Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/69

 n s. XL JAN. IB, 1915.] NOTES AND Q CJERIES.

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SIR EVERARD DIGBY'S LETTERS (US. xi. 8). Though I can give no help to B. M. as to the present possessor of Sir E. Digby's letters, it may be of interest to him to recall this reference to them by Archbishop Tillot- son. In his sermon on 5 Nov., 1678, before the House of Commons, he says :

" Sir Everard Digby, whose very original Papers and Letters are now in my hands, after he was in prison and knew he must suffer, calls it [the Plot] the best Cause : and was extremely troubled to hear it Censured by Catholicks and Priests, contrary to his expectation, for a great

sin '" S. R. C.

NAME OF PLAY WANTED (US. xi. 7). The play in which Mr. G. V. Brooke appeared as Philip of France was ' Marie de Meranie,' a tragedy by Westland Marston, produced at the Olympic Theatre, then under the management of Mr. Farren, 4 Nov., 1850, the part of Marie de Meranie being acted by Miss Helen Faucit. For accounts of the performance see Mr. W. J. Lawrence's excellent ' Life of G. V. Brooke ' and West- land Marston 's ' Our Recent Actors.'

WM. DOUGLAS.

A Neiv English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Su-Subterraneous. (Volume IX.) By C. T. Onions. (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2s. Qd.)

NOT specially interesting philologically, this section has a very high philosophical and his- torical interest. It is a striking observation what a large body of human theory has found expression by the help of the notion " under " or " from under," expressed by the convenient Latin syllable sub. One may notice from several points of view in a perusal of these columns how prone the human mind is to occupy itself with the idea, or rather the inkling, of something behind or beneath upon which the visible or the ostensible stays itself, and to which, as such, it is more or less accidental. Indeed, it may be questioned whether any more fruitful conception, any richer mode of relation between objects, could be cited than that of the movement or the station of one thing beneath another. It is, of course, only in small part illustrated in this particular alpha- betical group. The article on the prefix itself is the longest, and also one of the best of its kind, in the Dictionary. The extended use of sub as a prefix to form new words with words of English origin was liveliest from the eighteenth century onwards ; but we are reminded that the first instances of it occur in the fifteenth century. A rather early example is also a curious one Defoe's use of " sub-cash " for a deposit of cash at a branch bank (1705) ; another is " sub-head," quoted from a letter of 1588 ; an ugly one, " subshrub," seems to date from 1843. As prefixed to adjectival words in the sense of " partially " or " incompletely," we notice the first instances are medical from 1530 " subpale," " subrufe " ; adjectives denoting other

qualities than colour seem to have been so modi- fied from about the middle of the following century. "Subaltern" is an article we noted as well com- piled ; it includes, by the way, from ' Luria/ Browning's contribution to the question of the pronunciation of the word: "How could sub- alterns like myself expect Leisure to leave or occupy the field ? "

Words of ecclesiastical or theological import are numerous, and besides the outstanding ones we get such stray examples of minor interest as " subchanter " (a title for a vicar-choral still used at York), " submortuarian," " subordina- tionism."

De Quincey seems to be the earliest inventor of that mighty and much - including Avord "sub- conscious " ; and Ward's article in ' The Encyclo- paedia Britannica ' (1886) is quoted for the first use of " subliminal " as a translation of Herbart's " unter der Schwelle." " Subdue," as we are informed in the Prefatory Note, is the one word which has presented real etymological difficulty, not to be satisfactorily solved.

The easiest derivations are, as might be ex- pected, those of scientific words, which, by the nature of the case, have remained restricted to their original meaning. It is remarkable how early many of these occur, and how well some have held their own. The important articles on words of a great range of meaning " subject,'" " subscribe," " subsist," " substance " with those on their derivatives, are adequately com- piled and arranged : no slender praise. The last in particular struck us as admirable. A good example of the treatment of a word of historical! interest is " subsidy." We observed several words which testified to the closeness of the compilers' reading, of which we may instance- " submonish " and " sublevaminous."

The section contains altogether 658 main words,, and, with combinations and compounds, 1,853, words in all.

Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 1915<* By Sir Bernard Burke and Ashworth P. Burke.

(Harrison & Sons, 21. 2s. net.)

' BURKE ' is, as usual, well up to date, the death of Sir John Barker on the 16th of December being recorded in the text ; also that of Sir H. F. Grey, who died on the 17th of the same month.

Mention, too, is made of the honours given; by our King on his recent visit to France : the Order of Merit to Sir John French, the Garter to the King of the Belgians, the Bath to General Joffre, and the St. Michael and St. George to other- French generals. All the D.S.O.'s, as well as the names of the brave soldiers upon whom the Victoria Cross was bestowed up to the 19th of December, are likewise included. For the first time, Indian soldiers, as promised at Delhi, were among the recipients of this precious emblem, of valour.

Among the twelve peerages created during the- year, one is of interest to the world of finance that of Mr. Walter Cunliffe, who, with a good sense which is more usual than was formerly the case, does not change his name with the title. Among the thirty-five peers who, have died are to be noted the Duke of Argyll, the Canadian statesman Lord Strathcona, and Earl Roberts.

No fewer than fifty-seven baronets have died since the 1st of December, 1913, eight of thesa