Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/384

 318 NOTES AND QUERIES. cio-s. iv. OCT. 14. iocs. have the same first element in piccaninny and picayune. This is not the case. Picayune is an Anglicized phonetic version of the French picaillon. In Paris this word is only em- ployed in the plural (les picaillons) as a some- what slangy expression for money_ generally, something like our term "the pieces"; but in Florida and Louisiana it is applied speci- fically to the half-real, or five cents. Picayune is unfortunately a bad spelling. It should have been picayoon, and would then more easily be seen to fall under the general rule that French final -on becomes -oon in English, as in macaroon, pantaloon, &c. Compare the Anglo-Irish boggoon, bosthoon, gossoon, for old French bacon, baston, garfon. JAS. PLATT, Jun. ' VlLLIKINS AND HIS DlNAH ' (10th S. IV. 188, 277).—An old edition of this song, with the music for the voice and the piano, is "David- son's Musical Treasury, No. 691, Price Threepence. London: Davidson, Peter's Hill, Doctors' Commons." The title on the front page is 'Vilikens [not "Villikins"] and his Dinah.' Under it is a picture of a dirty fellow in patched clothes, and a broken white hat with a black band, with a sodden, unshaven face, carrying a clarionet under one arm. The name of the draughtsman is given as Bonner. Across one corner is printed in grotesque writing, '' this is the ginooine Song and no mistake Jem Baggs + his marc." At the foot, "The Publisher reserves to himself the right to translate this beautiful Poem into the French Language according to International Treaty." The title on the second page, where the song and music begin, is :— " The Celebrated Antediluvian and Dolefully Pathetic Lyrical Legend of Willikind and his Dinah, with the Melancholy and Uncomfortable Fate of 'Ye Dismal Parients,' sung by Mr. F. Robson at the Royal Olympic Theatre, And by Mr. J. L. Toole (Comedian), at the Theatres Royal Cork, Dublin, and Edinburgh, with immense Success; also at the various Literary Institutions in London, in his popular Entertainment of • Sayings and Doings." The instruction at the beginning is "Con gusto, and rather ritoorallando." There are six stanzas, and a " Mori-al" as a seventh ; then three "Extra Verses, only recently recovered from the original Chaldean MSS. in the British Museum, the last of which is "Another Mori-al—Number Two." Altogether ten stanzas. The " spoken " interpolations are the same as those which appear in '120 Comic Songs sung by Sam Cowell,' where similarly the "hero" is called "Vilikens" in the title, but "Willikind " in the song. A version of the song (seven stanzas) appears in " Kyle's Comic Vocalist, con- taining the Songs as edited and sung by Sam Cowell. Glasgow :—Moriso_n Kyle." In this version the name is " Villikins " both in the title and in the song. There are other variations, and there are no "spoken" interpolations. The old edition which I have quoted has been here for some fifty years. Some of these bygone comic songs appear very strange to-day; so many of them are tales of tragedy—e.g., ' Vilikens and his Dinah'; 'Alonzo the Brave and the Fair Imogene'; 'The Ratcatcher's Daughter'; ' Billy Vite and Nelly Green; or. the Ghost of a Sheep's Head'; ' Oh my Love's Dead.' I have before me four books of comic songs ; not one has a publisher's date. ROBERT PIERPOINT. St. Austin's, Warrington. ' Villikins and his Dinah' was sung by Robson, the great actor, nightly for months at the Adelphi. P. G. W. JANE WENHAM, THE WITCH OP WALKERS (10th S. iv. 149, 197).—To the bibliography of Jane Wenham given in ' N. & Q.,' 2nd S. iv. 131, may be added "The Defense of the Pro- ceedings against Jane Wenham By Francis Bragge," published the same year as the other pamphlets by E. Curll. I can find no trace of any portrait of the unfortunate woman. H. C. ANDREWS. " BOBBY DAZZLER" (10th S. iv. 208).—A policeman who was used to a uniformity of clothing, as worn by the poor, might fairly be thought to be dazzled by any break in their general costume which exhibited " new or fine articles of clothing." A similar slang expression in Barrere and Leland's ' Dic- tionary' is "bobby-twister"—i.e., a burglar who would hesitate at nothing, not even at shooting any policeman who might be endeavouring to capture him. J. HOLDEN MAcMlCHAZL. NOTES ON BOOKS, Ac. The History of England from the Accusim tf George. 111. to the Clone of Pitt'i Firvt Adi*ixv*rm~ tion, J7GO-1S01. By William Hunt, M.A. (Long- mans & Co.) THIS admirable work, by the President of tb» Royal Historical Society, is the first volume at new series undertaken by Messrs. Longman. t importance and value of which it is diffkalt t exaggerate. Jn conception the series in qne—**• runs on lines similar to those of ' The Cimb