1. Herrick's _Hesperides_, p. 169., is a Bellman's song, a blessing, concluding:
"Past one o'clock, and almost two, My masters all, good-day to you."
2. Ibid. p. 251. is another song; a warning to remember the judgment-day, and ending--
"Ponder this when I am gone, By the clock 'tis almost one."
See _The Tatler_, No. 111., for the Bellman's salutation:
"_Good morrow, Mr. Bickerstaff, good morrow, my masters all._"
"It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman, Which gives the stern'st good night."--Shakspeare, _Macbeth_, Act II. Sc. 2.
Gay refers to the Bellman's song in the following lines:
"Behold that narrow street which steep descends, Whose building to the slimy shore extends; { 325} Here Arundel's fam'd structure rear'd its frame, The street alone retains the empty name; Where Titian's glowing paint the canvass warm'd, And Raphael's fair design, with judgment, charm'd, Now hangs _the bellman's song_, and pasted here The colour'd prints of Overton appear."--_Trivia_, book ii. 482.
In the _Archaic and Provincial Dictionary_, the duty of the Bellman in his poetic character seems to be limited to blessing the sleepers. It appears from the poem by Vincent Bourne, that his Muse took a much more extensive range.
Can you inform me where I can find more about the Bellman, his bell and his dog; and, especially, his songs? Where can I find "The Bellman's Songs?"
Is "Bellman" a name given to dogs in modern times? See _Taming of the Shrew_, Induction.
[We cannot insert F. W. T.'s Query without referring to the admirable translation of Vinny Bourne's Ode, which is to be found in our First Volume, p. 152.]
WAS SALLUSTIUS A LECTURER?--CONNEXION BETWEEN SALLUSTIUS AND TACITUS.
Sallustius, in his celebrated abstract of the Punic records of Thempsal, makes the following remark:
"Nam de Carthagine silere melius puto, quam parum dicere, _quoniam alio properare tempus monet_."--_De Bello Jugurthino_, c. xix. ed. Allen.
Does not this sound as if the history has been read out to an assembly? There is strong presumptive evidence in favour of such a supposition, in the tradition of Herodotus having read aloud his history at the Grecian Games. Besides, it was a common practice of Cicero and Plinius the Younger to read out their orations and treatises. I cannot help thinking that the histories of Sallustius were first delivered as lectures, _taken down by reporters_[2] employed by himself for the purposes of preserving his words, as he had only notes before him, fairly transcribed from the stenographic character, and then, _but not till then_, made a subject of closet-study. This, I think, is easy of proof, and instances may be adduced (the expression I have quoted is one) where the lecturer peeps out.