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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. m. MARCH is,

down this portrait I found that it corre- sponded exactly to Wotton's description of the picture he presented to Dr. Collins the black frame, the mark of wounds on the face and the title of Wotton's invention, 'Concilii Tridentini Eviscerator," is painted on it in large letters. This portrait is men- tioned in Anthony a Wood's MS. catalogue of the Bodleian pictures, and cannot there- fore be identical with the one presented to Dr. Collins, which was hanging in King's College long after the date of Anthony a Wood's death. It may possibly be the original sent to Lord Salisbury, or it may be Sir Nathaniel Brent's replica ; but most pro- bably it was presented by Wotton himself, who made several other gifts to the Bodleian, and whose own portrait hangs in the galleries there. Pine's engraving, published, as A. S. mentions, in the 'Rights of Sovereigns and Subjects,' 1722, corresponds in attitude and features to this picture, and was evidently made from the original sent to England by Wotton, or from one of the many replicas. Pine has, however, omitted the round black plaster which marks the stiletto wound in the right cheek. Lombart's engraving, which A. S. also mentions, is a carelessly made copy of the portrait published in Fulgentio Micanzio's 'Vita del Padre Paolo.'

I hope to be able to reproduce this Bodleian picture in my edition of Sir Henry Wotton's 'Letters.' Although probably a replica, it is one of the most authentic likenesses of Sarpi in existence, and the only one which bears the marks of the assassin's stiletto, made, as Sarpi wittily remarked, "Stylo Romanae Curise." L. PEARS ALL SMITH.

2, Grove Street, Oxford.

THE CECH LANGUAGE.

IN comparing the grammars of the dif- ferent Slav languages the elusive character of apparent resemblances is often evinced. I have before cited the remark to me of Prof. V. E. Jagic, of Vienna, the eminent successor of Miklosich and editor of the Slavianski Arkkiv, that Russian students tacitly assume knowledge of Slav tongues which they have never studied. In converse with a Bulgarian, however, I was able to understand prac- tically all he said, while he understood my Russian. The language of Bohemia, now very generally cultivated and into which much translation is being done witness the increasing number of periodicals issued at Prague, including the handsome new maga- zine, Cesky Svet (Bohemian World) presents formidable difficulties to the Russian

student. Prof. W. R. Morfill considers that the basis of all these languages, the old Slavonic, should be first studied, and the course of its modern developments traced out ; but the materials for study are few. (An excellent work which I have seen at the- Taylorian Library is the l Chrestomathie ' of Dr. E. Berneker.)

Here are a few words which illustrate the- divergence of Cech and Russian :

Cech.

behoun

biskup

hvesda

jitro

kniha

kun lid

modlitba pluk

Russian. biegun episkop zviozda utro kniga

kon lioudi molitva polk

runner bishop star

morning book

(in Servian a letter) horse people prayer regiment*

The letter r in Russian words is often re- placed in Cech by the compound represented by rzh, e.g., priatel (friend) ; kriv (crooked) ; the prefix of increase pre, &c. In the case of the Cech he, possible, the negative nelze has its counterpart in the Russian nelzia, where the positive form is lost. Dalekohled, telescope, drobnomer, micrometer, and plyno- mei\ gasometer, are good native equivalents for the cosmopolitan forms.

Most surnames bear a direct signification, e.ff., llladik (smooth). Kalousek (little owl),. Kolar( wheel wright), Palacki/ (palatial), Pro- chaska (walk), Sdfdrik (steward), Sladek (sweet). The diminutive ek is frequent. Vojtech (vojt, a governor) is not easily recognized as the equivalent of Ethelbert and Adalbert, nor is Strachota (strach, fear) for Methodius, one of the great twin Apostles to the Slavs. John Hus (goose) of Husinec (goose-stall) made a pun on his name when he said that an eagle would rise from the ashes of the Bohemian goose.

Geographical names are varied in some instances. Thus Transylvania becomes Sedmihrady (seven-castled). By a curious and probably unconscious irony, Constance, where Hus was martyred, becomes Kostnice (charnel-house). Carihrad, Russian Tsarr/rad, the imperial city, is the regular Slav name for Constantinople. Vienna, itself a Slav name, is metamorphosed into Viden, which seems related to videti, to see. Frankfort becomes Frankobrod, the ford, not the fortress, of the Franks.

There are more sibilants in Cech than in Russian, but the speech is especially musical.

torical names in Russia and Bohemia*.
 * Snatopolk and Scatopluk (holy army), are his-