154 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



[No. 69. 



the courage to take the rope thrown out by 

 Luuardi, aud was well rewarded. It caused a 

 great sensation, and many of the principal inha- 

 bitants of Ware and Wadesniill assembled with 

 Lunardi at the Feathers Inn, at tlie latter place. 



J. Taylok. 

 Newick, Sussex. 



Otitline in Painting. — J. O. W. II. (Vol. i., p. 

 318.) and 11. C. K. (Vol. iii., p. 63.) are earnestly 

 referred, for resolution of their doubts, to the 

 work by IMr. Iluskin, in 2 vols, large 8vo., en- 

 titled Modern Painters, by a Graduate of Oxford, 

 published by Smith and Elder, 184G. 



RoBEKT Snow. 



Handbell before a Coi-pse (Vol. iii., p. 68.). — 

 Your correspondent 3- has too inconsiderately 

 dismissed the Query which he has undertaken to 

 answer touching the custom of ringing a liandbell 

 in advance of a funeral procession. He says, 

 "I have never considered it as anything but a 

 cast of the bell-mans office, to add more solem- 

 nity to the occasion." 



Tlie custom is invariably observed throughout 

 Italy, and is common in France and Spain. I 

 have witnessed at least some hundreds of funerals 

 in various cities and villages of PieduKint, Sardinia, 

 Tuscany, the Roman States, Naples, Elba, and 

 Sicily ; and in Malta ; yet never knew I one with- 

 out the handbell. 



Its object, as first explained to me in Florence, is 

 to clear the w.ay for the procession ; to remind pas- 

 sengers and loiterers to take otf their hats ; and to 

 call the pious to their doors and windows to gaze 

 upon the emblems of mortality, aud to say a 

 prayer for the repose of the departed soul. 



jSIoCiB. 



Brandon the Juggler (Vol. ii., p. 424.). — Your 

 correspondent T. Cr. is referred to Scot's Dis- 

 coverie of Witchcraft, p. 308. (edit, 1584) for a 

 notice of this person and his pigeon. 



Jas. Ckosslet. 



"TFo?yZs are Men's Daughters" (Vol. iii., p. 38.). 

 — This line is taken from Dr. ]\Iaddcn's Boulters 

 Monument (Dublin, 1743, 8vo), a poem which 

 was revised by Dr. Jolnison, but to which little 

 attention has been paid by his biographers. Mr. 

 Croker observes (edit, of Bosweli, 1848, p. 107. 

 note) — 



" Dr. Madden wrote very bad verse;. The few lines 

 in Boulter's monument whicli rise above mediocrity 

 may be attributed to Johnson." 



Those who take the trouble to refer to the poem 

 itself, will, notwithstanding Mr. Croker's hasty 

 criticism, find a great many fine and vigorous 

 passages, in which the hand of Johnson is clearly 

 distinguishable, and which ought not to be allowed 

 to remain unnoticed. Perhaps on a future occa- 

 sion I may, in support of this opinion, give some 



specimens from the poem. The line as to which 

 T. J. inquires, — 



" Words are men's daughters, but God's Sons are 

 things," — 



and which is in .illusion to Genesis vi. 2. 4., is, I 

 entertain no doubt, one of Dr. Johnson's insertions. 



Jas. Crossley. 



" Fine by degrees, and beautifully less'' (Vol. iii., 

 p. 105.). — Tliis line is from Prior's " Henry and 

 Emma," a poem, upon the model of the " jSTnt- 

 brown Llaid." I copy part of the passage in 

 which it occurs, for the sake of any of your readers 

 who may be lovers of context, and may not have the 

 poem at hand to refer to . 



" Henri/ [addressing Emma]. 

 " Vainly thou tell'st me what the woman's care 



Shall in the wildness of the woods prepare; [420] 



Thou, ere thou goest, unliappicst of thy kind, 



Must leave the habit and the sex I)el)ind. 



No longer shall thy comely tresses break 



In flowing ringlets on tiiy snowy neck ; 



Or sit behind thy head, an ample round, 



In graceful braids with various ribbon bound : 



No longer shall the bodice aptly lac'd 



From thy full bosom to thy slender waist, 



That air and harmony of shape express, 



Fine by degrees, and beautifully less : [4.30] 



Nor shall thy lower garments' artful plait, 



From thy fair side dependent to thy feet, 



Arm tlieir chaste beauties with a modest pride, 



And double every charm they seek to bide." 



, C. Forbes. 



Temple, Feb. 10. 



[We are also indebted for replies to this Query to 

 Robert Snow, Fras. Crossley, A. M., J. J. M., A. IL, 

 S. T., E. S. T. T., v., W. K., II. B., and other corre- 

 spondents. C. II. 1'. remarks : 



"Pope, who died in 1 7-^4, twenty-three years after 

 Prior, evidently had this line in view when he wrote as 

 follows : — 

 " ' Ladies, like variegated tulips, show ; 



'Tis to their changes half their charms they owe ; 

 Fine by defect, and delicately weak, 

 Their happy spots the nice admirer lake.' " 



And J. H. iM. tells us, " The late Lord Ellenboroiigh 

 applied the line somewhat ignobly, when speaking of 

 bristles, in a dispute between two brushraakers."] 



" The Said's dark Cottage" (Vol. iii., p. 105.). — 

 The couplet " Effaress " inrpiires for, is to be 

 found in Waller's poems. It is a production of 

 his later years, .and occurs in the epilogue to his 

 " Poems of Divine Love," and " Of the Fear of 

 God," &c., thus : — 

 " The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and dccay'd, 



Lets in new light througli chiivks that time has made, 

 Stronger by weakness, wiser, men become, 

 .•\s they draw nigh to their eternal home. 

 Leaving tlie old, both worlds at once they view, 

 That stand upon the threshold of the new." 



