Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/32

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. m. JAN. n, 1911.

"Efterhin" or " efterhend," for after- wards, and "whittret" for weasel, are still in fairly general use throughout the Lowlands ; but " elze " in the sense of already is less commonly known. Indeed, it is questionable if many who are familiar with the native speech ever heard it, to say nothing of including; it in their vocabulary. It is an interesting survival of the form " ellis " or Dictionary ' illustrates by quotations from Barbour, Gavin Douglas, * Sir Eg;eir,' and Archbishop Hamiltoun's ' Catechisme ' of 1551. That it signifies " already," and is distinct from the other " ellis " or " elles," which means else or otherwise, there seems to be no doubt whatever. All Jamieson' s examples support the distinction. Mr. Small in his edition of Gavin Douglas either ignored or discredited this specific meaning, for he gives it no place in his glossary. Douglas uses the word in his version of Dido's waiting hunter :
 * ' els," which Jamieson in the ' Scottish
 * ^Eneid ' iv. 135, where the poet describes

Hir fers steid stude stamping, reddy ellis, Rungeand the fomy goldin bitt jingling.

It might, of course, be suggested that the word in this instance means " otherwise," or " apart from his rider " ; but it seems better to take it in the sense of the Latin jam, conveniently rendered in English as " already."

Mr. Small glosses an example of " ellis " which occurs in Douglas's * Proloug of the First Buik of Eneados.' In this curiously critical and apologetic deliverance the translator makes it clear that he thinks liimself unworthy to stand English sponsor for Virgil, but he reflects that at least one predecessor has made a disgraceful show, and he concludes that he is warranted in offering his experiment. Then he brings the matter to an issue in this wise :

Thocht sum wald sweir that I the text haue vareit, Or that I haue this volume quyte myscareit, Or threip planlie that I <?om neuer neir hand it, Or that the werk is wers than evir I fand it, Or 3 it argew Virgile stuide wele befoir, As now war tyme to schift the wers ouer scoir ; Ellis haue I said, thair ma be na compair JBetwixt his versis and my style wlgair.

In his glossary Mr. Small says that " ellis " in this passage is the A.-S. elles, and means " else." In view of what pre- cedes, the interpretation " already " seems preferable. The translator introduces him- self by saying that instead of attempting to counterfeit the precious words of " mast reuerend Virgill," he is disposed to kneel

when he hears them, and then he strenu- ously proceeds as follows :

For quhat compair betuix midday and nycht^ Or quhat compare betuix myrknes and lycht, Or quhat compare is betuix blak and quhyte, Far gretar diference betuix my blunt endyte And thi scharp sugurat sang Virgiliane, Sa wyslie wrocht with neuir ane word in vane, My waverand wit, my cunnyng feble at all, My mynd mysty, thir ma nocht myss ane fall.

All this and more shows the exponent's ostensible attitude, and gives warrant for his later statement, " Ellis [i.e. already] haue I said."

Jamieson's commentary on " Ellis, al- ready," runs thus :

" There is no evidence that A.-S. ealles was ever used in this sense. Nor have I observed any cognate term ; unless we view this as originally Moes.-G. allis, A.-S. eallis, omnino (plenarie, Benson), used obliquely. The phrase in Virg. reddy ellis, if thus resolved, would signify ' coin- pleatly ready.' It merits consideration, that this is evidently analogous to the formation of the E. synom. already, q. omnino paratum."

THOMAS BAYNE.

LONGFELLOW ON DTJFRESNY. In Long- fellow's ' Hyperion ' occurs the following :

" ' After all,' said Flemming, with a sigh, ' poverty is not a crime.' ' But something worse,' interrupted the Baron ; ' as Dufresny said when he married his laundress, because he could not pay her bill. He was the author, as you know, of the opera ' Lot,' at whose representa- tion the great pun was made. I say the great pun, as we say the great Tun of Heidelberg. As one of the performers was singing the line, ' V amour a vaincu Loth* (vingt culottes), a voice from the pit cried out ' Qu'il en donne une li fauteur / ' "

A few days after the publication in The Gentleman's Magazine (March, 1895) of my article ' Moliere on the Stage,' describing the numerous plays founded on incidents of the great French dramatist's life, I received a letter from a former contributor to ' N. & Q.,' the late Dr. Paul Q. Karkeek of Torquay, asking me for information about Dufresny 's opera. He said he had been trying for years to obtain a copy of the work mentioned by Longfellow, but had not been successful. I had never heard of such a work, and it is certainly not in any of the editions of Dufresny's collected plays. The only play of Dufresny's bearing some resemblance to the title of ' Lot,' I could suggest, was * Le Lot suppos6 ; ou, La Coquette de Village ' ; but it is a comedy, and there are no songs of any kind in it. There is no mention of a play or opera called ' Lot ' in the 'Anecdotes dramatiques (contenant le Titre de toutes nos Pieces de Theatre, depuis 1'origine des