Aug. 31. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



219 



St. James's Parle, of about that date, in which all 

 the men liave swords. 



I suspect they bej^an to go out of common use 

 about 1770, and were nearly leit oil" in ordinary 

 life in 1780 ; but were still occasionally worn, both 

 in public and private, till the French Revolution, 

 when they totally went out, except in court dress. 



If any of your correspondents who has access to 

 the Jluseuui would look through the jn'ints repre- 

 senting out-of-doors life, from Hogarth to Gilray, 

 he would probably be able to furnish you with 

 some precise and amusing details on this not unim- 

 portant point in the history of manners. C. 



Quarles' Pension (Vol. ii., p. 171.). — There 

 should have been added to the reference there 

 given, viz. "Vol. i., p. 201." (at which place 

 there is no question as to Q}iav\e.s^ pension), another 

 to Vol. i., p. 243., where that question is raised. 

 I think this worth noting, as " Quarles " does not 

 aj^pear in the Index, and the imperl'ect reference 

 might lead inquirers astray. It seems very curious 

 that the inquiry as to the precise meaning of Pope's 

 couplet has as yet received no explanation. C. 



Franz von Sickingen (Vol. i., p. 134.). — I re- 

 gret that I cannot resolve the doubt of H. J. PI. 

 respecting Albert Durer's allegorical print of The 

 Knight, Death, and the Devil, of which I have only 

 what I presume is a copy or retouched plate, bear- 

 ing the date 1564 on the tablet in the lower left- 

 hand corner, where I suppose the mark of Albert 

 Durer is placed in the original. 



I should, however, much doubt its being intended 

 as a portrait of Sickingen, and I can trace no re- 

 semblance to the medal given by Luckius. I be- 

 lieve the conjecture originated with Bartsch, in his 

 Peintre Graveitr, vol. vii. p. 107. Schoeber, in his 

 Li/e of Du7-er, p. 87., supposes that it is an alle- 

 gory of the nature of a soldier's life. 



It was this print that inspired La Motte Fouque 

 with the idea of his Sintram, as he thus informs us 

 in the postscript to that singularly romantic tale : — 



" Some ye-ars since there lay among my birtli-day 

 presents a beautiful engraving of Albert Durer. A 

 harnessed kniglit, with an oldish countenance, is riding 

 upon bis bigb steed, attended by Iiis dog, through a 

 fearful valley, where fragments of rock and roots of 

 trues distort themselves into loathsome forms ; and 

 poisonous weeds rankle along the ground, livil v..r- 

 iiiin are creeping along through them. Beside hiiii 

 Death is riding on a wasted pony ; from behind ihe 

 form of a devil stretches over its clawed arm toward 

 him. Both horse and dog look strangely, as it were 

 infected by (be hideous objects that surround them ; 

 but the knight rides ijuietly along his way, and bears 

 ujjon the tip of his lance a lizard tliat he has already 

 speared. A castle, with its rich friendly battlements, 

 looks over from afar, whereat the desolateness of the 

 valley penctrati's yet dee|ier into the soid. The friend 

 who gave me this print added a letter, with a request 



that I would explain the mysterious forms by a ballad. 

 . . . I bear the image with me in peace and in war, 

 until it has now spun itself out into a little romance." 



S. W. SiNGEK. 

 Micklehani, Aug. 13. 1850. 



'■^ Noli me tangere" (Vol. ii., p. 153.). — B. R. is 

 informed, that one of the finest paintings on this 

 subject is the altar-piece in All Souls College 

 Chapel, Oxford. It is the ])roduc(ion of Raphael 

 IVIengs, and was purchased for the price of three 

 hundred guineas of Sir James Thornhill, who 

 painted the figure of the founder over the altar, 

 tlie ceiling, and the figures between the windows. 

 There may be other paintings by earlier masters 

 on so intei'esting a subject, but none can surpass 

 this of Raphael Mengs in the truthfulness of what 

 he has here delineated. The exact size of the 

 picture I do not recollect, but it cannot be less than 

 ten feet high. 



There is a beautiful engraving of it by Sherwin. 



J. M. G. 



Worcester. 



Dr. Boioring's Translations (Vol. ii., p. 152.).— 

 Besides the anthologies mentioned by Jakltzberg, 

 Dr. Bowringhas published Poets of the Magyars, 

 8vo. Londo'i, 1830; Specimens of Polish Poets, 

 1827; Servianpopular Poetry, 1827; and a Cheskian 

 Anthology, 1832. H. H. W. 



" Speak the Tongue that Shakspeare spoke" (Vol. 

 ii., p. 135.). — The lines about which X. asks, are — 

 " We must be free or die, who speal the tongue 



That Shakspeare spake ; the faith and morals hold 



Which Milton held," &c. 



They are in one of Wordsworth's glorious "Sonnets 

 to Liberty " (the sixteenth), and belong to us, and 

 not to the New-Englanders. G.N. 



Countess of Desmond (Vol. ii., pp.153. 18G.). — 

 In reply to K., I have an impression that Horace 

 AValpule has a kind of dissertation on the Old 

 Countess of Desmond, to whom his attention was 

 directed by her being said to have danced with 

 Richard III. Having no books at hand, I cannot 

 sjjcak positively ; but if K. turns to AValpole's 

 ^VorJts, he will see whether my memory is correct. 

 I myself once looked, many years ago, into the 

 sidiject, and satisfied myself that the great age 

 attributed to any Countess of Desmond nuist be a 

 lable; and that the portrait of her (I think, at 

 AVindsor) was so gross an inqiosition as to be 

 really that of an old man. I made a " Note" — 

 indeed many — of the circumstances which led me 

 to this conclusion ; but they are at this moment 

 inaccessible to me. I venture, however, now that 

 the question is revived, to otier these vague sug- 

 gestions. By and by, if the subject be not ex- 

 hausted, I shall endeavour to find my " Notes," 

 and communicate them to you. I wonder the 



