity which has so long hung over this 

 matter may now be removed. Among the Syriac 

 MSS. in the British Museum is one of perhaps the 

 seventh century (No. 14,532.), containing testi- 

 monies from the Fathers. At fol. 212. b. is one 

 headed as follows : 



" Hippolytus, Bishop and Martyr, from a discourse on 

 the Resurrection, to Mamaea the queen, for she was the 

 mother of Alexander, who was at that time Emperor of 

 Rome." 



From this it appears that Severina was the mother 

 of Severus, i. e. Mamaea. This makes the whole 

 matter plain. It may be as well, however, to 

 place the following statement of Eusebius (Hist. 

 JEccl., VI. 22.) in juxtaposition with the other, as 

 in a manner confirmatory of it. 



" His mother Mamasa," says he, " a most God-fearing 

 woman, and amiable in her carriage, if one ever was, when 

 the fame of Origen spread far and wide, and even came to 

 her ears, she desired to see and hear him, and to try his 

 skill in sacred matters. So she sent for him to Antioch, 

 where she was, and he came and remained there for a 

 time in order to gratify her in this respect." 



If she heard Origen, there is no reason why she 

 should not also have heard Hippolytus. 



I may observe that the Syrian MSS. above 

 alluded to contain much more from Hippolytus 

 than Bunsen seems to be aware of. B. H. C. 



Punctuation. — It was observed, in the Gentle- 

 man^ s Magazine, 1811, that in the first printed 

 books there was nothing answering to our present 

 punctuation, but merely arbitrary marks here and 

 there ; and that stops did not begin to be used as 

 at present till the sixteenth century. - The writer 

 farther observed that, in the books of that age, 

 the comma, parenthesis, note of interrogation, and 

 fuUstop, were first met with ; and that the colon 

 was not discovered till after a lapse of many years. 



On reading the above lately, I turned to a 

 curious work in my possession in quaint old Ger- 

 man, being legends of the saints, and printed at 

 Augsburg in 1477. There I soon lighted upon 

 the following sentence in the Life of St. Cune- 

 gundes, which contains three of our present stops, 

 the comma only being formed a little diSerently r 



" Do sprachen aber die flirsteu/ Seyt sy sich d' saeh nit 

 verspricht so miiss man es an ein urteyl lassen : Darnach 

 pat d' keyser die herren alle das sy ein urteyl sprechea 

 was darzU recht ware." 



F. C. HUSENBETH. 



Origin of Terms " Whig " and " Tory." — 

 In the ninth volume of Sir Walter Scott's edition 

 o{ Dry den's Works (1821), p. 208., in a foot-note 

 to his address to the reader on introducing his 

 poem of Absolom and Achitophel, appears the fol- 

 lowing : 



" These famous expressions of party distinction were 

 just coming into fashion ; Whig being the contraction of 

 Whigamore, gave a name to those fanatics who were the 

 supporters of the covenant in that part of Scotland. It 

 was first used to designate an insurrection of the people 

 in 1648, called the ' Wbigamores' road.' 



" The Tories owe their distinctive epithet to the Irish 

 banditti, who used the word toree, or ' give me,' in robbing 

 passengers. Hence, in the old translations of Buchanan's 

 History, the followers of Buccleugh are called 'Tories of 

 Teviotdale.' " 



R. B. 



Headingley. 



American Newspapers. — In Belvidere (New 

 Jersey) the Belvidere Apollo is published ; in 

 Toledo (Ohio) the Toledo Blade; and in Wil- 

 mington (Delaware) the Blue Herts Chickens. 

 The Delaware regiment, during the revolutionary 

 war, was called the " Blue Hen's Chickens," but 

 why, no satisfactory account has been given. 



Uneda. 



Philadelphia. 



" The cut of his yi5." — Richardson (s. v. Gib) 

 says this — 



" Is a vulgar expression which may have taken its rise 

 from the proverbially melancholy visage of a cat ; and 

 applied to any singularity of countenance.!' 



So far-fetched an explanation of a common nau- 

 tical phrase makes one wish, with Hackluyt, for — 

 " A lecture of navigation read in this citie, for the banish- 

 ing of our former grosse ignorance in marine causes, and 

 for the increase and generall multiplying of the sea- 

 knowledge of this age." 



" The cut of the jib," or make and fashion of 

 the foremost sail of a ship or other vessel, often 

 indicates her character. At sea, especially in time 

 of war, when every "strange sail" is anxiously 

 and closely scanned, the peculiarities of rigging, 

 length and proportions of masts and yards, shape 

 and disposition of sails, are all carefully noted. 

 When the result of such an examination is un- 



