Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/188

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* B. m. FEB. 25, 1905.

Thurles, eldest son of Walter, eleventh Earl of Ormonde (see ' The Scots Peerage,' 8vo, 1904, vol. i. p. 53) ; and there are several others.

I should say that such warrants in Scotland would be on record in the Lyon Office, if they were not destroyed by the fire there in the reign of Charles II., or reference might be made to the records of the Privy Seal in the New .Register House, Edinburgh.

ARTHUR VICARS, Ulster.

" TOURMALINE " : ITS ETYMOLOGY (10 th S. in. 66, 115). I should like to thank PROF. &KEAT for referring me to his ' Concise Dic- tionary.' I ought to have consulted it before writing my note, but had only his larger dictionary by me. It may interest him if I add that I have now traced the erroneous statement that tournamal is the true Cinga- lese name for this stone as far back as 1775, when it appeared in Dr. Priestley's treatise 'On Electricity' (vol. i. p. 368). Thence it got into Chambers's ' Cyclopaedia,' 1786 edi- tion, and into liees, 1819, and so through other works of reference to the ' Imperial ' and JAMES PLATT, Jun.
 * Century ' dictionaries of the present day.

In his note on this subject MR. JAS. PLATT, JUN. (whose communications I always read with the liveliest interest), has, unwittingly, reslain the slain. Just over ten years ago I spent some time and trouble in investigating the history of the word tourmaline, and the result of my researches was printed in the number for February, 1895, of the Monthly Literary Register and Notes and Queries for Ceylon. I there gave practically all the facts that MR. PLATT has recorded in his note, and a good deal besides. (Should MR. PLATT desire to see my communication, I shall be most happy to lend him the volume con- taining it.) I sent a copy of the paper referred to to PROF. SKEAT, drawing his attention to the error in his ' Concise Etymo- logical Dictionary ' (fourth ed., supplement); and I am glad to see that in the latest edition of that admirable little work the mistake has been amended. That the word tourmaline is a corruption of the Sinhalese toramalli seems probable; but how it received a pseudo- French termination I have not found. I hope that MR. PLATT will continue his in- vestigations into the history of the word in European languages. DONALD FERGUSON.

20. Beech House Road, Croydon.

"WASSAIL" (10 th S. ii. 503; iii. 9, 112). I do not accept MR. ADDY'S suggestions ; nor do I suppose that others will do so. I take his points one by one.

1. He says the M.E. form ought to have been waissel / but it was not.

2. The form wossel is simply due to the action on the a of the preceding iv, just as we write wan, but pronounce it as if it rimed with on. It therefore shows that the second letter was short a, and not ai at all.

3. The argument that stone is steinn in Icelandic has nothing to do with it, because the o in stone is long ; and the o in wossel is not so.

4. There is no reason why Layamon's wees hail should be " popular etymology," for his were not the days when popular etymologies of ordinary substantives were being con- stantly made up, as they were in Tudor times. His story may be all false, and yet it may represent an old tradition. Really, we must consider chronology. It is true that popular etymology has at all times misinterpreted place-names and personal names ; but wassail is not a personal name.

5. I account for the spelling wassail, also for the form wossel; MR. ADDY can only account for a spelling ivaissel, which I do not find. It is for him to tell us where it occurs. WALTER W. SKEAT.

GOLDSMITH'S 'EDAVIN AND ANGELINA' (10 th S. iii. 49). Mitford, in his life of Goldsmith, has written on this subject as follows :

"It has been alleged that this ballad is only a translation of an ancient French poem, entitled ' Raimond et Angeline.' The discussion that took place on the subject may be seen in The Monthly Review for (September, 1797, and The European Magazine for 1802. It appeared in a small obscure volume called 'The Quiz' in 1767. That only one of these poems can claim originality is clear ; but, speaking with diffidence on a production in a foreign language, I should pronounce the French, in many of its parts, to have the air of a transla- tion ; there is a coldness and flatness in some of the lines ; and it is certainly very inferior in beauty and spirit to the English. This at least is certain, that no such poem, in its present dress, could have appeared in an ancient French novel, for it is in the language and style of Florian and the writers of that day, a little altered and disguised."

I suppose that the date of 1767, given to 'The Quiz' by Mitford, is wrong, and that MR. DOBELL'S date of 1797 is right. Other- wise Mitford's reference to Florian is not happy ; for Florian was born in 1755.

E. YARDLEY.

CON- CONTRACTION (10 Ul S. ii. 427 ; iii. 111). One's first feeling on reading MR. WILLIAMS'^ note is annoyance that this sort of hanky- panky should be played with the text of the First Folio. But on second thoughts the whole proceeding seems so extremely puerile that annoyance becomes merged in amusement.