April 5. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUP:RIES. 



261 



Charles by one of the best-informed men of that 

 province. 



" Le mot Yankee, appliqui^ aiijourd'hui comme sobri- 

 quet aiix populations agricolcs et commcic^antes du 

 nord, n'est autre que lo mot English iransfbrme par la 

 prononciation defectueuse dus indigenes du iLissachu- 

 sets : Yenghis, Yanghis, Yankies. Nous tenons de i'un 

 des homuies les plus instruit de la province cette 

 curieuse ctymologie. que ne donne aucun ouvrage 

 americain ou anglais. Les Anglais, qiiand ils se 

 moquent des Yan/iies, se m<quent d eux-menies. — Plii- 

 lare e Charles, "Les Araericains, ' in Revue des Dtux 

 Mmdes, May 15, 1850. 



J. M. 



A Word to Literary Men (Vol. iii., p. 161.).— 

 Perhaps Mr. Kenneth R. II. Mackenzie will 

 allow me to add the following as a rider to his 

 suggestion : — 



" Even after all the labours of the Prussian scholars," 

 says Dr. Arnold, "much remains to be done towards 

 obtaining a complete knowledge of the number, and 

 still more of the value, of the Greek MSS. now existing 

 in Europe. It is nut easy to know how many MSS. 

 of any given writer are extant, where they are to be 

 found, and, above all, whether from their age and 

 character they are worth the trouble of an exact colla- 

 tion. A labour of this kind canr.ot be accomplished by 

 individuals; but the present spirit of liberal co-opera- 

 tion, which seems to influence literary as well as scien- 

 tific men throughout Europe, renders its accomplish- 

 ment by the combined exertions of the scholars of dif- 

 ferent countries by no means impracticable. It would 

 be exceedingly convenient to possess an alphabetical 

 list of all the extant Greek and Latin writers, with a 

 catalogue raisonnee of the MSS. of each; and if such a 

 work were attempted, there is little doubt, I imagine, 

 that in point of number a very large addition would be 

 m ide to the stock of MSS. already known. What the 

 result might be in point of value is another question; 

 still it is des.rable to know what we have to trust to; 

 and when we have obtaineil a right estimate of our 

 existing resources in manuscripts, we shall then be 

 better able to judge what modern criticism will have 

 to do from its own means towards bringing the text of 

 the ancient writers to the greatest possible state of per- 

 fection." — Preface to Tkacijdides, vol. iii. page iv. 

 2d edit. 



M.N. 



caucn'cd. 



POEMS OF JOHN SKGUABO OF NORWICH. 



In tlic Letters on the British 3Iiiseum, 1767 

 (referred to Vol. iii., ]>. 208.), at p 3-'5. is given a 

 short Latin poem, which the writer states he 

 "found aniiing the n)anuseri[)ts ;" and adds, " It 

 w:w written by .Jolin Seward in the time of 

 IleiH-y v., who conrpiered Charles VI. of France." 

 The poem is as follows : 



" Ite per extremam 'I'anaim, pigros(]ue Trione.s, 

 Ite per arentcm Lybiam, superatu calores 



S )lis, et arcanos Nili deprendlte fontes, 

 Herculeumque situmi, Bacchi transcurrite metas, 

 Angli juris erit quicquid complectitur orbis. 

 Anglis rubra dabunt pretiosas fequora conchas, 

 Indus ebur, ramos Panchaia, vellera Seres, 

 Dum vigct Henricus, dum noster vivit Achilles ; 

 Est etenim laudes longe transgressus avitas." 

 If these lines are compared with the contem- 

 porary Leonine verses in praise of Henry V., pre- 

 served in MS. Cott. Cleop. B. i. f. 173. beginning : 



" Ad Salvatoris laudes, titulos et honores." 

 their great superiority, in point of Latinity, will 

 be perceived, and this Query forthwith arises : 

 AVho was John Seward ? 



In reply to this, the following information has 

 been collected. The name of the. author was not 

 Seward, but Seguard. He is not mentioned by 

 Leland, but Bale calls him " insignis sui temporis 

 rhetor ac poeta;" and states further, that in the 

 city of Norwich, "i>on sine magno auditorum 

 fructu, bonas artes ingenue profitebatur." He 

 then ■fives a list of his writings, among which is a 

 work on Prosody, entitled Metristeiichii^dion, ad- 

 dressed to Richard Courtney, Bishop of Norwich, 

 who held the see only from Sept. 1413 to Sept. 

 1415, and therefore composed during that interval. 

 He notices also a tract De miseria hominis, to- 

 gether with Carmina diversi generis and Epistolre 

 ad diversos ; all of which, he says, he himself saw 

 in manuscripts in Merton College, Oxford, and in 

 the Royal Library of Edward VI. Pits, the next 

 authority in point of date, chiefly follows Bale in 

 his account of John Seguard ; but adds, " Eques- 

 tris ordinis in Anglia patre natus," and among his 

 writings inserts one not specified by Bale, Tie 

 laudihm lir-gis Henrici Qitiuti, versa. Tanner 

 copies the first of these statements, yet, singular 

 enough, omits all notice of the poem on Henry V., 

 the very one, apparently, cited in the Letters ou 

 the British Museuvi. But there are further diffi- 

 culties. It was natural to suppose, that the MS. 

 seen by Bale in the Royal Library would be there 

 still ; and Tanner unhesitatingly refers to the 

 volume marked 13 A. xxii. art. 5., as the one 

 which contained the poem De miseria hominis, 

 noted by Bale. On looking, however, at this 

 manuscript, it became apparent that both Bale 

 and Tfuner are in error in ascribing this poem to 

 Seguard. The handwriting is of the early part of 

 the thirteenth century, and consequently full a 

 century and a half before the Norwich poet was 

 born ! At the conclusion is this note, by the same 

 ham I : 



" IIds versus, sicut nobis qnidam vcridicus retulit, 

 Segardus junior de Sancio Audomaro composuit." 



The writer here named is not mentioned in Fa- 

 bricius, nor in the Histoire Litteraire de la Franca. 

 Besides the MS. in Merton College, Oxtbrd, re- 

 ferreil to by Hale, wliicli still exists there under the 

 si-'oature Q. 3. L, I find another in Bcrnanl's C'litt. 



