Star.
London, England, 1830-10-27 00:00:00

THE C. RFEW.

Some mistake has arisen respecting the precise meaning of the word
• 4 Jaw.. which does nor only signify a bell to be rung at a certain hour
;4 the evening, for extinguishing of lights, but an instrument, (as its
cotavreleu. imports,) used as an extinguisher. A Mr. (Jostling,
ef.Canterbury, had in his po.se:sion a utensil, which he said had been
his house from time immemorial, called a curfew, or saw re-feu,
from its use. which is that of putting out fire suddenly. It is of copper,
riveted together, as solder would hare been liable to have melted with
heat. This utensil is supposed to have been first used in the time of
William the Conqueror, to whose orders, about putting out fires and
.sidles, is attributed the rise of the eurfete-bell."—The Alias, Sept
12. 1830. _ _

I know not what "mistake has arisen;" for in Jottasoit's
Die-
.wiassry the word is also explained, A cover for a fire, a fire-plate," and
KACON is the authority referred to.
" liuRTEw, ts. [Fr. couvre-feu, cover.fire.] The ringing of a bell
en bells at night, as a signal to the inhabitants to rake up their fires, and
retire to rest. This practice originated in England, from an order of
William the Conqueror, who directed at the ringing of the bell, at eight
-.'clock, every one should put out his light, and go to bed. This word
it not used in America ; although the practice of ringing a bell, at nine
o'clock, continues in many places, and is considered in New-England,
as a signal for people to retire from company to their own abodes ; and
in general, the signal is obeyed."—Da. WEBSTER'S English Die-
:ionary.
'` CURFEW, the evening.bell. Old Fr. carre-feu, or cerre-feu ;
mt,w changed into courre.few. It has been generally supposed by his-
:orians and law-writers. that the regulation of the curfew-bell, by which
every inhabitant of England was obliged to extinguish his fire at eight
v'elock in the evening, originated with William the Conqueror, and
that the measure was imposed upon his new subjects as a badge of ser-
vitude. There is, however, no foundation for this opinion. On the
contrary, sufficient evidence exists, that the same custom prevailed in
old,: of the monasteries and towns in the North of Europe, before the
arrival of our Norman visitor. The law was intended as a precaution
against conflagrations, which, when so many houses were built of wood,
were very frequent and fatal. See LORD LYTTELTOWS Ilia. Hen. IL
Svo. vol. i. p. 433. %Fatima's Essay on Pope, vol. I. p. 22, and
IIIIXRY'a Hist. Brit. 4to. vol. 3. p. 667. See also LACOMBE, Diet.
du Vieux Lang. Franc.
v. County -feu. The purpose, as well as the name of the curfew-
tell, is still retained at Newcastle; where it is rung at the original
tint—eight o'clock at night." J. T. &LOCKETT% Glossary of I►orth-
e.nn,try ll'ords, p. 82.
E. If. BARKER.

J. J. W. begs to make an addition to the foregoing article, by ex.
tractim, some remarks from the writings of two very intelligent au.
t!lors. The first is from the pen of the celebrated antiquary, Dr. Pegge,
who, it will be seen, differs entirely from Mr. Gostling respecting the
use of the copper utensil, which has been in the lattcr's family n from
inc immemorial."

" The late Mr. Gostling, of Canterbury, was a worthy man, and
well respected for his good nature and pleasantry; but, at the same
time, he was very sanguine, and not a little opinionated, insomuch that
when he had taken a thing into his head, it was not an easy matter tes
drive it out. He was a great collector of antiquities ; and, in a long
had amassed a considerable number of curious articles. Amongst
other matters, he had gotten a piece of household furniture, of copper,
which he was pleased to call a curfew ; and his friends, on account of
his years and good.humour, did not care to contradict him. This im.
plement has since been engraved in the Antiquarian Repertory. vol. 1,
p. 89 ; and F. G. who communicated the drawing to the conductor of
that work, having, without scruple, adopted tha old gentleman's notion
of it, has described it as a curfew, from its use of suddenly putting out
a the ; and says, " Probably eurfi-ws were used in the time of William
the Conqueror, who, in the first year of his reign, directed that, on
the ringing of a certain bell. all persons should put out their fires and
candles."

Miw, Sir, authors agree in the institution of curfew-bells, by William
the Conqueror; and it was, doubtless, a good stroke of policy. imitated
twerwards by others on like occasion. (I); but they call it the eorfiti
bell, or the eerfert, in which latter short expression either bell is under.
stood, or the time of night, or the injunction of putting out the fire, is
eneant. However, not a word is said by any of them of any particular
implement made use of for the purpose of extinguishing the fire; nor
do we meet with the :lame of eorfeu, as an implement, in any ancient
writer whatsoever ; ant' thereupon 1 am inclined to think there never
was any such.
But, you will ask, for what use, then, could this old piece of
household serve 1 answer, you have heard of baking bread, or cakes,
or other matters, under embers (2); and the same is practised now-a.
days in most counties *here they burn wood. They make clean a place
to the hearth, lay the bread upon it, cover it with something (this im-
plement, for example) to keep the ashes from it, and then rake a proper
quantity of coals and ashes upon it.
This will account for those • others of the kind still remaining in
Kent and Sussex (3);" and, in my opinion, for the true use of Mr.
Goading's implement, which does not appear to me, to judge from its
elegance in the draught, to be of any such great antiquity as the prac-
tice of the eorfiu introduced by the Conqueror, since this ceased, as I
suspect, temp. Ilene. Priori, (for so I understand those words of
Knyghton, " Lucernamm usum tempore Pair(e sui intermissum
restltuit de nocte in curia sus (4)," though the ringing of the bell con-
thawed, and even does so to this day in many places."—Gent:emon's
Magazine for August, 1779.
" CURFEW . The evening bell ; COUVIV feu. The oright and pur-
pose of this bell are too well known to need repetition. The original
time for ringing it was eight in the evening, and we ate told by some
writers that in many villages the name is still retained for the evening
bell. 'buten, in his observations on Botraxe's Antiquities, says,
44 We retain also a vestige of the old Norman curfew at eight in the
evening."—Chap. i.
Ta the Merry Devil 0). MMOtti(M, it is represented as having got
as hour later ; the sexton comes in, saying,
" Well, 'tis nitre o'clock, 'tis time to ring eswfew."
0. Pl. v. 232.

By a passage in Romeo and Juliet, it seems that the bell which was
mug for that purpose obtained, in time, the name of the our Jew bell,
and was so called whenever it rung on any occasion :
Come stir, stir, stir ! the second cock bath crowd,
The curfew-bell bath rung, 'tie three o'clock,
ROI& and Jul. iv. 4.
At the regular time it probably was called simply the curfew ; at
others, if it was known that the same bell was used, it might be said,
as above, that the curfcio.bell had rung. This bull, if we may believe
die reporters, was as important to ghosts as to living men : it was their
signal for walking • and their furlough lasted till the first cock. kairies
and spirits were under the same regulation : hence Prosper.) says of his
'lvo*, that they
Rejoice
To hear the solemn curfew.— Temp. v. I.
On the other hand, the cock crowing alarmed them :
Bet% I was about to speak when the met crew.
//or. And then it started like a guilty thing
Upon a fearful summons. I have hoard
The cock, that is the trumpet to the morn,
Doth, wfth his lofty and shrill-sounding throat,
Awake the god of day ; and at his warning,
Whether in sea or fire, in earth or air,
Th' extravagant and erring spirit hies
To his confine. Hamlet i. I.
The fiend Flibbertigibbet obeyed this general rule :
this is the foul fiend Flibbertigibbet : he begins at curfew. and
walks 'till the first cock.—Lear iii. 4.
Archdeacon Naitzs's Glossary.
Since writing the foregoing, J. J. W. has met with the following
passage in Beckmann. The ruder will not fail to perceive that the
learned German ascribes the introduction of the curfew to serve a put
liNal purpose, and that he fixes the time of its ringing one hour earlier
than the above quoted authorities :
•• That there were no chimneys in the tenth, twelfth, and thirteenth

(I) Assaf. Repertory. p. 216. As to the corfeu in other countries
see Du Faust's, v. IgsiAgiuse.
(2) Gamic xviii. 6, and Bishop Patrick ad foe. Baum, bid. V.
Bating.
.r Aft*. Repertory. p. 90.
4) Hen. Kityphlow, inter I. Script, col. 2, 314. See Hist.
p 35. hilaxarzystrar, p. 156, who, for remporsicilris, has savor*
drab*. Bnygluon, however, svidendy transcribes Main of Jklakaer
Wiry.

centuries, seems to be proved by the so called ignicegisein, or pyri.
legions, the eurfeie.bell of the English, and oonoretleti of the French.
In the middle ages, as they are termed, people made fires in their
houses in a hole or pit in the centre of the floor, under an opening
formed in the roof; and when the fire was burnt out, or the family
went to bed at night, the hole was shut by a cover of wood. In those
periods a law was almost every where established, that the fire should
be extinguished at a certain time in the evening ; that the cover should
be put over the fire-place; and that all the family should retire to rest,
or at least be at home. (b.)
The time when this ought to be done was signified by the ringing of
a bell. William the Conqueror introduced this law into England in the
year 1068, and fixed the ignifegiust at seven in the evening, in order
to prevent nocturnal assemblies (6); but this law was abolished by
Henry I. in 1100. From this ancient practice has arisen, in my opinion,
a custom in Lower Saxony, of saying, when people wish to go home
sooner than the company choose, that they hear the burgerglocke,
burghers' belL The ringing of the eurfev-bell gave rise also to the
prayer-bell, as it was called, which has still been retained in some pro-
testant countries. Pope John IEIII. with a view to avert certain ap-
prehended misfortunes, which rendered his life uncomfortable, gave or-
ders that every person, on hearing the igniiegium, should repeat the
Ave Maria three times (7). When the appearance of a comet and a
dread of the Turks aftet wards alarmed all Christendom, Pope Calla-
tus 111. increased these periodical times of prayer, by ordering the
prayer-bell to be rung also at noon."
History of Inreniions, 2d ed. vol. 2. p. 06.

(b.) Reiske ad Ceram». Aida Boast p. 146.
(6) The following passages of old 'triter', collected by Du Cange,
allude to this law. Statute. Leichefeldensis ecassia in Anglia: Es.
autem ignitegium qualibet nocte per annum pulaandum hors septima
post meridiem. Seatu/a Mauil. lib. v. cap. 4 : Statuimus hac pro.
send constitutions petpetuo observandum, quad nullus de cetera vadat
per civitatem Massilhe vel suburbia civitatis contigua de node, ex quo
compana, quie dicitur Salvaterra, sonata fuerit, sine lumine. Marla
Johanna. electi arehiepise. Upsaliensis, an. 1291: Statuimus, ut nut.
lus extra domum post ignitegium seu coverfu exeat.
(7( POLYDOR. Viacm. de reredos inventor, lib. vi. cap. 12. edit.
Lugduni Baia'. 1664, 12mo. p. 460. Concilium Senonense anno
1345, cap. 13: Priecipimus, quod observetur inviolabiliter ordinatia
facts per S. 31. Joannem P. P. XXIIL de dicendo tee Ave Maria, tam.
pore sea hors ignitegii.