300 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 77. 



inscription; and it at once struck me that it was 

 thence that the exphxnation was to be derived. 

 The epitaph is as follows : on one side, 



" Denarius Philosophorum, Dum Spiro, Spero." 

 on the other, 



"In Uno, 2°. 5". 4°^ 10. non Spirans Sperafio." 

 The two latter letters are now effiiced. 



It is well known that the Pythagoreans found 

 all the modes of space in the relations of numbers. 



The monad, or unit, was not only the point 

 whence all extension proceeds, but it further sym- 

 bolised the First Principle, the origin of all. The 

 decad represented the line, as being bounded by 

 two points or monads. The triad stood for sur- 

 face as length and width. The tetrad for the per- 

 fect figure, the cube, length, depth, and width. The 

 decad, or denarius, indicated comprehensively all 

 being, material and immaterial, in the utmost per- 

 fection : hence the term decas, or denarmi, was 

 used summarily for the whole science of numbers, 

 as in the title of Meursius's tract De Denario 

 Pythugorico, which was published four years after 

 the date of the inscription, and when the philo- 

 sophy w.TS attracting much attention among Euro- 

 pean scholars. To be as concise as possible then, 

 I presume that the old bishop intended that the 

 tomb on which his effigy lies was his access to that 

 perfection of existence which philosophers had 

 designated by the decas, or denarhis. During the 

 present life he was hoping for it, " Dum Spiro, 

 Spero." — On the other side: "In Him, who is 

 the source, the beginning, the middle, and the 

 end of all existence and perfection (in Uno, 2°. 

 3°. 4" 10. non Spirans Speraboj, though I breathe 

 no more, yet shall I hope." 



Such is probably the meaning of his pious con- 

 ceit, and I offer it as a solution of what has long 

 served for a riddle to the visitors of our cathedral. 

 Beyond this, your readers and "myself may be 

 equally indifferent to such cabalistical quaintness. 

 But let us treat it with charity, as the devout 

 consummation of an aged alchymist. 0. F. 



College Green, Worcester, March, 1851. 



King Richard in. (Vol. iii., p. 221.). — On the 

 14th May, 1491 (6 Henry VII.), one Master 

 William Burton, the schoolmaster of St. Leonard's 

 Hospital, in the city of York, was accused before 

 the magistrates of having said that "King Richard 

 was an hypocrite, a crocheback, and buried in a 

 dike like a dog." This circumstance is recorded 

 in a contemporary document of unquestionable 

 authenticity (vide extracts from York Records in 

 the Fifteenth Century, p. 220.) ; and must remove 

 all doubt as to the fact of Richai-d's bodily defor- 

 mity. The conjecture of Dr. Wallis, quoted by 

 G. F. G., can have no weight when opposed by 



clear evidence that the word " crouchback," as 

 a term of reproach or contempt, was applied to 

 King Richard within a few years after his death, 

 by one to whom his person must have been fa- 

 miliarly known. A. 



Shakspeare a thorough Sailor. — Let me point 

 attention to a genuine nautical expression, in the 

 use of which Shakspeare shows himself a thorough 

 sailor : 



" The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail." 



Hamk'u Act 1. Sc. 3. 

 In a " fore and aft sail " of the present day, the 

 "shoulder" is the foremost upper corner, and the 

 last part of the canvass on whicli the wind fixes its 

 inlluence when a vessel is " sailini.' by the wind," 

 or even "off the wind." The "veriest lout" in 

 the "after-guard" will appreciate the truthfulness 

 and beauty of the metaphor. A. L. 



" A fellow-feeling," ^^c. — 



" A fellow-feeling makes one wondrous kind." 

 This oft-quoted line is from Garrick's Epilogue 

 on quitting the stage. r. 



Early Instances of the Word "News." — Without 

 the slightest intention of re-opening the discussion 

 as to whethei" the word "newes" be of native 

 growth or imported, I would beg leave to suggest 

 as a means of completing its history, that should 

 any of the readers of " Xotes anp Queries," 

 whose researches may lead amongst the authorities 

 of the fifteenth century, meet with instances of the 

 word in familiar use between a.d. 1400 and a.d. 

 1500, they would notify the same. 



The earliest date of its colloqui.al use as yet 

 recorded in '■ Notes and Queries," is a.d. 1513 : 

 on the other hand, the word, so far as I am aware, 

 is nowhere used by Chaucer, although his near 

 approach to it in the following lines is very 

 remarkable : 



" There is riglit now crme into the trune a gest, 

 A Greek espie, and telleth neive things. 

 For which I come to tell you newe tidings." 



TtoIIuh and Creseide, b. ii. II 13. 



After this, the transition to the word itself is 

 so extremely easy, that it could not be far distant. 



A. E. B. 

 Under the Rose. — It may interest the inquirers 

 into the origin of this expression to know, that at 

 Lullingston Castle in Kent, the residence of Sir 

 Percival Dyke, there is in the hall an old picture, 

 or painted carving (I forget which, as it is many 

 years since I saw it), of a rose, some two feet in 

 diameter, surrounded by an inscription, which, if 

 I remember right, runs as follows, or nearly so :— 

 "Kentish true bhie; 

 Take this as a token, 

 That what is said here 

 Under the rose is spoken." 



It is now, or was when I saw it, in the hall of that 



