Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 7.djvu/291

 ii s. VII.APHU. 12,191a] NOTES AND QUERIES. 283 three years before the death of the Rector of Thruxton, so that he must, early in life, have come under the influence of his maternal grandfather the Puritan minister—a circum- stance which renders his conversion to Roman Catholicism not many years later somewhat extraordinary. When Dorothy Pope made her will in 1668, her two sons, William and Alexander, were serving their apprenticeships. Nearly all biographies of the poet state that his father was a linen-drapor, but this is not borne out by contemporary documents. At various intervals, in 1675, 1677, 1682, 1684, 1698, and 1700, are references to " Alexander Pope of London, merchant." He appears in the ' London Directory' of 1677 as living in Broad Street, which lay wholly or partly in the parish of St. Bennet- Fink ; and in the Churchwardens' Accounts of this parish of the year 1679 is an entry of the fee received from him for the burial of his wife Magdalen: "Reed, from Mr. Allexander Pope for Buriall of his wife Ground and Great Bell 18s. 4d." Lists of ratepayers show that he came to live in the parish after Christmas, 1677, and left before Easter, 1680. In 1684 the two brothers, William and Alexander, then in partnership, were engaged in a suit concern- ing parcels of linen cloth and other goods, sold in Virginia in 1677, in payment for which they were to receive several thousands of pounds of tobacco. They did a con- siderable trade with Virginia, for they employed a factor in the colony for the conduct of their business. Lastly, Alex- ander was, both in 1698 and 1700, endeavour- ing to recover 600/. said to have been lent by him in 1675 on a mortgage of those same lands in Buckinghamshire which were the source of trouble in 1715. It is important to observe that, as in 1700 he still styles himself " of London, merchant," he had not then retired to Binfield, and that in consequence the poet's home for his first twelve years (1688 to 1700) was in London— not at Binfield, as Dr. Johnson believed. All that can be told of the later portion of the merchant's life has been recounted elsewhere. In view of what has been written here, it will probably be conceded that Pope was indeed descended from " a very tolerable family." His forefathers held no exalted positions, but were substantial people of the middle class. And it may be noted, as a matter of more importance, that both his father and grandfather were men of educa- tion. References to the Chancery suits quoted are : In the series of Charles I., P. 19/48, P. 50/59, P. 59/5, and W. 88/61. In the series "before 1714," Reynardson 86/84, and Hamilton 266/67. In the series 1714 to 1758, No. 9/19. F. J. Pope. 17, Holland Road, Kensington. LATIN PRONUNCIATION. This subject was discussed at length in the Tenth Series (ix. 81, 131, 175, 251, 314, 351, 511), and was then concluded by an editorial note : " We cannot spare further space for this subject" ; but perhaps I may be permitted to revert to it by calling attention to certain evidence which at that time was not referred to by any of your contributors, presumably because it is drawn from a field which unfortunately receives less attention than it deserves in this country. The late Prof. Skeat and other contributors then showed—conclusively, to my mind—that the so-called " new pronunciation" was the real pronunciation of Latin in classical times; but nobody referred to the very striking evidence afforded by Greek papyri, and to their testimony as to v I should like to draw attention. It is natural that after the Roman conquest of Egypt, Latin words and names should have begun to appear in the Greek documents written in that country. In the first century of our era Latin words are rare, and almost confined to military terms ; in the second and third centuries their number increases ; but it was not till after the reforms of Diocletian that they were taken over in large quantities. From the beginning, however, there were numerous Romans in the country, from the prefect down to private soldiers or traders, and their names are of fairly common occurrence in papyri. Now in the earlier Roman period the invariable Greek transliteration of Latin consonantal v is ov. This is surely suffi- cient evidence for the w pronunciation of v, for then and later ov was used also to express the Latin vocalic «. The supposi- tion is further confirmed by the fact that later, when the pronunciation of v had changed, a new transliteration was adopted, namely, /?. I fancy that by an exhaustive examination of the papyri it could be determined, within comparatively narrow limits of time, when this change occurred. I have not under- taken such an investigation myself, but, judging from a fairly extensive study of Capyrus texts for other purposes, I should e inclined to date the change during the