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George Frederick

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3 Emily Rosine

1 Emma

1 Ethel

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1 Eva Florence

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1 Florence Elsie
1 Florence Ellen
Frances Mabel

1 Frances Mary
Gertrude Ellen

1 Gertrude Florence

names.

The corresponding Joane or Jone, such a favouriite in old literature, while counting sixteen in the 1 sixteenth century, drops to two in the seventeenth and then entirely disappears. Fashion might do worse than revive it.

Of boys' names, for the earlier three centuries, 2 as might be expected, John, Thomas, and William 1 are by far the most in favour, accounting together for fifty-two, sixty-five, and sixty-eight in the hundred of the successive periods. It will, perhaps, be rather a surprise, considering how many Henrys, 1 Edwards, and Georges we have had upon the

throne, though not within the periods under analysis, that these names should show so small a percentage.

Of girls' names, Elizabeth, with z or s, keeps the lead for three centuries. But it is rather singular that while in the sixteenth century Margaret is even with it, both being nineteen, in the seventeenth we have no Margaret at all, and in the eighteenth only one. In the sixteenth century we have no Mary, but three Maries. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Mary is as popular as Elizabeth, while in the nineteenth we have but

one.

Obviously the most remarkable thing about the nineteenth century list is the extent to which the practice of giving in baptism double or even treble names is now carried. While in the last century a hundred boys had only nineteen names among them, and a hundred girls only twenty, now, owing to this practice, a hundred boys have sixtyseven names, and a hundred girls eighty-three-so much have we enlarged upon our fathers' vocabulary.

The most fanciful and romantic of the double and treble names belong as often as not to the labouring classes.

There are indications also of the increasing favour shown to pet names, and what used to be considered nicknames-Annie, Jenny, and Nellie -will probably be followed as baptismal names by many which are now confined to the family circle, but which are often displayed in wedding notices, as when we are told parenthetically that "Gwendoline Florence," for example, is the young lady known to her friends as Florrie." ROBERT HUDSON.

66

Lapworth.
CURIOSITIES OF INTERPRETATION.-No. IV.

In the 'King of Tars,' 605, it is said of a man that he is "in his herte sore attrayed," i. e., sorely vexed at heart. See Atray in the 'N. E. D.' The glossary has, "Attrayed, poison'd." This is a very bad shot, for the A.-S. attor, poison, could not possibly produce such a verb as attrayen.

Blyve, we are told, sometimes means blithe, and is corrupted from it. It never has that sense, and the assumed "corruption," like most others, is unwarranted.

"Borken, barking" is entered without a reference. It occurs in the 'King of Tars,' p. 400, and is the past tense plural, meaning "barked." Mr. Ritson should have known that -en is not the suffix of a present participle. If the hapless Warton had been caught in such an error, Ritson would have called the statement 66 a lye."

The glossary gives us cronde, unexplained. This is an error for croude, as was shown by Price.

Dang, we are told, is the "plural" of Ding; but it is charitable to suppose that "plural" is a misprint for "preterite."

"Denketh roun, thinks to run," is surely comic. The text has roune, i. e., to whisper.

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Druye is unexplained, yet it is merely our "dry."
Ernde, yearn, desire'd." But it means
ran," as the context requires. See rennen in
Stratmann.

"Glyste up," not explained. The s is printed as a "long s"; in fact, it is an error for glyfte up. To gliff is to glance quickly, to look, gaze. It is duly explained in Stratmann.

Hone is explained by "shame; Fr. honte." But "withouten hone" means "without delay," and is a fairly common phrase.

66 Pende, hond," must be a misprint of hond for pond. Pende is explained by Stratmann as a pound, or (perhaps) a pond.

"Ryne, rine [sic], the white covering of a nocturnal frost." This is a complex error, and refers to 'King Horn,' p. 11: "For reyn ne myhte by ryne." The answer is simple; read by-ryne, i.e.,

A famous antiquary and editor was Joseph Ritson. We all remember the acrimony with which he attacked Warton. Frequently, but not always, he had good reasons to show for his stric-be-rain, rain upon. tures. If, however, we were to draw the conclusion that he was himself accurate, we should be very much mistaken. His throwing of stones was doubtless intended to let us know that he did not himself live in a glass house. Nevertheless, that house had an over large proportion of windows in it, as may easily be seen.

Ritson's 'Metrical Romanceës' (to adopt his own peculiar spelling) is a valuable book in its way, but we must not trust it too much. I give a few samples of some of its peculiarities, for which purpose it is simplest to examine the glossary.

In King Horn,' 1120, we read how Horn craved some drink, because he and his companions "bueth afurste," i. e., are athirst. The glossary says that afurste here means at first," which makes nonsense of the whole passage.

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In the Erle of Tolous,' p. 337, we have, "He behelde ynly hur face," where ynly (for in-ly) means inwardly, hence, intently. But Ritson was entirely puzzled by it, and misprints it yuly. Hence the curious entry in the glossary, "Yuly, handsome, beautiful." This he supports by a quotation about "a captain's wife most yewly," adding, "though it must be confess'd that the original has not yewly, but vewlie, unless the tail of the y have been broken off at the press "; that is, his imaginary word is to be explained by manipulating another passage to suit it.

InYwaine and Gawaine,' p. 677, is a curious passage about Sir Ywaine riding under a portcullis. Under that than was a swyke.

The knight's horse's foot touched the swyke, i. 6.,

the trap, or contrivance for letting the rortcu'lis go, and down it came. But Ritson coolly identifier swyke with syke, and explains it by "sike, hole, or ditch."

Under the word thoghte, however, he succeeds in gibbeting a mistake of "mister Ellises" very neatly, as follows: "In mister Ellises edition, the the text has hym poghte; the comment, 'In posté, Fr. in power'; than which nothing can be more ridiculous." WALTER W. SKEAT.

SHAKSPEARIANA.

'AS YOU LIKE IT,' II. i., p. 19 (Clarendon Press edition).-Objection to note (p. 101) reading "forked heads " as meaning "forked arrows

Duke S. Come, shall we go and kill us venison? Here is a challenge to his companions. As a skilled hunter he speaks as if he is sure of his game, and he has no thought of wounding the deer. He stops to moralize-having himself been kicked out of house and home-and considers the treatment, when the deer are hunted by him, that the one singled out for "hunter's aim "will receive from his brothers. They will treat the deer as the duke's brother has treated him; and the duke regrets that his necessity compels him to be a hunter, and thus to draw forth the selfish character of animal life.

Dapple in his own confines, by forked heads
Has his round haunches gored.

Now let me try to show the unsoundness of the note p. 101. "A forked arrow was not," as Steevens says, "barbed, but just the contrary"; and the note proceeds to say the arrow was barbed like a new moon, and adds, Commodus the Emperor would smite off the head of a bird and never mise. I should have thought, and seldom hit. Now really could there be a note of more absurdity? A half-moon on a shaft! You might as well use a hayfork. How could an arrow of this class be balanced or guided by its fleche? If Commodus did use such an arrow, it must have been in a very narrow enclosure, and only a short distance to shoot and the bird standing still. Again, the comparison between the neck of a bird and the neck of a deer! Supposing the bird's neck hit by the arrow so shaped, it would easily be killed; but what of the neck of a deer, ten times as thick, with a tough skin and hide to cover? The halfmoon, too, a non-penetrating weapon, and therefore hardly able to cause a wound.

There might be some sense in a barbed arrow-it could pierce, maybe, to the heart, but I do not assent to this as the forked head.

Then afterwards (1. 51), that the herd do not allow the hunted deer to rejoin them, still less a wounded deer, because of the smell of blood, gives full force to the moralizing of Jaques, who (I. 28) swears in that kind, you do more usurp than doth your brother that hath banished you, i. e., your brother has gored your haunches, and when you hunt the deer, or wound him as you sometimes miss your aim, you excite the herd to be as unkind as Duke F. You have not learnt the sweet use of adversity, so in that manner you outHerod Herod.

Shakespeare was an observer of nature and knew the habits of deer; at least it is not unreasonable to think this, when the story of his being charged with deer killing is remembered. Having in my early days constantly hunted deer for the purpose of paddocking them, I will try to describe what I could tell much better. We rode into the park, the keeper and I, both on horseback, two assistants on foot, the one holding the deerhound in leash. The deer being in a park, an enclosure, not a forest, were half tame, and instead of taking useless flight, immediately closed in a body, for mutual protection. The keeper would point out to me the deer wanted. Imagine a herd of twenty, all black, and "one dappled fool," and this last the required one. I rode straight to the dapple, and so cut the herd in two. Again riding after dapple, the rest would, if not all, join the original body, dapple, too, if he could, I still riding after dapple. It would be very soon perceived that dapple was the one wanted. The herd then, not wishing to be disturbed, face dapple, and with their forked heads would beat dapple off or out of the herd; and in turning round his "round haunch" would be struck, and possibly gored. I have seen a haunch gored many inches long-the selfish deer thus in self-defence assisting to the capture-formed horn (the time for this varies quite a month hitting him now he is down.

'Tis just the fashion.-L. 56. Dapple, discarded of his velvet friends, was driven into the open and was captured by the hound. Thus

The duke speaks of the haunches being gored as a certainty. I think I have shown how it is so, by the antlers of the other deer. To read "forked heads" as arrows is at once to make an uncertainty of it, for no hunter would aim at the haunch, a non-vital part, and a prime part, which The heart no hunter would wish to damage. would be aimed at, and it would be an accident if the haunch was gored. To gore, does not this imply an injury inflicted by a horn? C. J. WILDING.

I have seen a wounded deer gored by the others over and over again-in fact, it is the usual habit of deer. The only difference would be that in the early stages of the growth of the horns the latter would be soft, and "goring" would be then impossible; but the moment the velvet peels off the newly

in various parks, depending on the pasture and other causes) it is a very different state of things, and no wounded deer would be allowed to remain long in the herd-the others would strike at him

with their horns right and left. I have seen a wounded deer so gored that in a very few minutes his haunches were practically spoilt for venison, being gored or stabbed all over. There is not a year that I do not have a buck or two killed from fighting in my park, or rather I should say from being gored by the others, for it is more an old deer being attacked by younger and stronger rivals than a regular fight.

If a deer was wounded this is what generally takes place: the rest of the herd bolts, the wounded deer tries his very best to keep up with them, and, if possible, to get in the centre of the herd. This he may do until the herd stops, when his condition is at once found out by the rest and no mercy given him. He will, if left alone by the hunter, soon drop away from the rest, and probably lie down. S. E. SHIRLEY.

In illustration of Ascham's crescent-headed arrows, Mr. P. A. Daniel sends the following quotation from the Melbourne Age of April 30. The writer is describing a Buddhist temple in Japan, and says :—

"In a shed to the left of the temple strange relics are exhibited. Feudal armour......two-handed swords worthy of giants; and enormous arrows, more than 5 feet long, with shafts nearly an inch in diameter. One has a crescent head about 9 inches from horn to horn, the interior of the crescent being sharp as a knife. Such a missile would take off a man's head, if shot with great force, but I can scarcely believe Alcira's [the guide's] assurance that such ponderous arrows were shot from a bow by hand only."

SONNET C., 1. 9.—

Rise resty Muse.

F. J. F.

11. 3, 4. True, she had not been absolutely at rest, but she had been idly spending her time "in some worthless song," neglecting him, and at rest as regards the praise of "truth in beauty dy'd." Nor either here or in these sonnets, nor, I believe, elsewhere, does Shakespeare ever address or speak of his muse as restive, or use any epithet suggestive of the same.

I am, indeed, aware that in Cassell's' Dictionary' one meaning given to restive is "idle"; but first,. that is no reason for ousting the text word resty, and secondly, the quotation given in support of this sense refutes it, the phrase being "idle restive presence." The verb rise is wholly against restive, and for resty. BR. NICHOLSON.

THE ENGLISH MIND AS SEEN BY A GERMAN.Here is a first-rate opportunity of seeing ourselves as others see us. Dr. Carl Horstmann, in his preface to 'A Legendary of the Thirteenth Century' (E.E.T.S., 1887), has expressed himself with a frankness which we ought to receive with gratitude and profit. But as, on his own showing, very few Englishmen are likely to open his book or read his preface, perhaps N. & Q.' will give them one more chance of enlightenment:

The

"I know most Englishmen consider it not worth whil to print all these legends. I know they regard them as worthless stuff, without any merit, because they are wholly absorbed in questions of the day, in politics and authors, which to an intellect of the middle ages would no end, in the fade poetry of poets laureate and lady have appeared infinitely more insipid (as turning on momentary interest, the 'self' and its lust) than these legends may appear to the present generation. English mind is always running into extremes with full steam, with brutal energy, from Popery to 'No Popery,now into the grossest superstition, and again disclaiming and holding in abhorrence what their own fathers revered and held in awe: it only sees its present objects, and is blind to everything which lies behind or around: it mind." wants the juste milieu, the repose of a contemplative

us.

For resty my friend Mr. Tyler, in his 'Shakespeare's Sonnets,' substitutes restive, a word of wholly opposite meaning, and one which I would most strenuously oppose. Resty is used in a double sense (one so often indulged in, nay, sought for by Shakespeare) of restful, torpid, or idly resting, and also to that consequence of being too long kept There may be some truth in all this terrible out of use in the instance of bacon which has thus censure; but there are a few things which puzzle become rancid. So used resty perfectly agrees with It seems hard to be scolded equally at both our author's other words as to the non-productive-ends, for superstition and for the rejection of it. ness of his muse anent his dearest W. H. In this The contemplative mind itself must sometimes disclaim, and even hold in abhorrence, things which very sonnet we have our own fathers revered and held in awe (certain particulars in the ritual of Odin, for instance?). And who are those poets laureate whose fade poetry of the self and its lust we are all so deeply absorbed in, when we are not talking politics and no end? Surely not Tennyson or his two predecessors, Wordsworth and Southey! Does Dr. Hortsmann, as I half suspect, think that we keep half a dozen laureates always on hand? Poor Lord Tennyson, having done so much to acquaint us with one cycle of medieval legend, might have hoped to be quoted on the other side. Perhaps, also, he might retort on Dr. Horstmann, that when he is on the war

thou Muse that......forgetst so long, To speake of that which gives thee all thy might, And in 11. 5, 6:

Returne forgetfull Muse, and straight redeeme, In gentle numbers time so idly spent. So in ci. we find, "Oh truant Muse......Excuse not silence so......Then do thy office, Muse "; and for similar phrasings see lxxxiii. 1. 5 and 11. 9-14; lxxxv. 1. 1, 11. 5, 6, and 11. 13, 14; as also lxxxvi. II. 13, 14.

In defiance of all these, it is said that Shakespeare's muse had not been at rest, as shown by

path, his manners have not that repose which stamps the caste of the contemplative mind.

C. B. MOUNT.

unknown to some of your readers, as it was to me till I came upon it almost casually, which will be found of great service in historical and topoCOL. MARK BEAUFOY (1764-1827), ASTRONOMER the kind hitherto published is Chassant's charming graphical researches. The most perfect work of AND PHYSICIST.—It may be noted, as an addition little volume, Dictionnaire des Abbreviations to the account of him appearing in 'Dict. Nat. Biog., (Paris, Martin, 1884), supplemented by his 'Paléovol. iv. p. 51, that his wife, Margaritta, only child of Benjamin and Sarah Beaufoy, of Homerton, died graphie des Chartes et des Manuscrits.' Handy on Aug. 26, 1800, and was buried in the church-illustrative examples, they furnish all that the recordin form, admirable in arrangement, and rich in yard of St. John's, Hackney, co. Middlesex, in the reader can require, but they do not in any way same grave as her father, who died June 5, 1809, lessen our gratitude to Mr. Martin for supplying aged eighty-one years (Robinson's History of a long-felt want for English readers. Hackney,' 1843, vol. ii. p. 139). EDMUND VENABLES. DANIEL HIPWELL.

17, Hilldrop Crescent, N.

FOREIGN ENGLISH.-Recent volumes of 'N. & Q.' have contained numerous specimens of English as it is written and printed on the Continent, but no instance that has been given surpasses, I think, the following: "Foogsach is the Kingdom of heaven." This is the title given in the official catalogue of the Salon of the Champs Elysées to a picture by Mr. Bramley, whose address is stated to be "NewlynComwall, Angleterre." JOHN RANDALL.

INTERPRETATION OF RECORDS.-Passing over old and well-known books, such as Astle's 'History of Writing,' Wright's 'Court Hand Restored,' and the like, by far the best and most handy English book for the interpretation of medieval documents is that by Mr. Charles Trice Martin, published during the present year by Messrs. Reeves & Turner. In addition to the forms of abbreviation of Latin words used in English records, which occupies nearly half the book, there is a corresponding list of abbreviations of French words, and a convenient, though by no means complete-when shall we get our long-promised condensed Ducange? – glossary of medieval Latin words; separate glossaries of the Latin names of places and of bishoprics in England, Scotland, and Ireland; and a list of Latin forms of English surnames, and of Latin Christian names with their English equivalents. For so compact and fairly complete a manual for the record-reader, which has long been a desideratum, our obligations both to compiler and publisher are great. As a previous contribution to the same subject, we must not pass over the complete and comprehensive list of abbreviations prefixed to the fourth volume of the late Sir T. Duffus Hardy's edition of the 'Registrum Palatinum Dunelmense in the "Rolls Series." But as forming a portion of a bulky volume, itself one of a series, its use must be limited even among the comparatively few who know of its existence. There is also a valuable list of "Geographical Terms," i.e., the Latin and French, &c., names of places, appended to the fourth volume of the Bishop of Oxford's edition of Hoveden's 'Chronicle,' which may be

UNDATED BOOKS.-I did not expect that a voice from Fiji would endorse a suggestion of mine contained in the Athenæum of Jan. 30, 1886. It was this: "Would it be beneath the dignity of Parliament to pass a short Act to compel publishers. to date their books, and in the case of mere reprints to retain the original date on the title-page? C. TOMLINSON. Highgate, N.

TENNYSON'S "MAID MARIAN."-The following, from the Glasgow Mail of May 18, merits a corner in N. & Q.':

"It is an odd coincidence that Tennyson should have

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been anticipated by a third-rate dramatist in what may be described as the leading idea or sentiment of his beautiful lyric in Maid Marian Love flew in at the window.' In Charles Dibdin junior's farce of 'My Spouse and I,' one of the characters says:

"Love and poverty they say do not agree; but the love that flies out of the window at the sight of poverty deserves

to have the door shut in his face."

"Query-Was Tennyson in his early days by a strange chance present at some performance of this now long forgotten farce?" J. R. M.

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"Copenhagen, Dec. 23. An Amazone is lately discover'd here, being a Finland Gentlewoman, who had been ill us'd by her Relations; and putting her self in Mans Apparel, gerv'd years as a Mariner under John du Bart, and quitting his Service, Listed her self into our Marine, where she hath serv'd the King of Denmark 5 years, and been in England, Holland, and the East Indies. At last she engaged with a Captain as his Man, found means to Rob him of 500 Rix dollars, and afterwards put herself into Woman's Habit, but a Great Reward being proffer'd, she was discover'd in three days, put in Prison, and most of the money found about her; being Sentenc'd to Run the Gantlet, and thereupon afraid of having her Sex discover'd, she desired to speak with her Captain, and discover'd all to him: whereupon he acquainted the King with it, which was so pleasing to His Majesty, that he order'd her to be brought before him in Mans Apparel, set her at Liberty, and sent her in a Coach to the Houses of all the Foreign Ambassadors. After which, the Queen gave her a Rich Suit of Cloaths, and the Ambassador of Sweden is to send her home to her Relations with a handsome Present of Money, she being one of his Masters Subjects."-Flying Post, No. 571, Jan, 5-7, 1698/9.

H. H. S.

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