Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/537

 iv. DH-. 2, loos.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 443 of leading articles in the Times on the last day of each year.'1 The 'D.N.B.' states "that he was almost without an equal in the extraordinary force and charm of his character." Among other notable contributors were Col. F. Cunningham (son of Allan Cunning- ham), of whom an obituary notice appeared in The Athenaeum of December 18th, 1875 ; and James Hamilton Fyfe. who had acted as assistant editor of The Pall Mall Gazette from its beginning till 1871, when, the post of assistant editor of the Saturday being vacant, Mr. Fyfe was asked to fill it. The Athenceum, in its obituary notice on the 15th of May, 1880. says that he had been obliged to relin- quish this about two years previously on account of an acute attack of illness which disabled him from using his pen : " Many of the articles which attracted the readers of The Saturday Review were written by Mr. Fyfe ; and he had the knack of treating con- temporary topics with great freshness, vigour, and geniality." On the 29th of October, 1887, The Athenoeum records the death of Mr. Beresford Hope, the founder of the Saturday, stating that he deserves mention " not only for his love of art and as proprietor of The Saturday Btvieia, but also for the two novels he wrote quite late in life, and the success of which was a source of much gratification to him. The first of them,' Strictly Tied Up,' originally appeared anonymously, and was only acknowledged by him when it proved popular. Another work of his later years was his volume on ' Worship and Order," published in 1883. He was an excellent classical scholar and was well versed in modern languages. Having been early in life an enthusiast for 'restora- tion,' he was naturally hostile to the anti-scrape movement, which he not very happily denounced as a ' Gospel of Death.' He presided over the Institute of British Architects for a couple of years." Of other contributors I may mention Mark Fattiaon (1813-84), a long obituary notice of •whom appeared in The Athenceum, Aug. 2nd, 1884 ; his wife (Emilia Francis Strong), after- wards Lady Dilke (see the obituary notice in The AthencEum, Oct. 29th, 1904, and the memoir by Sir Charles W. Dilke which is included in 'The Book of the Spiritual Life,' published a few months ago by John Murray); and Mr. Joseph Knight, beloved of all our readers and by all who know him. So recently as in the number for Novem- ber 18th appeared an article from the pen of the last named, entitled ' London, Bohemian, Convivial, and Gastronomic.' Did space permit, it would be pleasant to extend these records; indeed, I have been urged to do ao. In closing these short reminiscences I most cordially wish Mr. Harold Hodge a brilliant future for the far famed Saturday Review. JOHN C. FRANCIS. SHAKESPEARIANA. " ONEYERS," ' 1 HENRY IV.,' II. i.—Much has been written about this strange word,, and many alterations have been proposed. The funniest of the explanations attempted seems to me that taking it as a derivative of one corresponding to the modern slang word "a oner." An item in the wonderful 'N.E.D.' suggests to me another, which is perhaps not quite ao wide of the mark. It says :— " O.Ni, oni, obs. An abbreviation of the Latin words oneratur, nisi habeat sujficietitem exonera- tionem, ' he is charged, or legally responsible, unless he have a sufficient discharge,' with which the account of a sheriff with the King was formerly marked in the Exchequer : sometimes used subst. as a name for this phrase or the fact itself." A formation^ with -er, designating a person connected with this formula, is very natural, and, though not vouched for by the ' N.E.D.,1' might have been coined any day. Now the Chamberlain, when addressing Gadshill immediately before, says :— " Good morrow, Master Gadshill. It holds cur- rent that I told you yesternight: there's a franklin in the wild of Kent hath brought three hundred marks with him in gold: I heard him tell it to one of his company last night at supper; a kind of auditor: one that hath abundance of charge too, God knows what." And as Gadshill uses "oneyera " side by side with " burgomasters," we may be allowed to guess that they are respected officials. I should be thankful to receive the criticisms of English scholars. G. KRUBGER. Berlin. ' MACBETH,' I. iii. 7-26 :— Firnt Witch. Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master o' the Tiger: But in a sieve I 'II thither sail, And, like a rat without a tail, I'11 do, I'11 do, and I'll do. Though his bark cannot be lost, Yet it shall be tempest-tost. A note in the Clarendon Press edition (Clark and Wright, 1869) says: "She threatens in the shape of a rat to gnaw through the hull of the Tiger and make her spring a leak." Besides being a pa]try and undignified exploit for a witch, this can hardly be right. The ship is not to be lost, but tempest-tost. I think we have a bit of Aryan folk-lore here, however Shakespeare came by it. I read in.