42 



NOTES AND QUERIES. [2«<i S. VI. 133.. July 17. '68. 



ever, is not so vei'y complete. In the letter of 

 Ortuinus above alluded to, and in a sufficient ac- 

 count of liis family, he states that his father was 

 still living, but that his mother died while he was 

 very young (in tenera primum cetate) and on the 

 right side of ill fame : inah'e men Gertrude citra 

 inhonestatem defxincta. The phrase is one of sin- 

 gular brevity and limitation, and seems to admit 

 something : it is to me the single point from which 

 a suspicion might arise that this epistle was a for- 

 gery of the enemy. 



The EpistolcB gradually declined in notoriety. 

 I think Bayle had never read these celebrated 

 letters. Of Hutten he appears to have thought 

 little, and only just knows that he is said to have 

 been one of the authors. He says more of these 

 epistles in connexion with Hoehstrat the inqui- 

 sitor, and the proof that he did not die of them, 

 than in connexion with Hutten or Reuchlin. But 

 the negative proof is the strongest : Bayle does 

 not quote them. They were satirical, directed 

 against bigotry and stupidity, and very indecent : 

 what would Bayle have wanted more ? The letter 

 of Federhusius, alluded to in the previous paper, 

 would have furnished one at least of his charac- 

 teristic notes : and any one who, having read this 

 letter, and knowing that Bayle does not quote it, 

 imajiines Bayle to have read it, does a cruel in- 

 justice to his memory. 



Tliere are in our country two extremes of 

 opinion about the Epist. Ohs. Vir. On the one 

 hand, Hallam accounts for their reception rather 

 by their suitableness to the time than by their 

 merit : and gives them, in reference to the Re- 

 formation, about as much effect as the Mariagc de 

 Figaro had on the French Revolution. But he 

 forgets, what never ought to have been forgotten 

 in connexion with these letters, that the victims 

 were taken in by them, and imagined the felon's 

 garb in which they were exhibited to be a robe of 

 honour. The Puritans never toolc Butler for a 

 Puritan, nor did the admirers of cliivalry ever 

 imagine that Don Quixote was written by one of 

 themselves. The wit which made Erasmus laugh 

 till he burst an abscess in the face, and saved 

 himself an operation, will still be found poignant 

 and refreshing. The indirect effect upon the 

 Reformation is as well-established as such a thing 

 can be: for Luther admitted that he could have 

 done nothing without the victory gained by 

 Reuchlin, and it is not contested that the imme- 

 diate cause of the victory was the appearance of 

 the EpiatolcE. 



On tlie other hand, Hamilton calls the Epistolm 

 " the national satire of Germany," and Hutten, 

 the " great national patriot " of the Germans, 

 reproaches the nation with not having published 

 a proper edition of it ; says that it " gave the 

 victory to Reuchlin over the Begging Friars, and 

 to Luther over the Court of Rome." He makes 



a hero of Hutten ; hints that he could, if occa- 

 sion served, clear his character of the many scan- 

 dals which encrust it, and of the unfavourable 

 account given by Erasmus. All this amounts to 

 more, probably, than can be justified by such 

 evidence as indifferent persons require. Hutten 

 was a man of some learning, more satire, and not 

 particular to a shade in matters of behaviour. He 

 was of desperate courage, both physical and 

 moral. Though small and weakly, he put five 

 robbers to flight with his own good sword ; with- 

 out any power of commanding respect, he routed 

 thousands of monks with his own wicked wit. 



A. De Morgan. 



THE REV. WILLIAM CROWE, AUTHOR OF " LENYES- 

 DON HILL." 



The impression conveyed in " N. & Q." {2"'^ 

 S. V. 308.) that there is no edition of the col- 

 lected poetical works of the Rev. William Crowe is 

 erroneous. Since the original publication at 

 Oxford in 1788 of his Lewesdon Hill, there have 

 been three, if not four, editions of his poetry, the 

 latest of which appeared in 1827; some two years 

 before his death. Lewesdon Hill has been warmly 

 commended by AVordsworth, who was usually 

 penurious enough in dispensing his praise to his 

 contemporaries, and has been eulogised in no 

 measured terms by Moore, Bowles, and Crabbe *, 

 all of whom were personally acquainted with the 

 author, and did not allow his eccentricities, some- 

 times sufficiently startling, to interfere with their 

 appreciation of his genius. 



William Crowe, the son of a carpenter at Win- 

 chester, was born in that city about 1752 (the pre- 

 cise date of his birth I have been unable to 

 ascertain), and having exhibited from childhood 

 a remarkable taste for music, along with a happy 

 )iower of giving expression to it by his voice, was 

 fortunate enough to attract the notice of several 

 members of the Chapter of William of Wykeham's 

 famous institution, and was employed, through 

 their instrumentality, occasionally as one of the 

 choristers of the College Chapel. In accoi-dance 

 with a practice, long since discontinued, of select- 

 ing one or more boys from this body for admission 

 to the foundation of the school, young Crowe was 

 elected a " poor scholar ; " and such was the rapi- 

 dity of his progress in the branches of polite learn- 

 ing which are taught in that establishment, that at 

 the earliest period at which it was possible for him 

 to become eligible, he was transferred to New 

 College, Oxford; agreeably with the privilege en- 

 joyed by Winchester boys of mark when their 

 term of probation in the school has been com- 



* Bowles calls Lewesdon Hill the most sublime loco- 

 descriptive poem in the English language, and Moore 

 considered it the best piece of blank verse since the days 

 of Milton. 



