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OIHUL

LIBBYBA

127980

LONDON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 5, 1889.

CONTENTS.-N° 158.
NOTES:-Aladdin's Lamp, 1-The Ars Moriendi Block-
Book, 2-Dickens and Figaro in London,' 3-Notes on
Epictetus-Queenie-Colt, Coltes-Reverend and Reverent-
Bush, 4- Londonshire - Flies and Wolves - Tace-Casa-
noviana-Curious Etymology-Hampole's Version of the
Psalms, 5-Pope's Vision - Medieval Names European

Wanted, 9.

though it reappears in another Arabian version, viz., the Story of the Fisherman's Son,' in the Wortley Montagu MS. of 'The Nights '*-a second talisman was necessary to the hero for two purposes: (1) to enable him to escape from the cave by means of the slave of the ring; and (2) to further his efforts to recover the magic palace and his royal bride, carried away by order of the Women among Savages-Sheffield Plate-Marriage, 6. magician as soon as he had exchanged “new lamps QUERIES:-John Bunyan-Monody on Henderson'-Sir A. Hart-Great Seal of Katherine Parr-Monte Video-Bishops for old " very advantageously. The slave of the of Norwich-Longitude and Marriage, 7-"A cool hundred lamp gives its possessor wealth galore and so forth. -Polydore Vergil-Death Warrant of Charles I.-Cross But the great blunder is, that the genie is sumTree The Sorbonne-"A laity with a strong backbone"Soapstone Figures -Medal Portraits-Water-marks-W. moned (like him of the ring) by rubbing the lamp; Fielding, 8-Betham-Altar Inscriptions-Vertue-Mill's while Aladdin found it burning in the cave, and Logic-Capt. Marryat-Beveridge-Baptist May-Authors had, of course, to extinguish the light in order to carry it away. And what the author forgot is that REPLIES:-Wetherby, 9-Egyptian Hierograms, 10-Dr. Guillotin-Charlemagne Bring" and "Take"-Friar's whenever the lamp was lighted the genie would inLanthorn-Belgian Custom, 11-Sir M. Livesey-Chartist- stantly appear " to obey," &c.; and so he fell back G. Borrow's First Publication-Book on Bank-note Issue upon the usual manner in which magical rings are -New English Dictionary'- Constable's Pictures-Pitshanger, 12-Kirk-Grims, 18-Quarles-Anonymous Poem-employed to summon their "slaves"-by rubbing Children-Buonaparte's Habeas Corpus, 14-Amsterdam them. In other versions or analogues of the story Bourse-Agincourt: Davy Gam-Herrick, 15-Beans in Leap of Aladdin-which is evidently of comparatively Year-Lord Lisle's Assassination - Rolling a Ball-Westminster Library-Hammonds-Poison-Aston's Brief Sup- recent date-where a lamp is the wonder-worker it plement, 16-Nightcap Stratagem-Curiosities of Cata- must be lighted in order to summon its attendant loguing-Pendulum Clocks-Swift's 'Polite Conversation'"Bombastes Furioso-Chaucer's Balade of Gentilnesse,' 17 spirit. Thus in the German story of the 'Blue Light,' in Grimm's collection, no sooner does the old soldier light the lamp he found at the bottom of the dry well than there appears before him " a black dwarf, with a hump on his back and a feather in his cap,” who demands to know what he wants, and so on.

-'Brussels Gazette '-" Our Father"-Arbuthnot, 18.
NOTES ON BOOKS:- Foster's Alumni Oxonienses’-
Loftie's Kensington, Picturesque and Historical.'
Notices to Correspondents, &c.

Notes.

ALADDIN'S WONDERFUL LAMP.

I fancied that I had said "the last " for a long time to come about the story of Aladdin ('Alá-edDía) and his lamp in my 'Popular Tales and Fictions,' and afterwards in Appendix to vol. iii. of Sir Richard F. Burton's 'Supplemental Nights'; but I find that I have somehow overlooked what now appears to me a very great absurdity in that world-renowned romance, as regards the mode of using the lamp.

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But there is an Indian story, in Mrs. Meer Hasan Ali's'Observations on the Mussulmans of India' (London, 1832), vol. ii. p. 324 ff., in which a lighted lamp has the same property: Shaykh Saddú, a hypocritical devotee, wandering into a neighbouring jungle one day, finds a copper cup, whereon were engraved certain characters which he could not with all his learning decipher. takes it to his retreat, and at nightfall, being just then in want of a good-sized lamp, he puts oil and a wick into the cup, and the instant it was lighted him. "Who art thou," demanded the shaykh, a "figure resembling a human being" stood before "that dost thus intrude at this hour on the privacy of a hermit?" The figure replied: "I come at the summons of your lamp. The possessor of that vessel has four slaves, one of whom you see before you. We are genii, and can only be summoned by the lighting up of this vessel. The number of your slaves will be in due attendance according to the number of the wicks that it may please you to light. Demand our attendance at any hour you

In by far the greater number of versions, variants, and analogues of the story, both Asiatic and European, the wonder-working thing is a magical gem or ring, commonly obtained by the hero from a serpent, for services rendered"; and the hero having befriended certain animals, generally a dog and a cat, when his precious talisman is stolen these grateful animals recover it for him. I have elsewhere pointed out that this is probably the original form of the story; and, if so, then it is certainly of Buddhist invention. But in the tale of Aladdin the young hero has two talismans, namely, the ring, which the magician gives him for his protection before he descends into the cave, and the lamp, of which he becomes possessed through the magician foolishly shutting him in the cave-to perish, as he vainly believed. As the element of the grateful animals is omitted in the story-supposed.

* This story is translated in Dr. Jonathan Scott's edition of the Arabian Nights Entertainments,' vol. vi. pp. 210-212; and in Sir R. F. Burton's Supplemental Nights,' vol. iv. pp. 314-329.

according to the finger on which it is placed.
† Sometimes a magical ring has different properties

Evidently it was a lamp, not a cup, as the shaykh

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choose, and we are bound to obey." This wicked
shaykh gives the four genii of his lamp many tasks
to perform, most of them such as were repugnant
to them (for it appears these were very scru-
pulous" genii, such as would not have suited Alad-
din's pretended uncle, the Maghrabí), and one of
the tasks at once recalls Aladdin and the Princess
Badr-ul-Badúr. He caused them to convey the king's
daughter to him, "and she was his unwilling com-
panion" in his retreat. But there was soon to be
an end of his wickedness; for when the genii, by
his order, were beginning to raise a remarkable
mosque, situated at a considerable distance, in
order to carry it to the place where the shaykh
dwelt, the devotee who had his abode therein
a man of undoubted sanctity-sent them off" with
a flea in their ear," in this wise: "Begone," said
the pious man, in a tone of authority that deprived
them of their strength. "A moment's delay, and
I will pray that you be consumed with fire. Would
Shaykh Saddú add to his crimes by forcing the
house of God from its foundation? Away this
moment! else fire shall consume you on the spot."
They fled in haste to their profane master, whose
rage was unbounded at their disobedience, as he
termed their return without the mosque. He raved,
stormed, and reviled them in bitter language,
while they, heartily tired of their servitude, caught
up the copper vessel, and in his struggle to resist
them he was thrown with violence on the ground,
and his wicked soul was suddenly separated from
his impure body.

Here we have the lamp of Aladdin, but put to
its proper use-lighted-in order to summon the
genii; we have also the princess being conveyed to
Aladdin, as I have before remarked, and a reflec-
tion of Maghrabi's causing the palace to be re-
moved to a far distant place. It would be interesting
to ascertain the source whence Mrs. Meer Hasan
Ali derived this singular story, which bears out, I
think, my opinion that the author of the tale of
Aladdin has greatly blundered in representing the
Jamp as requiring to be rubbed, and not lighted.
The appearance of one or more of the four attend-
ant genii of the wicked shaykh's lamp, according to
the number of wicks that were lighted, has its
parallel in another Asiatic story; but this note is
already too long.
W. A. CLOUSTON.

233, Cambridge Street, Glasgow.

THE 'ARS MORIENDI' BLOCK-BOOK (1450),
PLATE THE TENTH.

While examining not long ago a reproduction of Caxton's 'Trayttye abredged of the Arte to Lerne well to Dye' (1490), for comparison with it I took down the Holbein Society's marvellous facsimile, by Mr. F. C. Price, of the 'Ars Moriendi' named at the head of this paper. I was thus led to consider again this fine work, pausing especially at

plate x., which, as is well known, has for years been an enigma to connoisseurs.

It may be well first to observe that the famous original, purchased by the British Museum in 1872 for upwards of 1,000l., is a block-book, executed, in the opinion of the Keeper of the Printed Books, "in the best style of art prevalent at the time of its production," and consists of but twelve separate sheets, of two leaves each, printed on the inner side only. There are eleven illustrations, each occupying a whole page, opposite each of which is given an explanatory letterpress. The Holbein Society's reproduction of this small and unique volume has the great advantage of an introduction, in which the writer, Mr. George Bullen, F.S.A., besides giving much interesting bibliographical information, describes the various plates, and explains their often recondite meaning.

Having myself examined a good deal of this literature in preparing my 'Christian Care of the Dying and the Dead,' I hope I may say, without presumption, that the introduction seems to me to be admirable, one explanation only, that of plate x., being excepted. It begins on p. 15 thus:

"Following this is an engraving [No. 10] of the good angel who comes to support and console the dying man, while thus tempted to endanger his salvation through indulging in the sin of avarice; the accompanying letterpress being headed' Bona inspiracio ang'li contra avaricia"." In this engraving the guardian angel stands, as before, in front of the dying man, with his right hand raised in exhortation, and with a scroll on the right of the picture bearing the words, 'Non sis auarus.' Above the canopy of the bedstead, on the right, is a representation of (f) the Blessed Virgin, and next to this, on the left, is a fulllength figure of the Holy Jesus stretched on the cross (g). Next to this on the left, somewhat lower down, are three figures of sheep, shown principally by their heads. Next to these, on the left, are three figures, namely, of a man and two women (c); just below the second woman is the figure of a maiden (b), and above her, on the extreme left, is the head of a man (d). What this group of figures is intended to symbolize it would be difficult to conjecture. The man (e), standing as he does next to the sheep, and with a staff in his hand, is perhaps a representation of a good shepherd. They all of them, however, appear to look towards the dying man with feelings of compas sion. Below this group is the figure of an angel, with a scroll bearing the words, Ne intendas amicis (Do not concern thyself for thy friends). This angel holds with both hands an outspread curtain, intended to conceal from the dying man's view (a) two full-length figures, one of a woman on the right and the other of a man on the left; both possibly being disappointed expectants of sharing in the dying man's wealth; or else the female figure representing his wife and the male figure that of his physician. The latter appears to be exhorting his female companion to depart from the scene, At the foot of the picture, on the right, is the figure of an ugly demon with a scroll bearing the words 'Quid faciam.""

6

I beg to offer the following as a new interpretation of the plate above described by Mr. Bullen. On reference to the work itself it will be found that the preceding letterpress contains Satan's temptation to avarice, with a plate (ix.) represent

ing various forms of self-seeking. Plate x. is a picture of self-renunciation, as appears from the "Bona Inspiracio" of the angel, which faces it, and of which a short account must now be given. "Turn thine ears [saith the angel] away from the deadly suggestions of the devil......Put wholly behind thee all temporal things, the recollection of which cannot at all help thy salvation...... Be mindful of the words of the Lord to them who cling to such things: Nisi quis renunciaverit omnibus quæ possidet non potest meus esse discipulus' (St. Luke xiv, 33)."

all transitory things wholly away like poison, and turn his heart's affection to voluntary poverty, &c. From this part of the angel's address the artist completes his plate with a picture of the Eternal Son giving up (f) the ever-blessed mother that bare Him-that Son of Man who for us men fathomed the greatest depths of poverty, voluntarily renouncing upon the cross (9) all things that were His own, not retaining even dear life.

As illustrating the foregoing view it is interesting to read in Caxton's 'Arte to Lerne well to

The artist illustrates this principle by selecting Some of the examples mentioned in the verse imme-Dye,' p. 8, that diately afterwards quoted by the angel, who saith:-"the fyfthe temptacyon that most troubleth the

"And again, 'Si quis venit ad Me et non odit patrem suum et matrem, et uxorem, et filios, et fratres, et sorores, adhuc non potest meus esse discipulus' (St. Luke xiv. 26)." The artist places in the forefront of his picture an angel saying, "Do not concern thyself for thy friends," and holding up, with both hands, a curtain (a) between the dying man and an elderly couple-his father and mother-to whom the sick man, to their own sorrow, has already bidden, it

seems, a glad farewell. I see no medical emblems with or near the man that would lead me to sup: pose him to be intended for the physician. Next (b), above the foreground, is represented his wife, like himself young, who looks at him with piteous gaze, her hair being dishevelled-the usual sign of female mourning-anticipating the near approach of widowhood. I do not think that dishevelled hair is a form of mourning ever exclusively used by "a maiden."

Besides (as the angel continues), the Lord saith to them who have renounced those things:

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"Et omnis qui relinquiret domum vel fratres, vel sorores, aut patrem, aut matrem, aut uxorem, aut filios, aut agros, propter nomen meum, centuplum accipiet, et vitam eternam possidebit" (St. Matthew xix. 29). From this verse the masterly engraver enriches his plate with fresh instances of self-renunciation, namely, (c) two sisters, with braided hair, standing a little behind the wife; and yet further back (d) the dying man's brother, the expression of whose countenance is very beautiful, of all of whom the sufferer has to take his leave. Children are not supposed to be born of so young a wife; none are represented. But the dying man has to take leave of his lands, "aut agros." And these (e) are represented by their occupants-sheep that graze them and a bailiff who, staff in hand, shepherds the flock-perhaps so placed by the artist not without a mystic allusion to the shepherd who in the deserts of the East has sometimes to give his life for his sheep (St. John x. 11).

seculers and worldly men, is the overgrote ocupacyon of outwarde thinges and temporall, as towarde his wyf his chyldren & his frendes carnall / towarde his rychesses or towarde other thynges / which he hath moost loved in his lyf And therfore whosomever wyll' well' & surely deye he ought to set symply and all' from hym all'e outwarde god fully." thynges & temporell' and oughte all'e to commytte to

with the Ars Moriendi' can, I should think, Those of my readers who are not yet acquainted than by making its acquaintance with the help of scarcely give themselves a greater literary treat the apparatus criticus provided in the edition I

have used.

Yaxley Vicarage, Suffolk,

W. H. SEWELL.

DID CHARLES DICKENS CONTRIBUTE TO 'FIGARO IN LONDON'?-In the elaborate and exhaustive Dickens Catalogue' (pp. 38), compiled and published by Messrs. J. W. Jarvis & Son, 28, King William Street, Strand, 1884, is a notice of Figaro in London, with this remark:

"This was the precursor of Punch, and is full of chatty, racy anecdotes and jokes, said to be written by Charles Dickens and Gilbert à Beckett."-P. 23. No mention of this is made in the list of "Publications to which Dickens contributed only a portion" (pp. 32-3), in Mr. James Cook's very valuable Bibliography of the Writings of Charles Dickens' (London, Frank Kerslake, 22, Coventry Street, Haymarket, 1879, pp. 88). I may remark, in passing, that the excellent woodcut on Mr. Cook's title-page, giving a most spirited likeness-bust of Dickens, was drawn by M. Faustin, and originally appeared in Figaro (Mr. James Mortimer's London Figaro, on the staff of which I remained for upwards of five years) on Sept. 27, 1873. The mention of this is suggested by the coincidence of Dickens and the two London Figaros.

I possess an original copy of "Figaro in London. Vol. I. For the Year 1832" (William Strange, 21, Paternoster Row). It consists of fifty-six Remember also (adds the angel) the poverty of weekly issues, commencing with that for Dec. 10, Christ hanging for thee upon the cross, most freely 1831. There was a second volume, which, from giving up for thy salvation His most dearly loved Aug. 16, 1834, to the close, was illustrated by mother and His best beloved disciples. The angel Isaac Robert Cruikshank in place of Robert Seybegs the dying man to imprint on his mind these mour, whose remarkably clever political caricatures things and the examples of the saints, and to put-coarsely engraved, and often at Sevmour's o

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