2"* S. IX. April 28. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



323 



one with notes by a Rev. M. A. Tierney. Quoting 

 from a work in Latin the arguments urged upon 

 Elizabeth by Cecil — ad religionis formam pub- 

 lice mutandam — Dodd's editor says : — 



" If this reasoning was calculated from its force to 

 operate on the queen's mind, its power was not likely to 

 be diminished by the imprudent and irritating conduct of 

 the papal court. One of the first acts of Elizabeth was 

 to announce her accession to the different sovereigns of 

 Europe. Among these, Paul IV., who then occupied St. 

 Peter's chair, was not omitted. Carne, the resident am- 

 bassador at Rome, was instructed to wait on the pontiff, 

 to acquaint bim with the change which had occurred in 

 the English government, and to assure him at the same 

 time of the determination of the new queen to offer no 

 violence to the consciences of her subjects. But Paul, with 

 a mind at once enfeebled by age and distorted by pre- 

 judice, had already listened to the interested suggestions 

 of the French ambassador. He replied that, as a bastard, 

 Elizabeth was incapable of succeeding to the English 

 crown ; that, by ascending the throne without his sanc- 

 tion, she had insulted the authority of the apostoHc see; 

 but that, nevertheless, if she would consent to submit 

 herself and her claims to his judgment, he was still de- 

 sirous of extending to her whatever indulgence the jus- 

 tice of the case should allow. Elizabeth, as might have 

 been expected, instantly ordered Carne to retire." — Dodd's 

 Church History, &-c, by Rev. M. A. Tierney, ii. 121. 



Of a truth the priest here mauls the pontiff 

 with a rough, a heavy hand, and each several fact 

 is set forth unfalteringly as if there was not the 

 faintest shadow of doubt upon any of them. That 

 Caraffa was an old man when made Pope is cer- 

 tain ; yet, if we may believe Sandini, " Sed vege- 

 tutn ingenium in vivido pectore vigebat, virebatque 

 integris sensibus," this is anything than having "a 

 mind enfeebled by age." 



But, it seems, the above picture of events of 

 Mr. Tierney 's painting is an idle dream, and the 

 substance of the facts embodied in his note is 

 flatly gainsaid by Dr. Lingard, who writes thus : — 



" The whole of this narrative is undoubtedly a fiction, 

 invented, it is probable, by the enemies of the pontiff, to 

 throw on him the blame of the subsequent rupture be- 

 tween England and Rome. Carne was, indeed, still in 

 that city; but his commission had expired at the death 

 of Mary. lie could make no official communication 

 without instructions from the new sovereign. According 

 to the ordinary course, he ought to have been revoked or 

 accredited again to the pontiff; but no more notice was 

 taken of him by the ministers than they could have done 

 had they been ignorant of his existence. The only in- 

 formation which he obtained of English transactions was 

 derived from the reports of the day. Wearied with the 

 anomalous and painful situation in which he stood, he 

 most earnestly requested to be recalled, and at last suc- 

 ceeded in his request, but not till more than three months 

 after the queen had ascended the throne. It is plain, 

 then, that Carne made no notification to Paul ; and if 

 any one else had been employed for that purpose, some 

 trace of his appointment and his name might be dis- 

 covered in our national or in foreign documents and his- 

 torians" — Hist of England, vi. 5., London, 184'J. 



Dr. Lingard was led to take this view of the 

 question from the documents in the State Paper 

 Odice, from an original letter among the Cotton 



MSS., and from the Burleigh papers, brought to 

 his notice by the researches of the late Mr. 

 Howard of Corby Castle. Ixdagator. 



fRiwax fiatei. 



A Modern Batrachyomachia (no Fiction). — 

 Homer, or whoever it may be, has described a 

 pitched battle between mice and frogs — our poet, 

 Bilderdijk, has imitated his Batrachyomachia in 

 Dutch. I have witnessed one ! 



As, some years ago, I was walking with a friend 

 over the grounds of Manpadt House, we noticed 

 some stir in the grass, and, looking, saw a big 

 green frog that, albeit always leaping on, did not 

 proceed an inch. Wondering at this, we peered 

 more attentively, and remarked that the frog had 

 swallowed part of the tail of a live field-mouse, 

 and was trying to make away with it. The mouse, 

 very naturally, exerted all its strength to escape 

 this violation of property and propriety, and 

 thence the inexplicable treadmill-progress of Mr. 

 Frog. Most probably that gentleman had taken 

 the object of his covetousness for a worm. When, 

 however, at last the public humanely interfered 

 with the combatants, the frog let loose, and away 

 was the mouse ! 



By the bye, would not an illustrated edition of 

 the Batrachyomachia be a splendid nursery-booh 

 in some shilling series of untearables ? I give my 

 idea for a copy ! J. H. van Lennep. 



Zeyst, near Utrecht. 



The Days of the Week. — I heard the other 

 day the following pretty version of the Devonshire 

 superstition given in your 1st Series (iv. 38.), 

 which, from its language, appears to be connected 

 with the North : — 



" Monday's Bairn is fair of face ; 

 Tuesday's Bairn is fu' of grace; 

 Wednesday's Bairn's the child of woe; 

 Thursday's Bairn has far to go; 

 Friday's Bairn is loving and giving; 

 Saturday's Bairn works hard for his living ; 

 But the Bairn that is born on the Sabbath-day, 

 Is lucky, and bonny, and wise, and gay." 



C. W. Bingham. 



Oracles Dumb at the Nativity or Christ. — 



" The Oracles are dumb, 

 No voice or hideous hum 



Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving. 

 Apollo from his shrine, 

 Can no more divine, 



With hollow shriek the steep of Delphos leaving. 

 No nightly trance, or breathed spell, 

 Inspires the pale-ey'd priest from the prophetic cell." 

 — Milton's Ode on the Morning of Christ's Nativity, st. xix. 



" Dr. Newton observes that the allusion to the notion 

 of the cessation of oracles at the coining of Christ was 

 allowable enough in a young poet. Surely nothing could 

 have been more allowable in an old poet. And how 



