through the press I was too ill to see the proofs. Perhaps from a similar cause a dozen paragraph marks are inserted in R. R.'s collation not one of which exists in the book from which he quotes. J. R. DORE.

Huddersfield.

CECILS (7th S. v. 467). The following is from "A New System of Domestic Cookery, by a Lady," John Murray, 1819, p. 39:

"To dress the same [cold beef that has not been done enough] called Cecils. Mince any kind of meat, crumbs of bread, a good deal of onion, some anchovies, lemon peel, salt, nutmeg, chopped parsley, pepper, and a bit of butter, warm and mix these over a fire for a few minutes; when cool enough, make them up into balls of the size and shape of a turkey's egg, with an egg; sprinkle them with fine crumbs, and then fry them of a yellow brown, and serve with gravy as before directed for Beef-olives." The hypercritical may object that it is not "the same," but a preparation of the same that is called "Cecils"; also that beef is not "any kind of meat." But it is not grammar that is wanted, but cookery, and a change from "beef-olives" and "Sanders."

KILLIGREW.

CENTURY CENTENARY (7th S. v. 467).-The examples given below may perhaps be of some service to DR. MURRAY. Samuel Clark's 'Epistle to the Christian Reader,' dated December 10, 1649, prefixed to his 'Marrow of Ecclesiastical History,' contains, "Here [the learned, &c.] shall see in what Centuries, Ages and Places the famousest Lights of the Church......have flourished." See also the title-page. As regards centenary, under the heading 66 Chronicle of Occurrences "in the Companions to the British Almanac' for 1855, 1860, and 1863, there are the following records:July 3, 1854. "The centenary festival of the Society of Arts celebrated by a banquet at the Crystal Palace." November 17, 1858. "Celebration of the Tercentenary of Queen Elizabeth's accession to the throne."

January 26, 1859. "Centenary of Robert Burns's birthday," &c.

November 10, 1859. "Centenary of the birth of the German poet Schiller," &c.

August 24, 1862. "Bicentenary of the ejection of 2,000 nonconforming clergymen." See also p. 244.

Liverpool.

J. F. MANSERGH.

This use of centenary is older by at least twenty years than the Burns celebration of 1859. The centenary of Methodism was celebrated in 1839, when a tune-book called the Centenary Tunebook' (which I well remember) was published. I can give (from a friend's memory) a contemporary quotation for the word. A hymn or anthem was

sung by the Methodist congregations in connexion with this celebration, of which the chorus ran thus:The God of our fathers, the God we revere, Has bless'd us to see the centenary year.

1688"

C. C. B.

N. & Q.' I have found that exactly a century ago May I say that since putting my question in the "Centenary of the Glorious Revolution of was publicly celebrated throughout the country, a fact of which, by the way, I have seen no mention in the discussion of projects for bicenSee the Annual tenary celebrations this year. Register and other periodicals of that date. Perhaps some one with more time than I have would reprint in 'N. & Q.,' for the sake of the men of 1888, some account of how the events of 1688 were commemorated in 1788. J. A. H. MURRAY.

Oxford.

"OF A CERTAIN AGE" (7th S. v. 447).—I have always understood that the expression "of a certain age," applied as it generally is to ladies, meant those who, though somewhat past their prime, would be offended if told that they were "middle-aged." Dickens used the phrase in 'Barnaby Rudge,' chap. i.:

"The Maypole was really an old house, a very old house, perhaps as old as it claimed to be, and perhaps older, which will sometimes happen with houses of an

uncertain, as with ladies of a certain age."

"There is a rapidly increasing number of persons whose object it is to live a double life, instead of the one which has hitherto satisfied the majority of civilized beings-not only the private life which all lead, but the the objects of a certain notoriety and public curiosity." half public life which attaches to those who have become This will probably give DR. MURRAY some light the subject of his query. upon C. C. B. P.S.-Here is another illustration that has just turned up :

"His feet are set rather wide apart, in the fashion of gentlemen approaching a certain weight."-"Out of the Question,' by W. D. Howells, pp. 133-4, Edinburgh, 1882.

66

"What is the exact meaning of this expression so far as it can be defined?" is asked. May it not be answered almost, but not quite, accurately that it means an uncertain age," i. e., the age of a person (always, I think, in English of a woman) who has certainly left youth behind her, but who is not willing that the distance it lies behind her should be exactly stated. The phrase may be described as a satirico - euphemistical one, and, I should say, is rarely, if ever, used without a more or less overtly pronounced satirical intention.

died at Lisbon, May 20, 1812. Besides the book quoted by MR. TAVARÉ, he is the author of eight more medical works. See Francisco Innocencia da Silva, 'Diccionario Bibliographico Portuguez,' Lisboa, 1859, vol. iii. p. 71, and Gazeta Medica de Lisboa, No. 121, June 1, 1858. EDUARDO PRADO.

Paris,

"DEAD MEN"=EMPTY BOTTLES (7th S. v. 448). -I have always heard that empty bottles were, especially among army men, called "marines." And I remember that some sixty years ago a good story used to be told, I think, of the Duke of York. His Royal Highness, at some military convivial meeting, little thinking of giving offence to the susceptibilities of any man present, ordered a servant to "take away those marines." Upon which a grey-headed veteran belonging to that corps arose, and wanted to know what H.R.H. intended by so designating the body to which he had the honour to belong. "Empty bottles!" said H.R.H. "Why, fellows who have done their duty and are ready to do it again, to be sure!" T. A. T. "TO CHEW THE RAG (7th S. v. 469).-Is this confined to soldiers? To 66 rag a man is good Lincolnshire for chaff or tease. At school, to get a boy into a rage was called "getting his rag out." Sometimes this was improved into "shirty," and "getting his shirt out.”

I have heard that when soldiers are flogged it is a great comfort to them to have something to chew, whether a lump of rag or a bit of lead-often a bullet hammered out flat. They say it keeps them from biting their tongue. And there is no doubt that some children in a sulk will chew their pocket-handkerchiefs. I have seen them.

Boston, Lincolnshire.

R. R.

"TO MAKE UP HIS MOUTH" (7th S. v. 387).—This expression is still in use in some parts of Shropshire with regard to eating. After a person has eaten a sufficiency he will be tempted to have just a little more of something different, e. g., "a snack of bread and cheese to make up your mouth" is often the good wife's suggestion to her farmer lord. The transition from this practical use of the term to the figurative one quoted is not difficult, and makes the meaning of the latter clear. JOSIAH OLDFIELD, B.A.

Dorrington, Shrewsbury. To popular words or phrases of last century foreign dictionaries of the period seem to be the most complete index so far as sense is concerned. In German and French word-books of the time the above phrase is rendered as if meaning profit or make profit. Littleton's 'Latin Dictionary' (1706) gives the rendering of the phrase as "os componere,"

presumably to make up one's face, arrange it, and thence perhaps to cease from being "down in the mouth," a phrase which is of no new origin.

Can the sense of making up one's face, being affected or joyful, have gradually come to mean the usual cause of pleasure, namely, that of gain? JULIUS STEGGALL.

This is an ancient proverbial expression, but one which I have not found included in the more modern collections, such as Ray's, Hazlitt's, &c., which are, indeed, very imperfect. It is used in the Proverbs of John Heywood,' Sharman's reprint of 1546 edition, p. 76:

Herewithall his wife to make up my mouth,
Not onely her husband's taunting tale avouth,
But thereto deviseth to cast in my teeth
Checks and choking oysters.

Decker makes use of it in the Seven Deadly Sins of London,' Arber's reprint of 1606 edition, P. 12: "The poore Orator having made up his mouth, Bankruptisme gave him very good words," &c. In both cases it means to close or finish one's speech. I suppose by Walpole's time it had reached some such signification as "to square one's affairs," "conclude one's business," but the sense is considerably varied. H. C. HART.

This is equivalent to "make mowes," i. e., wry It is used by Shakspere :

faces.

Persevere, counterfeit sad looks,

Make mouths upon me when I turn my back.

And by Addison :—

"Why they should keep running asses at Coleshill, or how making mouths turns to account in Warwickshire hend." more than any other parts of England, I cannot compre

It is uncertain whether the worde mowe is a

corruption of mouth, or from the French moue. It

occurs as a verb in the interlude called 'The World and the Child' (1522) :—

y-now, bawde it & leche [slice] it in fayre pecys, & serue wyth Furmenty in hote water."-P. 18.

If bawde means "skin, peel," then it is bald, and in the 'Dictionary,' meaning "deprive of hair," in 1602. The date of the passage above is about 1425. F. J. FURNIVALL.

66

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Edited by Jas. A. H. Murray, LL.D., &c. Part IV. Sections 1 and 2. (Oxford, Clarendon Press.) PART IV. of the 'New English Dictionary, which now sees the light, consists of two sections-the first, "Bra" to Byz," completing vol. i., the second, "C" to "Cass," opening vol. ii. It is pleasant to congratulate the editor and his staff upon the "substantial instalment of the work which is now given the public. It will be obvious to all who glance at the portly volume, with its twelve to thirteen hundred pages, each page consisting of three closely-printed columns, that the task already accomplished is greater than that involved in almost any completed dictionary. Concerning the manner in which it has been executed little information is needed by readers of N. & Q.' Instead, then, of attempting to analyze or describe a book which defies alike analysis and description, we will commend to our readers the importance of assisting to the utmost of their power in a task which is, in the full sense, of national importance. This many of them have shown themselves anxious to do. Time is, however, a matter of signal importance, and the gain to Dr. Murray and his assistants that would accrue if correspondents would forward to Dr. Murray, at the Scriptorium, Oxford, answers to the words after which he inquires is not easily calculable. These replies, if so marked, would be forwarded to N. & Q.,' and would take their turn for insertion. Another duty, which applies to the few only, is that of consulting the Dictionary' before writing to 'N. & Q.' on words beginning with A and B, since rare indeed must be the cases in which information is obtainable that is not contained in the volume now at hand. Yet another duty-which weighs heaviest upon scholars -that of supporting by purchasing the successive numbers a labour the expense of which is in proportion to its importance, is too obvious to call for comment. A large portion of Dr. Murray's preface to vol, i, consists of acknowledgment of indebtedness to those who have laboured in the collection and the arrangement of materials. These include, in addition to many Englishmen of highest eminence, many American and German scholars. Thanks to the collaboration of Mr. Henry Bradley, who is at work upon a different section of the dictionary, it is hoped and expected that the rate of progress will be greatly accelerated. The aim and scope of the work, the method upon which it is conducted, and its claims to consideration are naturally explained by the editor. These also are matters upon which our readers are well informed. We may recommend, however, a study of the introductory paper, since few even of the best informed can be aware how many are the workers, and how numerous and important are the responsibilities involved in the production of the book.

The Works of Sir George Etherege: Plays and Poems. Edited by A. Wilson Verity, B.A. (Nimmo.) To the majority of readers Etherege and Sedley cre less known than some contemporary or immediately subsequent dramatists. A collection such as that edited by Leigh Hunt for the dramatic series of Moxon does much

to popularize writings, and Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar have, since its appearance, enjoyed a supremacy which, in one case at least, is not incontestable. The quarto editions of Etherege have never been common, and the collection of plays and poems issued in 1704, though more than once reprinted, has become absorbed, and is now seldom encountered. A new edition of Etherege is accordingly welcome, especially when, as in the present case, it takes a handsome library form, in which shape the dramatist has not previously been accessible. Fortunately, moreover, for the modern biosidence as English envoy at Ratisbon has become acgrapher, the correspondence of Etherege during his recessible, and a man who, in spite of the endearing epithet could not easily be dissociated from the Mohocks, his of "Gentle George" bestowed upon him by his associate, companions, has now something approaching to an individuality. Further revelations concerning the diplomatic services of Etherege may yet, possibly, be brought to light. His correspondence seems, at any rate, to show, as Mr. Verity asserts, that "his prose is generally clear and straightforward." Not heavy is Etherege's literary baggage. It consists of a few poems, chiefly erotic, in avowal of inconstancy, and three plays, which show a which perhaps the most notable feature is the open vein of genuine comedy, and brought reputation and In judging these productions it is fair to compare them with the fortune to the stage of the Restoration. works of D'Avenant and Crowne rather than with those of their more brilliant successors. The earliest was licensed for printing so early as 1664, and contains rhymed passages, which, however, in his subsequent works Etherege dropped. In the general joy at the cessation of Puritan rule, such freedoms of expression as distinguished our poet were pardonable. Mild, indeed, do these appear beside the coarseness and obscenities of his successors. Etherege, moreover, enriched the stage with types that were copied, and with more than one character which survived for years, and, in a sense, survive even now. Mr. Verity, who in his prefatory matter and his few The reprint, indeed, is judicious, and is well edited by notes displays both scholarship and judgment. Meanworks of this stamp in editions such as Mr. Nimmo supwhile the lover of books is only too thankful to possess plies. Veritable bibliographical treasures are these, right in all respects, and the collector watches with augmenting satisfaction the line expanding upon his shelves. No English publisher is rendering to biblio Kraphy services more acceptable than those of Mr. material subsequently known as moreen is indicated in Nimmo. the following lines from Etherege's 'Song of Basset'? Let equipage and dress despair Since Basset is come in ; For nothing can oblige the fair Like money and moreen.

Will some learned reader tell whether the

In a following verse coney is used in a sense with which we are not familiar; and the last verse contains a term apparently belonging to the game which we fail to find in the New Dictionary':

What pity 'tis, those conquering eyes,
Which all the world subdue,
Should, while the lover, gazing, dies,
Be only on Alpue.

The Morall Philosophie of Doni. By Sir Thomas North.
Edited by Joseph Jacobs, late of St. John's College,
Cambridge. (Nutt.)

WE have nothing but praise to bestow upon this reprint, which forms the latest volume of Mr. Nutt's delightful "Bibliothèque de Carabas." The first portion of a general title which we have been compelled to abridge, The