Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/493

 11 S. X. DEC. 19, 19H.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

a small peice of frutridge, in a black Ebony frame ; a Landskiph of ruined buildings, in a black frame .... the picture of a naked woman lying at length, in a guilt carved frame ; the picture of Saturne, in a carved guilt frame ; the picture of the Duke of Richmond, in a carved guilt frame ; the picture of the Countess of Leycester and the Lady Carlisle, in a carved guilt frame ; the picture of Palma, in a guilt carved frame ; the Story of Our Saviour, in a guilt carved frame ; the pictures of Eight Ladyes, in a guilt carved frame (two of them of the Lady Carlisle) ; three long peices, and the picture of a soldier."

'These, together with three landscapes of which no details are given, were valued at 321. Ws.

The value of the whole inventory only amounts to 337Z. Is., and it appears as if the house had been already partly dis- mantled, or that only certain articles of furniture were included in the inventory, which will be found in Additional MS. 32,683, f. 101. PERCY D. MUNDY.

" QUITE A FEW." The ' N.E.D.' does not mention the curious locutions " quite a few " and " quite a little " for " more than " a few or a little, a respectable number or quantity. They are very common col- loquialisms at least in these parts. I suppose the idea underlying them is " fully to the limit of " what may be called few or little, and therefore verging on a larger mass deserving a stronger name. I do not recollect any other cases in which " quite " inverts the basic idea of its substantive. FORREST MORGAN.

Hartford, Conn.

NOTES ON WORDS FOR THE ' N.E.D.' (See 11 S. ix. 105, 227; x. 264, 334, 424.) Sexton, p. 424. An example of this spelling, earlier than any supplied by the ' N.E.D.,' is in Thomas Cooper's ' Thesaurus Linguae Romanse et Britannicse,' 1573, where the meaning of "^litimus" is given as " the Prelate of the temple or church, the parson, the sexton : of some it is taken for a Clerke." An examination of Sir Thomas Elyot's original ' Latin-English Dictionary ' of 1538, and the successive edi- tions in which Cooper enlarged it, might bring to light an earlier instance of " sexton."

Woose, p. 424. The word was queried at this reference. But it will be found in Skeat's 'Tudor and Stuart Glossary,' 1914, where the meaning is given as " ' ooze,' soft mud," with two examples from Phaer's '^Eneid.' See also 'N.E.D.' s. 'Ooze,' sb. 2.

Moti, p. 425. The passage quoted was " The Mercuriall Moti was very much com- mended of Vlisses, though condemned of Cyres " (Greene's ' Philomela,' sign. C). The word is merely a misprint for " moli " or " moly." See ' Odyssey,' x. 303 sqq., where Hermes gives Odysseus the plant [j.<a\v as a charm by which to resist Circe's witchcraft.

" Homer's Moly " is in Gosson's ' Schoole of Abuse,' and other instances earlier than that in this passage of Greene will be found in ' The Stanford Dictionary ' and the 'N.E.D.'

I am unable to consult the context in ' Philomela.' Is " Cyres " an error for " Circe " ? EDWARD BENSLY.

GEORGE HERBERT AND ' THE RETURN FROM PARNASSUS.' The following lines Draytons sweete muse is like a sanguine dy, Able to rauish the rash gazers eye in ' The Returne from Pernassus,' 1606, quarto (Bodl. Mai. 207), sig. B2, perhaps suggested the lines,

Sweet rose, whose hue angry and brave Bids the rash gazer wipe his eye, in Georg > Herbert's well - known poem " Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright."

H. SELLERS. Oxford.

HISTORICAL INACCURACY : ' ODDSFISH ' : COUNT KONIGSMARK. The late Mgr. Benson, at p. 145, 1914 edition, has written :

" Solemn Thomas Thynne, murdered two years afterwards, for a woman's sake, by Count Conigs- mark, who was hanged for it and lay in great state in a satin coffin."

Charles John von Konigsmark was trie .1 for this murder and acquitted, was wounded at Argos, and died on 26 or 29 Aug., 1686.

AITCHO.

DICKENSIANA: ' PICKWICK.' Two inter- esting early allusions to ' Pickwick ' are afforded in a folio broadside published by S. Knight of Sweeting's Alley prior to November, 1837. Its title is

" The Queen's Visit to the City. An invention for the Benefit of Householders in the Intended Line of Procession on the 9th Nov r, 1837." The invention is a nest of pigeon-holes, so that by lying prostrate in the divisions thirty-five spectators can be accommodated at each window, instead of only three or four. Mr. Pickwick is shown as a tenant in an otherwise empty case, and in another shown completely filled a number of characters from ' The Pickwick Papers ' are