Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/326

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. m. APRIL s, iocs.

"wrong reference for the poem referred to, "which will be found in vol. i. p. 106.

On the declaration of peace on 23 March, 1692, the Smock Alley Theatre reopened its doors after a long silence ; and it was pro- bably about that period that Mrs. Butler (according to the relation in Gibber's 'Apology') went to Ireland from Drury Lane on practically her own terms. Swift, in pre- tending that his poem was sent from one actress to another, unwittingly set a trap into which Sir W. 11. Wilde walked with unsuspecting ease. A careful reading of the thirty-eight lines shows that the whole is merely a coarse satire, unredeemed by any grace of wit or felicity of style, on several fashionable grandes dames of the town. But Wilde carelessly assumes that the names mentioned Dillon, Bellew, Uniacke, Askins, Foulkes, Poultney, Atkinson, and Jackson are those of contemporary Dublin actresses, and looks upon the poem as a serious reflec- tion upon the Irish stage of the period. This is preposterous. One searches in vain for mention of any such names in the records of the Dublin, or the London, stage at the close of the seventeenth century. It is note- worthy, too, that although players were not iven to chop and change much in those ays, Chetwood makes no mention of any of these ladies in his ' General History of the Stage'; and yet he gives the full casts of three plays 'The Comical llevenge,' 'She Wou'd if She Cou'd,' and ' The Man of Mode ' performed at Smock Alley circa 1694.

My argument could be satisfactorily driven home were it possible to quote the poem in extenso. However, I give the first twelve lines, and draw attention particularly to the tenth, as establishing my case :

Mrs. Butler the Player in Ireland to Mrs. Brace- girdle, Her Correspond' in London. Mars, my dear Friend, was so triumphant grown Such Civill Warrs before were never known. They were so prejudiciall to my Trade I scarce could Liue both by the Gown and Blade ; But now 1 hope thanks to our kinder starrs We shall have here no more intestine Jarrs : Bellona shall no more infect this age, Venus alone shall tread our lustfull Stage. These are the chief Pimps, Panders, Whores of witt That fill intriguing Boxes and the Pitt. Dillon wou'd be an Angell was her mind Like to her face so gloriously refin'd.

Certain allusions to one or two of the ladies mentioned in other poems in the same volume of ' The Whimsical Medley ' go to prove that Swift was attacking people of rank and fashion. Cf. i. p. 53, Bellew; p. 110, Uniacke ; and p. 130, Dillon. One of these ladies kept a handsome footman, an im-

possible proceeding for a minor Dublin actress at the fag end of the seventeenth century. W. J. LAWRENCE.

Dublin.

"VOIVODE": ITS PRONUNCIATION. The recent publication of a charming little book, 'Songs of the Valiant Voivode,' by Helene Vacaresco, raises the question of how this title should be pronounced. Miss Vacaresco gives no clue. The English dictionaries give only voivode, which is no doubt admissible, while they omit voivode, used by Longfellow in his ' Scanderbeg ' :

But he cared not for Hospodars, Nor for Baron or Voivode, As on through the night he rode And gazed at the fateful stars.

This is the accentuation I myself prefer, and it agrees with the forms in most European tongues, such as German Woiwdde, Italian vaivdda, Roumanian voivdd, &c. The exception is Servian, which has voivoda ; but Servian is a peculiar language, and at some period, perhaps not very distant, underwent a complete accentual shift, with the result that the Servian stress is now one syllable in advance of the Russian. This means that the Russian pronunciation voevoda is more correct than Servian voivoda. Compare the ancient title of the Montenegrin rulers, which in Russian retains its original stress, Vladika, whereas Servians call it Vlddilta. JAS. PLATT, Jun.

RUSSIAN NAMES. The notes by my learned friend H. K. upon ' Zemstvo," printed ante, pp. 185, 233, induce me to pen a few obser- vations upon some prominent names about which popular misconception exists. The name of the eminent general Kuropatkin, pronounced as spelt, is of humble origin, being traced to the fowl kurop&tka, a kind of partridge. There is no connexion with the princely name Kropotkin, which is ap- parently related to the verb kropotit, to make a fuss. The name of the admiral of the Baltic fleet is generally erroneously trans- literated Rozhdestvensky, the easy inference being that it is an adjective from ro:Jideslvo, Christmas. As I recently corrected a Russian, the name is really Rozhestvensky, arid perhaps comes from rozh, barley, or rozha, a face. Bezobrasov (bez, without ; obraz, form) is an unpromising name, signifying ugly or uncul- tured. Sakharov is evidently from sakhar, sugar, a familiar Indo - European word. Niebogatov is from we, not ; bogati^ rich. General Linievitch is, I believe, of Polish origin, and his name may have come from len, flax, though at first glance it resembles