Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/290

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [lO* S. V. MARCH 24, 1906.

far as regards himself, but I do not think he would have perplexed <l an eminent member of the Iloyal Belgian Academy," and the "German scholar," whom the latter con- sulted. The passage is this :

" The Emperor of Germany retains the Laureate- ship in all its splendour. The selected bard is called II Poeta Cesareo. Apostolo Zeno, as cele- brated for his erudition as for his poetic power, was succeeded by that most enchanting poet, Metas- tasio." Ward, Lock & Co.'s ed., no date, p. 166. See, for an account of these two writers, the first volume of Sismondi's ' Literature of the South of Europe,' Bohn's translation. Both these poets took up their abode in Vienna on the invitation of Charles VI., the Emperor of Germany. Zeno withdrew to Italy, where he died in 1750 at a good old age. His suc- cessor, Metastasio, continued in the service of the imperial Court till 1782, when he suc- cumbed in his eighty-fourth year to the law of nature.

Now the last " Emperor of Germany " was Francis II., who, after proclaiming himself as Francis I., hereditary Emperor of Austria, in 1804, abandoned two years afterwards the former title, which theHapsburgs had held for five centuries, and which has not been revived. It was not until 1871 that William I., King of Prussia, was proclaimed " German Em- peror" at Versailles by the leaders of his victorious army. Your correspondent will now see that his error consists in thinking that the titles of "Emperor of Germany" and "German Emperor" are one and the same. .

I have a copy of Metastasio s works in twelve small volumes (Londra, 1784), the first of which is graced with his portrait and bears the inscription "Pietro Metastasio, Eomano, Poeta Cesareo." So far as I can ascertain, he was the last of the imperial bards. When the elder D'lsraeli compiled the first volume of his * Curiosities ' in 1791, he was doubtless correct in saying that " the Emperor of Germany retains the laureate- ship," because the dignity had not then been openly abolished. The office does not appear to have survived the troubles of the great Revolutionary epoch, and might be said to have ceased to exist in 1806 with the last " Emperor of Germany." JOHN T. CURRY.

CHARING AND CHARING CROSS (10 th S. v. 146, 197). As to the alleged A.-S. " cerrung, or cerring," of course the e was short ; but e in A.-S. means e, and should not be here used.

Secondly, cerrung would be the proper form, though -ing for -ung occurs ; all such sbs. are feminine, and the correct plural would be

cerrunga. It is therefore impossible to con- nect it with the form Cerringges in the charter of 799 ; for this is a masculine plural, representing an A.-S. Cerringas or Ceorringas (where eo is merely the ordinary " breaking " of e before rr\ which can only be a masculine plural, from a singular Cerring or Ceorring, "the son of Cerra or Ceorra." Cerra and Ceorra are perfectly equivalent forms. Of course the Ceorra here referred to is not the same as the one recorded in 802 ; but we know it to be a genuine name, and there may have been hundreds of them for all we know to the contrary.

That the Normans, not knowing enough of A.-S. grammar to distinguish a masculine from a feminine, mistook this Cerringes for a feminine, and explained it as " the turn- ing," is possible enough. But we must not take such a mistake seriously. If such had been the solution, we should expect to find a large number of such "turnings," as numerous as the chares in the North.

It is curious, too, that, after all, the exist- ence of an A.-S. cerring, or of any later form of it, is all mere hypothesis. No one has yet presumed to say where it occurs.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

266; query I

OSCAR WILDE BIBLIOGRAPHY (10 th S. iv. v. 12, 133, 176). In my original que^ A asked for the first publication of 'Lord Arthur Savile's Crime' and 'The Harlot's House.' The former I have found, and the reference is included in the bibliography at the end of my 'Oscar Wilde: a Study' (see ante, p. 40). S. J. A. F. (v. 12) suggests that ' The Harlot's House ' originally appeared in Life about the years 1877-80; but the parody, called 'The Public House/ in The Bportinq Times of 13 June, 1885, would seem to fix the date some years later. Mr. li. H. Sherard says :

'"The Harlot's House' was written in 1883, on the Quai d'Orsay, and published only in book-form. I do not know where, but there were other poems with it, notably that fine one about Keats's love- letters, Oscar's best sonnet."

If it ever appeared in a book, there should be no difficulty in finding it ; but my impression is that it was printed first in some periodical about 1885, and reprinted from that, with Althea Gyles's illustrations, in, folio in 1904.

The 'Sonnet on the Recent Sale by Auction of Keats' Love-Letters ' was first published in The Dramatic Review, 23 January, 1886, and appears next in vol. viii. of Miles's 'Poets and Poetry of the Century,' 1891.

I may add that since the publication of ' Oscar Wilde : a Study,' in December last,.