Notes and Queries, Number 78, April 26, 1851. Various
one would be led to infer that it was recommended on account of some superstitious belief in its superior excellency from having been used in religious worship; but I would suggest that the same reasons which recommend Teynt wine, the kind generally used for the Sacrament, are those which have established for it a reputation in cases of sickness: these are its rich red colour, and sweet and agreeable flavour.
Weakness is popularly supposed to be caused by a thinness and want of blood; if wine be recommended for this, there is a deeply rooted prejudice in favour of red wine because the blood is red, and upon no better principle than that which prescribes the yellow bark of the barberry for the yellow state of jaundice; the nettle, for the nettle-rash; and the navel-wort (Cotyledon umbilicus), for weakness about the umbilical region. The truth is, that rustic practice is much influenced by the doctrine of similitudes, the principle of "similia similibus curantur" having been more extensively recognised in the olden time than since the days of Hahnemann.
The sweetness of Teynt wine would recommend it for children, to whom a stronger wine is generally distasteful; but Port is generally prescribed as a tonic for adults.
It may further be remarked, that the recommendation to give Sacramental wine might arise from the fact, that, as in some parishes more wine is provided than is required, the remainder is put by to be given to the poor who may require it at the hands of the clergyman.
In sending these remarks, I am led to request that your correspondents would make Notes upon such old wives' remedies as are employed upon the principles I have mentioned.
Cirencester, April 12.
Cure of Disease by means of Sheep.—A child in my parish has been for some time afflicted with disease of some of the respiratory organs. The mother was recommended to have it carried through a flock of sheep as they were let out of the fold in the morning. The time was considered to be of importance.
L– Rectory, Somerset.
ANCIENT INEDITED BALLADS, NO. IV
I next transcribe the following lines from the same MS. as my last. It is another epitaph on the Mr. Browne that I mentioned in No. II. It contains a curious illustration of a passage in Shakspeare, which has been often debated in the pages of "Notes and Queries," and so deserves preservation.
"Vpon the death of that right worthye man, Mr. Browne, late of Caius and Gonville Colledge disceased. Epicedion."—(Harl. MSS., No. 367. fol. 155.)
"If vowes or teares from heartes or eyes,
Could pearce the unpenitrable skyes,
Then might he live, that now heere lyes.
But teares are tonguelesse, vowes are vaine,
T' recall what fate calls; els how faine
What death hath seis'd, wold I regaine.
But sure th' immortal one belaves
This wished soule in 's blissfull waves:
Ill comes too oft, when no man craves.
Rest, therefore, vrne, rest quietlye,
And when my fates shall call on me,
So may I rest, as I wish the.
I need hardly point out the striking similarity between the expression in Shakspeare—
"and the delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods,"—
and the third stanza of this poem.
POETICAL COINCIDENCES, ETC
In the Jealous Lovers of Thomas Randolph, the following passage occurs, which may possibly have suggested to Lord Byron the fearful curse he has put into the mouth of Eve, in "the grand and tremendous drama of Cain."1
"May perpetual jealousie
Wait on their beds, and poison their embraces
With just suspitions; may their children be
Deform'd, and fright the mother at the birth:
May they live long and wretched; all men's hate,
And yet have misery enough for pity:
May they be long a-dying—of diseases
Painful and loathsome," &c.
That exquisite stanza in the Third Canto of Childe Harold, "Even as a broken mirror," &c., has been often admired. In Carew's poem, The Spark, I find the following lines, which contain similar image:
"And as a looking-glass, from the aspect,
Whilst it is whole, doth but one face reflect,
But being crack'd, or broken, there are shown
Many half faces, which at first were one;
So Love," &c.
To the coincidences which have been already pointed out regarding that exquisite line in the Bride of Abydos:
"The mind, the music breathing from her face,"
the following from Carew may perhaps be added:
"The harmony of colours, features, grace,
Resulting airs (the magic of a face)
Of musical sweet tunes, all which combin'd,
To crown one sovereign beauty, lie confined
To this dark vault."—Epitaph on the Lady S.
All will recollect the wonderful description of the shipwreck in Don Juan; and more particularly the incidents so graphically related in stanzas 52 and 53 of the Second Canto: to a part of which, the following passage fro Lee's Œdipus bears some resemblance:
"Methought I heard a voice,
Now roaring like the ocean, when the winds
Fight with the waves; now in a still small tone
Your dying accents fell, as wrecking ships,
After the dreadful yell, sink murm'ring down,
And bubble up a noise."
I have now before me a print of John, the first Lord Byron, engraved from a painting in the collection of Lord Delaware; in which he is pourtrayed in armour, with a truncheon in the left hand, and the right arm bare to above the elbow. Can this have suggested to Lord Byron the idea of describing "Alp the renegade" as fighting with "the white arm bare," in the Siege of Corinth?
Byron refers to Smollett as an authority for "blatant beast," apparently forgetting that the figure originated with Spenser. Again, in a note to Don Juan
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Sir Walter Scott.