Nov. 19. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



497 



word pinece to pinnace, as an object very different 

 from the latter was meant ; i. e. a cime.v, who 

 certainly revenges any attack upon his person 

 with a stinJt. Pinece is only a mistaken ortho- 

 graphy of punese, the old English name of the 

 obnoxious insect our neighbours still call a punaise 

 (see Cotgrave in voce). Florio says " Cimici, a 

 kinde of vermlne ia Italle that breedeth in beds 

 and biteth sore, called punies or wall-lice." We 

 have it in fitting company in Iludihras., iii. 1. : 



" And stole his talismanic louse, 

 His flea, his morpion, and punese." 



This is only one more instance of the danger of 

 altering the orthography, or changing an obsolete 

 word, the meaning of which is not immediately 

 obvious. The substitution of pinnace would have 

 been entirely to depart from the meaning of the 

 Archbishop. S. W. S. 



MONUMENTAL BRASSES ABROAD. 

 (Vol. vi., p. 167.) 



'A recent visit to the cathedral of Alx-la-Cha- 

 pelle enables me to add the following Notes to the 

 list already published in " N. & Q." 



The brasses are five in number, and are all con- 

 tained in a chapel on the north-west side of the 

 dome: 



1. Arnoldus de Meroide, 1487, is a mural, rect- 

 angular plate (3' • 10" X 2' • 4"), on the upper 

 half of which are engraved the Virgin and Child, 

 to whom an angel presents a kneeling priest, and 

 St. Bartholomew with knife and book. 



2. Johannes Pollart, 1534, is also mural and 

 rectangular (5' • 2i"x2' • 4"), but is broken into 

 two unequal portions, now placed side by side. 

 The upper half of the larger piece has the follow- 

 ing engraving : — In the centre stands the Virgin, 

 wearing an arched imperial crown. Angels swing 

 censers above her head. St. John Baptist, on her 

 right hand, presents a kneeling priest in surplice 

 and alb ; and St. Christopher bears " the myste- 

 rious Child" on her left. The lower half contains 

 part of the long inscription which is completed on 

 the smaller detached piece. 



3. Johannes et Lambertus Munten, 1546. This 

 is likewise mural and rectangular (2' • ll^^'^X 

 2' • 1''). It is painted a deep blue colour, and 

 has an inscription in gilt letters, at the foot of 

 which is depicted an emaciated figure, wrapped in 

 a shroud and lying upon an altar-tomb : large 

 worms creep round the head and feet. 



4. Johannes Paiel, 1560. Mural, rectangular 

 (3' . _4"X2' . 4V0- This is painted as the last- 

 mentioned plate, and represents the Virgin and 

 Child in a flaming aureole. Her feet rest in a 

 crescent, around which is twisted a serpent; on 

 her riglit hand stand St. John Baptist and the 

 Holy Lamb, each bearing a cross ; and to her left 



is St. Mary Magdalene, who presents a kneeling 

 priest. 



5. Henricus de . . . . This in on the floor In 

 front of the altar-rails, and consists of a rectan- 

 gular plate (2' • 9"'x2' • 1''), on which is repre- 

 sented an angel wearing a surplice and a stole 

 semee of crosses fitchee, and supporting a shield 

 bearing three fleurs-de-lis, with as many crosses 

 fitchee. A partially-effaced inscription runs round 

 the plate, within a floriated margin, and with evan- 

 gelistic symbols at the corners. 



In the centre of the choir of Cologne Cathedral 

 lies a modern rectangular brass plate (8' • 10'' X 

 3' • 11'') to the memory of a late archbishop, Fer- 

 dinandus Augustus, 1835. 



Beneath a single canopy is a full-length picture 

 of the archbishop in eucharistic vestments (the 

 stole unusually short), a pall over his shoulders, 

 and an elaborate pastoral staff in his hand. 



JosiAH Cato. 



Kennington. 



MILTON S " LTCIDAS. 



(Vol. ii., p. 246. ; Vol. vi., p. 143.) 



Your correspondent Jarltzberg, at the first 

 reference, asks for the sense of the passage, — 



" Besides what the grim wolf with privy paw 

 Daily devours apace, and nothing sed : 

 But that two-handed engine at the door 

 Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more." 



My own^view of this passage strongly testifies 

 against the interpretation of another passage at 

 the second reference. 



The two-handed engine, I am positive, is St. Mi- 

 chael's sword. Farther on in the poem the bard 

 addresses the angel St. Michael (according to 

 Warton), who is conceived as guarding the Mount 

 from enemies with a drawn sword, for in this form 

 I apprehend does tradition state the vision to have 

 been seen ; and he bids him to desist from looking 

 out for enemies towards the coast of Spain, and to 

 " look homeward," at one of his own shepherds 

 who is being washed ashore, in all probability 

 upon this very promontory. Milton elsewhere 

 (Par. Lost, book vi. 251.) speaks of the "huge 

 two-handed sway " of this sword of St. Michael ; 

 and here, in Lycidas, he repeats the epithet to 

 identify the instrument which is to accomplish the 

 destruction of the wolf St. Michael's sword is to 

 smite off the head of Satan, who at the door of 

 Christ's fold is, " with privy paw," daily devouring 

 the hungry sheep. Note here that, according to 

 some theologians, the archangel Michael, in pro- 

 phecy, means Christ himself (See the authorities 

 quoted by Heber, Bampton Lectures, iv. note /, 

 p. 242.) Hence it is His business to preserve His 

 own sheep. In the Apocalypse the final blow of 

 St. Michael's (or Christ's) two-edged sword, which 



