90 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 36. 



where in Swift's Letlers or Miscellanies ; and I 

 was told by a person whose recollection, added to 

 my own, goes back near a hundred years, that it was 

 supposed to be a political satire, and may have 

 been of Irish origin, as I think there is some allu- 

 sion to it in one of Goldsmith's plays or essays. 



i^cpIicS. 



PUNISHMENT OF DEATH BT BUKNINQ. 



Probably some of the readers of " Notes and 

 Queries" will share in the surprise expressed by 

 £. S. S. W. (Vol. ii., p. 6.), yet many persons now 

 living must remember when spectacles such as he 

 alludes to were by no means uncommon. An ex- 

 amination of the newspapers and other periodicals 

 of the hitter half of the eighteenth century would 

 siipply numerous instances in which the punish- 

 ment of strangling and burning was inflicted ; as 

 well in cases of petit treason, for the murder of 

 a husband, as more frequently in cases of coining, 

 which, as the law then stood, was one species of 

 high treason. I had collected a pretty long list 

 from the Historical Chronicle in the earlier volumes 

 of the Gentleman s Magazine, but thought it 

 scarcely of sufficient iniportnnce to merit insertion 

 in "Notes and Queries." Perhaps, however, 

 the following extracts may possess some interest : 

 one as showing the manner in which executions of 

 this kind were latterly performed in London, and 

 the other as apparently furnishing an instance of 

 later date than that which i\lr. Ross considers the 

 last in which this barbarous punishment was in- 

 flicted. The first occurs in the 56th vol. of the 

 Magazine, Part i. p. 524., under the date of the 

 21st June, 1786: — 



" Tills morning, tlie malefactors already mentioned 

 were all executed accorduig to their sentence. About 

 a quarter of an hour after the platform had dropped, 

 Phoebe Harris, the female convict, was led by two of- 

 ficers to a stake about eleven feet high, fixed in the 

 ground, near the top of which was an inverted curve 

 made of iron, to which one end of a lialter was tied. 

 The prisoner stood on a low stool, which, after the or- 

 dinary had prayed with her a short time, was taken 

 away, and she hung suspended by the neck, her feet 

 being scarcely more than twelve or fourteen inches 

 i from the pavement. Soon after the signs of life had 

 ceased, two cartloads of faggots were placed round her 

 and set on fire; the flames soon burning the halter, 

 she then sunk a few inches, but was supported by an 

 iron chain passed over her chest and affixed to the 

 stake." 



The crime for which this woinan suffered was 

 coining. Probably the method of execution here 

 related was adopted in consequence of tlie horrible 

 occurrence narrated by ilr. lloss. 



In vol. lix. of the same ]\Iagazine, Part i. p. 272., 

 under the date of the 18//i of March, 1789, is an 



account of the execution of nine malefiictors at 

 Newgate; and amongst them, — 



" Christian Murphy, alias Bowman, for coining, was 

 brought out after the rest were turned off, and fixed to 

 a stake, and burnt, being first strangled by the stool 

 being taken from imder her." 



From the very slight difference in dates, I am 

 inclined to think that this is the same case with that 

 alluded to by Mr. Ross. Old Bailet. 



June 24. 1850, 



TO GIVE A MAN HORNS. 



(Vol. i., p. 383.) 



Your correspondent L. C. has started a most 

 interesting inquiry, and your readers must, I am 

 sure, join with me in regretting that he should 

 have been so laconic in the third division of his 

 Query ; and have failed to refer to, even if he did 

 not quote, the passages from " late Greek," in 

 which "horns" are mentioned as symbolical of a 

 husband's dishonour. The earliest notice of this 

 symbolical use of horns is, I believe, to be found 

 in the Oneirocritica of Artemidorus, who lived 

 during the reign of Hadrian, a. d. 117 — 138 : 



" Xl(pl 5e 'iiriruv iv t^ Trepi ayuivwv \6yip irponfrjTai. 

 "EAeyc St Tis Sxa.'Jafjt.lvif tiv\ cirl Kpiiw KaBr)f.Kh'<f, Koi we- 

 c6vTL i^ aiiTOv eK TWf (/nrpoadd', fivrjarevofiivcf 5e ical 

 fifWovTi iv atiTois Tois ^/ue'paij Toiis ■yd/.wvs e'lriTeAfTi', 

 ■npomriiv air^' 'on t] ywi) aov vopvivai, koX Kara to 

 heySfj-ffov, K^pard <toi ttoitjctci- koI ovtus SjrtS?), k.t.\." 

 — Artem. Oneirocritica, lib. ii. cap. 12. 



See ]Menage, Origines de la Langue Franqoise, 

 Paris, 1650, in verb. " Cornard." I have only seen 

 ReifT's edition of Artemidorus, Svo. Lipsia;, 1805. 

 His illustrations of the passage (far too numerous to 

 be quoted) seem to be curious, and likely torepay 

 the reader for the trouble of examination. His note 

 commences with a reference to Olaus Borrichius, 

 Antiqua Urb. Rom. fades : — 



" Alexander Magnus .... successores ejus 



in nummis omnes cornuti, quasi Jovii, honore utique 

 manifesto, donee cornuum decus in ludibria uxorioriim 

 vertit somnorum interpres Artemidorus." 



On which he observes, — 



" Bene. Nam ante Artemidorum, nullus, quod sciam, 

 hujus scommatis mentionem fecit. Quod enini Traug. 

 Fred. Benedict, ad Ciecron. Epist. iid Dtv. 7. 24. ad 

 voc. ' Cipius ' conjecit, id paullo audentius mihi vi- 

 detur conjeclsse." 



I have not succeeded in obtaining a sight of 

 this edition of the Epistles. And I should feel 

 much obliged to any one who would quote the 

 " conjecture," and so enable your readers to gauge 

 its ".audacity" for themselves. Is it not odd that 

 Rciff should have made no remark on the utter 

 want of connection between the " honor manifes- 

 tus," and the "ludibria" of Olaus? or on the Kara 

 rh KeyS/xevov of the author that he was illustrating? 



