20 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 32. 



category of Vicarious Charms, which have in all 

 times and in all ages, in great things and in small 

 things, been one of the favourite resources of poor 

 mortals in their difficulties. Such cliarnis (for all 

 analogous practices may be so called) are, in point 

 of fact, sacrijices made on the principle so widely 

 adopted, — qui fucit per aliuin fucit per se. The 

 connnon witch-charm of melting an image of wax 

 stuck full of pins before a slow fire, is a familiar 

 instance. Everybody knows that the party imaged 

 by the wax continues to suffer all the tortures of 

 pin-pricking until he or she finally melts away 

 (colliquescit), or dies in utter emaciation. 



Emdeis. 



Boy or Girl. — The following mode was adopted 

 a few years ago in a branch of my family residing 

 in Denbighsliire, with the view of discovering the 

 sex of an inflmt previous to its birth. As I do not 

 remember to have met with it in other localities, 

 it may, perhaps, be an interesting addition to your 

 "Folk Lore." An old woman of the village, 

 strongly attached to tiie fiimily, aslvcd permission 

 to use a harmless cli.arm to learn if the expected 

 infant would be male or female. Accordingly she 

 joined the servants at their supper, where she 

 assisted in clearing a shoulder of mutton of every 

 particle of meat. She then held the blade-bone 

 to the fire until it was scorched, so as to jiermit 

 her to force her thumbs through the thin part. 

 Through the holes thus made she passed a string, 

 and having knotted the ends together, she drove 

 in a nail over the back door and left the house, 

 giving strict injunctions to the servants to hang 

 the bone up in that jihice the last thing at night 

 Then they were carefully to observe who should 

 first enter that door on the following moining, 

 exclusive of the members of the household, and the 

 sex of the child would be that of the first comer. 

 This rather vexed some of the servants, who wished 

 for a boy, as two or three women came regulaily 

 each morning to the house, and a man was scarcely 

 ever seen there ; but to their delight the first 

 comer on this occasion proved to be a man, and in 

 a few weeks the old woman's repiitation was es- 

 tablished throughout the neighbourhood by the 

 birth of a boy. M. E. F. 



CUurrtcS. 



POET LAUREATES. 



Can any of the contributors to your most useful 

 " Notes and Queries" favour me with tlie titJe 

 of any work which gives an account of the origin, 

 office, emoluments, and privileges of Poet Lau- 

 reate. Selden, in his Titles of Honour ( Works, 

 vol. iii. p. 451.), shows the Counts Palatine had 

 the right of conferring the dignity claimed by the 

 German Emperors. The first payment I am 

 aware of is to Master Henry de Abriuces, the 



Versijier (I suppose Poet Laureate), who received 

 M. a day, — 4/. 7s., as will be seen in the Issue Roll 

 of Thomas de lirantingham, edited by Frederick 

 Devon. 



AVarton {Historij of English Poetry, vol. ii. 

 p. 129.) gives no further information, and is the 

 author generally quoted ; but the particular matter 

 sought for is wanting. 



The first patent, according to the Encyclopcedia 

 Bletropolituna, article " Laureate," is stated, as re- 

 gards the existing office, to date from 5th Charles I., 

 1630; and assigns as the annual gratuity 100/., 

 and a tierce of Spanish Canary wine out of the 

 royal cellars. 



Prior to this, the emoluments appear uncertain, 

 as will be seen by Giffurd's statement relative to 

 the amount paid to B. Jonson, vol. i. cxi. : — 



" Hitherto the Laureateship apjiears to have been a 

 mere trifle, adopted at plea,sure l)y those who were em- 

 ployed to write for the court, but conveying no privi- 

 leges, and establishing no claim to a salary." 



I am inclined to doubt the accuracy of the 

 phrase " employed to write for the court." Cer- 

 tain it is, the question I now raise was pressed 

 then, as it was to satisfy Ben Jonson's want of 

 information Selden wrote on the subject in his 

 Titles of Honour. 



These emoluments, rights, and privileges have 

 been matters of Laureate di.spute, even to the 

 days of Southey. In volume iv. of his corre- 

 spondence, many hints of this will be found ; e. g., 

 at page 310., with reference to Gifford's statement, 

 and " my proper rights." 



The Abbe llesnel says, — "L'illustre Dryden I'a 

 portc eomme Pucte du Ho;/,'" which rather reduces its 

 academic diirnity ; and adds, " Le Sieur Cyber, come- 

 dien de profession, est actuellement en possession du 

 titre de Poete Laureate, et qu'il jouit en meme ttms 

 de deux cens livres sterling de pension, a la charge de 

 presenter tous les ans, deux pieces d£ vers a la famille 

 royale," 



I am afraid, however, the Abbe drew upon his 

 imagination for the amount of the salary ; and 

 that he wtndd find the people were never so hos- 

 tile to the court as to sanction so heavy an inflic- 

 tion upon the royal family, as they would have 

 met with from the quit-rent ode, the pe[)percorn 

 of praise paid by Elkanah Settle, Cibber, or PL J. 



The Abbe, however, is not so amusing in his 

 mistake (if mistaken) relative to this point, as I 

 find another foreign author has been upon two 

 Poet Laureates, Dryden and Settle. Vincenzo 

 Lancetti, in his Psemlonimia Miluno, 183G, tells 

 us : — 



" Anche la durezza di alcuni cognomi lia piii volte 

 consigliato un raddolciinento, che li rendesse piii facili 

 a pronunziarsi. Pircio Macloughlin divenne Macklin ; 



JMachloch, INIallet ; ed Elkana Settle fu poi 



Jolm Dryden!" 



