achievement where they are due." These words, coming from so accomplished a scholar as Mr. Gladstone, are indeed comforting to all true lovers of Scott.

I do not know if any of your readers have ever noticed that Mrs. Browning, in her splendid Vision of Poets, in which she marshals the noble army of laurelled bards and causes them to pass before our eyes, each one introduced by a few lines of appropriate and happy description, finds no place for Scott, nor does she make the smallest allusion to him.

Notwithstanding, however, the prevailing disloyalty to the illustrious Scottishman, I am sure there is still a remnant left in the land who have not bowed the knee to the false deity of sensationalism, and whose feelings towards Walter Scott may best be expressed in the words of Tennyson's artist-lover, "My first, last love; the idol of my youth; the darling of my manhood." Perhaps I may be allowed to finish the quotation, and, remembering the wonder and delight with which some of us first read Scott's poems and romances in our sweet hour of prime, add, "the most blessed memory of mine age."

JONATHAN BOUCHIER.

["Amen!" to MR. BOUCHIER's quoted words. The admirers of Scott, however, need not fear for the great object of their admiration. Mrs. Browning omitted Scott from her Vision of Poets. So Addison left Shakspeare unnamed in his Account of the Greatest English Poets (addressed to Sacheverell). So much the worse for Addison, who also sneered at Chaucer and at Spenser! The successive cheap editions of Scott's Novels are so many proofs of his undying popularity. The editions of his poems for less than a shilling show how thoroughly "popular" he is, in the best sense of that word. Within the last four or five years new dramas, founded on his works, have been successfully placed upon the stage. These include The Lady of the Lake, Kenilworth, Ivanhoe, and The Fortunes of Nigel. In the last drama Mr. Phelps proved his fine quality as an actor by his masterly performance of King James. For the coming season at Drury Lane a play is preparing, which is drawn from the same inexhaustible source, namely, The Talisman. The enthusiasm which the novelty and brilliancy of the treasures excited when they were first delivered by Scott to the public,-possessions for ever, has subsided, as a matter of course; but there is a wider sense now, and a profounder popular appreciation of their inestimable value.]

SHAKSPEARIANA.

SHAKSPEARE'S NAME.-There would have been less difficulty in arriving at the derivation of the name of our great poet had it been viewed, not as one of an exceptional character, but as belonging to a distinct class of sobriquets that have become hereditary. The nicknames given to lower-class officials some centuries ago, such as "tipstaffs" and "clearers of the way," were all but invariably hits at the officious and meddlesome character of their duties. These duties were discharged mainly by

the display of tambol of office which they held in their hand. can readily understand the crowd outside the sacred ring poking fun at these well-fed officials through the medium of the baton which they bore. Various cant terms were employed, but the ingredient of all was wag or "shake." These terms came even to be used more generally. A silly swaggerer became a wagfeather" (Halliwell); a woman with a trailing dress a "wag-tail" (Halliwell); while Smith, "the silver-tongued preacher," says of a "graceless boy" that he will prove a wag-string," that is, like a bow relaxed. Thus of "shake" also. A bully was called a shake-buckler " (Halliwell) and a turnkey a "shake-lock." Let us see how all this affected our nomenclature. Let us take "wag" first. "Robert Waggestaff" is found in the Hundred Rolls, "Richard Wage-tail" in Proc. and Ord. Privy Council, and "Mabill Wagspere" in the Coldingham Priory Records (Surtees Soc.). "Wag-horn" still exists. It was Captain Waghorn who was tried for the wreck of the Royal George in 1782. So far of the term "wag.” Let us now turn to "shake." "Simon Shake-lok" occurs in the Parl. Writs, "Henry Shake-launce" in the Hundred Rolls, "Hugh Shake-shaft" in St. Ann's Register, Manchester (date 1744), and "William Shake-spere" in Bury St. Edmunds Wills (Cam. Soc.). Of course I could give other instances of all the above, but one I think will suffice. You will see that Wag-spere " is but

William Synonymous with the poet's name. Shakspeare, I cannot doubt, was descended from some officer of the law, or one who held service under some feudal lord; while his name must be viewed as belonging distinctively to the nickname class. I will say a word or two at another time about the poet's son "Hamnet," who bore a purely Christian name, although, if I be not mistaken, this has not been observed before.

CHARLES W. BARDSLEY.

"MARS HIS SWORD. -In Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar, § 217, we find " His was sometimes used by mistake for s', the sign of the possessive case, particularly after a proper name. Professor Latham (English Grammar, "Pleonasm" in the Syntax of Pronouns), however, takes his in such cases to be the possessive pronoun, and I conceive he is right. In German such expressions as dem Professor seine Frau, "the Professor his wife" (dem Professor being the dative), are commonly used, though only in conversation. Again, we find it in Dutch: thus in the Maagden of Vondel, i. 1, we have Marsil zijn geest, "Marsilius his ghost,"Van Vloten's note on this being, "As at the present day, in the language of conversation for ghost of Marsilius." Again, in the works of Fritz Reuter, written in the Mecklenburg-Schwerin dialect, such expressions are to be found in every

page: thus we have Fritz Sahlmannen sin Wust, "Fritz Sahlmann his sausage"-Ut de Franzosentid, p. 233; sin olle Moder ehr Hart, "his old mother her heart"-Id., p. 226; den Möller sin Fridrich, the miller his Fridrich," passim. Here, as will be observed, the noun which comes first is in the genitive or dative; it is difficult to say which, as the inflexions are the same. Again, turning to Quickborn, by Klas Groth, written in the Dittmarsch dialect, we find such expressions very frequent, as uns Herr sin Hus, our Lord his House"-Quickborn, seventh edition, p. 139; Pock sin Fru," Froggie his wife"-Id., p. 197. In this dialect it is impossible to say in what case the first noun is, as there are no inflexions. In these languages, or dialects, it is quite certain that sein, or sin, is the possessive pronoun and nothing else; why then should we find a difficulty in a corresponding usage in our own language?

Mr. Abbott, in support of his view, that his is used in such cases by mistake for 's, says, " After the feminine name Guinivere, we have in the later text of Layamon, ii. 511, for Gwenayfer his love."" The passage at full length is

"Arthur was in Cornwalle Al thane wynter,

For Gwenayfer his love
Womman him leofest."*

It seems to me possible that "love" may here stand for "lover," as we have "mine own true love" passim in the old ballads, in which case the meaning of the line will be, "for the sake of his love Gwenayfer." This, however, I leave to others to decide. F. J. V.

"LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST" (5th S. i. 368.)-I may very safely assert that there is but one authority for the assertion imputed to Burbage, that this play would please Queen Elizabeth, viz., a letter from Sir Walter Cope to Viscount Cranborne, dated 1604, preserved in Lord Salisbury's library at Hatfield. SPERIEND will find it printed (with no very commendable accuracy) in the third Report of the Royal Commission of Historical Manuscripts, 1872, p. 148. All Burbage "sayes" All Burbage "sayes" is that

"Ther ys no new playe that the quene hath not seene, but they have Revyved an olde one, Cawled Loves Labore lost, which for wytt and mirthe he sayes will please her excedingly."

Athenæum Club.

FOLK-LORE.

JABEZ.

lated to that mentioned by him. In Suffolk, to sleep in a room with the whitethorn bloom in it during the month of May "will surely be followed by some great misfortune." And"If you sweep the house with blossomed broom in May, Y're sure to sweep the head of the house away." Choice Notes, Folk-Lore, p. 113. Turning to the latter portion of the query, the origin of the superstition in question is part of a wide and curious subject; but three points seem to deserve special prominence.

The first is the connexion in the minds of the primitive Aryans of the thorn and fire, a connexion traceable, as in the case of the rowan, &c., to the red colour of the fruit of the tree. Much information as to ancient notions on the subject, and the conceptions in which they originated, will be found, if your correspondent cares to pursue the inquiry, in Kühn's treatise, The Descent of Fire and the Drink of the Gods (Berlin, 1859), and in Mr. Kelly's Curiosities of Indo-European Tradition and Folk Lore, an able sketch, not so well known as it deserves.

The next point is the association of the thorn, as well as rowan, &c., with the celebration of the festival of the returning Sun, May-day. That festival was apparently understood to mark the coming back of the Fire, through its supposed great source, the Sun, after the dark and cold winter; and one is prepared to find the fire trees, the thorn and rowan, figuring in the celebration. In Westphalia, the herdsman on May-day "quickens" his heifers, striking them over the haunches and loins with a rowan sapling, which has been cut at into the birch and beech, and the leaf comes upon or before sunrise, and praying that, as sap comes the oak, so may milk fill the young cow's udder." A kindred practice survives in the county of Galway, where caorthann gads, i.e. withes of the rowan, cut before sunrise, and twisted into circlets, plough. In the same locality it is the furze (which are placed on the churn, the churn-dash, and the for the Dos-Bealtaine, or May-bush. In England is expected to be found in bloom) which is used the whitethorn was expected to be in bloom. To be delivered from witches they hang in their entries (among other things) hay-thorn, otherwise whitethorn, gathered on May-day." (Scott's Discovery of Witchcraft, in Brand, i. 217. See also i. 229.)

Now, if the thorn was thus associated with the festival marking the beginning of summer, and its blooming connected in the popular mind with May-day, it is conceivable that the flowering of the tree before May would be looked upon as something strange and ominous, and we should have some explanation of the superstitious notion menmisfortune. It may be noted, in connexion with tioned by E. J. C. that such early bloom bodes this idea, that the blooming of an apple-tree after the fruit is ripe is also an omen of death :

uttering a word when we say, May you live, Sirs? The matter came to Buddha's ears. Priests, he said, the laity are the corner-stone of the church; when laymen say, May you live, Sirs, I give my sanction to your replying, Long life to you."

The

"EXCUMGENT."--I have not heard this Northumbrianism lately. I fancy it is rather slang than a provincialism. It is applied to a person or thing "got up" more smartly than usual. "Where are you going, you are quite excumgent? do you like my new bonnet?"-"Oh, it is quite excumgent." Extra gent(eel) is, I presume, the etymology. It is among servants I have heard it used.

"" How

P. P.

"According to an old Jewish legend, the custom of saying 'God bless you' when a person sneezes dates from Jacob. The Rabbis say that before the time that Jacob lived men sneezed once, and that was the end of them; the shock slew them. This law was set aside on the prayer of Jacob, on condition that in all nations a sneeze should be hallowed by the words 'God bless you."

R. C. CHILDERS.

THE FLYING DUTCHMAN.-In the narrative of the voyages of H.M. ships "Leven" and "Barracouta," under Captain W. F. Owen, R.N., in the year 1823, the following curious story is published: "In the evening of the 6th of April, when off Port Danger, the Barracouta was seen about two miles to leeward. Struck with the singularity of her being so soon after us, we at first concluded that it could not be her; but the peculiarity of her rigging, and other circumstances, convinced us that we were not so mistaken. Nay, so distinctly was she seen, that many well-known faces could be observed on deck, looking towards our ship. After keeping thus for some time, we became surprised that she made no effort to join us; but, on the contrary, stood away. But being so near the port to which we were both destined, Captain Owen did not attach much importance to this proceeding, and we accordingly continued our course. At sunset it was observed that she hove to, and sent a boat away, apparently for the purpose of picking up a man overboard. During the night we could not perceive any light or other indication of her locality. The next morning we anchored in Simon's Bay, where, for a whole week, we were in anxious expectation of her arrival; but it afterwards appeared that at this very period the Barracouta must have been above three hundred miles from us, and no other vessel of the same class was ever seen about the Cape." The writer of the narrative disclaims any intention to excite the supernatural feelings of his readers. Accepting the story as true (and it is vouched for by an irresistible weight of authority), it is a startling fact that, out of all the ships sailing on the ocean, the one which the law of refraction should have conjured up in.view of the "Leven" was that ship's own consort in a deadly and perilous voyage. F. W. CHESSON.

Lambeth Terrace.

of this ceremony being performed is as far back as 1823. It was formerly the practice, when any respectable person was interred, to have white sand strewn in the street from the house door to the grave. This has of late years, in Cape Town at least, been discontinued, but may still exist in the more remote Dutch villages. At Dutch funerals, in olden days, two respectably dressed men (tropschluters), got up in cocked hats and black silk stockings, were generally engaged to form the last couple of mourners in the funeral procession. The popular opinion was that the last couple took all the ill luck supposed to wait on the last couple into and out of the churchyard, no friend liking to figure last at a funeral. Formerly no respectable family buried their dead until after dark, when each mourner was attended by his slave carrying a lighted lantern. The appearance of such a procession was very strange to meet in the narrow, and then unlighted, streets of Cape Town. Hatchments of the arms of the principal deceased officials of the old Dutch Government were formerly suspended in the "Oude Keerk" on the Heerengracht, and presented some very curious and interesting specimens of old Batavian heraldry. They are now, however, nearly all removed, and lie rotting in a lumber room in the vicinity of the church, in company, it is said, with a few valuable pictures of the Dutch school, long lost to the public eye. These and many other primitive Dutch customs are gradually disappearing, and the modes and habits of English domestic life have almost superseded the quaint and homely manners which prevailed in the City of Van Riebeck to a period as late as the first three decades of the present century. I am indebted to an old friend and quondam correspondent of "N. & Q." for some of the above interesting notes.

Lavender Hill.

H. HALL.

"BONNIE DUNDEE."-From a small volume which professes to teach boys the history of Scotland, I have extracted the following account of