Page images
PDF
EPUB

former? Did James II. confer patents of nobility upon any of his adherents, and upon whom?

N. H. R. [The state of the Court of St. Germains will be found in the following works: (1) A View of the Court of St. Germains from the Year 1690 to 1695, [by John Macky], 8vo. 1696. (2.) "The Life of James II., containing an Account of his Birth, Education, &c., the State of his Court at St. Germains, and the particulars of his Death. Lond. 8vo, 1702." (3.) Clarke's Life of James II., ii. 472-647, copied from the Stuart Papers in Carlton House. Consult also chap. xx. of Lord Macaulay's History of England, iv. 380. For the titles of nobility conferred by

James II. after his abdication, see "N. & Q." 2nd S. ix. 23; x. 102, 215, 337.]

NEW TRANSLATION OF THE BIBLE, BY JOHN BELLAMY, circa 1818.-Bellamy did not complete the whole Bible. Query, how much did he publish? GEO. I. COOPER.

[Eight parts of this new translation were published, namely, from Genesis to the Song of Solomon, pp. 1368. See Horne's Introduction to the Holy Scriptures, ed. 1846, v. 304.7

Replies.

EXHIBITION OF SIGN-BOARDS.

(3rd S. iv. 307.)

Bonnell Thornton's object in establishing an exhibition of sign-boards was to convey satire on temporary events, objects, and persons. It took place at an opportune time, when the goodnatured public was not disposed to consider it as an insult; and for a period it is said to have answered the witty projector's most sanguine expectations.

The mention made of this exhibition by the newspaper press of the day, presents so many illustrations of the state of art, and of the spirit of the times, that a few extracts from it may not be unacceptable.

The St. James's Chronicle of March 26, 1762, after noticing the preparations of the Society of Arts, adds

"The Society of Sign-Painters are also preparing a most magnificent collection of portraits, landscapes, fancypieces, history-pieces, night-pieces, Scripture-pieces, &c. &c., designed by the ablest masters, and executed by the best hands in these kingdoms. The virtuosi will have a new opportunity to display their taste on this occasion, by discovering the different styles of the several masters employed, and pointing out by what hand each piece is drawn. A remarkable cognoscenti, who has attended at the Society's great room, with his eye-glass, for several mornings, has already piqued himself on discovering the famous painter of The Rising Sun' (a modern Claude) in an elegant night piece of The Man in the Moon."

[ocr errors]

The London Register for April, 1762, as quoted in Mr. Pye's Patronage of British Art, gives us the following account of the exhibition itself:

"On entering, you pass through a large parlour and paved yard, of which, as they contain nothing but old common signs, we shall take no further notice than what is said of them in the Catalogue, which the reader will not find to be barren of wit and humour. On entering the grand room, you find yourself in a large and commodious apartment, hung round with green baize, on which this curious collection of wooden originals is fixed flat, and from whence hang keys, bells, swords, poles, sugar-loaves, tobacco-rolls, candles, and other ornamental figures, carved in wood, which commonly dangled from the pent-houses of the different shops in our streets. On the chimney-board (to imitate the style of the catalogue) is a large blazing fire, painted in water-colours; and light into the room, is written in golden capitals, upon a within a kind of cupola, or rather dome, which lets the blue ground, a motto disposed in the form following:

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

"From this short description of the grand room (when we consider the singular nature of the paintings themselves, and the peculiarity of the other decorations), it may be easily imagined that no connoisseur who has made the tour of Europe ever entered a picture-gallery that struck his eye more forcibly at first sight, or provoked his attention with more extraordinary appearance. We will now, if the reader pleases, conduct him round the room, and take a more accurate survey of the curious originals before us; to which end we shall proceed to transcribe some of the most conspicuous features of the ingenious Society's Catalogue, adding, by the way, such remarks as may seem necessary for his instruction and entertainment:

"No. 1. Portrait of a justly celebrated painter, though an Englishman and a modern.

[ocr errors]

"No. 8. The Vicar of Bray.' The portrait of a benificed clergyman at full length. The Vicar of Bray' is an ass in a feather-topped grizzle, band, and puddingsleeves. This is a much droller conceit, and has much more effect, as here executed, than the old design of the ass loaded with preferment.

"No. 9. The Irish Arms.' By Patrick O'Blaney. N.B. Captain Terence O'Cutter stood for them. This sign represents a pair of extremely thick legs, in white stockings, and black gaiters.

"No. 12. The Scotch Fiddle.' By M'Pherson. Done from himself. The figure of a Highlander sitting under a tree, enjoying the greatest of pleasures, scratching where it itches.

"No. 16. A Man. Nine tailors at work, in allusion to the old saying, Nine tailors make a man.' "No. 19. Nobody alias Somebody.' A character. The figure of an officer, all head, arms, legs, and thighs. This piece has a very odd effect, it being so drolly executed that you don't miss the body.

"No. 20. Somebody, alias Nobody.' The companion of the foregoing, both by Hogarty. A rosy figure, with little head and a huge body, whose belly swags over, almost quite down to his shoe-buckles. By the staff in his hand, it appears to be intended to represent a constable: it might also be mistaken for an eminent justice of the peace.

"No. 22. "The Strugglers: a Matrimonial Conversation.' By Ransby. Represents a man and his wife fighting for the breeches.

"No. 23. A Freemason's Lodge; or, the Impenetrable Secret.' By a Sworn Brother. The supposed ceremony and probable consequences of what is called making a mason.' Represents the master of the lodge with a redhot salamander in his hand, and the new brother blindfold, and in a comical situation of fear and good-luck.

"No. 27. The Spirit of Contradiction.' Two brewers with a barrel of beer pulling different ways.

"No. 35. A Man in his Element.' A sign for an eating-house. A cook roasting at a fire, and the devil basting him.

"No. 36. A Man out of his Element.' A sailor falling off a horse, with his head lighting against a milestone. "No. 37. A Bird.' By Allison. Underneath is writ

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

'If Absalom had not worn his own hair,
Absalom had not been hanging there.'

"But the cream of the whole jest is No. 49 and No. 50, its companion, hanging on each side of the chimney These two are by an unknown hand, the exhibition having been favoured with them from an unknown quarter. Ladies and gentlemen are requested not to finger them, as they are concealed by the curtains to preserve them. Behind the curtains are two boards, on one of which is written Ha! ha! ha!' and on the other He! he! he!' At the opening of the exhibition, the ladies had infinite curiosity to know what was behind the curtains, but were afraid to gratify it. This covered laugh is no bad satire on the indecent pictures in some collections, hung up in the same manner with curtains over them.

"No. 66. A Tobacconist's Sign.' By Bransby. The conceit and execution are admirable. It represents a common-councilman and two friends drunk over a bottle. The common-councilman, asleep, has fallen back in his chair. One of his friends (an officer) is lighting a pipe at his nose; whilst the other (a doctor) is using his thumb as a tobacco-stopper.

"Some humour was also intended in the juxtaposition of the signs, as The Three Apothecaries' Gallipots,' and 'The Three Coffins,' its companion."

The locale of the exhibition was the house of Bonnell Thornton in Bow Street, Covent Garden-as we learn from the following advertisements, and from the title-page of the catalogue. The latter reads as follows:

“A Catalogue of the Original Paintings, Busts, Carved Figures, &c. &c., now Exhibiting by the Society of Sign Painters, at the Large Room, the upper end of Bow

street, Covent Garden, nearly opposite the Playhouse Passage. Price One Shilling.' 4to.

An advertisement was inserted in the catalogue, and also in the daily papers, in these words:

"The Society of Sign Painters take this opportunity of refuting a most malicious suggestion, that their exhibibition is designed as a ridicule on the exhibitions of the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c., and of the artists. They intend theirs as an appendix only, or in the style of painters, a companion to the others. There is nothing in their collection that will be understood by

any candid person as a reflection on any body, or body of men. They are not in the least prompted by any mean jealousy, to depreciate the merits of their brother artists. Animated by the same public spirit, their sole view is to convince foreigners, as well as their own blinded countrymen, that however inferior the nation may be unjustly deemed in other branches of the polite arts, the palm for sign-painting must be universally ceded to us, the Dutch themselves not excepted."

The purchase of a catalogue entitled the owner to an admission to the exhibition. A printed slip was appended to it in the form of a ticket, which was torn off by the door-keeper upon presentation, thus rendering the catalogue unavailable for a second admission.

Copies of the catalogue are of very rare occurrence. The only one I ever saw was sold at Puttick's about a twelvemonth since.

EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.

"EST ROSA FLOS VENERIS."
(1st S. i. 214, 458; 3rd S. iv. 453.)

date as the first volume of " N. & Q.," it certainly
As this question appears to be of so ancient a
ought to be disposed of at the earliest oppor-
tunity. The lines will be found in the Anthologia
Veterum Latinorum Epigrammatum et Poematum
collections of Wernsdorf and Meier, founded on
of Peter Burman, the younger; and, also, in the
the same work. It is pretty evident, from their
epigrammatic character, that they are not a part
of a larger poem, but complete in themselves.
Burman quotes De la Cerda as his authority for
the lines, but I can give an earlier one, having
found them, introduced seemingly as a quotation
into a work of Levinius Lemnius, the learned
Canon of Zeric-Zee, entitled Herbarum atque
Arborum quæ in Bibliis passim obviæ sunt Expli-
catio, Antwerpiæ, 1566. Lemnius does not give
any authority or reference for the lines; but in
the Opera Omnia of Virgil, edited by the learned
Spanish Jesuit Johannes Ludovicus de la Cerda,
they are again quoted, the editor telling us that
they were found incised on marble. The lines
occur in a note to a passage in the first book of
the Æneid; and the first six books of the Æneid,
edited by La Cerda, were published at Lyons in
now be given to the first query of J. S. L.; his
1612. This, probably, is all the reply that can
second does not admit of so ready an answer.
One, who had a very complete idea of the world
of literature, shrewdly observes that

"Commentators sometimes view

In Homer more than Homer knew."

And, in all likelihood, most of the readers of "N. & Q." will coincide in the opinion, that, generally speaking, the notes and quotations of commentators and annotators should be received

[ocr errors]

cum grano. I would not presume to say that Lemnius coined the lines to suit his purpose; still, withal, they have a comparatively modern aspect. When the authority is so very vague as " reperiuntur in marmore," we have every right to look for internal evidence, and that, as far as regards the antiquity of the lines which, indeed, is the whole gist of the question is, in my humble opinion, wanting. For they seem to be deficient of the sonorous ring of the ancient Augustan metal, as well as of the quaint, flat chink of the medieval Latinity. And being the only authority, as far as I am aware, for the often-repeated assertion, that the ancients respected the rose as an emblem of silence, and consecrated it to Harpocrates, these lines, with regard to their antiquity, afford a very interesting question; or, as J. S. L. puts the query "Is the custom therein referred to the origin of the phrase sub rosa?"

There is, however, something more than a custom referred to in the lines; there is, also, a sacred principle. As is well known, it was a custom for the ancients to decorate their festal tables with roses; but that they recognised the rose as a sacred symbol of silence, through an alleged mythical connection between the flower, Cupid, Venus, and Harpocrates, is exceedingly doubtful; there being no other authority for the assertion than these lines, of which the authorship is unknown, and the antiquity most questionable. La Cerda, though not the first to quote the lines, is, in all probability, the first who alleges that they were found on marble; and the manner in which he introduces them into print is rather suspicious, they being dragged in as an annotation to the following passage in the text:

"Hic Regina gravem gemmis auroque poposcit, Implevitque mero pateram, quam Belus et omnes A Belo soliti: tum facta silentia tectis."

A more inappropriate quotation than the lines in question can hardly be imagined; silence, it is true, is alluded to in the text, but there is certainly not one word about roses. How then does the commentator connect the two? By artfully and illogically dragging in another quotation, in which roses are alluded to, without any reference to silence. Here it is, from the nineteenth epigram of the tenth book of Martial: "Hæc hora est tua, dum furit Lyæus, Cum regnat rosa, cum madent capilli: Tunc me vel rigidi legant Catones."

It is not, then, without justice observed in the Biographie Universelle, in allusion to De la Cerda's Virgil

"Que le jésuite Espagnol explique souvent ce qui n'a pas besoin d'être expliqué, et quelquefois ce qui ne devrait pas l'être."

Whatever doubt there may be respecting the ancient Romans using the rose at their feasts, as

an emblem of secresy, it is certain that the Teutonic races did from a very early period. The custom and principle is particularly German, according to the ancient proverbial saying

"Was Kir Kosen, bleib' unter dem Rosen."

And Wernsdorf decides against the antiquity of the lines in question, because they form the only idea, while Meier, in his edition of Burman, goes Latin notice of a peculiarly German custom and further, and says the Latin lines were written on the German proverb —

"Hoc epigramma factum est, ut proverbium illud, Hoc sub rosa dictum est, explicaretur poetice."

When looking for the origin or explanation of an emblem or symbol, we must study the natural features of the subject, and resolutely reject every thing approaching to the fabulous or mythical. And so, we cannot conclude better than in the words of our worthy English philosopher, Sir Thomas Browne, who says:

[ocr errors]

"When we desire to confine our words, we commonly say, they are spoken under the rose; which expression is commendable, if the rose, from any natural property, may be the symbol of silence, as Nazianzene seems to imply, in these translated verses:

Utque latet rosa verna suo putamine clausa,
Sic os vincla ferat, validisque arctetur habenis,
Indicatque suis prolixa silentia labris,'

and is also tolerable, if by desiring a secresy to words spoken under the rose, we only mean in society and compotation, from the ancient symposiac meetings to wear chaplets of roses about their heads: and so we condemn

not the German custom, which over the table describeth a rose in the ceiling."

The lines which have caused so much inkshed have been thus paraphrased:

"The rose is Venus' pride; the archer boy

Gave to Harpocrates his mother's flower,
What time fond lovers told the tender joy

To guard with sacred secresy the hour:
Hence, o'er his festive board the host uphung
Love's flower of silence, to remind each guest,
When wine to amorous sallies loosed each tongue,
Under the rose what passed must never be
expressed."

Hounslow.

WILLIAM PINKERTON.

REV. P. ROSENHAGEN. (2nd S. x. 216, 315.)

Nobody seems to have looked at Mr. John work, and the original communication to the Taylor's Junius Identified. An extract from this Athenæum, on which the question was raised in your pages, will secure your having all that has been said (Taylor, p. 119, Athenæum, Aug. 28 and Sept. 4, 1858):

"The Rev. Philip Rosenhagen was the schoolfellow, and continued through life the mutual friend, of Sir Philip Francis and Mr. Woodfall. . . . It is a little remarkable,

that to Mr. Rosenhagen the letters of Junius were at one time attributed, though certainly without foundation. In the Essay prefixed to the last edition of Junius the conjecture is thus noticed: 'It is sufficient to observe that Mr. Rosenhagen, who was a schoolfellow of Mr. H. S. Woodfall, continued on terms of acquaintance with him in subsequent life, and occasionally wrote for the Public Advertiser: but he was repeatedly declared by Mr. Woodfall, who must have been a competent evidence as to the fact, not to be the author of Junius's Letters. A private letter of Rosenhagen's to Mr. Woodfall is still in the possession of his son, and nothing can be more different from each other than this autograph and that of

Junius.""

The following are the communications to the Athenæum: the second by myself. The first is an extract from the Gazetteer of Jan. 24, 1774:

“The celebrated Junius is at last discovered to be the Rev. Phil. R- -gen. He was originally a great acquaintance of Mr. Horne's, and a contemporary of his at Cambridge. Mr. R-gen was there celebrated, above all others, for his classical abilities. Mr. R-gen was in London during the whole time of Junius's publication; for a considerable time before, and ever since, he has been abroad. He is now resident at Orleans in France, where he cuts a very conspicuous appearance, having married a very beautiful and accomplished young lady, sister of the celebrated Mrs. Grosvenor; nor does he make it any secret where he resides that he is the author of Junius."

"The identity would have been perfectly clear in 1774, though few would see it in 1858. The Rev. Philip Rosenhagen is lost, because he published nothing with his name. But he was very well known in the literary world, and better still in the convivial world: this, however, must have been more after 1774 than before. He had the sort of reputation to which Theodore Hook should attach a name, as the brightest and most enduring instance of it. He took a high-bottle degree in England, and was admitted ad eundem in India, where he went as chaplain some time before 1798, to increase and fortify the well-earned gout which he carried out with him. think I have heard, from those who knew him, that he had been one of the boon companions of the Prince of Wales. He was a necessary man to be fixed on as the author of Junius, at a time when any man of much talent and no particular scruple, who wrote nothing which he acknowledged, was set down as one to be looked after in that matter. And if it should turn out after all that Junius is to be written by some biting scamp on whom no lasting suspicion has settled, this same Philip Rosenhagen has a fair chance. I think that the Junius rumour was current among his acquaintance."

It now appears that the Junius rumour was so strong, that Woodfall himself had to deny it repeatedly.

COLLINS, AUTHOR OF "TO-MORROW." (3rd S. iv. 445.)

M.

It will be difficult, at the lapse of more than half a century, to obtain many particulars of the life of John Collins. Of the many who laughed at his humorous monologue, The Brush-performed as an interlude at the Theatre Royal, Birmingham, then under the management of the elder Macready, at the end of last, or the begin. ning of the present century-those who are alive

were mostly children, who cared little about the private doings of the performer who amused them in public; while the elders who accompanied them have made their exits from that larger stage, on which they were fellow-actors with him. He was "born at Bath, and bred up to the business of a stay-maker," as I gather from a short notice of him, as "an actor," in the Thespian Dictionary, 8vo, 1805; and we may conclude that his father a professor of the sartorial art, from his verses, "The Frank Confession," "inserted by the author some years ago in the Bath Chronicle, in consequence of a report being spread with a view to injure him in the eye of the fashionable world; which report was nothing more nor less than his being the son of man who supplied his employers with raiment for the body, while he was furnishing the public with amusement for the mind." In this piece the verses occur:

was

"This blot on my scutcheon, I never yet try'd
To conceal, to erase, or to alter;

But suppose me, by birth, to a hangman allied,
Must I wear the print of the halter?

"And since 'tis a truth I've acknowledg'd through life,
And never yet labour'd to smother,
That 'a taylor before I was born took a wife,
And that taylor's wife was my mother.'

"Yet, while I've a heart which nor envy nor pride
With their venom-tipp'd arrows can sting,
Not a day of my life could more gladsomely glide,
Were it prov'd-I'm the son of a King!

From an expression in this piece -
"While I, brushing hard over life's rugged course,

66

Its up and down bearings to scan," &c.— we may also infer that, while in Bath, he had turned his attention to the stage; and set to work with his Brush to "rub off" cares and troubles. His name is not to be found in Pye's Birmingham Directory for 1785; but we may suppose that he shortly afterwards made his appearance in that town, as we find among his verses an Impromptu, on hearing the young and beautiful Mrs. Second sing, at the Musical Festival in Birmingham, for the Benefit of the General Hospital there,"-this lady being one of the vocalists engaged at the Festival of 1793. We find his name, "Collins, John, Great-Brook Street," in the Directory for 1797; since which, and the previous one, a period of six years had elapsed. It was in that street, indeed, nearly opposite the church at Ashted-and not Camden Street, though he may have subsequently removed there-that he is known to have lived; and he was editor, and part proprietor with Mr. Swinney, of the Birmingham Chronicle, under the firm of Swinney & Collins. This paper was subsequently purchased, or at least edited, by Mr. Joseph Lovell, a pin-maker in the town. I mention the fact as possessing some interest: this gentleman having been the son of Robert Lovell,

the Pantisocrat of former days, the early friend and brother-in-law of Coleridge and Southey, who were consequently the uncles of our Birmingham editor. Lovell also became a resident in Great Brook Street, where he died. Collins had no family his wife, remembered as a handsome woman, suffered from that fearful malady a cancer in the breast, and never rallied from an operation for its removal. His portrait-the chief characteristic of which is so happily hit off by MR. PINKERTONis, as I have been informed by contemporaries, an admirable likeness. I believe that the Brush was never published. There is also a theatrical portrait of him in the character of Master Slender.

Several copies of mnemonical lines on English history have appeared in these pages. The following by Collins, are illustrative of his manner, and will be read with interest. I transcribe them from the probably unique original broadside in the possession of Mr. William Hodgetts, an intelligent printer of Birmingham, who knew Collins personally; and whose portfolios are not more crammed with literary and artistic scraps of rarity and local value, than his head is full of the unprinted traditions and memories- the "trivial fond records"-of a long and active life wholly devoted to letters. Why does not such a man provide against the prospective loss of the vast mass of facts he has accumulated, by embodying them in an autobiography or local chronicle? But this by the way. The document is as

follows:

[blocks in formation]

MR. COLLINS,

Author of the Oral and Pictorial Exhibition,' which bears that Title.

"The Romans in England awhile did sway;
The Saxons long after them led the way,
Who tugg'd with the Dane till an overthrow
They met with at last from the Norman bow!
Yet, barring all pother, the one and the other
Were all of them Kings in their turn.

"Bold Willie the Conqueror long did reign,
But Rufus, his son, by an arrow was slain;
And Harry the first was a scholar bright,
And Stephy was forced for his crown to fight;
Yet, barring all pother, the one and the other, &c.

"Second Henry Plantagenet's name did bear,
And Coeur-de- Lion was his son and heir;
But Magna Charta was gain'd from John,
Which Harry the third put his seal upon.

Yet, barring all pother, the one and the other, &c. "There was Teddy the first like a tyger bold, Though the second by rebels was bought and sold; And Teddy the third was his subjects' pride, Though his grandson, Dicky, was popp'd aside.

Yet, barring all pother, the one and the other, &c.

"There was Harry the fourth, a warlike wight,
And Harry the fifth like a cock would fight;
Though Henny his son like a chick did pout,
When Teddy his cousin had kick'd him out.

Yet, barring all pother, the one and the other, &c.
"Poor Teddy the fifth he was kill'd in bed,
By butchering Dick who was knock'd on the head;
Then Henry the seventh in fame grew big,
And Harry the eighth was as fat as a pig,

Yet, barring all pother, the one and the other, &c. "With Teddy the sixth we had tranquil days, Though Mary made fire and faggot blaze; But good Queen Bess was a glorious dame, And bonny King Jamy from Scotland came,

Yet, barring all pother, the one and the other, &c. "Poor Charley the first was a martyr made, But Charley his son was a comical blade; And Jemmy the second, when hotly spurr'd, Ran away, do you see me, from Willy the third.

Yet, barring all pother, the one and the other, &c.
"Queen Ann was victorious by land and sea,
And Georgy the first did with glory sway,
And as Georgy the second has long been dead,
Long life to the Georgy we have in his stead,

And, may his son's sons to the end of the chapter,
All come to be Kings in their turn.

[blocks in formation]

"Previous Apostrophe (for it cannot be called a Dedication) to MR. MEYLER, Bookseller at Bath, at once the most ingenious and most indolent Bard of his Day; who, having written a Thousand excellent Things, which he will not be at the trouble of transcribing and arranging for Publication, is now become such a Buryer of his Talents, that they are all consigned to an old Lumber Box in the Corner of his Garret; and he seems quite indifferent about adding to the Heap the bare composition of another Couplet."

These verses were not without effect, for soon after appeared: ·

"Poetical Amusement on the Journey of Life; consisting of various pieces in Verse, Serious, Theatric, Epigrammatic, and Miscellaneous. By William Meyler. Bath. 8vo. 1806."

At p. 193, of this amusing collection, we find retort courteous to "John Collins, Esq."

"The well-known and facetious author of The Morning Brush; who, in an Apostrophe, prefixed to a collection of his Poems, published under the humorous title of Scripscrapologia, has censured the author, &c. . . . Perhaps the vanity that was awakened by the praise, mixed with those friendly censures, was the prime cause of this Volume being put to press."

These lines will be thought, perhaps, a little too

[ocr errors]
« EelmineJätka »