June 1. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



even the conservation, of tlie public recoi'ds, san- 

 guine hopes from that quarter can hardly be in- 

 dulged. 



To insure correctness, without which the scheme 

 would be utterly valueless, I would jn-opose that 

 a certain riumber of competent transcribers be ap- 

 pointed for each county, either at a given salary, 

 or at a remuneration of so much per entry, to 

 copy the registers of those parishes the ministers 

 of which are unwilling to do it, or feel themselves 

 iinequal to the task. The option, however, should 

 always, in the first instance, be given to the 

 minister, as the natural custos of the registers, 

 and as one, from local knowledge, likely to do the 

 work correctly. To each county there should 

 also be appointed one or more competent pei'sons 

 as collators, to correct the errors of the tran- 

 scribers. 



I throw out these rough hints in the hope that 

 some of your cori'espondents will furnish their 

 ideas on the subject, till we ai last arrive at a fully 

 practicable plan of carrying out Mr.Wyatt Edgell's 

 suggestions, and, at all events, obtain transcripts, 

 if not printed cojjies, of every register in the 

 kingdom. L. B. L. 



THE HUDIBRASTIC VERSE. 



'■'■He that fights and nins aivny" ^-c. — Your 

 correspondent JNEelakion may be assured that 

 the orations of Demosthenes do not afford any 

 trace of the proverbial senarius, avryp o (peiyuiv 

 Kal 7raA.1v naxnceTcn ; and it does not appear cpiite 

 clear how the apophthegm containing it (which 

 has been so generally attributed to Plutarch) 

 has been concocted. Heeren, in doing full jus- 

 tice to the biographical talent of the Chasro- 

 nean, has yet observed, " We may easily see 

 that in his Lives he only occasionally indicates his 

 aiithorities, because his own head was so often 

 the source." It is in the life f)f Demosthenes that 

 the story of his fliglit is told, but briefly ; and for 

 that jiart which relates to the inscri])tion on the 

 sliicld of Demosthenes, he says, iis eAeye YlvSens. 

 The other life among those of the Ten Orators, 

 the best critics think not to be Plutarch's ; and 

 the relation in it is too ridiculous for credit; yet 

 it is repeated by Photius. 



Tlie first writer in which the story takes some- 

 thing of tlie form in whicli Erasmus gives it is 

 Aulus Gellius (^Nuct. Att. 1. xvii. c. 21.) : — 



« Post inde aliquanto tempore Plnli|)pus apud Chae- 

 ronoain prcelio inaj;no Alhciiii;nsi;.s vicit. Turn De- 

 mostheiies orator ex co prxllo sahitcm fuga (pu-csivit : 

 quinnijuo id ei, quod fiigc-rat, probrose ol)jiceretiir ; vi-rsii 

 nil) iiulissimo eliisit, ay'/ip 6 (pivyuv, inquit, Kal -nakiv 

 fiaxhaTai." 



We here see that the senarius is designated as a 

 viell-hnown verse, so that it must have been in the 



mouths of the people long before it was applied to 

 this piece of gossip. I have hitherto not been able 

 to trace it to an earlier writer. 



The Apophthegmata of Erasmus were first pub- 

 lished, I believe, in 1531, in six books. I have an 

 edition printed by Frobenius, at Basle, in 1538, in 

 which two more books are added; and, in an 

 epistle prefixed to the seventh book, Erasmus 

 says, — 



" Prodiit opus, tanta aviditate distractum est, ut 

 protinus a typographo ca?perit efflagitare deiiuo." 



He names twenty-one ancient Greek and Latin 

 authors from which tlie apophthegms had been 

 collected; and, with regard to what he has taken 

 from Plutarch, he mentions the licence he has 

 used : — 



" Nos Pliitarchum multis de causis seqiii maluimus 

 quam interpretari, explanare quam vertere." 



It is from this book of Erasmus that the worthy 

 jSTicolas Udall selecteil his l\co Boohes of Apoph- 

 thegmes ; and he tells his readers, — 



" I have been so bold with mine author as to make 

 the first booke and second booke, which he maketh 

 third and fowerth." 



Udall has occasionally added further e.xplana- 

 tions of his own to those translated from Erasmus. 

 lie promises, in good time, the remaining books, 



but says, — 



" I have thought better, with two of the eight, to 

 minister unto you a taste of this bothe delectable and 

 fruitefull recreation." 



Those who are desirous of knowing at large the 

 course pursued by Erasmus in the compilation of 

 this amusing and once popular work, will find it 

 fully stated in his preface ; one passage of which 

 will show the large licence he allowed himself: — 



" Sed totum opus qiiodanimodo meum feci, dnm et 

 explanatius ctFero quEe Gra?ce referuntur, interjectis in- 

 terdum quae apud alios autores additur comperissem," 

 &c. 



The only sure ground, as far as I can disco- 

 ver, for this gradually constructed legend, is 

 the mention of the llight of Demosthenes by 

 iEschines and Dinarchus. In the more amplified 

 editions of Erasmus's Adages, after the publication 

 of the Apophthegmata, he repeats the story in 

 illustration of a Latin proverb (probably only a 

 version of the Greek), "Vir fugieiis et denuo pug- 

 nabitur;" and I find in some collections of the 

 si.xtecnth century both the Latin and Greek given 

 upon the authority of Plutarch ! Laugius, in his 

 Polyanthea (a copious common-place book which 

 would outweigh twenty of our late Laureate's), 

 has given the apophthegm verbatim from Erasmus, 

 and iias boldly appended Plutarch's name. But 

 the more extraordinary ciuirse is that which one 

 Gualandi took, who published, at Venice, in I5G8, 



