LITMIR.BIZ

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both, ere the high lawns appeared

      Under the opening eyelids of the morn,

      We drive afield."

Milton: Lysidas.4

      "Brief as the lightning in the collied night,

      That in a spleen enfolds both heaven and earth,

      And ere a man hath power to say—Behold!

      The jaws of darkness do devour it up."

Shakspeare: Midsummer Night's Dream.

      "Nicht Blitzen gleich, die schnell vorüber schiessen,

      Und plötzlich von der Nacht verschlungen sind,

      Mein Glück wird seyn."

Schiller: Die Braut von Messina.G.

      Greenock.

      ERRORS CORRECTED

      I.—Sharon Turner's Hist. of England (Lond. 1814. 4to.), i. 332.

      "The Emperor (Henry VI.) determined to extort an immoderate ransom; but, to secure it, had him (Richard Coeur de Lion) conveyed to a castle in the Tyrol, from which escape was hopeless."—Note "104. In Tiruali. Oxened. MS."

      Ibid. p. 333:

      "He (Richard) was removed from the dungeon in the Tyrol to the emperor's residence at Haguenau."—Note "109. See Richard's Letter to his Mother. Hoveden, 726."

      The fortress, here represented to be in the Tyrol, is about 220 miles distant ("as the crow flies") from the nearest point in that district, and is the Castle of Trifels, which still crowns the highest of three rocky eminences (Treyfels = Three Rocks), which rise from the mountain range of the Vosges, on the southern side of the town of Annweiler. In proceeding from Landau to Zweibrücken (Deux-Ponts), the traveller may see it on his left. The keep is still in good preservation; and it was on account of the natural strength of its position that the imperial crown-jewels were formerly preserved in it.

      I am unable to refer at present to the MS. of Oxenedes (Cotton, Nero, D 2), which appears to give the erroneous reading of Tirualli for Triualli or Trivalli; but Mr. Turner might have avoided the mistake by comparing that MS. with the printed text of Hoveden, in which Richard is represented as dating his letter "de Castello de Triuellis, in quo detinebamur."

      II.—Wright's S. Patrick's Purgatory (Lond. 1844. 8vo.), p. 135.:

      "On the patent rolls in the Tower of London, under the year 1358, we have an instance of testimonials given by the king (Edward III.) on the same day, to two distinguished foreigners, one a noble Hungarian, the other a Lombard, Nicholas de Beccariis, of their having faithfully performed this pilgrimage."

      In a note on this passage, Mr. Wright reprints one of the testimonials from Rymer (Foedera, vol. iii. pt. i. p. 174.), in which is the following passage:

      "Nobilis vir Malatesta Ungarus de Arminio miles."

      In the original deed, the text must have been de Arimino (of Rimini); for the person here referred to was a natural son of Malatesta de' Malatesti, Lord of Rimini and of Pesaro, and took the name of L'Ungaro in consequence of his having been knighted by Louis, King of Hungary, when the latter passed through the Malatesta territory, when he was going to Naples for the purpose of avenging his brother Andrew's death. In the Italian account of the family (Clementini, Raccolto Istorico della Fondazione di Rimino. Rimino, 1617-27. 2 vols. 4to.), L'Ungario is said have been a great traveller, to have visited England, and to have died in 1372, at the age of 45. (See also Sansovino, Origine e Fatti delle Famiglie Illustri d'Italia. Venetia, 1670. 4to. p. 356.)

F.C.B.

      DIRECT AND INDIRECT ETYMOLOGY

      I have just been exceedingly interested in reading a lecture on the Origin and Progress of the English Language, delivered at the Athenæum, Durham, before the Teachers' Society of the North of England, by W. Finley, Graduate of the University of France.

      The following passage well expresses a caution that should be always kept in mind by the literary archæologist:

      "In the orthography of English words derived from the Latin, one great and leading principle must be kept in view. If the word is of new adoption, it is certain that its spelling will be like that which appears in the original word; or if it has come to us through the French, the spelling will be conformable to the word in that language; thus, persecution from persequor, pursue from poursuivre. Again, flourish from fleurir, efforescent, florid, &c., from floreo. And to establish our orthography on certain grounds, it ought to be the business of the lexicographer to determine the date of the first appearance of an adopted word, and thus satisfactorily determine its spelling." (Lecture, p. 20. footnote.)

D.V.S.

      Home, March 2.

      ERRORS IN POPE'S HOMER'S ODYSSEY

      In all the editions I have seen of this translation, the following very palpable errors exist, which I do not remember to have seen noticed. The first of these errors is contained in book ix. lines 325, 326, 463, and 533,

      "Fools that ye are! (the savage thus replies,

      His inward fury blazing at his eyes.)"

      "Sing'd are his brows: the scorching lids grow black."

      "Seest thou these lids that now unfold in vain?"

      and consists in Mr. Pope having bestowed two organs of sight on the giant Polypheme.

      The second occurs in line 405 of the same book;

      "Brain'd on the rock: his second dire repast;"

      and is owing to the inadvertency of the translator, who forgets what he had previously written in lines 342 to 348.

      "He answer'd with his deed: his bloody hand

      Snatch'd two, unhappy of my martial band;

      And dash'd like dogs against the stony floor;

      The pavement swims with brains and mingled gore.

      Torn limb from limb, he spreads his horrid feast,

      And fierce devours it like a mountain beast."

      And in lines 368 and 369;

      "The task thus finish'd of his morning hours,

      Two more he snatches, murders, and devours!"

      by which it distinctly appears that line 405 has a reference to the third "dire repast" of the Cyclops, instead of the second.

      Perhaps you will not deem me presumptuous in offering an amendment of these passages by the following substitutions:—

      For lines 325 and 326,

      Fools that ye are! (the savage made reply,

      His inward fury blazing at his eye.)

      for line 463,

      Sing'd is his brow; the scorching lid grows black.

      for line 405,

      Brain'd on a rock: his third most dire repast.

      and for line 533,

      Seest thou this lid that now unfolds in vain?

DAVID STEVENS.

      Godalming, Feb. 10. 1850.

      PROVERBIAL SAYINGS AND THEIR ORIGINS—PLAGIARISMS AND PARALLEL PASSAGES

      In a note to Boswell's Life of Johnson (Lond. 1816. 8vo.), iv. 196., the following lines are ascribed to their real authors:—

      To Joh.

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