Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/254

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XL MAR. is, 1909.

THACKERAY'S LATIN. At 9 S. ii. 27, under this heading, a line in the form O matutini roses aura que salubres ! was given from a letter of Thackeray (May, 1832) quoted by Mrs. Ritchie in her introduction to vol. iii. of the " Biographical Edition " of her father's works. The querist asked for the correct words, and the Latin author (if any) in whom they were to be found.

At p. 218 of the same volume CANON DEEDES, after suggesting " O matutinse voces aurseque salubres," added in a post- script that more probably the line should read " O matutini rores." The source has not been pointed out by any correspondent in ' N. & Q.'

The words in question, which run in accordance with CANON DEEDES'S second thought, are the beginning of nine hexa- meter lines to be found among Cowper's Latin poems, on p. 428, vol. viii. of T. S. Grimshawe's edition. The piece, entitled ' Votum,' is, it may be noted, immediately followed by a version in elegiacs of Prior's "Ode' on Chloe and Euphelia ("The Mer- chant, to secure his Treasure," &c., p. 51 in the 1718 edition of Prior's ' Poems on Several Occasions '), which has been so ingeniously translated by a distinguished scholar of more recent days. Cowper's attempt succeeds in places in snatching a grace which, if not beyond the reach of Jebb's art, is at least simpler than the effect of the latter's rendering.

EDWARD BENSLY.

University College, Aberystwyth.

[The initials appended to the query were M. T., standing for Moy Thomas.]

" ENTRE Tti Y YO." This is a very curious expression in Spanish, and seems to go against the laws of grammar as other nations understand them. If any contributor to these pages were to say " between thou and I " in English, or " entre tu et je " in French, or " inter tu et ego " in Latin, or similarly in other tongues, even in those about which MR. JAMES PLATT can tell us so much that is interesting, he would be torn in pieces by the critical wolves. Lindley Murray would stir in his grave and mutter,

Between ' is a preposition, and is followed by the objective case. Is my ' Grammar of the English Language ' already for- gotten ? " Voltaire, if he had found such -a solecism in his royal pupil's compositions, would have cast aside all his subserviency in his zeal for grammar, and sneered at "" the Solomon of the North," even if he

had only written " entre tu et moi." If Horace had been guilty of such a blunder, his master Orbilius, " the flogger," would not have belied his nickname.

Nevertheless, there is an explanation of the phrase, which first attracted my atten- tion a few weeks ago, when I was reading ' El Comendador Mendoza,' by the late Juan Valera, who was a member of the Royal Spanish Academy. On meeting with it again the other day in the interesting, though painful story of Benito Perez Galdos, entitled 'Dona Perfecta ' (Madrid, 1907, p. 74), which has had a great sale, I turned to such grammatical authorities as I had on my shelves. In the appendix to ' A New Method of learning to Read, Write, and Speak the Spanish Language,' by Velasquez and Simmone, I found on p. 487 this :

" Personal pronouns, governed by a preposition expressed, must be placed in the indirect objective case or complement ; except the pronouns me and thee, which, in conformity with the modern \ise, are placed in the nominative when they are governed by the preposition entre (between)." An example is given from Moratin's transla- tion of ' Hamlet,' which runs thus : " Re- primid cuanto os fuere posible el deseo de saber lo que ha pasado entre el y yo," or, as Shakespeare wrote (I. v. 139-40) : For your desire to know what is between us, O'ermaster 't as you may.

" Entre el y yo " is the equivalent of the poet's words " between us," i.e., between him (the Ghost) and me (Hamlet).

The words " modern use " led me to consult a copy of the fourth edition of the ' Gramatica de la Lengua Castellana com- puesta por la Real Academia Espanola ' (Madrid, 1796), which proves that this anomalous expression is of long standing and is elliptical. Among other prepositions entre governs the accusative or objective case, we are told (pp. 306-7), but " a veces se halla entre con nominative, v.g. entre tu y yo ; pero se suple los dos antes de tu y yo por la figura elipsis."

Of this ingenious explanation I give a literal translation :

" Sometimes between is found with the nominative ; for example, betiveen thou and I ; but its two is understood before thou and /by the figure ellipsis."

So the full phrase should be entre los dos, tu y yo, the pronouns having a vocative force. But Senor Galdos in the book and on the page above mentioned would seem to be ignorant of this solution of the diffi- culty, for he says :

" En ese caso, tengo la firme conviccuin de que entre tu y yo, entre nosotros dos, se establecera una armonia perfecta."