252 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°d S. V. 117., Mau. 27. '58. 



of the most remarkable wbich are destitute of 

 note or comment. And first let me premise that 

 I write this Note in a remote country parish, 

 without dictionaries, and with no other edition of 

 the JEssays but Mr. Singer's to refer to. 



1. " Wives are young Men's Mistresses ; Companions 

 for middle Age ; and old Men's Nurses. So as a Man 

 may have a Quarrel to marry when he will." — Ess. viii. 

 p. 27. 



Here " quarrel" seems = provocation or incite- 

 ment 



2. In Evil, the best condition is, not to Will; the 

 second, not to Can." — xi. p. 38. 



" To can " = to ken, i. e. to knou), or rather = 

 to have the power of doing. 



3. " Those that are first called to Nobility are commonly 

 more Virtuous, but less innocent, than their descendants," 

 — xiv. p. 49. 



" Virtue " here evidently means manly energy, 

 force of character, and this explains the apparent 

 paradox. 



4. "... Which is a great Adamant of Acquaintance." — 

 xviii. p. 67. 



" XAa.va&ni"=^ Magnet or Attraction. 



6. " This kind of danger is then to be feared chiefly 

 when the Wives have Plots for the raising of their own 

 children, or else that thej' be Advoutresses." — xix. p. 72. 



" Advoutresses " = Votaresses, fanatic Devotees ? 



6. " Some there are that know the Resorts and Falls of 

 Business, that cannot sink into the 3Iain of it . . . Tliere- 

 fbre j'ou sh.ill see them find out pretty Looses in the con- 

 clusion." — xxii. p. 87. 



This passage is very obscurely worded : " Re- 

 sorts and Falls " are I suppose = Rise and Fall ; 

 " Resorts" also might he-=Relapses. Then, fluc- 

 tuations in the tide of Business suggest " Main " 

 as = the Sea ; or is it = the middle, centre, or chief 

 part oi Business? " Looses " = Losses ; we have 

 " leeseth" and "to leese " in xix. p. 74. and 

 xxxiii. p. 129. 



7. " Habilitations" towards Arms." — xxix. p. 116. 

 " Habilitations " = Aids, Qualifications. 



8. " They will ever live like Rogues . . . and then 

 certify over to their Country to the discredit of the Plan- 

 tation." — xxxiii. p. 129. 



What is to " certify over ? " 



9. " Then shall be seen upon a day 



Between the Baugh and the May, 



The Black Fleet of Norway." — xxxv. p. 140. 



What is " The Baugh ? " What King of Spain's 

 surname was Norway ? 



10. A Man may think if he will . . . that a Man in 

 anger is as wise as he that hath said over the four and twenty 

 Letters. — xxvii. p. 104. 



This seems to allude to some proverbial way of 

 staying an angry man. It is more plainly alluded 

 to in xxxviii. p. 148. 



11. " Being too near great Cities, lurcheth all pro- 

 visions, and maketh everything dear." — xlv. p. 1G7. 



Is " lurcheth " elliptical for leaves men in the 

 lurch for ? 



12. " The stairs, likewise, to the upper rooms, let them 

 be upon a fair open Newel." — xlv. p. 169. 



What is a " Newel ? " 



13. In the Upper Gallerj', too, I wish that there may 

 be some Fountains running in divers places from the 

 wall, with some fine Avoidances." — lb. p. 171. 



Are these " Avoidances " vents for the water, 

 or are they cabinets daisance ? 



14. " That which yields the sweetest smell in the air is 

 the Violet . . Next, the Musk Hose ; then the Strawbemj^ 

 leaves dying, with a most excellent cordial smell ; then 

 the Flower of the Vines ; it is a little dust, like the dust 

 of a Bent, which grows upon the Cluster in the first 

 coming forth." — xlvi. 175. 



What does Bacon here mean by the Straw- 

 berry ? Surely the leaves of what we call the 

 Strawberry have no smell living or dying ! What 

 is " a Bent ? " 



15. " Neither is it almost seen, that very beautiful 

 persons are otherwise of great Virtue." — xliii. p. 163. 



" Almost " here seems to mean always, or per- 

 haps, mostly, often. 



16. " That is the Fume of those that conceive the 

 Celestial Bodies have more accurate Influences upon these 

 things below, than indeed they have." — Iviii. p. 214. 



" Fume " is used here as we sometimes use 

 vapouring, at the present day, meaning fantastic 

 notions, airy empty conceits. 



17. " Some are never without a difference, and com- 

 monly, by amusing Men Avith a Subtilty, blanch the 

 matter." — xxvi. 95. 



" Blanch " = blink or evade. There is a note 

 on this word in Ess. xx. p. 79. 



18. "Talkers and Futile persons." — vi. p. 20. 



" Futile,"as the opposite of reticent, meaning a 

 vain babbler ever pouring forth words, is not 

 known, I think, at the present day. With us, it 

 means useless, unsuccessful, as though it were 

 connected with inutilis. Thus we say " His efforts 

 vrere futile;" or, "He made a futile attempt." 



19. " The Scripture calleth Envy an Evil Eye 



There is no other Cure of Envy but the cure of Witch- 

 craft : and that is, to remove the Lot (as they call it) 

 and to lay it upon another." — ix. pp. 27. 32. 



Mr. Singer here "refers to James iv. 5.," where 

 there is no mention at all of an Evil Eye. I would 

 suggest Eccles. xiv. 10. Cf. Pro v. xxiii.6., Mat. xx. 

 15. 



A note on Sorcery or Lot- telling as the old cha- 

 racteristic of Witchcraft is wanted here. 



20. "Mountebanks Men that undertake great 



cures, and perhaps have been lucky in two or three expe- 

 riments, but want the grounds of Science." — xii. p. 42. 



"Mountebanks" are never used now in the old 



