Notes and Queries, Number 43, August 24, 1850 | Page 7

between this play and the _Two Noble Kinsmen_?
The more it is tested the brighter shines out the character of Shakspeare. The flatteries of James and Elizabeth may now go packing together. The following four lines which I have met with in no other edition of Shakspeare than Mr. Collier's, are worth any one of his plays for their personal value; they show how he could evade a compliment with the enunciation of a general truth that yet could be taken as a compliment by the person for whom it was intended:
_Shakspeare on the King._
"Crowns have their compass; length of days their date; Triumphs, their tomb; felicity her fate; Of nought but earth can earth make us partaker, But knowledge makes a king most like his Maker."
Samuel Hickson.
August 12. 1850.
* * * * *
MINOR QUERIES.
_The Abb�� Strickland._--In the third volume of the _Castlereagh Correspondence_, an Abb�� Strickland figures as a negotiator between the English Catholics and the court of Rome. His name is also mentioned unfavourably in the "_Quarterly_" review of that work. Will some of your readers direct me where further information can be had of him, and his ultimate destination?
J.W.H. {199}
_Aerostation, Works on._--Will you have the goodness to inquire for me among your readers and contributors, for the _titles of any works on_--or references to good articles in encyclopaedias or dictionaries on--or for remarkable isolated passages relating to--_Aerostation_, or the arts of, or attempts at, flying, either by means of mechanical wings, &c., or by the aid of balloons.
C.B.M.
_Pilgrims' Road to Canterbury._--Can any of the readers of "Notes and Queries" point out the route which was pursued by Chaucer and his fellow-travellers on the pilgrimage which his genius has immortalised? Is the route of the old pilgrims' road laid down upon any early maps? (it is not, I believe, marked on the Ordnance Survey;) and would it be possible to traverse it at the present time? Any hints upon these points, and any references to objects of interest on the line of road inquired after, will be thankfully received by
Philo-Chaucer.
"_?dricus qui signa fundebat._"--In a chronicle of Battel Abbey, compiled in the twelfth century, there is a list of the abbey's tenants in the town of Battel. Among many such names as Gilbertus Textor, Godwinus Cocus, Rotbertus filius Siflet, Rotbertus de Havena, I find that of "?dricus qui signa fundebat." As this phrase is susceptible of several widely different renderings, I shall be grateful to any of your ingenious readers who will give me their opinions as to its actual meaning. I may add that ?dric was living about the year 1170, so that the phrase can have no reference to events connected with the battle of Hastings.
M.A. Lower.
Lewes, July 30. 1850.
_Osmund the Waterman._--In his description of the _Flowering Fern (Osmunda regalis)_, Mr. Newman observes, that "the rhizoma [root-stock], when cut through, has a whitish centre or core, called by old Gerarde in his _Herbal_, 'the heart of Osmund the waterman.' My lore is insufficient to furnish my readers with the history of the said Osmund." (_History of British Ferns_, by Ed. Newman, 2nd ed., p. 334.) Can any of your readers supply this deficiency?
J.M.B.
_Logic._--What is the earliest printed book on logic? meaning the first which gives the common theory of the syllogism. Does it contain the celebrated words _Barbara, Celarent_, &c. The difficulty will probably arise from this, that each book has some undated editions which are probably earlier than the dated ones. Of books with dates there is the exposition of Petrus Hispanus by Joh. Versor, in 1473, and the _Summul?_ of Paulus Venetus, in 1474; the first I find in Hain (who had not seen it), the second I have seen. Can any one of your readers go farther back?
M.
_Darvon Gatherall?_--Can any reader adduce further information respecting an image, called _Darvon Gatherall_, brought from Wales at the Reformation, than what is mentioned in one of the treatises published by the Camden Society?
W. Bell.
_Damasked Linen._--I should feel obliged for any information on the earliest specimen of tablecloths being "damasked," and the history of that manufacture. I have lately had shown me as "family curiosities" a beautiful "damask service" of Flemish or Dutch work. The centre contained a representation of St. George and the Dragon. The hero is attired in the costume of the latter part of the seventeenth century (?), with it cocked hat and plume, open sleeves and breeches, heavy shoes and spurs: with this motto in German characters over him,
[German: Ben Gott ist Rath und That,] "With God is counsel and deed."
At each corner of the cloth and napkins is a representation of a female figure kneeling on a rock, with clasped hands, with a lamb by her side (Query, St. Agnes?) On the border, at the top and bottom, St. George is figured in armour