426 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 83. 



Glossary, ' to set tilings in, to put tliem in order ;' but 

 it evidently implies, in some cases, an exactly opposite 

 meaning, to set in confusion, to rush to battle, as in 

 the following examples. ' To set the steven, to agree 

 upon the time and place of meeting previous to some 

 expedition,' — West and Cumb. Dial. p. 390. These 

 phrases may be connected with each other. Be this 

 as it may, hence is certainly derived the phrase to he at 

 sixes and seie7is, to be in great confusion. Herod, in 

 his anger at the wise men, says : 

 " ' Bot be they past mt- by, by Mahowne in heven, 

 I shalle, and that in by, set alle on sex and seveti ; 

 Trow ye a kyng as I wyll suflTre thaym to neven 

 Any to have mastry bot myself fulle even.' 



Towneley Mysteries, p. 143. 

 " ' Thus he settez on sevenc with his sekyre knyghttez.' 

 Morte Arlhure, IMS. Lincoln, f. 76. 



" ' The duk swore by gret God of hevenc, 

 Wold my hors so evenc, 

 Zct wold I sett nil one seven 



Ffor Myldor the swet ! ' 



Degrevant, 1279. 

 " ' Old Odcombs odnesse makes not thee uneven, 

 Nor carelesly set all at six and seven.' 



Taylor's U'oikes, 16.30, ii. 71." 



J. K. R. W. 



[Six and seven make the proverbiiilly uiilucky 

 number thirteen, and we are inclined to believe that 

 the allusion in this popular phrase is to this combina- 

 tion.] 



Sioohhers. — There is a known story of a clergy- 

 man who was recommendeil for a preferment by 

 Bome great men at court to an archbishop. His 

 Grace said, " He had lieard that the clergyman 

 used to play at whist xvixA swohbers ; that as to play- 

 ing now and then a sober game at whist for pastime, 

 it might be pardoned ; but he could not digest 

 those wicked swobbers;" and it was with some 

 pains that my Lord Somers could undeceive him. 

 So says Swift, in his Essay mi the Fates of 

 Clergymen ; and a note in Sir AV. Scott's edition 

 (1824, vol. vili. p 231.) informs us that the primate 

 was " Tenison, who, by all contemporary accounts, 

 was a very dull man." At the risk of being thought 

 as dull as the archbishop, I venture to ask for an 

 explanation of the joke. J. C. E. 



[Johnson, under " Swobber " or " Swabber," gives, 

 " 1. A sweeper of the deck;" and "2. Four privileged 

 cards that are only incidentally used in betting at the 

 game of whist." He then quotes this passage from 

 Swift, with the diflference that he says " clergymen." 

 Were not the cards so called because they "swepc the 

 deck " by a sort of " sweep-stakes?'] 



HandeVs Occasional Oratorio. — AVill Dk. Rim- 

 BAUi.T, or some other musical correspondent of 

 your journal, enlighten us as to the true meaning 

 of the name Occasional Oratorio, prefixed to one 

 of Handel's compositions, of which no one that I 

 have ever met with has heard more than the 

 overture ? This composition has become almost 



universally known from the foolish practice which 

 used to prevail of performing it as an introduction 

 to Isi-ael in Egypt, or any other work to which its 

 composer had purposely denied the preliminary 

 of an overture ; a practice now happily exploded, 

 which seems to have had its origin in a misinter- 

 pretation of the name; as though Handel had 

 written the overture to suit any occasion when one 

 might be needed, instead of, as I am rather disposed 

 to believe, having some particular occasion in 

 view for which the oratorio was composed. E. V. 



[Surely, if there is no Occasional Oratorio to be 

 found, the Overture must mean that it was to be used 

 on occasion. Our correspondent does not seem to know 

 the word as it is used by writers of a century ago, for 

 " Occasional Sennnns " or services, &c. The question 

 is simply one of fact. Is there an Oratorio? E\ery. 

 body knows the overture. The writer of this note re- 

 members being horrified, wlien a freshman, at hearing 

 the fugue break forth in the College Chapel, was pon- 

 dering in his mind whether it was Drops of Brandy, 

 or the Rondo in the Turnpike-Gate, both then popular 

 tunes.] 



Archhisliop Waldehys Epitaph. — W. W. King 

 would be obliged by a perfect cojiy of the inscrip- 

 tion on the monumental brass of Archbishop Wal- 

 deby in 'Westminster Abbey. 



[The brass is engraved in Harding's Antiquities of 

 Westminster Abbey ; but it appears that one half of the 

 following inscription, whicli was formerly round the 

 verge of the brass, has now been torn away: — 



" Hie fuit expertus in quovis jure Robertus, 

 De Waldeby dictus nunc est sub marmore strlctus ; 

 Sacre Scripture Doctor fuit, et geniture 

 Ingenuus .\jedicus et plebis semper amicus 

 Presul Adurensis posthoc Archas Diiblinensis 

 Hinc Cicestrensis, tandem Priinas Eborensis 

 Quarto kalend. Junii migravit cursibus anni 

 Scpultus milleni ter C. septem Nonies quoque deni. 

 Vos precor, Orate quod sint sibi dona beate 

 Cum Sanctis vite requiescat et hie sine lite." 



Weever, in his Funeral Monuments, quotes the fol- 

 lowing description of him from a MS. account of the 

 Archbishops of York, in the Cottonian Collection : — • 



" Tunc Robertus ordinis fratris Augustini 

 Ascendit in cathedram priniatis Paulini, 

 Lingua scientificus sermonis latini 

 Anno primo proximat vite sue fini, 

 De cariiis crgastulo presul evocatur 

 Gleba sui corporis Westminstre humatur."] 



Verstegan. — "Will any of the contributors to 

 your valuable miscellany be kind enough to inform 

 me if there are any engraved portraits of the quaint 

 old antiquary Richard Verstegan, the author of a 

 curious work, entitled A Bestitution of Decayed 

 Ihtelligence? The portraits may be common, but 

 living in the country, and at a distance from town, 

 I have no friend from whom I can glean the re- 

 quired information. Can my informant at the 



