Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/139

 10 s. x. AUG. s,

NOTES AND QUERIES.

Ill

Fletcher in 'The Spanish Curate,' IV. v., in 1622, speaks of a man as a " maggot- pate." For other seventeenth-century in- stances see the ' N.E.D.' Swift in his Introduction to ' The Tale of a Tub ' says : " The two principal qualifications of a fanatic preacher are, his inward light, and his head full of maggots " ; and Tennyson has (' Maud,' xxvii. 3) To tickle the maggot born in an empty head, And wheedle a world that loves him not.

The marriage of Frederick, the eldest son of George II., was celebrated at Don Sal- tero's in the following manner :

" Among the Rejoicings upon the Prince of Wales's Nuptials, those of the Gentlemen of the Club at Salter's Coffee-house in Chelsea were most extraordinary ; for as soon as the Ceremony was perform'd in St. James's Chapel, they began to fire trom a Horse-Boat, moored in the Middle of the Thames for that Purpose, a great Number of Sky and Water-Rockets were likewise play'd off, which the Gentlemen, at an elegant Supper, attended with Musick, drank the Healths of the King and Queen, the illustrious Bride and Bridegroom, a numerous Issue, the Royal Family, &c., the great Guns tiring at each Health, 'accompanied by Huzzas from the Populace, to whom plenty of Strong Beer was given." St. James's Evening Post, 29 April, 1736.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL. Deene, Streatham.

[DR. G. F. BLANDFORD also refers to Mr. Reginald Blunt's book.]

THOMAS CASTLE (10 S. ix. 409). Messrs. Britten and Boulger in their ' Biographical Index of British and Irish Botanists,' 1893, p. 32, say : " Born Kent, c. 1804 d. Brighton (?), 1838." If Mr. Britten has learnt any further particulars, he would possibly reply if a request was addressed to him at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Botanical Department. But the * Index ' is so good that it should be better known.

S. L. PETTY.

VOWEL-SHORTENING (10 S. x. 43). The rule so ingeniously laid down by PROF. SKEAT is not peculiar to English, for it rests on physiology, and is the consequence of the law of mechanics which is called in French " le principe de la moindre action."

When a word generally a monosyllable is lengthened by the addition of a suffix, there is a tendency to minimize the labour of the voice, and to weaken the exertion at the very beginning of the word.

The English examples given by the Pro- fessor are most edifying, especially to foreigners ; for when one speaks a foreign language, there is a tendency to pronounce the same syllable in the same way ; and even

uneducated (or would-be educated) natives, at least in France, sometimes make this mistake in words that are not in common use, and are not familiar to the speaker by an unconscious tradition.

PROF. SKEAT rightly says : " The longer the word, the shorter the vowel." Here are some French instances of this law, in which long vowels are shortened by the addition of a suffix :

Grace, gracieux ; matelas, matelasser.

Pot, potee ; rabot, raboter ; lot, loti ; sabot, sabotage.

Degel, degele (generally pronounced deg'le) ; rappel, rappe!6 (rapp'te).

And I may bring into this series :

Breche, ebrech^ ; meche, e"meche. If we extend the question further, I might observe that the change of a vowel into a weaker one may be due to a similar cause : faner, fenaison ; fcwre, je ferai.

On the contrary, monosyllables with a short vowel when they are used as proclitics, i.e., when they cease to be really mono- syllabic, lengthen the vowel when they are used emphatically and by themselves ; for instance, the possessive pronouns notre, votre : C'est n&tre maison, " This is our house " ; but Cette maison est notre, " This house is ours " ; Nous y avons mis du notre, " We contributed to it from our own means (or our own money)." H. GAIDOZ.

22, Rue Servandoni, Paris.

PROF. SKEAT' s list of words is interesting : valuable, I think, chiefly because of its etymological cues ; for very few decently educated people would fail to shorten the vowel instinctively in every word of more than one syllable from " baxter " even unto " zealous." I am a little surprised that nothing was said of " page " and "pageant," as the latter is now much in the air, and people of learning are to be heard speaking of " pageant." I am aware that PROF. SKEAT has discoursed in The Academy of " pageant " ; but his valuable remarks would have borne repetition in ' N. & Q.'

ST. SWITHIN.

[Reply from SIR HERBERT MAXWELL next week.]

HOVE (10 S. ix. 450 ; x. 14). I trust I may be allowed, in the interests of scholar- ship, to protest against the invention of non-existent words dignified by the name of "Anglo-Saxon." What would be thought of a writer who said that hov was a Latin word meaning "low-lying," or that stima was a Latin word meaning " brightness " It would be criminal to utter such inventions