166 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



[No. 199. 



his History of Henry VII. : " Like to coppice- 

 woods, that, if you leave in tliem staddles too 

 thick, they will run to bushes and briars, and 

 have little clean underwood " (vol. iii. p. 236., ed. 

 Montagu). The word staddle means an uncut tree 

 in a coppice, left to grow. Thus Tusser says, 

 " Leave growing for staddles the likest and best." 

 See Richardson in v., and Narcs' Glossary in 

 Staddle, where other meanings of the word are 

 explained. 



" The device of King Henry VII."] See Lord 

 Bacon's History, ib. p. 234. 



" N"ay, it seemeth at this instant they [the 

 Spaniards] are sensible of this want of natives ; 

 as by the Pragmatical Sanction, now published, 

 appeareth."] To what law does Lord Bacon al- 

 lude ? 



"Romulus, after his death (as they report or 

 feign), sent a present to the Romans, that above 

 all they should intend arms, and then they should 

 prove the greatest empire of the world."] See 

 Livy, i. 16., where Romulus is described as giving 

 this message to Proculus Julius. A similar mes- 

 sage is reported in Plut. Rom. 28. 



"No man can by caretaking (as the Scripture 

 saith) add a cubit to his stature."] See Matt. vi. 

 27. 



Essay XXX. Of Regimen of Health. — See 

 Antith.y iSTo. 4. vol. viii. p. 355. 



Essay XXXI, Of Suspicion. — See Antith., 

 'No. 45. vol. viii. p. 377. 



Essay XXXn. Of Discourse. — 



"I knew two noblemen of the west part of 

 England," &c.] Query, Who are the noblemen 

 referred to ? 



Essay XXXIIL Of Plantations.— 

 " When the world was young it begat more 

 children ; but now it is old it begets fewer."] 

 This idea is taken from the ancients. Thus Lu- 

 cretius : 



" Sed quia finem allquam pariendi debet habere, 

 Destitit, ut mulier spatio defessa vetusto." 



V. 823-4. 



" Consider likewise, what commodities the soil 

 where the plantation is doth naturally yield, that 

 they may some way help to defray the charge 

 of the plantation ; so it be not, as was said, to the 

 untimely prejudice of the main business, as it hath 

 fared with tohacco in Virginia."'] On the excessive 

 cultivation of tobacco by the early colonists of 

 Virginia, see Grahame's History of North Ame- 

 rica, vol. i. p. 67. King James's objection to to- 

 bacco is well known. 



"But moil not too much underground."] This 

 old word, for to toil, to labour, lias now become 

 provincial. 



" In marish and unwholesome grounds."] Marish 

 IS here used in its original sense, as the adjective of 



mere. Spenser and Milton use it as a substantive ; 

 whence the word marsh. 



" It is the guiltiness of blood of many com- 

 miscrahle persons."] No instance of the word 

 commiserahle is cited in the Dictionaries from any 

 other writer than Bacon. 



Essay XXXIV. Of Riches.— See Antitli., No. 6. 

 vol. viii, p. 356. 



"In sudore vultus alieni."] Gen, iii, 19, 

 " The fortune in being the first in an inven- 

 tion, or in a privilege, doth cause sometimes a 

 wonderful overgrowth in riches, as it teas ivith the 

 first sugar-man in the Canaries."'] When was tha 

 growth of sugar introduced into the Canaries ? 

 To what does Bacon allude ? It does not appear 

 that sugar is now grown in these islands ; at least; 

 it is enumerated among their imports, and not 

 among their exports. 



Essay XXXV. Of Prophecies.— 



" Henry VI, of England said of Henry VII., 

 when he was a lad and gave him water, ' This is 

 the lad that shall enjoy the crown for which v/e 

 strive.' "] Query, Is this speech reported by any 

 earlier writer ? 



" When I was in France I heard from one Dr. 

 Pena, that the queen-mother, who was given to 

 curious arts, caused the king her husband's na- 

 tivity to be calculated under a false name, and 

 the astrologer gave a judgment that he should be 

 killed in a duel ; at which the queen laughed, 

 thinking her husband to be above challenges and 

 duels ; but he was slain upon a course at tilt, the 

 splinters of the staff of Montgomery going in at his 

 beaver."] The king here alluded to is Henri II., 

 who was killed at a tournament in 1559 ; his queen 

 was Catherine de Medici. Bacon's visit to France 

 v/as in 1576-9 {Life, by Montagu, p. xvi.), dur- 

 ing the reign of Heni-i III., when Catherine of 

 JMedici was queen-mother. Query, Is this pro- 

 phecy mentioned in any French writer ? 



" Octogesimus octavus mirabilis annus."] Con- 

 cerning the prophecy which contained tliis verse, 

 see Bayle, Diet, art. Stofier, note e : art. Bruschius, 

 note E, 



Essay XXXVIL Of Masques and Triumphs,— 



" The colours that show best by candlelight are 

 white, carnation, and a kind of sea-water green ; 

 and oes, or spangs, as they are of no great cost, so 

 they are of most glory,"] Mr. Markby says that 

 Montagu and Spiers take the liberty of altering 

 the word oes to ouches. Halliwell, in his Dic- 

 tionary, explains oes to mean eyes, citing one 

 manuscript example. This would agree tolerably 

 v.'ith the sense of the passage before us. Ouches 

 would laQimjeicels. 



Essay XXXVIII. Of Nature in Men. — See 

 Antith., No. 10. vol. viii. p. 459. 



" Optimus ille animi vindex," &c,] " lUe fuit 

 vindex " in Ovid, 



