118 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2"* S. IX. Feb. 18. '60. 



from the first volume of his Works, with his own 

 translation and his own remark on it : — 



"The motto I proposed for the [Edinburgh] Bevieiv 

 was — 



' Tenui musam meditamur avenS,.' 



• We cultivate literature upon a little oatmeal.' 



But this was too near the truth to be admitted." 



8. : — 



A. " I am told our new medical practitioner comes 

 from your neighbourhood. What do you think of him ? 

 Does he send much physic? Does "he make frequent 

 visits? 



B. "Yes. . 



11 IIoAAay 8' i$0ijliou? \pvxa-S ai'5t npoia\]/ev." — Horn. H. a. 3. 

 Still I like him, for he cured me. Last month I dined, 

 and danced, and supped, and topped up with brandy and 

 water, and the next day I felt as sick as a dog :■ bilious 

 derangement and all manner of bad symptoms inwardly. 

 I wrote my case to him and he sent me some powders, 

 with these two lines from Virgil : — 



' Hi tanti motus atque hsec certamina tanta 

 Pulveris exigui jactu compressa quiescunt.' " 



Virg. G. 4. 8G. 



9. : — 



Radical. " If I can get such a reform bill, and such a 

 House of Commons as I want, the very first measure they 

 pass will be the confiscation of Church property. All the 

 parsons will go to grief. 



Old Tory. " Of course they will ; the plan is as old as 

 the time of jEneas: 



' Due nigras pecudes, ea prima piacula sunto.' " 



Virg. /En. C. 153. 

 10.: — 



A. " Any sport, fishing ? Caught a salmon yet, eh ? " 



B. "Yes. 



' Vidi et crudeles dantem Salmonea poenas.' " 



Virg. /En. G. 585. 

 11.: — 



A. " Do you never get thrown off that kicking horse 

 of yours ? " 



B. " Not I ; I am ' servantissimus asqui.' " — Virgil. 

 12.: — 



A. "So you think promotion goes more by interest 

 than merit? " 



B. "Yes, I do. Look at those five young officers." 



A. " Well, what then : who are they? " 



B. " Quinque subalterni totidem generalibus orti." 



Aldrich's Loqic. 

 13.: — 



A. " Is not Percy a bit of a dandy ? " 



B. " Yes. Don't you know what old G. said to him ? 



' Persicos odi, puer, apparatus.' "—JHor. 1. 38. 1. 

 14.: — 



A. " What do you think of this bad bright half-sove- 

 reign ? Is it not a good imitation ? " 



B. "Yes: it is ' splendide mendax.' "—Hot: 3. 11. 35. 



J. O. B. 

 Loughborough. 



SCOTISH BALLAD CONTROVERSY. 



We suspect the dispute has attracted much 

 more attention than it deserves, for discussions 



based entirely on what is termed internal evi- 

 dence are in most cases unsatisfactory, and when 

 applied to traditional poetry, utterly delusive. 



Sir Patrick Spence may or may not be an old 

 ballad. This may be remarked of the other al- 

 leged fabrications of .the wonderful Lady Ward- 

 law ; but the phraseology is no test one way or 

 the other. In the transmission of songs of which 

 there is no written record, the language of the 

 reciter is generally adapted to the time in which 

 he or she lived ; and as the lapse of a century or 

 two makes the greatest difference, not only words, 

 but lines, where the memory is defective, replace 

 what had been previously in the ballad. Our 

 readers may remember Sir John Cutler's silk stock- 

 ings, so humorously described in the inimitable 

 Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus, which were so 

 repeatedly darned with worsted, that at last what 

 was silk and what was worsted became a ques- 

 tion of some consideration, well worth the con- 

 sideration of metaphysicians. This is exactly the 

 case with ballad poetry : the original texture may 

 be silk, but what it may become in process of 

 time by darning we will not be bold enough to 

 determine. 



Lady Wardlaw is accused of having forged 

 the ballad of Hardiknute. This is strong lan- 

 guage, seeing it was originally given to the world 

 without any pretence of its having been taken 

 from an ancient MS. The first edition, in folio, 

 a great rarity of its kind, is now before me, and 

 there is no attempt at imposition. If the world 

 chose to take it as an ancient poem, well and 

 good ; but this was no reason for throwing dirt on 

 the writer. 



We have our own doubts of the entire authorship. 

 Her ladyship's brother is the reputed author of 

 " Gilderoy," — a tolerably pretty song on a most 

 abandoned scamp. Now it is proved incon- 

 testably in the recent collection of " Scotish 

 Ballads and Songs"* that there did exist a pre- 

 vious ballad, evidently the germ of the Halkct 

 one, which was popular in England, and had been 

 ■actually printed in one of the rare little volumes 

 of" Westminster drollery." Not only were words, 

 but lines taken from the English song and dove- 

 tailed in the Scotish one. 



Is it at all improbable that, in like manner, 

 there may have existed at the beginning of last 

 century some fragments on the subject attempted 

 to be popularised by Lady Wardlaw ? If the 

 brother made good use of the miserable English 

 ballad, why might not she follow his example ? 

 How very amusing it would be if in some old dark 

 chest or library an old version of Hardiknute 

 should turn up ! 



Again, why should Lady Wardlaw be the fabri- 

 cator of Sir Patrick Spence ? Her brother was 



* By James Maidmeut. Stevenson, Edinburgh. 



