26 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 141. 



tributed by South. I have read them in the 

 above-mentioned volume, though not very lately, 

 and also in Burton's CromwelUan I>iary, where 

 they form the subject of triumph. Very little, 

 I think, can be made of them, and they seem a 

 "forced compliment upon tlie usurper" (^Memoirs, 

 p. 5.), imposed most probably upon South by the 

 head of his college, the notorious John Owen, who 

 had been appointed to the deanery of Christ's 

 Church, Oxford, by Cromwell's interest in 1651. 

 At all events he was no favourite of Owen's, who 

 opposed him severely when lie was proceeding to 

 the degree of Master of Arts in 1657, for which he 

 was wittily rebuked by South, as also for repri- 

 manding liim for wor6lii[)i>ing God according to 

 the prescribed Liturgy of the Cliurch of England. 



Indeed, "there was no love lost between them;" 

 and when Owen, who was Vice-Chancellor, set up 

 to represent the University of Oxford in parlia- 

 ment, he met a most manly and vigorous opposi- 

 tion, which was chiefly attributable to South. In 

 the year 1658, South was admitted to holy orders 

 by a regular though deprived bishop of the 

 Church of England ; and in 1659 preached at 

 Oxford his memorable assize sermon. Interest 

 deposed, and T'ruth restored. In 1660 he was 

 appointed University orator. At List came the 

 Kestoration. South was nominated chaplain to 

 Edward P^arl of Clarendon; and in 1663 was 

 installed prebendary of St, Peter's, Westminster. 

 Then followed, in 1670, a canonry of Christ's 

 Church, Oxford ; and in 1678 the rectory of Islip, 

 in Oxfordshire. He was chaplain in ordinary to 

 King Charles II. ; and refused several bishoprics 

 duiring his reign. He afterwards refused an Irish 

 archbishopric when James II. was king, and 

 Lord Clarendon, the brother of his great patron 

 Lofd Rochester, was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. 



He did not sign the document inviting over 

 William of Orange, for he held the doctrine of 

 passive obedience. Yet, subsequently, when King 

 James had left England, he did not become a 

 Nonjuror ; but, with a memorable compliment upon 

 the deprived bishops^ he refused to accept any of 

 their vacant sees. 



When Bishop Sprat died, South was oflfered the 

 see of Rochester and Deanery of Westminster, 

 but refused upon the plea of his advanced age. 

 (Postkumous Worlts, p. 137.) In f:ict, he was a great 

 and good man, and his witticisms nmst not nxake 

 us forgetful of his true-hearted allegiance to the 

 Church of England. When the Socinians were 

 gaining ground in consequence of the Act of Tole- 

 ration',, the voice of South was raised most warndy 

 against them. And if we want to know Puritan- 

 ism, in its rampant state, we must read South as 

 well as Clevehind's Poems or Hudihras. 

 f Has any one ever described mcu-e vividly than 

 South the apparent sanctity and reid profligacy of 

 the Puritanical leaders ; or the mixture of papal 



emissaries amongst the rebels ; or Cromwell's first 

 appearance in parliament — "a bankrupt beggarly 

 fellow, with a thread-bare torn cloak and a greasy 

 hat, and perhaps neither of them paid for ; " or 

 Hugh Peters ; or John Owen ; or the " Preaching 

 Colonels ; " or the Puritanical fasts commenced 

 " after dinner ; " or " the saving-way of preaching, 

 which saved much labour, but nothing else that he 

 knew of;" or the artizan preachers who "could 

 make a pulpit before they preached in it," and had 

 " all the confusion of Babel amongst them without 

 the diversity of tongues ; " or " that great mufti 

 John Calvin, the father of the faithful;" or the 

 Socinianising tendency of Grotius' writings ; or 

 the " right worshipful right honourable sinners" 

 of the day ? 



Tiiere are also in his Sermons sly allusions to 

 King James ll.'s breach of faith and intolerance; 

 and the real cause of his popery, as well as that of 

 Charles IL, is stated to have been the kindness 

 they had received from Romanists, and the injus- 

 tice they themselves, as well as their fathers, had 

 undergone from their ultm-protestant subjects. 

 In fact, Dr. South's Sermons are not merely un- 

 rivalled for force of diction, masterly argument, 

 and purity of style ; but I could soon prove that 

 they are likewise most valuable as historical docu- 

 ments were I not fearful of trespassing too much 

 upon the columns of the " N. & Q." Rx. 



Warmiiigton. 



SUAKSPEABE HEADINGS, . NO. V. — " COBIOLANTJS," 

 ACT UI. 8C. 1. 

 " Bosom multiplied" versus " Bisson multitude." 

 Dissenting from the general acclaim with which 

 the i)rop()sed substitutioH of this latter phrase has 

 been received, it is due to the notoriety of the 

 emendation, as well as to the distinguished names 

 by which it is advocated, to explain the grounds 

 upon which I declare my adhesion to the old reading. 

 But, in the "first place, I wish to observe that I 

 cannot {)erceive anything in the proposed altera- 

 tion to exalt it above the common herd of conjec- 

 tural guesses : on the contrary, with the example 

 of bisson cunspectuities in the same play, nothing 

 appears more obvious than the extension of the same 

 correction to any other s,uspected place to which 

 it might seem applicable. Dealing with it, there- 

 fore, merely as conjectural, I reject it, — 



1. Because the apologue of " ihe belly and the 

 members," in the first scene, gives its tone to the 

 prevailing metaphor throughout the whole play. 

 Hence the frequent recurrence of such images as 

 "the many-headed multitude," "the beast with 

 many heads butts me away," "the horn and noise 

 of the monster," " the tongues of the common 

 mouth" &c. ; and hence a strong probability tliat, 

 in any given place, the same metapliorwill prevail. 



2. Because in Conotonws there are three several 



