"With this field-dew consecrate.

Ev'ry fairy take his gait,

And such several chamber bless

Through this palace with sweet peace."

Midsummer's Night Dream. V. 6

At p.100 note to the German varieties of signification for Thor, as a Turret or Tower, and thence any eminence, we may adduce from Nares' Glossary, from which the previous note has been taken, the definition of "TORS, a tower or steep hill," with the instances of Glastonbury-Tor, Mam-Tor in Derbyshire, celebrated as the fifth wonder of the Peak by "the Peakish poet, C. Cotton" in almost equal doggerel to the recital of Rostock celebrities.

This haughty mountain by indulgent fame,
Preferr'd to wonder, Mam-Tor has to name:
Tor in that country's jargon uncouth sense,
Expressing any craggy eminence,

From tower: but then why Mam I can't surmise.
Unless because, mother to that (which) does rise
Out of her ruins.
Wonders of Peake.

To the instances of the veneration and preservation of ancient doors, adduced at pp. 108-110, the following may be added. In the Archæologia, Vol. xxvi., p. 32, is given a large engraving of a church door with this description, "In the church of Laughton en la Morthen, between Sheffield and Worksop, away from any public road, with a lofty spire visible at a great distance. The Saxon portion of the church consists only of a door on the north side, close to the western wall; it is evidentally part of a more ancient structure, carefully preserved, and surrounded with more modern masoury of very different stone."

The following instance from Navorscher, Vol. i., p. 17, carries the same practice into Holland—“ Tecklenburg. Op het voorspteen van het nu gesloopte huis de Heemstede, bevindt zich en oud Gothisch poortgen waarboven geschreeven staat; Saxum ex vetustissima arce Tecklenburgica huc transportatum, CIO CXL VII."

HAVING thus far found a conformity between Janus and Thor, and through the latter, as Wilde Jäger with his usual cry of "Ho! ho! ho!" with our own Puck, we shall now identify the latter with another mythic personage, with whom at first sight he might seem to have little affinity, namely with Friar Rush. This is one amongst the many proofs that can be adduced, and some of which I have already given, as far as they can be traced, that all the superstitions that lurk amongst our peasantry and the uneducated, that we can follow in our traditions, or in the unregarded revelations of our chroniclers, all flow from

one source.

The conformity of our gay, restless, good-natured Puck with the jolly friar Tuck, need be traced no

PUCK IDENTICAL WITH FRIAR RUSH. 155

farther than the change of the initial; and the rubicund and rotund beadsman soon superseded the ancient deity with the common people, which thus aggregated him to their favourite Robin Hood, himself (equally a myth), and his merry men all, as we have shown at p. 43 supra; but of this, after having finished with Rush.

We shall enter largely into the history of this book and legend, because it is one of the scarcest of our popular literature, and because we can bring evidence of its appearance in Upper Germany, and possibly England, before either introduced into Denmark or Mecklenburg, on which hitherto the contest as to originality has yet turned. In the Quarterly Review, Vol. xxi., p. 107, in an article usually attributed to Sir Francis Palgrave, we have the following voucher for the scarcity of this book-his identity with Robin Goodfellow, who is only Puck by another name, and his denomination also of Rus, all three of which will receive our consideration. "Of rarer occurrence than the heroic narratives to which our attention has hitherto been directed, is the history of FRIAR RUSH, 'the Devil's brother.' The Friar was known to Reginald Scott before the history of his pranks was published. Scott ranks him in the same category with Robin Goodfellow, so that Robin and the Friar were alike the heroes of popular and traditionary tales. There is an ancient Danish Poem which treats of Brother Rus,' how he did service as cook and monk in the monastery of Esserom. There is reason to suppose that the English story-book and the Danish history are derived from one common original, well-known on

156

RARITY OF THE ENGLISH WORK.

the Continent in times previous to the reformation; for, as Bruno Seidelius sings,

'Quis non legit, quæ frater Rauschius egit.'

It is worthy of remark that the Danish Rus is made to travel through the air to England, where he possesses the king's daughter. There has been a fair exchange of nursery-tales between the two countries; for in return to Brother Rus, we have given them the history of the lucky Richard Whittington, Lord Mayor of London, whose history has been translated into Danish, and whose good-fortune is now as well-known in Bergen and Drontheim as in our own land of Cockney. Puss has thus sailed half round the world, from the Gulf of Persia to the Northern Sea."

Farther, as to the rarity, Beloe (Anecdotes, Vol. i., p. 240) in giving an account of the English version, has "The Historie of Friar Rush: how he came to a house of Religion to seek service, and, being entertained by the Priour, was first made cooke: being full of pleasant mirth and delight for young people. Imprinted at London by Edw. Allde, dwelling neere Christ Church, 1660."* Mr. W. J. Thoms, Editor of Notes and Queries, says, "It is in black letter, ornamented with wood-cuts, and consists of fourteen chapters, of which, as the book is so exceed

* A facsimile reprint was published by Triphook, London, 1808; but this impression, if exact, would seem to differ in many respects from that described by Thoms above, as it has only a wood-cut on the title page, the imprint is fuller, and it is not in black letter. It is farther divided into sixteen chapters.

TWO METRICAL OLD GERMAN VERSIONS 157

ingly rare, I give the heads." The Danish and English versions were long since well known, but it was only lately that a German original in verse was discovered, the account of which is contained in an excellent article in Scheible's "Kloster," vol. xi., p. 1070; which, whilst paying a well-deserved compliment to it, throws so much light upon the subject, that I will give it a full translation:

It was long the idea that only the Danish metrical and the English prose versions of Friar Rush were known; but both Nyerup and the Grimms had supposed that there also must have existed a German original. The former even says, "At Originalien har väret tydsk og er äldre end Reformationen er ganske klar;" in support of which the Latin quotation from Bruno Seidelius, given as my second motto to this chapter, is adduced.

This supposition became a certainty by the report which the learned Mr. W. J. Thoms in London sent us, that he had actually found, amongst the scarce literary treasures of his deceased Landsman, Francis Douce, an edition of the German popular Chap-Book of "BRUODER RAUSCHEN." Being rendered by this notice more particular, we also were successful in finding two copies of this German work in this country.

The first is in the Imp. Roy. Library at Vienna, with the title: "Von Bruoder Rauschen und was wunders er getriben hat in einem Closter, dar in er syben iar sein zeit vertriben und gedienet in eines Koch's gestalt." Of this edition, a rep int has been edited by Messrs. Franz Wolf and Steph. Endlicher, of only fifty copies, in 1838, at Vienna.

The other copy is from the collection of old books offered for sale by Mr. Mathew Kuppitsch, with the same title as the previous one, and also a cut of the same objects. It consists of seven unpaged leaves, but with catch-words, in 12mo. and with the Aij--viij and B to 7 leaves in black letter, with

VOL. II.

P