Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/12

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [10* s. i. JAN. 2,

bee there himself to bargaine with them. This merchant man of Luca trauaihng then with his companie towarde Moscouia, arriued at the ryuer of Boristhenes, which he founde hard frozen like a marble stone, and saw the Moscouites which for suspition of ye war were in doubt of the Polakes, were on the other syde, and nearer came not than the breadth of the ryuer. So after they knew the one the other, making certaine signes, the Mos- couites beganne to speake aloude, and tolde the price how they woulde sell theyr Sables, but the colde was so extreeme, that they were not vnder- etoode, bycause the wordes before they came on the other syde where this Merchant of Luca was and his interpreters, were congeled in the ayre, and there remayned frozen and stopped. So that the Polakes that knew the maner, made no more adoe, but kyndled a great fyre in the myddest of the Ryuer (for to theyr seeming that was the poynte whereto the voyce came hote before the frost tooke it) and the riuer was so thicke frozen, that it did well beare the fire. When they had thus done, the wordes that for space of an houre had bene frozen, began to thaw, and came downe, making a rioyse as doth the snow from the Mountaynes in May, and so immediately they were well vnderstood : but the men on the other side were first departed : and bycause he thought that those wordes asked too great a price for the Sables, he woulde not bargaine, and so came away without. Then they laughed all." Castiglione's ' Courtyer,' translated by Thos. Hoby, book ii. k viijb.

AYEAHR. [The story appears in Munchausen.]

ERROR IN 'POLIPHILI HYPNEROTOMACHIA.' I have not seen mentioned in any biblio- graphical work a typographical error which was made by the compositor in the first edition of that covetable book 'Poliphili Hypnerotomachia,' Aldus, 1499, but was dis- covered in time to be clumsily corrected. On fo. 5a occurs the second title : ' Poliphili Hypnerotomachia, vbi | humana omnia non nisi so- | rnriivm esse ostendit, at | qve obiter plurima | scitv saneqvam | digna com- | naerno- I rat.' The word qvam, following the word sane, was evidently misprinted in the first instance qve. The error was discovered before some, at any rate, of the copies were issued, and was corrected by the erasure of the e, and the printing in by hand with separate types of the letters am, the altera- tion detracting from the beauty of the page. This is, at any rate, the case in my own copy, ^ind in some others which I have seen. Some of your readers may have noticed the defect in other copies. J. ELIOT HODGKIN.

" RIGADOON." The account of this word in the French dictionaries does not take us very far. Hatzfeld gives it as rigaudon or rigodon, and derives it from fiigaud, the name of a dancing-master. The fact is that the word is Provencal, and the full history of it is .given by Mistral in his ' Prov. Dictionary.'

He tells us that Rigaud was a dancing- master of Marseilles, and that in the South of France the dance became so licentious that it was prohibited by the Parliament of Provence in a decree dated 3 April, 1664. This gives us a fixed date, from which we may infer that the dance came in about 1660-3. Hatzfeld merely tells us that the spelling rigodon occurs in 1696 ; but it is obvious that the dance was older. Mistral tells us even more ; for he says that Rigaud is a family name in the South of France. I think it answers to a Germanic name of which the A.-S. form would be Rlcweald, latinized as Ricoaldus ; see Forstemann.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

"A JOLLY GOOD, FELLOW" IN ITALIAN. The Tribuna, describing the recent visit of Victor Emmanuel III. to London, says :

" L' impressione prevalente del popolo Inglese quale u ? Ve la indico con una frase popolare in Inghilterre: ' Jl Re e un gran simpaticocompagno.' "

This translation of " a jolly good fellow " into the tongue of Dante ought to be recorded in your columns. Q. V.

"ADDING INSULT TO INJURY.'' This pro- verbial phrase has not yet, I think, had its history traced in 'N. & Q.' It seems to have its origin in a line of Phaedrus (v. iii. 5) : Iniuriae qui addideris contumeliam.

ALEX. LEEPER. Trinity College, Melbourne University.

AYLSHAM CLOTH. Aylsham, in Norfolk, in the fourteenth century produced linen and canvas of such superior make that they were known simply as "Aylsham." Owing to an old spelling, " Eylisham," the place has not always been recognized, wherefore these few notes may be presented together.

Dr. Rock, in his little book ' Textile Fabrics,' 1876, p. 64, says :

" For the finer sort of linen Eylisham or Ailesham in Lincolnshire was famous during the fourteenth century. Exeter Cathedral, in 1327, had a hand towel of ' Ailesham cloth.' "

"Eilesham canvas" is mentioned in Hist. MSS. Com., Fourth Report, p. 425 (Rye, 1 Norfolk Topog.,' 1881, p. 10).

In 1300 Edward I. granted a tax on certain things to the men of Carlisle, to repair the bridge there ; one item is "de qualibet cen- tena lineae telse de Aylesham venali j dena- rium " (' Letters from Northern Registers/ 1873, Rolls Series, p. 140).

The inventory of Thomas de Bitton, Bishop of Exeter, 1310, accounts for "j bolt et vj ulnis de Eylisham," and for " iij tualliis de Aylisharn" (Camden Soc., New Series, x. 7, 9).

In 1337 six ells of " Aylsam " were bought