Lord Ellesmere for certain favours shown him, probably in some Chancery suit, to which he here seems to allude, as if still suffering in his pocket from its ill consequences.

My first quotation from the poem itself is one of some importance, as serving to show the probable time at which it was written. On the reverse of fol. 9., at the commencement of the poem, an allusion is thus made to the destruction of Troy :"And wasted all the buildings of the king, Which unto Priamus did glory bring, Destroy'd his pallaces, the cittie graces, And all the lusters of his royall places, Just as Noll Cromewell in this iland did,

For his reward at Tiburne buried."

So also, again, on the reverse of fol. 11., in reference to the abuses and profanations committed by Cromwell's soldiery in St. Paul's Cathedral, he

says:

"Pittie it were this faberick should fall

Into decay, derives its name from Paul,
But yet of late it suffered vile abuses,

Was made a stable for all traytors' uses,
Had better burnt it down for an example,
As Herostratus did Diana's temple."

And again, at the commencement of the eighth chapter, fol. 104. :

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In this discourse, my Muse doth here intend,
The honor of Saint Patrick to defend,
And speake of his adventrous accidents,

Of his brave fortunes, and their brave events,
That if her pen were made of Cromwell's rump,

Yet she should weare it to the very stump.' At the end of the poem he again alludes to his great age, and to the time which had been occupied in writing it; and also promised, if his life should be prolonged, a second part, in continuation, which, however, appears never to have been accomplished:

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My Muse wants eloquence and retoricke,
For to describe it more scollerlike,

And doth crave pardon for hir bold adventure,
When that upon these subjects she did enter.
'Tis eight months since this first booke was begun,
Come, Muse, breake off, high time 'tis to adone.
Travell no further in these martiall straines,

Till we know what will please us for our paines. I know thy will is forward to performe,

What age doth now deny thy quill t' adorne,
Whose age is seventy-sixe, compleat in yeares,
Which in the Regester at large appeares."
&c. &c. &c. &c.

Cromwell died Sept. 3. 1658, and was interred in Westminster Abbey; but his bones were not removed and buried at Tyburn till the 30th of January, 1660; very soon after which it is most probable that this poem was written. Now if the author was, as he says, seventy-six at this time, he must have been born about 1583 or 1584, which will rightly correspond with the account given by

Chalmers and others; and thus he would be about twenty-two or twenty-three years of age when he wrote his first poem of Aapris Пoλvoréparos, and twenty-seven when he succeeded to the office of Master of the Revels. There appears to be no reason for supposing, with Ritson, that The Great Plantagenet, which was the second edition of that poem, and published in 1635, was done "by some fellow who assumed his name;" but that the variations, which are very considerable, were made by the author himself, and printed in his lifetime. The Dedication to Sir John Finch, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, signed "George Buck," and written exactly in his style; the three sets of commendatory verses addressed to the author by O. Rourke, Robert Codrington, and George Bradley, not in the first edition of the poem "Upon King Henrie the Second, the first Plantagenet of England," &c., added to this impression; all tend to show that the author was then living in 1635. We learn by the above quotations from his MS. poem, that his days were further prolonged till 1660.

Perhaps some of your numerous readers may be able to discover some corroborative proofs of this statement from other sources, and will be kind

enough to favour me, through your paper, with any evidence which may occur to them, bearing upon the subject of my inquiries. THOMAS CORSER. Stand Rectory.

COSAS DE ESPAÑA.

The things of Spain are peculiar to a proverb, but they are not so exclusively national but we may find some connection with them in things of our own country. Any information from readers of NOTES AND QUERIES, on a few Spanish things which I have long sought for in vain, would prove most acceptable and useful to me.

be a

1. In Catalogi Librorum Manuscriptorum, Angliæ et Hiberniæ, &c., under "Library of Westminster Abbey," at p. 29., I find mentioned the following MS.: Una Resposal del Reverend Padre Thomaso Cranmero. It is not now in that library — is it in any other? I suppose it may translation, made by Francisco Dryander or Enzinas, translator of the Spanish New Testament, 1543, of" An Answer by the Right Rev. Father in God, Thomas, Abp. of Canterbury, unto a crafty and sophistical cavillation devised by Stephen Gardener," &c. Dryander came to this country with Bucer, recommended to Cranmer by Melancthon, and resided two months in the Archbishop's house before he went to Cambridge to lecture in Greek,

2. Ferdinando de Tereda, a Spanish Protestant, came to this country in 1620. The Lord Keeper Williams took him into his house to learn Spanish of him, in order to treat personally with the Spanish ambassador about the marriage of Prince

Charles and the Infanta. At this instance, Tereda translated the English Liturgy into Spanish (1623), and was repaid by presentation to a prebend at Hereford. On the death of James, in 1625, he left, as he says, the Court, before the Court left him, and retired to Hereford. Here he adds: "I composed a large volume De Monachatu, in Latin; another De Contradictionibus Doctrinæ Ecclesiæ Romanæ, in the same language; and a third, entitled Carrascon, also in Latin." In 1631-2 he vacated his prebend, and went, I conjecture, to Holland, where he printed Carrascon in Spanish (1633), being a selection from the Latin. In the preface to this, which recently had been reprinted, he proposed to print the other works which he had prepared, if the Spanish Carrascon brought him good news." Do his Latin works exist either in print or in manuscript?

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3. Juan de Nicholas y Sacharles was another Spanish Protestant, who came to this country in 1618. He translated the Bouclier de la Foi, by P. Moulin, into Spanish; he presented it, I conjecture in MS., to Prince Charles about the year 1620. Is such a MS. known to exist in any of Our libraries?

4. The recent History of Spanish Literature, by George Ticknor, has made us generally acquainted, that the author of the clever Dialogo de las Lenguas," printed in Origines de la Lengua Española by Gregorio Mayans y Siscar, was Juan de Valdes, to whom Italy and Spain herself owed the dawning light of the religious reformation which those countries received. Spaniards well informed in their own literature have of course been long aware of the authorship of the "Dialogo de las Lenguas." But few even of them are aware that

Mayans y Siscar could not, even at so late a period, venture to reprint the work, as it was written by Juan de Valdes. He suppressed various passages, for the Inquisition was in his day too jealous and powerful for him to risk offence. Notwithstanding, and as una cosa de España, he printed a few copies privately, entire. Expurgated books are always unsatisfactory mutilations. Does any Manuscript of the "Dialogo de las Lenguas' exist in this country, in any public or private library? Wn.

CARTER'S DRAWINGS OF YORK CATHEDRAL.
MEDAL OF STUKELEY.

I shall be glad to ascertain, if possible, through the medium of your columns, who is now the possessor of a volume of elaborate Drawings of York Cathedral, which were made by the late John Carter, F. S. A., for Sir Mark M. Sykes, Bart. Mr. Carter was paid a large sum on account of these drawings during the progress of his task, but after the death of the baronet, he demanded such an extravagant price that the executors declined

The same artist also prepared a series of drawings illustrative of English costume from the earliest period. This volume was executed for Thomas Lister Parker, Esq., but, like the former, has passed into the custody of other persons, and I am now ignorant of its possessor.

I have not yet received any reply to my inquiry in Vol. i. p. 122., respecting a large bronze medal of Dr. Stukeley, with a view of Stonehenge on the reverse, evidently executed soon after his decease. I believe it to be unique, but should be glad to know if dies were ever engraved from this design. J. BRITTON. Burton Street, June 1. 1850.

Minor Queries.

"Imprest" and "Debenture." When a person fulfilling any employment under any of the Government Boards has occasion to draw "money on account," an imprest," addressed to the paymaster under that Board, is issued for the required sum; but when the final payment is made upon the "closing of the account," the "debenture" takes the place of the "imprest." Out of what verbal raw material are these words manufactured? I know of no other use of the word "imprest" as often enough in railway reports, I cannot perceive a substantive; and though we see "debenture" the analogy between its meanings in the two cases.

Home, May 17.

D. V. S.

Cosin's MSS.-Basire, in his Brief of the Life, &c. of Bishop Cosin, appended to his Funeral Sermon (Lond. 1673, p. 69.), after noticing several MS. works of Cosin's, some of which have not yet seen the light, adds, "These remains are earnestly recommended to his pious executor's care for publication."

Can any of your correspondents kindly inform me, who are the lineal representatives of Cosin's pious executor? Basire mentions three "imperfect" works of Bishop Cosin's in manuscript: viz. Annales Eccles., Historia Conciliorum, Chronologia Sacra. Is it known what has become of them? They appear to have fallen, with other MSS., into the hands of his executor. J. SANSOM.

Barclay's Argenis.-What are the latest editions of this romance - the best, in Cowper's opinion, ever written, which Coleridge laments as being so

Clergy sold for Slaves.—Walker, in his Sufferings of the Clergy, says, "There was a project on foot to sell some of the most eminent" (of the masters of colleges, doctors in divinity, &c.) “to the Turks for slaves; and a considerable progress was made in that horrid purpose." And, writing of Dr. Ed. Layfield, under the head of "London Cathedrals," Walker again says, that at last, in the company of others, he was clapt on shipboard under hatches;" and that "they were threatened to be sold slaves to the Algerines, or to some of our own plantations. Again, it is recorded in Bishop Cosin's life, that by his will he gave towards the redemption of Christian captives at Algiers, 500l.; towards the relief of the distressed loyal party in England, 800l.:"-upon which I should be glad to put a Query; viz., Is there sufficient ground for supposing, that any of the loyal party were really sold for slaves during the rebellion? If otherwise, will Cosin's bequest throw any light upon R.W.B.'s Query, vol. i., p. 441.? J. SANSOM. Meaning of Pallet. About a mile from Hume Castle, on the Scotch border, is a rock hill, which is called Hume Pallet.

The only other name of the kind in this district is Kilpallet, in the heart of the Lammermuir hills, on the borders of Berwickshire and East Lothian. There was at this latter place once a religious house of some kind, and a burying ground, now hardly visible.

What is the meaning of the word Pallet? J. S. Q. Tobacco in the East.-Can any of your readers inform me whether tobacco is indigenous to any part of Asia? Also, whether the habit of smoking (opium or tobacco), now universal over the East, dates there from before the discovery of America? And if not, from what period? Z. A. Z.

Stephanus Brulifer.-Can any of your correspondents kindly refer me to a library containing a copy of Stephanus Brulifer, in lib. iv. Sentent. Seraphici Doctoris Bonaventura, 8vo. Basil. 1507 ?

Replies.

ASINORUM SEPULTURA.

J. SANSOM.

To discover the origin of this phrase, your correspondent (Vol. ii., p. 8-9.) need not go further than to his Bible.

"Sepultura asini sepelietur, putrefactus et projectus extra portas Jerusalem."-Jerem. xxii. 19.: cf. xxxvi. 30. With regard to the extract given by Ducange,

at the word " Imblocatus," from a "vetus formula Excommunicationis præclara," it is evident that the expressions,

"Sint cadavera eorum in escam volatilibus cœli, et bestiis terræ, et non sint qui sepeliant eos," have been derived from S. Jerome's Latin version from the Hebrew of Psal. lxxix. 2, 3. :

"Dederunt cadavera servorum tuorum escam vola

tilibus coli; carnes sanctorum tuorum bestiis terræ.
Effuderunt sanguinem eorum quasi aquam in circuitu
Hierusalem, et non erat qui sepeliret."- Vide Jacobi
Fabri Stapulensis Quincuplex Psalterium, fol. 116. b.,
Paris, 1513; Sabatier, tom. ii. p. 162. Ib. 1751.
R. G.

The use of this term in the denunciation against Jehoiakim, more than six centuries B. C., and the previous enumeration of crimes in the 22nd chapter of Jeremiah, would seem sufficiently to account for its origin and use in regard to the disposal of the dead bodies of excommunicated or notorious malefactors, by the earliest Christian writers or judges. The Hebrew name of the ass, says Parkhurst, is "derived from its turbulence when excited by lust or rage;" and the animal was also made the symbol of slothful or inglorious ease, in the case of Issachar, B.C. 1609: Genesis, xlix. 14. It is thus probable some reference to such characteristics of the brute and the criminal, rather than any mere general allusion to throwing the dead bodies of inferior or unclean animals (of which the dog was a more common type) under any rubbish beyond the precincts of the city, may have been intended, by specifying this animal in prescribing an ignominious sepulture.

LAMBA.

It can hardly have escaped the notice of your Querist (although the instance is not one adduced by Ducange), that the phrase, “burial of an ass" [Heb.p] for "no burial at all," is as old as the time of the prophet Jeremiah. (Vide chap. xxii. 19.) The custom referred to being of religious origin, might lead us to the sacred books for the origin of the phrase denoting it; and it seems natural for the Christian writers, in any mention of those whose bodies, like that of Jehoi

akim, were for their sins deprived of the rites of sepulture, to use the striking phrase already provided for them in Scripture; and as natural for that phrase to continue in use even after the somewhat more civilised custom of "imblocation" had deprived it of its original reference to "the dead body's being cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost." (Jer. xxxvi. 30.)

J. EASTWOOD.

This phrase is, I think, accounted for by the ass being deprived of interment in consequence of the uses made of its dead carcass. After a description of the adaptation of his bones to instrumental music, Aldrovandus continues as follows:

Four Popes of the name have filled the chair of St. Peter.

The first suffered martyrdom under Aurelian. He is honoured with a festival at Rome on the 29th May.

The second also received the crown of martyrdom, under Constantine. His festival is kept on the 29th July.

The third is commemorated as a holy confessor on the 25th February. He was a collateral ancestor of Pope St. Gregory the Great, who mentions him in his writings.

Gregory had three aunts by the father's side, who all became nuns. One of them, Tarsilla, a lady of pious and beatified life, and of very advanced age, had one night a vision of Pope Felix, who was then dead. He seemed to point towards the mansions of eternal glory, and to invite her to enter. She soon after sickened, and her end visibly approached. While a number of her friends were standing around her couch, she suddenly exclaimed, looking upwards, “Stand aside, stand aside, Jesus is coming;" and with a look of ineffable love, she presently expired. This story is related by St. Gregory.

This Pope is the best known of the four on account of his relationship to St. Gregory.

The fourth of the name was also a confessor. His festival occurs on the 30th January. J. A. S. Edinburgh, May 27. 1850.

REPLIES TO NUMISMATIC QUERIES.

I beg to offer the following remarks in reply to the numismatic queries of E. S. T. (Vol. i., p. 468.):

1. I can only account for the Macedonian coin being struck in lead, by supposing it to be the work of an ancient forger.

2. Third brass coins of Tiberius are not uncommon; I have one in my cabinet of the sort described. Obv. head of Tiberius, TI. CAESAR. DIVI. AVG. F. AVGVSTVS; Rev. the altar of Lyons,

ROM. ET. AVG.

3. The coin of Herennia Etruscilla is probably a base or plated denarius, the silver having been

worn off. Silver coins sometimes acquire a black tarnish, so that they are not to be distinguished from brass without filing the edge, or steeping them in acid. If a genuine brass coin, it should have the S. C. for Senatus Consultum.

4. The coin of Macrinus was struck at Antioch

in Syria, of which famous city there exists a regular series of imperial coins from Augustus to Valerian. One in my possession has ▲ above the s. c., and E below for AHMAPX. EZOTZIAZ, Tribunitia Potestate. May not these be the letters described by E. S. T. as L. c.? J. C. WITTON.

Coins of Constantius II.-Can any numismatist kindly inform me by what marks the coins of Constantius II., the son of Constantine the Great, are distinguished from those of Constantius Gallus, his nephew? Mr. Akerman, in his Rare and Inedited Roman Coins, gives the following titles as common to both, but does not afford any rule for appropriating their coins :-

CONSTANTIVS. NOB. CAES.

FL. IVL, CONSTANTIVS. NOB. CAES.
D. N. CONSTANTIVS. NOB. C.
D. N. CONSTANTIVS. NOB. CAES.

J. C. WITTON.

AS LAZY AS LUDLUM'S DOG.

(Vol. i., p. 382.)

I feel obliged by the extract from the Doctor given by J. M. B. (Vol. i., p. 475.), though it only answers by a kind of implication the Query I proposed. That implication is, that, instead of Ludlum and his dog being personages of distinction in their own way and in their own day, the proverb itself is merely one framed on the principle of alliteration, and without precise or definite "meaning." This is very full of meaning, as any one may convince himself by observing the active energy of every muscle of all dogs in the act of barking. What can typify "laziness" more emphatically than a dog that "lays him [self] down to bark?"

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A jingle of some kind is essential to a proverb. If a phrase or expression have not this, it never "takes" with the masses; whilst, having this, and being capable of any possible and common application, it is sure to live, either as a proverb or a saw," as the case may be. Alliteration and rhyme are amongst the most frequent of these "jingles;" and occasionally a 'pun" supplies their place very effectively. We find these conditions fulfilled in the proverbs and saws of every people in the eastern and western world, alike in the remotest antiquity and in our own time. But are they therefore "without meaning?" Do not these qualities help to give them meaning, as well as to preserve them through their long and varied existence?

But there is another principle equally essential