Oct. 18. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



301 



But the " Poemata Pithseana," reprinted in Cam- 

 den, form the most lively commentary on the 

 chorus of the Medea. They are likewise of the 

 Claudian age, they relate to the conquest of 

 Britain, and they are nothing but an expansion of 

 that one idea, the trans-oceanic voyage and ultra- 

 mundane conquest — 



" Oceaniis . . . Qui finis miindo, no'i erit impcrio. 

 Oceaiius medium venit in iinpcrium. At nunc Oceaiius 

 geminos interhut orbes, Pars est imperii, terminus ante 

 fuit. Et jam Romano cinffimur Oceano. Oeeanus 

 jam terga dedit, etc. Conjunetum est, quod ad/iuc 

 (i.e. nunc) orbis, et orbis erat," &c. 



The Chorus of Seneca has no more of prophecy, 

 or sagacious conjecture, or other anticipation of 

 the future, than Gi'ay's " Ban]," or the prophecy 

 of Medea in Fimlar's " Pythians," both of tliem 

 fulfilled before the poet's time. Whatever may 

 seem of a larger import, in Seneca's language, 

 than events had fully justified, belongs to the ob- 

 scure and lofty strain of remote vaticinations, or 

 to the exaggerations of flattery. A. N. 



The Editor of Jewel's Works in Folio (Vol. iv., 

 p. 22o.). — Colet speaks of the editions of Jewel 

 publisheil in 1609 and 1611 as "edited by Ful- 

 ler." On meeting with tlie statement elsewhere, 

 I supposed it to be a mistake, as Fuller was born 

 in 1608 ; but when I found it apparently coun- 

 tenanced by the notice of Jewel iu Fuller s Abel 

 Redioivus (Camb. 16ol, p. 313.), I was much 

 puzzled, until, on turning to the Introduction, § 11., 

 I discovered that the writer of that notice, and 

 editor of the folios, was not Fuller, but Featley. 



J. C. R. 



Poetaster (Vol. iv., p. 59 ). — In reply to A 

 Borderer, I do not t\\\n\<. poetaster to be a genuine 

 Latin word, though where first used I do not 

 know. The French equivalent is poetereau ; the 

 Italian poi'terio ; both formed according to the 

 analogies of the respective languages. Poetaster 

 scorns to me to be ibrmed upon the model of 

 oleaster, pinaster, &c., as though to indicate that 

 the person to whom the name is applieil is as un- 

 like a true poet as the wild olive to the true olive, 

 or the wild pine to the true pine. Wliat tlien is 

 the derivation of aster as a termination ? Some 

 punster will say, respecting oleaster, that it is olea 

 sterilis. Is it not aypios? oris it rather a I'orm 

 cognate to the (ireek termination -o'^w, which 

 generally means tin; performance of some energy, 

 or the exhibiting of some state, implied in the sub- 

 stantive; as tliough the wild olive alFccted the 

 characteristics and condition of tlie iicnuine olive ? 

 I am fully aware of many dilliculties in the ad- 

 mission of tiiesc derivations. I would suggest 

 another. Does aster signify that whicli iilTects 

 or approaches the characteristics of the substantive 

 to which it is added, as ti)e terminations -estis or 

 •estris, wliereby adjectives are Ibrmed; as ugrestis, 



sylvestris, campestris, at the same time that the 

 forms are allied, -aster, -estris, -estis? 



Theophylact. 



Post Pasclia (Vol. iv., p. 151.). — A parallel to 

 the " hypertautology " noticed by M. may be 

 found in the determination of the University of 

 Orleans on the question of Henry VIII.'s divorce, 

 which is dated "die quinto mensis Aprilis, ante 

 pascha," from which it has been argued, that tliat 

 document must have been drawn up in 1530, not 

 (as stated in the printed copies) in 1529, when 

 Easter fell on March 28. J. C. R. 



Linteamina and Sui-plices (A'^ol. iv., p. 192.). — 

 It seems probable that the surplice became an 

 ecclesiastical vestment at an early date, though 

 the exact jieriod of its introduction into the Cliris- 

 tian church it is difficult to ascertain ; it may not 

 unlikely have been taken from the white linen 

 ephod of the Jewisli priests. Wheatly (c. ii. § 4.) 

 quotes a passage I'rom Jerome to the following 

 effect : " What offence can it be to God for a 

 bishop or priest to proceed to communion in a 

 white garment;" and he considers it not im- 

 probable that it was in use in Cyprian's days. 

 Bingham (French Clmrches' Apologij, l)ook iii. 

 cliap. vii.) cites a letter of Peter Martyr to Bishop 

 Hooper on the vestment controversy, in which he 

 states tliat a distinction of habits may be proved 

 by many jmssages of Eusebius, Cyprian, Tertullian, 

 and Chrysostom. By the twelfth canon of the 

 Council of Narbonne, a.d. 589, the clergy were 

 forbidden to take the alhe off until after mass was 

 ended. In ancient times, as Mr. Palmer observes 

 (Orig. Lit. ii. 409.), the surplice probably differed 

 not from the albe ; it differs now only in having 

 wider sleeves. N. E. R. (a Subscriber.) 



Climate (Vol. iv., p. 231.). — A climate was a 

 zone contained between two parallels of latitude. 

 The climates were made to contain various arcs 

 of latitude, in different systems. See Hutton's 

 Mathematical Dictionary at Climate, or any work 

 which efficiently explains old astronomical terms. 

 Thus a climate originally meant a certain range of 

 latitude; and as we now speak of warm and 

 cold latitudes, so it became customary to speak 

 of climates, imtil the last word became wholly 

 meteorological. M. 



" Climate or Clime in geography is a part of the sur- 

 face of the earth, bounded by two circles parallel to the 

 equator, and of such a breadth as that the longest day 

 in the parallel nearer the pole exceeds tlie longest day 

 in that next the etpiator by some certain spaces, viz. 

 half an hour. 



" Tlie ancients, who confined the climates to what they 

 imagined tlie habitable parts of the earth, only allowed 

 of seven. The first they made to jiass tlirough Meioe ; 

 tlie second, through .Sienna ; the third, through Alex- 

 andria ; the fourth, ihrongh Uhodus ; the filth, through 

 Home; the sixth, through I'ontus ; and the seventh, 



