Notes and Queries, Number 38, July 20, 1850 | Page 5

own great poet and
philosopher, Shakspeare, whose subtle genius and intuitive knowledge
of human nature render his opinions on all such subjects of peculiar
value. Thus in Richard II., Act ii. sc. 1., the dying Gaunt, alluding to
his nephew, the young and self-willed king, exclaims,--
"Methinks I am a prophet new inspired; And thus, expiring, do foretel
of him."
Again, in _Henry IV.,
Part I._, Act v. sc. 4., the brave Percy, when
in
the agonies of death, conveys the same idea in the following words:--
"O, I could prophesy, But that the earthy and cold hand of death Lies
on my tongue."
Reckoning, therefore, from the time of Jacob, this belief, whether with
or without foundation, has been maintained upwards of 3500 years. It
was grounded on the assumed fact, that the soul became divine in the
same ratio as its connection with the body was loosened or destroyed.
In sleep, the unity is weakened but not ended: hence, in sleep, the

material being dead, the immaterial, or divine principle, wanders
unguided, like a gentle breeze over the unconscious strings of an
Æolian harp; and according to the health or disease of the body are
pleasing visions or horrid phantoms (_ægri somnia_, as Horace) present
to the mind of the sleeper. Before death, the soul, or immaterial
principle, is, as it were, on the confines of two worlds, and may possess
at the same moment a power which is both prospective and
retrospective. At that time its connection with the body being merely
nominal, it partakes of that perfectly pure, ethereal, and exalted nature
(_quod multo magis faciet post mortem quum omnino corpore
excesserit_) which is designed for it hereafter.
As the question is an interesting one, I conclude by asking, through the
medium of the "NOTES AND QUERIES," if a belief in this power of
prophesy before death be known to exist at the present day?
AUGUSTUS GUEST.
London, July 8.
[Footnote 1: For the assistance of the general reader, I have introduced
hasty translations of the several passages quoted.]
[Footnote 2: (And I moreover tell you, and do you meditate well upon
it, that) you yourself are not destined to live long, for even now death is
drawing nigh unto you, and a violent fate awaits you,--about to be slain
in fight by the hands of Achilles, the irreproachable son of Oacus.]
[Footnote 3: Consider now whether I may not be to you the cause of
divine anger, in that day when Paris and Phoebus Apollo shall slay you,
albeit so mighty, at the Scaean gate.]
[Footnote 4: Wherefore I have an earnest desire to prophesy to you who
have condemned me; for I am already arrived at that stage of my
existence in which, especially, men utter prophetic sayings, that is,
when they are about to die.]
[Footnote 5: That time, indeed, the soul of man appears to be in a
manner divine, for to a certain extent it foresees things which are about
to happen.]
[Footnote 6: Pythagoras the Samian, and some others of the ancient
philosophers, showed that the souls of men were immortal, and that,
when they were on the point of separating from the body, they
possessed a knowledge of futurity.]
[Footnote 7: The soul, says Aristotle, when on the point of taking its

departure from the body, foretells and prophesies things about to
happen.]
* * * * *
Divination at Marriages.--The following practices are very prevalent at
marriages in these districts; and as I do not find them noticed by Brand
in the last edition of his _Popular Antiquities_, they may perhaps be
thought worthy a place in the "NOTES AND QUERIES."
1. Put a wedding ring into the _posset_, and after serving it out, the
unmarried person whose cup contains the ring will be the first of the
company to be married.
2. Make a common flat cake of flour, water, currants, &c., and put
therein a wedding ring and a sixpence. When the company is about to
retire on the wedding-day, the cake must be broken and distributed
amongst the unmarried females. She who gets the ring in her portion of
the cake will shortly be married, and the one who gets the sixpence will
die an old maid.
T.T.W.
Burnley, July 9. 1850.
* * * * *
FRANCIS LENTON THE POET.
In a MS. obituary of the seventeenth century, preserved at Staunton
Hall, Leicestershire, I found the following:--
"May 12. 1642. This day died Francis Lenton, of Lincoln's Inn, Gent."
This entry undoubtedly relates to the author of three very rare poetical
tracts: 1. _The Young Gallant's Whirligigg_, 1629; 2. _The Innes of
Court_, 1634; 3. _Great Brittain's Beauties_, 1638. In the dedication to
Sir Julius Cæsar, prefixed to the first-named work, the writer speaks of
having