JxTNE 4. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



551 



Bristol, Nov. 8, 1685, translated to Exeter ia 1689, 

 and to Winchester in 1707.] 



Ferdinand Mendez Pinto. — 



*' Ferdinand Wendez Pinto was but a type of thee, 

 thou liar of the first magnitude ! " 

 Where is the orifjinal of the above to be found ? 

 Was Ferdinand Mendez Pinto a real or imaginary 

 character ? Inquibens. 



[A famous Portuguese traveller, in no good odour 

 for veracity. His Travels have been translated into 

 most European languages, and twice published in 

 English. A notice of Pinto will be found in Rose's 

 £iog. Diet, s. v.] 



Satin. — What is the origin of the word satin f 



Cape. 



[See Ogilvie and Webster. " Fr. satin; W. sidan, 

 satin or silk ; Gr. and Lat. sindon ; Ch. and Heb. sediii ; 

 At. sidanah."^ 



Carrier Pigeons. — When were carrier pigeons 

 "first used in Europe ? Cape. 



[Our correspondent will find some interesting notices 

 of the early use of the carrier pigeon in Europe in the 

 Penny Ct/clopadia, \o\.\n. p. 372., art. "Columbid^;" 

 and in the Encydopcedia Britannica, vol. vi. p. 176., 

 art. " Carrier Pigeon."] 



■"PTLADES AND CORINNA." PSALMAIYAZAB AND 



DEFOE. 



(Vol. vii., pp. 206. 305. 435. 479.) 



I had forwarded for insertion a short answer to 

 the Query as to Pylades and Corinna before Dr. 

 Maitland's communication was printed ; but as it 

 ■now appears more distinctly what was the object 

 ■of the Query, I can address myself more directly 

 to the point he has raised. And, in the first place, 

 I cannot suppose that Defoe had anything to do 

 with Pylades and Corinna, or the History of 

 Formosa. In all Defoe's fictions there is at least 

 some trace of the master workman ; but in neither 

 of these works in there any putting forth of his 

 power, or any similitude to his manner or style. 

 When the History of Formosa appeared (1704), 

 lie was ingrossed in politics, and was not, as far as 

 any evidence has yet informed us, in the habit of 

 translating or doing journeyman work for book- 

 sellers. Then the book itself is, in point of com- 

 position, far beneath Defoe, even in his most care- 

 less moods. As to Pylades and Corinna, Defoe 

 died so soon after Mrs. Thomas — she died on the 

 3rd February, 1731, and he on the 24th April 

 following, most probably worn out by illness — that 

 time seems scarcely afibrded for getting together 

 and working up the materials of the two volumes 



published. The editor, who signs himself " Phi- 

 lalethes," dates his Dedication to the first volume, 

 in which are contained the particulars about Psal- 

 manazar, "St. John Baptist, 1731," which day 

 would be after Defoe's death. Nor is there any 

 ground for supposing that Defoe and Curll had 

 much connexion as author and publisher. Curll 

 only printed two works of Defoe, as far as I have 

 been able to discover, the Memoirs of Dr. Wil- 

 liams (1718, 8vo.), and the Life of Duncan 

 Campbell (1720, Svo.), and for his doing so, ia 

 each case, a good reason may be given. As re- 

 gards the genuineness of the correspondence in 

 Pylades and Corinna, I do not see any reason to 

 question it. Sir Edward I^orthey's certificate, 

 and various little particulars in the letters them- 

 selves, entirely satisfy me that the correspondence 

 is not a fictitious one. The anecdotes of Psal- 

 manazar are quite in accordance with his owu 

 statements in his Life — (see particularly p. 183., 

 Memoirs, 1765, 8vo.); and if they were pure fic- 

 tion, is it not likely that, living in London at the 

 time when they appeared, he would have contra- 

 dicted them ? In referring (Vol. vli., p. 436., 

 " N. & Q.") to the Gentleman's Magazine for these 

 anecdotes, I had not overlooked their having ap- 

 peared in Pylades and Corinna, but had not then 

 the latter book at hand to include it in the refer- 

 ence. Dr. Maitjlajjd considers Pylades and Co- 

 rinna " a farrago of low rubbish, utterly beneath 

 criticism." Is not this rather too severe and 

 sweeping a character ? Unquestionably the poetry 

 is but so-so, and of the poem the greater part 

 might have been dispensed with ; but, like all 

 Curll's collections, it contains some matter of in- 

 terest and value to those who do not despise the 

 mlnutiaj of literary investigation. The Autobio- 

 graphy of the unfortunate authoress (Mrs. Thomas), 

 who was only exalted by Dryden's praise to be 

 ignomlnlously degraded by Pope, and " whose 

 whole life was but one continued scene of the ut- 

 most variety of human misery," has always appeared 

 to me an Interesting and rather affecting narrative; 

 and, besides a great many occasional notices In the 

 correspondence, which are not without their use, 

 there are Interspersed letters from Lady Chudleigh, 

 Norris of Bemerton, and others, which are not to 

 be elsewhere met with, and which are worth pre- 

 serving. 



For Psalmanazar's character, notwithstanding 

 his early peccadilloes, I can assure De. Maitland 

 that I have quite as high a respect as himself, even, 

 without the corroborative evidence of our great 

 moralist, which on such a subject may be con- 

 sidered as perfectly conclusive. James Ckossuex. 



