word is found in the following passages of the Old Testament-1 Sam. viii. 12; Is. xxx. 24; Deut. xxi. 4; Gen. xlv. 6; Ex. xxxiv. 21. M. W. will also find abundance of corroborative instances in Tooke's Diversions of Purley, pt. ii. ch. v. About the second word, egging, I have no such definite information. I am inclined to think that it comes from the root ac, to sharpen, from which springs akos, acuere, and eggian, amongst others. Eggian, therefore, would mean to sharpen," and, by a metaphor, "to stimulate," used of one person urging or egging on another. M. W. will find many instances of this use of the word under "Edge" in Richardson's Dictionary. My suggestion is that this word might mean to apply the edge of the sickle or scythe," and hence be an equivalent for to reap." This, at any rate, is the signification which one would expect from the context. Let me now subjoin a query of my own. At Rossall School, a box on the ear was always called an egg. What can be the origin of the phrase? W. H., Univ. Dunelm. EARLY STAGE SCENERY (5th S. v. 381.)-I do not remember whence I extracted what follows, though I am sure the source was trustworthy :— "It has been a question of much literary controversy whether in our ancient theatres there were side or other scenes. The question is involved in so much obscurity that it is difficult to decide upon it. In Shakspeare's time the want of scenery seems to have been supplied by the simple expedient of writing the names of the different places where the scene was laid in the progress of the play on large scrolls, which were disposed in such a manner as to be visible to the audience. tainment at Oxford, in which movable scenes were In the year 1605, Inigo Jones exhibited an enterused; and he appears to have introduced in the masques at Court several pieces of machinery, with which the public theatres were then unacquainted, as the mechanism of our ancient stage seldom went beyond a painted chair covered by the Dukes of Suffolk and Norfolk reading in or a trap door. When Henry the Eighth is to be dishis study, the scenical direction in the first folio edition of Shakspeare's plays, printed in 1623, is, The king draws the curtain, and sits reading pensively' (ii. 2), for besides the principal curtains that hung in front of the stage, they used others as substitutes for scenes. bed-chamber was to be exhibited, no change of scene If a Erying is caring, or ploughing. See any Eng-was mentioned, but the property-man was simply ordered lish dictionary. Egging, qy. edging, trimming the edges of the plots or closes. J. T. F. Earing is ploughing, from arare:"The oxen and the young asses that ear the ground shall eat clean provender."-Isaiah xxx. 24. C. F. S. WARREN, M.A. 66 "SOFTA" (5th S. v. 485.)-In a letter to the Athenæum of June 17, Dr. Badger proposes the alternative derivation from sufy, a devotee" (which comes from the Greek σódos), or from the Arabic súfah, which "signifies any of those who were in the service of the Baitu-llah, or the al-Ka'bah at Mekkah." This, in spite of the irregularity of the plural, he considers to be better than making suftah a corruption of sukhtah, which is, I suppose, the theory which your correspondent MR. MAYHEW approves. Moreover, if suchteh, "burnt up," be the same as sokhta, " worn out," referred to in the last paragraph of Dr. Badger's communication, it would seem that two distinct words are here confounded, i.e. sukhta (sokhta) and suktah, the meaning of which is given as "abortive." There appears also to be a difference of opinion as to the possibility of kh being changed to f, as regards which, not being either a Turkish or a Persian scholar, I am not competent to offer an opinion. C. S. JERRAM. Windlesham. Surely Mr. Martin's derivation of softa from a Persian word suchteh, “burnt up," is very far fetched. Most, if not all, the religious terms used in Turkey are borrowed from the Arabic. Now shophet, plural shophtim, is the Hebrew for a judge. This seems far more probable. E. LEATON BLENKINSOPP. Roman Capitol to be exhibited, two officers entered, to to thrust forth a bed. When the fable required the lay cushions as it were in the Capitol.' On the whole it appears that our ancient theatres in general were only furnished with curtains, which opened in the middle, and were drawn backwards and forwards on an iron rod, and a single scene composed of tapestry, which was sometimes perhaps ornamented with pictures; and some passages in our old dramas seem to favour the opinion that when tragedies were performed the stage was hung with black." FREDK. RULE. CAPITAL "I" (5th S. v. 348.) — Benjamin Stillingfleet, in his Miscellaneous Tracts relating to Natural History, Husbandry, and Physick: to which is added the Calendar of Flora (third edition, 1775), unless he had occasion to employ the singular pronoun first person as the first word in a sentence, usually wrote it with a small letter —e.g., "This is all i think fit to produce upon this not be surprised that i am so short upɔn it” copious subject, and i hope the candid reader will (p. 168). KIRBY TRIMMER. HORACE VIRGIL (5th S. v. 389.)-The companion edition of Virgil referred to in the Horace of 1749 was published in 1750. The following description is taken from Valpy's Delphin edition | of Virgil (vol. viii. p. 4497):— "1750. Bucolica, Georgica, et neis, illustrata, ornata, et accuratissime impressa. Londini, impensis figuris ex antiquis monumentis expressis. Est quidem I. e P. Knapton et Gul. Sandby, 8 maj. 2 voll. cum 58 sine notis; sed illustrata figuris, imagines deorum, heroum, magnorum virorum, vestium, armorum, rituum, aliaque in Virgilio obvia repræsentantibus ex nummis, gemmis, picturis, etc. antiquis sumtis; cum peculiari significatione, unde sumtæ sint, e quibus exemplaribus expressæ, et ad quæ loca Virgilii referantur. Textus interdum a vulgato ad cod. Med. et Vat. rediit in locis, quorum index in fine exhibetur. Præmissa etiam vita per Car. Ruæum.” It was also published in 12mo. by the same publishers. H. R. T. TENNYSON'S EARLY PUBLICATIONS (5th S. v. 406.)-Mr. Tennyson published an earlier edition of his poems than that given by T. D. as 1833. Its title is, Poems, chiefly Lyrical (London, Effingham Wilson, 1830). Title and errata 2 leaves, and pp. 154. Some of the poems in this collection were omitted from subsequent editions. H. YOUNG. A very interesting paper on The Bibliography of Tennyson," which appeared in the Fortnightly Review for October, 1865, contained an analysis of the two publications mentioned by T. D. The paper was by Mr. I. Leicester Warren. very natural. J. H. I. OLD COINS (5th S. v. 408.)-Those bearing the legend "Par. cres. tra." were struck in the province of Utrecht (Trajectum), and the others, with "Par. cres. hol.," in the prov. of Holland. That Dutch coins should be found in the Engadine is From the battle of Morat, the 400th anniversary of which has recently been celebrated with great splendour, the Swiss have ever been ready to sell their blood for pay and booty, and as a consequence their country became inundated with French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese coinage. OUTIS. Risely, Beds. DERIVATION OF "COUSIN" (5th S. v. 405.)Cousin is from the later Latin cosinus, which comes from the classical consobrinus, by a process for which I would refer your correspondent to Brachet's French dictionary, s.v. To derive cousin, as Bailey does, from consanguineus, is to violate more than one common rule of Romance etymology. C. S. JERRAM. COIN (5th S. v. 407.)-The motto and arms described on the reverse are those of the United Provinces of Holland. It is not a sheaf of corn, but a sheaf of arrows the lion bears. Part of the legend may be deciphered thus:-"Belg[ii] ... Mo[neta] No[va] Arg[entea] Pro[vinciarum] Con[foederatarum]." H. R. T. "THE CASE IS ALTERED" (5th S. v. 408.)A very good account is given of this public-house motto, for sign it is not, in Hotten's Hist. of Signboards. There are a great many of them, it seems, over the country. He mentions the one at Banbury, and says (p. 460) it was so called because it was built on the site of a mere hovel. There is one between Woodbridge and Ipswich. There is another at Oxford, the incoming landlord of which succeeded to a very easy-going Boniface, who allowed of long scores; his sharp business successor hinted by the change of sign that under the new management "the case was altered." The origin of the phrase is an apocryphal story told of old Plowden, the lawyer, and which will be found in "N. & Q.," Nov. 21, 1857. At Upper Kensal Green this sign exists. C. A. WARD. Mayfair. The Roaring Girle; or, Moll Cut-Purse, by Middleton and Dekkar, 1611, bears a woodcut, presumedly of the heroine, in male attire, with the legend, "My case is alter'd, I must worke for my living." Both the woman and the play would appear to have been popular; doubtless, "Moll" Frith was a favourite sign for the public-houses of the seventeenth century, and the words accompanying her portrait may refer to her having to do open penance on Feb. 11, 1611-12. For further information, see Dodsley's Old Plays, 1825, vol. vi. J. H. I. WILLIAM LE RUS, OF BASSINGBURN, DIED A.d. 1249 (5th S. v. 427.)-Was this family of Russian origin, and is Bassingborne in Cambridgeshire (Hone's Every-Day Book, vol. i. p. 382), or Old Basing or Basingstoke in the county of Southampton, the site of the lands referred to? Starcross, near Exeter. E. “HUMBUG" (5th S. v. 83, 332, 416.)—MR. BOWER'S note recalls old school-days, and induces me to tell him that the Bright shire, alias that of Gloucester, is not the only place where humbugs are sold. The term is used in many parts of England, and particularly in Yorkshire and Lancashire. A Grassington man, who had made money by manufacturing the sweetmeat, was known in his native village as the humbug man ! Humbugs are the same as bulls'-eyes and brandyballs. One Matty (Martha) Preston, better known as Silver-heels, was a vendor of humbugs and toffy at Skipton. She died many years ago, at the great age of 104. She was baptized at Kirkby Malhamdale. Matty was a Gipsy or Potter, and for many years led a sad nomadic life, and was very drunken and dissipated. During her latter days she abandoned the camp life, and settled down in Skipton, where the sale of humbugs, &c., and a small parish 5th S. VI. JULY 1, '76.] NOTES AND QUERIES. " allowance from Kirkby kept her tolerably steady and respectable. She used to say that during the rebellion of 1745, when she was "a pretty girl,' she was seized and outraged by the revolutionary JAMES HENRY DIXON. soldiers. am am Since writing my former remarks on this subject, it has occurred to me that the words " biguous" and "ambiguity," in Latin "ambiguus" and "ambiguitas," are closely related to the English word "humbug" and to the Latin " bage" (g hard). In each of these words the fundamental idea seems to be doubleness or duplicity, and they may therefore, perhaps, be traced to the Latin word "ambo," meaning "both," and expressThe kindred Latin ing or implying doubleness. verb "ambigere" means go about, to surround, to compass," and also "to be in doubt, to dispute or quarrel." Now humbug is often used for getting round" another, or "to compass" some object; and, when used, the parties concerned are generally "in doubt" as to each other's views and intentions, and this, again, leads to and quarrelling." 66 to plements; which Etymologie is not to be deduced from cannot say that these men lie in their throat, for I pera completione mentis, but a completè mentiri. And yet I suade my selfe, their words never came so neare their heart, but meerly they lie in their mouths, where all their promises "Both birth and burial in a breath they have; That mouth which is their womb, it is their grave." INITIAL LETTERS (5th S. v. 402.)-A folio Book of Common Prayer (London, 1619), enriched with Bp. Cosin's MS. notes, and preserved in the library which bears his name at Durham, furnishes a curious illustration of the practice referred to by J. O. In "Directions to be given to ye Printers," Cosin includes the by no means superfluous admonition, " Print not capital letters with profane pictures in them." The very book in which the note is written furnishes at least thirteen instances of this objectionable practice. They are as follows: A satyr playing the flute illustrates the Nunc Dimittis"; Neptune, initial L of the " disputing Amphitryte, and attendants do similar duty for HENRY KILGOUR. the O of the prayer, "O God, merciful Father," in the Litany; a satyr introduces the Collect for the fourth Sunday in Advent, while Jason and Medea illustrate the Gospel for Whit Tuesday. The services for the first Sunday after Trinity receive unusually copious illustration; before the Epistle stands a picture of Io, transformed to a heifer by Juno, in the arms of Jupiter, whilst the initial of the Gospel represents a council of the gods presided over by Jupiter, and addressed by Venus. Pictures of Acteon and Diana, Hercules and The kind of sweetmeat called humbug can still be bought at Taunton. It is a thin, oval-shaped piece of toffee, with an almond in the middle, and is, I suspect, so called because, after sucking for a short time at the toffee, you suddenly find yourself H. F. BOYD. come to an almond. Sweetmeats are sometimes called humbugs in H. T. CROFTON. Lancashire and in Cheshire. "COMPLIMENT" (5th S. v. "COMPLEMENT" FOR 426.)—If S. T. P. will refer to the word compli- the hydra, Perseus and Andromeda, are to be ment in Richardson's Dictionary, he will find that found preceding the Epistle for the sixth Sunday Shakspeare and Milton are quite right. Ben Jon-after Trinity, the Epistle for St. Bartholomew's son, Jeremy Taylor, Wotton, Hammond, Bp. Day, and Psalm xc. Apollo and Daphne form the initial for the Beveridge, all use the former word in the sense of the latter. The distinction in the orthography is Psalm in the Visitation of the Sick, and for that comparatively modern, and a rough approximation in the Thanksgiving of Women after Childbirth; of the date may be derived from Richardson's quo- whilst a kindred subject, the transformation of tations. In an old dateless edition of Bullokar's Daphne, stands before the Gospel for the twentyEnglish Expositor now before me, only the first-second Sunday after Trinity, and also before named word is given, with the meaning "Fulness, Psalm xxxviii. perfection, fine behaviour." So also Cockeram's Many of these initials do duty in The Historie Eng. Dict., 1650, 1655; Coles's Eng. Dict., 1632, of the Councel of Trent, translated by Nath. Brent 1685; Bullokar's edit. of 1688. The same ortho- (Lond., 1620). The initials were costly, and once graphy for both meanings of the word is also "ac-executed were used, it seems, with little attention cording to Cocker" (Eng. Dict., 1724). The date to the appropriateness of the position they JOHNSON BAILY. of the change might exactly be fixed by examining a complete set of Bailey's dictionaries. Kersey, Dictionarium, 1708, 1715, has both words, the second form in the plural only; but Coles, in his Eng.-Latin Dict., 1727, has the first word only, in On Ruth ii. 4, Thomas Fuller (1654) both senses. has the following comment :— occupied. Pallion Vicarage. ENGLISH AND FRENCH (5th S. v. 469.)-In the few lines MR. AXON cites, Howell does not mean to say that English and French are one and the same language; he only refers to a time when most of the English people spoke French. MR. Axon will certainly know that after the conquest French gradually became the dominant language in England, and that under Edward I. it was made the official language, so that in the Parliament and in the courts only this language was spoken, and that petitions from the lower classes even were written in French (cf. Pauli, Bilder aus Altengland d. Ausg., p. 195). It was only in 1362 that the first English speech was heard again in the Parliament, and through all the fourteenth century French was, though no more dominant, yet a widely used medium of conversation. Referring to that time, Howell was not wrong in saying that the two couplets were both French and English, meaning of course that both nations spoke the same language. F. ROSENTHAL. Strassburg. Ingenheim, Germany. THEODOR MARX. SEAFOUL GIBSON (5th S. v. 468.)-In Harl. MS. 1566, fo. 161, Walter Perkin is stated to have married Anne, daughter of Seafowle, of Seafowle, in com. Worcester"; and in Margate Church is a brass commemorating John Sefowll and Lavinia his wife, 1475. H. S. G. MR. PEACOCK observes he has never seen Seafoul as a surname, to which I beg to reply, having had occasion to investigate the history of several Norfolk and Suffolk families, I have met with both a Norfolk family of Seafowle and also of Gibson. It seems then most probable that Capt. Seafoul Gibson was of a Norfolk family. The family of Gibson or Gibsoun was of East Beckham and Thorpe, co. Norfolk, and bore for their arms, Paly of six ar. and sa., on a chief ar. a fret between two crescents sa. The arms of Seafowle were, Ar. a cross patée vert, on a canton or a martlet gu. On searching the registers of East Beckham and Thorpe, I daresay MR. PEACOCK will procure what he desires. E. S. R. THE VULGATE, PROV. XXVI. 8 (5th S. iv. 294, 414; v. 209, 496.)-Even with the knowledge of the several meanings given in the Wörterbuch, it appeared better to translate Rabenstein " a common black stone"-i.e. a valueless stone-to render it more antithetical to Edelstein, a precious stone. Aben-Ezra's interpretation is taken from a note to be found in the edition of the Old Testament, in 18 vols. 8vo., published at Paris between the years 1835 and 1851. The ipsissima verba are: "TALENTED" (4th S. xii. 427; 5th S. i. 33, 58.) -Sterling is not the only critic who has objected to this word. Coleridge, assuming it to be a participle passive, "regretted to see it," and asked, Why not shillinged, &c.?" But it is an adjective, and correctly formed from a noun, as gifted, good-natured, and many similar words. Sterling again is mistaken in supposing it invented by O'Connell. In "N. & Q.," 1st S. x. 493, Q. shows it to have been used by Archbishop Abbot in the time of James I., and Webster quotes it as from the Ch. (? Church or Christian) Spectator. Sterling's denunciation has long ago been noticed in your columns, 1st S. iv. 405. The following, from a late number of the Times, may not improperly find a place in "N. & Q.," bearing as it does on the original noun : "TALENTS.'-'E. O.' writes to us:-It appears from your review of "The Life and Letters of Macaulay," that the historian challenged Lady Holland to find the word "talents," in the sense now usually accepted, in any writer earlier than the Restoration, or even than the year 1700. He thought, indeed, he might safely have come down later. I find, however, in Johnson's died in 1674): Many who knew the Treasurer's talent Dictionary this quotation from Lord Clarendon (who in removing prejudices, and reconciling himself to wavering affections, believed the loss of the Duke was unseasonable." And this from Dryden (who died in "WINCHEL ROD" (5th S. v. 507.)—We need not go out of Europe to find the word winchel explained. We have only to turn to Germany, where Wünschel-Ruthe (O. H. German Wunsciligerta) is the well-known designation for what is called divining rod in this country, and baguette divinatoire in France. It may be as well to add that the 'pronunciation of the German word resembles as closely as possible the word winchel, which the translator of The Laboratory, 1740, perhaps from the whimsical liking of the sound, chose to form, or, let me rather say, phonetically to adopt. A MANX ACT OF PARLIAMENT (5th S. v. 448.)— This would probably be in H. Scobell's Collection of Acts and Ordinances made in the Parliament, begun Nov. 3, 1640, and since, until Sept., 1656, fol., Lond., 1658. ED. MARSHALL. Miscellaneous. NOTES ON BOOKS, &c. Contemporary Evolution: an Essay on some Recent THE above books have nothing in common, and yet they may very well be classed together. Prof. Mivart's especial public probably expected from him a scientific work, Whether Campetti is justly styled "an Italian " and much of that scientific public is outside his own comappears to me very doubtful, considering that I munion. The author is often vague and obscure, but it find from a German source an explanation which is easy to understand him on certain points. He claims would allow Campetti to be translated as Spring-for his Church, that may be proud of his ability, the merit finders (=Wasserfühler, i.e., Menschen welche die of being the one which allows great freedom to conscience, provided that each conscience submits to the guidance of Fähigkeit besitzen das Vorhandensein einer unteran infallible guide. He also describes his Church as the irdischen Wasserquelle durch das Gefühl wahr-true friend of other sorts of liberty, provided, if we underzunehmen). Windsor Castle. HERM. S. GERM. [Other replies next week.] 66 stand him, that he who enjoys it is content to take it like Voltaire's Huron, who found himself in perfect liberty in a prison cell, from which there were no means of getting out. Prof. Mivart rather hints than ventures to assert that the Church of Rome is tolerant, remembertolerant of toleration for others. In short, this Essay is an argument for the old claim of the Church's supremacy over the State in matters of faith and in those of morals, the only hieroglyphic which would fairly illustrate it which include everything besides faith. If this be correct, would represent the sovereign's throat under a cardinal archbishop's heel, and Protestant professors silenced, and schools shut up, as is now the case in Spain. Doubtless, Prof. Mivart, who writes temperately as well as learnedly, scholar, wishes no such application of his argument, but and with whom the gentleman is never divided from the his argument suggests the hieroglyphic. THE LATE BISHOP FORBES (5th S. v. 468.)-ing, perhaps, that its declared principle is not to be E. H. A. will find The Prisoners of Craigmacaire in the list of books published by Masters & Co. about the year 1861. The sermon on The Sanctity of Christian Art," preached at the reopening of the chapel at Roslin, was published in a volume of sermons by the bishop, entitled Sermons on the Grace of God (Masters & Co., 1862). I do not know whether either or both may be out of print, but in this case I should be happy to lend my copies to E. H. A. if he would communicate with me direct. T. R. GRUNDY. Newton Abbot, S. Devon. I am glad to know that the Prisoners of Craigmacaire is by Bishop Forbes. It is one of a series of tales published by Parker some years ago, in illustration of Church history, after the fashion of Dr. Neale. The exact date I do not know. C. F. S. WARREN, M.A. Bexhill. The Prisoners of Craigmacaire was published by Joseph Masters, Aldersgate Street, 1852. F. B. THOMAS, EARL OF LANCASTER (5th S. v. 468.)May not nous ad querpi" be nous a déguerpi," in the sense of “nous a fait déguerpir," which his majesty most effectually did? Risely, Beds. 66 OUTIS. Of Dr. Mozley's eighteen sermons, there are two that are especially remarkable-one, on the Atonement, to which we simply direct attention; the other, on "The Roman Council." The latter, preached as long ago as 1869, might serve as an able opponent's answer to many of the arguments in Contemporary Evolution. Dr. Mozley, in word and spirit as tender as Prof. Mivart, traces the history of the Church, from the time when Gregory VII. attempted to reduce the world to a sacerdotal sovereignty -the theocracy under which Prof. Mivart recognizes the only possibility of peace and liberty. This attempt to establish universal empire by the Church of Rome is still going on, if we read aright; and Dr. Mozley's ideas thereon are well worth the reading. The Regius Professor brings forward many circumstances which are passed over by the Roman Catholic professor; but both are honest, earnest, richly endowed men. Each pleads and argues according to his views and his conscience, and, apart from the serious interests involved in their statements, there is a positive intellectual treat in considering those arguments as they are powerfully placed before the reader for his instruction. |