Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/87

 10 s. XIL JULY 24, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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suspect the attribution to Berkshire of the slang "Fain I," and doubt if it be not in reality only in use in that county at Welling- ton College.

The Rossall words I examined were " to clew " (Glos. and Wilts) ; " a frowst " (Scotch, Irish, Glos., Wilts, &c.) ; " Fain I " (Chesh., Staffs, Glos., Berks, Som., Dev.); " to sack " (Irish is nearest ; and cf. the quotation from Oxford, 1846) ; "a budge " (Irish); a " throdkin " (Lanes, Fylde). Besides, I had to notice " to stub " (which, it has been suggested, is German in origin) ; " a cop " (cf. Wyle Cop at Shrewsbury) ; " a scanty " and " hot day " (mere argot, I judge). As to " guntz," I sug- gested that it was abbreviated from gun-stick= ramrod (applied because of the first sergeant's upright carriage), the change of order in the consonants resembling the variety in the pronunciation of the Greek (.

T. N.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

' How A MAN MAY CHOOSE A GOOD WIFE.' I am preparing a new edition of the play

a Bad,' first published in 1602, and some- times ascribed on loose grounds to J. Cooke. I shall be obliged to readers of
 * How a Man may choose a Good Wife from

that may add to our very scanty knowledge of the history of this interesting drama.
 * N. & Q.' for any information or references

A. E. H. SWAEN. Groningen, Heereplein.

" LEGEND WEIGHT." In an account of the launching of H.M.S. Shannon in 1906, given in The Times, the following words occur : " drawing a foot less water at legend weights."

I shall be glad if any one will explain the meaning of the word " legend " in this connexion. G. M. H. P.

Foochow.

GENEVA AND CALVIN. The Comte d'Haus- sonville, who had the honour, in the name of the Academie Francaise, recently to express the thanks of the foreign delegates at Geneva at the celebration of the 400th birthday of Jean Calvin and the 350th year of the University of Geneva, alluded in his discourse, to an unjust phrase attributed

to a French author, and made a long time ago : " Qu'on n'a jamais souri a Geneve depuis Calvin." As the speaker did not state the name of that French author, it might be worth while to find out, by the help of ' N. & Q.,' his name and where the saying occurs. INQUIRER.

SCHOPENHAUER IN ENGLISH. The first article on the philosophy of Schopenhauer appeared in The Westminster Review for April, 1853. I should like to know by whom it was written. When were Schopen- hauer's works translated into English, and by whom ? When was the period of his greatest vogue in England ?

LA NOTRE.

Som me.

['The World as Will and idea,' translated by R. B. Haldane (the present Secretary of State for War) and J. Kemp, 3 vols., appeared 1883-6 ; and a literal translation of ' On the Fourfold Root of the Principle of Sufficient Reason ' and ' On the Will in Nature' in 1889. Mr. T. Bailey Saunders published several translations from Schopenhauer between 1889 and 1896. See also the 'Life' by William Wallace, 1890, with bibliography.]

MILTON ON THE PALM. Mr. Dallimore in his book ' Holly, Yew, and Box ' writes :

" Milton in the following lines appears to be describing the Yew though he speaks of it as a palm : Cedar, and pine, and fir, and branching p_alm. 'Par. Lost,' Book IV.

Nearer he drew, and many a walk traversed Of stateliest covert, cedar, pine, or palm.

'Par. Lost,' Book IX.

There will I build him

A monument, and plant it round with shade Of laurel ever green, and branching palm.


 * Samson Agonistes.' "

I find on inquiry that Mr. Dallimore's reasons for so thinking are briefly that cedar, pine, and fir are allied to the yew, and would naturally group with it ; that the expression " branching " could not be applied to a true palm ; also that the yew was popularly called palm in Milton's day (I should rather say that the words were used interchangeably), because the yew was often employed for the palm in church decoration.

I should be very glad to know the opinion of Milton scholars on this subject. I venture to think that Milton did not mean the yew when he wrote palm. He was not, I believe, a botanist hardly, perhaps, a very minute observer of nature ; and I think the palm would occur to his mind rather than the yew in connexion with Eden, and that he would not trouble about its associates. I think the term " branch-