Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/120

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. XL FEB. 6, 1915.

had before them the question of what the St. Teath Parish Council " claims to be a wastrel at Treroosal," it being stated that " the land in dispute was a portion of an old road for which a new one was substituted when the railway was constructed." Is this Cornish use otherwise known ?

DUNHEVED.

PACKET - BOAT CHARGES, SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. I should be glad to have any information concerning the rates charged for carrying passengers from England to Holland and France in the latter half of the severr- teenth century about 1668. Had the packet boats a fixed scale of charges ? M. L.

" ROPER'S NEWS " : " DUCK'S NEWS." An old North-Devon woman, hearing a story already well known to her, exclaimed, "That's Roper's news," whereupon a South Devonian who was present remarked, "That's what I call duck's news."

Is there any known explanation of these phrases ? MARGARET LAVINGTON.

GRANGE FAMILY. Information would be welcomed on the Grange family (England and Ireland). Reply direct to Mrs. Maynard Grange, 36, Lowther Avenue, Toronto, Canada, or WILLIAM MACARTHUR.

79, Talbot Street, Dublin.

ICHABOD AS AN EXCLAMATION. At One

time the Scriptural name Ichabod was used, presumably with a knowledge of its deriva- tion, with the sense of alas! regretting the good old times. Has the word a long history as an exclamation, or does it date only from the Victorian period ? LEO C.

OLD ETONIANS. I shall be grateful foi information regarding any of the following :

(I) Nicoll, John, admitted 11 April, 1758, left 1764. (2) Nightingale, James, admitted 9 Sept., 1765, left 1765. (3) Nisbet, William admitted 24 Nov., 1756, left 1765. (4, Ogilvy, David, admitted 29 June, 1765, left 1766. (5) Osborne, John, admitted 31 May 1756, left 1759. (6) Osborne, John, admittec 1759, left 1763. (7) Parker, John Robert admitted 25 June, 1765, left 1768. (8 Parker, Robert, admitted 27 April, 1763 left 1765. (9) Parry, Richard, admitted 22 April, 1761, left 1763. (10) Parry Thomas, admitted 21 Feb., 1762, left 1762

(II) Parsons, Edward, admitted 7 June, 1758 left 1759. (12) Patterson, Thomas, ad mitted 18 April, 1760, left 1761. (13) Pigott Charles, admitted 25 Feb., 1762, left 1768

14) Pigott, John Pelling, admitted 24 April, 1763 left 1767. (15) Pitt, John, admitted 26 April, 1759, left 1762. (16) Pogson, John, admitted 27 Jan., 1765, left 1771. (17) Poole, Charles, admitted 10 Jan., 1765, left 1767. (18) Pott, John, admitted 16 Jan., 1762, left 1768. R- A. A.-L.

THE THEATRE OF THE WORLD.'

(11 S. xi. 47.)

THE name of the author of ' Theatrum Mundi/ which was quoted at the above reference in the extraordinary form " Boya- tuan," appears on the title of Alday's translation as Boaistuau. A short notice of the man will be found in the ' Nouvelle Bio- graphic Generate,' vol. vi., under ' Boistuau ou Baistuau (Pierre), dit Launay.' He is there described as " chroniqueur frangais," and said to have been born at Nantes, and to have died at Paris in 1566. " II passa, de son temps, pour un beau parleur, et ne manquait pas d'une certaine erudition," which does not tell one very much.

One of his works, ' Histoires tragiques, extraites des ceuvres italiennes de Bandel,' has a special interest in connexion with Shakespeare, as it was his French version of a story in Bandello that was the source of Arthur Broke's ' Tragicall Historye of Romeus and Juliet,' while a prose transla- tion appeared in Painter's ' Palace of Pleasure.' The connexion with Shakespeare seems to put the French writer's Protean name on its mettle, and it then takes, in some writers at least, the variety " Boisteau." EDWARD BENSLY.

Your correspondent has not hit upon the correct spelling of the name of the author of this book, hence the difficulty. The writer was a tolerably well-known person in his day Pierre Boaistuau.

The copy of the edition of the book which is referred to in the query appears entered in the Term Catalogues for May, 1679 (see Arber's 'Term Catalogues,' i. 351). There are at least twelve copies of the book in the British Museum in various languages and editions, some being duplicates. The earliest is the Paris edition of 1558. There were later editions in Paris in 1572 and 1580. There was an edition issued at Antwerp in 1593. A copy of a French edition dated