In some of the earlier numbers of "N. & Q.," there occur disquisitions as to the origin of the term blackguard, and the time at which it came into use in England in its present sense. But the communications of your correspondents have not been satisfactory upon either point—they have not shown the period at which the word came to be accepted in its present sense; and their quotations all apply to its use in a much more simple meaning, and one totally different from that which we now attach to it.

One class of these quotations (Vol. ii., pp. 171. 285.), such as the passages from Butler and Fuller, refer obviously to a popular superstition, during an age when the belief in witchcraft and hobgoblins was universal; and when such creatures of fancy were assigned as Black Guards to his Satanic majesty. "Who can conceive," says Fuller in the paragraph extracted, "but that such a Prince-principal of Darkness must be proportionally attended by a Black Guard of monstrous opinions?" (Church History, b. ix. c. xvi.) And in the verses of Butler referred to, Hudibras, when deceived by Ralpho counterfeiting a ghost in the dark,—

and thereupon in his trepidation discourses with the Squire as follows:

It will be seen that Butler, like Fuller, uses the term in the simple sense as a guard of the Prince of Darkness. But the concluding lines of Hudibras's address to Ralpho explain the process by which, at a late period, this term of the Black Guard came to be applied to the lowest class of domestics in great establishments.

The Black Guard of Satan was supposed to perform the domestic drudgery of the kitchen and servants' hall, in the infernal household. The extract from Hobbes (Vol. ii., p. 134.) refers to this:—

"Since my Lady's decay, I am degraded from a cook; and I fear the Devil himself will entertain me but for one of his black guard, and he shall be sure to have his roast burnt."

Hence came the popular superstition that these goblin scullions, on their visits to the upper world, confined themselves to the servants' apartments of the houses which they favoured with their presence, and which at night they swept and garnished; pinching those of the maids in their sleep who, by their laziness, had imposed such toil on their elfin assistants; but slipping money into the shoes of the more tidy and industrious servants, whose attention to their own duties before going to rest had spared the goblins the task of performing their share of the drudgery. Hudibras apostrophises the ghost as—

and therefore, as the knight concluded—"this devil full of malice" had found sufficient leisure to taunt and rally him in the dark upon his recent disasters.

This belief in the visits of domestic spirits, who busy themselves at night in sweeping and arranging the lower apartments, has prevailed in the North of Ireland and in Scotland from time immemorial: and it is explained in Sir Walter Scott's notes to the Lay of the Last Minstrel, as his justification for introducing the goblin page Gilpin Horner amongst the domestics of Branksome Hall. Perhaps, from the association of these elves with the lower household duties, but more probably from a more obvious cause, came at a later period the practice described by Gifford in his note on Ben Jonson, as quoted by your correspondent (Vol. ii., p. 170.), by which—

"in all great houses, but particularly in the Royal Residences, there were a number of mean dirty dependents, whose office it was to attend the wool-yard, sculleries, &c. Of these, the most forlorn wretches seem to have been selected to carry coals to the kitchens, halls, &c. To this smutty regiment, who attended the progresses, and rode in the carts with the pots and kettles, the people, in derision, gave the name of the black guards."

This is no doubt correct; and hence the expression of Beaumont and Fletcher, quoted from the Elder Brother, that—

meaning from the lowest domestic to the highest functionary of a household. This too explains the force of the allusion, in Jardine's Criminal Trials, to the apartments of Euston House being "far unmeet for her Highness, but fitter for the Black Guard"—that is, for the scullions and lowest servants of an establishment. Swift employs the word in this sense when he says, in the extract quoted by Dr. Johnson in his Dictionary in illustration of the meaning of blackguard,—

"Let a black-guard boy be always about the house to send on your errands, and go to market for you on rainy days."

It will thus be seen, that of the six authors quoted in "N. & Q." no one makes use of the term black guard in an opprobrious sense such as attaches to the more modern word "blackguard;" and that they all wrote within the first fifty years of the seventeenth century. It must therefore be subsequent not only to that date, but to the reign of Queen Anne, that we are to look for its general acceptance in its present contumelious sense. And I believe that its introduction may be traced to a recent period, and to a much more simple derivation than that investigated by your correspondents.

I apprehend that the present term, "a blackguard," is of French origin; and that its importation into our language was subsequent to the Restoration of Charles II., A.D. 1660. There is a corresponding term in French, blague, which, like our English adaptation, is not admissible in good society. It is defined by Bescherelles, in his great Dictionnaire National, to mean "fanfaronnade, hÂblerie, mensonge; bourde, gasconade:" and to be "un mot populaire et bas, dont les personnes bien ÉlevÉes Évitent de se servir." From blague comes the verb blaguer, which the same authority says means "dire des blagues; mentir pour le plaisir de mentir." And from blaguer comes the substantive blagueur, which is, I apprehend, the original of our English word blackguard. It is described by Bescherelles as a "diseur de sornettes et de faussetÉes; hÂbleur, fanfaron. Un blagueur est un menteur, mais un menteur qui a moins pour but de tromper que de se faire valoir."

The English term has, it will be observed, a somewhat wider and more offensive import than the French: and the latter being rarely to be found amongst educated persons, or in dictionaries, it may have escaped the etymologists who were in search of a congener for its English derivative. Its pedigree is, however, to be sought in philological rather than archÆological records. Within the last two centuries, a number of words of honest origin have passed into an opprobrious sense; for example, the oppressed tenants of Ireland are spoken of by Spenser and Sir John Davies as "villains." In our version of the Scriptures, "cunning" implies merely skill in music and in art. Shakspeare employs the word "vagabond" as often to express pity as reproach; and I think it will be found, that as a knave, prior to the reign of Elizabeth, meant merely a serving man, so a blackguard was the name for a pot-boy or scullion in the reign of Queen Anne. The transition into its more modern meaning took place at a later period, on the importation of a foreign word, to which, being already interchangeable in sound, it speedily became assimilated in sense.

J. Emerson Tennent.

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PREDICTIONS OF THE FIRE AND PLAGUE OF LONDON, NO. I.

"It was a trim worke indeede, and a gay world no doubt for some idle cloister-man, mad merry friers, and lusty abbey-lubbers; when themselves were well whittled, and their paunches pretily stuffed, to fall a prophesieing of the woefull dearths, famines, plagues, wars, &c. of the dangerous days imminent."—Harvey's Discoursive Probleme, Lond. 1588.

Among the sly hits at our nation, which abound in the lively pages of the Sieur d'Argenton, is one to the effect that an Englishman always has an old prophecy in his possession. The worthy Sieur is describing the meeting of Louis X. and our Henry II. near Picquini, where the Chancellor of England commenced his harangue by alluding to an ancient prophecy which predicted that the Plain of Picquini should be the scene of a memorable and lasting peace between the two nations. "The Bishop," says Commines, "commenÇa par une prophÉtie, dont," adds he, en parenthÈse, "les Anglois ne sont jamais despourveus."^[1] Even at this early period, we had thus acquired a reputation for prophecies, and it must be confessed that our chronicles abound in passages which illustrate the justice of the Sieur's sarcasm. From the days of York and Lancaster, when, according to Lord Northampton "bookes of beasts and babyes were exceeding ryfe, and current in every quarter and corner of the realme,"^[2] up to the time of Napoleon's projected invasion, when the presses of the Seven Dials were unusually prolific in visions and predictions, pandering to the popular fears of the country—our national character for vaticination has been amply sustained by a goodly array of prophets, real or pretended, whose lucubrations have not even yet entirely lost their influence upon the popular mind. To this day, the ravings of Nixon are "household words" in Cheshire; and I am told that a bundle of "Dame Shipton's Sayings" still forms a very saleable addition to the pack of a Yorkshire pedlar. Recent discoveries in biological science have given to the subject of popular prophecies a philosophical importance beyond the mere curiosity or strangeness of the details. Whether or not the human mind, under certain conditions, becomes endowed with the prescient faculty, is a question I do not wish to discuss in your pages: I merely wish to direct attention to a neglected and not uninteresting chapter in the curiosities of literature.

In delving among what may be termed the popular religious literature of the latter years of the Commonwealth, and early part of the reign of Charles, we become aware of the existence of a kind of nightmare which the public of that age were evidently labouring under—a strong and vivid impression that some terrible calamity was impending over the metropolis. Puritanic tolerance was sorely tried by the licence of the new Court; and the pulpits were soon filled with enthusiasts of all sects, who railed in no measured terms against the monster city—the city Babylon—the bloody city! as they loved to term her: proclaiming with all the fervour of fanaticism that the measure of her iniquities was well nigh full, and the day of her extinction at hand. The press echoed the cry; and for some years before and after the Restoration, it teemed with "warnings" and "visions," in which the approaching destruction is often plainly predicted. One of the earliest of these prefigurations occurs in that Leviathan of Sermons, God's Plea for Nineveh, or London's Precedent for Mercy, by Thomas Reeve: London, 1657. Speaking of London, he says:

It was Troy-novant, it is Troy le grand, and it will be Troy l'extinct."—P. 217.

And again:

"Methinks I see you bringing pick-axes to dig downe your owne walls, and kindling sparks that will act all in a flame from one end of the city to the other."—P. 214.

And afterwards, in a strain of rough eloquence:

"This goodly city of yours all in shreds, ye may seek for a threshold of your antient dwellings, for a pillar of your pleasant habitations, and not find them; all your spacious mansions and sumptuous monuments are then gone.... Wo unto us, our sins have pulled down our houses, shaken down our city; we are the most harbourlesse featlesse people in the world.... Foxes have holes, and the fowls of the air nests, but we have neither; our sins have deprived us both of couch and covert. What inventions shall ye then be put to, to secure yourselves, when your sins shall have shut up all the conduits of the city, and suffer only the Liver conduit to run^[3]; when they allow you no showers of rain, but showers of blood; when ye shall see no men of your incorporation, but the mangl'd citizen; nor hear no noise in your streets but the crys, the shrieks, the yells and pangs of gasping, dying men; when, amongst the throngs of associates, not a man will own you or come near you," &c.—Pp. 221. et seq.

After alluding to the epidemics of former ages, he thus alludes to the coming plague:

"It will chase men out of their houses, as if there was some fierce enemy pursuing them, and shut up shop doors, as if execution after judgment was served upon the merchants; there will then be no other music to be heard but doleful knells, nor no other wares to be born up and down but dead corpses; it will change mansion houses into pest-houses, and gather congregations rather into churchyards than churches.... The markets will be so empty, that scarce necessaries will be brought in, a new kind of brewers will set up, even apothecaries to prepare diet drinks."—P. 255.

The early Quakers, like most other religious enthusiasts, claimed the gift of prophecy: and we are indebted to members of the sect for many contributions to this branch of literature. Humphrey Smith was one of the most celebrated of the vaticinating Quakers. Little is known of his life and career. He appears to have joined the Quakers about 1654; and after enduring a long series of persecutions and imprisonments for the sake of his adopted creed, finally ended his days in Winchester gaol in 1662. The following passage, from a Vision which he saw concerning London (London, 1660). is startling^[4]:

"And as for the city, herself and her suburbs, and all that belonged to her, a fire was kindled therin; but she knew not how, even in all her goodly places, and the kindling of it was in the foundation of all her buildings, and there was none could quench it.... And the burning thereof was exceeding great, and it burned inward in a hidden manner which cannot be described.... All the tall buildings fell, and it consumed all the lofty things therein, and the fire searched out all the hidden places, and burned most in the secret places. And as I passed through her streets I beheld her state to be very miserable, and very few were those who were left in her, who were but here and there one: and they feared not the fire, neither did the burning hurt them, but they walked as dejected mournful people.... And the fire continued, for, though all the lofty part was brought down, yet there was much old stuffe, and parts of broken-down desolate walls, which the fire continued burning against.... And the vision thereof remained in me as a thing that was showed me of the Lord."

Daniel Baker, Will Lilly, and Nostradamus, I shall reserve for another paper.

T. Sternberg.

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NOTES AND QUERIES ON BACON'S ESSAYS, NO. II.

(Vol. vii., p. 6.)

Essay I. p. 2. "One of the fathers." Who, and where?

Ditto, ditto. The poet. Lucretus, ii., init. "Suave mari magno," &c.

Ditto, p. 3. (note i). Plutarch. Does Montaigne allude to Plutarch, De Liberis educandis, vol. ii. (ed. Xyland.) 11 C.: "t? ??? ?e?des?a? d????p?ep?? ?.t.?."?

Essay II. p. 4. "You shall read in some of the friars' books," &c. Where?

Ditto, ditto. "Pompa magis," &c. Does Bacon quote this from memory, referring to "Tolle istam pompam, sub qu lates, et stultos territas"? (Ep. XXIV. vol. ii. p. 92.: ed. Elzev. 1672.)

Ditto, p. 5. "We read," &c. Tac. Hist., ii. 49. "Quidam milites juxta rogum interfecere se, non nox neque ob metum, sed Æmulatione decoris et caritate principis." Cf. Sueton. Vit. Oth., 12.

Ditto, ditto. "Cogita quamdiu," &c. Whence is this?

Ditto, ditto. "Augustus CÆsar died," &c. Suet. Vit. Octav., 99.

Ditto, ditto. "Tiberius in dissimulation." Tac. Ann., vi. 50.

Ditto, ditto. "Vespasian." Suet. Vit. Vespas., 23.

Ditto, ditto. "Galba." Tac. Hist., i. 41.

Ditto, ditto. "Septimus Severus." Whence is this?

Ditto, p. 6. (note m). "In the tenth Satire of Juvenal." V. 357., seq.

Ditto, ditto. "Extinctus amabitur idem." Hor. Epist. ii. l. 14.

Essay III. p. 8. "A master of scoffing." Rabelais, Pantagruel, book ii. cap. viii. (p. 339. vol. i. ed. Bohn, 1849.)

Ditto, p. 9. "As it is noted by one of the fathers." By whom, and where?

Ditto, p. 10. "Lucretius." I. 102.

Ditto, p. 11. "It was a notable observation of a wise father." Of whom, and where?

Essay IV. p. 13. "For the death of Pertinax." See Hist. Aug. Script., vol. i. p. 578. (Lugd. Bat. 1671.)

Ditto, ditto, (note f). "The poet." Ovid, Ar. Am., i. 655.

Essay V. ditto. "Bona rerum secundarum," &c. Does Bacon allude to Seneca (Ep. lxvi. p. 238., ut sup.), where, after stating that "In Æquo est moderatÈ gaudere, et moderatÈ dolere;" he adds, "Illa bona optabilia sunt, hÆc mirabilia"?

Ditto, ditto. "Vere magnum habere," &c. Whence is this?

Ditto, ditto. "The strange fiction of the ancient poets." In note (a) we find "Stesichorus, Apollodorus, and others" named. Whereabouts?

Ditto, p. 11. (note c). "This fine passage has been quoted by Macaulay." Ut sup., p. 407.

Essay VI. p. 15. "Tacitus saith." Ann., v. 1.

Ditto, ditto. "And again, when Mucianus," &c. Ditto, Hist., ii. 76.

Ditto, ditto. "Which indeed are arts, &c., as Tacitus well calleth them." Where?

Ditto, p. 17. "It is a good shrewd proverb of the Spaniard." What is the proverb?

Essay VII. p. 19. "The precept, 'Optimum elige,' &c." Whence? though I am ashamed to ask.

Essay VIII. p. 20. "The generals." See Æsch. PersÆ, 404. (Dindf.), and Blomfield in loc. (v. 411. ed. suÆ).

Ditto, ditto. "It was said of Ulysses," &c. By whom? Compare Od., v. 218.

Ditto, p. 21. "He was reputed," &c. Who?

(To be continued.)

P. J. F. Gantillon, B.A.

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FOLK LORE.

Irish Superstitious Customs.—The following strange practices of the Irish are described in a MS. of the sixteenth century, and seem to have a Pagan origin:

"Upon Maie Eve they will drive their cattell upon their neighbour's corne, to eate the same up; they were wont to begin from the rast, and this principally upon the English churl. Onlesse they do so upon Maie daie, the witch hath power upon their cattell all the yere following."

The next paragraph observes that "they spitt in the face; Sir R. Shee spat in Ladie —— face."

Spenser alludes to spitting on a person for luck, and I have experienced the ceremony myself.

H.

Charm for Warts.—I remember in Leicestershire seeing the following charm employed for removal of a number of warts on my brother, then a child about five years old. In the month of April or May he was taken to an ash-tree by a lady, who carried also a paper of fresh pins; one of these was first struck through the bark, and then pressed through the wart until it produced pain: it was then taken out and stuck into the tree. Each wart was thus treated, a separate pin being used for each. The warts certainly disappeared in about six weeks. I saw the same tree a year or two again, when it was very thickly studded over with old pins, each the index of a cured wart.

T. J.

Liverpool.

The Devil.—

"According to the superstition of the west countries if you meet the devil, you may either cut him in half with a straw, or force him to disappear by spitting over his horns."—Essays on his own Times, by S. T. Coleridge, vol. iii. p. 967.

J. M. B.

If you sing before breakfast you will cry before supper.

If you wish to have luck, never shave on a Monday.

J. M. B.

"Winter Thunder," &c.—I was conversing the other day with a very old farmer on the disastrous rains and storms of the present season, when he told me that he thought we had not yet seen the worst; and gave as a reason the following proverb:

H. T.

Ingatestone Hall, Essex.

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MALTA THE BURIAL-PLACE OF HANNIBAL.

Malta affords a fine field for antiquarian research; and in no part more so than in the neighbourhood of Citta Vecchia, where for some distance the ground is dotted with tombs which have already been opened.

Here, in ancient times, was the site of a burial-place, but for what people, or at what age, is now unknown; and here it is that archÆologists should commence their labours, that in the result they may not be disappointed. In some of the tombs which have been recently entered in this vicinity, fragments of linen cloth have been seen, in which bodies were enveloped at the time of their burial; in others glass, and earthen candlesticks, and jars, hollow throughout and of a curious shape; while in a few were earrings and finger-rings made of the purest gold, but they are rarely found.

There cannot be a doubt that many valuable antiquities will yet be discovered, and in support of this presumption I would only refer to those now known to exist; the Giant's Tower at Gozo, the huge tombs in the Bengemma Hills, and those extensive and remarkable ruins at Krendi, which were excavated by order of the late Sir Henry Bouverie, and remain as a lasting and honourable memento of his rule, being among the number.

An antiquary, being at Malta, cannot pass a portion of an idle day more agreeably than in visiting some singular sepulchral chambers not far from Notabile, which are built in a rocky eminence, and with entrances several feet from the ground. These are very possibly the tombs of the earliest Christians, who tried in their erection "to imitate that of our Saviour, by building them in the form of caves, and closing their portals with marble or stone." When looking at these tombs from a terrace near the Cathedral, we were strongly reminded of those which were seen by our lately deceased friend Mr. John L. Stephens, and so well described by him in his Incidents of Travel in eastern lands. Had we time or space, we should more particularly refer to several other interesting remains now scattered over the island, and, among them, to that curious sepulchre not a long time ago discovered in a garden at Rabato. We might write of the inscription on its walls, "In pace posita sunt," and of the figures of a dove and hare which were near it, to show that the ashes of those whom they buried there were left in peace. We might also make mention, more at length, of a tomb which was found at the point Beni Isa in 1761, having on its face a Phoenician inscription, which Sir William Drummond thus translates:

"The interior room of the tomb of Ænnibal, illustrious in the consummation of calamity. He was beloved. The people, when they are drawn up in order of battle, weep for Ænnibal the son of Bar Malek."

Sir Grenville Temple remarks, that the great Carthaginian general is supposed, by the Maltese, to have been a native of their island, and one of the Barchina family, once known to have been established in Malta; while some writers have stated that his remains were brought from Bithynia to this island, to be placed in the tomb of his ancestors; and this supposition, from what we have read, may be easily credited.

Might I ask if there is any writer, ancient or modern, who has recorded that Malta was not the burial-place of Hannibal?

W. W.

Malta.

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