Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/70

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NOTES AND QUERIES. 10 s. vm. JULY 20, 1907.

authority of Ctesias. The picture Ctesias gives is self-contradictory. If I may be forgiven anachronistic expressions, I would say that so Cyrenaic a life could never have led to so Stoic a death.

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

I think that there can be no doubt that Villon intended by Sardana the effeminate Sardanapalus, the last king of the Assyrian empire of Ninus. He was noted for his luxury and licentiousness. He spent his days in his palace, dressed in female apparel, and surrounded by concubines.

Villon appears to have confused the effe- minate Sardanapalus with the warrior Sardanapalus, the son of Essar-haddon, the conqueror of Egypt and devastator of the revolted cities of Palestine. " Le roi Sardanapalus " is mentioned in the ' Ballade contre les Mesdisans de la France.'

A. L. MAYHEW.

Oxford.

In my copy of Villon (ed. L. Moland, 1879) there is a note to the effect that it is not known who this Sardana was. He wished to become a woman and spin among the girls because of his " folles amours." I have often wondered whether it were an allusion to Sardanapalus, dressing in female attire and living secluded amongst his concubines, and finishing up with his famous bonfire. It must be remembered that when Villon wrote the story told by Ctesias and handed down by Diodorus Siculus had not been discredited. As for the kingdom of " Cretes," I can form no conjecture what this means.

E. E. STREET.

WOODEN COPS IN EAST ANGLIA (10 S. vii. 489). In the ' Churchwardens' Accounts of S. Edmund & S. Thomus, Sarum,' edited by Henry James Fowle Swayne for the Wilts Record Society, 1896, the following entries occur, which may be of interest to MR. AUBREY STEWART :

1490-91." In money paid to Will'm Gryster for j Cowle & a quart' of good ale for the maundy on Sherethursday, ij 9 iij d.

"Also for a dos' of asshen Cuppes bought to serui at the same maundy, v d ."

1538-9. " iiij dosen of maundy cuppes, ij d.

"A Cowle of Ale on mawndy thursdaye, xviij d.

" The hyer of ij dosen of mawndy crewses, iiij d .' I think, but am not certain, that thesi maundy cups are mentioned in other place which I have failed to remember.

EDWARD PEACOCK.

THE LEICARRAGAN VERB (10 S. iii. 267 vii. 215). The discovery announced at th last reference had already been recordec

n UAvenir of Bayonne, 21 Fevrier, 1907.

have mentioned the collaborators of

eicarraga. On p. 288 of La Revue Inter-

lationale des Etudes Basques a letter from

tl. J. de Jaurgain informs us that he has

[iscovered who they were. His letter is so

nteresting that a translation ought to be

onserved in these columns :

"The 'Fonda d'Oihenart' of my friend Paul -.abrouche contains a quire entitled ' Rolle dea Offices et mandementz de finances expedi^s par ommandement de Monseigneur de Gramont' 27 April, 1564 28 November, 1565), in which I come cross these three entries : ' 10 July, 1565. To jeiijarraga, translator of the New Testament into- he Baskish Tongue, his wages as to an unmarried ninister, to count from the 1st of January last, by he advice of Council.' 'To Tartas, La Rive, iandetcheverry, Tardets, correctors and revisers )f the said translation, the sum of Qs. t. daily until he first synod, to count from the day when they >egan.' ' The last of September, 1565. To the ame, a similar sum of 6s. by the day whilst they hall be engaged on the said translation.' It appears- rom this that Leic,arraga began his translation owards the month of January, 1565, and that he lad as his collaborators four Bask ministers, of whom two at least, Tartas and Tardets, were Souletins."

VI. de Jaurgain adds that Tartas may have- jeen the grand-uncle of the author whom [ mentioned at 10 S. vi. 6. The edition which I was preparing of the latter's book las been taken over by the editor of the new Revue, and the first part of it published, 'hough not in a manner of which I can approve. E. S. DODGSON.

RAMSAMMY" (10 S. vii. 407, 473). lit reply to the suggestion of MR. HARRY HEMS,. I would say that ransacking always pro- nounced in Launceston that way, and not with an m has been familiar to me as meaning to strip a house bare of its contents, as by burglars. The meaning of ram- sammy was as I originally defined it ; and since my query appeared, an old Launceston friend, who had not seen it, used the word in conversation, when calling upon me in London, in the sense I gave of a drunken spree. R. ROBBINS.

J. THOMPSON, PORTRAIT PAINTER (10 S. vii. 469). The following is the only J. Thompson, portrait painter, mentioned in Bryan's ' Dictionary of Painters and En- gravers ' :

" Thompson, Jacob, a clever landscape painter, born at Penrith in 1806. He was patronized by the Earl of Lonsdale, and by other members of the Lowther family, who finding him apprenticed to a house painter, and with a considerable knowledge of portraiture, sent him to London in 1829 to Sir Thomas Lawrence, who introduced him to the