Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/301

 10* S. I. MARCH 26, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Nicoll, Henry J. Great Movements and those who Achieved Them. 1881. 'Cheap Literature Constable, Chambers, Knight, Cassell,' pp. 151 188. ' The Repeal of the Fiscal Restrictions on Literature : T. Milner Gibson, Cassell, Cham bers, John Francis,' pp. 265-339.

Nisbet, James. 1785-1854. Lessons from the Life o the late James Nisbet, Publisher, London: a Study for Young Men. By the Rev. J. A Wallace. Crown 8vo, London, 1867.

North, Roger, 1650-1733. Life of the Right Hon. Francis North, Sir Dudley North, and the Hon. and Rev. Dr. John North, vol. iii. p. 293. 8vo London, 1826. A reference to the Little Britain booksellers.

Notes and Queries, 1849 See Indexes throughout.

O'Brien, M. B. A Manual for Authors, Printers, and Publishers. London, 1890.

Oldys, William, 1696-1761. A Literary Antiquary : Memoir of William Oldys, Esq., Norroy King- at-Arms. Together with his Diary, Choice Notes from his Adversaria, and an Account of the London Libraries (with Anecdotes of Col- lectors of Books, Remarks on Booksellers, and of the first publishers of Catalogues). [By James Yeowell.] Reprinted from Notes and Queries. 12mo, London, 1862.

WM. H. PEET.

(To be continued.)

THOMAS USK AND RALPH HIGDEN. It is a great gain to know that the ' Testament of Love ' was written by Thomas Usk and not by Chaucer. As is now well known, Usk himself has placed this on record by the fact that the initial letters of his chapters form the sentence : " Margarets of virtw, have merci on thin Vsk."

But this was surely rather a queer thing to do, and naturally suggests the question, What put this idea into his head 1 The obvious answer is, I think, that the same thing had just been done by Ralph Higden, the author of the ' Polychronicon,' whose great book of history was in vogue just exactly in his time ; it was a celebrated book of that age, and he must have known some- thing about it. Usk wrote about 1387, and Higden died in 1363.

The initial letters of the chapters in Higden's first book form the sentence : " Presentem cronicam compilavit frater Ranulphus Cestrensis monachus." It is re- markable that the editor of the first volume of Higden, at p. xvii of his preface, quotes the following from Bishop Nicholson: "If you spell the first letters of the several chapters that begin it, j*ou read, ' Prcesentem cAronicam conpilavit Frater Ranulphus mona- chus Cestrensis.'" Apparently neither the editor of the volume nor any one else has

ever taken the trouble to verify the state- ment, or he would have found out that there were three misspellings in it, as denoted by the italics. As it is thus misrepresented, we find sixty-one letters, though there are but sixty chapters ; and it is surely amazing that any one, in spelling out an acrostic, snould thus put the words in a wrong order !

However, we now come to a literary fact, viz., that Usk knew Higden's book. I find one rather clear case of probable indebted- ness. Thus in book ii. en. ii. 1. 116 of the 'Testament,' Usk says that the mother of Perdiccas, who was heir to Alexander the Great, was a dancing-girl. As I point out in the notes, it was Arrhidseue, Alexander's half- brother, and not Perdiccas, who had such a mother. But Higden has the very same error. In his book iii. ch. xxx. Higden (fol- lowing, apparently, Trogus) remarks, "filius saltatricis Perdiccas legitur successisse."

And now comes a very interesting point. It was John of Malverne, the continuator of Higden, who has given us some account of Usk, apparently from personal recollection. This fact brings the two authors into very close connexion. WALTER W. SKEAT.

HELL, HEAVEN, AND PARADISE AS PLACE- NAMES. To the place-names with Hell (see ante, pp. 46, 94, 156) may be added a house at Tiibingen, Wiirtemberg, called Die Holle.

May I also remind your readers that a refreshment room in the old House of Com- mons was named Hell ? Many of the M.P.s expelled by Col. Pride in 1648 were confined temporarily in it.

One of the best-known Valaisan wines is called Vin d'Enfer ; and there is, of course, a Hollenthal in the Black Forest.

An osteria near the catacombs of San Sebastian, on the Appian Way at Rome, has the sign " Delle Anime."

Paradise, Parvis, Parsfel, is, of course, a well-known name for the square outside the west door of a cathedral, as at Paris and Aix- la-Chapelle ; but I do not know any example, save Heavenfield in Yorkshire, of Heaven or Purgatory as a place-name. H. 2.

" GIRL." The etymology of girl, according to the ' N.E.D. ,'is still uncertain, and it may therefore be worth while to urge the claims of an association not, I believe, before sug- gested.

In the earliest examples quoted it is clear that girl is not feminine of sex, but opposed as an immature child to adult man. We should look for the cognates of the word iherefore in the direction of immaturity. I ind a first cousin to the word in grilse, the