2-is.vi.i54.,DEc. ii.'58.:i NOTES AND QUERIES. 



487 



thej' have roots to them ; bottle them separately in 

 water, and when they are alive and kicking, call in 

 Gooch, and make the fact known to the philosophical 

 world. Never in my life was I so astonished as at seeing 

 what in the act of seeing I could scarcely believe, and 

 now almost doubt. If you verify the experiment, as 

 Owen and all his brethren will swear must be the case, 

 you will be able to throw some light upon the origin of 

 your friend the tape-worm, and his diabolical family." * 



When I first read this I tried the experiment, 

 but the result was of course in all respects the 

 reverse of what the letter-writer records. I can- 

 not help thinking that the poets were the victims 

 of a practical joke. Edwakd Peacock. 



SRcpIiCiS ta Minav ©un-tc^. 



" What is a Bedstaff? " (2»'» S. vi. 347. 436.)— 

 That a bedstaff was a stick placed vertically by the 

 frame of a bed to keep the bedding in its place, 

 is what I have always understood : but the fol- 

 lowing case will illustrate its actual use as a 

 substitute for a foil, a la Bohadil. I quote from 

 Russell on Crimes, third edition, vol. i. p. 640., 

 and the case, Sir John Chichester's, is to be found 

 in 1 Hale, 472, 473. : — 



" Sir John Chichester, who unfortunately killed his 

 man-servant as he was playing with him. Sir John 

 Chichester made a pass at the servant with a sword in 

 the scabbard, and the servant parried it with a bed-staff, 

 but in so doing, struck off the chape of the scabbard, 

 whereby the end of the sword came out of the scabbard ; 

 and the thrust not being effectually broken, the servant 

 was killed by the point of the sword." 



It must not be forgotten that the rapier of the 

 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was by no 

 means the light and foil-like weapon now known 

 as the small sword. It was of great length. I 

 have one 3 ft. 9i inches in the blade, calculated 

 to cut as well as to thrust, and often quite as 

 heavy as a modern cavalry sabre. All that " cun- 

 ning of fence " now understood, by which the 

 blade is " sword and shield," was then little 

 practised, and the dagger was usually employed 

 to parry the thrusts of the cumbrous rapier. 

 Under these circumstances, a bed-staff, probably 

 provided, as Mr. T. Boys suggests, with a species 

 of guard, and most likely about the weight of a 

 heavy single stick, would be no bad instrument 

 wherewith to indoctrinate a tyro in the noble 

 science of defence. W. J. Beenhaed Smith. 



Temple. 



" Book of Wisdom," bij Peter Charron (2"'' S. 

 vi. 33.) — The opinion, " that Lennard's Dedica- 

 tion of Du Plessis Mornay's History of the Papacie 

 to Prince Henry may have been inserted in our 

 correspondent's copy of Charron," is disproved by 

 the following facts : — 1st. The dedications are 



* Life and Correspondence of Robert Southey, edited 

 by bis Son in-Law. 1850. Vol. iv. p. 35. 



entirely different. 2nd. In his dedication at- 

 tached to the History of the Papacy, h4 expressly 

 refers to his previous translation of Charron, and 

 speaks of the confidence which he derived from 

 its favourable reception, and which, in fact, em- 

 boldens him again to address his Prince. 3rd. In 

 the dedication of the Book of Wisdome he ex- 

 pressly says, " The subject of this Worke is Wis- 

 dome," &c., &c., which he would not have said in 

 the dedication of a work upon the Papacy. My 

 volume has also a prefatory advertisement of three 

 pages, " To the Reader." 



As the Historie of the Papacie was published in 

 1612, and the translation of the Book of Wisdome 

 is referred to therein, it follows that there must 

 have been an edition of the latter prior to that in 

 1630, and even prior to, or during the year 1612. 

 Can anyone then give any account of it ? 



Clement. 



Cambridge, Mass., U. S. 



Chatterton and Collins (2°* S. vi. 430.)— There 

 are tivo allusions to Collins in Chatterton's mo- 

 dern poems. First, in Kew Gardens, as quoted by 

 your correspondent : — 



" What Collins' happy genius titles verse," 

 and, secondly, in the first stanza of the poem en- 

 titled February, an Elegy : — 



" Attempt no numbers of the plaintive Gay, 

 Let me like midnight cats or Collins sing." 



Whether these refer to the poet, William Col- 

 lins, or to some obscure Bristol verse-writer, your 

 readers can judge. G. H. A.'s argument that 

 Collins had been too long dead " to attract the 

 satire of Chatterton," is answered by the second 

 quotation, where he alludes to Gay, who had been 

 dead still longer. I do not think that Chatterton 

 would have placed an obscure Bristol verse-writer 

 thus ill juxtaposition with Gay. Chatterton has 

 mentioned the names of a great number of his 

 Bristol friends and enemies, but I do not remem- 

 ber among them the name of Collins. When 

 Chatterton wrote, Langhorne's edition had re- 

 cently brought Collins into note. The charge of 

 harshness in his versification, which Chatterton's 

 allusions to "Collins" imply, had also recently 

 been put forth by Johnson in the Poetical Calen- 

 dar. I certainly am of opinion that the two quo- 

 tations were effusions of Chatterton's spleen against 

 established favourites, and that the Collins re- 

 ferred to was not an obscure writer, but the author 

 of the Oriental Eclogues. In this, however, I may 

 be wrong ; and if so, shall be much obliged for 

 better information. Your correspondent, how- 

 ever, will observe that I have not either in poetry 

 or "plain prose" converted one "allusion into 

 " more than one." W. Mot Thomas. 



Wine Cellars (2°'' S. vi. 432.) — Stylites will 

 find all the information he can desire in A Guide 

 to the Wine Cellar, by F. C. Husenbeth, wine mer- 



