Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/42

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NOTES AND QUERIES, no s. vm. JULY is, 1007.

words the consonant is doubled in later English. The ' N.E.D.' accordingly gives fitters as a sb. pi., meaning fragments, pieces, atoms, with six quotations ; as well as fitter, verb, to break into small fragments, and the pp. filtered, ragged, wearing rags. It is encouraging to find that this great dictionary has been, for once, consulted ; it will be still more encouraging to find, some day, that it has been consulted success- fully.

The 'E.D.D.' also has "fitters, sb. pi., fragments, pieces, tatters ; Yks., Lane., Line." WALTEB W. SKEAT.

This is a well-authenticated word, of frequent occurrence in early English writers, and still in use in various dialects. Ample information is supplied in the ' N.E.D.' and in the ' E.D.D.,' those two much-neglected works, under the word ' Fitters.'

In consulting the ' N.E.D.' one should remember that words are regularly entered under their modern, not under their obsolete form, whenever, as in this case, the word has survived. A. L. MAYHEW.

Oxford.

H. P. L. will find ' Fitters ' in the 'N.E.D.' Curiously enough, another illustration of the word is given at p. 519 of the same number of ' N. & Q.,' where, in the review of ' Hakluytus Posthumus,' vol. xx., the expression " beaten to fitters " is quoted.

T. F. D.

The passage from Myrc occurs in the course of an examination on the seven deadly sins ; and Mr. Edward Peacock, who edited the ' Instructions for Parish Priests ' for the E.E.T.S., glossed jyted as " fitted = well fitting, or, perhaps, well matched as to diversity of colour " a very unusual mode of denoting a contrast.

ST. SWITHIN.

ATJTHOBS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED (10 S. vii. 489). The lines beginning,

The heart two chambers hath, are a translation of a German poem by Hermann Neumann.

A version by Mr. T. W. H. Rolleston, commencing,

Two chambers hath the heart :

There dwelling, Live Joy and Pain apart,

appeared in Kottabos, a now extinct magazine that emanated from Trinity College, Dublin ; and they will be found in the recently pub- lished ' Echoes from Kottabos,' edited by Dr. R. Y. Tyrrell and myself (Grant Richards). EDWABD SULUVAN.

The original is a poem by Hermann Neu- mann, ' Das Herz,' beginning,

Zwei Kanimem hat das Herz,

Drin wohnen

Die Freude uud der Schmerz.

S. B.

In a small volume of poems entitled ' Chambers Twain,' by Ernest Radford (published by Elkin Mathews, Vigo Street), the following little song appears to be a translation from Hermann Neumann :

The Heart hath chambers twain,

Wherein Dwell Joy and Pain.

Joy in his chamber stirs,

While Pain Sleeps on in hers.

Oh Joy, refrain, refrain !

Si>eak low :

You may awaken Pain.

It is possible that the poem MB. LAMBERT has set to music may be another translation from the same source. E. I. WISDOM.

With respect to the line quoted by W. A. M. at 10 S. vii. 508, depicting the daughter of Pharaoh as

Walking in style by the banks of the Nile, it must, I think, be identical with one form- ing part of some verses which, many years ago, I heard recited by the late Mr. Percy Doyle. He entitled them ' Verses by a Milesian,' and, if my memory can be trusted, they ran thus :

On Egypt's shores, contagious to the Nile,

King Pharaoh's daughter came to bathe in style,

When, as she coursed along to dry her skin,

She spied the cot they'd put young Moses in,

And to her ladies cried in accents wild,

''Och, murther, maids, which o' ye owns the child?"

G. E. C.

The whole poem from which W. A. M. incorrectly quotes is printed at 3 S. i. 134.

W. C. B.

[MR. G. BONIXG and MB. CECIL CLARKE also thanked for replies.]

The answer to MB. LIONEL SCHANK'S query is that the quotation forms 11. 131 and 132 of Wordsworth's ' Ode, Intimations of Immortality.' The first line is not quite correctly given ; it should run :

And custom lie upon thee with a weight.

R. A. POTTS.

[MR. T. BAYNE and T. F. D. also refer to Words- worth.]

The correct text of K. E. F.'s quotation is :

Did I but purpose to embark with Thee, On the smooth Surface of a Summer's Sea ;