I do not wish, however, to be considered as positively affirming the treatise to be Tyndale's. Foxe, the martyrologist, edited Tyndale's works for Day, and he has only said that this treatise was "compiled, as some do gather, by M. Wm. Tyndale, because the method and phrase agree with his, and the time of writing are [sic] concurrent." On the other hand, the authorship is unhesitatingly assigned to Tyndale by Mr. C. Anderson (Annals of the English Bible, §ix. ad finem), and by Mr. Geo. Offer (Mem. of Tyndale, p. 30.), the two most pains-taking and best informants as to his works. But still there are objections of such force, that I must confess myself rather inclined to attribute the treatise to Joy's pen, if I could but be satisfied that he was capable of writing so correctly, and of keeping so clear of vulgarity in a controversy with a popish persecutor.
FOLK LORE
Palm Sunday Wind.—It is a common idea among many of the farmers and labourers of this immediate neighbourhood, that, from whatever quarter the wind blows for the most part on Palm Sunday, it will continue to blow from the same quarter for the most part during the ensuing summer.
Is this notion prevalent in other parts of the country, as a piece of "Folk-Lore?"
Winchester, March 26.
Curious Symbolical Custom.—On Saturday last I married a couple in the parish church. An old woman, an aunt of the bridegroom, displeased at the marriage, stood at the church gate and pronounced an anathema on the married pair. She then bought a new broom, went home, swept her house, and hung the broom over the door. By this she intimated her rejection of her nephew, and forbade him to enter her house. Is this a known custom? What is its origin?
St. Peter's, Thanet, March 25. 1850.
The Wild Huntsman.—The interesting contributions of your correspondent "Seleucus," on "Folk Lore," brought to my recollection the "Wild Huntsman" of the German poet, Tieck; of whose verses on that superstitious belief, still current among the imaginative peasantry of Germany, I send you a translation, done into English many years ago. The Welsh dogs of Annwn, or "couriers of the air"—the spirit-hounds who hunt the souls of the dead—are part of that popular belief existing among all nations, which delivers up the noon of night to ungracious influences, that "fade on the crowing of the cock."
"THE WILD HUNTSMAN
"At the dead of the night the Wild Huntsman awakes,
In the deepest recess of the dark forest's brakes;
He lists to the storm, and arises in scorn.
He summons his hounds with his far-sounding horn;
He mounts his black steed; like the lightning they fly
And sweep the hush'd forest with snort and with cry.
Loud neighs his black courser; hark his horn, how 'tis swelling!
He chases his comrades, his hounds wildly yelling.
Speed along! speed along! for the race is all ours;
Speed along! speed along! while the midnight still lours;
The spirits of darkness will chase him in scorn,
Who dreads our wild howl, and the shriek of our horn,
Thus yelling and belling they sweep on the wind,
The dread of the pious and reverent mind:
But all who roam gladly in forests, by night,
This conflict of spirits will strangely delight."
Oxford, March 13.
ON AUTHORS AND BOOKS, NO. VI
In the union of scholarship, polished manners, and amiability of character, we have had few men to surpass the reverend Joseph Spence. His career was suitable to his deserts. He was fortunate in his connections, fortunate in his appointments, and fortunate in his share of fame.
His fame, however, is somewhat diminished. His Essay on the Odyssey, which procured him the friendship of Pope, has ceased to be in request; his Polymetis, once the ornament of every choice library, has been superseded by the publications of Millin and Smith; his poems are only to be met with in the collections of Dodsley and Nichols. If we now dwell with pleasure on his name, it is chiefly as a recorder of the sayings of others—it is on account of his assiduity in making notes! I allude to the volume entitled Anecdotes, observations, and characters of books and men, which was edited by my friend Mr. Singer, with his wonted care and ability in 1820.
The Essay on the Odyssey was first published anonymously in 1726-7. It was reprinted in 1737 and 1747. A copy of the latter edition, now in my possession, contains this curious note:—
"It is remarkable that of twelve passages objected to in this critique on the English Odyssey, two only are found in those books which were translated by Pope.
"From Mr. Langton, who had his information from Mr. Spence.
"When Spence carried his preface to Gorboduc in 1736 to Pope, he asked him his opinion. Pope said 'It would do very well; there was nothing pert or low in it.' Spence was satisfied with this praise, which however, was in implied censure on all his other writings.—He is very fond of the familiar vulgarisms of common talk, and is the very reverse of Dr. Johnson.
The note is not signed at length, but there can be no doubt as to its authorship, as I purchased the volume which contains it at the sale of the unreserved books of Mr. Malone in 1818.
QUERIES
NICHOLAS BRETON'S "CROSSING OF PROVERBS."
Although my query respecting William Basse and his poem, "Great Britain's Sun's Set," (No. 13. p. 200), produced no positive information touching that production, it gave an opportunity to some of your correspondents to communicate valuable intelligence relating to the author and to other works by him, for which I, for one, was very much obliged. If I did not obtain exactly what I wanted, I obtained something that hereafter may be extremely useful; and that I could not, perhaps, have obtained in any other way than through the medium of your pleasant and welcome periodical.
I am now, therefore, about to put a question regarding another writer of more celebrity and ability. Among our early pamphleteers, there was certainly none more voluminous than Nicholas Breton, who began writing in 1575, and did not lay down his pen until late in the reign of James I. A list of his pieces (by no means complete, but the fullest that has been compiled) may be seen in Lowndes's Bibl. Manual; it includes several not by Breton, among them Sir Philip Sidney's Ourania, 1606, which in fact is by a person of the name Backster; and it omits the one to which my present communication refers, and regarding which I am at some loss.
In the late Mr. Heber's Catalogue, part iv. p. 10., I read as follows, under the name of Nicholas Breton:—
"Crossing of Proverbs. The Second Part, with certaine briefe Questions and Answeres, by N.B., Gent. Extremely rare and very curious, but imperfect. It appears to contain a portion of the first part, and also of the second; but it appears to be unknown."
Into whose hands this fragment devolved I know not; and that is one point I am anxious to ascertain, because I have another fragment, which consists of what is evidently the first sheet of the first part of the tract in question, with the following title-page, which I quote totidem literis:—
"Crossing of Proverbs. Crosse-Answeres. And Crosse-Humours. By B.N., Gent. At London, Printed for John Wright, and are to be solde at his Shop without