Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/189

 ii. AU< ;. 20, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

153

the name and address of the owner of some of these MS. lists. Under the circumstances therein related, I would suggest a search in the library of Eton College.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

SCANDINAVIAN BISHOPS (10 th S. ii. 67). 1 hope the enclosed excerpts from Eubel's 383-4, 479, will be of use to FRANCESCA.
 * Hierarchia Catholica Medii ^Evi/ pp. 289,

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

[We have forwarded the three lists of bishops kindly sent by MR. WAINEWRIGHT in response to FRANCESCA'S inquiries.]

SAUCY ENGLISH POET (10 th S. ii. 109). See 5 th S. viii. 199. J. T. B.

[It is from Tickell's 'Imitation of the Prophecy of Nereus ' of Horace, and was written about 1716 in ridicule of the Scottish rising in the previous year. But consult reference.]

"PEEK-BO" (10 th S. ii. 85). In 'My Sweet- heart,' an American musical piece, given in London some twenty years since, one of the hero's most popular airs was that in which, playing with a child meanwhile, he sang the refrain :

Peek-a-boo ! Peek-a-boo ! I see you hiding there ; Peek-a-boo ! Peek-a-boo ! Hiding behind the chair.

But in my boyish days in Cornwall we used to play at what we called "peep-bo."

DUNHEVED.

I imagine that all the world over, wherever there are children, this simple amusement is practised. Hereabouts I have occasionally heard the expression "peek-a-bo," but it is more commonly pronounced " peep-bo" or "pee-bo." Mothers and nurses may be seen playing "peep-bo" with their little ones every day. JOHN T. PAGE.

West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

I think I have never heard "peek-bo," but always " peep-bo," which is, of course, a mere variant. ST. S WITHIN.

"Peep-boh" was a recognized nursery game with us. A napkin was held before one's face, and an incitement created by crying "peep." The instant that attention arose, the napkin was withdrawn, and a fierce cry of "Boh ! " brought both parties, nurse and baby, face to face. A. HALL.

"GET A WIGGLE ON" (10 th S. ii. 28). I do not for a moment suppose that I am alone in regarding many Americanisms as of a more ancient origin than is often imputed to them, and I suspect that even this dreadful phrase

has some foundation in "American as she was spoke" when the language was fresh from the Mother country. However, the phrase appears to mean "over- reach," which is cer- tainly often a meaning understood in the verb to "hustle," and I thought it possible that it might have some relation to a certain word of sporting use, namely, "wigging,"" which, according to Barrere and Leland, is the act of posting a scout on the route of flight in a pigeon race with a hen pigeon to- attract the opponent's bird and retard his progress. Probably, says the dictionary alluded to, a form of "to wool," "to discom- fort":

"'If I wigs I loses,' replied Tinker, evidently much hurt at the insinuation. Instructed by Mr. Stickle, I learnt what wigging was, sfnd no longer marvelled at Mr. Tinker's indignation. It is a fraudulent and lamentably common practice amongst the vulgar ' fancy.'" Greenwood, * Under- currents of London Life.'

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

"COME, LIVE WITH ME" (10 th S. ii. 89). If

any faith may be placed in what is called a verbatim et literatim reprint, then the line in question ran thus in the version of the song given in 'England's Helicon' (1560) :

Fayre lined slippers for the cold. This reading leaves no possibility of doubt regarding the poet's meaning, and it definitely excludes "fur" from the faintest claims to a. position. "Fayre" was a favourite Eliza- bethan term, and it seems absolutely certain that it was Marlowe's choice here. It is surely a perilous form of logic that seeks to- link a poet's imagery with the prosaic details of his father's business or trade. It is quite possible that the inspired son of a shoemaker would be entirely at a loss to say whether slippers were lined with fur or feathers.

THOMAS BAYNE.

Sotheby's catalogue for 19 June, 1903, con- tained particulars of an Elizabethan common- place book (lot 525), consisting of manuscript matter, which, it was stated, included a- totally unknown reading of this song. How- ever, the line in question ran :

Faire lined slippers for the coulde.

STAPLETON MARTIN. The Firs, Norton, Worcester.

"REVERSION" OF TREES (10 th S. ii. 88). Is- it not somewhat surprising to expect a neo- logism applicable to fruit trees whose seeds seem atavistic 1 ? Cultivators, when paying any attention to the pips and stones of qranges and plums, aim at aborting such accessories, as merely obnoxious to the frugivore. Hence the joy over the arrival