Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/13

 10 s. XIL JULY 3, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

the painter, got him many commissions, thus paving the way to his great fortune and reputation (iii. 373, 486).

In The Gentleman's Magazine for May, 1767 (xxxvii. 199, numbered by mistake 239, nt seq. ), are "some Remarks from two different Quarters " on some of the pictures " ex- hibited in Pall-Mall." Both connoisseurs "pretend to select the best." On p. 199 is the following :

"Mr. Cassanova [sic], Bond Street, No. 60. This picture shows great strength of genius ; the light and shadow finely managed ; and was the drawing a little more correct, it might be deemed a painting of the first class. The other is more tame and cold, though his sky and some of the rocks are very grand, and worthy the attention of landscape- painters."

This is the criticism of "A Lover of the

Arts."

Then follows that of " M. H." :

"Mr. Cassanova. His battle-piece is a noble

design, and painted with wonderful spirit and fire.

The march over the Alps is also a prodigious fine

picture ; I believe him to be the first painter in

this way in Europe."

No. 60 is apparently the number of one or both of the pictures.

It appears probable that this Mr. Cassanova was Franyois Casanova, though Bryan's ' Dictionary of Painters and Engravers,' edited by R. E. Graves, does not say that he ever visited England. .Neither is there any mention of such a visit in the ' Bio- graphie Universelle.'

Frangois Casanova was a painter of battle-pieces, and, according to the ' Bio- graphie Universelle,' his drawing was faulty, at all events when he was young. This is the complaint made by " A Lover of the Arts," as noted above, concerning Mr. Cassanova ; and a similar one appears at greater length in the criticism made by Jacques Casanova as to his brother's paintings.

According to the ' Fragments des Memoires du Prince de Ligne' ('Memoires de J. Casanova,' Paris edition, viii. 459), Jacques, conversing with Catherine II. of Russia, on meeting her for the first time in the Empress's summer garden at St. Petersburg, being asked by her whether he was not the brother of the painter, asked her how she knew that dauber (barbouilleur). The Empress replied that she valued him as a man of genius. Upon that Casanova said : " Oui, madame, du feu plutot, du coloris, de 1'effet et quelque belle ordonnance ; mais le dessin et le fini ne sont pas son fort." The Prince de Ligne considered this a just criticism. The above is omitted in the Brussels edition.

" Du feu " resembles closely M. H.'s phrase " with wonderful spirit and fire."

As I am quoting mainly from the ' Me- moires de J. Casanova,' I use the French versions of the names Giacomo and Fran-

ROBERT PlEBPOINT.

cesco.

"BOMBAY DUCK." In a letter to The Times of 4 June Sir George Birdwood suggests a new explanation of this phrase, viz., that it is a corruption of " Bombay dog," the reason he gives being that " the literary Indian (Telegu) names for the fish are kukka-mutti i.e., ' dog [literally " the barker "] pilchard,' and kukka-savara i.e., ' dog-snake,' " ; and he adds that "it is so called from its stealthy and deadly mode of attacking the other fishes which this depraved and degraded looking little mon- ster makes its daily prey." In a letter to The Times of 5 June Mr. A. L. Mayhew showed the untenability of some of Sir George Birdwood' s arguments in support of this very far-fetched derivation, and said :

"I believe that the phrase 'Bombay Duck' may be explained in the same manner as the phrase 'Oxford Hare' and 'Welsh Rabbit.' My con- tention is that ' Bombay Duck ' is simply a playful phrase, requiring no arduous philological research."

Not only do I agree entirely with Mr. Mayhew, but I can, I think, set at rest, once for all, any doubt in the matter. In 'A Voyage to India' (published 1820) the Rev. James Cordiner describes his first impressions of Bombay, where he arrived from England on 19 May, 1798, and on p. 67 says :

" This place is likewise remarkable for an excel- lent small fish called bumbdo. It is something of the nature of a sand eel, but softer, and of a superior flavour, about a foot in length, and of the thickness of a man's finger. When fried, in its fresh state, it is of the consistence of a strong jelly, and more delicate than a w r hiting : it is, however, most commonly eaten after being dried, in which state a great quantity of these fishes is exported ; they afford an excellent seasoning to boiled rice, which always forms a dish at breakfast, and receives from them a most agreeable relish. The sailors, by way of joke, call them Bombay Ducks"

This gives us an example of the literary use of the phrase sixty years earlier than the earliest in ' Hobson-Jobson ' and the ' N.E.D.' and proves that the descriptive appellation for the dried fish was in common use before the end of the eighteenth century. I have not the least doubt that Cordiner [is right in attributing the name " Bombay duck " to sailors, to whom we are indebted for not a few facetiae in nomenclature.