Oldalképek
PDF
ePub

The Library.

A New English Dictionary on Historical
Principals.-(Vol. X.) Wavy-Wezzon. By
Henry Bradley and W. A. Craigie. (Oxford,
Clarendon Press, 10s. net.).

THE articles in this section

[ocr errors]

66

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

"

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

66

"

[ocr errors]

sense

"

وو

[ocr errors]

Weir "

[ocr errors]

"

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

which has not been cleared up is Johnson's
authority for
weak "=soft, phant.
Weak with its derivatives and
6. wear
both sb. and V. are very good articles.
Weary originally may have borne the
stupefied,' bewildered," and formerly
was used without all the "strong emotional em-
as far as phasis which the word has acquired in mod-
weigh were revised, so a prefatory ern times," and which is a development one
note tells us, and sent to the printer by Dr. may fairly suppose, from associations
Bradley. The section records 3,203 words gathered round one or two familiar Biblical
illustrated by 17,707 quotations; with which texts. Under wed v., in its third sense-to
figures we may compare the 177 words and
marry-we are told that the word is now,
750 quotations of the corresponding portion except for dialects, only literary :
of Johnson's Dictionary. It need hardly be observation which brings up the question how
said that nearly the whole of this instalment far newspaper bills and head-lines may be ex-
is concerned with short-mostly monosyllabic pected to influence speech; for in these
-words of English origin, whose first appear- wed," so conveniently short, is often to be
ance is made far back in our literature, and observed. The first sense of the word is
whose use has continued unbroken to our own to make a woman one's wife by the giving of
day. The first important word is wax sb. a pledge. A pretty old word, faintly alive in
-the substance produced by bees," for poetry, which gives a pleasant collection of
which the quotations begin from the ninth instances is " weed," a garment. Widow's
century. Two eighteenth century quotations weeds," its latest surviving use, itself begins
record rough wax as a name once erron- to pass with the fashion it denoted. The
eously applied to the pollen adhering to the original meaning of week (which cannot
legs of bees in the belief that this well have been a period of seven days) has
was the crude material of wax. Man of not been determined. The brief summary
wax as a term of emphatic commendation under the definition of this word furnishes
seems to have been found first in Romeo and
a good example of the historical notes em-
Juliet'; it is quoted from seventeenth century bedded in the Dictionary. Weigh and
and nineteenth century writers. We cannot
weight "the numerous words connected with
think that the word here is wax "growth them and
or stature, as some have held. The Diction-back to our earliest sources, which is excel-
have a history that goes
ary does not disdain the slang to be in a lently worked out. Weird substantive, ad-
wax," for which the first quotation comes
jective and verb is a good Old English word,
from Verdant Green.' The article way which dropped out of Middle English until c.
which runs to twenty-seven columns, counts
1300 when it
among the great articles of the Dictionary Singleton in 1855 used
appears chiefly in the North.
both from the intrinsic interest of the mater-lation for Parcae
the Weirds as trans-
ial and the manner in which it is handled.
in Virgil. Several instances
The L. via, formerly regarded as cognate, is from a 900 to 1883 are given of the proverb
after word comes
now, we are told, generally referred to a dif-
weird," equivalent to
ferent root. But way has always been
the normal translation of via and its French
descendant voie, which have come to influence
the sense-development. There is a recent ten-
dency to bring
"back into use
way
for
road. path," which is still felt to be a
novelty, its principal current use being in
phrases. These are exceedingly numerous, ex-
pressive and rich in history. Under the
sense, of course, of travel or movement there
is a good paragraph on the way of all
flesh." It is noted that the sense of a path
in life, a person's activities or fortunes is
mainly of Hebrew origin.
The way
name for the Christian religion is duly noted;
should not the similar Buddhist use have
been noted also? Waybread " is a
for plantain ("a broad-leaved plant growing
beside the ways") which is found c. 700.
"Ways and Means," in the English Parlia-
mentary use, appears first in the Rolls of
Parliament, 1433. Wayward" is aphetic from
"awayward," the same thing as froward "-_
but the idea that it meant "bent on going
one's own way has influenced the modern
sense. For Wayzgoose " no satisfactory ex-
planation has been found. A small point

[ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

speak of the devil, etc." The adjectival use
must be taken to ccme from the weird
Sisters," that is the witches, in Macbeth.'
Well is a fine article running to twelve
columns, to which are added more than fifty
columns illustrating compounds. Under
well-being in the ecclesiastical quotation it
should perhaps have been noted that
the Being, but the Well-being of Ordination
renders a quasi-technical theological distinc
tion between " esse and bene esse." Many
of the rarer compounds are curious-as, for
example, Herrick's well-bestrutted." The
immediate source of the modern use of
as a
west meaning to die, or perish, or disappear
is said not to have been established. There is
the seventeenth century allusive use of
ward" for to Tyburn." The figurative use of
"wet-blanket," which has sundry derived
nonce-words, seems a nineteenth century inven-
tion. A curious Scottish word for the ague is
wedenonfa," i.e. "onfall" or attack of
weed," a sudden feverish attack-particu-
larly puerperal fever. One of the most inter-
sting historical words is weeping cross.
It occurs as place-name in several English
examples
the
counties-five
present

name

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

from

go

west-

وو

[ocr errors]

Ordnance Maps are given here. All seem to
be at cross-roads, and presumably indicate the
site of a stone cross now, however, in every
case destroyed. The reason for calling this a
weeping cross has been said to be that
acts of devotion at these crosses were enjoined
upon penitents; or that the cross was near an
ancient place of execution; or that the cross
marked a place where a body being carried to
burial was set down for the bearers to rest. No
explanation, unfortunately, has any evidence
to back it. There is a proverbial phrase "to
come home by Weeping Cross" signifying to
suffer grievous disappointment or failure. The
earliest quotation is from a 1500. Is it pos-
sible that the name referred to the cross it-
self? Was it something more elaborate than
a bare cross? or a Descent from the Cross
with mourning figures? This would have been
swept away after the Reformation.
Saint Joan of Orleans. Scenes selected and
translated by Joan Evans. The text edited
by Paul Studer. (Clarendon Press, 7s. 6d. net.)
THE scenes which compose this book

are

taken from the Mystere du Siège d'
Orléans.' This is a play which, soon after
the relief of Orleans by Joan of Arc in 1429,
was established as an annual commemoration
of the great deed of the Maid. The city
accounts and the manuscript of the play con-
sidered together may lead us to conclude that
the portion of the play earliest composed is
to be dated before 1439, while pageantry of
some kind, probably not any part of the play,
was being performed in celebration of the
relief of the city in 1435. The play exists in
a single MS. (Vatican, Queen of Sweden's
MSS., No. 1022). Examination of the text dis-
closes plain indication that the original work

was expanded by the insertion of more than

one episode, and also by the addition of over
five thousand lines of introductory matter
the English expedition, the
telling about
attacks on Orléans and the siege. The whole
work runs to well over twenty thousand lines,
containing a hundred and forty-six speaking
parts and over two hundred scenes. Acted on
a double stage with "mansions" in its lower
division, running on continuously without
change of scene, it would take up two whole
days at least, and probably three. As the
editors point out in their excellent Introduc-
tion, it is by no means a dramatization of the
life of a saint, though the sanctity of the
Maid forms the justification of her enterprise:
it is a chronicle play centred in the relief of
Orleans, terminating with the Maid's entry
into Orleans after the battle of Patay, and
having supernatural elements woven into the
story only so far as these explain the historical
facts. There is instructive comparison to be
made between this 'Mystére' and the so-called
'Journal du Siège d'Orléans which was
printed in 1570, and may well be the account
known to have been written for the city of
Orleans in 1467.

to

The scenes printed here, taken from the
earlier portion of the play, begin with the
prayer for help of Charles VII and end with
the taking of the Tourelles. The verse is the
usual octosyllabic line arranged in stanzas
mostly of eight lines, and rhymed according
the somewhat complicated ballad type.
Without pretending to find any high poetical
quality in the author, we think the play de-
serves a little more praise than is here be-
stowed on it. It possesses in good measure
the charm of simplicity, liveliness and serious-
ness; the verse sometimes displays that quaint
has the trick only here trick is hardly in
clearness of which Mr. Walter de la Mare
question-and must be good for acting pur-
poses; the characters are not without life and
force. The scene between St. Michael and
the Maid at the beginning is graceful; and the
scenes where the captains argue with the
Maid about the fighting and where she is
wounded do not go badly. We regret that the
translation is not better. It has nothing to
correspond with the flow of the French; yet
it is not close enough to serve as a crib. We
noted some places in which it is barely cor-
rect, and several in which touches of the
original are omitted. These Scenes can hardly
have been published solely with a view to
the comparatively few who read fifteenth cen-
tury French with pleasure; yet we fear those
find them rather stiff and tedious. There are
who have to depend on the translation will
four pictures, taken from the Vigiles de
Charles VII (1484).

The Cleaning and Restoration of Museum
Exhibits. (H.M.S. Stationery Office, 5s. net.).

vation

COLLECTORS will certainly do well to take
note of this book. It deals with the preser-
of prints and pictures; stone and
earthenware; silver; iron objects; lead;
copper and bronze; wood; glass and textiles,
and has in addition a section on fakes," and
a most useful
preparations on the market which have been
set of notes detailing those
Laboratory,
used satisfactorily at the British Museum
and may be recommended to.
curators and collectors who have no exten
sive. conveniences for making their prepara-
tions themselves. It has been put together by
Dr. Alexander Scott, F.R.S., as the Third
Report upon his investigations conducted at
the British Museum. It is now
ago that, at the request of the Department,
Dr. Scott began his study of the cleaning,
restoration and preservation of museum exhi-
bits with a view to placing the whole treatment
of exhibits on a basis of scientific knowledge.
The three reports make it progressively clear
that the methods he has devised and tested,
having accurate scientific knowledge behind
them, are producing excellent results in the
preservation of rare objects attacked by divers.
agents of decay.

seven years

Printed and Published by the Bucks Free Press, Ltd., at their Offices, High Street,
Wycombe, in the County of Bucks.

FOR READERS AND WRITERS, COLLECTORS AND LIBRARIANS. Seventy-Eighth Year.

[blocks in formation]

THIRD SERIES (1862-1867), second-hand, bound cloth. Price 105/-.

SIXTH SERIES (1880-1885), SEVENTH SERIES (1885-1891). EIGHTH SERIES (18921897). NINTH SERIES (1898-1903). TENTH

Bookseller, 83a, High Street, Marylebone, London, W.1.

New Catalogues.

Post Free on Application.

No. 483. UNITED STATES.

No. 484. THE FAR EAST.

No. 485. SPORTS AND PASTIMES.

No. 486. CENTRAL AMERICA.

AND SOUTH

No. 487. THE SEA AND ITS

STORY.

No. 488. ARTS AND DECORATIVE

CRAFTS.

No. 489, WEST AFRICA.

SHAKESPEARE,

and other early dramatists, Report all early books, pamphlets, manuscripts, autograph letters, out of the way items, etc to

MAGGS BROS.,

34 & 35, Conduit St., London, W.

STAMPS PURCHASED. We are desirous of purchasing to any amount collections, and modern. Submit, stating price required, or important lots, of all kinds of stamps, old and an immediate reply will be given.— BRIDGER & KAY, Ltd., 170, Strand, London. W.C.2.

SERIES (1904-1909), in paper covers. Price 18/ BOOKS and AUTOGRAPHS for SALE.

each; postage, 6d.

ELEVENTH SERIES (1910-1915). cloth. Price 21/.: postage 6d. TWELFTH SERIES (1916-1923). cloth. Price 21/-; postage 6d.

[blocks in formation]

Early printed Works, Standard Authors. First Editions, &c. Catalogues free. Books and autographs wanted for cash. Lists free.Bound Reginald Atkinson, 188, Peckham Rye, Lon

don, S.E.22.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Founded 1849.

20, High Street, High Wycombe, Bucks. (Telephone: Wycombe, 306).

SETS FOR SALE.

THE following, complete Series, each of 12 volumes are in stock, and may be obtained from the Manager, Notes and Queries," 20, High Street, High Wycombe, Bucks :

SECOND SERIES (1856-1861), bound half leather with green labels, second-hand, in excellent condition, £8 8s.

THIRD

SERIES

half

(1862-1867), bound leather, marbled boards, in new condition, £10 10s. FOURTH SERIES (1868-1873), and General Index, in various bindings, second hand, £6. FOURTH SERIES (1868-1873), bound half leather, marbled boards, second-hand, in good condition, £7 78.

FIFTH SERIES (1874-1879), id., £7 7s.

SEVENTH SERIES (1886-1891), in Publisher's cloth cases, in very good condition, secondhand, and General Index in paper cover, £6 68.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[blocks in formation]

[blocks in formation]

QUERIES:-Right of sanctuary in York MinsterThe Northern Province and the 'Forty-five Anacharsis Clootz and the Chevalier D'Eon Card-playing in Literature c. 1800 and laterSir Arthur Gorges Burgundians in England XV Century, 27-Agapemonite Baptism-Ensor and Shakespeare- Bill Canty-Robert Mundy of Ashby-de-la-Zouch John James Fricker (or Frazer): van den Linden-Four lions rampantBurdett-Harriet Smithson-Snake-chains-American Memorials of Early English History-John Lilbourne: XVII century medal-Edward Septimus Dunne Black champagne, 28 Lighthouses owned by or leased to private personsSmith of West Bennet and Wroughton, Wilts

as

[ocr errors]

The Ring and the Book,' 29. REPLIES:-Ralph Pepworth Hougham, 29-Knife a mark of attestation Roman Catholic Bishops in India and the Padroada, 32-Dowsing -Frankcheyney: Frank Chene Sheridan and his tailor, 33-Newton Hanson-Christopher Harcourt, living 1478--Nantwich, Cheshire-Cobden on Thucydides, 34 Bromflet Family - English authors buried abroad-Authors wanted, 35. THE LIBRARY:- Minutes and Accounts of the Corporation of Stratford-upon-Avon - Massinger's "A New Way to Pay Old Debts." "

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

NOTES AND QUERIES &t, High Friday, at 20, High Street, High Wycombe, Bucks (Telephone: Wycombe 306.). Subscriptions (£2 28. a year, U.S.A. $10.50, including postage, two half-yearly indexes and two cloth binding cases, or £1 158. 4d. a year, U.S.A. $9. without binding cases) should be sent to the Manager. The London Office is at 22, Essex Street, W.C.2 (Telephone: Central 396), where the current issue is on sale. Orders for back

numbers, indexes and bound volumes should be

sent either to London or to Wycombe; letters for the Editor to the London Office.

ΑΝ

Memorabilia.

N active correspondence on the authorship of the De imitatione Christi' has been carried on in recent numbers of L'Intermé

diaire. M. Alfred Péreire has sought to show that the attribution to Thomas a Kempis is mistaken. In the number for Dec. 10 our contemporary prints a long letter from le R. P. Fleury stating the reasons for which, after long and close work on the 'De imitatione' in preparation for the edition of the Latin text published in 1919, he adheres to the opinion that Thomas a Kempis is the author. The letter should be noted by everyone interested in the subject. P. Fleury, rebutting an argument from the concluding prayer, in a translation dated 1447, which contains words considered by M. Péreire to be the "signature symbolique" of Jean Gerson, notes that a French translation printed by Jehan Lambert in 1493 explicitly states that the De imitatione is neither by St. Bernard, nor by Gerson, but by Thomas a Kempis, canon of Windescheim. Again the complete works of Gerson were published at Strassburg in 1488, and Sehot, the canon of Strassburg, who wrote the Preface to the book, declares that 'De imitatione is not to be counted among the works of Gerson but is verily by Thomas a Kempis. Yet again, Jean Gerson's own brother, Prior of the Celestines at Lyons, in whose house Jean Gerson died in 1429, when drawing up a list of the works of Jean, in 1423, six years before his death, makes no mention of 'De imitatione.' Finally, the friend and secretary of Jean Gerson, when revising this list in the year of Jean's

death, preserves the same silence. On the other hand there is the witness of thirteen contemporaries at least to the authorship of Thomas a Kempis (their names are set out in the letter) while sixty out of seventy-six MSS. (five of them written during the author's life-time), the twenty-three earliest printed editions (1470 to 1500) and the French translation of 1449 mentioned above all attribute the book to him. This cer

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

tainly is testimony not lightly to be set aside in favour of a symbolic signature or on account of a MS. of 1460, thirty-one years after Gerson's death, which bears his name, and is the first to bear it.

THE night which began the year 1927 finished so far as year-reckoning goes -the thirteenth and began the fourteenth century of the existence of a Christian church on the site where York Minster stands. In 627 Edwin of Northumbria, instructed by Paulinus, and drawn on by Ethelburga, decided to embrace the Christian faith, and here built a wooden baptistery where at Easter-time, he was baptized. The occasion was celebrated by a great service at the Minster, at midnight, when in procession by torchlight the Archbishop came to the great west door, and struck it thirteen times, with a mallet made of ancient oak, demanding admission. At this summons the west doors were flung open, and to the sound of a fanfare from trumpets of Hussars, followed by drums and the organ and the singing of All people that on earth do dwell," the Archbishop and his company passed into the nave where the Dean and Chapter were assembled to receive him. The Lord Mayor and Corporation of the city joined in the procession up the aisle, and a great crowd of spectators were witnesses. There followed an act of thanksgiving for the men and women through whom the history of York Minster descends, with an address from the Archbishop and then a solemn Te Deum.

N the January Cornhill (which contains a

pretty instalment of A Girl's Friendship with John Ruskin' relating the first meeting between the friends) we noted Mr. Horace Hutchinson's paper on the Yew and the Bow. He disproves alas! the "fond tradition," still prevailing, of the bow of English yew. 'Tis Spanish yew that Drayton sings of as piercing the weather" at Agincourt; and our writer quotes a modern past-master of the toxophilitic mystery' as pronouncing that "Bows made

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]
« ElőzőTovább »