Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/61

 io»s.iv.jcLYi5,i905.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 45 and is identical therewith in meaning. The same word occurs in Old English in the forms pleon, ption (in third per. sing, plihft, plvS); see Sievers's 'A.-S. Grammar1 (ed. 1898), Index. But the O.E. word seems to have become obsolete, and our "ply" in the sense of " to practise " is probably an importation from the Low Countries. It seems to be a comparatively late word in English. A. L. MAYHEW. 'THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD.'—Every one knows, at least through copies and engrav- ings, some little of what this famous picture of Holinan Hunt's is like, and from an artistic and, I suppose, symbolical standpoint also, it is deservedly a world's picture; but how came it to be ' The Light of the World' ? My impression is that the artist labelled it " Be- hold, I stand at the door and knock"; but I have seen recently (I think in The Times) some letters referring to a duplicate lately painted, and, unless my memory deceives me, calling it by this other name. Has it been pointed out that such a name is quite inapplicable? If the light illuminating the picture were from the halo, and the idea in the picture was John i. 4, 5, the name would be all right; but to call a figure standing in a darkness neither it nor its halo illumines, and with a lantern from which the light pro- ceeds, 'The Light of the World,' seems to be worse than an absurdity, for it directly mis- leads from the real idea. I find nothing in 'N. & Q.' touching on this, and the picture is so beautiful that I think this note on it may not be out of place there. Lucis. "ROBERT BURNS'S LAST WORDS."—Writing on 'Sentence of Death' in the little volume of thoughtful essays which he entitles ' The Sensitive, and other Pieces,' Mr. Manning Foster has this passage :— "It is a great thing to know how to die at the right time. Napoleon, for instance, should, of course, have finished at Waterloo, instead of dragging out an ineffectual existence at St. Helena, while one can hardly bear to think that the last days of Walter Scott should have been passed in a sordid struggle to satisfy his harpy creditors, or that Robert Burns's last words should have been a curse on a dunning tailor." This is a somewhat lurid version of the report given by the poet's son of his father's supreme moments. For .some time before the end the sufferer, it would appear, was in a state of delirium, and " his last expression," says young Robert, who was in the mourning group at the bedside, " was a muttered reference to the threatening letter he had received from the clothiers law- agent." There is nothing in this to warrant the somewhat disconcerting inference of the- essayist. Besides, an unconscious utterance of any description should not be accorded' literary value. THOMAS BAYNE. M. — This abbreviation for Monsieur is practically always placed by English scribes before the names of foreigners of any nationality. Although in keep- ing with European names, it has an incongruous appearance before those of Orientals. This is doubtless due to the position of French as a world-wide means of civilized intercourse, besides the subtle re- luctance to write Mr., which does not sound dignified, and is confined in addressing envelopes to those of lower middle-class rank, while the good word master is left to the son of the house.* (Apropos, I can remember youthful perplexity over M. Tullius Cicero.) M. de is bestowed upon foreigners by- some French writers — e.g., M. de Bismark, M.- de Moltke; but in these cases de pro- bably represents von. It is well known that Russians often affect de before their trans- literated names to imply noble origin. FRANCIS P. MARCHANT: Streatham Common. "THE LIGHTS OF LONDON." —The recent references at 10th S. iii. 428, 470, to the well- known play 'The Lights o' London,' pro- duced by the late Mr. Wilson Barrett at the Princess's Theatre, Oxford Street, in the early autumn of 1881, suggest an inquiry as to when the phrase was first used. On this head a note appeared in The St. James's Gazette of 14 April, 1887, which, I think, deserves reprinting:— "It is always interesting to trace the genesis oft a popular phrase; and one of the reminiscences narrated in the autobiographical sketch Sir John Millais this week presented to a Sheffield audience forms part of the history of one of them. The artist told how, when a child, he was conveyed by- coach from Southampton to London ; and that, a» the metropolis was approached, he observed a great red glow in the sky which was new to him, and he asked his mother what it was. ' My boy," she- replied, ' those are the Lights of London. The exact date of this occurrence was not mentioned ;. but, as Sir John was born in 1829, it may be con- cluded, from other circumstances mentioned in the speech, that it was in 1837 or 1838 that the coach- ride was undertaken and the particular expression, used. It would, therefore, be interesting to know whether Mrs. Millais had been reading 'Oliver Twist,' which was in course of publication in Bent- ley'* Maga-.ine during those years ; for it was after passing through Highgate Archway on their tramp have passed M.A.—e.g., Mistr Jau Hus.
 * In Bohemian mislr is the title of those who