14 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 192. 



" the Teutonick Theosopher." There are sixteen 

 more of his works, of which fifteen are now extant 

 in High Dutch. As old Behmen is but little known 

 in this country, save by ill-repute, as having led 

 astray William Law in his old age, and, through 

 him, having tinctured the religious philosophy of 

 Coleridge, it way be worth noting, that no less a 

 philosopher than Schelling (to whom, as we know, 

 Coleridge stood so greatly indebted) stole from 

 the Lusatian shoemaker the corner-stones of his 

 Philosophy of Nature. C. Mansfield Ingleby. 

 Birmingham. 



RAFFAELLE S SPOSALIZIO. 



(Vol. vii., p. 595.) 



With regard to your correspondent Me. G. 

 Brindley Ackworth's Query respecting Raf- 

 faelle's Sposalizio, I am induced to think that the 

 custode at the church of the Santa Croce at Flo- 

 rence was right as to his information. In the 

 copy which I have of the " Ordo ad faciendum 

 Sponsalia," according to the ancient use of Salis- 

 bury, the ring is undoubtedly to be placed on the 

 bride's right hand. Wheatly indeed says, that 

 " when the man espouses his wife with it (i. e. the 

 ring), he is to put it upon the fourth finger of her 

 left hand ; " and then refers, for the reason of this, 

 to the rubric of Salisbury Manual, which speaks of 

 the vein going from this finger directly to the heart. 



Now, what are the precise words of this rubric ? 

 After giving directions for the benediction of the 

 ring, provided it has not previously been blessed, 

 the rubric goes on thus : 



" Si autem antea fuerit annulus ille benedictus tunc 

 statim postquam vir posuerit annulum super librum, 

 accipiens sacerdos annulum tradat ipsum viro : quem 

 vir accipiat manu sua dextera cum tribus principali- 

 onibus digitis, et manu sua sinistra tenens dexteram 

 sponsa; docente sacerdote dicat." 



The man is to receive the ring from the priest 

 with the three principal fingers of the right hand ; 

 and then, holding the right hand of the bride with 

 his own left hand, he shall say, " With this ring," 

 &c. He is then to place the ring on her thumb, 

 saying " In nomine Patris ; " then on her second 

 finger, saying " et Filil ; " then on the third finger, 

 saying "et Spiritus SanctI;" then on the fourth 

 finger, saying "Amen;" and there he Is to leave 

 it. There is not a word said about the bride's 

 left hand, the right is alone mentioned ; and why 

 should the man hold her right hand with his left, 

 but that with his right hand he may the more 

 easily place the ring, first on the thumb, then on 

 the other fingers of her right hand, until it arrives 

 at its final destination? 



While I am upon this subject, allow me to point 

 out another singular direction given In a rubric in 

 this same " Ordo ad faciendum Sponsalia." When 



the woman is, as we term it, given away, if she be 

 a spinster, she Is to have her hand uncovered; If a 

 widow, covered : the words are — 



" Deinde detur femina a patre suo, vel ab amicis 

 ejus ; quod si puella sit, discoopertam habeat manum, si 

 vidua, tectam.^^ 



There is no reason given for this distinction, 

 nor do I ever remember to have seen it noticed. 



F. B. W. 



The Sposalizio, or "espousals," or betrothing, 

 is certainly a different ceremony from the mar- 

 riage. Is not the fact of young ladies popularly 

 considering and calling the third finger of the 

 right hand the engaged finger, and wearing a ring 

 on that finger when engaged, a confirmation of 

 your correspondent's Idea, that at this "betrothal" 

 or " espousals" (compare the phrase " his espoused 

 wife" of Mary before her marriage with Joseph) 

 the ring was placed in the right hand ; at the 

 marriage ceremony on the left ? Sc. 



WINDFALL. 



(Vol. vii., p. 285.) 



W. W. is desirous of Interpreting windfall, as 

 necessarily from Its origin denoting a gain. He 

 Is, perhaps, expecting a handsome bequest ; I wish 

 he may get It ; but he may rely on it that the 

 windfall of the bequest will be accompanied by the 

 windfall of the " Succession Act." Let us hear 

 what our great Doctor says ; his first explanation 

 Is, " Fruit blown down from the tree." 



W. W.'s little boys and girls would deem a 

 windfall of unripe apples, at this time of the year, 

 a good ; they will make a pie for dinner. W. W. 

 himself would call it an evil ; the ripe crop is 

 ruined. 



But let us see how Johnson Illustrates his ex- 

 planation : 



" Their boughs were too great for their stem, they 

 became a windfall wpon the sudden." — Bacon, Essay 29. 



Webster copies this for his first explanation, as 

 he does also our Dr's. second for his second ; but 

 as it is not his plan to illustrate by examples, he 

 is saved from the eccentricity of his original. 



If we refer to Bacon we shall be reminded of 

 Johnson's warning, that by " hasty detruncatlon 

 the general tendency of a sentence may be 

 changed." The sentence here so hastily detrun- 

 cated, stands thus In the Essay : 



" The Spartans were a nice people in point of natu- 

 ralisation, whereby while they kept their compasse, 

 tliey stood firme. But when they did spread, and 

 their boughes were becommen too great for their stemme, 

 they became a windfall upon the suddaine. ' Potentia 

 eorum subito corruit.' " 



They, in Johnson's mutilated sentence, refers to 

 the boughs ; In Bacon, to the Spartans ; so that, in 



