320 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 232 



The Egyptian Talb. 



11. In the darkness of the night, 

 the surviving brother tells the 

 king's daughter, whom her father 

 had employed to detect him, the 

 story of his exploits in baffling the 

 guards and carrying off the body 

 of his brother. 



1?. The king's daughter attempts 

 to seize the brother, but he baffles 

 her, by leaving in her hand a dead 

 arm instead of his own. 



Tub Arabian Talk. 



11. In the dusk of the evening, 

 Baba Mustapha relates to the two 

 robbers in succession, who had 

 been employed to detent AH Baba, 

 the story of his having sewed a 

 dead body together ; and, blind- 

 fold, himself conductseach of them 

 to Ali Baba's door. 



V2. The two robbers successively 

 mark the house of Ali Baba with 

 chalk ; but his female slave baffles 

 them by putting a similar mark on 

 the other houses, in consequence 

 of which they are put to death in- 

 stead of her master. 



13. Ali Baba, saved from the 

 robber captain's designs by the 

 courage and ingenuity of Morgi- 

 ana, his female slave, gives her 

 freedom, and marries her to his 

 son. 



Here, then, are above a dozen striking coin- 

 cidences in this one example ; and they are given 

 with but slight dislocation or transposition. Other 

 examples might be adduced, but I must reserve 

 them for another communication. 



J. W. Thomas. 



Dewsbury. 



13. The king, who admires the 

 audacity and ingenuity of the sur- 

 viving brother, offers him. by pro- 

 clamation, pardon and reward ; 

 and, on his coming forward, gives 

 him his daughter in marriage. 



LA ROCHEFOUCAULD. 



Meeting occasionally, in reading new French 

 works and journals, with sentiments and criticisms 

 by eminent living writers on the characteristic 

 peculiarities of some of the most distinguished 

 French authors of the age of Louis XIV. and 

 subsequently, perhaps you will allow me to send 

 you, from time to time, " notes " or extracts from 

 the criticisms alluded to, in case you should be of 

 opinion that they may be agreeable to some of 

 your readers, who may not be aware of the 

 healthier and more Christian tone that now per- 

 vades one, at least, of the most influential organs 

 of public opinion in France. Let us begin with 

 La Rochefoucauld, as recently reviewed in the 

 Journal des Debats. J. Macrat. 



Oxford. 



" La Rochefoucauld. 



" Pourquoi La Rochefoucauld m'inspire-t-il une re- 

 pugnance invincible? Pourquoi cette souffrance en le 

 lisant ? Ah ! le voici, je crois. La morale de La 

 Rochefoucauld e'est la morale Chretienne, moins, si je 

 puis m'exprimer ainsi, le Christtanisme lui-meme ; 

 e'est tout ce qui peut humilier et abattre le cceur dans 

 la severe doctrine de I'Evangile, moins ce qui le re- 

 leve ; e'est toutes les illusions d^truites sans les espe- 

 rances qui remplacent les illusions. En un mot, dans 

 le Christianisme La Rochefoucauld n'a pris que le 

 dogme de la chute ; il a laisse le dogme de la redemp- 

 tion. En faisant briller un cote du flambeau, celui 

 qui desenchante Thomme de lui-meme, il eclipse 

 l'autre, celui qui montre a l'homme dans le ciel sa 

 force, son appui, et 1'espoir d'une regeneration. La 

 Rochefoucauld ne croit pas plus a la saintete qu'a la 

 sagesse, pas plus a Dieu qu'a l'homme. Le penitent 

 n'est pas moins vain a ses yeux que le philosophe. 

 Partout l'orgueil, partout le moi, sous la haire du 

 Trappiste, comme sous le manteau du cynique. 



" La Rochefoucauld n'est Chretien que pour pour- 

 suivre notre pauvre ceeur jusque dans ses derniers re- 

 tranchemens ; il n'est Chretien que pour verser son 

 poison sur nos joies et sur nos reves les plus chers. . . . 

 Que reste-t-il done a l'homme ? Pour les ames fortes, 

 il ne reste rien qu'un froid et intrepide mepris de 

 toutes choses, un sec et sto'ique contentement a en- 

 visager le neant absolu ; pour les autres, le desespoir 

 ou les jouissances brutales du plaisir comme derniera 

 fin de la vie ! 



" Et voila ce que je deteste dans La Rochefoucauld 1 

 Cet ideal dont j'ai soif, il le detruit partout. Ce bien, 

 ce beau, dont les faibles images me ravissent encoro 

 sous la forme imparfaite de nos vertus, de notre science, 

 de notre sagesse humaine, il le reduit a un sec interet." 

 — S. De Sacy, Journal des Debats, Janv. 28. 



SHROPSHIRE BALLAD. 



Your correspondent B. H. C. (Vol.viii., p. 614.) 

 gives, from recollection, a Northamptonshire ver- 

 sion of the old " Ballad of Sir Hugh of Lincoln." It 

 reminded me of a similar, though somewhat varied, 

 version which I took down, more than forty years 

 ago, from the lips of a nurse-maid in Shropshire. 

 It may interest the author of The Celt, the Roman, 

 and the Saxon, to know that it was recited in the 

 place of his birth. Its resemblance to the ballad 

 in Percy's Reliques was my inducement to commit 

 it to paper : 



It hails, it rains, in Merry- Cock land, 



It hails, it rains, both great and small, 



And all the little children in Merry-Cock land, 



They have need to play at ball. 



They toss'd the ball so high, 



They toss'd the ball so low, 



Amongst all the Jews' cattle 



And amongst the Jews below. 



Out came one of the Jews' daughters 



Dressed all in green. 



" Come, my sweet Saluter, 



And fetch the ball again." 



" I durst not come, I must not come, 



Unless all my little playfellows come along, 



For if my mother sees me at the gate, 



She'll cause my blood to fall." 



She show'd me an apple as green as grass, 



She show'd me a gay gold ring, 



She show'd me a cherry as red as blood, 



And so she entie'd me in. 



She took me in the parlour, 



She took me in the kitchen, 



And there I saw my own dear nurse 



A picking of a chicken. 



She laid me down to sleep, 



With a Bible at my head, and a Testament at my 



feet; 

 And if my playfellows come to quere for me, 

 Tell them I am asleep. S. P. Q. 



