346 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 51- 



As Milton, therefore, has in no otlier place used 

 " proof" as an adjective without something at- 

 tached to it, I feel assured that he did not use it 

 as an adjective in the passage in question. 



Stockwell, Sept. 7. 



Achilles and the Tortoise (Yol. ii., p. 154.). — 

 lSiwT7)s will find the paradox of " Achilles and the 

 Tortoise" explained by Mr. Mansel of St. John's 

 College, Oxon, in a note to his late edition of 

 Aldrich's Logic (1849, p. 125.). He there shows 

 that the fallacy is a material one ; being a false 

 assumption of the major premise, viz., that the 

 sum of an infinite series is itself always infinite 

 (whereas it may be finite). Mansel refers to Plato, 

 Parmenid. p. 128. [when will editors learn to 

 specify the editions which they use ?] Aristot. 

 Soph. Elcuctr. 10. 2. 33. 4., and Cousin, Nouceaiix 

 Fragments, Zenon d^Elee. T. E. L. L. 



Stepony Ale (Yol. ii., p. 2C7.). — The extract 

 from Cbamberlayne certainly refers to ale brewed 

 at Stepney. In Playford's curious collection of 

 old popular tunes, the English Dancing Master, 

 1721, is one called "Stepney Ale and Cakes;" 

 and in the works of Tom Brown and Ned Ward, 

 other allusions to the same ai-e to be found. 



Edward F. Rimbault. 



North Side of Churchyards (Vol. ii., p. 253). — 

 In reference to the north region being " the de- 

 voted region of Satan and his hosts," Milton 

 seems to have recognised the doctrine when he 

 says — 



« At last, 

 Far in the horizon to the north appear'd 

 From skirt to skirt a fiery region, stretch'd 

 In battailous aspect, and nearer y'levr 

 Bristled with upright beams innumerable 

 Of rigid spears, and helmets throng'd, and shields 

 Various, with boastful argument pourtray'd, 

 The banded powers of Satan hasting on 

 AVith furious expedition." — Book \i. 



F. E. 



Welsh Money (Vol. ii., p. 231.).— It is not 

 known that the Welsh princes ever coined any 

 money : none such has ever been discovered. If 

 they ever coined any, it is almost impossible that 

 it should all have disappeared. GRirriN. 



Wormwood (Vol. ii., pp. 249. 315.). — The 

 French gourmands have two sorts of liqueur fla- 

 voured with wormwood ; Crcme d' Absinthe, 

 and Vermouthe. In the Almanac des Gourmands 

 there is a pretty account of the latter, called the 

 coup d'apres. In the south of France, I think, 

 they say it is the fashioir to have a glass brought 

 in towards the end of the repast by girls to refit 

 the stomach. C. B. 



Puzzling Epitaph (Vol. ii., p. 311.). — J. Bdn 

 has, I think, not given this epitaph quite correctly. 

 The following is as it appeared in the Times, 

 20th Sept., 1828 (copied from the Mirror). It 

 is stated to be in a churchyard in Germany : — 



" O quid tua te 



be bis bia abit 



ra ra ra 



es 



et in 



ram ram ram 



i i 



Mox eris quod ego nunc." 



The reading is — 



" O superbe quid superbis ? tua superbia te super- 

 abit. Terra es et in terram ibis. Mox eris quod e^ 

 nunc." 



E. B. Price. 



October 14. 1850. 



[The first two lines of this epitaph, and many similar 

 specimens of learned trifling, will be found in Les 

 Bigarrures et Touches du Seigneur des Accords, cap. iii,, 

 autre Fagon de Rebus, p. 35., ed. 1662.] 



Umbrella (Vol. ii., pp. 25. 93.).— In the collec- 

 tion of pictures at Woburn Abbey is a full-length 

 portrait of the beautiful Duchess of Bedford, who 

 afterwards married the Earl of Jersey, painted 

 about the year 1730. She is represented as 

 attended by a black servant, who holds an open 

 umbrella to shade her. 



Cowper's "Task," published in 1784, twice men- 

 tions the umbrella : 



" We bear our shades about us; self-deprived 

 Of other screen, the thin umbrella spread, 

 And range an Indian waste without a tree." 



Book i. 



In book iv., the description of the country girl, 

 who dresses above her condition, concludes with 

 the following lines : — 



" Expect her soon with footboy at her heels, 

 No longer blushing for her awkward load. 

 Her train and her umbrella all her care." 



In both these passages of Cowper, the umbrella 

 appears to be equivalent to what would now be 

 called a parasol. L. 



Pope and Bishop Burgess (Vol. ii., p. 310.). — 

 The allusion is to the passage in Troilus and Cres- 

 sida : 



" The dreadful sagitary appals our numbers." 



which Theobald explained from Caxton, but 

 Pope did not understand. C. B. 



[Not the only passage in Shakspeare which Theobald 

 explained and Pope did not understand ; but more of 

 this hereafter.] 



Book of Homilies (Vol. ii., p. 89.). — Allow me 

 to inform B. that the early edition of Homilies 



