Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/484

 478

NOTES AND QUERIES, m s. vm. DEC. 13, 1913.

WORDS AWAITING EXPLANATION (11 S. viii. 425).!. Assarta [?]. Could this be consarta or some other compound of sarta, meaning " patched/' " repaired " ?

5. Claptable. Is not this a folding table ? The ' H.E.D.' gives " clap-dish " (a leper's collecting-box), " clap-doores " (from Kings- mill Long's translation of Barclay's ' Ar- genis,' 1625), and " clap-net." In German we have Klapp-hut, an opera-hat ; Klapp- pult, a folding desk ; and Klapp-tisch, which is an exact parallel to " claptable."

6. May not clorantibus and clorours be for colorantwu* and colourers ? The earliest instance of " colourer " in the H.E.D. is from the year 1612.

10. If " theea duratea " is englished by " a wodden case," one does not see where the difficulty comes in. The translation fits the original like a blister, as Mark Twain observed of Mr. L. W. Garnham's version of a line in the ' Lorelei.' It would seem as though the writer of this entry in 1574 had been recollecting the passage in Lucretius, i. 476, 477, where the Trojan horse is called durateus equus. The adjective durateus ( = 8ovpa.To<s) is hardly a common word. Therewere plenty of opportunities of becom- ing familiar with Lucretius by 1574. Lam- binus's third edition of his Commentary was published in 1570, and Gifanius's had ap- peared in 1566.

14. Is more meant than that this was the closet used by the King on holidays ?

15. For huptylez see the ' H.E.D.,' vol. v. p. 295, col. 3, where a hip -tile is defined as " a tile of special shape used at the hip of a roof." The earliest quotation is dated 1703. The passage supplied by J. T. F. takes the word back three centuries.

19. By malettis are " hammers " meant ?

26. Traversnail. Is the first part of this "traverse" ( = a curtain, screen, closet, pew) ? See " Trauas " in the ' Promp- torium Parvulorum,' and " Traverse," ii. 1, in 'The Century Dictionary.'

EDWARD BENSLY.

I would suggest the following explanations for items 9 and 15, viz. :

9. Dowleggis = dowels, i.e., iron dowels for joining or keying stones together.

15. Buptylez = hip -tiles, i.e., tiles to be put over the hip -rafters.

W. H. CHIPPINDALL, Col.

17. As the King's carpenter was to receive the " duos tortos postes " from the forester, they were in all probability pieces of naturally bent timber, sometimes called

" knee timber," adapted for some special purpose in the construction of the kitchen, such as supporting a bracket.

JOHN T. KEMP.

The First Editions of the Writings of Charles

Dickens. By John C. Eckel. (Chapman &

Hall.)

ALL, Dickens collectors should possess themselves of this carefully prepared Bibliography. In order to attain as nearly as possible to perfection, almost every book in its original state has been person- ally examined by the compiler ; and when this was impossible, the requisite information was obtained by correspondence with men who are authorities. Nothing has been left to chance, and the author hopes that " under these arrange- ments the percentage of errors has been minimized." For the first time, illustrations have been used in a Dickens Bibliography, and the facsimiles of covers are given in the original colours. These include the rare wrapper of Part HI. of the 'Pickwick Papers,' for which a London firm offered 100?. Another fresh feature is the separate treatment of presentation copies. Mr. Eckel prints in full the letter that Dickens wrote to his friend Kolle, asking him " to beg Mrs. K.'s criticism of a little paper of mine " that had appeared in The Monthly Maga- zine. This was his first published writing, ' A Dinner at Poplar Walk ' ; he was very modest about it, and was " so dreadfully nervous that my hand shakes to such an extent as to prevent my writing a word legibly." Two years after this he was the most popular author in fcngland.

Among the important novels one naturally turns to ' Pickwick,' which has run the gamut of prices until a two -volume edition sold for a thousand dollars per volume. This was known as " The Saint Dunstan Edition," printed entirely on vellum, and limited to fifteen copies eight for America, and seven for Europe. ' Pickwick ' was pointed seventy-five years ago, and *" there- are hardly ten copies in existence which would meet the requirements of the tests to make a perfect copy of the first edition." This is owing to a variety of reasons, among them being that there were not more than 400 printed of the parts which antedated the introduction of Sam Weller^

With ' The Christmas Carol ' Dickens, for the- first and only time, introduced colour in his illus- trations. We agree with Mr. Eckel that "it is the greatest Christmas book ever written in any language." Unfortunately for the author r the cost of its production was too extra vagant, and the actual profits only amounted to 726?. Dickens believed that his second Christmas book, ' The Chimes,' would " make a great uproar " and " knock the ' Carol ' out of the field." It proved to be at least a greater com- mercial success ; the profits on the sale of the- first 25,000 were nearly 1,500Z.

The third part of the volume treats of books in which Dickens had only a limited interest. These include " The Library of Fiction," ' Memoirs of Grimaldi," ' Pic Nic Papers,' and Adelaide Anne-