Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 1.djvu/157

 12 S. I. FEB. 19, 1916.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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proposes, and is accepted by No. 1 by mistake. She goes abroad and is supposed to be drowned. He marries Marguerite No. 2, and then No. 1 turns up again, like Enoch Arden. The man, I fancy, was a journalist, and lived on Netting Hill.

Can any one identify the story by this slight sketch ? WILLIAM BULL.

3 Stone Buildings, Lincoln's Inn, W.C.

"BLIGHTY." 'What is the origin, of this word as a synonym for England ? It is used commonly by our forces in France. One poem I have recently seen begins :

Oh, send me back to Blighty. Zs it derived from an Indian word ?

Is there a list of words and phrases of the strange language that has grown up at the front ? It is a sort of lingua franca, between the English soldiers and the French in- habitants. I am told that it is even spoken between the French themselves at times. tTwo examples are " Bombardier Fritz " for " pommes cle terre f rites," and " Rude boys " for " Rue du Bois."

DE V. PAYEN-PAYNE.

" BURD." What is the meaning and derivation of this word used as a prefix to a woman's name in old ballads ?

H. T. BARKER.

Ludlow.

[Of obscure origin, says the ' N.E.D.,' and identi- fied variously with "bird" and with "bride." Neither is satisfactory the latter somewhat the .more likely. It is found in Layamon ; subsequently in Northern writers for the most part. 1

GEORGE WHITEFIELD. Tyerman, in his "Life' (i. 505 n.) of Whitefield, refers to " Oliphant's ' Whitefield,' Edinburgh, 1826." I have failed to find any mention of this in the usual books of reference ; apparently it is not in the British Museum, and inquiry has been made in Edinburgh Without result. Whitefield's Journals were reprinted as one of the series entitled "Autobiography," and the volume con- taining these is dated 1826, but there is no indication as to the editor. Reference to any source mentioning this life by Oliphant will oblige. ROLAND AUSTIN.

Gloucester.

ALLS WORTH, ARTIST. Is anything known of an artist named Allsworth, of Camden Town ? I possess three portraits in oils by him of the Rev. Ralph Price of Lyminge, Kent, his wife, and Charles Price, Esq., of anon Gate, Hythe, signed and dated Allsworth, Camden Town, 1854.

LEONARD C. PRICE. Ewell, Surrey.

Hrplus.

MARIA THE JEWESS.

(12 S. i. 70.)

THE principal book in which information as to this character is found is Ferdinand Hoefer's ' Histoire de la Chimie,' vol. i. pp. 282-4, Paris, 1866. The details given by Hoefer in his judicious and profound work have been epitomized in a paragraph in Prof. John Ferguson's ' Bibliotheca Chemica,' Glasgow, 1906, vol. ii. p. 78, a most valuable bibliographical book.

By some Maria, or Maria Prophetissa, is identified with Miriam, the sister of Moses ; but by others she is described as a Jewess who was trained in Egypt, was skilled in all learning, and, together with Pammenes, was found in the Temple of Memphis by Demo- critus. Pammenes revealed the mysteries of alchemy too freely, but Democritus and Maria concealed the processes, and thereby gained renown. Maria gets the credit of having invented or introduced the use of the water bath, which is known as the " Balneum Mariae " or " Bain Marie." Maria is quoted as an authority by Stephanus Alexandrinus.

There are various obscure and scarce books which deal further with Maria the Jewess. One of the chief collections of standard early alchemical authors is the ' Artis Auriferse,' Basel, 1610. The reference to Maria is in vol. i. p. 205. Hermann .Fictuld's ' Probier-Stein,' 1753, p. 112, identifies her with Moses's sister. Fictuld's book sets out to be a series of biographies of true and false alchemists, but it is an un- reliable work.

Other books which may be referred to are Pizimentius, * Democritus Abderita de Arte Magria,' 1573, p. 59 ; Borel, ' Bibliotheca Chemica,' 1654, p. 154 ; L. Dufresnoy, ' Histoire de la Philosophie Hermetique,' 1742, vol. i. pp. 26, 460 ; vol. iii. pp. 11, 12, 17, 37, 44, 45 ; and Schmieder, * Geschichte der Alchemie,' 1832, pp. 48-50. In Kopp's two books, (1) * Beitrage zur Geschichte der Chemie,' 1869, and (2) ' Die Alchemie,' 1886, will be found further references, and also an exhaustive discussion of all that has been said of Democritus in this connexion. For details of editions of Democritus, see Prof. Ferguson's papers in the Proceedings of the Philosophical Society of Glasgow. Kopp considers the inclusion of Maria among the alchemists as by no means modern.