Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/516

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NOTES AND QUERIES. cio* s. v. JUNE 2. igoe.

Indeed, there is no need to seek the source of " bun " out of England. Extend the doublet group of words into the triplet group "bung," "bum " "bun," and we have it. The article <nves full support to the view that the round, puffy cake acquired its name through its peculiar appearance and consistence. Thus, in the 'E.D.D.,' we have the word in the senses of a large water-cask, of a bunghole cork, of the " seat," of a rabbit's tail, as well as in that of the baker's ware. Here we have all the senses of the triple word under one of its forms, u bun " = " bonne" of the ham- tierbonne.
 * Bun,' both in the ' O.E.D.' and the 'E.D.D.,'

After this explanation I need scarcely deal with PROF. SKEAT'S further condemnation of my views on " tun" and " fother"; they will probably survive it, and it has induced me to complete the sketch of one of these interest- in " onomatopoeic groups.

EDWARD NICHOLSON.

Liverpool.

ROBERT GREENE'S PROSE WORKS. .(See 10 th S. iv. 1, 81, 162, 224, 483 ; v. 84, 202, 343.)

GREENE'S indebtedness to Primaudaye is ^still my subject.

Primaudaye, chap. xix.,pp. 204-5: "Cyrus, Monarche of the Persians, from his child - hoode gave great testimonie, that he would one daye become a very sober man. For being demaunded by Astyages his grandfather why he would drinke no wine, he answered, for feare lest they give me poison. For (quoth he) I noted yesterday, when you celebrated the daye of your nativitie, that it could not be but that some bodie had mingled poison amongst all that wine which ye then dranke : because in the winding up of the table, not one of all those present at the feast was in his right minde." Greene, ' Farewell to Follie,' (ix., 330-1): "Cyrus,

monarch of the Persians [very trifling

alterations] mixture of the wine with

some inchanted potion sith at the ende of the feast there was not one departed in his right minde." Astyages becomes

Jrimaudaye, chap, xix., p. 206 : " Epami- nondas, the greatest captaine and philosopher of his time, lived so thriftily and temperately, that being invited by a friend of his to -supper, and seeing great superfluitie and sumptuousnes, he returned very angry, saying that he thought he had been requested to sacrifice, and to live honestly together, and not to receive injurie and reproch by being entertained like a glutton. Caius Fabritus, .a notable Remain" captaine, was found by the

Samnite embassadors that came unto him eating of reddish rosted in the ashes, which was all the dishes he had to his supper, and that in a very poore house." Greene, ' Fare- well to Follie' (ix. 331): "So did (quoth Peratio) Epaminondas, the greatest captaine and philosopher of his time, for being invited by a friend of his to supper, the tables overcharged with superfluitie and sumptuousnesse of fare, he told his host in great choller that he thought he had been requested as a friend to dine competently, not to suffer injury by being intertained like a glutton. Caius Fabritius," &c., word for word with the omission of the half line

" which was to his supper.'' Greenegoes

on after "poore house" : "and by the waie, to induce a strange miracle that Sainct Jerome reporteth of one Paule, an hermit, who lived from sixteene to sixtie of Dates onely, and from sixtie to sixe score and (at what time he died) he was fed by a little bread brought to him by a crowe." This is word for word (save for about four words) in Primaudaye, p. 207. The part omitted here includes several Biblical examples again, as Daniel and St. John Baptist.

Primaudaye, chap, xx., * Of Superfluitie, Sumptuousnes, Gluttonie, and wallowing in delights,' p. 211: "This headspring from whence diseases and evill dispositions of the bodie proceed. We are sicke (saith Plutarch) of those things wherewith we live. [Two lines quite different occur here.] Homer, going about to prove that the gods die not, grounded his argument upon this, bicause they eate not : as if he would teach us that drinking and eating do not only maintaine life, but are also the cause of death." Greene, 'Farewell to Follie ' (ix. 333-4), reads : " The

source from whence [verbatim] doflow,

for say th Plutarch we are sicke of, &c. Homer, going about to prove the immortalitie of the

goddes, and that they dye not, grounded,

&c., the efficient causes of death."

Primaudaye, chap, xx., p. 211 : "Physitions (saith Seneca) cry out that life is short and art long : and complaint is made of nature, bicause. she hath graunted to beasts to live five or six ages, and appointed so short a time of life for men." Greene (p. 334) alters to "limit mans dayes but the length of a spanne." Otherwise identical.

Primaudaye, chap, xx., p. 215: "Phil- oxenus the Poet wished that he had a necke like a Crane, to the end he might enjoy greater pleasure in swalowing downe wine and meat : Saying, that then he should longer feele the taste thereof." Greene, 'Perymedes' (vii. 14): "Every man seekes