illustrations:--

"Worshipfull frendis, ye shall cum to holi chirch on Wednysday,
Thursday, and Friday at even for to here dyvyne service, as
commendable custom of holi chirch has ordeyned. And holi chirch
useth the iij dayes, Wednysday, Thursday, and Friday, the
service to be saide in the eventyde in derkenes. And hit is
called with divers men _Tenables_, but holi chirch _Tenebras_,
as _Raccionale Divinorum_ seth, that is to say, thieness or
derkenes, to commemorate the betrayal of our Lord by
night."--_Harl. MS._ 2247. fo. 83.]


_The Buckingham Motto._--Permit me to suggest that your correspondents
"S." and "P." (No. 18. pp. 283, 284.) are labouring under a mistaken
notion in supposing that the line

_Sovente me sorene_,

belongs to the French idiom, and answers to our phrase "Forget me not."
Such a sentiment would be sufficiently appropriate as the parting prayer
or injunction of a lover, but does not possess the essential
characteristic of a _motto_, which one selects for the purpose of
declaring his own sentiments of conduct towards _others_, not to
deprecate or direct those of others towards _himself_.

The language employed is, in part, pure Italian, not antiquated, but
exactly such as is spoken by persons of education at the present day;
and if "S." would again examine the original MS., I make no doubt that
he would find the line written _Sovente mi sooviene (sovene)_, i.e. with