Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/325

 S.V.APRIL T, loco.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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To begin with, it is difficult to see how a fourteenth-century West Midland form can by itself "confirm" an otherwise unex- ampled form in Shakespeare. If eale and deale were true Elizabethan variants of evil, devil, they would be pronounced, I supposed, '7/, d~(l, not cl, d'~l : and while eale might be a possible spelling for 1l (evil), to distinguish it from ede (eel), deale is unlikely for d~d. Gill (Ellis, p. 857) knows d~tl, but merely as a Northern provincialism ; Butler (ibid. t p. 876) apparently does not recognize the form.

But in ' Hamlet,' II. ii. 628 (Q. 2),

May be a deale, and the deale hath power, the first deale cannot possibly be mono- syllabic, while devl or d~ivl would be suffi- ciently monosyllabic for the second deale.

The fact is that deale deale are simply

misprints fordeule deule( = iu Elizabethan

orthography devle), a form which is exampled in Q. -2 (III. ii. 136) : l< Nay then let the deule weare blacke." Similarly eale is a misprint for enle=evle=evil. The unusual spelling, the close resemblance between written a and u, and the obscurity of the passage are quite enough to account for the printer's error. Unfortunately, he committed more blunders than one. M. HUNTER.

Rajalinumdry, India.

"ONEYERS," '1 HENRY IV.,' II. i. (10 th S. iv. 443). DR. KKDEGER'S suggestion is inter- esting. In the glossary of * The Dramatic Works of W. Shakspeare,' printed in Paris in 1835 and sold by Amyot, one finds " Oneyers, bankers." This suggests " rnoneyers." The burgomaster being a continental official, it occurs to me that "oneyers" might be a misprint of some derivative of French ouir, in the sense of a judge who listens to plead- ings, like ouridor in Portuguese and oidor in Castilian, which means "a kind of auditor." Not unlike oneyer is Dutch onecr = dishonour, a term which might conceivably be applied to a judge or magistrate disrespectfully.

E. S. DODGSON.

CHARLES LAMB AT WEDDINGS. The Elia essay 'The Wedding' commemorates, as Lamb students are aware, the marriage of Admiral Burney's daughter Sarah with her cousin John Thomas Payne on 14 April, 1821. portunities of the young lady's father, whose gout unhappily confined him at home, to act as parent on this occasion and (jive away the bride." Commenting on this, Mr. Lucas, in his recent 'Life of Charles Lamb,' remarks : "Whether he really gave away the bride, or only affected to have done so, I cannot say."
 * I could not resist," writes Elia, "the im-

There now lies before me a copy of the- entry in the Register Book of Marriages m the Parish of St. Margaret, Westminster,, which makes it certain that Lamb did not act as the "grave father," from the fact that the marriage was solemnized in the presence, amongst others, of the bride's father. There would thus be no reason for Lamb's acting in any other capacity than that of an inter- ested spectator. " The bride-maids, the three charming Miss Foresters," mentioned in the essay, were probably the three young ladies who with others signed the Register Anne Tomlinson, Elizabeth Maud Tomlinson, and Maria Tomlinson.

On the occasion, however, of the marriage of Emma Isola with Edward Moxon, Lamb did give away the bride. I have lately ascertained that the ceremony took place at St. George's, Hanover Square, by licence, and that Lamb's name appears first in order of those who witnessed the marriage.

S. BUTTERWORTH. Carlisle.

ANCIENT WELSH COPE. The church of St. Martin, Laugharne, in Carmarthenshire, possesses a beautiful old cope of red and gold velvet beau brocade of the second half of the fifteenth century, probably the gift of one of the several Sir Guy de Brians, who were benefactors of the church.

The village sexton or clerk has been in the habit of cutting portions off this fine old 1 vestment (which has orphreys embroidered with prophets and other saints), and dis- posing of them to visitors. An effort is now being made to safeguard what remains^ The pieces that are left have been carefully remounted, and the whole will shortly be- glazed and hung up in the church. Should this meet the eye of any persons who possess- missing portions of the cope, they are re- quested to send such fragments to Mrs. McClure, 80, Eccleston Square, S.W., who- has been entrusted with the remounting of the vestment.

EVERARD GREEN, Rouge Dragon.

HALLEY - PIKE FAMILIES. Some docu- mentary evidence has come to hand which appears to bear directly upon the traditions recorded in 9 th S. xi. 205. A record -searcher in London sends me a lot of notes, including the items following :

i i A True Discovery of Mr. Edmund Halley of London ; a merchant found dead at Temple Farm,.

Rochester.' A curious broadsheet dated 1684 in-

Guildhall'Library, p. 393 in Catalogue."

" Brookfield Parish Church (Somerset) : 1774, 18 September, William Pike-Joan Haley (Philli- more's series of parish registers, county of Somerset,