the tale of the joys of the swift ride through the mined to punish her only for the evil intention, air, the sumptuous banquets and enchanting and at the same time cure her of her follies. dances at the journey's end, that, in part because Accordingly, he asked her in the first place she had raised his desires, and in part because he whether she were minded to continue in her evil felt unable to credit her story without personal courses, and in particular whether she would ever experience, he consented to accompany her on again take a night flight to Benevento. On her the occasion of her next attendance at the boldly answering him in the affirmative, he replied weird entertainment. When the day came that he would set her free from durance if she round, he found she had not overstated the case. would undertake to go thither the very next night The dance of the witches was astounding; no- and give him a full and particular account the thing could be more appetizing than the scent of next day of all her experiences. It was then the viands spread out in abundance upon the agreed that she should have liberty to go home in soil. One only thing which marred the feast was order that she might have free scope for using the the absence of salt; at his wife's instance, how-ointments and incantations alleged to be necessary ever, even this was procured. When it arrived for the performance of the feat, but that cerhe at the sight happened to exclaim, "Ha, the tain appointed persons, who should be friends of salt is come at last, thank God!" At sound of her own, should remain with her in her room the holy name, the whole scene, witches, broom-through the night. When night came the party torches, and viands, disappeared in the twinkling of an eye, and nothing remained for the unlucky husband but to pass the remainder of the night in blackest darkness on the cold ground. In the morning, falling in with some country people, who wore a costume and spoke a dialect to which he was unaccustomed, he learned that he was, indeed, at Benevento, though he had gone to bed at Canemorto. All these facts he declared on his oath before the judges of Rieti, nor could they by any means shake his depositions.

There is another instance cited by a number of writers on demonology,b which may find place here because it serves further to illustrate the line taken by Italian judges in dealing with witches at the very time when the kind of treatment which may be almost denoted persecution had begun to prevail in Germany. The accused in this instance had, with the infatuation common, though scarcely conceivable, in similar cases, deposed not only to having attended the witches' Sabbath under the Benevento walnut tree, but also to having participated in various more culpable acts of sorcery, such as having bewitched infants, &c. The judge, instead of ordering her to be condemned to the stake, being convinced of the absurdity of the confession, deter

a Nicolas Remy, "conseiller intime du Duc de Lorraine," Dæmonolatria, lib. i. cap. 16, observes that though these banquets were said always to be well spread, salt was always wanting, because divinely ordered to be used in the Jewish sacrifice (Lev. ii. 13, &c.); and bread also, because elected to be the matter of the Holy Eucharist. But Tartarotti is of opinion that there is nothing in this argument, as it appears from Pliny (lib. xxxi. cap. 7) Ovid, and others, that salt was equally used in pagan sacrifices, from Tertullian (De Præscriptionibus, cap. 40)| and Justin Martyr (Apologia II. pro Christianis) that bread was in use in Mithraic sacrifices.

Bartolomeo Spina, De Strigibus, cap. 2; Bodin, Demonomania, lib. ii. cap. 5; Godelman, De Magis Veneficis et Lamiis, lib. ii. cap. 4, Num. 23; Paolo Minucci, a Florentine writer, note to Lippi's Malmantile Racquis tato, canto iv, stanza 78.

supped together, the woman and the persons appointed to watch her, when, however, it must be observed that a great deal of wine was drunk. Supper over, the woman applied the ointments supposed to convey the power of reaching the witches' congress, and went to bed, leaving the doors and windows open according to diabolical prescription.

The watchers now did their part, which was to bind her firmly to the bed with strong cords, so as to prove to her when she woke that she had not moved from the spot. Then they called to her with loud cries, but failed to wake her. Next they plied her with stripes and burnings; and when even that did not bring her to her senses they seem to have carried on the joke pretty severely, burning off her hair down to the roots,d without being able to wake her from her deep sleep. It was only when the morning light came that she gave any sign of sensation. When she had fully come to herself they carried her back to the judge, who asked her whether she had been to Benevento that night, and she strictly affirmed that she had. Interro

⚫ Giovanni Battista della Porta gives an explanation of the composition of the unguents used by witches, and the natural effects such medicaments might produce. Quoted by Cantù, xv. 454, and Tartarotti, lib. ii. cap. 12, S viii., who has there collected the testimony of other writers on the same point. Several instances of ointments used for effecting magic cures, &c., occur in the tales I collected in Rome.

Moroni (xli. 303-4) says: "So much value was assigned to the magic power of hair, particularly the hair of women, and above all of maidens, that the judges were wont to order those believed to be enchantresses to be shaved." Dandolo (Le Streghe del Tirolo, Processi Famosi del Secolo. XVII., Milan, 1855) mentions incidentally some women having their hair cut off at the moment of their arrest being understood by the people to mean they were charged with witchcraft. The practice is also mentioned in Del Rio, lib. v. sec. ix. p. 324, col. 2. The use made of the maiden's tresses in "Filagianata," in Folk-lore of Rome, must also be reckoned to have been a magic use.

gated as to what had taken place there, she said that in consequence of the revelations she had previously made to the judge she had been beaten with red-hot rods; that the goat on which she had ridden home had burnt off her hair with a flaming broom; and that the marks of what she had thus had to endure might be seen on her person. The judge ordered the injuries she had received to be immediately dressed, while to her he said: "You can learn from your own friends that all that has happened to you took place in your own house and by my order, not the devil's; and that I ordered it for the purpose of convincing you of your folly, which if you will renounce I will set you free." Nor, according to Alfonso Tosti, was this an isolated instance of this mode of treating witches in Italy.

It is often difficult to decide which of two coincident events, having manifestly a bearing on each other, has the decisive claim to figure as the cause and which is to reckon as mere effect. Thus it is not easy to say whether there was more witchcraft in Germany than in Italy because the persecution of it was fiercer, or whether the persecution became fiercer where the offence had made itself more dangerous. "That crimes are multiplied in proportion to the notoriety given them by punishment is a but too well known fact," observes Cantù in connexion with this very subject:

imagination concerning such acts as joining the witches' congress in sleep than concerning the commission of a theft or a murder when awake. Malebranchef also shows that witchcraft increased just in proportion as measures were taken against it.

For the present purpose, however, the reason why they were more numerous in Germany matters less than the fact itself that witches and trials for witchcraft were comparatively few in Italy, and on this all writers are agreed. The most notable Italian trials occurred in the Venetian districts and other northern states; Como, the seat of the most celebrated, if not actually under German government at the time, had been so till within a sufficiently recent period to be still acting under the influence of its institutions, R. H. BUSK. (To be continued.)

THE BICENTENARY OF THE BIRTH OF
HANDEL.

It is remarkable how tenaciously many persons cling to, and accept as true, erroneous statements of facts, long after they have been conclusively proved to be false. Such has been peculiarly the case in the dates of the birth and death of the illustrious composer, George Frederic Handel. As regards the latter, I have already disposed of Dr. Burney's myth, first put forth in 1785, that "By constantly hearing that such and such things Handel died on Good Friday, April 13, by showwere done certain persons became persuaded that they ing, first in the introduction to the word-book of themselves, too, had done them, and went and deposed the great Handel festival, 1862, and, secondly, in to the fact......The power of example on nervous per-"N. & Q.," 3rd S. iii. 421, that all the contemsons is well known......It became a habit to ascribe to sorcery the least result of contagion, as well as all evils that could not be readily accounted for otherwise. .....Some of the ointments described by Porta and Cardano were physically calculated to produce sleep and excite the imaginative powers. A magician would apply such an ointment, declaring that the result would be to take the patient to the tregenda, and the patient would go to sleep and dream he had experienced all that was promised. One or two such facts were enough to set going the whole legal machinery of a trial. Men, and still more women, given over to the terrors of solitary confinement and of the ferocity of prosecutors hardened to the sight of suffering and glorying in being the instruments of destroying a terrible evil, would make what appeared to be spontaneous confessions, and thus public opinion was confirmed more strongly than ever in the truth of the accusation."

Muratori (Della Forza della Fantasia Umana, p. 131) says: "In countries where little attention was called to witchcraft few pretended to be witches." Tartarotti (pp. 119-21) writes much to the same effect as Cantù, but shows that the argument applies pre-eminently to witchcraft, which from its very nature was spread by the measures which are deterrents from ordinary crime. Persons could more easily be deceived by their

• Tregenda, see previous note.

porary testimony proves the real date to have been Saturday, April 14. To the latter I can now add another piece of evidence, since brought to light by my excellent friend, and your valued contributor, the late Col. Chester, viz., the "funeral book,” an adjunct to the burial register

De Inquirenda Veritate, lib. ii. p. 3, cap. 6, quoted by Tartarotti.

The same would seem to have been the case with regard to the spread of Reformed doctrines in Italy, in Naples most notably of all. It was reported to Charles V. that more than two-thirds of Naples had accepted the doctrines of the Reformation, and he endeavoured to reintroduce the Inquisition, which had never been in force there for any length of time. It was introduced by the house of Anjou, but ere long its labours came to an end; Ferdinand the Catholic tried to revive it, but without success. Charles's attempt fared no better, and yet the Reformed ideas disappeared. island of Sicily the Inquisition was closed in 1782 Fatti Attenenti all' Inquisizione, pp. 111-6). The first promulgation of the penalty of death against transgressions of the mind was by Frederic II., 1224 (Fatti, &c., p. 34), but this was for heresy; it was not extended to witchcraft till some centuries later.

In the

h In addition to incidental testimony already cited see also Tartarotti, p. 153. Prof. Gams also says, "In Italy, especially Rome, trials for witchcraft were not only much more rare, but immeasurably more lenient,"

of Westminster Abbey, in which the date is given as April 14.

We have now to examine the evidence as to the date of Handel's birth.

great composer, the directors of the Crystal Palace, will commemorate the bicentenary of his nativity in the course of the year 1885. W. H. HUSK.

scandal at Brighton of hundreds of people lying drunk along the shore with liquor washed from a wrecked vessel, the following historical passage seems some proof that we cannot quite escape our ancestors. At any rate, the queen of English watering-places ought to see that such scenes never November, 1747, has: "Sussex in England, baroccur again. The index to the Scots Magazine of barity of the people there"; and on turning to the page the following occurs:

BRIGHTON IN 1747.-In the face of the recent

bears, That that evening two lights appeared off the "A letter from Brighthelmston, Sussex, of Nov. 17, place, which the people well understanding to be signs of ships in distress, as there was a storm SSW, about sixty of them, with several lanthorns, went along the coast, tingdon. In three hours the cargo, consisting of chestthe ships came ashore between Brighthelmston and Rotnuts, and most of the sails and rigging, were plundered; and at ten o'clock next morning half the vessel was car ried away. She was a Dutch vessel, the Three Sisters." T. S.

The Times newspaper of Saturday, Feb. 23, 1884, and the Weekly Times newspaper of Sunday, Feb. 24, 1884, contained paragraphs inviting attention to Feb. 24, 1884, as the bicentenary of the birth of the great Saxon. But both writers were out by a year and a day. Upon Handel's grave-stone and upon his monument, both in Poets' Corner (the south transept), Westminster Abbey, the date of his birth is given as Feb. 23, 1684. But it must be borne in mind that at the time of Handel's birth the old style of treating March 25 as the commencement of the year pretty generally prevailed, and therefore the February of 1684 would be identical with what under the new style, when January 1 is reckoned as the commencement of the year, would be February, 1685. In the baptismal register of the Liebfrauenkirche, other-watching the lights, as sharks do their prey, till one of wise the church of Notre Dame de St. Laurent, at Halle, the place of Handel's birth, his baptism is recorded as having taken place on Feb. 24, 1685, and, as it is known to have been the custom at that period to administer baptism on the day after birth, it would appear that the true date of his nativity was February 23, 1685. This date is supported by at least one contemporary musical publication, viz., Walther's Musikalisches Lexicon," Leipzig, 1732. Moreover, Handel himself has confirmed the year date upon two several occasions. At the ends of the autograph scores of his oratorios, Solomon and Susanna, he has recorded the several dates of the completion of their composition, viz., on that of Solomon, June 13, 1748, and on that of Susanna, August 9, 1748, and on both has stated himself to be then sixty-three years of age.

This appears to be conclusive, and therefore I conceive we may safely accept Feb. 23, 1885, as the bicentenary of Handel's birth. Some, indeed, might contend that the omission of eleven days on the rectification of the calendar in England in 1752 ought to be taken into account, and March 6 or 7 regarded as the true date; but I think we must follow precedent, and accept the modern date as the old one, as we do with the quarter days, &c.

The substitution of February 24 for February 23 appears to have originated with Rev. John Mainwaring, who published (anonymously) a memoir of Handel in 1760, and his date was adopted by all succeeding writers until 1857.

The promoters of the celebration of the centenary of Handel's birth, living at a period when a careful investigation of dates and facts was all but unknown, gave performances at Westminster Abbey and the Pantheon, Oxford Street, in 1784, but the modern celebraters of the colossal genius of the

ETYMOLOGY OF ERYSIPELAS.

Some derive

ερυσίπελας from ερυθρος, red, πελλα, skin. It because," as Mayne remarks, "it quickly encomes rather from epvw, to draw, Telas, near, croaches on the neighbouring parts."

Athens.

R. S. CHARNOCK.

TRACES OF THE DANES IN SOMERSET.-I have just come upon an interesting group of names in the south-east corner of Somerset. They may be seen in the Ordnance map, close to Templecombe. We have not many traces of the Danes in this county, but I look upon these as an undoubted trace of a Danish settlement. They are Hoo Farm, Dirk Harbour, Throop, and Combe Throop.

1. Hoo Farm. - The Danish hoe, a hill. Cf. Cliffe-at-Hoo.

2. Dirk Harbour.-Miss Young gives this as a Dutch Christian name, meaning "people's ruler." The Danish form is Didrik (Christian Names, ii. 337).

3. Throop, formerly Wilkenthorpe. Taylor, Words and Places, p. 105, gives thorpe as a useful test-word for discriminating between the settlements of the Danes and Norwegians, being confined almost exclusively to the former. F. W. WEAVer.

Evercreech, Bath,

SUNSETS: AFTER-GLOW: BLUE AND GREEN SUN AND MOON.-In reference to the discussion as to the connexion between the late meteorological phenomena and the volcanic eruption at Krakataua, some one who has time or opportunity would render

that every seven years "the lioness" had a litter
of young, and that if anything went wrong with
either mother or cubs on this occasion, many lying-|
in women died during the year; that "the"
lioness had just cubbed, and that one of her off-
spring was dead, this being the sole cause of the
deaths in the midwife's practice. She also said
that she recollected a similar occurrence
years previously, with like results. I find on
inquiry that this belief is general in the district.
Perhaps some of your correspondents who are
learned in folk-lore can throw light on the origin
of this superstition. W. SYKES, M.R.C.S.
Mexborough, Rotherham, Yorks.

seven

"Not unoften." — For this awkward phrase see a leading article (on theatres) in the Standard, February 28. CUTHBERT BEDE.

Queries.

We must request correspondents desiring information on family matters of only private interest, to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the

answers may be addressed to them direct.

note that I can find with reference to this place is the following, in the Clarendon Press volume of Richard II. (edited by Clark and Wright), p. 108: "The first folio has Port le Blan,' and the quartos ' le Port Blan.' Hollinshed has 'le Porte Blanc,' p. 1105, col. i., and he copied from Les Grades Croniques de Bretaigne (Paris, 1514). Le Port Blanc is a small port in the department of Côtes du Nord, near Tréguier."

The commentator does not say whether in Les Grades Croniques de Bretaigne it is stated that Bolingbroke embarked from this mysterious port; but if he did, which I very much doubt, how can a miserable little place which is not marked upon such maps as those which I have mentioned be described as a "bay of Brittany"?

Now, Morbihan is a well-known bay on the west coast of Brittany, on which Vannes is situated; it also gives its name to a department. At first I thought Port le Blanc was a misprint for Morbihan; but it is evident that Shakespeare copied from Hollinshed, and unless some very strong evidence can be produced that Bolingbroke did embark from Port le Blanc, I would suggest that Hollinshed, not for the first time, committed a blunder, and that in the above passage we should

F. A. MARSHALL.

PORT LE BLANC.-There is a passage in Shake-read, instead of Port le Blanc, Morbihan. speare's Richard II., which has not attracted much attention from commentators, to which I should like to draw the attention of your readers. It occurs in II. i. 277, 288 :-

"North. Then thus: I have from Port le Blanc, a bay
In Brittany, received intelligence
That Harry Duke of Hereford,......

All these well furnish'd by the Duke of Bretagne
With eight tall ships, three thousand men of war,
Are making hither with all due expedience
And shortly mean to touch our northern shore."
The words to which I particularly wish to draw
attention are those put in italics; and the question
to be determined is whether Port le Blanc, which
Shakespeare apparently copied from Hollinshed,
is not a blunder for Morbihan. Lingard thus
describes Henry Bolingbroke's setting out for
England :-

"To elude the suspicions of the French ministers, Henry procured permission to visit the Duke of Bretagne; and, on his arrival at Nantes, hired three small vessels, with which he sailed from Vannes to seek his fortune in England. His whole retinue consisted only of the archbishop, the son of the late Earl of Arundel, fifteen lances, and a few servants. After hovering for some days on the eastern coast, he landed at Ravenspur in Yorkshire, and was immediately joined by the two powerful earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland." -Lingard's History of England, vol. iii. p. 383 (1883). This is a very clear account, and Lingard is not generally inaccurate. As for Port le Blanc, it is not to be found in Bouillet's Dictionary, nor is it marked upon the map of Brittany in Bouillet's Atlas, nor in any of the numerous maps of France contained in that volume, nor is it to be found in the map of France in the Royal Atlas. The only

ALLYCHOLLY OR ALLICHOLY.-This form of melancholy occurs in two passages in Shakespeare: "Host. Now, my young guest, methinks you're ally. cholly: I pray you, why is it?"-Two Gentlemen of Verona,

IV. ii. 27.

and

"Quick. But indeed she is given too much to allicholy and musing."-Merry Wives of Windsor, I. iv. 164. I cannot find an instance of its occurrence in any other writer. Is it a form recognized in any of the numerous provincial dialects in England? We have Dr. Marigold's authority for lemonjolly as a facetious corruption of melancholy, and the form lemancholy used to be a common slang word. Perhaps some of your readers can tell me whether the form allycholly, or allicholy, is still in use in F. A. MARSHALL. any part of the country.

[This word appears to be one of the omissions from the New Dictionary.]

QUOTATION FROM TENNYSON.-In which of Tennyson's poems does the line

"She saw the snowy poles of moonless Mars" occur? It is quoted in the Cornhill Magazine for December, 1863, p. 679, but is not to be found in the collected edition of the Laureate's Works. Is its disappearance due to the discovery in 1877 of Deimos and Phobos? SALTIRE.

HERALDIC ENFIELD.-Many years ago I was told of this monster as an Irish bearing. I have since looked for mention of it in many heraldic works, but in vain; and it may be unknown, even