Notes and Queries, Number 41, August 10, 1850 | Page 6

of defiance. Perhaps, however, covered hands, as
well as a covered head, may have been considered discourteous. Indeed,

we learn frown Cobarruvias, in his _Tesoro_, that it was so considered
in Spain:--
"ENGUANTADO. El que entra con Guantes adonde se le ha de tener a
descortesia. El que sirve no los ha de tener delante de su Senor: ni
Vasallo, sea quien fuere, delante de su Rey." Fo. 453. b. ed. 1611.
The use of gloves must be of very high antiquity. In the Middle Ages
the priest who celebrated mass always, I believe, wore them during that
ceremony; but it was just the contrary in courts of justice, where the
presiding judge, as well as the criminal, was not allowed to cover his
hands. It was anciently a popular saying, that three kingdoms must
contribute to the formation of a good glove:--Spain to prepare the
leather, France to cut them out, and England to sow them.
I think the etymology of the word glove is in far from a satisfactory
state. It is a good subject for some of your learned philological
correspondents, to whom I beg leave to recommend its elucidation.
S.W. Singer.
Mickleham, July 26. 1850.
Punishment of Death by Burning (Vol. ii., pp. 6, 50, 90.).--Your
correspondent E.S.S.W. gives an account of a woman burnt for the
murder of her husband in 1783, and asks whether there is any other
instance of the kind in the latter part of the last century. I cannot
positively answer this Query, but I will state a circumstance that
occurred to myself about the year 1788. Passing in a hackney-coach up
the Old Bailey to West Smithfield, I saw the unquenched embers of a
fire opposite Newgate; on my alighting I asked the coachman "What
was that fire in the Old Bailey, over which the wheel of your coach
passed?" "Oh, sir," he replied, "they have been burning a woman for
murdering her husband." Whether he spoke the truth or not I do not
know, but I received it at the time as truth, and remember the
impression it made on me.
It is, perhaps, as well to state that there were some fifteen to twenty
persons standing around the smouldering embers at the time I passed.
Senex.
India Rubber is now so cheap and common, that it seems worth while

to make a note of the following passage in the Monthly Review for Feb.
1772. It occurs at p. 71., in the article on "A familiar Introduction to the
Theory and Practice of Perspective, by Joseph Priestly, LL.D. F.R.S.,
8vo. 5s., boards. Johnson."
"Our readers, perhaps, who employ themselves in the art of drawing,
will be pleased with a transcript of the following advertisement:--'I
have seen, says Dr. Priestly, a substance, excellently adapted to the
purpose of wiping from paper the marks of a black lead pencil. It must,
therefore, be of singular use to those who practise drawing. It is sold by
Mr. Nairne, mathematical instrument-maker, opposite the Royal
Exchange. He sells a cubical piece, of about half an inch, for three
shillings; and, he says, it will last several years.'"
N.B.
* * * * *{166}
QUERIES
THE "BAR" OF MICHAEL ANGELO.
In that delightful volume, _In Memoriam_, in which Mr. Tenyson has
so nobly and pathetically enshrined the memory of his friend, Arthur
Hallam, the following passage occurs, pp. 126, 127.:--
"To these conclusions, when we saw The God within him light his face,
And seem to lift the form, and glow In azure orbits heavenly-wise; And
over those ethereal eyes The bar of Michael Angelo."
To what does this allude? In the fine profile portrait by Julio Bonasoni,
Michael Angelo appears to have had a protuberant brow; and Condivi
says, in his very interesting and detailed account of his person, that his
forehead was square, and that, seen in profile ("quasi avanza il naso"),
it projected almost beyond the nose. It is remarkable that the same
spirit pervades these verses which we find in the Platonic breathings of
the Rime of the great artist; but we are most forcibly reminded of the
poet of Vaucluse. The grief of the poet for the loss of his friend has

however had a happier effect on his mind than the more impassioned
nature of that of the lover of Laura produced: yet a kindred feeling, of
spiritual communion with the lost one, pervades both poets; and this
might have been the motto of Mr. Tenyson's volume:--
"Levommi il mio pensiero in parte ov' era Quello eh' io cerco, e non
ritrovo in terra; ... in questa spera Sarai ancor meco, s' el desir non
erra."
Foscolo has remarked that "when a great poet describes his own heart,
his picture of Love will draw tears from the eyes of every sensitive
mortal