REFERENCES WANTED (11 S. vi. 489). 1. Jugulantur homines ne nihil agatur. This is from Seneca's seventh Epistle,' $5. The more usual reading is jugulentur. Seneca is referring to the custom of filling the midday interval in a gladiatorial exhibition by making condemned criminals fight one another. (a) Dreams of Lipara." Turbulent dreams would appear to be meant. Lipara or Lipare, the modern Lipari, the volcanic island to the north of Sicily, the largest of the Eolian group, was the legendary site of one of Vulcan's forges. Cp. Browne's 'Christian Morals,' part i. sect. xxiv. : Weapons for such combats are not to be forged at Lipara: Vulcan's Art doth nothing to this internal Militia"; and in the Essay on Dreams :— "To add unto the delusion of dreams, the fantastical objects seem greater than they are; and being beheld in the vaporous state of sleep, enlarge their diameters unto us....A grain of sulphur kindled in the blood may make a flame like Etna." a EDWARD BENSLY. PROPITIATORY SACRIFICE (11 S. vi. 507).— I can cap MR. W. MACARTHUR'S instance with one in my own experience. About thirty-five years ago, one of my own tenants, most worthy and respectable person and an elder of the Kirk, paying about 2707. in rent for his farm, had his stock affected with murrain. To stem the plague he caused a calf to be buried alive in one of his fields, the local veterinary surgeon being present at the sacrifice, which was performed in the presence of many other witnesses. Monreith. HERBERT MAXWELL. Notes on Books. or A New English Dictionary. Edited by Sir James A. H. Murray.-Ti-Tombac (Vol. X.). By the Editor. (Oxford, Clarendon Press.) IN this division of their work the compilers have had under their hands a mass of unusually interesting also, it would appear, of unusually intractable-material. A considerable proportion of it consists of echoic and colloquial words, many of them monosyllabic. These exhibit numerous homophones and homographs difficult to reduce to any common etymological origin. All the more interesting are they philosophically, since it would seem that we here come as close as it is anywhere possible to come, among established and current words, to the first making of consyllable."Tip" is perhaps the syllable occurring nexion between thought, sense-perception, and a here which has been found the best jack-of-allwork. Could any combination of sounds more expressively denote the extremity of a thingmore particularly of anything long and slender? the fifteenth century, where in Promp. Parv. The earliest instance, however, comes only from and again "Typ, of the nese.' we have Typpe, or lappe of the ere, pinnula,' The next quotation, from Coverdale, 1 Sam., David....cut of the typpe of Sauls garment quyetly," suggests temptingly-by way of a folded-back end corner-one of the links connecting "tip" with tippet," a connexion which Sir James Murray in his interesting note on the latter word is inclined to favour rather than the proposed derivation of tippet" from O.E. " tæppet," tapestry-hanging. Among interesting words the origin of which remains imperfectly elucidated may be mentioned "Titivil" and "tiring-irons." Titivil,' whose function it is to collect fragments of words it will be remembered, is the name of a devil dropped or mumbled by the officiants at divine service. He is heard of in France and Germany from the thirteenth to the fifteenth century, being mentioned by a certain Petrus de Palude, of Jerusalem, and died in 1342, as well as in a GerBurgundy, Dominican, who was man MS. of about the same date, at the British Museum. "Fragmina psalmorum Titiuillus colligit horum," quote both, and the good Dominican adds, Quaque die mille vicibus sarcinat ille." The word passed from mystery-plays into common use, and was retained, in the sense of "scoundrel," or also "tell-tale," till beyond 1600. This reminds us that we did not find "Tell-tale tit, your tongue shall be slit," under "tit." Some ingenious discoverer of etymological connexions night work out links between that hateful nursery character and 66 Patriarch of the monastic Titivil. which occurs now and again in the great DicTiring-irons "affords an instance of a weaknesstionary-an awkwardness in explaining or defining things; we scarcely think the description of the ancient ring-puzzle here given will prove workable to the imagination of most readers. Tironian offers us another point for quarrel. The word refers to Tiro, Cicero's freedman, and is used to describe a system of shorthand invented by that personage "Tironian notes." What instances are quoted for this? First, a passage in The Edinburgh Review for 1828; secondly, one from The Daily News of 1887. Now why not go back to the very book from which the writers in these periodicals drew their information? Once more we have to protest against a surfeit of quotations from the daily press, and from The Daily News in particular. Except for words in process of being established, or for nonce-words, we cannot see why standard books should not be given the first place as authority for words. "Tiffany (Theophania. i.e. the Epiphany) still perplexes as an English name for a thin transparent silk; it is suggested that it was a fanciful name, having reference to the sense "manifestation" and other insoluble puzzles are the origin of " tinker" and "tiny." "Toddy,' which has somehow a pleasant British appearance, is seen first as "tarrie." a rendering of a native name for a drink made from the sap of palms, and the first instance given is from Purchas his Pilgrims.' Other popular words which fall within these pages are "ticky," the South African slang for a threepenny bit, which is supposed to be a native corruption of some Dutch or English word, but perhaps is almost too learnedly thus derived; and tizzy," a similar word for a sixpenny piece, used in England, for which the first quotation is 1804 and the last 1901. Slang of a superior kind may be instanced in "Tityre-tu," a name of well-born roisterers in the seventeenth century. Other words of curious historical interest are tinsel,' "tissue," "tithe," and 'toll," with the derivatives of the last named. One of the most expressive words of our language, "tire," in the sense of grow weary," appears to have no cognates in any other tongue. 66 66 But while the picturesque element is strong in this section, it is nearly equalled by the less obviously attractive wealth of information concerning the humbler members of language-the prepositions and conjunctions. The most important of these-from the point of view of all scholarship the most important word of before us here-is "to," which, Sir James Murray tells us in his few words of lively introduction, is perhaps the most difficult of the prepositions next to "* of," and took up about a fourth of the whole time occupied in the preparation of this double section. It is time which, at any rate, has not been lost. This splendid and exhaustive article takes up no fewer than eighteen columns. The nearest to it, in the space it requires, is time," also a fine article, though arranged in a sequence which is not easy to follow-abstract time, as a meaning of the word, being, as it were, shot down casually into the midst of the other meanings. The total number of words recorded is 3,191; the total number of illustrative quotations given 13,850. Early English Classical Tragedies. Edited by John W. Cunliffe. (Oxford, Clarendon Press.) SOME features of Senecan tragedy, "sensational horrors, the ghost, the revenge motive," became, says Prof. Cunliffe, an integral part of Elizabethan drama, but the forms and conventions of classical dramatists, and the rules elaborated by Renaissance critics, found scant favour in England. Even the authors of 'Gorboduc,' as Sidney sadly noted, sinned against the "unities"; the chorus almost vanished from the English stage, and actual scenes being preferred to descriptions, the messenger found his occupation gone. But the classics were not without close imitators, especially in the early days of the Elizabethan drama. From the Inns of Courtthere came between 1561 and 1587 a set of plays framed to uphold classic dignity and convention, an academic venture caviare to the general," but of great interest to the student as showing the models followed by early dramatists, and in the case of Gorboduc,' of some influence on the metre and even style of subsequent tragedy. These plays Prof. Cunliffe has included in one volume with notes and a scholarly Introduction, which deals with mediæval misconceptions of tragedy, and the outcome of the Senecan revival in Italy and France, as well as with the manifold factors-medieval, popular, and classic-that contributed to the rise of the drama in Elizabethan England. Of these four early classical tragedies 'Gorboduc has the greatest claim to consideration. It is the first blank-verse tragedy written in English, and incidentally a political tract on the evils of a disputed succession. Sackville and Norton rank as poets, and their verse has a nobility of style which goes far to redeem their play from dullness; they have observed also a reticence quite unusual among Elizabethans, who revelled in sensational horrors, and Marcella's description of the death of Porrex is in pleasing contrast to Renuchio's narrative of the mutilation of the Counté Palurine's body in 'Gismond of Salerne.' Characterization is feeble; the good and evil councillors in Gorboduc are merely vehicles lengthy and sententious speech-making ; but there is some human nature in Queen Videna, in the defence of Porrex when accused of slaying his brother, and in Marcella's famous lament for It is in the last act, where, all the slain Porrex. the principal characters having died a violent death, dramatic interest languishes-that the moral of the play is made manifest, and Elizabeth, Gorboduc acted at Whitehall on who saw for 18 January, 1562, cannot have failed to interpret the parable. "And this doth growe," runs the verse after a lurid description of the feuds and desolation following in the train of civil war And this doth growe when loe vnto the prince, Whom death or sodeine happe of life bereaues, No certaine heire remaines. The interesting suggestion, first made 'N. & Q.,' that the writers of Gorboduc' were inclined to press the claims of Lady Katherine Grey to the succession, appears to be borne out by the allusion to a rightful heir "of native line," or whose claim rested on some former law," as that unfortunate lady was English-born and had a better title, if Henry VIII.'s will held good, than the Queen of Scots. 66 6 " 'Gismond of Salerne,' the first English lovetragedy that has survived, is drawn from the well-known story in the Decamerone,' apparently straight from the Italian of Boccaccio. Gascoigne and Kinwelmersh, who were responsible a tragedie written in Greeke by for Jocasta,' Euripides," were, however, less faithful to the original. Their drama is only from the Greek at third hand, being grounded on the Italian version of the Phoenissæ' by the Venetian, Ludovico Dolce, who used a Latin translation, and took great liberties with the structure of the play, and somehow in the various processes through which 'Jocasta' passed the dramatic swiftness of Euripides has disappeared. But there are touches of poetry in Jocasta,' and Kinwelmersh, in his ode to Concord at the close of the fourth act, shows his command over that marvellous instrument, the English of the Eliza bethans. BOOKSELLERS' CATALOGUES-JANUARY. 'Die -a two woodcuts of the Frankfort edition--satirical CATALOGUE No. 604, which we have received from Messrs. Joseph Baer & Co., Frankfort-onthe-Main, contains a list, running to over 2,700 items, of works connected with Alsace-Lorraine. Many are of high interest, and we note among them a copy of Martin Schöngauer's DR. FENNELL has been employing his enforced Passion '-a complete series of the twelve engravleisure (due, we regret to know, to indisposition) ings composing this famous work, 6,000m. ; Thomas a mite towards the clearer and Murner's Schelmen-Zunft in contributing appreciation of the masterpiece' (H. J.) of second edition, printed at Strassburg probably in fiction - Edwin Drood,' the initials "H. J.," the same year as the appearance of the original In addition to the thirtyas our readers know, standing for Prof. Henry edition at Frankfort. Jackson. In his pamphlet "The Opium-Woman and "Datchery" in The Mystery of Edwin Drood,' published by Mr. E. Johnson of Cambridge, Dr. Fennell first deals with the question of the identity of the Opium-Woman, and suggests that one of Miss Rosa Bud's four grandparents, after Rosa's mother was engaged to Mr. Bud, became a hard drinker and then an opium-smoker, so that she figures in The Mystery of Edwin Drood' as the "haggard woman,' hostess' of the opiumden frequented by Jasper." As to Datchery, Dr. Fennell agrees with Mr. Edwin Charles and others that he is Bazzard, and he infers that "Bazzard has been employed for some time, as well as when Datchery visits Cloisterham, as a private detective....Rosa's guardian seems a likely person for her father to select for the business of trying to trace her grandmother, if an inebriate, and lost to her relations, with a view to relieving her if necessary, and reclaiming her if possible, and to prevent her annoying Rosa." But though Dr. Fennell "cannot allow that Helena is Datchery," he "believes that as a huntress of her brother's foe she may have gone through one very trying ordeal, disguised as Edwin Drood, in the crypt, namely, the scene depicted in the central lowest sketch on the cover, and that she scared Jasper into betraying his guilt.... Bazzard is Datchery. Eventually the plotters against Jasper's peace invite him to get a key and go with them, nominally to see if any traces of Edwin can be found, but really to be tricked into betraying his secret by seeing what he takes for his victim alive again or for his phantom. So he reveals his secret to the men behind him and to Helena and her escort, or else to Bazzard, before he becomes violent, or tries to escape from the Cathedral or elsewhere." It will be seen that the writer agrees with Sir Robertson Nicoll that Edwin Drood was dead. We cordially welcome this valuable contribution to the studies on the mystery Charles Dickens has left us. ALL interested in Mary, Queen of Scots, will be glad to obtain from Mr. Robert McClure of Ye Auld Book Shop," Cromwell Street, Glasgow, for the small sum of one shilling, the transcript he has just published from a contemporary Venetian manuscript in Latin, entitled Mary, Queen of Scots, and the Prince, her Son. Mr. McClure has reproduced on the title-page portraits of Mary and her son which first appeared in Leslie's' De Origine Moribus et Rebus Gestis Scotorum, published at Rome in 1578, and reprinted in Holland in 1675. The MS. forms one of a collection of Relazioni" in the possession of the editor. ་་ 66 of Messrs. Baer's Catalogue 605 is Part V. of their series Theologia Catholica," and the first section of the subdivision Church History.' They have a framed folio sheet of parchment inscribed with "Litteræ indulgentiarum Pope Sixtus IV. The writing comprises eightythree lines, two in the middle having been erased by a contemporary or nearly contemporary hand. The top of the sheet is occupied by a miniature, and down the left side are portraits of Popes, with a portrait of Sixtus in an initial S (900m.). 'Concilia Sacrosancta,' the 23 vols. of Coletas's edition of the work of Labbeus and Cossartius, Venice, 1728-33, with the Supplement published twenty years later, is also offered for 900m. Five thousand marks is the price of a perfect copy of De Mandeville's 'Reise nach Jerusalem,' Augsburg, 1481; and we noticed from the Hoe Library, printed on vellum by Vérard, a copy of the first edition of the first work of St. Gregory ever translated into French- L(e) Dialogue mons. Sainct gregoyre,' to quote the title-page. The only other copy resembling it has a woodcut in such a manner as to render its meaning unof St. Gregory, here in perfect condition, coloured certain (5,000m.). [Notices of other Catalogues held over.] Notices to Correspondents. EDITORIAL Communications should be addressed to "The Editor of Notes and Queries'"-Advertisements and Business Letters to "The Publishers"-at the Office, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, E.C. E. H. MOYLE COOPER.--Many thanks. Anticipated ante, p. 57. P. W. The line meant is evidently "Tread softly because you tread on my dreams" (Yeats, 'Aedh wishes for the Cloths of Heaven '). LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 1913. CONTENTS.-No. 162.. NOTES:-Christmas Rimers in Ulster, 81-The Lord of Burleigh and Sarah Hoggins, 83-Hugh Peters, 84--"As big as a Paignton pudding" Laking" Playing Crosby Hall: Ceiling of the Council Chamber, 87Zinfandel: American Wines-Samuel Johnson of Canterbury, 88. QUERIES:-Dr. Burton ("Dr. Slop") in Lancaster in 1745, 88- Bucca-boo"-Mrs. Rebekah Salkerstone of London REPLIES:-Morris Dancers in Herefordshire, 91-Johanna NOTES ON BOOKS:-'Analecta Bollandiana '—' Edin- there only in quite recent years-I think, mainly by the Salvation Army. But Christmas Rimers have been performing from time out of mind. They are found mainly, if not entirely, in those parts of Ulster inhabited by Protestant farmers, and are not, I believe, by any means confined to the immediate neighbourhood of Belfast. I surmise that they would be found in all Protestant districts from the lowlands of co. Donegal in the west to the co. Down in the east; in fact, wherever the tenant farmers are of English origin. But as far as I can learn, they are not to be found out of Ulster, except, perhaps, in co. Wexford. They are not known in co. Louth, or even in Dublin, in spite of the Strong English element in that city. In Dublin, on the contrary, carol - singing is, I believe, a time-honoured practice. The Christmas Rimers are also, I understand, drawn mainly from families with English rather than Scottish or Irish names. The " Mac's" and the "O's" do not take much part in them. If the Rimers are admitted, they go through the simple play, and recite the verses given below, which I have taken down Review The Lost Language of Symbolism -The Sister within the last few weeks from a party of of John Stuart Mill. Notices to Correspondents. Notes. CHRISTMAS RIMERS IN ULSTER. SOME time ago a query was asked as to whether Christmas Rimers still practised their art in the neighbourhood of Belfast, and your querist may be glad to learn that, in spite of the growth of cities and the march of progress, the Christmas Rimers are still very much to the fore in the Protestant districts of Ulster during the early weeks of December. The Rimers, who are usually the sons of the small farmers and labourers of the country districts, and not infrequently now golf caddies-lads from 12 to 17 years of age-provide themselves with paper cocked hats and wooden swords or sticks, turn their jackets inside out, and in some cases blacken their faces. They then, in groups of from three to six, make a tour of the neighbouring houses in the early hours of the evening, requesting admission. They are not carol singers, and never sing carols. Indeed, popular carol-singing is not an old custom in Ulster, and has, I believe, been introduced three Rimers performing in this neighbourhood (Carnalea, about two miles west of Bangor, co. Down). The Rimers have assured me that they have never seen these verses in print; that they have learnt them only by word of mouth from their elders, who had learnt them similarly; that the old people say that these are the old and correct words which they used to hear and recite in their childhood. I have taken them down as carefully as possible, without attempting to alter the text, even where the rime, metre, or grammar is at fault. As the Rimers know the verses only by rote, the spelling and the arrangement of lines are necessarily my own. The Rimers are not called mummers in Ulster. They do not perform anything that could be called a dance. 66 This co. Down version of the Ulster Christmas Rimes differs in several par ticulars from that given by MR. W. H. PATTERSON for the Belfast neighbourhood in 1872 (4 S. x. 487), and claims to be based solely on oral tradition. It includes some words which are either obsolete or only to be found in English dialects, and also a character, Little Johnny Conny," who seems to make an allusion to the celebrated brass money of King James II., and another 66 to the equally celebrated "Wood's Half- Where I spent manys a sad and a grievous moan. I run my fiery dragon through and through, Here I draw my boldly weapon. Show me the Turkey Champion. I am the man who dare St. George. What are you but a poor silly lad? Turkey Champion. I am a Turkey Champion, from Turkey land I came The expression the plague within the plague is taken by a medical friend to refer to the specially deadly form of plague given by pricking a plague patient with a needle infected by a plague corpse, the To fight the great St. George by name. object being to hasten the man's death and prevent his complaining against those who plundered him when prostrated by the disease. The expression "Eevie Steevie radical pain" found in this version probably alludes to some quack medicine of old times. [ST. GEORGE wounds TURKEY CHAMPION with a sword thrust. T. C. falls. The qualified admiration for Oliver Cromwell is characteristic of the attitude of the Ulster Protestants, who, while detesting regicide, yet owed their safety largely to the great Independent. The lines about St. Patrick may be taken as an allusion to the conversion of Northern England by the Celtic missionaries, and may, perhaps, have been inserted as a manifestation of the eighteenth-century spirit of independence so prevalent in Ulster. In the last line but one the expression "bob bits" is, presumably, a late corruption. Students of English folk-plays will note the tendency to alliteration, especially in the opening verse, and may be interested in this variant of the venerable St. George Play, of which such interesting accounts are given in E. K. Chambers's 'The Mediæval Stage,' 2 vols., Oxford, 1903, and T. F. Ordish's English Folk Drama' (Folk-Lore, vol. iv., 1893). THE CHRISTMAS RIMES. [Enter ROOM ROOM.] Room Room. Room, Room, brave gallant boys, come give us room to rime, We've come to show our activity upon this Christmas time, Active young and active age, the like was never acted on a stage. If you don't believe what I say, enter St. George and he 'll clear the way. [Enter ST. GEORGE.] St. George. Here comes I, St. George, from One of those great and noble deeds of valour to Seven long years in a close cave have I been kept, St. George. A doctor, a doctor, ten pounds for a doctor! Not a doctor to be found, Which shall cure this man of his deep and mortal wound! [Enter DOCTOR.] Doctor. I am a doctor pure and good, St. George. What can you cure, doctor? plague, The palsy or the gout, even more than that: stick it on again. St. George. Tut, tut, doctor, that's no cure for a dead man! Doctor. O, I quite forgot, I have got a little bottle in my hip pocket called Eevie Steevie radical pain. [Gives some of it to TURKEY CHAMPION, who rises up cured. Rise up, dead man, and fight again. If you don't believe what I say, enter Oliver Cromwell and he 'll clear the way. [Enter OLIVER CROMWELL.] Oliver Cromwell. Here comes I, Oliver Cromwell, as you may suppose I have conquered many nations with my long copper nose. I make my foes to tremble and my enemies toquake, For I beat the jolly Dutchman till his heart was If you don't believe what I say, enter into St.. [Enter ST. PATRICK.] St. Patrick. Here comes I, St. Patrick in shining I fought a famous champion upon a worthy night. I say by George you lie, sir! If you don't believe what I say, enter Beelzebub - |