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قراءة كتاب Notes and Queries, Number 81, May 17, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
تنويه: تعرض هنا نبذة من اول ١٠ صفحات فقط من الكتاب الالكتروني، لقراءة الكتاب كاملا اضغط على الزر “اشتر الآن"
Notes and Queries, Number 81, May 17, 1851 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
NOTES AND QUERIES:
A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.
"When found, make a note of."—Captain Cuttle.
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No. 81. |
Saturday, May 17. 1851. |
Price Threepence |
CONTENTS.
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Notes:— |
Page |
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Illustrations of Chaucer, No. VI. |
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Dutch Folk-lore |
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Minor Notes:—Verses in Pope: "Bug" or "Bee"—Rub-a-dub—Quotations—Minnis—Brighton—Voltaire's Henriade |
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Queries:— |
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The Blake Family, by Hepworth Dixon |
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Minor Queries:—John Holywood the Mathematician—Essay on the Irony of Sophocles—Meaning of Mosaic —Stanedge Pole—Names of the Ferret—Colfabias—School of the Heart—Milton and the Calves-head Club—David Rizzio's Signature—Lambert Simnel: Was this his real Name?—Honor of Clare, Norfolk—Sponge—Babington's Conspiracy—Family of Sir John Banks—Meaning of Sewell—Abel represented with Horns |
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Minor Queries Answered:—The Fifteen O's—Meaning of Pightle—Inscription on a Guinea of George III. —Meaning of Crambo |
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Replies:— |
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John Tradescant probably an Englishman, and his Voyage to Russia in 1618, by S. W. Singer |
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The Family of the Tradescants, by W. Pinkerton |
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Pope Joan |
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Replies to Minor Queries:—Robert Burton's Birthplace—Barlaam and Josaphat—Witte van Haemstede—The Dutch Church in Norwich—Fest Sittings—Quaker's Attempt to convert the Pope—The Anti-Jacobin—Mistletoe—Verbum Græcum—"Après moi le Déluge"—Eisell—"To-day we purpose"—Modern Paper—St. Pancras—Joseph Nicolson's Family—Demosthenes and New Testament—Crossing Rivers on Skins—Curious Facts in Natural History—Prideaux |
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Miscellaneous:— |
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Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. |
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Books and Odd Volumes wanted |
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Notices to Correspondents |
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Advertisements |
Notes.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHAUCER, NO. VI.
Unless Chaucer had intended to mark with particular exactness the day of the journey to Canterbury, he would not have taken such unusual precautions to protect his text from ignorant or careless transcribers. We find him not only recording the altitudes of the sun, at different hours, in words; but also corroborating those words by associating them with physical facts incapable of being perverted or misunderstood.
Had Chaucer done this in one instance only, we might imagine that it was but another of those occasions, so frequently seized upon by him, for the display of a little scientific knowledge; but when he repeats the very same precautionary expedient again, in the afternoon of the same day, we begin to perceive that he must have had some fixed purpose; because, as I shall presently show, it is the repetition alone that renders the record imperishable.
But whether Chaucer really devised this method for the express purpose of preserving his text, or not, it has at least had that effect,—for while there are scarcely two MSS. extant which agree in the verbal record of the day and hours, the physical circumstances remain, and afford at all times independent data for the recovery or correction of the true reading.
The day of the month may be deduced from the declination of the sun; and, to obtain the latter, all the data required are,
1. The latitude of the place.
2. Two altitudes of the sun at different sides of noon.
It is not absolutely necessary to have any previous knowledge of the hours at which these altitudes were respectively obtained, because these may be discovered by the trial method of seeking two such hours as shall most nearly agree in requiring a declination common to both at the known altitudes. Of course it will greatly simplify the process if we furthermore know that the observations must have been obtained at some determinate