284 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 177. 



had so many of them conferred upon him. As he 

 was the last to assume a title that did not belong 

 to him, so he would have been the first to repu- 

 diate any such pretension, if put forward by others 

 on his behalf. Allow me therefore to ask, Would 

 it be inconsistent with what is due to the memory 

 of the great Duke, or with our sense of national 

 honour, to undertake the task of clearing up the 

 doubts thus thrown out respecting his claim to 

 the title of Marechal de France ? I believe these 

 doubts have been repeated in other French jour- 

 nals, and that no reply has yet been made to them 

 by the English press. Henry H. Bbeen. 



St. Lucia. 



Prophecy in Hoveden. — I should be extremely 

 obliged if any one of your numerous readers would 

 give me the following information. In the ac- 

 count given by Hoveden (p. 678. of the Frankfort 

 edition of Sir H. Savile's Scriptores post Bedani) 

 of the proceedings during the stay of Richard I. 

 at Messina, that author says : 



" Then was fulfilled the prophecy which was found 

 written in ancient characters on tablets of stone, near 

 a vill of the King of England, which is called ' Here,' 

 and which King Henry gave to William Fitz-Stephen. 

 Ifere the said William built a new house on a pin- 

 nacle, on which he placed the figure of a stag, which is 

 supposed to have been done that the said prophecy 

 might be fulfilled, which was to the following effect : 

 * Whan thu seches in Here hert yreret. 

 Than sulen Engles in three be ydeled. 

 That han sal into Yrland altolate waie, 

 That other into Puille mid prude bi seue, 

 The thridde into Airhahen herd alle wreken 

 drechegen.' " 



This is evidently full of typographical errors, 

 and may be more correctly set forth in the En- 

 glish edition of 1596, which I have not at hand. I 

 therefore wish for information on these points : 



1. What is the correct version of this prophecy, 

 and where may it be found ? 



2. AVhat place is meant by " Here?" 



I need hardly say that I have no difficulty as to 

 the first two lines : " When you see a hart reared 

 (erected) in Here, then shall England be divided 

 into three parts." J. H. V. 



A Skating Problem. — The motto of your paper 

 is, " When found, make a note of it." Here then 

 is one for you. 



In several of my skating excursions I have ob- 

 served, and noted it to others, that ice of just suffi- 

 cient strength to bear any one in skates standing 

 upon it, will instantly break if tried by the same 

 person without having skates on. I don't know if 

 any of your readers have made the same discovery: 

 if so, can they explain the cause ? If, on the con- 



trary, any are incredulous enough to doubt the 

 fact, I would recommend them to test the truth of 

 my statement by a personal trial, before they pass 

 a hasty judgment on the subject. A Skater. 



^^Rap and rend for T — In Dryden's Prologue to 

 The Disappointment, or the Mother in Fashion, we 

 find these lines: 



" Our women batten well on their good nature 

 All they can rap and rend for the dear creature." 



" All they can rap and run for " Is the more fre- 

 quent colloquial version of this quaint phrase. 



In Chaucer's " Chanones Yeman's Tale " it 

 stands thus : 



" But wasten all that ye may rape and renne." 



And to this last word Tyrwhit, in his Glossary, 

 gives " rend ? " with a mark of interrogation, as 

 doubtful of the meaning. 



Johnson gives it " rap and rend," and quotes a 

 line of Hudibras : 



" All they could rap and rend and pilfer : " 



and adds, " more properly, rap and ran ; jiaepan, 

 Sax., to bind, and 7-ana, Icelandic, to plunder." 



The question is, are we to accept this phrase in 

 the sense it is commonly used, to seize and plunder ; 

 or have later and better philologists mended the 

 version ? 



The context in Chaucer does not seem to war- 

 rant the interpretation given by Tyrwhit. The 

 narrator is warning his hearers against the rogue- 

 ries of alchemy : 



" If that your eyen cannot seen aright, 

 Loketh that youre mind lacke not his sight. 

 For tho' ye loke never so brode and stare, 

 Ye shul not win a mite on that chaffare, 

 But wasten all that ye may rape and renne. 

 Withdraw the fire, lest it to faste brenne ; 

 Medleth no more with that art, I mene ; 

 F'or if ye don, your thrift is gon ful clene." 



M. 



" The wee brown Hen" — Can any of your cor- 

 respondents oblige me with a copy of the old 

 Jacobin song, the " Wee brown Hen ? " It begins 

 thus : 



" I had a wee brown hen, 

 And she had a wee brown tap, 

 And she gaed out in the mornin' 

 For to fill her crap. 

 The violets were her coverin'. 

 And everything was her care. 

 And every day she laid twa eggs, 

 And Sundays she laid mair. 



Och ! they micht hae letten her be. 

 For every day she laid twa eggs, 

 And Sundays she laid three." 



The words are very old, and conveyed a certain 

 religious and political allusion. I know the tune 



