Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/25

 11 S. I. JAN. 1, 1910.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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4. Nasnds or nisnds, '* he that moves rapidly," is defined by F. Johnson (' Persian Diet.,'' s.v.) as " a kind of ape, a marmoset, an ourang-outang, satyr, faun, a monstrous race of men or demons who have only one leg and one arm, and move by leaping." They resemble the Arabian Shikk (split man), and the Persian Nlmchahrah (half -face), who run with amazing speed, and are cruel and dangerous (Burton, ' Arabian Nights, 1 1893, iv. 279).

6. Silphium, iov, is equivalent to Latin laserpitium, and is supposed to be a kind of asafoetida. Drawings of the plant and of the system of weighing it at Gyrene will be found in Maspero, ' Passing of the Empire * (1900), p. 554 f. On the virtues of silphium see Pliny, ' Nat. Hist.,* xxii. 48.

W. CBOOKE.

5. Blemmyes is the name of a real tribe of Arab race settled above the First Cataract of the Nile. In later Roman and Byzantine times they gave much trouble to the Roman government, frequently making raids, and at times dominating a great part of Egypt. They are mentioned fairly often in J. G. Milne's ' History of Egypt under Roman Rule * ; see especially p. 79 f. Would it not be better, in translating Flaubert, to keep the name Blemmyes ? H. I. B. [MRS. M. W. THORNBUROH also thanked for reply.]

MADAME D'ABBLAY'S DIABY (10 S. xii. 469). MB. LEVEBTON HABBIS will find a portrait of Col. Edward Gwyn (not Gwynn) the husband of Mary Horneck, described in the recently published book on John Hoppner, R.A., by Mr. McKay and myself. The portrait belongs to Mr. E. G. Raphael.

W. ROBEBTS.

SHAKESPEABE STATUETTE (10 S. xii. 245). In the paragraph to which attention has been called there are some obvious mis- statements and doubtful identifications. Not any bust or statuette carved from the mulberry tree it is said Shakespeare planted could be contemporary with the poet. It will be recalled that, a few years after the tree was cut down, it came into the pos- session of Thomas Sharp, the clockmaker of Stratford-on-Avon, who traded in the articles made from it ranging from chairs, Baskets, cups, tea-caddies, and cribbage boards to rings, and chips of the wood from 1759 until his death in 1799. So as to ensure the authenticity of each of these souvenirs, he secured the whole of the wood the tree produced, and impressed each piece

with his stamp. His original memorandum book, said to provide ample data regarding these transactions, passed to his surviving assistaitt Thomas Gibbs, and at the sale of his effects in 1866 it was secured by J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps. It is very improbable that any articles were made from the wood before Sharp had possession of the entire tree, and to him, therefore, must be credited the creation of the statuette.

Moreover, the living tree would not have yielded wood sufficient for a statuette of 15 inches height in the days of either Joan Shakespear or her immediate descendants. If it is possible to come in touch with it, a very interesting comparison might be made with a small bust of the poet which Sharp carved. When George Robins sold the house and a few relics at the mart on Thurs- day, 16 Sept., 1847, this occurred as lot 15, and was purchased by a Mr. Thomas Wilkin- son of Lower Thames Street for 18 guineas. ALECK ABRAHAMS.

SHAKESPEABE ALLUSIONS (10 S. xii. 465). In the preface to D'Urfey's ' Butler's Ghost ; or, Hudibras the Fourth Part,' the author begins a sentence with the remark : " If no one were to write Dra- maticks unless they could equall the Im- mortal Johnson and Shakespear." In the same work, p. 36, Shakespeare's story of Shylock and his pound of flesh is versified with considerable skill and success. At p. 149 of his ' Collin's Walk through London and Westminster * D'Urfey alludes to " Ben, Shakespear, and the learned Rout. 11 These two works appeared respectively in 1682 and 1690. A secondary feature of the quotations is the order of merit which seems to be recognized. THOMAS BAYNE.

FRANCIS KINDLEMABSH (10 S. xii. 386). I should be glad of authority to connect the Richard Kindlemarsh (or Kinwell- mersh) of MBS. STOPES'S note, father to the poet Francis, with a namesake who flourished in the parish of St. John Zachary circa 1541-58. He seems to have been a man of some substance, and is first men- tioned as a goldsmith, and afterwards as a mercer, apparently. The genealogy of the Doet in the ' D.N.B.' is of a distinctly in- definite character. WILLAM MCMUBBAY.

ENGLISH NAVY DURING THE CIVIL WAR

10 S. xii. 308, 496). Note also the long

Blockade of the Royalists in the island of

Barbadoes by the English fleet under Sir

George Ayscue. R. B.

Upton.