Suddenly, upon this songe, the cornets were winded, and the travers that was drawn before the masquers sanke downe. The whole shewe presently appeereth, which presented itself in this figure the whole body of it seemed to be the syde of a steepely assending woodd, on the top of which, in a fayre oak, sat a goulden eagle, under whose wings satt in eight severall thrones the eight masquers, with wisards like starres, then belmes like Mercurye's, with the addition of fayre plumes of carnation and white, then antique doublets and other furniture suitable to these colours, the place full of shields, lights, and pages, all in blew satten robes, imbrodered with starres. The masquers, thus discovered, satt still, untill Ariadne pronounced their invocation, at which thei descended:

Mercurian issue, sonne of sonne of Jove, By the Cyllenian rodd, and by the love Deuotely chaste you vow Pasithea, Descende, &c.

And O, yf ever you were worthe the grace Of viewing majestie in mortalls face; Yf ere to perfect worth you vow'd hart's duty, [beauty." Shew spiritt worth your virtues and their The violins upon this played a new measure, in which the masquers danced, and ceasing, Cynthia spake :

Stay a little, and now breath yee, Whilst their ladies grace bequeath yee, Then mixe faire bandes, &c.

Cynthia charmes hence what may displease

yee.

From ladies that are rudely coy,
Barring their loves from modest joy,
From ignorant silence, and proud lookes,
From those that aunswer out of bookes,
I blesse the fortune of each starry knight.
From gallants who still court with oathes,
From those whose only grace is cloathes,
From bombast stockings, vile legg-makers,
From beardes and great tobecca takers,
I blesse the fortune of each starry dame.
Singe that my charme may be more
stronge,

The goddes are bounde. by verse and songe."

THE SONGE.

"Audatious nighte makes bold the lippe, Now all court chaster pleasure, Whilst to Apollo's harp you trippe, And tread the gracing measure. Now meete, now breake, then fayne a warlike salley,

So Cynthia sports, and so the godes may dalley," &c.

During this song, the masquers presented theire sheelds, and took forth their ladyes to daunce, &c.

After they had daunced many measures, galliards, corantos, and lavaltos, the night being much spent, selves for their departing measure, whilst the masquers prepared themCynthia spake thus:"

"Now pleasing, rest; for see the nighte, (Wherein pale Cynthia claimes her right,) Is allmost spent, the morning growes, The rose and violet she strowes, Uppon the high cœlestial floore,

'Gainst Phoebus rise from's parramoore.

The Faieries that my shades pursue,
And bath theire feete in my cold dew,
Now leave their ringletts and be quiett,
Lest my brother's eye shoulde spy it.
Then now let every gratious starr,
Avoide at sound of Phoebus carr;
Into your proper place retyre,
With bosoms full of beauties fier;
Hence must slide the queene of floodes,
For day begins to glide the woodes:
Then whilst we singe, though you departe,
I'le sweare that heere you leave your
barte."

20

Mr. URBAN,

ON

East Retford, Sept. 2. N reading the proper Lessons appointed for the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity, out of the Bible, usually denominated the Great (or Cranmer's) Bible (2d edition, 1539), I was struck with the following passage in the First Lesson for the Evening Service; in the ninth chapter of the Second Book of Kings.-After the messenger, sent by Elisha the Prophet to anoint Jehu King over Israel, had performed his errand and fled, and Jehu had informed the other officers of what had happened, the text in this Bible goes on to say——

"Then they besyde the Horologie hasted and toke every man his garment and put it under hym, and blew with trompettes, sayinge Jehu is Kynge, &c. &c.'"

Having a reprint of this Bible (by Harrison in 1562) I looked into it and found the passage, word for word the same. Now, by referring to the 13th verse of the same chapter, according to the translation used ever since 1611, your readers will find the parellel passage rendered thus

"Then they basted and took every man his garment, and put it under him on the top of the stairs; and blew with trumpets, saying, Jehu is King.""

As I have not the smallest knowledge of the language in which the Old Testament was originally composed, and was a good deal struck with the apparent discrepancy of the above passages, I naturally applied myself to all the Translations

[Jan.

in my possession, and in a Latin Translation, printed at Leyden by Crespin in 1529, I found the words "Festinaverunt itaque et unusquisque tollens pallium suum posuerunt sub pedibus ejus in similitudinem tribunalis, et cecinerunt tuba, &c."

In three other Bibles printed at Venice, by Reynsburch, 1478, at Florence, by the Giunti, 1519, and at Antwerp, by Plantin, 1590, the words are the same as in that of Crespin, 1529. But in the Bible of Tremel lius and Junius, printed at Hanover, by Wechel, in 1624, I found that the now commonly received text is adopted; for the expression is-" Tunc festinanter accipientes quisque vestem suam, supposuerunt ei in Fastigio Graduum, et clangentes buccina dicebant, &c."

I pass over other Latin versions, and proceed to some old English Bibles.

The Bishops' Bible (1568), is the same as King James's, of 1611 (now in use). printed by Daye in 1549, and in But in Taverner's Bible, Matthews' Bible, printed the same year, we read

"And they hasted and toke every man his mantell, and put under him on an hye bench at the toppe of steppes, and blew a trumpet, &c."

Now, Sir, if any of your learned Correspondents would favour us with Hebrew, it might at once explain a literal translation of the original the seeming difficulties of the various extracts which I have made, or at least tend to reconcile the apparent contradictions therein. Josein hand, and Stackhouse I have also phus furnishes no clue to the matter consulted in vain. The learned SiCommentary upon the words " mon Patrick (Bishop of Ely), in his upon the top of the stairs"-observes from de Dieu, "They did not stay 'till they came down into the street, but forthwith upon the very top of the stairs of the place where they were sitting, acknowledged him for their Sovereign, by spreading garments under his feet to tread upon." And he adds, that Gousset guesses "these were winding stairs in a turret, on the top of which tower they placed Jehu, that all the people might see him, &c.” Mr. Pyle diffidently remarks, that "they forthwith spread their garments in the Council Room

under

under his feet for him to tread upon, or else raised a kind of throne with them for him to sit upon, &c."

Whether the original Hebrew will admit of all these different explanations literatim, I am completely ignorant, but I fancy I can spy (by means of them altogether) a way of reconciling Cranmer's text with some of the inferences obtained from the other Translators and their Commentators. For supposing that the stairs or steppes (as Matthews and Taverner designate them) were the winding-stairs or stone steps of or leading into a turret or tower within which was the Council Room, and such tower had a flat roof, on which a dial or horologe, or other of the earliest measurers and indicators of time was conspicuously erected for public inspection; this would in some degree reconcile the different ways of relating the same transaction, but would not justify a figurative use of the original passage. The Captains might certainly, beside such horologe upon the roof of, and at or near the top of the stairs or steppes of the tower, with their mantles, or upper gar ments, raise a temporary high bench, tribunal, or throne, for Jehu to sit upon, from whence he might be seen by the people, when with trumpets, &c. he was proclaimed King. [And this supposition and enlarged statement, combines all the accounts given in the above Translatious, i. e. the horologie in Cranmer; the similitudo tribunalis in the Leyden, &c. Bibles; the fastigio graduum of the Hanover Bible; and the high bench at the toppe of the steps in Taverner and Matthews.] But the quere is, do the Hebrew words admit of, or justify all these different modes of expression (leaving nothing defective in any); and if not, what is the genuine and literal translation of the original passage, as it came from the inspired Penman. Yours, &c. INVESTIGATOR.

of Adam and Eve in the act of taking the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, and thus constituting the Fall of Man-the salvation of Noah and his family in the Ark-the Baptism of our Saviour in the river Jordan, by John the Baptist-and St. Philip baptizing the Eunuch.-The Font has been from remote times an object of great attention for the sculptor; and the workmanship of this has so many curious and interesting parts, that it is a very favourable specimen of performances of this kind. The compartments have been chosen with great knowledge and taste, every one of them alluding to the sacred mystery connected with it.

The late Mr. Malcolm, p. 101, in his 4th volume of Londinium Redivivum, notices this Font, as well as some Parish Annals, extracted from a very ancient and curious book belonging to the Parish, which I should otherwise have felt much pleasure in transcribing for your Miscellany.

J. B.

THE CENSOR.-No. IV. INQUIRY INTO THE PROGRESS OF ANECDOTAL LITERATURE.

(Continued from vol. XC. ii. p. 592.)

T was never our intention to ex

hibit a Retrospective Review, or even a Catalogue Raisonnée, of all works relating to Anecdotes; but simply to record such as we imagined might furnish the Reader with some information respecting their origin and prevalence of many nothing further than the title is known to us, as copies of them are not to be found in the British Museum; nor do we wish to conceal, that others, with which the Antiquary may be familiar, or which have been alluded to by modern writers, have escaped our notice.

In 1603 was printed a story-book, entitled Westward for Smelts, 4to; a late entry of which on the Stationers' Books, in January 1619, describes it as the production of Kitt of Kingston. Mr. Steevens, who had perused this Tract, supposes one of its tales to have been the origin of the "Cymbeline" of Shakspeare, and as such it is worthy of record.

The next work that occurs is "Pasquil's Jests, mixed with Mother Bunch's Merriments. Whereunto is added a doozen of Gulles. Pretty

and