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CANTERBURY. By WALTER FARQUHAR HOOK, late Dean of Chichester. ST. AUGUSTINE to JUXON. 12 vols. demy 8vo. 91. Each separately (with the exception of III., Reprinting, IV., VI., VII.), 158. The New Series begins with Vol. VI. Vol. XII. is the Index.

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CONTENT 8.-N° 63.
NOTES:-"The babies in the eyes," 181-'Dictionary of
National Biography,' 183-Scott as a Quotable" Poet,
184-Alderman Curtis-Funeral by Women-Devon Cows,

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This is closely followed by Dr. Grosart, in his edition of Herrick, though in a much abbreviated form: "The tiny face reflection in the pupil of the eyes. "Mr. Horne, who has edited a selection from the 'Hesperides' for Mr. Walter Scott's "Can

185-Rev. George Costard-Imported Grammar-In-terbury Poets," says that it is difficult to say what

fluenza-"Whether or no"-Editors-Draughts, 186.

the phrase exactly means; and, while stating the reflection theory, is apparently dissatisfied with it.

QUERIES:-"Cue"-Gillray's 'Caricatures'-D. Angelo Mr. Pollard says:

"The phrase, babies [. e., dolls] in the eyes' is probably only a translation of its metaphor, involved in the use of the Latin pupilla (a little girl), our pupil, for the central spot of the eye."

Mr. Weber, the editor of Beaumont and Fletcher, whom I quote in addition, chiefly on account of his curiously savage note, has the following:

Cope-"Vole"-Goethe's 'Faust'-Sir R. Benet, 187Eliza's Choice'- Penal Laws-Lord Sturton- - High Sheriffs' Dress-Kearney-The Holy Eucharist-S. Gould -Dr. Bell's Sandbags-R. Hervie-Abbey Churches, 188Poisoning by Arsenic-Authors Wanted, 189. REPLIES:-The Letters of Junius, 189-Sophy Daws, 190 -"Omerifican," 191-Reference in Pope-"Whip-Dog Day"—"It fair sheds "-Ambrose Gwinett-Col. Charters, 192-Historic Hearts-Chapel-The Last of the Plantagenets-Judges' Robes, 193-Henchman, 194-Charles Stewart-W. H. Murray-The Queen and Robert Owen-reflection, which really appears in the iris, of the person Irish Currency-"Taking the wall"-"The Christian Year,' 195-Burns in Art-Accurate Language-Dress in 1784Z. Cozens, 196-A "Crank"-"Salzbery" and "Sombreset"- Mount Alvernus, 197-Dr. Thomas ZouchHeraldry-St. Grasinus, 198.

NOTES ON BOOKS:-Lang's Scott's Old Mortality'

"This conceit, which seems to be founded in the placed before it, was a great favourite in the seventeenth century, and has lately been revived by a modern rhymester, distinguished for having done what he could

to debase the taste and vitiate the morals of the nineteenth century, by the polluted effeminacy of his writings."

This acrid remark refers, I suppose, to a couple

Tuer's Book of Delightful Designs'-Nicholson's Colum- of passages in the volume of poems which Moore

bus's Letter' and Caxton's Advertisement.'

Notices to Correspondents.

Notes.

"THE BABIES IN THE EYES."

"The babies in the eyes" is, in one form or
another, a metaphor of very frequent occurrence in
the writings of our seventeenth century poets and
dramatists; and it is one which may be said to be
practically confined to that period of our literature.
The earliest instance of its use that I know is in a
poem by one of the "uncertain authors
writings are appended to the collection of Lord
Surrey's poems published in 1567. The poem is
also quoted in Ellis's 'Specimens' and by Warton.
The passage is as follows:-

In each of her two crystal eyes
Smileth a naked boy.

" whose

Another very early example is in Churchyard's "Tragical Discours of a Dolorous Gentlewoman (1593), where we have:—

Men do not look for babes in hollow'd eyen, The editors of, and commentators upon, our seventeenth century writers have found this metaphor a somewhat puzzling one, and exactly what it means seems yet not to be certainly determined. The usual explanation is, perhaps, that given by Nares, in his Glossary':

"The miniature reflection of himself which a person sees in the pupil of another's eye, on looking closely into it, was sportively called by our ancestors a little boy or baby, and made the subject of many amorous

allusions."

published under the pseudonym of Thomas Little:

Look in my eyes, my blushing fair!
Thou'lt see thyself reflected there;
And as I gaze on thine, I see

Two little miniatures of me.

Thus in our looks some propagation lies,
For we make babies in each other's eyes!
Those babies that nestle so sly,
Such different arrows have got,
That an oath on the glance of an eye
Such as yours, may be off in a shot!

The difficulty of the expression being thus allowed by very competent authorities, it will clearly not be a waste of time to consider it a little more fully than has hitherto been done. I do not think that it can be summarily dismissed in a note of a line or two, and that no one hard and fast explanation will fit every example of its use will, I believe, be evident to any one who examines those that I shall have occasion to quote in this paper.

We must remember, too, in considering the explanations which have been offered, that there are other phrases of analogous form to be met with in our old literature, which most certainly do not admit of any similar interpretation. Take these, for example:

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link or another depend the several keys which will fully open out the meanings of the different examples of the various forms of the expression we are considering. This sequence of ideas had developed itself in, and had become perfectly familiar to the minds of the seventeenth century poets, always playing more or less fantastic and artificial variations on their constant theme of a more or less sensual love. It must have been perfectly familiar to the minds of their readers also, and any expression which to us, who have freed ourselves from the stilted language of the later euphuism and learned again to express ourselves naturally, is not very readily intelligible, would to them at once suggest a particular idea in that sequence which a consideration of these passages induces me to believe had become an everyday platitude to the writers of the time and their readers.

First we have the commonplace that Love is blind. This is elaborated in such stories as Lyly's pretty:

Cupid and my Campaspe play'd
At cards for kisses.

Campaspe rises the winner of the beggared Cupid's last stake, his eyes; and the poet's conceit, of course, is that the eyes with which she henceforth charms mankind are those of the love-god himself. Shakespeare still further elaborates this idea in the song, "Who is Sylvia ?' in the Two Gentlemen of Verona ':

Love doth to her eyes repair,

To help him of his blindness;
And being help'd, inhabits there.

We have now reached the conceit of Love or Cupid being tabernacled in a beautiful woman's eyes. And Cupid is generally depicted as a naked boy or baby. Does not this at once give us a more satisfactory explanation of the verses of the " uncertain author,"

In each of her two crystal eyes
Dwelleth a naked boy,

than saying that the “naked boys" are the reflections of some one looking closely into her pupils? It is merely a fantastic and artificial way of saying that the lady is very beautiful and love-inspiring. Besides, her extreme modesty, as set forth in the poem, would clearly have made the realization of the reflection hypothesis quite out of the question. But with the seventeenth century poets Cupid or Love is something more than the god of a pure affection :

Tell me, dearest, what is Love?

'Tis a boy they call Desire. Beaumont and Fletcher, 'The Captain.' We now seem to get the boy or baby in the eyes as a symbolical expression for something else than mere beauty, or a power to inspire love or affection. It has become a metaphor for Desire. And this Desire, we must remember, may be actively existent, or only potential, and waiting to be excited

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into lively being. These considerations will provide us, I think, with keys to most of the passages where the_metaphor of "the babies in the eyes occurs. To "look babies in the eyes" is, I believe, to be understood as meaning to kindle, or to attempt to kindle, desire by amorous and enticing glances; "to look" being an active transitive verb, and "in" being equivalent to "into."

This interpretation seems perfectly to explain Theodore's question in Beaumont and Fletcher's Loyal Subject,' when he indignantly asks,— Can ye look babies, sisters,

In the young gallants' eyes, and twirl their band-strings? which the reflection hypothesis or the theory of a play upon words scarcely seems satisfactorily to do.

Consider, again, the following passages, which I think upon these principles of interpretation all become more readily intelligible than upon any others with which I am acquainted :

But O, see, see, we need inquire no further,
Upon your lips the scarlet drops are found,
And in your eye the boy that did the murder.
Drayton, 'Idea 2.'

The "boy" in the last verse could scarcely be the reflected image of any one. Is it not rather an abstract Cupid with his arrow?

When a young lady wrings you by the hand, thus,
Or with an amorous touch presses your foot,
Look babies in your eyes, plays with your locks,
Do you not find, without a tutor's help,
What 'tis she looks for?

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Massinger, Renegado,' II. iv. Scarcely for the miniature reflection of her own face in her companion's eyes, one would think, but rather suppose that Massinger's meaning was that she was trying to kindle the warm sparkle of love in them. And, relying upon the following quotation, I am inclined to think that Herrick would take this view too :

Among thy fancies, tell me this,
What is the thing we call a kiss?

It is an active flame that flies,
First to the babies of the eyes.

Hesperides.' already quoted note by Dr. Grosart is appended The particular passage in Herrick to which the is the following:

You blame me, too, because I can't devise,

Some sport to please those babies in your eyes. If this had been the only instance of the expression in our literature, scarcely even then, I think, would this, the common explanation, be quite satisfactory; not so satisfactory, indeed, as Mr. Pollard's, which would make Herrick mean, I suppose, that his mistress was chiding him for his seriousness of demeanour, and for failing to bring the glint and sparkle of merry amusement to her eyes. But though Mr. Pollard's explanation of the metaphor may make this particular passage

I

intelligible, it seems to fail in other cases. venture to urge that the explanation I am suggesting in this paper applies in this as in other examples. On reading the poem-which, by the way, is entitled "To his Mistress objecting to Him neither Toying nor Talking"-it seems probable that Herrick understood the "sport " for the absence of which he supposes himelf upbraided to be some form of amorous play or conversation, such as should kindle into life "the babies in the eyes,” i. e., light up in the eyes the flashing fires of the love-god in a thrill of pleasurable emotion.

Perhaps the least comprehensible instance of the use of the metaphor is to be found in a poem in the collection called The Mistress,' by Cowley. It is descriptive of a lady in tears :

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As stars reflect on waters, so I spy,
In every drop (methinks) her Eye.

The Baby, which lives there, and always plays
In that illustrious sphere,

'DICTIONARY OF NATIONAL BIOGRAPHY':
NOTES AND CORRECTIONS.

(See 6th S. xi. 105, 443; xii. 321; 7th S. i. 25, 82, 342,
376; ii. 102, 324, 355; iii. 101, 382; iv. 123, 325, 422;
v. 3, 43, 130, 362, 463, 506; vii. 22, 122, 202, 402; viii.
123, 382; ix. 182, 402; x. 102; xi. 162, 242, 342; xii.
102; 8th 8. i. 162, 348, 509; ii. 82, 222, 346, 522.)
Vol. XXXIII.

Hervey's 'Meditations,' fourteenth edition, 1758,
P. 7a. On Archbishop Leighton's 'Works' see

ii. 286.

P. 18. Dr. Tho. Leland. See Magee, 'Atonement,' third edition, 1812, i. 236 sqq.

P. 27 b. For "in the church" read in holy orders.

P. 30 a, 1. 23 from foot. Insert mark of quotation after "Strand."

Pp. 38, 39. Dr. Leng, while Rector of Beddington, published a sermon preached there Nov. 6, 1715, dedicated to Sir Nicholas Carew, of Beddington, Bart.; and an assize sermon at Kingston-onThames, March 22, 1715/6.

P. 41 a, 1. 15 from foot. For "Setrington " read Settrington.

P. 43 b. On the "lass of Richmond Hill" see 'N. & Q.,' 6th S. ii., iii., and references there. P. 52 a, l. 17. For "Abbey" read Hall.

P. 58. Some of Lenthall's letters are in 'Litera Cromwellii,' 1676.

Like a Narcissus doth appear, Whilst in his flood the lovely Boy did gaze. The whole of this set of verses-it is headed "Weeping,' and consists of four stanzas-is, perhaps, as precious a piece of nonsense as the later and debased euphuism can show, and it may be doubtful whether it is not a waste of time and trouble to attempt to read any intelligible meaning into it. It seems, however, clear that here again the "baby" cannot have anything to do with the reflection of any one's face. What Cowley meant is probably to be gathered from the following consideration. It had become, as I think, a commonplace of his time and school to speak of the beauty and love-inspiring charms of a fair woman as "the babies in the eyes"; and this, to a mind ever on the strain to invent some new and far-fetched fantasy or forced comparison, apparently suggested P. 141 a. Darcy Lever, then of Aberford, Yorks, the grotesque and unpoetical idea of turning an issued proposals in Nov., 1797, for publishing abstract Cupid into a concrete Narcissus, and set-Mariner's Sheet Anchor,' to be dedicated to the ting him visibly in the lady's eye to gaze at his Hull Trinity House. An edition of 'Young Sea reflection in her tears. Officer's Sheet Anchor,' Leeds, 1835.

Many other instances of the use of this peculiar expression might be adduced in support of the interpretation here suggested; but to quote and comment upon them would be only to, more or less, repeat what has already been said. This interpretation may possibly seem a somewhat artificial one, but I do not think that it is more so than others which have been proposed. And before we say that this or that interpretation is forced or artificial, we must remember that the expression itself is characteristic of a period of our literature when the style of most of our writers was perhaps more forced and artificial than it has ever been either before or since.

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P. 83. Charles Leslie. See Smith, ‘Bibl. AntiQuak.,' pp. 267-274; Free-Thinker, i. 152; Blackwall's 'Sacred Classics'; Rob. Manning's Answ. to Case Stated,' Dublin, 1842.

P. 116 b, ll. 8 and 16 from foot. 1769, 1767 (?). P. 126 b. L'Estrange's poem "on confinement" in Roscommon's 'Poems,' 1707, p. 47.

Pp. 146 a, 153 a. For "Lyne" read Lyme; (229 a).

P. 146 a. Scroop. 149 a. Scroope.

P. 159 b. A poem on the death of Wm. Levinz, of Magd. Coll., Oxon., Nov., 1706, in Tho. Warton s 'Poems,' 1748, p. 63.

P. 174. A poem translated by David Lewis in V. Bourne's Poematia,' third edition, 1743, p. 61. P. 191. Mark Lewis. See preface to Holmes's Latin Grammar,' third edition, 1743.

P. 192 b. M. G. Lewis. See Mathias, 'Purs. of L.,' 245, 365; Byron, 'Engl. B. and Sc. Rev.,' 11. 259-276, 899-900.

P. 206 b, l. 32. Comma after "Wiltshire.”

P. 218. Ed. Lhuyd. See Ray's 'Three Discourses.'

P. 223 a, l. 31. For "Jnne " read June. P. 236 a, l. 15. For "his predecessor" read one of his predecessors. See Durham Univ. Jour.,

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