2'"» S. V. 117., Mar. 27. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUEBIES. 



255 



Tasso's famous verse, and only quote it to place 



both at once before the eye : — 



" Cosi a r egro fanciul porgiamo aspersi 

 Di soave licor gli orli del vaso, 

 Succhi amari ingannato in tanto ei beve, 

 E da r inganno suo vita riceve." 



Which Edward Fairfax gives : — 



" So we (if Children young diseas'd we find), 

 Anoint with sweets'the vessel's foremost parts, 

 To make them taste the Potions sharp we give ; 

 They drink deceiv'd, and so deceiv'd, they live." 



The similes in both books are intended to illus- 

 trate the same course of action. I do not pretend 

 to do more than point them out. I should not 

 think that Barclay would knowingly have copied 

 from a book so well known and read as the Oeru- 

 salemme Liberata was in his day ; though I think 

 a very curious essay might be written on the 

 notions which old authors held concerning literary 

 plagiarism. J- H. S. 



Edgbaston. 



" DEBATE OF THE BODT AND THE SOUL." 



(Camd. Soc. 1841.) 



Several versions of a poem on the above sub- 

 ject are printed in the Appendix to the Poems 

 of Walter Mapes. One of these, of the thirteenth 

 century, I have lately had occasion to examine 

 word by word, and beg to suggest the following 

 emendations of lines which, without some such 

 emendations, seemed to me utterly unintelligible. 

 Three of them consist of the mere substitution of 

 c for t, these letters being very much alike in old 

 MSS. ; the other two are equally simple, being 

 only a dilFerent division of the letters composing 

 the words, 



P. 334., line 22 : — 



" With spetes, swete for to smell." 

 For spetes read speces, i. e. spices. (Fourteenth 

 century version, spiceries). 



P. 3.35. Jine 26 : — 



" Thou) hast wrong i-wys 

 A lye ivyt on me to leye," 



read al ^« ivyt, i. e. " all the weight (?) on me to 

 lay." 



P. 337. line 6 : — 



" Ho may more trayson do, or is loverd betere engine 

 Than he that al is Crist is to .' " 



read trist, and the passage means, " Who may 

 more treason do, or better plot against his lord 

 than he to whom all his trust is ? " 



P. 338. line 3 : — 



" Now the wayn I sate 3ate," 



read is ate, meaning " Now the waggon (or hearse) 

 w at the gate," ag in tbe fourteenth century ver- 

 sion. 



P. 339. line 5 : — 



— ^— " Helle houndes to him were led 

 That broaden out i\\Q petes brode." 



for petes read peces^ i. e. pieces. J. Eastwood. 



Attempted Assassination of January 14, 1858. — 

 The recent discussion on the doctrine of assassi- 

 nation of a foreign potentate, who was moreover 

 our warmest friend and magnanimous ally, has 

 impressed every imp.artial mind that there is an 

 innate abhorrence in every Englishman to that de- 

 moniacal crime. One very brilliant example of 

 this which occurred, and in which also the ruler 

 of France was to be the victim, may not inaptly 

 be alleged at the present moment. It is also gra- 

 tifying, as reviving the memory of a great states- 

 man, and as honest a minister as the country ever 

 knew, Charles James Fox. 



In the month of February, 1806, a villain who 

 called himself Guillet de Gevrilliere, waited upon 

 Mr. Fox to communicate to him "what would 

 give him satisfaction" to put to death the Em- 

 peror of France ! Nothing could exceed the vir- 

 tuous indignation of Mr. Fox at this horrible 

 proposal, and he instantly ordered him out of his 

 presence, and gave orders to an officer who ac- 

 companied the base wretch to send him out of 

 the kingdom as soon as possible ; but reflecting 

 upon the matter he despatched a messenger to M. 

 Talleyrand, to acquaint him of the circumstances, 

 with this observation : " Our laws do not permit 

 us to detain him long ; but he shall not be sent 

 away till after you shall have had full time to take 

 precautions against his attempts, supposing him 

 still to entertain bad designs ; and when he goes, 

 I shall take care to have him landed at a sea-port 

 as remote as possible from France." This pro- 

 bably the Alien Act permitted to be done. 



s. s. s. 



Erasmus^ Bower. — In my copy of Knight's 

 Life of Colet (Lond. 1724, 8vo.), at p. 41. is this 

 MS. note : — 



" I have seen in old writings of Mountjo3' House w«i» 

 before the fire of London was old D''*. Com'ons (and after 

 Rebuilt) a Place on the Site thereof called Erasmus 

 Bower." 



Joseph Kix. 



St. Neots. 



Neglected Literature, — 1. In Miscellanies by 

 Richard Twiss, vol. ii. pp. 140—143., are re- 

 printed (from a book entitled An Introduction to 

 the Game of Draughts, by William Payne, 1756), 

 the Preface and Dedication (to the Earl of Roch- 

 ford), both written by Dr. Johnson, whicli I do 

 not find in his Works ; there is, however, to be 

 found therein the Preface to Netv Tables of In- 



