88 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 92. 



Cttrious Monumental Inscription : " Qiios Anguis 

 tristi." — Have any of your readers seen Latin 

 verses constructed in the following curious manner ? 

 I copied these many years ago Irom an old maga- 

 zine : — 



" Qu an tris di c vul stra 



OS guis ti ro um nere vit, 



II san Chris mi t mu la 



Quos anguis tristi diro cum vulnere stravit, 

 Hos sanguis Christi miro turn muneie lavit." 



J. 0. B. 



[The inscription quoted by our correspondent has 

 been preserved by Stow, in his Surcey of London, who, 

 describing the monuments in the church of St. Anne 

 in the Willows, says (p. 115. ed. 1842), "John He- 

 renden, mercer, esquire, 1572 ; these verses on an old 

 stone."] 



Meaning of " Deal." — I shall feel greatly 

 obliged to any of the readers of your entertaining 

 and instructive miscellany, if they can explain the 

 meaning of the word deal, as used in Exod.xxix. 40. 

 A tenth of flour is the verbal rendering of the 

 Hebrew, the Septuagint, and the Vulgate. It was 

 introduced by Coverdale and Tyndale, and is, I 

 believe, in all our English translations except the 

 Puritan or Genevan, which has " a tenth part;" 

 and Mr. John E,ay of Glasgow, ia his revised 

 translation, who renders the word " the tenth of 

 an ephah." Is this use of the word deal noticed 

 in any dictionary ? George Offob. 



Hackney, July 13. 1851. 



[The word " deal" in the passage referred to by our 

 correspondent clearly signifies "part,'' and corresponds 

 with the German " theil." It is from the A-S. ; and 

 Chaucer uses the phrases " never a del" and "every 

 del," for "never a bit" and "every bit." In the 

 Visioti of Piers Ploughman we have a nearly parallel 

 phrase to that used in our Bibles : 



" That hevedes of holy church ben 

 That ban hir wll here 

 Wlthouten travallle the tithe deel 

 That trewe men biswynken." 



L. 10571. et seq., ed. Wright.] 



La Mer des Histoires. — Who is the author 

 of La JMer des Histoires f I have seen the first 

 volume in large folio ; the type and paper are 

 beautiful, the capital letters very fine. It is 

 stated in the prefoce to be a translation from the 

 Latin of Iludimentum Noviciommi, with the ad- 

 dition of the French Chronicles, and made at the 

 instance of Andre de la Haye, Seigneur Je 

 Chaumot, Paymaster of Sens. It is printed at 

 Paris in the month of July, 144§, by Pierre le 

 Rouge. In how many volumes is the work com- 

 prised ? Is it very scarce ? K. C. H. II. 



[Greswell, in his Annals of Parisian Typography, 

 p. 307., says, " The designation La Met des Histoires 

 seems, as a popular one, to have l)een given to French 

 chronicles of various descriptions. Two impressions 



thus entitled appeared Parisiis, post 1500, viz., 'Mer 

 des Histoires et Chroniqnes de France: extrait en partis 

 de tous les aociens chroniquers, &c. jusqu' au temps 

 do Francois I.,' 2 voll. fol. Galliot du Pres, 1514, 16 : 

 and more especially 'La Mer des Hystoires et Croniques 

 de France: Extraict en partie de tous les anciens cro- 

 niquers,' 4 voll. fol. — ' Le pretnier volume,' Galliot du 

 pre, 1517, 'Le second volume,' M. le Noir, 1517 ; 'Le 

 tiers volume,' sine anno et impressorls nomine ; ' Le 

 quatriesme liure,' Par. 1518. Panzer says that both 

 these chronicles, of which the latter seems to be an 

 improved edition of the former, are said to have been 

 compiled by Johannes Descourtlls, the French king's 

 historiographer.] 



" The noiseless Foot of Time" — Not having 

 by me at present the means of ascertaining, will 

 some one kindly infoi'm me where the above words 

 are to be found in Shakspeare, giving me the 

 exact reference ? II. Vincent. 



[" Let's take the instant by the forward top ; 

 For we are old, and on our quick 'st decrees 

 The inaudible and noiseless foot of time 

 Steals ere we can effect them." 



Alts Well that ends fVell, Act V. Sc. 3.] 



llcpltc^. 



PASSAGE IN VIRGIL. 



(Vol. iv., p. 24.) 



Your correspondent Eryx inquires, in your 

 paper of July 12, whether Servius's interpreta- 

 tion of 



" Virldesque secant placldo 3!quore silvas." 



Virg. jEn. viii. 96. 

 be correct. I beg to reply that it is not. The 

 interpretations of Servius are almost invariably 

 incorrect; Servius was a very illiterate, ignorant, 

 and narrow-minded man, and totally unable to 

 understand the author whom he attempted to 

 illustrate. His comments on Virgil resemble those 

 •which we might expect a hedge schoolmaster in 

 Yorkshire now to make upon Slilton. These 

 comments, which are only valuable on account 

 of the mythological traditions which are preserved 

 in them, have been very injurious to the right 

 understanding of Virgil. 



The meaning of the passage in question is, that 

 the iEneada3 row up the river among the green 

 woods, or (literally) " secant silvas," travel the ivoods, 

 "placido aequore," on the calm stirface of the water, 

 i. e. by rowing up the placid stream of the river. 

 This, and not that assigned by Servius following 

 Tereutienus, is the true meaning. 1st. Because 

 secare with the objective case means constantly in 

 Virgil to travel along. Qompare " viam secat 

 ad naves," ^n. vi. 902.; " secuit sub nubibus ar- 

 cum," V. 658., &c. 2ndly. Because the Tiber is 

 described only as placid, not as clear; and, as ap- 

 pears from ^n. vii. 31., was actually very muddij, 



