378 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 53. 



What does Pope's epithet " low " 'mean ? Is it 

 used for " vulrrar " (as I presume *. intends us to 

 infer), or siraply fur " small, petty, of little size or 

 value " ? 



To me it appears impossible to read the line 

 •witliout seeing that Pope had iu his mind the 

 latter idea, that of poor, little, shabby, staturoless 

 monosyllables, as opposed to big, bouncing, brave, 

 sonorous polysyllables, such as Aristophanes 

 called prifj-ara tviroKprjuva. After all, however, it 

 would do me very little damage;[to concede tliat 

 Le intended the meaning which 4>.''appears to 

 attribute to the epithet "low," for i, he did mean 

 '^vulgm-" words,^it is evident that he considered 

 vulgarity in such matters inseparable from little- 

 ness, as the "low" words must, if his line is not to 

 lose its point altogether, have been ten in' number, 

 that is, every one a monosyllable, a " small " word. 



Take it which way you will, the leading idea is 

 that of "littleness ;" moreover, there is no pro- 

 priety in the word "creep" as applied to merely 

 vulgar words, while words petty in" size may, 

 with great justice, be said to "creep" in a "petty 

 pace," requiring no less than ten steps to walk 

 the length of a line. 



Pope was criticising compositions intended to 

 pass as poetry of the best kind. Will *. point out 

 in any existing poem of such profession and 

 character, a single heroic line, consisting of teti 

 words, all which ten words shall be " low " in the 

 sense of " vulgar " ? Can even the LIuses of 

 burlesque and slang furnish such an instance ? 



Has not *. suffered himself to be carried too far 

 by his exultation in being " down " (the last- 

 named Muse has kindly supplied me with the ex- 

 pression) upon a 'piece of verbal carelessness on 

 the part of ' K.I.P.B.T.? 



HrpIicS t0 iHtncr ciiticiicS. 



Concolinel (Vol. ii., pp. '217. 317.). — As Calen 

 O Custore me, after sorely puzzling the critics, 

 was at length discovered to be an Irish air, or the 

 burthen of an Irish song, is it not possible that the 

 equally outlandish-looking ^'Concolinel" may be 

 only a corruption of " Coolin" that " far-famed 

 melody," as JMr. Bunting terms it in his last co'- 

 lection of The Ancient Music of Ireland (Dublin, 

 1840), where it may be found in a style "more 

 Irish than that of the sets hitherto published?" 

 And truly it is a " sweet air," well fitted to " make 

 passionate the sense of hearing," and melt the soul 

 of even Don Adriano de Armado. The trans- 

 mogi-ification of '^ Coolin" into '^ Concolinel" is 

 hardly more strange than that of " Cailin og astore 

 mo" [chree'] ( = my dear young girl, my [heart's] 

 darling) into Callino castore me. J. M. B. 



Dr. Rimbatjlt's communication is very inter- 



esting, but not quite satisfactory, not aflbrding 

 me any means of identifying the air. It would, 

 under most circumstances, have given me much 

 pleasure to have lent Dr. R. the MS., for I know 

 no one so likely to make good use of it ; but the 

 liict is, that without pretending to compete with 

 Db. EiMBADLT in the knowledge of old music, I 

 have also meditated a similar work on the ballads 

 and music of Shakspeare, and my chief source 

 is the volume which is said to contain the air of 

 Concolinel. It will be some time before I can 

 execute the work allu<led to, ami I would prefer 

 to see the Doctor's work published first. Which- 

 ever first appears will most likely anticipate much 

 that is in the other, for, although Dr. K. says he 

 has spent " many years" on the subject, the acci- 

 dental possession of several MS. volumes has 

 given me such singular advantages, I am unwilling 

 to surrender my project. I have the music to. 

 nearly twenty jigs, and two have some of the 

 words, which are curious. Ii. 



Wife of the Poet Bilderdijh — Schweickhardt the 

 Artist (Vol. ii., pp.309. 349.). — Janus Dousa 

 will find a very suSlcient account of Southey's 

 visit to the Dutch poet Bilderdijk, in vol. v. of 

 the Life and Correspondence of Southey, now 

 publishing by his son. To the special inquiry 

 of Jaxos Dousa I can say nothing, but I would 

 fain ask who was Katherine Wilbelmina Schweick- 

 hardt ? I have in my possession a series of eight 

 etchings of studies of cattle, by II. W. Schweick- 

 hardt, published in 178G, and dedicated to Ben- 

 jamin AVest. My father was very intimate with 

 Schweickhardt, and I think acted in some sort 

 as his executor. I do not know when he died, 

 but it must be thirty years since I heard my 

 father speak of his friend, who was then de- 

 ceased, but whether recently or not I cannot say. 

 I am rather disposed to think the event was com- 

 paratively a remote one : he left a widow. Was 

 Mrs. Bilderdijk his daughter? The etchings are 

 exceedingly clever and artistical ; my copy has the 

 artist's name in his own handwriting. If I am not 

 mistaken, Schweickhardt lived, when my father 

 knew him, at Lambeth, then a picturesque suburb, 

 very unlike the "base, common, and popular" 

 region which it has since become. B. T. Pouncy, 

 another clever artist of that day, and a friend of 

 my father's, resided there also. Pouncy published 

 some etchings which, although not professedly 

 views of Lambeth, were in reality studies in that 

 locality. When I was a boy I remember my 

 fixther pointing out to me the Windmill, which was 

 the subject of one of them. 



The Mrs. Bilderdijk who translateil Roderick, 

 was, according to Southey, the second wife of her 

 husband. How did Janus Dousa learn that her 

 maiden name was Schweickhardt ? 



G. J. De WiiDK. 



