Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/230

 -226

NOTES AND QUERIES. [iiavn. MAR. 22, 191.3.

coined word to distinguish members of Voluntary Aid Detachments and others who take up first aid work. The competition met with considerable success, and the County Secretary and the Editor have decided in favour of the word * Vadet,' sub- mitted by A. G. Davies, 160, Wistaston Road, Crewe, and Mrs. J. Cox-, 1, Gardener Cottages, -Arthur Road, Windsor, who will divide the prize we offered.

" In arriving at this decision the coined words were considered both from the euphonic and practical point of view ; for with the latter it is necessary that the word should have some characteristics in order that it would be readily interpreted as applied to V.A.D. members. We hope * Vadet ' will become as popular as ' first aider ' ; it certainly will not lead way give offence to the nursing profession."
 * to confusion or misinterpretation, and should in no

M.

HISTORY OF THE "PECCAVI" PUN. A writer in ' N. & Q.' (10 S. viii. 473) stated that the earliest publication of this jest of which he was aware was in Geo. Daniel's

was, however, published (presumably for the first time) in Punch, 13 May, 1844, vol. vi. p. 209, and runs as follows :
 * Democritus in London ' (1852). The joke

"It is a common idea that the most laconic military despatch was that sent by Caesar to the Horse Guards at Rome, containing the three memor- able words, ' Veni, vidi, vici,' and, perhaps, until -our own day, no like instance of brevity has been found. The despatch of Sir Charles Napier, after the capture of Scinde, to Lord Ellenborough, both for brevity and truth, is, however, far beyond it. The despatch consisted of one emphatic word,


 * Peccavi' I have Scinde (sinned)."

It will be observed that the writer of this famous jest was afraid, first, that the reader might not be familiar with Latin ; And, second, that he might not see the point unless both meanings of the word were given ; perhaps this was for the benefit of the proverbial Scotchman.

The further history of the joke is inter- esting. So great was the hit that it has come to be believed that the dispatch was actually sent by Sir Charles, and to add point to the pun it is alleged that the Battle -of Meanee was fought in disobedience of orders (see ' N. & Q.,' 10 S. viii. 345), although that is entirely contrary to fact. Sir Charles himself wrote : "I have only obeyed my orders " (' Life,' ii. 328). Then we have a member of Parliament, in the discussion -of the Candahar question, referring to the unexampled brevity of the general's dispatch after he had won his great battle on the Indus, in the quaint belief that such a message had really been sent (Spielmann's 1 History of " Punch," ' p. 361 ). Coming down to later times, in the ' Cambridge Modern History,' xi. 736, in the chapter on ' India

and Afghanistan ' by Sir W. Lee -Warner, member of the Council of India, we find the writer, after relating how Napier's task was to enforce the acceptance of a new treaty on the Amirs of Scinde, going on to say : ' " That Napier's conscience was pricked by the enterprise entrusted to him may perhaps be inferred from the humorous message by which he announced his success ' Peccavi.' "

If that were true, Sir Charles must have had a queer conscience to have been able to write a joke about the slaughter of 5,000 natives ! But that it is not true can be shown by Sir Charles's own words. Writing to his sister immediately after the battle, he says :

" Riding over the plain of Meanee afterwards, I said to myself, am I guilty of these horrid scenes ? My conscience reproached me not." ' Life,' ii. 326.

Then, still later, we have Mr. Herbert Paul, in vol. i. p. 139 of his ' Modern Eng- land,' referring to Sir Charles as the " author " of the famous " Peccavi " dis- patch. And, to cap it all, the couplet quoted by Spielmann in his ' History of " Punch" ' (p. 361),

"Peccavi! I've Scinde," said Lord Ellen, so proud ; Dalhousie, more modest, said, " Vovi, I've Oude ! "

is not to be found in Punch. Spielmann says^that Thos. Hood claimed the authorship of these lines, which, as it stands, is mani- festly wrong, as Hood died in 1845, while Oude was not annexed until 1856. What Mr. Spielmann probably had in mind was the original joke published in 1844.

WALTER WOOLLCOTT. New York.

FIRST EDITIONS OF SHERIDAN'S PLAYS. (See ante, p. 126.) It has hitherto been recognized, I believe, that the first editions of this gifted Irishman's plays ' The Rivals,' ' The Critic,' ' A Trip to Scarborough,' ' The Duenna,,' and ' Pizarro ' were published in London in the years, respectively, 1775, 1781, 1781, 1794, and 1799. What is the evidence, and is it conclusive, that these London editions were actually the first to appear ? From the following facts, apart from other considerations, a reasonable inference might be drawn that the first editions were probably published in Dublin : ( 1 ) The earliest editions of ' The School for Scandal ' were admittedly published in Dublin. (2) In recent >ears an edition of ' The Duenna ' having the date 1786, but without place or name of publisher, has been recorded. (3) As a fact ' The Rivals,' ' A Trip to Scarborough,' and ' Pizarro were published in Dublin in the same years