Aug. 21. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



167 



celestial syrens) they make a most sweete harmonic, 

 even by their proper motions, wherein they doe omiies 

 symmetric numeros imp/ere ; contrarioq; idsit, divmum 

 solium pcrficere: They by their contrary moving doe Jilt 

 vp a'l the parts of a most divine and heavenly song. 

 "Which bee affirmeth to be most pleasant unto the 

 eares of God, tliough it cannot be heard by the eares 

 of men. Yea, and the sages of the Greekes (Lucian, 

 lib. Z)e Astrologia, p. 166. B.) insinuate also as much, 

 by placing of Orpheus his harpe in heaven : implying, 

 in the seaven strings of his well turned harpe, that 

 sweete tune and harmonie which is made in heaven by 

 ■the divers motions of the seaven planets, as Lucian 

 interprets it. Unto whicii his opinion there may seeme 

 to be a kinde of allusion in the Booke of Job, as the 

 text in the vulgar translation is rendered (xxxviii. 37.): 

 CoHcentum cosli quis dormire faciei ? Who shall make 

 the harmony of the heavens to s eepe ? For so, likewise, 

 the divines of Doway translate it." — Atheomastix, 

 pp. 315, 316: London, 1622, fol. 



The lovers of Milton will be reminded of the 

 " celestial Syrens' liarmony, 

 That sit upon the nine enfolded spheres." 



Arcades, 63. 

 Or of 

 •' That undisturbed song of pure concent 

 Aye sung before the saphire-colour'd throne, 

 To him that sits thereon." 



At a Solemn Music, v. 6. 



But I have already referred to Warton for illustra- 

 tions ; and the readers of old English poetry will 

 be familiar with many other allusions to the music 

 -of the spheres. IIt. 



WarminKton. 



OBIGIN OF VARIOUS BOOKS. 



The incidents and thoughts which have induced 

 ■various authors to commence their works are, in 

 many cases, somewhat interesting, and I think a 

 Note on this subject may be well adapted for 

 " N. & Q." And if I may be allowed to throw 

 out a suggestion, I would say that it Avould be f:tr 

 from useless if correspondents were to embody in 

 a note what they might know of the immediate 

 motives and circumstances which may have in- 

 duced various authors to write certain Avorks. 



Thus, Milton's Comus was suggested by the 

 circumstance of Lady Egerton losing herself in a 

 wood. The origin of Paradise Lost has been as- 

 scribed by one to the poet having read Andreini's 

 drama of L'Adamo Sacra llepresentatione, Milan, 

 1633; by another, to his perusal of Thcramo's 

 Das Bach Belial, Sfc, 147-2. Dunster says that 

 the pi'ima stamina of Paradise Lost is to be found 

 ia Sylvester's translation of Du Bartas's Divine 

 Weekes and Workes. It is said that Milton him- 

 self owned that he owed much of his work to 

 Phineas Fletcher's Locusts or Appolyonists. Pa- 

 radise Regained is attributable to the poet having 



been asked by Elwood tlie Quaker, what he could 

 say on the subject. Gower's Confessio Amantis 

 Avas written at the command of Richard II., who, 

 meeting Gower rowing on the Thames, invited 

 him into the royal barge, and after much con- 

 versation, requested him to " book some new 

 thing." Chaucer, it is generally agreed, intended, 

 in his Canterbury Tales, to imitate the Decameron 

 of Eoccaccio. When Cowper was forty-five he was 

 induced by Mrs. Unwin to write a poem, that 

 lady giving him for a subject The Progress of 

 Error. The author of The Castle of Otranto says 

 in a letter, now in the British Museum, that it was 

 suggested to him by a dream, in which he thought 

 himself in an ancient castle, and that he saw a gi- 

 gantic hand in armour on the uppermost banister 

 of the great staircase. Defoe is supposed to have 

 obtained his idea of Pobinson Crusoe by reading 

 Captain Rogers' Account of Alexander Selkirk in 

 Juan Fernandez. Dr. Beddoes' Alexander s Ex- 

 pedition down the Hydaspes and tlie Lidus to the 

 Ocean originated in a conversation in which it 

 was contended that Darwin could not be imitated. 

 Dr. Beddoes, some time afterwards, produced the 

 MS. of the above poem as Darwin's, and com- 

 pletely succeeded in the deception. Unicokn. 



MONUMENTAL BRASSES ABROAI). 



A list of all the brasses existing on the continent 

 has long been a great desideratum to the archaso- 

 logist : if you will devote some little space in your 

 columns to notices of any examples which may 

 fall under the observation of your correspondents, 

 I have no doubt but that a complete list might 

 soon be formed ; foreign brasses being compara- 

 tively {qw in number. During a recent tour in 

 France and Belgium, I added rubbings of the 

 following memorials to my own collection : 

 France. Amiens Cathedral. 



Bishop John Avantage, 14 . . . 

 Belgium; Ghent. St. Bavon. 



Franchoys Van Wychhuus, 1599 (with the 

 arms of the family connexions coloured). 

 Belgium ; Bruges. St. Sauveur. 



Magistr. Bernardinus de Curia, and others, 

 1517. 

 Bruges ; St. Jacques. 



Sir Francisco de Lapuebla, and Marie his 

 lady, 1577. 



An angel with a coloured shield, 



Kateline fa. Colaert and brother, 1466. 



Katheline and Barbeie Foelandts, 1515. 



Anthonine fa. Cornells Willebaert, and genea- 

 logical inscription, 1522, 1601. 



Besides these there are other brasses, I believe, 

 in Bruges ; at the churclies of Notre Dame, 

 St. Giles, and St. Donatus : in addition to others 

 (of which I have uo note) at St. Sauveur and 



