Aug. 2. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



83 



UPON THE DESCRIPTION OF THE MEDICEAN VENUS 

 IN THE 4th CANTO OF CHILDE HAROLD, STANZAS 

 I.I. AND Lll. 



LI. 



" Appear'Jst tliou not to Paris in this guise? 

 Or to more deeply ble^t Aneliises? or. 

 In all thy peiFect goddess-ship, when lies 

 Before thee thy own vanquished Lord of War? 

 And gazing in thy face as toward a star 

 Laid on thy lap, his eyes to tliee upturn, 

 Feeding on thy sweet cheek !* while thy lips are 

 With lava kisses melting while they burn, 



Showered on his eyelids, brow, and mouth, as from 

 an urn ! 



Lit. 



Glowing, and circumfused in speechless love, 

 Their full divinity inadequate 

 That feeling to express, or to improve, 

 Tile gods become as mortals, and man's fate 



Has moments like their brightest • " 



&c. &c. 



It seems to me that the noble poet has conde- 

 scended to avail himself of a little ruse in refer- 

 ring to this passage of Ovid. It would have been 

 perhaps more honest to have referred his readers 

 to those magnificent lines in the opening address 

 to Venus, bj Lucretius, " De Kerum Natura," 

 beginning, — 



" iEneadura genitrix, horainura divomque voluptas, 

 Alma Venus !" &c. 



I subjoin the verses which Lord Byron really 

 had in mind when he wrote the foregoing stanzas : 



" Nam tu sola potes tranquilla pace juvare 



Mortaleis : quoniam belli fera moenera Blavors 



Armipotens regit, in giemium qui saepe tuum se 



Rejicit, aeterno devictus volnere Amoris : 



Atque ita, suspiciens tereti cervice reposta 



Pascit amore avidos, inhians in te, Dea, visus ; 



Eque tuo ])endet resupini spiritus ore. 



Hunc til. Diva, tuo recubanlem corpore sancto 



Circunifusa super, suaveis ex ore loquelas 



Funde, petens placidam llomanis, incluta, pacem." 



Surely if the author of Childe Harold were in- 

 debted to any ancient poet for some ideas em- 

 bodied in the lines cited, it was to Lucretius and 

 not to Ovid that he shoukl liave owned tlie obli- 

 gation. A Borderer. 



iHtnor fJatc^. 

 On the Word " raised" as used by the Americans. 

 — An American, in answer to an inquiry as to 

 the place of his birth, says, " I was raised in New 



* To these beautiful and glowing lines the author 

 has appended tlie following : 



"'^'0<pOaAfj.ous (miav." 

 " Atque oculos pascat ulerque suos." 



Ovid. Amor. lili. iii. 



York," &c. Was it ever an English phrase ? 

 And if so, by what English writer of celebrity was 

 it ever used ? Dr. Franklin, in a letter to John 

 AUeyne, Esq., Aug. 9, 1768, says : 



" By these early marriages we are blest with more 

 children ; and from the mode among us, founded in 

 nature, of every mother suckling and nursing her own 

 child, more of them are raised." 



James Cornish. 



Contradiction : jy Israeli and Hume. — 



" Rousseau was remarkably trite in conversation." — 

 Essay on Literary Character, vol. i. p. 213. 



" Rousseau, in conversation, kindles often to a de- 

 gree of heat which looks like inspiration." 



Quoted by D'Israeli in the same vol., p. 230. 



James Cornish. 



A Ships Berth. — Compilers of Dictionaries 

 have attempted to show, but I think without suc- 

 cess, that this word has been derived from one of 

 the meanings of the verb to hear. I conjecture 

 that it has been derived from the Welsh word 

 porth, a port or harbour. This word is under 

 certain circumstances written borth, according to 

 the rules of Welsh grammar. A ship's place in 

 harbour (borth) is her berth. A sailor's place in 

 his ship is his berth. S. S. S. (2) 



caucrtc^. 



JOHN A KENT AND JOHN A CUMBER. 



I am much obliged to you, Mr. Editor, for giving 

 additional circulation to my inquiry (through the 

 medium of the AthencBum of the 19ih ult.) re- 

 garding the two ancient popular wizards, John a 

 Kent and John a Cumber. I was aware, from a 

 note received some time ago from my i'riend the 

 Rev. John Webb of Tretire, that there are various 

 current traditions in Monmouthshire, and that 

 Coxe's history of that county contains some infor- 

 mation regarding one of these worthies. That 

 fact has since been repeated to me by a gentle- 

 man of Newport, who wrote in consequence of 

 what appeared in the Athenceum, and whose name 

 I do not know that I am at liberty to mention. 

 I may, however, take this opportunity of thanking 

 him, as well as the transmitter of the curious par- 

 ticulars printed in the Atlienmun of Saturday last. 



One point I wish to ascertain is, whence John a 

 Kent derived his appellation ? This question has 

 not been at all answered. Has his name any 

 connexion, and what, with the village of Kent- 

 church, in Monmouthshire ; and why was the place 

 called Kcntchurch? To what saint is the church 

 dedicated ? and has the name of that church any- 

 thing to do with the name of the saint? Anthony 

 IMunduy (or Miinily), in his MS. ])lay (now in my 

 Iiaiids by the favour of the Hon. Mv. Mostyn, and 

 by the kind interposition of Sir F. Madden), does 



