Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/430

354 "ROAD OF WORDS" (10 S. vii. 290). I suppose this to be merely an error for " rote of words," i.e., a set of words said by rote. The o in rote was once open, so that it was also spelt roat. Hence Nares has the verb to rote or to roat, to repeat by memory ; so that rote could mean " repetition by memory." The ' Century Dictionary ' gives .a similar example from Swift (no reference) : " a rote of buffoonery that serveth all occasions." WALTER W. SKEAT.

" NON SENTIS, IN-QUIT, TE ULTRA MALLEUM

LOQUI ? " (10 S. vii. 249.) See Athenseus, viii. 351a :

Munnacus was a shoemaker. Erasmus mistook the exact meaning of Stratonicus's sarcasm through a confusion of o-^vpov (ankle) with arvpa (hammer). The ed. princ. of Athenaeus (Venice, Aid., 1514), while giving the disputant's name as ,fAivva.Kov, prints quite clearly avwTepov rov o-(f>vpov (p. 133, 11. 49, 50).

Erasmus repeats the error in his ' Apoph- thegmata ' (lib. vi., heading ' Stratonicus,' No. 18) : " Idem Minnaco fabro, ut opinor, secum de musica disceptanti, non ani- maduertis, inquit, te supra malleum loqui[?l" (p. 375, Paris, 1533).

The same saying of Stratonicus is correctly quoted by L. Caelius Rhodiginus (Richerius) in his ' Lectiones Antiquse ' (lib. iv. cap. xii. ad fin. of the enlarged edition, p. 132, Basel, 1542).

In his * Adagia ' (" Festinatio Praepropera ; Festina lente," p. 243, ed. 1629) Erasmus mentions that when publishing an edition of that work (' Prouerbiorum opus') with Aldus at Venice (September, 1508), he was indebted to the kindness of learned men for the loan of many works which had not yet appeared in print, among them Athenseus's ' Deipnosophists.' So the error may be due to a manuscript. Perhaps some corre- spondent could say in which edition of the ' Adagia ' this story first occurs.

EDWARD BENSLY. University College, Aberystwyth.

EDINBURGH STAGE : BLAND : GLOVER : JORDAN (10 S. vii. 89, 131, 191). I sum- marize the information gleaned in reference to John Bland. He was the son of Nathaniel Bland, LL.D. (Judge of Prerog. Court, Dublin), by his first wife, Diana Kemeys ; served under his relative (presumably) General Humphry Bland as a cornet of dragoons ; carried the colours of his regi-

ment at the battle of Dettingen ; was taken prisoner at the battle of Fontenoy ; left the army, and took to the stage at Edinburgh, where he resided for many years (actor, and treasurer of the Theatre Royal), and where he died in 1808. He was uncle of Mrs. Jordan her father, Capt. Francis Bland, being also a son of Judge Bland, by his second wife, Lucy Heaton. In obituary notice in Walker's Hibernian Magazine his wife's Christian name is incidentally men- tioned as " Nancy," and he is described as " a kind husband, an indulgent parent, and a steady friend " ; and in the ' Memoirs of Charles Lee Lewis ' mention is made of him as acting with his eldest son in the play called ' Such Things Are, ' and he is described subsequently by the same writer as " a brave, proud, generous,, affable, liberal, friendly, honest, unthinking worthy man." The men- tion of his eldest son is proof that he had at least two sons. The presumption is that he had a large family. The Angelo pedigree in vol. viii. of The Ancestor gives the mar- riage of a granddaughter, Elizabeth Martha (daughter of Edward Bland by his wife Jane); and Dibdin, in his ' History of the Edinburgh Stage,' says that he left many descendants, among whom were Glovers of the famous actor family. My desire has been to trace all his descendants ; but my appeal to readers of ' N. & Q.' has not yet resulted satisfactorily.

There are two statements in Carlisle's ' History of the Bland Family,' one of which could not be correct, and for the other I can find no confirmation. Carlisle says that John Bland was at the siege of Vigo, but this memorable event took place at least two years before he was born ; he may, however, have been present in the attack by the Earl of Northesc [sic] in July, 1742, or that by Capt. Holmes in December, 1742. The second statement, that he was, when a very young man, called to the Bar at the Temple, does not appear to be a fact. His anonymous novel ' Frederick the For- saken ' is advertised in Falkner's Dublin Journal, 24 Feb., 1761, with the following note by the publisher :

"The satisfaction and pleasure that Politicians, and indeed intelligent readers of all casts, will receive by perusing, must redound greatly to the Reputation of the author, and stamp a Stirling Signature upon the work itself."

My efforts to discover a copy of the book have been as unavailing as my efforts to trace John Bland's posterity. I trust that this, my final demand on the space at dis- posal of ' N. & Q.,' may have some more