Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/405

 10 s. x. OCT. 24, 1908.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

333

" Bladum uenale de partibus transmarinis adducitur." " Summa bladi ad sexdecim solidos uendebatur. " " Panis de toto blado. The last Watts defines " esse panem factum ex ipsa farina, uti de molendino uenit et nondum cribrata." C. E. LOMAX.

Louth.

MRS. CONWAI HACKETT (10 S. x. 269). Noble in his ' Biographical History of Eng- land,' vol. i. p. 342, gives the following particulars of this person :

" Was probably a descendant of Dr. John Hacket, Bishop of Lichfield and Coventry, who had many children by his two wives, and lived to see 32 to whom he was father and grandfather. This pre- late was the son of Andrew Hacket, Master of the Robes to Henry, Prince of Wales, and senior burgess of Westminster, being of good descent, allied himself to the gentry in Warwickshire, with whom he appears to have been a favourite : he might therefore very well have had Edward Con-

opulent, and continue to reside in Warwickshire." Chaloner Smith in his description of the ' Mezzotint Portraits ' states :

"If Mrs. Conwai Hacket t was called after Ed- ward, Lord Con way, she was probably daughter of Sir Andrew Hackett, the bishop's eldest son, who was appointed a Master in Chancery in 1670, and as Lord Con way married the sister of Finch the Lord Chancellor. He might have had such acquaint- ance with him, besides their being from the same county, as that he would have been godfather to this child."

Chaloner Smith describes three states of the print, and assigns the date 1690 to its pub- lication. ABTHUB W. WATERS. Leamington Spa.

SALARINO, SALANIO, AND SALERIO (10 S. ix. 22, 113, 236, 315, 515; x. 132, 176). At the outset let me disavow any intention of being discourteous to ST. SWITHIN, whose challenge to make myself clear I readily take up. For that I am indebted to MR. N. W. HILL, whose discovery of " Shillock " as a common generic name of the sixteenth century seems to me to be the missing link in the etymological chain. I cannot, however, accept " Shiloh " as a root. To Jews, Shilo is a place-name only. Christian divines of the sixteenth century saw in it a mystic reference to Jesus. Shakespeare was too tactful and clearheaded to debase that " holy name " to such a disreputable use as Shylock was put.

In answer to ST. SWITHIN, I admit that there now seems some real ground for " Salerio " being a Jewish cognomen. I have since found out that Jews did favour the basket-making trade ; so that sal gives

us Salor, Salar, Saler, and Sala, in the same way as sandal gave us " Sandallar " or " the shoemaker rabbi " of the Mishnaic era.

I gave " Sheleach " as my contribution to the solution of this question. During the Middle Ages Jewish doctors were in constant request. ' The Merchant of Venice ' is founded in part, it is alleged, upon a con- spiracy promoted by a Jewish doctor. Many of these doctors rendered important services to the Jewries of Europe by their unsuspected activities. Many of them were diplomats and mercantile agents. They were special correspondents or intelligence carriers be- tween the learned bodies, say, of Montpellier and the literati of Norwich. Hence Dr. A. would naturally be their " Sheleach " or representative. Such men would be wel- come at the tables of the few rich Hebrew financiers residing in England, and their Christian servants would often hear them referred to as " Sheleach," without knowing the real significance of the word. Among Shakespeare's intimate acquaintances and fellow-actors there doubtless were one or two who had waited upon those Hebrew emissaries, heard their masters talk of them in that way, and imagined that it was a proper name, like Moses or Isaac. So when Shakespeare was looking out for a Hebrew appellative for the " Merchant," and for one- adaptable to stage needs without ruffling the religious instincts of his audience (who would have resisted the application of Scripture names to " that foul thing " Shylock) in the same way as Marlowe hit on Barabbas, a name with a markedly Hebraic ring, and yet not a Hebrew surname possibly he consulted those friends or colleagues, with the result that they remembered the un-Biblical name of " Sheleach," or, as they corruptly pronounced it, " Shillock," because the Hebrew ch was a stumbling-block to 'correct speaking. Hence from " Shillock " to " Shy- lock " the transition seems to me natural and easy. M. L. R. BRESLAR.

Percy House, South Hackney.

KNIPHOFIA (10 S. x. 288). "Florists" doubtless " call " the " red-hot-pokers " of our bouquets and " our gardens " by the name " Tritoma," as MR. LYNN says so. But botanists prefer the more distinctive and less confusing title. MR. LYNN has " not heard the name Kniphofia in England." Perhaps he has not talked with a botanist about the flower. If he doubts, let him carry the case in Appeal to the editor of The Gar- deners' Chronicle opinion unknown.

K. F. D.