CHAPMAN'S “ALL FOOLS." It takes its name from the annual mayor s

feast at Norwich, being called the City For the Table Book.

Guild. The corporation at Costessy is In Chapman's “ All Fools,” 1605, (as composed of the poor inhabitants under the quoted, by Charles Lamb, in Table Book, patronage of the marquis of Stafford, who vol. i. '192,) is the following passage, under this day a mock mayor is annually elected ;

in this village. On azhe title of “Love's Panegyric.”

he has a proper and appropriate costume, -"'tis nature's second Sun,

and is attended by a sword bearer, with a Causing a spring of Virtues where he shines ; sword of state of wood painted and gilt, And as without the Sun, the world's Great Eye, two mace-bearers with gilt maces, with a 411 colours, beauties, both of art and nature,

long array of officers, down to the snapAre given in vain to man; so without Love

dragon of Norwich, of which they have a All beauties bred in women are in vain,

passable imitation. Their first procession All virtues born in men lie buried ;

is to the hall, where they are recognised by For Love informs them as the Sun doth colours," &o.

the noble family who generally, support Chapman might be acquainted with the expenses of the day, and the mock

Italian poets, but at all events the coin- mayor and corporation are liberally rethe proper cidence between the above and the follow. galed from the strong-beer cellar. They

aus Sing canzon, by Andrew Navagero, is re- then march, preceded by a band of music, 2009 a markable. Navagero was the friend of to the steward's house, where the mock 1229 Boscan, the Spanish poet : they became solemnities take place, and speeches are

acquainted at Grenada, while Navagero made, which, if not remarkable for their Det st": was there ambassador from Venice. Bos- eloquence, afford great delight by their out a sei can died before 1544; and, as he himself absurd attempts at being thought so. The Et af to confesses, he learnt the sonnet and other new mayor being invested with the inItalian forms of poetry from Navagero.

signia of his office, a bright brass jack-chain

about his neck, the procession is again reLove the Minds Sun.

newed to a large barn at some distance, Sweet ladies, to whose lovely faces

where the place being decorated with Nature gives charms, indeed,

boughs, flowers, and other rural devices, If those

a substantial dinner of roast-beef, plumAnd are desirous, too, of inward graces ; pudding, and other good things, with

plenty of that strong liquor called at NorYe first must ope your hearts' enclosure,

wich nogg—the word I have been told is And give Love entrance there,

a provincial contraction for “knock me Or ye must all despair Of what ye wish, and bear it with composure.

down."

The village is usually thronged with For as the night than day is duller,

company from Norwich, and all the rural And what is hid by night

festivities attendant on country feasts take Glitters with morning light

place. The noble family before mentioned In all the rich variety of colour;

promote the hilarity by their presence So they, whose dark insensate bosoms

and munificence. The elder members of Love lights not, ne'er can know

the body corporate continue at the festal The virtues thence that grow,

board, in imitation of their prototypes in Wanting his beams to open virtue's blossoms.

larger corporations, to a late hour; and Our version is made from the original in

some of them have been noticed for doing Dolce's Collection of Rime Diverse, i. 98.

as much credit to the good cheer provided

on the occasion, as any alderman ai a turtle It ought to be mentioned, that Boscan's admission of his obligations to Navagero feast. There is no record of the origin of is to be found in the Introduction to the this institution, as none of the members of second book of his works.

the corporation have the gift of reading or December, 1827.

J. P. C.

writing, but there are traces of it beyond the memory of any person now living, and

it has been observed to have increased in NORWICH MOCK ELECTIONS. splendour of late years.

The fishermen's guild at Norwich has To the Editor.

for some years been kept on the real guildSir,-At Costessy, a small village, three day. The procession consists of a great miles on the west side of Norwich, there is number, all fishermen or fishmongers, inu an annual mock guild on Whit Tuesday. of whom are very remarkable. The first

ye

would exceed

3. and ach zhr

is the mayor: the last I saw was a well- It is the generall mint of all famous la looking young man, with his face painted which are here like the legends poen and his hair powdered, profusely adorned coyn'd and stampt in the church. All with a brass chain, a fishing-rod in his ventions are empty'd here and nas" hand, and a very large gold-laced hat; he pockets." “ The visitants are all e was supported on the shoulders of several without exceptions; but the principal is of his brethren in a fishing-boat, in which bitauts and possessors are stale kuigbs, 2 he stood up and delivered, his speech to captaines out of service; men of lagt the surrounding multitude, in a manner piers and breeches." that did not disgrace him. The other From the following passage in Hudikz personage was the king of the ocean. I should judge that the circular church a What their conceptions of Neptune were, the Temple was the resort of characters : it is as difficult to conceive as his appear. an equally bad description : ance might be to describe. He was repre- • Recain all sorts of witnesses, sented by a tall man, habited in a seaman- That ply i' th’ Temples, under trees, like manner, his outward robe composed of Or walk the round, with knights of th' postane fishing-nets, a long Aowing beard ill ac

About the cross-leggd kargots, their bosts; corded with a full-dress court wig, which Or wait for customers between had formerly been the property of some The pillar-rows in Lipcola's lan." eminent barrister, but had now changed its element, and from dealing out law on the

The cross-legged knights, it is almos

needless to add, are the effigies of the land, its mystic powers were transferred to the water.

In his right hand he carried mailed warriors, which still remain in te his trident, the spears of which were

preservation. The “ pillar-rows in Lincula's formed of 'three pickled herrings. His Inn," I apprehend, refer to the crypt, t Tritons sounded his praise on all kinds of open vault, beneath loigo Jones's chape discordant wind instruments, and Æolus in Lincoln's Inn, originally designed for us blew startling blasts on a cracked French ambulatory.! It is singular to reiect ca horn. The olfactory nerves of the auditors

the entire change in the public martes who were hardy enough to come in close within two centuries. If coeval authorities contact with the procession, were assailed did not exist to prove the fact, who woz by “a very ancient and fish-like smell.” believe in these days, that, in a cinced The merriment was rude and very hearty.

country, men were to be found within the P. B. very seats of law ready to perjure iber

selves for hire ? or that juries and judges

did not treat the practice and the encosOld London Customs.

raging of it with a prompt and just severity?

St. Thomas's Day ELECTIONS. For the Table Book.

Previous to a court of common coupal, PAUL'S WALKERS-HIRED WITNESSES. the members were formerly in the habit of

assembling in the great hall of the Guild In the reigns of James I. and Charles I. hall. When the hour of business arrived a singular custom prevailed of the idle and

one of the officers of the lord mayor's dissolute part of the community assembling household summoned them to their own in the naves or other unemployed parts of chamber by the noise produced by MOVIE arge churches. The nave of St. Paul's cathe

an iron ring swiftly up and down a twisted dral bore the name of Paul's Walk; and so or crankled bar of the same metal, whid little was the sanctity of the place regarded, was affixed behind the door of the princithat if the description by an old author* is pal entrance to the passage leading to the not exaggerated, the Royal Exchange at four part of the Guildhall styled, in civic laso'clock does not present a greater scene of guage, the inner chambers. The custom confusion. I carry the comparison no far- was disused about forty years ago. The ther; the characters assembled in the church iron, I understand, remained until the de appear to have been very different to those molition of the old doorway in the last composing the respectable assembly alluded general repair of the hall, when the giants to. The author referred to thus describes the descended from their stations without hear place: “The noyse in it is like that of bees.

• Part III., Canto III., p. 913. ed. 1684. • Microcosmographis 1698, cited in Pennant's Lon t Vide a paper by E. J. c. in Gent.'s Mag. rel. « don, 5th ex. 8vo. 598.

Te

ing the clock strike, and the new doorway gentlemen are your "gardeners, ditchers, was formed in a more convenient place. and grave-makers;" so that, after all, the With the old-fashioned gallery, the inva- authorities on this point are various and riable appendage to an ancient hall, which, contradictory. If it be objected that shing until that period, occupied its proper place (otherwise sometimes called flash) is em

over the entrance, was destroyed that terror ployed very much by boxers and prize*** of idle apprentices, the prison of Little figliters, teachers and practisers of the DE Ease. This gallery must be still remem. noble science of self-defence," one answer

bered, as well as its shrill clock in a curious may be supplied by a quotation from Aris2:52 carved case. Its absence is not compen- totle, which shows that he himself was well

sated by the perilous-looking balcony substi- skilled in the art, and he gives instructions in tuted for it on the opposite side, an object how important it is to hit straight instead Tere too trifling and frivolous for so fine a room of round, following up the blow by the 236 23 as the civic common hall.

weight of the body. His words upon this E. 1. C. subject are quoted (with a very different

purpose certainly) in the last number of

the Edinburgh Review, (p. 279.) So that A DEFENCE OF SLANG. we need only refer to them. Another " old

Grecian” might be instanced in favour of For the Table Book,

the use of slang, and even of incorrect “ To think like wise men, and to talk

grammar; for every scholar knows (and like common people," is a maxim that has

we know it who are no scholars) that Arislong stood its ground. What is the lan. tophanes in the first scene of his comedy,

named in English The Clouds, makes his exist guage of “common people ?" slang hero talk bad Greek, and employ language

What 13," im ergo, every body ought to talk it. is slang? Many will answer that it con

peculiar to the stable : the scholiasts assert sists of words used only by the lowest and

that Phidippides ought to have said, even in most ignorant classes of society, and that which he uses.

his sleep, ω Φιλι αδικεις instead of Φιλων αδικεις,

However, we are perhaps to employ them would be most ungenteel. First, then, we must inquire a little what found in the end, if not already in the

growing too learned, although it will be it is to be genteel, and this involves the beginning,) that this is a learned article, question, what is a gentleman? Etymo- and ought perhaps to have been sent for logically, every body knows what is the meaning of the term; and Dekker, the old publication in the Classical Journal.

What we seek to establish is this :-that English play-poet, uses it in this sense, when in one of his best dramas he justly

the language of the ignorant is the language

of the learned; or in less apparently par: calls our Saviour

doxical terms, that what is considered siang “ The first true gentleman that ever breathed." and unfit for “ ears polite,” is in fact a Dekker's greatest contemporary, in refer- recondite sources.

language derived from the purest and most

What is the chief reence to certain qualities he attributes to

commendation of lady Morgan's new “ man's deadliest enemy," tells us, though novel - for what do ladies of fashion and we are not bound to take his word for it,

education chiefly admire it? Because the unless we like it,

authoress takes such pains to show that she “ The Prince of Darkness is a gentleman;" is acquainted with French, Italian, and

even Latin, and introduces so many apt in which he follows the opinion long before and inapt quotations. What is the prinIME SE expressed by the Italian poet Pulci, in his

cipal advantage of modern conversation ? Morgante Maggiore, (canto xxv. st. 161.)

That our“ home-keeping youths " bave no Che gentilezza è bene anche in inferno.

longer “ homely wits,” and that they inter

lard their talk with scraps and words fron. Pulci seems so pleased with this disco. continental tongues. Now if we can show very, (if it be one,) that he repeats it in that slang is compounded, in a great degree, nearly the same words in the following of words derived from German, French, canto, st. 83.)

Italian, and Latin, shall we not establish Non creder ne lo inferno anche fra noi

that what is at present the language of the ignorant is in fact the language of the

learned, and ought to be the language emThe old bone-shoveller in Hamlet main- ployed by all gentlemen pretending 10 tains that your only real and thorough education, and of all ladies pretending to

T?

At the toid TM

Gentilezza non sia.

blue-stocking attainments? We proceed to tition-a mode of committing theft sitta do so by a selection of a few of the prin- personal violence. In English the cipal words which are considered slang or to prig is now applied chiefly to picks flash, of which we shall show the etymology. pockets, owing to the degeneracy of DxC

Blowin—" an unfortunate girl," in the rogues: a prig is a pick-pocket. language of the police offices. This is a Sappy-foolish, weak. Clearly froaz very old word in English, and it is derived Latin sapio-lucus è non lucendo. from blühen, German, to bloom or blossom. Seedy-shabby-worn out : a term : Some may think that it comes from the to indicate the decayed condition of en German adjective blau. The Germans who has seen better days : it refers prue speak of a blue-eye, as we talk of a black- pally to the state of his apparel : thusa eye, and every body is aware that blowing coat which has once been handsome, wat are frequently thus ornamented.

it is old is called seedy, and the wearer : To fib-a term in boxing. It means, to said to look seedy. It is only a corrupts clasp an antagonist round the neck with of the French ci-devant-formerly; Fä one arm, and to punish him with the other an ellipsis of the last syllable. It has >> hand. It is from the Italian fibbia, a clasp reference to running to seed, as is ons or buckle. The Italian verb affibiare is monly supposed. used by Casti precisely in this sense: Spoony-silly or stupid—is used bod 3 Gli afibia un gran ceffon. (Nov. xliii, st. a substantive and as an adjective. Some 65.)

have conjectured that it owes its origin Fogle-a handkerchief-properly and the wooden spoon at Cambridge, the lowas strictly a handkerchief with a bird's eye honour conferred by that university, te pattern upon it. From the German vogel, individual gaining it being entitled to me a bird.

other, rather from his dulness than his is Gam—the leg. Liston has introduced norance. Its etymology is in faci to be this word upon the stage, when in Lubin found in the Italian word saponé, scap; Log he tells old Brown that he is “ stiffish and it is a well-known phrase that “a sto about the gams.” We have it either from pid fellow wants his brains washing with the French jambe, or the Italian gamba. soap-suds."

Leary-cunning or wary. Correctly it Spree-fun, joke-is from the French ought to be written lehry. The derivation esprit, as every body must be aware ia 22 of it is the German lehre, learning or instant. warning. The authorities for this word are Togs-dress-from the Latin toga, tbé not older than the time of James I. robe worn by Roman citizens. Toggett

Max-gin. Evidently from the Latin means properly a great coat, but it is also marimus, in reference to the strength and used generally for the apparel. goodness of the liquor.

We might go through the whole rocaba To nin-to take, snatch, or seize. It is lary in the same way, and prove that som used by Chaucer—“ well of English un- terms are even derived from the Hebrew, defiled." It is derived from the Saxon through the medium of the Jews; but the niman, whence also the German nehmen, to preceding “ elegant extracts" will be suttake. We have it in the every-day adjec- cient. It is to be regretted that the Rer. tive, nimble. The name of the corporal in J. H. Todd has been so hasty in publishing Shakspeare's Henry V. ought to be spelled his second edition of Johnson's Dictionar, Nim, and not Nym, (as the commentators or he might, and no doubt would, after ignorantly give it,) from his furtive propen- what we have said, include many words sity.

not now to be found there, and which we Pal-a companion. It is perhaps going contend are the chief ornaments of our too far to fetch this word from the Persian vernacular. Perhaps it would be worth palaker, a comrade. It rather originates in his while to add a supplement, and we the famous story told by Boccacio, Chaucer, shall be happy to render him any assist Dryden, &c. &c. of the friendship of Palaa ance. mon and Arcyte ; pal being only a familiar December, 1827. PHILOLOGUS. abbreviation of Palamon, to denote an intimate friend.

To prig—to rob or steal. It is doubtful DIVINATION BY FLOWERS, whether this word be originally Spanish or

To the Editor. Italian. Preguntar in Spanish is to demand, and robbing on the highway is demanding Sir,—There is a love custom still observed money or life. Priega in Italian is a pe- in the village of Sutton Bangor, Wills

son

Two flowers that have not blossomed are

FULBOURN, CAMBRIDGE.
paired, and put by themselves—as many

ALL SAINTS' AND ST. VIGOR'S BELLS.
75970 pairs as there are sweethearts in the neigh.
bourhood, and tall and short as the respec-

To the Editor.
tive sweethearts are. The initials of their

On a visit to a friend at Fulbourn we
names are attached to the stamens, and they strolled to the site whereon All Saints'
are ranged in order in a hayloft or stable, church formerly stood, and his portfolio
in perfect secrecy, except to those who furnished me with the subjoined mem
manage and watch their ominous growth. randa, which by your fostering care may
If, after ten days, any fower twines the

be preserved.
other, it is settled as a match; if any flower

I am, sir, &c.
turns a contrary way, it indicates a want of

Cambridge, May, 1826. T. N.
affection; if any flower blossoms, it denotes
early offspring; if any flower dies suddenly,

TRINITY SUNDAY, 1766.
it is a token of the party's death; if any
Aower wears a downcast appearance,

siek

This morning at five o'clock the steeple

of All Saints' church fell down. An act of
ness is indicated. True it is that flowers,
from their very nature, assume all these parliament passed the 22d May, 1775, to
pesinons; and in the situation described, unite the service in St. Vigor's church, and
their indueuce upon villagers is consider to enable the vicar and churchwardens to

sell the materials and the bells, towards re-
able. I was once a party interested, now

pairing the church of St. Vigor's — the
I am

amount was 1501. 08. 6d. The two broken
A FLOWERBUD.

bells were sold towards the expenses ; the
other three, with the two of St. Vigor's,
and the saints' bell, were new cast by E.
Arnold at St. Neot's Hunt's, and six new

bells were put up on the 9th of May, 1776.
WALTHAM, ESSEX.

The subscription amounted to 1411.; the
bells cost 2621. 28. 3d.; the frames 451.,

the six new ropes 11. 158.; making togethe:
To the Editor.

the sum of 3081. 178. 3d.

'The poor inhabitants were so attached
Sir,—The following epitaph is upon a to the old bells, that they frequently watched
plain gravestone in the church-yard of them in the evening, lest they should be
Waltham Abbey. Having some point, it carried away and sold; for the broken bells
may perhaps be acceptable for the Table lay among the ruins of All Saints' church.
Book. I was told that the memory of the Al last their fears subsiding, they neglected
worthy curate is still held in great esteem

their watching, and the church wardens set
by the inhabitants of that place.

a waggon in Monk's barn, (hard by,) and

carried away two of them in the night, de.
Rev. Isaac COLETT,

livering them to the Cambridge waggon for
Fifteen years curate of this Parish,

St. Neot's, and returning before morning,
Died March 1, 1801-Aged 43 years.

which occasioned the following
Shall pride a heap of sculptored marble raise,

Ballad.
Some worthless, onmour'd, titled fool to praise,

There are some farmers in Fulbourn town,
And shall we not by one poor gravestone show

They have lately sold what was not their own ;
Where pious, worthy Colnett sleeps below!

They have sold the bells, likewise the church,

And cheat the poor of twice as much.
Surely common decency, if they are de-

And Ol you Fulboom farmers 0 1
ficient in antiquarian feeling, should induce

Some estate there was left, all for the poor,
the inhabitants of Waltham Cross to take

They have robb'd them of hall, and something more,
some measures, if not to restore, at least to

Such dirty tricks will go hand on their sides,
preserve from further decay and dilapida-

For the d-) will have them, and singe their hides.
tion the remains of that beautiful monument

And Ol you Pulbourn farmers 01
of conjugal affection, the cross erected by
Edward I. It is now in a sad disgraceful Before the bells they could be sold,
state.

They were forc'd to swear, as we've been told,
I am, &c.

They forswore themselves—then they cried,

For this, my boys, we shall be tried.
Z.

And 01 you Folboura Carmen 01