NELESTIAL MOTIONS: a Handy Book of LARNER, 23, Paternoster Row, E.C. Astronomy. Tenth Edition. With 3 Plates. By W. T. LYNN,

LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1905.

CONTENTS.-No. 92.

NOTES:-The Origin of She Stoops to Conquer'-'Byways in the Classics. 281-Punctuation in MSS. and Printed and Rabelais-Ward Family-Bolles: Conyers-"Towers

Books, 262-"Growing down like a cow's tail"-Beckford

of silence," 254-Nutting: "The Devil's Nutbag," 265. QUERIES:-Sylvain Maréchal -Duchess of Cannizaro— Anthem by Farrant-Chauncy Correspondence, 265Oscar Wilde Bibliography-George Colman's Man of the People'-Pigmies and the Cranes-Spanish Folk-lore, 266 Tinterero"-8naith Peculiar Court-Book of Loughscur-Mrs. Mary Williams-First, Railway on the Continent-W. R. Bexfield, Mus.Doc.-Glanville, Earl of

Suffolk-Richards Baronets, 287.

REPLIES:-Thomas Pounde, S.J., 268- Gibbon's Greek,
272-George III.'s Cleverness -Authors of Quotations
Wanted Sacræ Pagina Professor," 273-Spanish Verse
-Scottish Naval and Military Academy-"The fate of
the Tracys "-"Bear Bible," Spanish, 274-Gordon of the
West Indies - Roger Ascham: "Schedule "-Translated
Surnames-Faded Daguerreotypes-Dumas: its Pronun-
ciation - Henry Sanderson, Clockmaker. 275- Bishops'
Signatures-"Newlands," Chalfont St. Peter-Harold II.
and the Royal Houses of England, Denmark, and Russia
-Gallows of Alabaster, 276-Dante's Sonnet to Guido
Cavalcanti-The Duke's Bagnio in Long Acre - Index
Becket-Rushbearing-Local Government Records, 278.
NOTES ON BOOKS:-McKerrow's Edition of Nashe
Hakluytus Posthumus'-Waller's Edition of Cowley-
'Calendar of Letter - Books of the City of London'
'Neolithic Dew-Ponds.'

of Probates Villikins and his Dinah. 277-Thomas à

Notices to Correspondents.

Hotes.

THE ORIGIN OF SHE STOOPS TO
CONQUER.'

"DOCTOR GOLDSMITH," writes Johnson to Boswell,

"has a new comedy, which is expected in the spring. No name is yet given to it. The chief diversion arises from a stratagem by which a lover is made to mistake his future father-in-law's house for an inn. This, you see, borders upon farce. The dialogue is quick and gay, and the incidents are so prepared as not to seem improbable."

Whence Goldsmith took this plot of his has never been told by any of his biographers. It was, in fact, derived from an incident which happened to the dramatist himself. Goldsmith was travelling in Ireland on foot near Edgeworthstown, co. Longford, and was on the look-out for an inn to rest in and pass the night. As he proceeded he came to Ardagh House, the residence of Mr. (afterwards Sir Ralph) Fetherston. It was a square, ugly building, and Goldsmith, taking it for an inn, made his way in and rather peremptorily called for refreshment. Mr. Fetherston (the old Mr. Hardcastle of the piece) saw through the mistake, and resolved to keep up the

dress, his rubicund countenance well qualifying him to play "mine host," while his daughter, Miss Fetherston, ran upstairs and donned cap and apron, to personate the chambermaid; and that night Goldsmith went to sleep in the full persuasion that the house was an inn. The next morning Mr. Fetherston and his daughter resumed their real characters, and great was Goldsmith's dismay-great as young Marlow's in the play-to find them seated in full dignity at the breakfast table, and to realize the mistake he had committed. The story is told on the best authority-that of Lady Fetherston, the wife of the present baronet.

Tony Lumpkin's trick of tying his stepfather's wig to his chair so that, as old Mr. Hardcastle remarks, "When I went to make a bow I popped my bald head in Mrs. Frizzle's face," had its origin also in a similar trick played on Goldsmith himself by the daughter of his friend Lord Clare, when Goldsmith was on a visit to that nobleman. She often related the incident to her son, Lord Nugent. Goldsmith was one who in his writing drew largely on his own experiences; witness The Traveller, The Deserted Village,' and The Vicar of Wakefield.' It is this which gives to them much of their charm-their fidelity to nature. EDWARD MANSON.

8, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn.

'BYWAYS IN THE CLASSICS.

(See ante, p. 238.)

to the verses on Virgil's use of the words
THE reviewer of Mr. Platt's book refers
"Pius," "Pater," and "Dux Trojanus" as
applied to Eneas, and asks, Who is the
author of these lines? The author was James
Smith, of Rejected Addresses' fame. See
Barham's 'Life of Theodore Hook,' p. 162
(Bentley, 1877), where the verses in question
are printed. As they are very witty, and
may not be familiar to all readers of 'N. & Q.,'
I give them :-

Virgil, whose magic verse enthralls-
And who in verse is greater?-
By turns his wandering hero calls
Now Pius, and now Pater.

But when, prepared the worst to brave,
An action that must pain us,
Queen Dido meets him in the cave

He dubs him Dux Trojanus.
And well he changes thus the word,
On that occasion, sure,
Pius Eneas were absurd
And Pater premature.

T. F. D.

The lines referring to Virgil were written

farce. He put himself into an innkeeper's by James Smith, the well-known author, in

conjunction with his brother Horace, of 'Re-
jected Addresses.' They are the following:-
Virgil, whose epic song enthralls
(And who in song is greater ?),
Throughout his Trojan hero calls
Now Pius, and now Pater.

But when, the worst intent to brave,
With sentiments that pain us,
Queen Dido meets him in the cave,
He dubs him Dux Trojanus.
And well he alters here the word,
For in this station, sure,
Pius Eneas were absurd,

And Pater premature.

The jest is, as your reviewer says, borrowed

from the sixth Tatler. It is further note-
worthy that this Tatler was written by
Steele, who got the said jest in conversation
from Addison. And it was this in The Tatler
that disclosed to Addison the fact that Steele
was writing these papers, as Johnson tells us
D. C. TOVEY.
in his life of Addison.

Although the lines of Collins and Pope are not harmonious, Tennyson, I think, was too I open severe in condemning sigmatism. Ovid's Metamorphoses,' and in the first line which I read (viii. 52) the letter s is repeated more frequently than in the two English verses which Tennyson condemns :

Gnossiaci possem castris insistere regis.
In the Greek Testament (Mark x. 52) are the
words: ἡ πίστις σου σέσωκέ σε.

The following beautiful lines of Shakspeare
have the sound of s all through them :-
Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath,
That the rude sea grew civil at her song;
And certain stars shot madly from their spheres
To hear the sea-maid's music.

Much of Ovid has passed into current use.
Nothing is better known than the following:
Omne solum forti patria est.-'Fasti.'
Fas est et ab hoste doceri.

Metamorphoses,' iv. 428.

MS. in library of Duke of Portland, Welbeck, being an old catalogue of the library, A.D. 1400-5.-The symbol is used throughout as a very light punctuation, something less than a comma, e.g. Here & is, whereas in some press marks given in 'Facsimiles' by New Pal. Soc., pt. i.) it is 5 of same centuries. Lower down in this MS. also occurs, which may account for the mod. side by side with 8.

This

that

No dotted, no exclamation marks. (My extract in the plate is not facsimile.) Pal. Soc., i. pl. 134.-Polybius, 1416. So throughout, suggesting reads 9. Greek MSS. have also had single-dotted iota (2), though it is peculiar to this MS. Coming after centuries of double-dotting, how can this be regarded as anything but a simplification or variation of the practice? What but ignorance of the usages of MSS. could permit Wycliffe's Old Testament, vellum MS., any one to invent an etiological explanation? about 1420, has at Judith, cap. viii., a mark after interrogation 10. But also it has the same mark at another place where there is a statement preceding. And the ornamented colon serves all purposes; also at Ps. cxxxviii. 17, and last verse of Ps. lxxxiv. The initial 3 in ye is not of the same shape as the initial of the (p).

11

Autograph of Thomas à Kempis, 1441.C. Hirsche on p. 10 of the preface to his edition of the Imitatio Christi' (Berlin, 1891) mentions that the scheme of punctuation in this autograph of Thomas à Kempis (A.D. 1441) is in crescendo order ; and a longer pause still is indicated by a capita Scholars, perhaps, do not care for him so letter to the next word, sometimes with, somemuch as they used to do in former ages. E. YARDLEY.

Tempus edax rerum.

'Metamorphoses,' xv. 234.

PUNCTUATION IN MSS. AND PRINTED
BOOKS.

(See 10th S. ii. 301, 462; iv. 144.)

As in previous cases, the superior figures refer to illustrations at the end of the article. Cotton MS. Tiber A. xiv.-Bede's 'Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum.' Second half of eighth century or first half of ninth.

12

times without the point. Mr. Bernays says: "He calls the third of these flexa, and says that the Greek name is cliuis or clivis [sic], and that it is a musical sign borrowed for literature."

Why should Thomas à Kempis be supposed to have borrowed a sign from musical notations when he had 13 in every conceivable variety, as the common light punctuation of the manuscripts used in his time?

F. W. G. FOAT, D.Lit. (To be continued.)

Ict ille; bine inquit. nam & angelicam habent parm & Tally angelorum In early decet lyve wheredes; quod habit. nomen ipfa prouinia de qua iyi прошива бе yunz adlari ? pépponɣum → quia

Yune

to

In Saxon manuscripts abbreviations were | Latin, punctuation is absent, but the circumnumerous, and the circumflex was in common use; the colon, or probably its equivalent, thus was also used; but neither comma nor semicolon, unless what I have supposed to represent a colon was really a semicolon. Of course a 66 period" was used.

In Scottish written documents (Latin) of 1200 we find the period and colon-the period usually, and the circumflex always, indicating that a word is abridged. In 1236, in a Latin charter, the circumflex serves its usual purpose; while the period is the only punctuating mark. In a charter of 1370, also in

flex is used. In an indenture of 1374 the observance of "points" is practically nil, but for an occasional full stop. The circumflex plays its allotted part, and it may be observed that the dotting of the "i" is frequently a stroke, right to left, thus /. In 1415 the circumflex is used, punctuating symbols being practically absent in a charter of the date named.

A Homer I have, in Greek, printed in 1535, has punctuating marks: comma, semicolon, and full stop; the contracting symbol I take to be the circumflex, but the lettering

used is to the reader most difficult to make -out. In 'Le Antichita della Citta de Roma,' printed in 1580, a comma, semicolon, colon, and full period are used in punctuation, the circumflex indicating that a word is abbreviated. Printing done at Frankfort in 1584 has all the punctuating symbols known to us, and the circumflex as a contraction mark. In Godwin's Catalogue, printed in 1615, the comma, colon, and semicolon are used, a full period being utilized as an abbreviating sign as well as a punctuating one, such as in "the" In "J: P: Terentii Comœdiæ," printed at Leipsic in 1616, comma, colon, semicolon, and period are used, the last marking an abbreviated word, as does the

for them.

circumflex.

=

I have a volume containing questions, &c., relative to book i. of Bonaventura, printed, I think, in Italy, about the year 1591. The contraction sign is sometimes a full period, but usually the circumflex, the punctuating marks being a colon and period-no semi. colon or comma that I can find. I may mention that a hyphened word is indicated in two ways; thus: and a dash from right to left. It has been said that Caxton had the merit of introducing into this country the Roman punctuation, as used in Italy. If this was the case, I do not think it was in general use in 1491, the year of Caxton's death, with the exception of Haarlem and Mentz. Is it not a fact that printing existed at Oxford about ten years previous to 1491 ? ALFRED CHAS. JONAS.

"Heu, quotidie pejus: hæc colonia retro-
versus crescit, tanquam coda vituli!" The
only difference is that in English the calf is
represented by his mother. I should like
very much to know whether this provincial
Latin expression is still heard in Italy or
in any other Latin country.
A. L. MAYHEW.

BECKFORD AND RABELAIS.-There is towards

the close of 'Vathek' a phrase which recalls, in some measure, a passage in Rabelais which has already been discussed in N. & Q.' The implacable Carathis sees Vathek and Nouronihar at the moment when the terrorstricken girl is clinging to the Caliph :

"Alors Carathis, sans descendre de son chameau, chaste vue, éclata sans ménagement. Monstre à et écumante de rage au spectacle qui s'offrait à sa deux têtes et à quatre jambes,' s'écria-t-elle, que signifie tout ce bel entortillage? N'as-tu pas honte d'empoigner ce tendron au lieu des sceptres des sultans préadamites?'"'

The passage will be found at pp. 158-9 of the edition of 1834. For the Rabelaisian and Shaksperean phrase see 9th S. vii. 162.

WILLIAM E. A. AXON.

WARD FAMILY.-I am afraid it is rather late to reply to a query of forty-five years ago; but I find on looking at N. & Q.' for 14 January, 1860 (2nd S. ix. 30), a MR. ALEX. J. ELLIS inquired for information relating to the Wards of Burton-on-Trent, one of whom married Anne Pole (a niece of Cardinal Pole). If MR. ELLIS is still living, I shall be pleased to give him what information I can on the matter. I may add that I shall be glad to [Printing is acknowledged to have begun at correspond with any reader who may possess Oxford not later than 1478.]

Thornton Heath.

any genealogical information relating to the Wards of Burton-on-Trent, and to give in exchange any details I may have.

FRANK WARD. 38, Wordsworth Road, Small Heath, Birmingham.

[If the A. J. ELLIS mentioned is the well-known linguistic scholar, he died in 1890, as the Supplement to the 'D.N.B.' shows.]

BOLLES: CONYERS.-I have some printed notes of the family of George Bolles and Katherine Conyers which were bound up in a Breeches Bible. They date from 1588, and would be interesting to any descendants. ED. DARKE.

"GROWING DOWN LIKE A COW'S TAIL."-I find this phrase set down in 'E.D.D.' as peculiar to Antrim and Down. Most people, I think, would refuse to look upon the phrase as peculiar to any dialect, and would stoutly maintain that it was in general use wherever the English language is spoken. I was amused the other day to find that the expression is as old as Petronius. And doubtless it is centuries older. I was reading Dr. Bigg's delightful book The Church's Task under the Roman Empire,' p. 67, and there I came upon a quotation from Petronius, 'Cena,' 44. Dr. Bigg says: Let us listen to the Campanian farmer......He is grumbling about a prolonged drought; the colony, he "TOWERS OF SILENCE."-Sir George Birdsays, is growing downwards like a cow's tail." wood, in a letter to The Times, 8 August, Well, I thought, here the learned doctor is attributes the invention of the phrase playfully paraphrasing. This homely Eng-towers of silence," applied to the dakhumas fish expression cannot surely be found in (vault, place of the dead, tomb), or bastionPetronius. But there it is, all the same: like edifices on which the Parsees of the Dis

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