Oct. 30. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



407 



tistory of the county, says that " a walnut-tree was 

 planted upon the grave by his own direction" 

 (Query, why?); and it was the singular custom to 

 allow the boys of the place to gather the walnuts, 

 on condition that they cracked them on Sir Harry's 

 gravestone. 



A distinguished scholar has favoured me with 

 the following plausible conjecture on this subject : 



" I think the inscription is meant to be two lines of 

 an equal number of syllables, ending with a rough 

 rhyme ; 



' Lithologema qudre 

 Reponitur Sir Harry.'' 

 A kind of sing-song rhyme to be used by the boys 

 when cracking their walnuts on his tombstone ; or, at 

 any rate, to be remembered better by them, owing to 

 the rough rhyme. I dare say they pronounced Harry 

 broadly, and not unlike quare." 



The walnut-tree was cut down some years since. 



Aieo\6yr]iJ.a is used by Xenophon in the Ci/ri 

 Disciplina, lib. vi. cap. iii. 25., " &v€v XiQo\oyi',}iajos 

 oxvpov" and is [explained in the Index Gracitatis 

 thus : " Opus ex lapidlbus extructum." The same 

 meaning is given to the word by Hesychius ; and 

 Liddell and Scott's Lexicon gives the reference to 

 Xenophon, which is, I believe, the ^ only place 

 where the word is found. 



Cdthbeet Bede, B.A. 



HELOISA S LETTERS. 



The extraordinary genius, beauty, and tender- 

 ness of Heloisds Letters to Ahelard require no set- 

 ting forth at my hands ; they contain, however, 

 many memorable sentences and glorious outbursts 

 which have wholly escaped the admiring notice of 

 critics. Her very first words are among the 

 greatest of human utterances. Her first letter is 

 introduced by the most remarkable and magnifi- 

 cent direction ever bestowed upon epistle, and 

 which, as far as I know, has never been com- 

 mented upon. It is always pleasant to be ac- 

 quainted with the best thing of its sort : we like 

 to know the best epitaph, the best epigram, even 

 the best anagram. Your readers then will thank 

 nie for introducing to their acquaintance the finest 

 direction : so fine, indeed, as to challenge com- 

 parison with the most glorious and intense expres- 

 sions of human love. 



Heloisa thus directs her first letter : 



" Domino suo, imo Patri ; Conjugi suo, Imo Fratri ; 

 Ancilla sua, imo Filia ; ipsius Uxor, imo Soror ; 

 Abaelardo Heloissa." 



Passionate tenderness was surely never more 

 intensely uttered. No English can adequately 

 render this. I can devise no better translation 

 than the following, in which the order is half sub- 

 verted by the juxtaposition of the corresponding 



relations, and the marvellous force of "imo" is 

 altogether lost : 



" To her Master from his Handmaid, 

 To her Father from his Daughter, 

 To her Husband from his Wife, 

 To her Brother from his Sister, 

 To Abelard from Heloisa." 



In general. Pope has not inadequately rendered 

 the power and passion of these marvellous epistles ; 

 but he has singularly failed with regard to one 

 transcendent outburst. Heloisa exclaims in her 

 first letter : 



" Deum testem invoco, si me Augustus, universo 

 praesidens mundo, matrimonii honore dignaretur, to- 

 tumque mlhi orbem confirmaret in perpetuo prasiden- 

 dum, carius mihi et dignius videretur tua dici mere- 

 trix, quam illius Imperatrix." 



Pope has rendered this passionate profession by 

 the following paltry platitude : 



" Not Caesar's empress would I deign to prove ; 

 make me mistress of the man I love ! " 



May I not, without arrogance, oifer the sub- 

 joined couplet as truer to the passionate per- 

 sonality of Heloisa's declaration : 



" Not Caesar's empress would I deign to shine ; 

 O dearer, nobler name, thy mistress, thine ! " 



"Meretrix" perhaps requires a still more em- 

 phatic dissyllable than " mistress." 



Thomas H. Gux. 



POETICAI* rORESIGHT EXHIBITED IN SHAKSPEARE S 

 DESCRIPTION OF THE ENTRZ OF BOLINGBROKE 

 INTO LONDON. 



The old doctrine used to be that poetry is fic- 

 tion. Such a doctrine was suited to the time when 

 Rosa Matilda delighted the British public. We 

 now know the very reverse to be the fact. Poetry, 

 to be worthy of the name, must be the very truth, 

 — the real substance and element of truth, — truth 

 general, eternal, universal. You gave us a curious 

 example of this when you printed, in May, 1851, 

 Dan Chaucer's foreshadowing of the Crystal Pa- 

 lace. It may not be uninteresting to your readers 

 to see another example of this poetical prevision. 

 Our neighbours in France have lately been mad 

 with delight at the surrender of their liberty to 

 their new emperor. The scene was one of the 

 most impressive kind. No triumphant entry since 

 the people of old Rome — 



— — Climb'd up to walls and battlements, 

 To towers and windows, yea, to chimney tops. 

 Their infants in their arms, and there sat 

 The livelong day, with patient expectation, 

 To see great Pompey pass the streets of Rome, 



could have surpassed it in the wildness of the en- 

 thusiasm by which it was accompanied. The point 



