Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/220

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. ix. MA*, n, iou.

there are touches, discoverable by the curious, which incline one to conjecture that Dickens thought of the Rev. Septimus Crisparkle as an Etonian. The author's eldest son had been at Eton. As for Uni- versities, the hero of ' George Silverman's Explanation ' was a Cambridge man and a Fellow of his College ; of which College is not told us. The Royal and Religious Foundation of Trinity is, I fear, connected with a less pleasing character ; for the Tramp in ' The Uncommercial Traveller ' who writes a begging letter " from the village beer-shop in pale ink of a ferruginous complexion " professes to have been " nursed in the lap of affluence " and " educated at Trin. Coll. Cam." EDWARD BENSLY.

Charles Dickens was at Shrewsbury about sixty years ago, and, I believe, gave a reading in the Music Hall. He stayed with Dr. Clement, afterwards M.P. for the borough. Since the ' Tale of Two Cities ' must have been written soon after this visit, the references to the school are easily explained. E. W.

"Boss" (11 S. viii. 508). I am obliged for the references to boss. May I say that I am afraid they leave the matter more obscure than ever ? I may say, too, that as a lad I grew up with the ' N.E.D.,' and my late father Mr. J. P. Owen (your old correspondent), in collecting evidence for " coaching " and " cramming," " combine," " akimbo," &c., rightly (I venture to think) deplored the tendency of the successors to the care cf that monumental work to con- stitute themselves, instead of collectors, witnesses, advocates, and finally judges.

To return to my "muttons." I cannot, accept Lyly's (' Euphues ' ) " Call her a bosse " as having anything to do with the matter in hand, though I shall presently return to this point. The example from Scott's ' Lady of the Lake,' iv. 55, simply refers to the boss of a shield, and is beside the point. Knox's (Edin., 1848) "old bosses " = 41 drunkards " explains itself in connexion with " boose," and ought not to be in this galley at all. Gayton's "boose" in 'Don Quixote ' leaves us where we were. Miss GIFFARD'S quotation (5 S. x. 289) from Henri Conscience, ' La Guerre des Paysans,' " baes Cuylen ce terme flamand 'equivaut a maitre," is interesting.

Now it must be clear that " the Ameri- cans " (which is a geographic term nowa- days) were partly Dutch and partly British. We may rule out the British, and say at once that boss was never introduced by

them, but adopted by them. From whom ? Clearly, from Hawkins's niggers and. their descendants. I doubt whether the Dutch were at any time either sufficiently numerous or in sufficiently close contact with the British colonists to have given them the word. At present I hold that bas was the recognized term for " king " all over Africa, and hence its appearance in America. If we can argue from the River Vaal <Vahal < Vakal (Vacalus, Ceesar ?), no philological " law " yet propounded forbids us to con- sider baas as < bahas < bakas.

It might be looked on, I admit, as Celtic in origin, or it might be connected with Irish), or Bacchus. And here, again, we have an Egyptian form to meet us bkhs. I am quite ready to accept, on the production of evidence, the suggestion that the bkhs of Egyptian may be a word adopted into that language from surrounding Libyan or other tribes, just as we ourselves have adopted " elephant," " crocodile, "-and " camel " as English words. But the form, whether bas, or bat, or bakhs, in Egyptian is, as far as our evidence goes, immeasurably older than its appearance in Latin or Greek.
 * vaccus (a bull, not necessarily a Papal or

The alternative theory that boss has nothing to do with Egyptian or Greek or Latin leaves us in a quandary, although it is true that Batavi is the old name for the tribe. Yet we know the Dutch baases loaded much spicery and nutmeg at Goa, and the Hindustani word for spicery, I believe, is baz. Men who wanted as much pepper and ginger as the Dutch masters did, with probably not a little rope's-end to speed up the loading, might well get the term baas (spice -men) as a nickname, and with simple sailors the term would stick. At this point I leave it, because even here ^Eschylus's /3ov<$ CTTI yXwro-y /xeyas /^e/^jKev.

CECIL OWEN.

[For " kinship " in MR. OWEN'S previous article at the above reference read kingship.}

" C'EST PROGR&3 EN SPIRALE " (11 S. IX.

151). But Mr. G. M. Trevelyan, in his notes to Meredith's ' Poetical Works ' (1912), says that the " memorable lady " is presumably Mrs. Browning (or Aurora Leigh), and quotes the passage from ' Aurora Leigh,' " What is art," &c., in bk. iv. 1. 1151.

A. R. BAYLEY.

Goethe said :

" Progress has not followed a straight ascending line, but a spiral with rhythms of progress and retrogression, of evolution and dissolution."

W. CLARK THOMLINSON.