Devon & Cornwall notes & queries . even in a photograph. I have inserted adrawing copied from abestiary, dated 1240,in the British Museum(Sloane MS., 3544),because the resem-blance to our mermaidis very strong, andwould have been evenstronger if she had retained both her fishes. It cannot bedoubted that in very many cases designs for carving werefound in illustrated manuscripts, religious and secular, andthe likeness of the two mermaids proves it. The bestiary account was adopted from Pliny. The fablewe all know: that by her sweet singing the mermaid luressailors to their destruction. The mora
Devon & Cornwall notes & queries . even in a photograph. I have inserted adrawing copied from abestiary, dated 1240,in the British Museum(Sloane MS., 3544),because the resem-blance to our mermaidis very strong, andwould have been evenstronger if she had retained both her fishes. It cannot bedoubted that in very many cases designs for carving werefound in illustrated manuscripts, religious and secular, andthe likeness of the two mermaids proves it. The bestiary account was adopted from Pliny. The fablewe all know: that by her sweet singing the mermaid luressailors to their destruction. The moral is : Thus the devildeceives those who listen to his seductive voice, luring themon to destruction, and when he has rendered their soulsinsensible by the pleasures of the world he falls on them andkills them. A fish represents a Christian, or the soul of a says: At baptism we are spiritually born inwater like the fish. Therefore a fish in the hand of a sirensignifies the soul in the grip of earthly 22 THE MISERICORDS OF EXETER CATHEDRAL. The Old-English Bestiary speaks of the mermaids song(I have ventured to modernize the spelling):— Merry she singeth, this mermaid,And hath many voices,Many and shrill,But they are all forget their steeringFor her slumber and sleep,And awake too ships sink through the treachery,And never come up again. Although this account is to the same effect as that of theLatin prose bestiaries, the moral is different, and indeedrather unexpected. The mermaid is to symbolize a deceitfulman. He speaks divinely,But wicked are his deeds are all differentTo what he speaks with his is he of mind,He swears by the rood,By the sun and the he speaks falselyWith the speech and the by deceit will destroyThy property with treachery,Thy soul with speaks of the mermaids song, referring to thebestiary descriptions: And Chanticlere so freeGan singen l
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, bookye, christian, mermaid, symbol
