142 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 95. 



emblems to the author of The Synagogue, annexed 

 to Herbert's Poems. This, according to Sir John 

 Hawkins, in liis notes on Walton's Angle); was 

 Chrixtophe?- Harme : but Wood, in his Athena, 

 positively affirms that the author of The Syna- 

 gogue, in imitation of the divine Herbert, was 

 Thomas Harvey. M.A., and first Master of King- 

 ston School in Herefordshire. To him, therefore 

 (adds Sir Egerton Brydges), we may presume to 

 assign it, until a stronger testimony shall dispos- 

 sess him of a tenure, which reflects honourable 

 reputation on the copiousness of his fancy and the 

 piety of his mind. 



Fortune, Infortune, Fort xine (Vol. iv., p. 57.). — 

 I agree with Mr. Breen that this inscription on 

 the tomb of Margaret of Austria, in the beautiful 

 church of Brou, is " somewhat enigmatical," a 

 literal translation fiiiling entirely to make sense of 

 it. But perhaps Mr. Breen may be willing to 

 accept the interpretation offered by a writer in the 

 Magasin Pittoresque for 1850, where, describing 

 the monuments in the church of Notre Dame de 

 Brou (p. 22.), he says : 



" Cette lugende bizarre est asscz difficile a expliijuer, 

 si I'on ne regaide pas le mot infortune comme un verbe. 

 Avec cette liypothese, la devise signifierait : ' La for- 

 tune a rendu une personne tres-mallieureuse? ' Cette 

 explication est d'autant plus plausible que la vie de 

 Marguerite d'Autricbe fut affligee de bien de rovers. 

 Dfstinee a regner sur la France, elle est repudiee par 

 Charles VIII., son fiance; elle epouse le fils du roi 

 d'Aragon, qui la laisse bientot veuve avec un fils 

 qu'elle a aussi la douleur de perdre pen apres ; enfin, 

 remariee a Philibcrt le Beau, elle le voit mourir au 

 printenips de son age." 



There is little doubt, I think, that the inscrip- 

 tion was meant to typify the misfortunes of JNIar- 

 garet; but the preceding solution is still, in a 

 grammatical point of view, unsatisfactory, lifort 

 could be transposed to fait, the reading would be 

 simple enough ; but in these cases we are bound 

 to take the inscriptions as we find them, and the 

 Rebus in stone was the especial delight of the 

 sculptors of the fifteenth century. D. C. 



St. John's Wood, July 28. 1851. 



Achey Trade (Vol. iv., p. 40.). — Ackey weights 

 were, and I believe are, used on the Guinea Coast 

 for weighing gold dust: 1 ackey=203V grains 

 Troy. The Ackey Trade must be, I suppose, the 

 African gold dust trade. W. T. 



Curious Omen at Mairiage (Vol. iii., p. 406.) 

 — H. A. B. asks at the end of his Note, "Why a 

 coruscation of joy, ujion a wedding day, should 

 forebode evil?" and "Whether any other in- 

 stances are on record of its so doing ?" 



As these questions have remained unanswered 

 for some weeks, I am tempted to suggest that your 

 correspondent may have laid too much stress on 

 the fact of the joy having been expressed at a 



wedding, and that the passage he quoted from Miss 

 Benger's Memoirs of Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia, 

 may be simply an allusion to the old belief (still 

 more or less prevalent) of " high spirits being a 

 presage of impending calamity or of death." (See 

 Vol. ii., pp. 84. 150.) 



The late Miss Landon, in one of her novels, 

 furnishes an additional notice of this belief: 



" The ex-queen of Sweden has had one of the gentle- 

 men of her suite put to death in a manner equally 

 sudden and barbarous; and "hat excites in me a strong 

 personal feeling on the subject is, that Monaldepchi, the 

 cavalier in question, dined with me the very day of his 

 murder, as I must call it. Such a gay dinner as we 

 had! for Monaldeschi — lively, unscrupulous, and sar- 

 castic — was a most amusing companion. His spirits, 

 far higher than his usual bearing, carried us all along 

 with them: and I remember saying to him, ' I envy 

 your gaiety: why, INIonaldeschi, you areas joyous as 

 if there were nothing but sunshine in the world.' He 

 changed countenance, and becoming suddenly grave, 

 exclaimed, ' Do not call me back to inyself. I feel 

 an unaccountable vivacity, which I know is the herald 

 of disaster.' But again he became cheerful, and we 

 rallied him on the belief, which he still gaily main- 

 tained, that great spirits were the sure forerunners of 

 misfortune."— i^ja/icesca Carrara, vol. ii. chap. 6. 



Perhaps some of your re.aders may be able to 

 say whether Miss Landon had the authority of 

 any cotemporary writer for the anecdote. Is not 

 the warning, " Sing before noon, and you'll sigh 

 before night," also a proof of the dread with which 

 " coruscations of joy " were looked upon by our 

 forefathers? C.Forbes. 



Temple. 



i^tt^rcllaitfaits. 



NOTES ON BOOKS, SALES, CATALOGUES, ETC. 



The very unsatisfactory condition of the present laws 

 on the subject of international copyright has induced 

 the eloquent author of The History if the Girondists, 

 when giving to the world The History of tlte Restora- 

 tion of Monarchy in France, to consent to write in 

 English some of the most important passages of that 

 history with tlie view of assisting his publisliers in their 

 endeavour to protect themselves against piracy. To 

 this circumstance we are indebted for the appearance 

 at the same moment of the English and French edi- 

 tions ; and both at a much lower price than that at 

 which we have hitherto been accustomed to receive 

 original works. M. de Lamartine's present contribu- 

 tion to the modern history of France cannot fail to 

 excite great Interest — despite of the manifest preju- 

 dices of the writer ; for it is written with marked 

 earnestness — not to say bitterness, and depicts in 

 striking colours at once the military genius and the 

 heartless selfishness of Napoleon. The history of the 

 murder of Due D'Enghien is told with consummate 

 dramatic effect ; and as the reader finishes the nar- 

 rative he feels the force of the author's closing words, 

 " The murderer has but his hour — the victim has all 



