132 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 39. 



wbich took place just before the time of tlie carnival 

 in 1829, the usual festivities were omitted, which 

 gave occasion to the followinji pasquinade, which 

 was much, thouy:h privately, circulated : — 

 " Tre cose mat focesli, O Padre santo : 



Accettar 11 papato, 



Viver tanto, 



Morir di Carnivale 



Per destar pianto." 



J. Mn. 



Shcikspeare a Brass-ruhher. — I am desirous 

 to notice, if no commentator has forestalled me, 

 that Shakspeare, among liis many accomplishments, 

 was sufficiently beyond his age to be a brass-rubber : 



" What's on this tomb 

 I cannot read ; the character I 11 take with wax." 

 Timoii of Athens, v. 4. 



From the " soft impression," however, alluded 

 to in the next scene, his " wax" appears rather to 

 have been the forerunner of guttu percha than of 

 heel-ball. T. S. Lawrence. 



California. — In the Voyage 7-otmd tJie World, by 

 Captain George Shelvocke, begun Feb. 1719, he 

 says of California {Harrises Collection, vol. i. 

 p.233.): — 



"The soil about Puerto, Seguro, and very likely in 

 most of the valleys, is a rich black mould, which, as 

 you turn it fresh up to the sun, api)ears as if intor- 

 inliigled with gold dust ; some of which we endeavoured 

 to purify and wa'.h from the dirt; but thiuigh we 

 were a little prejudiced against the tlioughts that it 

 could be possible that this metal should be so promis- 

 cuously and universally mingled with common earth, 

 yet we endeavoured to cleanse and wash the earth from 

 some of it ; and the more we did the more it appeared 

 like gold. In order to be further satisfied I brought 

 away some of it, which we lost in our confusion in 

 China." 



How an accident prevented the discovery, more 

 than a century back, of the golden harvest now 

 gathering in California ! E. N. W. 



Southwark. 



Mayor of Misj-nle and Mastej\i of the Pastimes. 

 — The word Maior of Misrule appears in the 

 Harl. MSS. 2129. as having been on glass in the 

 year 1591, in Denbigh Church. 



"5 Edw. VI., a gentleman (Geo. Ferrars"), lawyer, 

 poet, and liistorian, appointed by the Council, and 

 being of better calling than commonly his predecessors, 

 received his commi'.sion by the nnme of ' Master of 

 the King's Pastimes.'" — Strutt's Sports and Pastimes, 

 S40. 



" 1578. Edward Baygine, cursitor, clerk for writ- 

 ing and passing the Queen's leases, ' Comptroller of the 

 Queen's pastimes and revels,' clerk comptroller of her 

 tents and pavilions, commissioner of sewers, burgess in 

 Parliament." — Gvvillim, Heraldry, 1724 edit. 



A. C. 



jRoland and Oliver. — Canciani says there is a 

 figure in the church porch at Verona which, from 

 being in the same place with Roland, and mani- 

 festly of the same age, he supposes may be Oliver, 

 armed with a spiked ball fastened by a chain to a 

 staff of aliout three feet in length. Who are 

 Roland and Oliver f There is the following de- 

 rivation of the saying "a Holand for your Oliver," 

 without any reference or authority attached, in my 

 note-book : — 



" Charlemagne, in his expedition against the 



Saracens, was accompanied by two ' steeds,' some wri- 

 ters say ' pages,' named Holand and Oliver, who were 

 so excellent and so equally matched, that the equality 

 became proverbial — ' I'll give you a Roland for your 

 Oliver' being the same as the vulgar saying, ' I'll give 

 you tit for tat,' /. c. ' I'll give you the same (whether in 

 a good or bad sense) as you give me.' " 



Jarltzberg. 



caucrt'cS. 



THE STORY OF THE THREE MEN AND THEIR BAG 

 OF MONET. 



Lord Campbell, in his Lives of the Chancellors, 

 relates, in connection with Queen Elizabeth's Lord 

 Keeper EUesmere, a very common story, of which 

 I am surprised he did not at once discern the 

 falsehood. It is that of a wiilow, who having a 

 sum of money entrusted to her by three men, 

 which she was on no account to return except to 

 the joint demand of the tiiree, is afterwards art- 

 fully persuaded by one of them to give it up to 

 him. Being afterwards sued by the other two, 

 she is successfully defended by a young lawyer, 

 who puts in the plea that she is not bound to give 

 up the money at the demand of only two of the 

 parties. In this c:ise this ingenious gentleman is 

 the future chancellor. The story is told of the 

 Attorney- General Noy, and of an Italian advocate, 

 in the notes to Rogers' Italy. It is likewise the 

 subject of one of the smaller tales in Lane's Ai-a- 

 hian Nights ; but here I must remark, that the 

 Eastern version is decidedly more ingenious than 

 the later ones, inasmuch as it exculpates the keeper 

 of the deposit from the "laches" of which in the 

 other cases she was decidedly guilty. Three men 

 enter a bath, and entrust their bag of money to 

 the keeper with the usual conditions. While 

 bathing, one feigns to go to ask for a comb (if I 

 remember right), but in reality demands the 

 money. 'I'lie keeper properly refuses, when he 

 calls out to his companions within, " He won't give 

 it me." Tiiey unwittingly respond, " Give it him," 

 and he accordingly walks off with the money. I 

 think yoiu" readers will agree with me that the 

 tale has suffered considerably in its progress west- 

 ward. 



My object in troubling you with this, is to ask 



