  Supporters borne by Commoners.—Can any of your readers state why some commoners bear supporters, and whether the representatives of Bannerets are entitled to do so? I find in Burke's Dictionary of Landed Gentry, that several gentlemen in England, Scotland, and Ireland continue to use them. See Fulford, p. 452.; Wyse, p. 1661.; Hay-Newton, p. 552., &c. &c. The late Mr. Portman, father of Lord Portman, used supporters, as do Sir W. Carew, Bart., and some other baronets. [Baronets are not entitled, as such, to bear supporters, which are the privilege of the peerage and the knights of the orders. There are many baronets who by virtue of especial warrants from the sovereign have, as acts of grace and favour, in consideration of services rendered to the state, received such grants; and in these instances they are limited to descend with the dignity only. No doubt there are some private families who assume and improperly bear supporters, but whose right to do so, even under their own statements as to origin and descent, has no legal foundation. "Notes And Queries" afford neither space nor place for the discussion of such questions, or for the remarks upon a correction of statements in the works quoted.] Answer to Fisher's Relation.—I have a work published at London by Adam Islip, an. 1620, the title-page of which bears—
Pray, who was the chaplain? I have heard he was the after-famous Archbishop Laud. I pray your assistance in the resolution of this Query. Liverpool. [This famous conference was the third held by divines of the Church of England with the Jesuit Fisher (or Perse, as his name really was: see Dodd's Church History, vol. iii. p. 394.). The first two were conducted by Dr. Francis White: the latter by Bishop Laud, was held in May, 1622, and the account of it published by R.B. (i.e. Dr. Richard Baylie, who married Laud's niece, and was at that time his chaplain, and afterwards president of St. John's College, Oxford). Should J.M. possess a copy printed in 1620, it would be a literary curiosity. Laud says himself, that "his Discourse was not printed till April, 1624."] Drink up Eisell (Vol. iii., p. 119.).—Here is a passage in Troilus and Cressida, in which drink up occurs (Act IV. Sc. 1.): "He, like a puling cuckold, would drink up The lees and dregs of a flat-tamed piece." The meaning is plainly here avaler, not boire. Here is another, which does not perhaps illustrate the passage in Hamlet, but resembles it (Act III. Sc. 2.):
[We are warned by several correspondents that this subject is becoming as bitter as wormwood to them. Before we dismiss it, however, we must record in our pages the opinion of one of the most distinguished commentators of the day, Mr. Hunter, who in his New Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 263., after quoting "potions of eysell" from the sonnet, says, "This shows it was not any river so called, but some desperate drink. The word occurs often in a sense in which acetum is the best representative, associated with verjuice and vinegar. It is the term used for one ingredient of the bitter potion given to our Saviour on the cross, about the composition of which the commentators are greatly divided. Thus the eighth prayer of the Fifteen Oos in the Salisbury Primer, 1555, begins thus: 'O Blessed Jesu, sweetness of heart and ghostly pleasure of souls, I beseech thee for the bitterness of the aysell and gall that thou tasted and suffered for me in thy passion,' &c." Since the above was written, we have received a communication from An English Mother with the words and music of the nursery song, showing that the music does not admit the expressions "eat up," and "drink up;" quoting from Haldorson's Icelandic Lexicon, Eysill, m. Haustrum en Ose allsa; and asking what if Shakspeare meant either a pump or a bucket? We have also received a Note from G.F.G. showing that eisel in Dutch, German, and Anglo-Saxon, &c., meant vinegar, and stating, that during his residence in Florence in 1817, 1818, and 1819, he had often met with wormwood wine at the table of the Italians, a weak white wine of Tuscany, in which wormwood had been infused, which was handed round by the servants immediately after the soup, and was believed to promote digestion.] Saxon Coin struck at Derby.—In the reign of Athelstan there was a royal mint at Derby, and a coinage was struck, having on the obverse merely the name of the town, Deoraby, and on the other side the legend "HEGENREDES MO . ON . DEORABY." What is the meaning of this inscription? Derby, Feb. 26. 1851. [If HEGENREDES is rightly written, it is the name of a moneyer. MO . ON . DEORABY signifies Monetarius (or Moneyer) in Derby. Coins are known with MEGENFRED and MEGNEREDTES, and our correspondent may have read his coin wrongly.] |
|
