302
NOTES AND QUERIES. [10 s. x. OCT. 17, im.
fortification at Kynnersley, and of the Bos-
cobel Oak. He draws the following pleasing
picture of Kynnersley :
"At my entrance there, I foimd neither gentle- man nor beggar, nor any kind of dissenter from the Church : there had been 110 law suit among them in the memory of man, nor was any commenced during my incumbency as rector there, for above 30 years together."
The register of Donington contains nume- rous memoranda by Plaxton on the cover and inserted paper fly - leaves ( ' Doning- ton Register,' p. 80), including notes with regard to the tithes (pp. 82, 83) ; and records of wind-storms on 7 Feb., 1696/7, on 5 and 6 Feb., 1700/1, and on Christmas Day, 1701 (p. 83).
On 16 July, 1703, he was presented to the rectory of Barwick-in-Elmet, near Leeds (information of Rev. F. S. Colman,* Rector of Barwick), by John, first Lord Gower, son of his first patron, in his capacity as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster (' Thoresby' s Diary,' ed. Hunter, 1830, vol. i. p. 434) ; and was instituted on 9 Sept., when he resigned his Shropshire livings. Plaxton' s association with so distinguished an antiquary as Thoresby, who, at the refer- ence just cited, records his friend's presenta- tion " to the great living at Berwick in Elmete," has done much to rescue his name from oblivion.
Of the first few years of Plaxton' s residence at Barwick I have found no record, but in 1706 Thoresby relates that his "dear" and he " rode to Berwick, to oblige Parson Plaxton and family with our child's com- pany, and myself with his " (' Diary,' vol. i. p. 465). Mr. Colman has kindly given me extracts from some of Plaxton' s letters to Thoresby in the possession of Sir Thomas Brooke, the earliest of which is dated 11 Feb., 1706/7. On 29 March, 1707, he complains of " a violent fit of stone," and on 12 May that he is " very ill with large stone in Bladder " ; but on 20 May announces himself as
now better you may tell Dr. Skelton that
On 23 June he offers-a characteristic jest :
" Our correspondence has got the stone, arid there is no passage open for letters. Come and make hay, 6d. a day and small drink is good wages for a man who works in the sunshine." Brooke MSS,
- Mr. Colman, who is seeing through the press a
considerable ' History of Barwick-in- PUmet ' for the Thoresby Society, kindly lent me three pages of proof containing some account of Plaxton.
His bodily sufferings often provided the
machinery of his humour : on 4 Aug. he
writes again :
" I am sorry to hear that the Christian Lawyer has got the Sciatica, 'tis the Stone in the Hip, for you must know the Stone is a distemper that seizes all mankind. Some Lawyers and Attorneys have it in their hearts, and some in their Hipps, occa- sioned by hard riding to the Assizes and Sessions. The Fanatiques have the Stone in their heads, this fills 'em full of Scruples and doubts, for your Scrupulus is a little Stone. Some Divines have the Stone in their Understandings, they cannot speak or think clear, but all their notions are full of growth and hard sand." Brooke MSS.
AMJYN LYELL READE. Park Corner, Blundellsands, near Liverpool.
(To l>e continued.)
DANTEIANA.
I. ' Inf.' xvi. 106-8 :
lo aveva uiia corda intorno cinta, E con essa pensai alcuna volta Prender la lonza alia pelle dipinta.
As this is a passage of which Landino (ed., Venezia, 1536) rightly observes that it " contiene in se una fizione assai oscura," it demands more than a passing notice. Is it to be taken literally or allegorical ly ? Had the poet been a member of the Franciscan Order as novice or professed, or merely as a Tertiary ? or is his allusion to be taken as a symbol of asceticism only ? Also does the lonza symbolize lust, as the cord is. emblematic of purity ? Supporters in the affirmative of each question are not lacking (nor rejectors in the negative), and their' very multiplicity of views only serves to- deepen the obscurity of the passage. But references to and excerpts from a few such may prove serviceable to students, as guides to an interesting, if insoluble Danteian problem. Thus
A.
" Francesco da Buti, che nello stesso secolo XIV. comento Dante, racconta (V. ' Mem. per la Vita di Dante,' 8) che questi essendo ancor giovane si fece Frate dell' Ordine dei Minori ; ma che prima di fanne la prot'essione ne depose 1'abito, la qual circostanza pero non si accenna da verun' altro- scrittore della Vita di Dante." So far the writer of the ' Vita ' prefacing Lombardi's commentary (ed. Roma, 1820), who, however, almost in self-contradiction, adds in a foot-note :
"Anche il P. Giovanni di S. Antonio ha postq Dante tra Francescani : citendo 1'autorita di alcuni scrittori del suo Ordine i quali han creduto, ch' egli sul fin della vita si facesse prima Terziario, poi: anche vero Religiose dell' Ordine stesso ('Biol.. Francisc.' torn. i. p. 290) ma queste son fa vole."
