2"4 S. IX. Mat 5. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



datives, to avoid making King James the ruler of 

 heaven and earth. The address to the Deity is a 

 decent prayer : that to the king a high-flown 

 eulogy. But if a slip of grammar might make 

 Flutfd deify the king, the following construction 

 might, without any fault of grammar, make Fludd 

 represent him as a sort of ignoramus. For, after 

 the sentence which contains Jacobo, the address 

 begins " Cui naturae nudae et detectae arcana et 

 mysteria sacra intelligere negatur." But we are 

 relieved by reading on, and finding that " ei 

 seipsum cognoscere . . . erit impossibile." 



The second volume (Oppenheim, 1619) opens, 

 not with a dedication, but an Oratio Gratula- 

 bunda, addressed " Deo Optimo Maximo," &c. 

 Though the language of this curious piece (which 

 is in eleven folio pages) is of the form of prayer 

 when the author recollects himself, yet it is for the 

 most part a real sermon, in which " Ego Hominis 

 Filius," as he signs himself, enforces upon the ob- 

 ject of bis address many wholesome truths, refer- 

 ring him to something more than 120 places in the 

 Bible, to several places of Hermes Trismegistus, 

 and to Aristotle's ethics. 



Fludd was one of the strangest mixtures of 

 learning and excentricity that ever printed a 

 book. A. De Morgan. 



THE DELPHIC CLASSICS. 



(2 nd S. ix. 103.) 



There is no doubt that this valuable series of 

 classical authors derived its characteristic name 

 from the Dauphin, son of Louis XIV., for whose 

 use, under the auspices of the Due de Montansier 

 and Bossuet, and the immediate superintendence 

 of the learned Bishop Huet, it was compiled. 

 This title, as borne by the eldest sons of the kings 

 of France, of the Valois and Bourbon dynasties, 

 until the abdication of Charles X. in 1830, is de- 

 rived from the province called Dauphine, which 

 was ceded by Humbert II., King or Dauphin of 

 Vienne, in 1343, to Philippe de Valois, by virtue 

 of the prerogative which he enjoyed from Louis V., 

 Emperor of Germany, from whom he derived his 

 sceptre. This Humbert II., de la Tour de Pin, 

 was the last of the so-called Dauphin dynasty ; 

 this appellation being said to originate from the 

 Dolphin, which Guy VII., Count of Vienne, wore 

 as a badge on his helmet or shield. Hence the 

 province, or kingdom, over which he and his de- 

 scendants bore sway, was called the Dauphine ; 

 and it was upon the condition that the eldest sons 

 of the kings of France should perpetuate the 

 ancient title of Dauphin, that the cession of his 

 kingdom was made by Humbert, who, having lost 

 his only son, had determined to end his days in 

 the retirenii-nt of a Dominican monastery. Thus 

 the Dolphin and Anchor of the Father of the 

 Venetian Press in no way suggested the title of 



the French Classics, and has remained unused till 

 its revival as a typographical device by Pickering, 

 our own not unworthy " Aldi Discipulus Anglus." 

 Still the associations suggested by the title were 

 not lost sight of in an age fond of symbolical illus- 

 trations ; and hence, on the engraved titles of the 

 original quartos we see Ario with his lyre leaping 

 from the treacherous bark, while the pilot Dolphin 

 on the surface of the waves below bears the le- 

 gend " Trahitur dulcedine cantus," as emblematic 

 of the elevated nature and irresistible charm of 

 the classical lore prepared for the study of the 

 royal pupil. This design is surmounted by a coat 

 of arms, on which appears the Dolphin, quarterly 

 with the fleur-de-lys of France. It will be re- 

 membered, too, that the crown of the Dauphin 

 consisted of a ring or band which encircles the 

 head, surmounted by the two Dolphins " naiants 

 embowed," supporting by their tails a jleur-de- 

 lys. (Rees's Encycl. art. " Heraldry.") So much 

 for the historical facts ; in addition to which I am 

 not prepared to deny that the title may not have 

 derived additional appropriateness from that fond- 

 ness for Lenten fare, especially fish, on the part 

 of the kings of France, on account and in proof 

 of which Father Prout (" Apology for Lent ") is 

 pleased to assert that " the heir apparent to the 

 crown delighted to be called a Dolphin." 



William Bates. 

 Edgbaston. 



Fletcher Family (2 na S. ix. 254.) — Are there 

 no Fletchers derived from flesher, a butcher ? A 

 Scotsman of that name would certainly not go to 

 an arrow-maker for the beginning of his family. 

 An Englishman would, and probably with reason. 

 When I first went to Scotland, I remember being 

 much struck with the number of "fleshers" still 

 existing. E. H. K. 



Epitaph in Memory of a Spaniard (2 nd S. ix. 

 324.)— Under the heading of "Epitaph in Me- 

 mory of a Spaniard," an inscription is given in 

 Roman capitals for deciphering, from a small flat 

 stone near the altar of the king's chapel at Gibral- 

 tar. This inscription, though stated to be worn 

 by constant treading, appears to me to be per- 

 fectly intelligible, notwithstanding the capital let- 

 ters being equidistant and without punctuation, 

 unless my memory, after an interval of half a 

 century, when I served in Spain, deceives me. In 

 Spanish it would read thus : — 



"Esta Sepoltura es do Juan Calbodsa Abedere y de 

 sus herederos ano de 1609." 



And translated into English : — 



" This is the Sepulchre of John Calbod9a Abedere and 

 his heirs, the year 1C09." 



John Scott Lillie. 



P.S. As none of the heirs of that family appear 

 to have claimed the right of interment under that 



