Notes and Queries, Number 69, February 22, 1851 | Page 7

though it does not seem to
agree with the context, which is pure nonsense in its present condition.]
[Footnote 2: Great.]
[Footnote 3: Least.]
[Footnote 4: Flee.]
[Footnote 5: Yea.]
[Footnote 6: Ring, I fancy.]
[Footnote 7: Naught.]
[Footnote 8: Our.]
[Footnote 9: Taught.]

[Footnote 10: Laughed.]
[Footnote 11: See.]
[Footnote 12: If.]
[Footnote 13: Here the orthography changes.]
[Footnote 14: Meant.]
[Footnote 15: I think there must be some allusion here, which can only
be arrived at by knowing the date of its composition.]
[Footnote 16: An elision for creepeth; possibly an intermediate
etymological state of creeps.]
[Footnote 17: From "to cavil."]
* * * * *
Minor Notes.
Ayot St. Lawrence Church (Vol. iii., pp. 39. 102.). Ayot St. Lawrence,
Herts, is another deserted church, like that of Landwade,--in fact a ruin,
with its monuments disgracefully exposed. I was so astonished at
seeing it in 1850, that I would now ask the reason of its having been
allowed to fall into such distress, and how any one could have had the
power to build the present Greek one, instead of restoring its early
Decorated neighbour. I did not observe the 2 ft. 3 in. effigy alluded to
in Arch. Journ. iii. 239., but particularly noted the elegant sculpture on
the chancel arch capital.
I would suggest to Mr. Kelke, that the incumbents of parishes should
keep a separate register, recording all monuments, &c. as they are put
up, as existing, or as found in MS. church notes, or published in county
histories. In the majority of parishes the trouble of so doing would be
trifling, and to many a pleasant occupation.
A. C.

Johannes Secundus--Parnel--Dr. Johnson.--In Dr. Johnson's Life of
Parnel we find the following passage:--
"I would add that the description of Barrenness, in his verses to Pope,
was borrowed from Secundus; but lately searching for the passage
which I had formerly read, I could not find it."
I will first extract Parnel's description, and then the passage of
Secundus; to which, I suppose, Dr. Johnson referred.
"This to my friend--and when a friend inspires, My silent harp its
master's hand requires, Shakes off the dust, and makes these rocks
resound, For fortune placed me in unfertile ground; Far from the joys
that with my soul agree, From wit, from learning--far, oh far, from thee!
Here moss-grown trees expand the smallest leaf, Here half an acre's
corn is half a sheaf. Here hills with naked heads the tempest meet,
Rocks at their side, and torrents at their feet; Or lazy lakes, unconscious
of a flood, Whose dull brown Naiads ever sleep in mud."
Secundus in his first epistle of his first book (edit. Paris, p. 103.), thus
writes:--
"Me retinet salsis infausta Valachria terris, Oceanus tumidis quam
vagus ambit aquis. Nulla ubi vox avium, pelagi strepit undique murmur,
Coelum etiam largâ desuper urget aquâ. Flat Boreas, dubiusque Notus,
flat frigidus Eurus, Felices Zephyri nil ubi juris habent. Proque tuis ubi
carminibus, Philomena canora, Turpis in obscoenâ rana coaxat aquâ."
VARRO.
The King's Messengers, by the Rev. W. Adams.--Ought it not to be
remarked, in future editions of this charming and highly poetical book
(which has lately been translated into Swedish), that it is grounded on
one of the "examples" occurring in Barlaam and Josaphat?"
In the third or fourth century, an Indian prince names Josaphat was
converted to Christianity by a holy hermit called Barlaam. This subject
was afterwards treated of by some Alexandrian priest, probably in the

sixth century, in a beautiful tale, legend, or spiritual romance, in Greek,
and in a style of great ease, beauty, warmth, and colouring. The work
was afterwards attributed to Johannes Damascenus, who died in 760. In
this half-Asiatic Christian prose epic, Barlaam employs a number of
even then ancient folk-tales and fables, spiritually interpreted, in
Josaphat's conversion. It is on the fifth of these "examples" that Mr.
Adams has built his richly-glittering fairy palace.
Barlaam and Josaphat was translated into almost {136} every
European dialect during the Middle Age, sometimes in verse, but
usually in prose, and became an admired folk-book. Among the
versions lately recovered I may mention one into Old-Swedish (a
shorter one, published in my Old-Swedish Legendarium, and a longer
one, not yet published); and one in Old-Norwegian, from a vellum MS.
of the thirteenth century, shortly to appear in Christiania.
GEORGE STEPHENS.
Stockholm.
Parallel Passages.--Under "Parallel Passages" (Vol. ii., p. 263.) there
occur in two paragraphs--"There is an acre sown with royal seed,"
concluding with "living like gods, to die like men," from Jeremy
Taylor's Holy Dying; and from Francis Beaumont--
"Here's an acre sown indeed With the richest royalest seed. . . . . . .
Though gods they were, as men they died."
Which of these twain borrowed the "royal seed" from the other, is a