Notes and Queries, Number 72, March 15, 1851: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.Various
History
Notes and Queries, Number 72, March 15, 1851: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
[We will add two further illustrations of this passage of Chaucer, and
the popular rhyme on which it is founded. The first is from Mr.
Akerman's _Glossary of Provincial Words and Phrases in Use in
Wiltshire_, where we read--
"When a child is stung, he plucks a dock-leaf, and laying it on the
part affected, sings--
'Out 'ettle
In dock
Dock shall ha a new smock;
'Ettle zhant
Ha' narrun.'"
Then follows a reference by Mr. Akerman to the passage in _Troilus and
Creseide_.--Our second illustration is from Chaucer himself, who, in his
_Testament of Love_ (p. 482 ed. Urry), has the following passage:
"Ye wete well Ladie eke (quoth I), that I have not plaid raket, Nettle
in, Docke out, and with the weathercocke waved."
Mr. Akerman's work was, we believe, published in {206} 1846; and, at all
events, attention was called to these passages in the _Athenaeum_ of the
l2th September in that year, No. 985.]
_Soul separates from the Body._--In Vol. ii., p. 506., is an allusion to an
ancient superstition, that the human soul sometimes leaves the body of a
sleeping person and takes another form; allow me to mention that I
remember, some forty years ago, hearing a servant from Lincolnshire relate
a story of two travellers who laid down by the road-side to rest, and one
fell asleep. The other, seeing a bee settle on a neighbouring wall and go
into a little hole, put the end of his staff in the hole, and so imprisoned
the bee. Wishing to pursue his journey, he endeavoured to awaken his
companion, but was unable to do so, till, resuming his stick, the bee flew
to the sleeping man and went into his ear. His companion then awoke him,
remarking how soundly he had been sleeping, and asked what had he been
dreaming of? "Oh!" said he, "I dreamt that you shut me up in a dark cave
and I could not awake till you let me out." The person who told me the
story firmly believed that the man's soul was in the bee.
F. S.
_Lady's Trees._--In some parts of Cornwall, small branches of sea-weed,
dried and fastened in turned wooden stands, are set up as ornaments on the
chimney-piece, &c. The poor people suppose that they preserve the house
from fire, and they are known by the name of "_Lady's trees_," in honour, I
presume, of the Virgin Mary.
H. G. T.
Launceston.
_Norfolk Folk Lore Rhymes._--I have met with the rhymes following, which
may not be uninteresting to some of your readers as _Folk Lore, Norfolk_:--
"Rising was, Lynn is, and Downham shall be,
The greatest seaport of the three."
Another version of the same runs thus:
"Risin was a seaport town,
And Lynn it was a wash,
But now Lynn is a seaport Lynn,
And Rising fares the worst."
Also another satirical tradition in rhyme:
"That nasty stinking sink-hole of sin,
Which the map of the county denominates Lynn."
Also:
"Caistor was a city ere Norwich was none,
And Norwich was built of Caistor stone."
JOHN NURSE CHADWICK.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account