104 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 37. 



Query put to a Pope. — 



" Sancte Pater ! scire vellern 

 Si Papains niutat pellem? " 



I have been told that these Hues were addressed 

 to one of the popes, whose life, before his elevation 

 to the see of St. Teter, had been passed in excesses 

 but little suited to tlie clerical profession. 



They were addressed to him orally, by one of 

 his former associates, who met and stopped him 

 while on his way to or from some high festival of 

 the Church, and who i)lucked aside, as he spoke, 

 the gorgeous robes in which his quondam fellow- 

 reveller was dressed. 



The reply of the pope was prompt, and, like the 

 question, in a rhyming Latin couplet. I wish, if 

 possible, to discover, the name of the pope; — the 

 terms of his reply; — the name of the bold man 

 who "put him to the question;" — by what writer 

 the anecdote is recorded, or on what authority it 

 rests. C. P'oRBES. 



Temple. 



The Carpenters Maggot. — I have in my pos- 

 session a MS. tune called the " Carpenter's Alag- 

 got," which, until witliin the last few years, was 

 played (I know for nearly a century) at the 

 antiual dinner of tlie Livery of the Carpenters' 

 Company. Can anyof your readers inform me wliere 

 the original is to be found, and also the origin of 

 the word "Ma'rfrot" as applied to a tune? 



^ F. T. P. 



Lord Delamere. — Can any of your readers give 

 me the words of a song called " Lord Delamere," 

 beainnintr : 

 " I wonder very much that our sovereign king, 



So many large taxes upon this land should bring.'' 



And inform me to what political event this song, 

 of which I have an imperfect MS. copy, refers. 



Edward Peacock, Jun. 



Henry and the Nut-hrown il/a?rf. — Sisakch 

 would be obliged for any information as to the au- 

 thorship of this beautiful ballad. 



[Mr. Wright, in his bandsonie black-letter reprint, 

 published by Pickering in ISSfi, states, that "it is 

 impossible to fix the date of this ballad," and has not 

 atteinpted to trace the authorship. We shall be very 

 glad if Search's Query should produce information upon 

 either of these points.] 



lUpIt'cS. 



TRENCH POEM BY MALHERBE. 



The two stanzas your correspondent E. R. C. B. 

 has cited (Vol. ii., p. 71.) are from an elegiac poem 

 by Malherbb (who died in 1628, at the good old 

 age of seventy-three), which is entitled Consolation 



a Monsieur Du Perrier sur la Mort de sa Fille. It 

 has always been a great favorite of mine ; for, like 

 Gray's Elegy and the celebrated Coplas of Jorge 

 ^lanrique on the death of his father, beside its 

 philosophic moralising strain, it has that pathetic 

 character which makes its way at once to the 

 heart. I will transcribe the first four stanzas for 

 the sake of the beauty of the fourth : — 



" Ta douleur, Du Perrier, sera done eternelle, 



Et les tristes discours 

 Que te met en I'esprit I'amitie paternelle 

 L'augmenteront toujours. 



" Le malheur de ta fille au tombi.'au descendue, 

 Par uu commun trepas, 

 Est-ce quelque dedale, ou ta raison perdue 

 Ne se retrouve pas ? 



'■ Je sai de quels appas son enfance estoit pleine ; 

 Et n'ay pas entrcpris, 

 Injuiieux ami, de soulager ta peine 

 Avecque sou mepiis. 



" Mais elles estoit du monde, ou les plus belles choses 

 Out le pire dcstin : 

 Et Rose elle a v^cu ce que vivent les roses, 

 L'espace d'un matin." 



The whole poem consists of twenty-one stanzas, 

 and shouhl be read as a whole; but there are several 

 other striking passages. The consolation the ])oet 

 offers to his friend breathes the spirit of Epic- 

 tetus : — 



" De moy, deja deux fois d'une pareille foudre 

 Je nie suis vu perclus, 

 Et deux fois la raison ni'a si bien fait resoudre, 

 Qu'il ne mVn souvient plus. 

 " Non qu'il ne me sail grief que la terre possede 

 Ce qui me fut si cher ; 

 Mais en uu accident qui n'a point de remede, 

 II n'en faiit point chercher." 



Then follow the two stanzas cited by your corre- 

 spondent, and the closing verse is : — 

 " De murmurer contro-elle et perdre patience, 

 11 est mal-a-propos : 

 Vouloir ce que Dieu veut, est la seule science 

 Qui nous niL't en repos." 



The stanza beginning " Le pauvre en sa cabane," 

 is an admirable imitation of the "Pallida mors 

 requo i)uisat peile," &c. of Horace, which a coun- 

 try man of the poet is said to have less happily 

 rendered " La pale mort avec son pied de cheval," 

 &c. 



Malherbe has been duly appreciated in France : 

 his works, in one edition, are accompanied by an 

 elaborate comment by Menage and Chevreau : 

 Racan wrote his life, and Godeau, Bishop of Vence, 

 a panegyrical preface. He was a man of wit, and 

 ready at an impromptu ; yet it is said, that in 

 writing a consolotary poem to the President de 

 Verdun, on the death of his wife, he was so long 



