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قراءة كتاب Notes and Queries, Number 183, April 30, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
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Notes and Queries, Number 183, April 30, 1853 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
Where "Latine," of course, means Boccaccio's Filostrato, from which Chaucer's poem is taken.
In the "Poema del Cid," latinado seems to mean person conversant with the Spanish or Romance language of the period:
"Quando esta falsedad dicien los de Carrion,
Un Moro Latinado bien gelo entendio."—v. 2675.
Mr. Ticknor remarks, that when the Christian conquests were pushed on towards the south of Spain, the Moors, who remained inclosed in the Christian population, and spoke or assumed its language, were originally called Moros Latinados; and refers to the Cronica General, where, respecting Alfaraxi, a Moor, afterwards converted, and a counsellor of the Cid, it is said he was "de tan buen entendimento, e era tan ladino que semejava Christiano."—Ticknor, Hist. Span. Lit., iii. 347.
Cervantes (Don Q. Parte I. cap. xli.) uses ladino to mean Spanish:
"Servianos de interprete a las mas destas palabras y razones el padre de Zoraida como mas ladino."
Latin, in fact, was so much the language as to become almost synonymous with a language. So a Latiner was an interpreter, as it is very well expressed in Selden's Table Talk, art. "Language":
"Latimer is the corruption of Latiner: it signifies he that interprets Latin; and though he interpreted French, Spanish, or Italian, he was the king's Latiner, that is, the king's interpreter."
This use of the word is well illustrated in the following extracts:
"A Knight ther language lerid in youth;
Breg hight that Knight, born Bretoun,
That lerid the language of Sessoun.
This Breg was the Latimer,
What scho said told Vortager."—Robert de Brunne's Metrical Chronicle.
"Par soen demein latinier
. . . .
Icil Morice iert latinier
Al rei Dermot, ke mult l'out cher."—Norman-French Chronicle of Conquest of Ireland, edited by F. Michel (as quoted in Wright's Essays, vol. ii. p. 215.).
I here conclude, as I must not seek to monopolise space required for more valuable contributions.
Tunbridge Wells.
INEDITED POEMS.
I send you two poems which I have found in a little rough scrap-book of a literary character of last century, and which, not having myself met with in print, I trust you will consider worth preserving in your pages. The one styled "A Scotch Poem on the King and the Queen of the Fairies," has a vein of playful satire running through it, but I do not detect any word which justifies the ascription of its paternity to Scotland. Perhaps some of your readers would oblige me by indicating the source from which this poem has been taken, if it is already in print.
A SCOTCH POEM ON THE KING AND THE QUEEN OF THE FAIRIES.
Upon a time the Fairy Elves,
Being first array'd themselves,
Thought it meet to clothe their King
In robes most fit for revelling.
He had a cobweb shirt more thin
Than ever spider since could spin,
Bleach'd in the whiteness of the snow,
When that the northern winds do blow.
A rich waistcoat they did him bring,
Made of the troutfly's golden wing,
Dy'd crimson in a maiden's blush,
And lin'd in humming-bees' soft plush.
His hat was all of lady's love,
So passing light, that it would move
If any gnat or humming fly
But beat the air in passing by.
About it went a wreath of pearl,
Dropt from the eyes of some poor girl,
Pinch'd because she had forgot
To leave clean water in the pot.
His breeches and his cassock were
Made of the tinsel gossamer;
Down by its seam there went a lace
Drawn by an urchin snail's slow pace.
No sooner was their King attir'd
As never prince had been,
But, as in duty was requir'd,
They next array their Queen.
Of shining thread shot from the sun
And twisted into line,
In the light wheel of fortune spun,
Was made her smock so fine.
Her gown was ev'ry colour fair,
The rainbow gave the dip;
Perfumed from an amber air,
Breath'd from a virgin's lip.
Her necklace was of subtle tye
Of glorious atoms, set
In the pure black of beauty's eye
As they had been in jet.
The revels ended, she put off,
Because her Grace was warm;
She fann'd her with a lady's scoff,
And so she took no harm.
Mrs. Barbauld wrote the following lines on a scroll within a kind of wreath, which hung over the chimney, the whole parlour being decorated with branches of ivy, which were made to run down the walls and hang down every pannel in festoons, at a country place called Palgrave:
Surly Winter, come not here,
Bluster in thy proper sphere;
Howl along the naked plain;
There exert they joyless reign.
Triumph o'er the wither'd flow'r,
The leafless shrub, the ruin'd bower;
But our cottage come not near,
Other Springs inhabit here,
Other sunshine decks our board
Than they niggard skies afford.
Gloomy Winter, hence away,
Love and fancy scorn they sway;
Love, and joy, and friendly mirth
Shall bless this roof, these walls, this hearth,
The rigor of the year control,
And thaw the winter in the soul.
Liverpool.
ROUND TOWERS OF THE CYCLADES.
On Friday evening, Nov. 19, 1852, a lecture was delivered before the members of the Literary and Scientific Institute of this island, by Capt. Graves, R.N., from which I have been permitted to take the following extract. The information contained in it, will doubtless be the more interesting to many of the reader of "N. & Q.," when informed that the round towers of Greece are fast disappearing; either from being pulled down for the erection of dwellings, or to be burnt into lime, by the Greeks who dwell in their neighbourhood. What the original dimensions of these towers may have been in ancient times, or for what purposes they were erected, are alike unknown; but their present proportions are as follow, and drawn by the learned lecturer from personal observation:
| Feet. | In. | ||||
| "A. | Andros, near the port | Height | 60 | 0 | |
| B. | Zea overlooking Perses Bay |  |
Height | 5 | 5 |
| Diameter | 26 | 6 | |||