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NOTES AND QUERIES, [ii s. vn. A*BIL 12, 1913.

I have to correct an error at p. 388. Instead of Knight's ' English Cyclopaedia,' I should have quoted Ersch and Gruber.


 * Allgemeine Encyklopadie.'

E. H. BROMBY. University of Melbourne.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF CHARTULARIES. May I suggest that there should be published in your columns a list of the English and alien chartularies still extant ? The list should be in three groups : first, chartularies in print, with date and method of publication; secondly, chartularies yet imprinted, in private hands and public collections ; thirdly, chartularies of alien priories extant in France, (a) published, (6) as yet only in MS.

These valuable collections of charters, &c., are of very great use to students of genealogy and topography,, and a complete list of them would be a revelation of much untapped Wealth. J. H. R.

SHAKESPEARE : " COMPTIBLE."

" I am very comptible, even to the least sinister usage." ' Twelfth Night,' I. v. 164 (Globe ed. 187).

I do not know whether " comptible " is a word which Sir James Murray has thought fit to notice in his famous Dictionary of the English language, but it is certainly not to be found in any of the English dictionaries which are in my possession, and I much doubt whether it was ever coined and put into circulation by Shake- speare. Of the meaning of the passage in which it occurs there can be no doubt. Viola says that she can ill bear anything like rudeness or unkind treatment. But how can We get this meaning from the words as they stand ? I am inclined to think that " comptible " is either a shortened form of, or a mistake for, " compatible." the a after the p having been accidentally omitted in the copying or in the printing. Not that " compatible " is here used in the sense in which we now commonly use it, but rather in that which originally belonged to it, and was probably known and usable in the days of the Tudors. It may not be known to every one that Cicero, in his

uses the uncompounded Word patibilis to mean " sensitive," which is exactly the meaning which would be required for the compound compatibilis in this passage in 'Twelfth Night.' Without supposing that Viola could understand and speak Latin as readily as some would lead us to believe
 * De Natura Deorum,' bk. iii. chap. xii. 29,

that Queen Elizabeth could, we may note that she is endeavouring, by the eccentricity of her advances and the extravagance of her praise, to push her way into the presence of Olivia, and the use of such a high classical word as " compatible " to express her extreme sensitiveness would be calculated to impress her hearers and help her to get introduced into the presence of Olivia.

The passage in Cicero to which I have referred is as follows :

" Quumque omrie animal patibitem naturam [a sensitive nature] habeat, nullum est eorum, quod effugiat accipiendi aliquid extrinsecus, id est, quasi ferendi et paticndi, necessitatem."

PHILIP PERRING. 7, Lyndhurst Road, Exeter.

[The ' N.E.D.' treats " comptible " as a form of "comptable " or "countable," under the last- named quoting only the passage from * Twelfth Night ' as illustrating the obsolete meaning " Liable to answer to, sensitive to."

VANISHING LONDON : PROPRIETARY CHAPELS. (See US. ii. 202, 254. 293, 334; iii. 149, 193, 258 ; iv. 434 ; vi. 83; vii. 205.) The Pall Mall Gazette of 1 March contains a very interesting account of the earlier days of Quebec Chapel, Bryanston Street, Marble Arch, now being rebuilt. Readers of ' N. & Q.' may like their attention drawn to this if they missed it. CECIL CLARKE.

Junior Athenaeum Club.

" PARATOUT." (See also 10 S. vii. 206 ; US. vii. 104.) The note headed ' Welland Sermon Register ' at the second reference contains a list of articles sold by E. Reddell of No. 7, High Street, Tewkesbury, about the year 1809, and amongst these are " patent umbrellas and paratouts." MR. ROBBINS, at the first reference, quotes from The Observer, 10 Aug., 1806, an explanation to the effect that the paratout was a peculiar sort of umbrella made by Messrs. Barnett of Birmingham. May I add that it was patented by John Barnett of Birmingham, toymaker, and Joseph Barnett of -Warwick, cutler, on 21 Dec., 1802 (No. 2668)? It appears from the description in the speci- fication that the paratout could also be made to serve the purpose of a fan, a candle screen, or a fire screen ; but the mechanism by which these changes Were brought about is very complicated, and must have been exceedingly liable to get out of order. It was also possible to vary the shape of the umbrella by prolonging the ribs in one direction, so as to protect the bearer from driving showers of rain, whatever might be the direction of the wind. R. B. P.