April 12. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



287 



reparation by public subscription in 1773, when 

 they were left out : 



" This monument was erected at the charge of Hester 

 Tradescant, the rilict of John Tradescant, late deceased, 

 who was buried the 25th of April, 1662." 



Alfred W. H. 

 Keonington. 



Origin of Harlequins (VoL iii., p. 165.). — Your 

 correspondent and querist E. L. N. wishes for an 

 account of the Origin of Harlequins. I beg to 

 refer E. L. N. to an account of the Hellequines, 

 or " La Mesnie Hellequin," given by M. Paul 

 Paris, in his work on the Manuscrits Frangois de 

 la Bib. du Roi, vol. i. p. 322. M. Paris says : 



" On donnolt ce nom (Hellequines) a des especes de 

 feux foUets ou geiiies plutot malfaisants que favora- 



bles, et plutot moqueurs que malfaisants L'origine 



de la tradition de la Mesnie Hellequin se perd dans 

 I'obscurite des temps. On I'entendoit surtout bruire 



dans les environs de la ville d' Aries J'ignore la 



premiere origine de cette locution ; mais ce qui me 

 semble incontestable, c'est qu'on confondit facilement la 

 Mesnie Hellequin avec celle ' de la Afort.'famille bariolee 

 de rouge et de noir, et dont le manteau de corem.onie 

 devoit etre un grand pan de toile ou linceul. Deja le 

 lecteur a devance la consequence qu'il faut tirer de 

 tout cela ; la Mesnie Hellequin, partie necessaire des 

 corteges effrayants ou grotesques dans le moyenage, 

 est devenue insensiblement, sous la main des arrangeurs, 

 notre famille d' Arlequin. Le costume bariole d'Arle- 

 quin n'est rien autre que le fantastique costume du 



representant de la Mort Et, si ce que je viens de 



dire est fonde, on ne repetera plus apres Menage 

 (Gilles), que le mot Arlequin fut pris d'abord, sur la 

 fin du XVI siecle, par un certain bouffon italien que le 

 President Harlay avoit accueilli. II est certain que le 

 mot Arlequin se trouve tres-anciennement dans un 

 grand nombre de mysteres. 



" ' Numquid me velis,' ecrivoit Jean Raulin, mort 

 en 1514,'antlquam illam familiam Harlequin!, revocare, 

 ut videatur mortuus inter mundan^e curia; nebulas et 

 caligines equitare?'" 



By the above extracts, which I fear you will find 

 too long, harlequinades would seem rather to be 

 derived from the wanton pranks of sprites than 

 the coarse gambols of buffoons ; and this deriva- 

 tion would certainly best agree with the accepted 

 character of the modern harlequin. H. C. C. 



^''Predeceased" and '■'■Designed'''' (Vol. iii., 

 p. 143.). — The former word is used in an active 

 sense by Shakspeare, in his " Rape of Lucrece :" 



" If children predecease progenitors. 

 We are their offspring, and they none of ours." 



" Designed," in the sense of " designated," is 

 employed by Locke : 



" 'Tis not enough to make a man a subject, to con- 

 vince him that there is regal power in the world ; but 

 there must be ways of desir/7iinr/ and knowing the 

 person to whom the regal power of right belongs." 



COWGILL. 



" Quadrijugis invectus equis," SfC. (Vol. ii., 

 p. 391.). — These lines, in which "veriis" and 

 "antesolat" are, of course, misprints for "variis" 

 and " antevolat,'' apply with such peculiar exact- 

 ness to Guido's celebrated Aurora, at the Rospi- 

 gliosi Palace, that I cannot but think the painting 

 has given rise to the lines. Besides, in the ancient 

 mythology, the Horte are said to be three in num- 

 ber, daughters of Jupiter and Themis, and one of 

 their offices was harnessing the horses of the Sun. 

 It is unlikely, therefore, that any classic author 

 would mention them as being seven in number. 



C. I. R. 



St. Johns Bridge Fair (Vol. iii., p. 88.). — Per- 

 haps in the county of Northampton, and in the 

 city of Peterborough, where a fair, commencing 

 October 2d, is still called " Bridge Fair." The 

 parish church of Peterborough is dedicated to St. 

 John Baptist ; but a fair on the saint's day would 

 be too near the other, and probably more ancient 

 fair, which is held on old St. Peter's Day, to whom 

 the cathedral church is dedicated. Arxjn. 



Anticipations of Modern Ideas hy Defoe (Vol. iii., 

 pp. 137. 195.). — It is a singular fact, to which I 

 do not remember a reference has hitherto been 

 made, that Defoe, in his Life and Adventures of 

 Captain Singleton, has foreshadowed the discovery 

 by recent travellers of a great inland lake in the 

 South of Africa. He describes his adventurous 

 hero and companions, during their attempt to 

 cross this vast continent from Mozambique to 

 Angola, as having, on the ninth day of their 

 journey, come in " view of a great lake of water." 



" The next day," he adds, " which was the tenth 

 from otir setting out, 've caine to the edge of this lake, 

 and happily for us, we came to it at the south point of 

 it, for to the north we could see no end of it ; so we 

 passed by it, and travelled three day^ by the side of it." 

 — Life, Adventures, and Piracies of Captain Singleton, 

 chap. vi. 



According to a rough calculation by one of the 

 party, they were, a few days before reaching it, 

 700 miles from the coast of Mozambique, and 

 1500 from the Cape of Good Ho[)e. Now Messrs. 

 Murray and Oswell, the enterprising travellers to 

 whom we owe the discovery of this vast South 

 African lake, describe it as being in longitude 

 24° East, latitude 19° South ; a position not very 

 wide apart from that indicated in Defoe's amusing 

 fiction. T. C. Smith. 



Lord Howard of Effingham (Vol. iii., p. 244.). — 

 I submit that tiie passages quoted by your corre- 

 spondent are not sufficient evidence to lead us to 

 conclude that that nobleman ever was a Protestant. 

 As to tlie " neglect of reverence to the Holy Sa- 

 crament," it is only said that the priests might 

 pretend that as a cause ; and it is not to be sup- 

 posed that an ambassador would so far forget him- 

 self as to show any disrespect to the religion of the 



