Notes and Queries, Number 71, March 8, 1851 | Page 9

Treatise concerning the Old and New Testament," together with a reprint of the "Testimonie of Antiquitie," (sanctioned by Archbishop Parker in 1567,) had merely submitted to substitutes for the first two leaves with which they had been ushered into the world, and after fifteen years the unsuspecting public were beguiled. When was this system of misnomers introduced? and can a more signal specimen of this kind of shamelessness be mentioned than that which is afforded by the fate of Thorndike's De ratione ac jure finiendi Controversias Ecclesi? Disputatio? So this small folio in fours was designated when it was published, Lond. 1670; but in 1674 it became Origines Ecclesiastic?; and it was metamorphosed into Restauratio Ecclesi? in 1677.
(50.) Dr. Dibdin (Typ. Antiq. iii. 350.) has thus spoken of a quarto treatise, De autoritate, officio, et potestate Pastorum ecclesiasticorum:--
"This very scarce book is anonymous, and has neither date, printer's name, nor place; but being bound up with two other tracts of Berthelet's printing are my reasons for giving it a place here."
The argument and the language in this sentence are pretty nearly on a par; for as misery makes men acquainted with dissimilar companions, why may not parsimony conglutinate heterogeneous compositions? I venture to deny altogether that the engraved border on the title-page was executed by an English artist. It seems rather to be an original imitation of Holbein's design: and as regards the date, can we not perceive what was meant for a modest "1530" on a standard borne by one of the boys in procession? In Simler's Gesnerian Bibliotheca SIMON HESS (let me reiterate the question, Who was he?) is registered as the author; and of his work we read, "Liber impressus in Germania." This observation will determine its locality to a certain extent; and the tractate may be instantly distinguished from all others on the same subject by the presence of the following alliterative frontispiece:--
"Primus Papa, potens Pastor, pietate paterna, Petrus, perfectam plebem pascendo paravit. Posthabito plures populo, privata petentes, Pinguia Pontifices, perdunt proh pascua plebis."
R. G.
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ENIGMATICAL EPITAPH.
In the church of Middleton Tyas, in the North Riding of the county, there is the following extraordinary inscription on the monument of a learned incumbent of that parish:--
"This Monument rescues from oblivion the Remains of the Rev. John Mawer, D.D., late Vicar of this Parish, who died Nov. 18th, 1763, aged 60. The doctor was descended from the royal family of Mawer, and was inferior to none of his illustrious ancestors in personal merit, being the greatest linguist this nation ever produced. He was able to write and speak twenty-two languages, and particularly excelled in the Eastern tongues, in which he proposed to his Royal Highness Frederick Prince of Wales, to whom he was firmly attached, to propagate the Christian religion in the Abyssinian empire,--a great and noble design, which was frustrated by the death of that amiable prince."
Whitaker, after giving the epitaph verbatim in his History of Richmondshire, vol. i. p. 234., says:
"This extraordinary personage, who may seem to have been qualified for the office of universal interpreter to all the nations upon earth, appears, {185} notwithstanding, to have been unaware that the Christian religion, in however degraded a form, has long been professed in Abyssinia. With respect to the royal line of Mawer I was long distressed, till, by great good fortune, I discovered that it was no other than that of old King Coyl."
As I happen to feel an interest in the subject which disinclines me to rest satisfied with the foregoing hasty--not to say flippant explanation of the learned historian, I am anxious to inquire whether or not any reader of the "NOTES AND QUERIES" can throw light on the history, and especially the genealogy, of this worthy and amiable divine? While I have reason to believe that Dr. Mawer was about the last person in the world to have composed the foregoing eulogy on his own character, I cannot believe that the allusion to illustrious ancestors "is merely a joke," as Whitaker seems to imply; while it is quite certain that there is nothing in the inscription to justify the inference that the deceased had been "unaware that the Christian religion" had "long been professed in Abyssinia:" indeed, an inference quite the reverse would be quite as legitimate.
J. H.
Rotherfield, Feb. 23. 1851.
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SHAKSPEARE'S "MERCHANT OF VENICE"
(Act IV. Sc. 1.).
In the lines--
"The quality of Mercy is not strained, It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven, Upon the place beneath."
What is the meaning of the word "strained?" The verb to strain is susceptible of two essentially different interpretations; and the question is as to which of the two is here intended? On referring to Johnson's Dictionary, we find, amongst other synonymous terms, To squeeze through something; to purify by