be acceptable. His LoP said yt was all one, ye offer would stop many mouths as well as his, weh I think was well consider'd. I will say no more of myself, but only thank your Lar for your good advice, wch I have always a great disposition to follow, and a great deal of reason, knowing it to be sincere as well as wise. The King has set upon me again with greater earnestness of persuasion than is fit for one who may command. I beg'd as earnestly to be consider'd in ys thing, and so we parted upon good terais. I hope something will happen to hinder it. I put it out of my mind as much as I can, and leave it to ye good providence of God for ye thing to find its own issue; to yt I commend you and yours, and am, madm, yours by all possible obligations, J. TILLOTSON. If Mr Johnson refuse ys offer, and it should be my hard fortune not to be able to get out of ys difficulty, wch [ will, if it be possible to do it without provocation, I know one will do more for Mr Johnson yn was desired of y King, for any thing yt he shall know, but still as from ye King, but I hope some much better way will be found yt there will be neither opportunity nor occasion for this. HIDDINGLY PLACE, in the parish of Chiddingly, Sussex, 1574, and probably many years before, in the possession of the family of Jefferay, as appears from a painting upon glass, which was a few years ago preserved in one of the windows of the present residence. Beneath the arms and crest of Jefferay was the following inscription: "1574. Until that Jefferay was born, Who built it more stately, Always obeying the commands Of the Queen's Majesty." On the other side: The splendid walls support, This mansion is situated about a quarter of a mile west of the Church; but is now reduced to a moderately sized farm-house, and in the occupa tion of its respectable proprietor, Mr. Thomas Gray. Within the memory of many now living, the building was much more extensive than at present, and some of the rooms exhibited remains of considerable magnificence. The Hall, which was standing half a century ago, and was then in a toler ing, now used as a barn. Tradition reports it to have been the private chapel of the Jefferay family, and the name it has long borne, Chapel Barn, seems to give countenance to the report; as do also the peculiar form of the large windows that are still preserved, and the traces of a gallery which was taken down some years ago*. able state of preservation, was very vour to lay them before the public in capacious, having at one end a deep your columns; I am desirous of excitgallery, and enriched with carved working the attention of our literati to the admirably executed. The view in subject. Plate II. was copied for Mr. Hors- Whatever may be the custom in our field's "History of Lewes and its Vi- polished idiom, it is indubitably true cinity," from a drawing by Grimm. that two negatives in our western diaAdjoining the house is a lofty build-lect are used almost invariably to strengthen the negation. I sholl niver zee na moor-I shall never see you more. So much does this kind of negation seem to be fundamental, that I really wonder so many pains have been taken to weed it out of our refined language. It appears to me one of those unfortunate affectations introduced by those who have been more anxious to latinize our language, than to polish it consistently with its actual structure. The effect too has been occasionally bad; as our grammarians have taught us that two negatives destroy the negation, or are equivalent to an affirmative, some of our more fastidious writers occasionally attempt an affirmative by the use of two negatives; hence they are often understood to say the reverse of what they intend; thus Mason: The most curious object in the village Church of Denton, Sussex, is a fine old barrel-shaped Font, which stands at the western extremity of the building, raised upon a half-decayed slab, about eight inches in thickness. It is large and circular. The inside is lined with lead; the outside carved with fret-work, between an upper and two lower bands of roundlets. It very much resembles one in St. Anne's Church, Lewes, noticed in the first volume of Mr. Horsfield's "Lewes," 267; and in our review of that Work, in vol. xciv. ii. p. 340. By favour of Mr. Horsfield, we are enabled to give representations of both these early fonts. (See Plate II. and the Vignette in p. 497.) I Mr. URBAN, 9, Dalby Terrace, City Road, May 6. AM greatly obliged to your Reviewer for the handsome notice he has taken of my work on the Somerset Dialect in your last Supplement, a work to me of no profit whatever, although of considerable labour. Whenever it shall please the public to call for a second edition of it, I shall take care that it shall undergo a complete revision; and I have many additions which, to the philologist, will, I dare say, prove acceptable. As, however, it is not very probable that a second edition will be very soon called for, and as some observations which I have made on double negatives, appear to me important, will you do me the fa * Horsfield's "Lewes," vol. II. PP 6466; reviewed in our number for May, p. 424. For although a classical ear and taste might perceive and relish the latinism, the unsophisticated Englishman will be very likely to misunderstand it. That double negatives were commonly used to strengthen the negation in the time of Shakspeare, the following passages prove : "When every case in law is right, King Lear, Act 3, Scene 2. words into the mouth of a fool; but It is true Shakspeare puts these this proves, it appears to me, what our unadulterated language in regard to negatives then was, and I may add now also is. Merchant of Venice is given to the "So I can give no reason, nor will I not, There are also besides, six other passages in the same play, with double in modern English writers for an af negatives. "Nor shall not till necessity be serv'd." Act 2, Scene 7. See also Henry the Fifth, &c. &c. I very well remember, more than thirty years ago, that I had a conversation with one of our most eminent poets about the meaning of the double negative, in the following passage of Milton's Paradise Lost, Book 1. "They heard and were abash'd, and up they we And it was contended that the two negatives here used, were designed as an affirmative. To me, however, they appear most decidedly to strengthen the negation; and I have no doubt that Milton so intended them. If w can for a moment suppose the meaning to be affirmative, that the demons suddenly roused from sleep, and overcome by the dread of being discovered sleeping, perceived the evil plight in which they were, the simile is pointless, not to say nonsensical, as applied to them on the other hand, the dread at being so discovered, absorbed in their minds every other consideration, so that they did not even perceive the evil plight in which they were, nor did they feel the fierce pains. Surely, therefore, the two negatives here used by Milton are still negative, and tend to strengthen the negation; although it must be admitted that sometimes these double negatives are merely pleonastic. It may be said in answer to all this, "These double negatives are very vulgar and often inelegant." I reply, they sometimes are so, but we can hardly expect to refine any language by proscribing a fundamental idiom; it is better to adopt such idiom, and endeavour if possible to find out and establish some rule by which it may be used with force and elegance; that double negatives may be occasionally thus used in our language, there can be, I think, no question. I trust, therefore, we shall never again see, as in Mason, above quoted, two negatives. firmation, an affectation at once pedantic and intolerable. Yours, &c. JAMES JENNINGS. BEAUTIES OF THE ANCIENT POETS. No. I. Translated from Sophocles, Edip. Tyr. beginning at Τις όντιν' ά θεσπιεπεια Φοινιαισι χεςσιν. STROPHE I. Who is he whose fated name Pealed through Delphi's rocks sublime? Who is he whose deeds of shame Stain'd his purple hands with crime? Swift the tempest-footed steed Flies from threatening fate above, Bid him urge a swifter speed, Bid him fly the son of Jove. Arm'd in lightning, rob'd in fire, Mounts he now the winged wind, Onward leaps the god with ire, Wildly stalk the fates behind! ANTISTROPHE I. From Parnassus' crest of snow Peal'd the fatal voice on high, Who from day and man would fly. Hovers deathless o'er his head. Oh! what doubts the fateful word Wakes tumultuous through my brain! Shall the prophet's voice be heard? Shall his voice be heard in vain ? Through my breast now hope flits fast, Now alternate doubts and fears, Dubious darkness veils the past, hour present appears. Ne'er knew I what mortal hate Dark the Shook the Theban tyrant's throne; Why then strain the words of Fate ? Why doom Edipus alone? ANTISTROPHE II. Though almighty Jove be wise, Though Apollo's eye be keen, Yet trace not prophetic eyes More than mortal sight hath seen. Man might merit Wisdom's wreath, Yet 'tis not like Fate unmov'd; Trust not then the sland'rous breath Ere the calumny be proved. |