Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/192

 156 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io» s. iv. AUG. 19, IMS. Piercy and Douglas that I found not my Heart more moved than with a trumpet,' " &o. This is some evidence of the antiquity of the ballad. In ' Hudibras" are the lines :— As Widdrington in doleful dumpa Is said to fight upon his stumps. But it is said in a note to this passage that in an old copy of the ballad there is no mention of the dumps and the stumps. E. YARDLEY. LUTHER'S ' COMMENTARY ON THE GALA- TIANS ' (10th S. iii. 229).—My copy of the 1577 edition appears to have been bought at Chester (probably about seventy years ago) for ll. A copy of this edition was offered for sale in September, 1898, by Mr. H. Q. Commin, of Bournemouth, bookseller, for 35s. ROBERT PIERPOINT. "ENGLAND," "ENGLISH": THEIR PRONUNCIA- TION (10th S. iii. 322, 393, 453, 492 ; iv. 73).—I had not meant to say a word more on this subject; but the statements in the last article are so amazing that it is necessary to note them. We are now told that my statement that in Anglo-Saxon « and o were never interchangeable at any time " would cover the fifth and sixth centuries," whereas it really covers the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries, and probably the eleventh and twelfth. All the argument is drawn from Helfenstein's statement that " the Anglo-Saxon a is sometimes retained in late Saxon, sometimes inclines to 0." But what is this " late Saxon " 1 It is merely what used to be called " Semi-Saxon," and it is hardly to be called Saxon at all. It is the early English of the thirteenth century [ The statement that " the emergence of 6 for a was the triumph of a tendency that had always existed sporadically " is wholly un founded as regards Anglo-Saxon, in the case of such words as ban, bone, halig, holy. Oi course 5 occurs in mona, moon, where the original vowel was an Indo-Germanic e ; bul even thus it only occurs before single ni anc n, not before ny. Instead of consulting an obsolescent book, like Helfenstein's, which misspells both halig and holi, it would be better to consult such a book as Sievers'a 'Angelsachsische Grammatik.' But surely it is better still to examine the records them- selves. And in order to put my statements beyond possibility of misrepresentation, I will put them thus :— 1. In such words as i/ast, ghost, ban, bone, where the A.-S. a answers to Germanic ai, the spelling with o never occurs till long after the Norman conquest. (The negative can be proved by adducing but one example.) 2. The Germanic a in such words as/aAan, from an earlier *fankan, certainly appears as o in Anglo-Saxon ; for the A.-S. form is fon. But then such words are never spelt with a. We never find A.-S. /are. (The negative cau be proved by adducing but one example.) 3. The West-Germanic a from Indo-Ger- manic e, appears as o in Anglo-Saxon ; for the A.-S. form is mona, moon. But then such words are never spelt with a. We never find A.-S. mana. (The negative can be proved by adducing but one example.) Let us have examples from genuine texts. Never mind what Helfenstein or any other man says. It is not evidence. WALTER W. SKEAT. M^LISANDE: ETTARRE (10th S. iv. 107).— Maeterlinck certainly did not invent the name Melisande. It is merely a French version of the Spanish female Christian name Melisendra, familiar to every reader of 'Don Quixote' as that of the wife of Gaiferos (part ii. cap. xxvi.). I presume Maeterlinck is responsible for linking this non-Arthurian name with the Arthurian Pelleas. It is- equally certain that Tennyson did not invent ittarre. It occurs in the fourth book of Calory's 'Morte Darthur' as Ettard. JAS. PLATT, Jun. BASIL MONTAGU'S MSS. (10th S. iv. 109).— About forty years ago his common - place books—a number of quarto volumes—were in the possession of the Birkbeck Literary Institution, to which they had been pre- sented by his widow. WM. DOUGLAS. 125, Helix Road, Brixton Hill. Inquiry was made for these manuscripts, letters, &c., in 1869 (4th S. iii. 360), but no information of their whereabouts was ob- tained. EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road. YACHTING (10th S. iv. 108).— " Vessels answering the character of yachts were in use by royal personages in England from a very early period, but the name was first applied in 1660 when the Dutch presented a 'jacht, named the ' Mary,' to Charles II. Queen Elizabeth in 158S had a royal yacht built at Cowes, Isle of Wight, and every succeeding English sovereign has had one or more yachts. In 1662 Charles II is recorded to have matched for*10(K. a yacht of his own design against another of Dutch build, under his brother the Duke of York."—' Chambers's Encyclopaedia.' The best work known to me dealing; with the historical side of yachting is 'Yachting,' by various authors, in the " Badminton Library." For practical yachting, Dixon Kemp's 'Yacht and Boat Sailing,' now in its tenth or eleventh edition; for practical