Part 3

"None is more able for, yet none is more averse to, that circumlocution and contrivance wherewith some men shadow their main drift and purpose. _Speech was made to open man to man, and not to hide him_; to promote commerce, and not betray it."

Dr. South, Lloyd's cotemporary, but who survived him more than twenty years, expresses the sentiment in nearly the same words:

"In short, this seems to be the true inward judgment of all our politick sages, that _speech was given to the ordinary sort of men, whereby to communicate their mind, but to wise men whereby to conceal it_."

The next writer in whom this thought occurs is Butler, the author of _Hudibras_. In one of his prose essays on the "Modern Politician," he says:

"He (the modern politician) believes a man's words and his meanings should never agree together: for he that says what he thinks lays himself open to be expounded by the most ignorant; and _he who does not make his words rather serve to conceal than discover the sense of his heart_, deserves to have it pulled out, like a traitor's, and shown publicly to the rabble."

Young has the thought in the following couplet on the duplicity of courts:

"When Nature's end of language is declin'd, And men talk only to _conceal their mind_."

From Young it passed to Voltaire, who in the dialogue entitled "Le Chapon et la Poularde," makes the former say of the treachery of men:

"Ils n'emploient les paroles que pour _déguiser leurs pensées_."

Goldsmith, about the same time, in his paper in _The Bee_, produces it in the well-known words:

"Men who know the world hold that the true use of speech is not so much to _express_ our wants, as to _conceal_ them."

Then comes Talleyrand, who is reported to have said:

"La parole n'a été donnée à l'homme que pour _déguiser sa pensée_."

The latest writer who adopts this remark without acknowledgment is, I believe, Lord Holland. In his _Life of Lope de Vega_ he says of certain Spanish writers, promoters of the _cultismo_ style:

"These authors do not avail themselves of the invention of letters for the purpose of _conveying, but of concealing, their ideas_."

From these passages (some of which have already appeared in Vol. i., p. 83) it will be seen that the germ of the thought occurs in Jeremy Taylor; that Lloyd and South improved upon it; that Butler, Young and Goldsmith repeated it; that Voltaire translated it into French; that Talleyrand echoed Voltaire's words; and that it has now become so familiar an expression, that any one may quote it, as Lord Holland has done, without being at the trouble of giving his authority.

If, from the search for the author, we turn to consider the saying itself, we shall find that its practical application extends not merely to every species of equivocation, mental reservation, and even falsehood; but comprises certain forms of speech, which are intended to convey the _contrary_ of what they express. To this class of words the French have given the designation of _contre-vérité_; and, to my surprise, I find that they include therein the expression _amende honorable_. Upon this point the _Grammaire des Grammaires_, by Girault Duvivier, has these remarks:

"La contre-vérité a beaucoup de rapport avec l'ironie. Amende honorable, par exemple, est une contre-vérité, une vérité prise dans un sens opposé à celui de son énonciation; car, au lieu d'être honorable, elle est infamante, déshonorante."

I have some doubts as to whether this meaning of _amende honorable_ be in accordance with our English notion of its import; and I shall be thankful to any of your readers who will help me to a solution. I always understood that the term _honorable_, in this expression, was to be taken in its literal sense, namely, that the person who made an open avowal of his fault, or tendered an apology for it, was acting, _in that respect_, in strict conformity with the rules of honour. It is possible that, at first, the _amende honorable_ may have been designed as a "peine infamante;" but its modern acceptation would seem to admit of a more liberal construction. {312}

There are other expressions, framed upon this "lucus a non lucendo" principle, which may fairly be classed among _contre-vérités_. The French say that a thing is _à propos de bottes_, when it is altogether inappropriate. We all use the formula of "your most obedient, humble servant," even when we intend anything but humility or obedience.

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia.

* * * * *

IRISH RHYMES.

(Vol. vi., pp. 431. 539. 605.)

MR. CUTHBERT BEDE (Vol. vi., p. 605.) says "he thinks A. B. R. would have to search a long time, before he found, in the pages of Pope, such brogue-inspired rhymes as _rake well_ and _sequel_, _starve it_ and _deserve it_, _charge ye_ and _clergy_, and others quoted by him at p. 431." Among the latter, I presume he chiefly relies on the rhymes _satire_ and _hater_, _creature_ and _nature_.

Of all these I am able to adduce parallel instances both from Dryden and Pope. And first, as to _rake well_ and _sequel_. MR. BEDE is, of course, aware that these are double rhymes; that _quel_ and _well_ are good English rhymes; and that the brogue betrays itself only in the first syllable of each, _rake_ and _se_. It is, in fact, the same sort of rhyme as _break_ and _weak_, which is of such frequent occurrence both in Dryden and Pope. Here is an example from each:

"Or if they should, their interest soon would _break_, And with such odious aid make David _weak_." _Absalom and Achitophel._

"Men in their loose, unguarded hours they _take_; Not that themselves are wise, but others _weak_." _Essay on Man._

The next "brogue-inspired rhyme" is _starve it_ and _deserve it_. Here, as in the former instance, the last syllables rhyme correctly, and the objection is confined to _starve_ and _deserve_. Let us see what Dryden says to this:

"Wrong conscience, or no conscience, may _deserve_ To thrive, but ours alone is privileged to _starve_." _Hind and Panther._

And Pope:

"But still the great have kindness in _reserve_: He help'd to bury whom he help'd to _starve_." _Prologue to the Satires._

Of this species of rhyme I have noted _three other_ instances in Dryden, and _two_ in Pope.

As regards the rhyme _charge ye_ and _clergy_, no instance, in the same words, occurs in Dryden or Pope. They did not write much in that sort of doggerel. But the brogue, even here, is nothing more than the confounding of the sounds of _a_ and _e_, which is so beautifully exemplified in the following couplet in Dryden:

"For yet no George, to our _discerning_, Has writ without a ten years' warning." _Epistle to Sir G. Etheredge._

Next, we have the rhyme _satire_ and _hater_. The following in Dryden is quite as bad, if not worse:

"Spiteful he is not, though he wrote a _satire_, For still there goes some thinking to _ill-nature_." _Absalom and Achitophel._

Of this rhyme _satire_ and _nature_, I can adduce two other instances from Dryden.

In the same category we must place _nature_ and _creature_, _nature_ and _feature_. Here is an example from Dryden; and I can bring forward two others:

"A proof that chance alone makes every _creature_ A very Killigrew without good _nature_." _Essay upon Satire._

And here is one from Pope:

"'Tis a virgin hard of _feature_, Old and void of all good _nature_." _Answer to "What is Prudery?"_

Can MR. BEDE produce anything to match the following sample of the _crater_, to be found in our most polished English poet?

"Alas! if I am such a _creature_, To grow the worse for growing _greater_!" _Dialogue between Pope and Craggs._

It will be seen, from the foregoing quotations, that the rhymes described as Irish were, a century and a half ago, common to both countries,--a fact which MR. BEDE was probably not sufficiently aware of when he introduced the subject in "N. & Q." For obvious reasons, the use of such rhymes, at the present day, would be open to the imputation of "Irishism;" but it was not so in the days of Swift.

HENRY H. BREEN.

St. Lucia.

In a former Number I drew attention to that peculiar fondness for "Irish rhymes" which is more evident in Swift than in any other poet; and another correspondent afterwards gave examples to show that "our premier poet, Pope," sometimes tripped in the same Hibernian manner. In looking over an old volume of the _New Monthly Magazine_, during the time of its being edited by the poet Campbell, I have stumbled upon a passage which is so _apropos_ to the subject referred to, that I cannot resist quoting it; and independent of its bearing on our Irish rhyming discussion, the passage has sufficient interest to excuse my making a Note of it. It occurs in one of a series of papers called "The Family Journal," supposed to have been written by the immediate descendants of the "Will Honeycomb" of the _Spectator_. A {313} dinner-party is assembled at Mr. Pope's, when the conversation takes this turn:

"Mr. Walscott asked if he (Dryden) was an Englishman or an Irishman, for he never could find out. 'You would find out,' answered Mr. Pope, 'if you heard him talk, for he cannot get rid of the habit of saying _a_ for e. He would be an Englishman with all his heart, if he could; but he is an Irishman, that is certain, and with all his heart too in one sense, for he is the truest patriot that country ever saw.... You must not talk to him about Irish rhymes,' added Mr. Pope, 'any more than you must talk to me about the _gods_ and _abodes_ in my Homer, which he quarrels with me for. The truth is, we all write Irish rhymes, and the Dean contrives to be more exact that way than most of us.' 'What!' said Mr. Walscott, 'does he carry his Irish accent into his writings, and yet think to conceal himself?' Mr. Pope read to us an odd kind of Latin-English effusion of the Dean's, which made us shake with laughter. It was about a consultation of physicians. The words, though Latin in themselves, make English when put together; and the Hibernianism of the spelling is very plain. I remember a taste of it. A doctor begins by inquiring,

"'Is his Honor sic? Præ lætus felis pulse. It do es beat veris loto _de_.'

"Here _de_ spells _day_. An Englishman would have used the word _da_.

"'No,' says the second doctor; 'no, notis as qui cassi e ver feltu metri it,' &c.

"_Metri_ for _may try_.

"Mr. Pope told us that there were two bad rhymes in the _Rape of the Lock_, and in the space of eight lines:

"'The doubtful beam long nods from side to side; At length the wits mount up, the hairs subside.

But this bold lord, with manly strength endued, She with one finger and a thumb subdued.'

"_Mr. Walscott._ 'These would be very good French rhymes.'

"_Mr. Pope._ 'Yes, the French make a merit of necessity, and force their poverty upon us for riches. But it is bad in English. However, it is too late to alter what I wrote. I now care less about them, notwithstanding the Doctor. When I was a young man, I was for the free _disinvolte_ way of Dryden, as in the _Essay on Criticism_; but the town preferred the style of my pastorals, and somehow or other I agreed with them. I then became very cautious, and wonder how those lines in the _Lock_ escaped me. But I have come to this conclusion, that when a man has established his reputation for being able to do a thing, he may take liberties. Weakness is one thing, and the carelessness of power another.'"--_New Monthly Magazine_, vol. xiii. (1825), pp. 551, 552.

With regard to the French rhyme, I see, in a note to _Odes and other Poems_, by Henry Neele, 1821, that he apologises for rhyming _multitude_ with _solitude_, by saying:

"It is of that kind which is very common in French, but I fear hardly justified by English practice. Still, 'La rime est une esclave, et ne doit qu'obéir.'"

I would append to this Note a Query. Where in Swift's works is the "Latin-English effusion of the Dean's" to be met with?[2] or is it composed for him by the writer of the article? I only know of two such effusions really written by Swift; the _Love Song_, "Apud in is almi des ire," &c., and the _Epigram on Dic_:

"Dic, heris agro at an da quarto finale Fora ringat ure nos an da stringat ure tale."

I should also like to know the author of the clever series of papers from which I have quoted.

CUTHBERT BEDE, B.A.

[Footnote 2: [See "Consultation upon a Lord that was Dying," in Swift's _Works_, ed. Scott, vol. xiii. p. 471.--ED.]]

* * * * *

COUNT GONDOMAR.

(Vol. v., p. 489.)

Your correspondent W. STANLEY SIMMONDS will find a lengthy account of this notable Spanish Don--Diego Sarmiento de Acuña, Conde de Gondomar--in the _Nobiliario genealogico de los Reyes y Titulos de España_ of Lopez de Haro, folio, Madrid, 1622, vol. i. pp. 236-238. In this notice he chiefly figures, strange to say, as a military character! At the ripe age of _seventeen_ this "famous captain" is said to have chastised the insolence of that bold "English pirate, Francisco Draques," who in 1584 had had the temerity to land somewhere near Bayona, his sole object being of course plunder. Don Diego guarded well his territory of Tuy when the same formidable "dragon," in the year 1589, made his appearance before Coruña; and again in 1596, when the English Armada visited ill-fated Cadiz. Being a person of "great parts," the Count was despatched to England as ambassador in 1613, and during the five years that he resided in this country, "the king and his nobility showered upon him favours and honours innumerable." He once told James that the flour of England (meaning the gentry) was very fine, but the bran (meaning the common people) was very coarse; "_La harina de Inglatierra es muy delgada y fina, pero el afrecho es muy grossero_,"--for Gondomar, like the learned Isaac Casaubon, had been subject to the grossest insults from the London rabble. We next find ranked among his praiseworthy deeds the following atrocious one:

"Hizo cortar la cabeça al General Ingles Wbaltero Rale (Sir Walter Raleigh) por aver intentado descubrimiento en las Indias Occidentales de Castilla a su partida."

Another meritorious action is added:

"A su instancia perdonó la Magestad de aquel Rey (James I.) a sesenta sacerdotes que estavan presos condenados por causa de la religion, y a otros mucho Catolicos, passandolos todos consigo a Flandes."

{314}

The title of Count Gondomar was conferred upon him by Philip III. in 1617, but the date of his death is still a desideratum. Many anecdotes concerning him are to be seen scattered in Howel's _Treatise of Ambassadors_.

W. M. R. E.

* * * * *

DOOR-HEAD INSCRIPTIONS.

(Vol. vi., p. 543.)

B. B. WOODWARD (urged, probably, by R. RAWLINSON'S question in Vol. vi., p. 412.) sends you the following inscription,

"Sit mihi nec glis servus, nec hospes hirudo,"

copied from over the entrance to an old hostel in the town of Wymondham, Norfolk. He says he quotes from memory.

Vol. vii., p. 23., you give an English translation of the inscription:

"From servant lazy as dormouse, Or leeching guest, God keep my house;"

but suggest that "hirudo" should be "hiru_n_do," and produce some apt classical quotations supposing it may be so, requesting MR. WOODWARD to look again at the original inscription.

In a recent Number (Vol. vii., p. 190.) MR. WOODWARD appears to have done this, and sends you the inscriptions correctly (as I beg to vouch, having often read and copied it, and living within four miles of the spot), thus:

"Nec mihi glis servus, nec hospes hirudo."

Permit me to add to this corroboration, that I should venture a different translation of the word "hospes" from your correspondent's, and render the notice thus:

"Good attendance and cheap charges:"

taking "hospes" not as guest but host, and the literal words, "My servant is not a dormouse, nor (I) the host a leech."

Ainsworth gives authority for "hospes" meaning host as well as guest, and quotes Ovid's _Metamorphoses_ in support of it.

JOHN P. BOILEAU.

Ketteringham Park, Wymondham, Norfolk.

With due respect to your correspondent A. B. R., the word "hospes" most probably means host, not guest.

"Sit mihi nec servus glis, nec hospes hirudo."

In Blomfield's _Norfolk_ (but I cannot now lay my finger on the passage) the line is given as an inscription on the lintel of a door of an ancient hostelry, carved in oak. If so, the line may be rendered--

"No maid like dormouse on me wait, Nor leech-like host be here my fate."

But, on the supposition that _guest_ is the proper meaning, "hirudo" might be taken in the sense of a greedy guest, although this would not be complimentary to the older hospitality. And even in the sense of gossiping, "hirudo" would not be so inappropriate an imitation of the "recitator acerbus" at the conclusion of the _Ars Poetica_:

"Nec missura cutem nisi plena cruoris hirudo."

E. L. B.

Ruthin.

* * * * *

PHOTOGRAPHIC NOTES AND QUERIES.

_Photographic Gun-Cotton._--The "doctors differ" not a little in their prescriptions for preparing the best gun-cotton for photographic use. How shall the photographer decide between them?

DR. DIAMOND ("N. & Q.," Vol. vi., p. 277.) says (I quote briefly), "_Pour upon_ 100 grains of cotton an ounce and a half of nitric acid, previously mixed with one ounce of strong sulphuric acid. Knead it with glass rods _during five minutes_," &c.

Mr. Hunt, quoting, (apparently with approbation) from MR. ARCHER, says (p. 260., 3rd edit.), "Take one ounce by measure of nitric acid, mixed with one ounce by measure of ordinary sulphuric acid, and _add to them_ eighty grains of cotton; well stir," &c., "_for not more than_ FIFTEEN SECONDS," &c. "It will be seen that the cotton is not exposed to the action of the mixed acids in this last mode longer than is necessary to saturate the cotton; should the action be continued further, the solubility of the cotton is entirely lost."

Not only is the order of manipulation different (a point probably not material), but the time between "five minutes" and "fifteen seconds" must exercise a most important influence on the result. Who is right?

COKELY.

_Sealing-wax for Baths._--I notice in your answers to correspondents (No. 176., p. 274.), that you inform H. HENDERSON that glass may be cemented for baths with sealing-wax. May I recommend to H. HENDERSON the use of gutta percha, instead of glass, for that purpose? Sheet gutta percha is now very cheap, and the baths are most easily made. I have had one of my own making in constant use since last July, having never emptied it but twice, to filter the nitrate of silver solution. It is not liable to breakage. The joinings are much less liable to leakage. And when it is necessary to heat slightly the silver solution (as it has been during the late cold weather), I have adopted the following simple plan: Heat moderately a stout piece of plate glass; plunge it into the bath; repeat the operation according to the size of bath. It is very useful to make a gutta percha cap to cover over the bath when not in use; it protects it from dust and evaporation, and saves the continual loss of materials arising from pouring the solution backwards and forwards. For home-work I have reduced {315} the whole operation to a very simple system. My bath, hypo-soda, developing fluid (of which, as it keeps so long, I make ten ounces at a time), are always ready in a small closet in my study. These I arrange on my study-table: a gutta percha tray, a brass levelling-stand upon it, a jug of soft water, and half-a-dozen small plates to place my pictures on, after treating them with the hypo-solution (for, to save time, I do not finish washing them until I have done all the pictures I require). All these things I can prepare and arrange in less than ten minutes, and can as easily return them to their places afterwards.

With regard to MR. MABLEY'S process, described in "N. & Q.," No. 176., p. 267., as I am but a beginner myself, and have much to learn, I should be sorry to condemn it; but I should fear that his pictures would not exhibit sufficient contrast in the tints. Nor do I see the advantage the pictures would possess, if they did, over positives taken by our process. We amateurs in the country labour at present under great disadvantages, some of which I think the Photographic Society will remove. I am myself quite unable to form an idea what the collodion pictures done by first-rate photographers are like. All the positives done by amateurs in this part of the world, and developed by pyrogallic acid, which I have seen, present a dirty brown hue, by no means pleasing or artistic; and I have seen but very few, either developed by pyrogallic acid or protosulphate of iron, free from blemishes. I think if we were to act upon the suggestion made in "N. & Q." some time back, and send the editor a specimen of our performances, it would be a slight return for his endeavours in our behalf; and he would, I doubt not, honestly tell us whether our pictures were tolerable or not. I, for one, shall be very happy to do so.

J. L. SISSON.

Edingthorpe Rectory.

_Developing Chamber._--I think MR. SISSON will find some difficulty in applying his very excellent idea of a sheet India rubber lighting medium to his portable laboratory, as the vapour of the ether will act upon it and render it sticky and useless after one or two usings. Allow me to suggest what I am in the habit of using, viz. a double layer of yellow glazed calico, stuck together with a little common drying oil, and allowed to dry for a few days: this causes a perfect exclusion of the actinic rays, and is very durable.

F. MAXWELL LYTE.

Falkland, Torquay.

_The Black Tints on Photographic Positives._--A correspondent having inquired how these were obtained, and another replying that it was caused by starch, I beg to offer a process to your readers as to how they may obtain those carbonic tints; though I must premise that the process requires some skill, and is not always successful, though always sure to make them black: but on occasions of failure the lights sink, and the brilliancy of the picture is lost. That it is not starch in the French process, unless that vehicle contains some preparation, I am tolerably certain; the chloride of barium will often produce black images, though very uncertain; and the black process as given by Le Gray is uncertain also. For myself, I generally prefer the colour given by ammoniac salt; it is artistical and sufficient for any purpose. The present process, which I use myself when I require a black colour, with its imperfections, I offer to the photographic readers of "N. & Q.," and here it is.