Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/268

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. vm. OCT. 4, 1913.

heafola, &c., compare W.S. badu, ha]>u f hafola, &c. A Mercian " Deanum " postu- lates O.E. *Daen-, Germanic *Dan-. " Sea- fola " postulates W.S. *Safola, Old German Sabal-, as in 2a/3a Aiyytoi, the name of a tribe mentioned in Ptolemy's account of what he was pleased to call the Cimbric Chersonese (' Geographia,' II. xi.).

(4) The Northumbrian diphthong ea : equates W.S. 10, eo, Germ. eu. To the Nth. .deap, dear, leaf, respond the Mercian and W.S. deop, deor, leof. *Headen repre- sents Germanic *Heuden, W.S. Heoden. In the Exeter Book we find Henden ; cf. ongend (with d::n) for ongean, 1. 85. In the British Museum transcript we get fleng for fleag, 1. 127; and in the Parker MS. of the 4 Saxon Chronicle,' scr. c. 892, at annal 655, Penda is written instead of Peada. We get the Merc, and W.S. form of Nth. Meac- in " Meocesdun " (Birch, * C. S.,' 801).
 * Headen, 21 ; Meaca, 23. The Nth. ea

(5) The Northumbrian breaking ea : Ear- manric, 111. This Northumbrian form only occurs in the phrase " innweorud Earman- rices." The W.S. form is " Eormanrices," which is found in 11. 8, 18, and 88. We have here the breaking of e, Germanic, before r-\- (-gutturals excepted). To the Nth. ear]>e, hearte, stearra, respond the Mercian and W.S. eor]>e, heorte, steorra.

(6) The Northumbrian guttural umlaut ea : Beadeca, 114 ; *Earule, 74. This is the umlaut of e caused by a, o, or u in the next syllable. The Nth. Beadeca represents W.S. Bedeca, Bedca, O.E. *Beduca, Mercian Beo- duca. (This is not the same name as W.S. Biedca <Beadica.) The three dialects are divergent from one another : W.S. beran, etan ; Mercian beoran, eotan ; Nth. beara, eata. " Eatule," 1. 74, is supposed to be Italia by commentators who do not explain O.E. u for Latin d. What we really have is a mis- take of t for r, and *Earule is the land of the Earule, just as Ongle is the land of the Angles : t::r is a rare error. In the case before us it was aided by the reference to the Rumwalas in the preceding line. We may find "temenio" :: remenio ; " belga- tum " :: belgarum ; " butrio " :: burrio ; " leucato " :: leucaro. All these occur in MSS. of the ' Itinerarium Antonini.' Also compare " Segestius " (s) :: Segerus ; " hana- fat" :: hanafar (cistos) ; " metietis " :: me- tieris.

The Earnle of 'Widsith' are the Heruli or Eruli of Latin writers.

ALFRED ANSCOMBE.

CHARLES LAMB'S " MRS. S ."

CHARLES LAMB'S " first play " was the opera ' Artaxerxes ' ; and his gleeful anticipation, crowned by satisfying sound and sight, was summed up by him in the words, " I was not past six years old and the play was ' Artaxerxes.' ' Of this he wrote in The London Magazine for December, 1821, re- printing the essay in the collected ' Elia/ Recollections of his experience were with him at Christ's Hospital:

" After the intervention of six or seven other years (for at school all play-going was inhibited) I again entered the doors of a theatre. That old Artaxerxes evening had never done ringing in my fancy."

Especially was he haunted by two of its songs, ' Water parted from the Sea ' and ' In Infancy,' to the actual music of which he was not a stranger even during his Blue- coat days. In ' A Chapter on Ears,' whilst soberly lamenting his " no ear " for music, he seems suddenly to recognize the gravity of his confession, and hastens to his own defence against himself :

" To say that this heart never melted at the concord of sweet sounds, would be a foul self- libel. ' Water parted from the sea ' never fails to move it strangely. So does 'In Infancy.' But they were used to be sung at her harpsichord (the old-fashioned instrument in vogue in those days) by a gentlewoman the gentlest, sure, that ever merited the appellation the sweetest why should I hesitate to name Mrs. S, once the blooming Fanny Weatheral of the Temple who had power to thrill the soul of Elia, small imp as he was, even in his long coats ; and to make him glow, tremble, and blush with a passion, that not faintly indicated the day-spring of that absorbing sentiment, which was afterwards destined to overwhelm and subdue his nature quite, for Alice W n."

Who was " Mrs. S " ? This question, with others, was put to Lamb in 1823 by his friend Pitman, and Lamb's answer was, " Mrs. Spinkes." We have, therefore, a basis on which to work ; but I cannot find that any editor of Lamb has more than the mere name to offer us.

Is it possible that, through the Norrises, we may get to know " Mrs. Spinkes " ? When Randal Norris died, Lamb wrote of him in the well-known letter to Crabb Robinson : "To the last he called me Charley. I have none to call me Charley now." This was dated 20 Jan., 1827. With the date altered to 10 Feb., Lamb sent the account, but with the characters disguised, to Hone's ' Table Book,' in which it ap- peared as ' A Death-Bed,' with the letter L affixed to indicate authorship. This latter