Oct. 19. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



335 



then would mean " orderly, regular, according to 

 degree." 



The difference in intensity of meaning between 

 the adjective and the adverb seems analogous to 

 that between the adjectives proper, regular, &c., 

 and the same words when used in the vulgar way 

 as adverbs. G. P. 



PASCAL AND HIS EDITOR BOSSUT. 



(Vol. ii., p. 278.) 



Although I am not afraid of the fate with which 

 that unfortunate monk met, of whom it is said, — 

 " Pro solopuncto caruit Martinus Asello," 



yet a blunder is a sad thing, especially when the 

 person who is supposed to commit it attempts to 

 correct others. 



Now the printer of the " ISTotes and Qderies" 

 has introduced, in my sliort remark on Pascal, the 

 very error which has led the author of the article 

 in the British Quarterly Review, as well as many 

 others, to mistake the Bishop of Meaux for the 

 editor of Pascal's works. Once more, that unfor- 

 tunate editor is Bossut, not Bossuet; and if it may 

 appear to some that the diflerence of one letter in 

 a name is not of much consequence, yet it is from 

 an error as trifling as this that people of my 

 acquaintance confound Madame de Stael with 

 Madame de Staal-Delauney, in spite of chronology 

 and common sense. Again, by the leave of the 

 Christian Remembrancer (vol. xiii. no. 55.), the 

 elegant and accomplished scholar to whom we owe 

 the only complete text of Pascal's thoughts, is M. 

 Faugere, not Fougere. All these are minutiae ; 

 but the chapter of minutiae is an important one in 

 litei'ary history. 



Another remarkable question which I feel a 

 wish to touch upon before closing this communi- 

 cation, is that of impromptus. Your correspondent 

 Ma. Singer (p. 103.) supposes Malherbe the 

 poet to have been "ready at an impromptu." 

 But, to say the least, this is rather doubtful, unless 

 the extemporaneous effusions of Malherbe were of 

 that class which Voiture indulged in with so much 

 success at the Hotel de Rambouillet — sonnets 

 and epigrams leisurely prepared for the purpose 

 of being lired off in some fashionable " ruelle " of 

 Paris. Malherbe is known to have been a very 

 slow composer ; he used to say to Balzac that ten 

 years' rest was necessary after the production of a 

 hundred lines: and the author of the Christian 

 Socrates, himself rather too fond of the file, after 

 quoting this fact, adds in a letter to Consart : 



" Je ii'ai pas besoLn d'un si long repos apri-s un si 

 petit travail. Mais aussi d'attcndre de moi cette lieureuse 

 facilitequi fait produire des vohnnes a M. de Scudery, 

 ce serait me connaitre mal, ct me faire une lioniiuur 

 que je nc merite pas." 



Malhei'bc certainly had a most happy influence 



on French poetry ; he checked the ultra-classical 

 school of Ronsard, and began that work of reform- 

 ation afterwards accomplished by Boileau. 



As I have mentioned Voiture's name, I shall 

 add a very droll " soi-disant " impromptu of his, 

 composed to ridicule Mademoiselle Chapelain, the 

 sister of the poet. Like her brother, she was 

 most miserly in her habits, and not distinguished 

 by that virtue which some say is next to godli- 

 ness. • 



" Vous qui tenez incessamment 



Cent amans dedans votre manche, 

 Tenez-les au moins proprement, 

 Et faites qu'elle soil plus blanche. 



" Vons pouvez avecque raison, 



Usant des droits de la victoire, 

 Mettre vos galants en prison ; 

 Mais qu'elle ne soil pas si noire. 



" Mon coeur, qui vous est bien devot, 

 Et que vous reduisez en cendre, 

 Vous le tenez dans un eacliot 



Comme un prisonnier qu'on va pendre. 



" Est-ce que, brulant nuit et Jour, 

 Je remplis ce lieu de fumee, 

 Et que le feu de mon amour 

 En a fait une cheminee ? " 



GuSTAVE MasSON. 



Hadley, near Barnet. 



KONGS-SKUGG -SIO. 



(Vol. ii., p. 2&8.) 



The author of the Kongs-skugg-sio is unknown, 

 but the date of it has been pretty clearly made 

 out by Bishop Finsen and others. (V. Finsen, 

 Dissei-tatio Historica de Specula Regali, 1766.) 

 Tiiere is only one complete edition of this remark- 

 able work, viz. that published at Soroe in 1768, in 

 4to. Bishop Finsen maintains the Kongs-skugg- 

 sio to have been written from 1154 to 1164. 

 Ericksen believes it not to be older than 1184; 

 while Suhm and Eggert Olafsen do not allow it to 

 be older than the thirteenth century. Rafn, and 

 the modem editors of the Gr'unlands Historiske 

 MindesmcBrker, p. 266., vol. iii., accept the date 

 given by Finsen as the true one. From the text 

 of the work we learn that it was written in Nor- 

 way, hy a young man, a son of one of the leading 

 and richest men there, who had been on terms of 

 friendship with several kings, and had lived much, 

 or at least had travelled much, in Ilelgeland. 

 llafn and others believe the work to have been 

 written by Nicolas, the son of Sigurd Hranesbn, 

 who was slain by the Birkebeiners on the 8th of 

 September, 1176. Their reasons for coming to 

 this conclusion are given at full length in the work 

 above quoted. 



