246 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 46. 



" Fly. Spider, spicier, what do you spin? 

 Spider. Mainsails for a nlan-of-\viU\ 

 Fly. Spider, spider, 'tis too thia. 

 Tell mo truly, what 'tis for. 

 Spider. 'Tis for curtains for the king. 



When he lies in his state bed. 

 Fly. Spider, 'tis too mean a thing. 



Tell me why your toils you spread." 

 &e. &c. &c. 



There were other stanzas, I believe, but these 

 are all I can remember. My notion is, that tlie 

 verses in question form part of a collection of 

 nursery songs and rhymes by Charles Lamb, pub- 

 lished many years ago, but now quite out of print. 

 This, however, is a mere surmise on my part, and 

 has no better foundation than the vein of humoiu', 

 sprightliness, and originality, obvious enough in the 

 above extract, which we find running through and 

 adorning all he wrote. " Nihil quod tetigit nou 

 ornavit." S. J. 



A Lexicon of Types. — Can any of your readers 

 inform me of the existence of a collection of em- 

 blems or types ? I do not mean allegorical pic- 

 tures, but isolated symbols, alphabetically arranged 

 or otherwise. 



Types are constantly to be mot with upon 

 monuments, coins, and ancient title-pages, but so 

 mixed with other matters as to render the finding 

 a desired symbol, uidess very familiar, a work of 

 great difficulty. Could there be a systematic ar- 

 rangement of all those known, with their defi- 

 nitions, it would be a very valuable work of 

 reference, — a work in which one might pounce 

 upon all the sacred symbols, classic types, signs, 

 heraldic zoology, conventional botany, monograms, 

 and the like abstract art. Luk.e Limner. 



Montaigne, Select Essays of. — 



" Kssays selected from Jlontaigne, with a Sketch of 

 the Life of the Author. London. For P. Cadell, &c. 

 1800." 



This volume is dedicated to the Rev. William 

 Coxe, rector of Bemerton. 



The life of Montaigne is dated the 28th of 

 March, 1800, and signed Ilonoria. At the end of 

 the book is this advertisement : — 



" Lately publislied by the same Author 'The Fi - 

 male Mentor.' 2d edit., in 2 vols. l2ino." 



AVho was Honoi'ia f and are these essays a 

 scarce book in England? In France it is entirely 

 unknown to the numerous commentators on Mon- 

 taigne's works. O.D. 



Custom of weafing ffve Breast uncovered in 

 Elizahetlis Beign. — Fynes Movyson, in a well- 

 known passage of his Itinerary, (which I suppose 

 I need not transcribe), tells us that unmarried 

 females and young married women wore the 

 breasts uncovered in Queett Elizabeth's reign. 



This is the custom in many parts of the East. 

 Lan)artine mentions it in his pretty description of 

 ilademoiselle Malagambe: he adds, " it is the cus- 

 tom of the Arab females." When did this cu- 

 rious custom commence in England, and when did 



it go out of fashion ? 



Jaeltzbebg. 



Miltmis Lycidas. — Tn a Dublin edition of Mil- 

 ton's Paradise Lost (1765), in a memoir prefixed I 

 find the following explanation of that rather ob- 

 scure passage in Lycidas : — 



" Besides what the grim wolf, with privy paw. 

 Daily devours apace, and nothing said ; 

 But that two-handed engine at the door 

 Stands ready to smite once, and smite no more." 



" This poem is not all made up of sorrow and ten- 

 derness, there is a mixture of satire and indignation : 

 for ill part of it, the poet taketli occasion to inveigh 

 against the corruptions of the clergy, and seemeth to 

 have first discovered liis acrimony against Arb. Laud, 

 and to have threatened him with the loss of his head, 

 which afterwards happened to him through the fury of 

 his enemies. At least I can think of no sense so pro- 

 per to be given to these verses in Lycidas." (p. vii.) 



Perhaps some of your numerous correspondents 

 will kindly inform me of the meaning or meanings 

 usually assigned to this passage. Jarltzbeeg. 



sating during the Lessons. — What is the origin 

 of the congregation remaining seated, while the 

 ifirst and second lessons are read, in tlie cliurch 

 service ? The rubric is silent on the subject ; it 

 merely directs that the person who reads them 

 shall stand : — 



" He that readeth so standing and turning himself, 

 as he may best be heard of all such as are present." 



Witli respect to the practice of sitting while the 

 epistle is read, and of standing while the gospel is 

 read, in the communion service ; there is in the 

 rubric a distinct direction that " all the people are 

 to stand up" during the latter, while it is silent as 

 to the former. From the silence of the rubric as 

 to standing during the two lessons of the morning 

 service, and the epistle in ihe connnunion service, 

 it seems to have been inferred that the people were 

 to sit. But why are they directed to stand during 

 the gospel in the communion service, while they 

 sit during the second lesson in the morning ser- 

 vice? L. 



Bleiv-Beer. — Sir, having taken a Note accord- 

 ing to your very sound advice, I addressed a letter 

 to the John Bull newspaper, which was publishe<l 

 on Saturd.ay, Feb. IC. It contained an extract 

 from a political tract, entitled, — 



"The true History of Betty Ireland, with some 

 Account of her Sister Blanche of Brlttain. Printed 

 for J. Robinson, at the Goldeii Lion in Ludgate Street, 

 Mt)ccUii. (1753)." 



