SONGS OF DEGREES.-Having recently met with this phrase, I have referred to Busby's Dictionary of Music, but cannot there find any elucidation; possibly some friendly reader of Current Notes' can explain what to me has been a question of some difficulty? S. S. "In the court of the Temple was an ascent of fifteen steps or stairs, between the women's court and the men's. Upon these steps or stairs, the Levites sung those fifteen psalms, immediately following the 119th; upon each step, one psalm, whence those psalms are entitled Psalmi Graduales, Songs of Degrees." Godwin's Jewish Antiquities, lib, ii. p. 16. MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS. IN the Imperial Library at St. Petersburgh, is a richly illuminated Missal, formerly the property of that unhappy Queen, and having various verses written in her autograph. In allusion to one of the illuminations, are the following lines Comme autre fois la renommée Ne vole plus par l'univers Isy borne son cours divers La chose d'elle puis aimée. MARIE R. On a page, in which is figured an angel- On another, in allusion to the sun Les heures ie guide et le jour Par l'ordre exacte de ma carrière Pour isy croistre ma lumière. Allusive to her armorial insignia, are the following- Bien plus utile est l'heure que non pas la fortune La viellesse est un mal qui ne se peut guérir MARIE R. SILVIO PELLICO, well known to every English student of Italian literature, by his Le Mie Prigioni, has ceased to exist. Born in 1788, in early life he devoted himself much to poetry, and among other productions wrote a tragedy, entitled, Francesa di Rimini, it has still a high reputation in Italy. In 1820, he was tutor in the family of Count Porro at Milan, where, in the following year, he was arrested as a carbonaro, and, with Count Gonfaloniere and many others, was at the same time condemned to death; the sentence was, however, commuted to imprisonment, and he was confined in the fortress of Spielberg until the amnesty of 1830. His privations and sufferings during his incarceration were such as to cause great debility, and to incapacitate him for any very active employment; he therefore, on his release, sought shelter in Turin, and having wholly dissevered himself from all political connexions, was employed as librarian in the house of the Marchesa The following appear to have been written, as expres- Barolo, at Montcagliere, near Turin, where he died on sive of her feelings at the moment February 1. Though only in his sixty-sixth year, the faculties of both his mind and body were exhausted; and during many years past he was affected by a pulmonary complaint. His sufferings were, however, doubtlessly alleviated by his receiving while in Piedmont two instances of popular homage, which could not be otherwise than grateful to a man so capable of valuing the sources whence they came-the first was, Gioberti's dedication to him of his great work on Italy, as "the first of Italian patriots," the other was the decoration of St. Maurice, from the hand of a constitutional sovereign, the King of Sardinia. QUEBEC.-The Parliament House, with the attached buildings, was destroyed by fire, on the morning of Feb. 1st; the calamity is said to have originated in the furnace, in the south wing. Part of the very valuable library, it is believed, has been saved, but the historical portion was wholly consumed. The building was, it is stated, insured for 36,000l. GOD SAVE The King. MUCH has been both said and written on the origin of the words and music of this highly popular air. Throughout Europe it is considered to have originated in England, but it would appear it was derived from France, and that to Lulli we are indebted for the musical notes. The establishment of the convent of Saint Cyr was one of the last public works founded under the patronage of Louis the Fourteenth. It was built at the extremity of the park in Versailles, in 1686, and its purposes were to educate the daughters of the nobility, too poor to perform that office, in the manner the Court at that period required the principles of the persons in that class should be instilled. Madame de Maintenon, the widow of Scarron; then the wife of the monarch, gave a form to this seminary, was herself the superior of the convent, and assisted by Gadet Desmarets, Bishop of Chartres, made the rules. In this year, 1686, the King was so indisposed, that great fears as to the result prevailed, but his recovery was hailed with great delight; Racine, having become imbued with Jansenism, had in consequence turned courtier, and had ceased to write for the theatres; was at the instigation of Madame de Maintenon, appointed to superintend the revival of dramatic representations in the convent; having for his assistants Duchat, and the Abbé Genêt. Lulli, the Court musician, was also installed as the composer and musical director. The recovery of the King was the cause of an anthem being written and composed for the chapel of St. Cyr, the whole choir of which, being the three hundred noble ladies there established, on the entrance of his most Christian Majesty, instantaneously arose, and sang the following words, doubtless written by Racine, to a beautiful air composed by Lulli. Grand Dieu, sauvez le Roi! Que toujours glorieux, Louis victorieux, Whether this was constantly sang in the chapel after this year, is not stated; Louis the Fourteenth died in 1715, when Madame de Maintenon retired into the convent, and died there, April 15, 1719. The inroad by Charles Edward Stuart, the Pretender in 1745, induced a general expression of loyalty towards King George II. and on the opening of the theatres royal, Drury Lane and Covent Garden, in September, the receipts of three nights' performances were proffered by the proprietors in aid of the armaments to repel the invader; when "God save the King," then designated a new song, set for two voices," was sung at both theatres. The words, with the Musical Notes, are thus printed in the Gentleman's Magazine for October, p. 552. God save great George our King, Send him victorious, Oh Lord our God arise, And make them fall; Thy choicest gifts in store, May he defend our cause, [laws?] To say with heart and voice, 66 The Arne produced the music on this occasion, as he did also to the words "Rule Britannia;" sung at Cliefden House, Buckinghamshire, on August 1, 1740. popularity was instantaneous and so generally approved, that many of the Jacobite songs were set to the tune of Rule Britannia." As Thomson wrote the words of that song, it is not improbable Arne again sought his assistance, and that he was the writer of the words as printed in the Gentleman's Magazine-more especially, as his Tancred and Sigismunda was performed at Drury Lane in the same year, 1745, with considerable applause. The result of these appropria tions is to substantiate the assertion that to Thomson the author of The Seasons, and to the skilful adaptation of Arne, England is indebted for two of her most popular and soul-stirring lyrical effusions. Can any Correspondent of the Current Notes subvert any of these facts, or produce any version said to bear the name of James I. Instead of being encomiastic of the Stuarts, the songs were written to arouse the popular resentment against the whole race; in which accord, the Editor most heartily joins LONG LIVE THE QUEEN. CHRONOGRAMS.-Philip the Second of Spain caused Charles his eldest son, to be executed in 1568, for conwit in such difficult toyes, thus accommodated the numespiring, as was pretended, against his father's life. A ral letters in Ovid's verse, to the year the Prince suffered. FILIVs ante DIEM patrIos InqVIrIt. In annos 1568. THE BEAR WANTS A TAIL! FULLER among his Warwickshire Proverbs,* elucidates one, that had its origin, from the supposed ambition of one of Queen Elizabeth's worthies, the presumption of whom, was then considered as reprehensive, as the now unjustifiable aggression of the Russian autocrat. "The Bear wants a tail, and cannot be a Lion. "Nature hath cut off the tail of the Bear, close at the rump, which is very strong and long in a Lion; for a great part of a Lion's strength consists in his tail, wherewith (when angry) he useth to flap and beat himself, to raise his rage therewith to the height, so to render himself more fierce and furious. If any ask, why this Proverb is placed in Warwickshire? let them take the ensuing story for their satisfaction "Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, derived his pedigree from the ancient Earls of Warwick, on which title he gave their crest, the Bear and Ragged Staffe; and when he was governor of the Low Countries, with the high title of His Excellency,' disusing his own Coat of the Green Lion with Two Tails, he signed all Instruments with the crest of the Bear and Ragged Staffe. He was then suspected, by many of his jealous adversaries, to hatch an ambitious design to make himself absolute commander, as the Lion is king of the beasts, over the Low Countries. Whereupon some, foes to his faction, and friends to the Dutch freedom, wrote under his crest, set up in public places "Ursa caret caudâ, non queat esse Leo." i.e."The Bear he never can prevail To Lion it, for lack of tail." THRALE'S ENTIRE, A BAGATELLE-ASCRIBED TO If e'er my fingers touched the lyre, Or govern well the brewing tub. To rich felicity thus rais'd, My bosom glows with am'rous fire; 'Tis I myself, am Thrale's Entire. * Worthies of England, edit. 1811, 4to. vol. ii. p. 405. INCENTIVES TO THE READERS OF CURRENT NOTES. NOTHING great is performed, or approaches perfection without much labour, and an infinity of pains, and not unfrequently without the cordial co-operation of minds similarly disposed, or proficients in the same object or pursuit. According to the old Latin proverb: "Nihil est aliud magnum quam multa minuta”or, as more poetically defined, by the author of Night Thoughts"Sands form the mountain, moments make the year." IN reading authors, when you find, Be not contented with the sight, As makes another's sense one's own. BYROM. OLD books by great authors are not in every body's reach; and though it is better to know them thoroughly than to know them here and there, yet it is a good work to give a little to those, who have neither time, nor fragrant scarce old tome he discovers a sentence, or an means to get more. Let every bookworm, when in any illustration that does his heart good, hasten to give it. COLERIDGE. THE Mind will no more do its best without encouragement, than trees will produce ripe fruit without the warmth of the sun. Men, who have the greatest gifts of mind, do not trust themselves without some encouragement-they will not venture out of beaten paths, and they therefore bring forth other people's ideas, instead of their own. Now, nothing is valuable except what is actually produced-materials as well as coinage-in the mint of a man's own mind. BRYDGES. To know, and to admire only, the literature and the tastes of our own age, is a species of elegant barbarism. D'ISRAELI. TO CORRESPONDENTS. A. G.-The wife of Charles Edward Stuart, the last Pretender, was of the Stolberg family, and after his death, was, it is said, privately married to the Italian poet, Alfieri. The Third volume of Current Notes' is now ready, price three shillings, in cloth boards. A few copies of the prior volumes remain, but an early application for them is desirable. WILLIS'S CURRENT CURRENT NOTES. No. XXXIX.] "Takes note of what is done-. By note to give and to receive."-SHAKESPEARE. ELINOUR RUMMING. LATE in the fifteenth century, there lived at Leatherhead, anciently Leddrede, in Surrey, an alewife of some distinction, and whom Skelton the poet in The Tunnyng of Elynour Rumminge, has conferred lasting celebrity. The tunning or brewing of Elinor Rumming, would seem to have been one of Skelton's most popular productions, and is an admirable specimen of his talent for the low burlesque,-a description of a real alewife, and of the various gossips who throng to her for liquor, as if under the influence of some potent spell. As Mr. Dyce justly observes,-" if few compositions of the kind have more coarseness or extravagance, there are few that have greater animation, or are of a richer humour." Dallaway in his Lethereum, states, that "when the Court of Henry VIII. was held at Nonsuch, about six miles distant, the laureate Skelton, with other courtiers, oft-times resorted to Leatherhead for the diversion of fishing in the river Mole, and were made welcome at the cabaret of Elinour Rummyng." Whether the late Vicar of Leatherhead, based this assertion on tradition or otherwise, it is as a matter of fact undeserving the slightest consideration. When Skelton wrote "the Tunning" is not clearly defined, but he died in Sanctuary, at Westminster, June 21, 1529, more than ten years prior to that monarch's having possession of Cuddington, or had commenced the building of the palace, since denominated Nonsuch. Skelton is supposed to have been born about 1460, and probably "The tunnyng of Elinour Rumminge" was written sometime about 1500, if not before. He describes Elinor as "ugly faire, and well worne in age,' wearing a huke or cloak of Lincoln green, that had been hers, he believed, more than forty years. She wore also a "furred flocket, and grey russet rocket," the former a loose garment, with large sleeves; the latter, a garment with or without sleeves, that sometimes was made to reach to the ground; or was otherwise much shorter, and open at the sides. Her kyrtel or petticoat was of Bristow red; With clothes vpon her hed, That wey a sowe of led, Wrythen in wonder wyse, After the Sarasyns gyse. Skelton notices she "dwelt on a hyll," her cabaret was on a rising ground contiguous to the old bridge that crossed the Mole. Her domicile was a small timber built house, with low rooms and over-hanging chambers, and although much altered in the course of several VOL. IV. [MARCH, 1854. No mention of her death occurs, as that happened no doubt, before the introduction of parish registers; but Dallaway conjectured that persons of the ale-wife's family were long after resident in the parish, as he found the name of Rumming in the burial register under the years 1663 and 1669. Brayley states that on the title-page of an edition of Skelton's Poems, printed in 1571, is a rude woodcut of an old ill-favoured woman holding at arm's length, in either hand, a leathern pot or black jack, with the inscription When Skelton wore the laurel crown, My Ale put all the Ale-wives down.' Where that edition is extant, it is highly desirable to know; it seems to be unknown to the editor of Skelton's works; nor does any earlier woodcut of Elynour Rumming appear to be extant than that attached to Rand's edition, 1624, 4to., where she is represented as holding in either hand as described, two black earthen pots, which were common in the ale-houses of that period and long after. That some earlier edition of the sixteenth century, presented a similar portrait of Elinour Rumming is not to be doubted, it is the original of MOTHER RED CAP, and wherever the sign so designated has been painted, the figure as in Rand's edition, has been the prototype. The gear in 'saracyn gyse' about her head, being painted as a conical red cap or hat. The illustration shows the house, as it appeared in the spring of 1845; since which time the doorway has been removed, and other alterations made. It is now known by the sign of the Running Horse. D In Bacchus Bountie, by Philip Foulface of Aleford, Student in good Felloship, 1593, 4to., Skelton is misnamed as "Anthony Skelton," and there is a cursory mention of "Tom Tipsay, an English Tapster, wel nere choaked with a marvelous drie heat, which of late he had got by lifting ouerlong at old Mother Red Caps." A drama entitled Mother Red Cap, written by Anthony Munday and Michael Drayton, was performed by the Earl of Nottingham, the Lord High Admiral's The portrait of Elinour Rumming was long a great desiderata with the illustrators of Granger; till George Steevens in 1794, learning a copy of Rand's edition was in the library of Lincoln Cathedral, induced Dean Kaye to bring the volume to London, and allow Richardson the printseller, to publish a facsimile. The European Magazine, then edited by Isaac Reed, in May of that year, contained Verses with the following motto, meant to have been subjoined to a copy from a scarce portrait of Elinour Rumming, lately published by Mr. Richardson, of Castle Street, Leicester Square. Ne sit ancillæ tibi amor pudori Movit Achillem. Virgine rapta. HORACE. ELEONORA REDIVIVA. To seek this nymph among the glorious dead, Tir'd with his search on earth, is GULSTON fled? Still for these charms enamour'd MUSGRAVE sighs, To clasp these beauties ardent BINDLEY dies. For these, while yet unstag'd to public view, Impatient BRAND o'er half the kingdom flew ; These, while their bright ideas round him play, From classic WESTON force the Roman lay: Oft too, my STORER, heaven heard thee swear, Not Gallia's murder'd Queen was half so fair: A New Europa,' cries the exulting BULL, 'My Granger now, I thank the gods, is full :' Even CRACH ERODE's self, whom passions rarely move, At this soft shrine has deign'd to whisper love. Haste then, ye swains, who Rumming's form adore, Possess your Elinour, and sigh no more. Steevens subscribed W. R. to these lines, but he was the author; Richardson had no predilection for versification. The Lincoln volume contained other extremely rare tracts, that Dr. Dibdin subsequently contrived, by exchanging for his own books, to obtain, and break up; he then printed a Catalogue entitled the Lincolne Nosegaye, the impressions limited to, with him a favourite number, thirty-six copies; and sold the whole to distinguished collectors. Heber purchased Rand's quarto edition of Elinour Rumming; it is now in the library of Mr. George Daniel, of Canonbury Square, Islington. servants, at Henslow's Theatre, the Rose on the Bankside, in December, 1597; and in the inventory of the dresses and properties mentioned as belonging to that Theatre, March 10th, 1598-9, is noticed— Item, j syne [one sign] for Mother Red Cap. Early in the seventeenth century, was the sign of the Mother Red Cap at Holloway, beyond Islington; a token was issued from the house in the reign of Charles the Second; there was also the Mother Red Cap at Kentish Town, that gave rise to a rival sign, nearly opposite, named Mother Black Cap; both still houses of considerable notoriety. Taylor the Water-poet in his Ribble Rabble of Gossips, observes :— : "To conclude the businesse, Martha protests shee will neuer trust Tomasin againe while she lives, because she promised to meet her at Pimlico, and bring her neighbour Bethya, but came not, neverthelesse Faith went to Mother Red Caps, and by the way, met with Joyce, who very kindly batled her penny with her at a fat pig.' As the Pimlico here alluded to was at Hogsden, now Hoxton, the Mother Red Cap would appear to have been that at Holloway. Later, the author of Whimsies: or a New Cast of Characters, 1631, duod., describing a sign-painter, says, He bestowes his pencile on an aged piece of canvas in a sooty ale-house, where Mother Red Cap must be set out in her colours. Here he and his barmy hostess draw both together, but not in like nature, she in Ale, he in Oyle: but her commoditie of which he means to have his full share, when his work is done, goes better downe. If she aspires to the conceite of a signe, and desire to have her birch-pole pulled downe, he will supply her with one. FREDERICK THE GREAT'S OLD BREECHES. THIS monarch greatly elevated the character and fame of Prussia, mainly by his alliance with England, that enabled him successfully to withstand the world arrayed in arms against him. He died at Berlin about 2 o'clock in the morning, August 17, 1786, in his seventyfifth year. Economical and sparing in all that related to himself, his wardrobe on his demise presented nothing of any particular value. Among his linen were found but eleven shirts! and his clothes given by his successor to the late king's pages, were sold by them to some Jews for 402 rix-dollars. They in their turn realized an enormous profit, not by the excellence of the regal habiliments, or the quantity, but from the generally expressed ardour of many persons to possess something that had been the property or pertained to Frederick the Great. More than four thousand rix-dollars were admitted to have been realised in this resale, and among the purlate into the field, and there remaining but an old much chasers, an old lady, maiden or not is not stated; coming worn pair of breeches, joyously carried them off at the When Frederick price of two hundred rix-dollars! William shall be gathered to his fathers, will any one care to possess aught that he may leave behind? |