186
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io- s. m. MARCH n, 1905.
was born, stands the stone inscribed with
these words :
" Sacred to the Memory of Michael Turner, clerk and sexton of this parish for 50 years, from Jan. 17, 1830, to Jan. 20, 1880. Born May 2.5, 1796. Died Dec. 18, 1885.
His duty done, beneath this stone
Old Michael lies at rest. His rustic rig, his song, his jig Were ever of the best.
With nodding head, the choir he led,
That none should start too soon : 'The second too, he sang full true,
His viol played the tune. And when at last his age had passed,
One hundred less eleven, With faithful cling to fiddle string,
He sang himself to Heaven." It would be interesting to know how long old Michael continued to play his violin in church. In the country district with which I am acquainted the band of various instru- ments ceased to perform such service in the thirties, the time at which he began to be sexton. But doubtless he began to play early, being trained by some prominent predecessor. The leaders of the choir were important in those days. In my own old parish in Oxfordshire I have been told that the choragus had at one time complete com- mand over the aged rector. He not only chose the hymns (versions of the psalms in those days), but also gave them out himself in such terms as " Let us sing to the praise and glory of God the hundredth Psalm."
HIPPOCLIDES. [For modern instrumental choirs see 8 th S. i. 19.">, 336, 498; ii. 15; vii. 127, 152, 311 ; viii. 272; 9 th S. viii. 304.]
- ' PRIDE " AS A VERB. On p. 7 of the third
volume of The Musical Miscellany (1729) the use of the verb pride in the song ' On the Death of Lora, a Lady's Parrot,' by Mr. Baker, is perhaps worth noting : No more let Lesbia's Sparrow pride How much for him his Mistress sigh'd, What Tears were shed : thy Boast may be, That brighter Eyes have wept for thee.
In this context pride appears to mean boast, vaunt, pride himself on considering how much, &c. E. S. DODGSON.
[This use of pride is illustrated in Annandale's four-volume 'Imperial Diet.' by a quotation from fSwift, but the reference is not supplied. In the
- Encyclopaedic ' appears: "'You only pride in
your own abasement' (H. Brooke, ' Fool of Quality,' i. 368)."]
THE AUTHOR OF ' THEALMA AND CLEARCHUS.' Perhaps I was too hasty in identifying at th S. xii. 441 the John Chalkhill who was buried in Winchester Cathedral in May, 1679, with the eldest son of Ion Chalkhill. There
was a John Chalkhill, of Westminster, whose
estate was administered to, on 13 April, 1642,
by Margaret Browne, the natural and lawful
sister (Commissary Court of Westminster,
Act Book, 1642, folio 121). I have shown
that John Chalkhill's youngest sister was
named Margaret ; she may have married a
Browne cousin. GORDON GOODWIN.
ANVARI, PERSIAN POET. I cannot find that any of this poet's works have appeared in English. The following, which I have trans- lated from the text in Pizzi's ' Chrestomathie Persane,' 1889, is interesting, as being so remarkably Western in its ideas. I fear my version is rough, but I have succeeded in preserving the rhythm of the original, which is decasyllabic ( --- ' | ^ ' ^ | -'):-
What is Love ? It is but to be a slave. To be sorrow's best friend, acquaint with hate ; To be slain by the dagger of mishap, To be target to arrows of ill-fate ; When thy love decks her limbs with many bands, To be bound with not any of those bonds ; To be all the day long beneath her heel, Like the tress-tips she treads beneath her heel ; When the sun of her face shall deign to shine, To be dust of the air before the sun ; To give pleasure, the more thou feelest pain, To expect not one pleasure in return ; And though trodden beneath a hundred slights, To be faithful, Love's duties to fulfil ; And thyself to be millstone in that hour When thy bones Love shall grind as in a mill.
JAS. PLATT, Jun.
"SAX." A sax or sex is a slater's tool ('E. Dial. Diet.'). This must be what is meant by the mysterious "Saxon seac" quoted as the equivalent of "Secu"' in the query on the ' Sax ton Family of Sax ton ' (ante, p. 129). Of course, the A.-S. word is seax ; and the spelling seac is just as impossible as the accompanying statement that the Latin for " axe " is securus, WALTER W. SKEAT.
'INDEX OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL PAPERS.' Prof. Gross mentions at p. 10 of his 'Sources and Literature of English History,' 1900, that " Mr. Gomme is preparing an Index of Archaeological Papers published from 1682 to 1890." Mr. Gomme has done yeoman service in his annual indexes, and in the admirably indexed "Gentleman's Magazine Library." No one who has used such an !ndex can fail to recognize the difficulties of ihe task quite apart from its bulk which would dismay any less intrepid energy. But [ think I express the feelings of the vast majority of your readers in assuring Mr. jomme that we look forward with impatience 'or this further boon. Q. V.
