Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/64

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NOTES AND QUERIES. 112 s.m. JAN. 20, 1917.

can music again, in order to bring out the snake and shoot it. This I did, and twice a snake came out and was shot. Then the flooring was removed near the wall, and a nest of venomous snakes was found, and destroyed. E. C. WIENHOLT.

10 Selborne Road, Hove, Brighton.

' THE BEGGAR'S OPERA ' (12 S. ii. 490). Act II., Air 1, ' Fill ev'ry Glass.' This is to be found in D'Urfey's ' Wit and Mirth : or Pills to purge Melancholy,' 1719, vol. i. p. 180, where it is called ' A drinking Song in praise of our Three fam'd Generals ' (i.e., Marlborough, Eugene, and D'Auverquerque). The words* are first given in French, be- ginning :

Que chacun remplisse son verre, Pour boire a nos trois Geiie>aux.

This is followed by the verses " Translated from the French," beginning :

Fill ev'ry Glass, and recommend 'em,

We'll drink our three Generals' Healths at large.

The tune is given with the French verses, and is almost certainly French. In ' Zwei Opern - Burlesken aus der Rokokozeit,' Berlin, 1912, the editor, Georgy Calmus, points out (p. 218) that this tune is printed in ' Les Parodies du nouveau Theatre Italien,' 1738, tome quatrieme, among the tunes engraved at the end of the volume, No. 145, as " Ne quittez pas votre Houlette."

Act III., Air 17, ' Happy Groves.' This also is in D'Urfey's ' Pills,' 1719, vol. iv. p. 310, where it is headed " The Pilgrim. Tune by Mr. John Barrett." The words begin : Oh I happy, happy Groves, Witness of our tender

loves.

John Barrett (born about 1674, died about 1735) was pupil of Dr. Blow, and was music master at Christ's Hospital (see Grove's ' Dictionary of Music ). He composed overtures and act-tunes for several plays, including ' The Pilgrim,' 1700. I do not know if the song had any connexion with this play. Several of Barrett's tunes became very popular. One of them, ' lanthia the Lovely,' is to be found in vol. v. of D'Urfey's ' Pills,' p. 301 ; and as ' lanthe the Lovely ' is also in ' The Beggar's Opera.' On p. 100 of vol. v. of the ' Pills ' is another tune by Barrett, called ' The Catherine,' to the words " In the pleasant month of May," which is included by Mr. Moffat and Mr. Kidson in their interesting collection ' The Minstrelsy of England,' 1901, p. 114, but is there printed from an anonymous copy which appeared in British Melody : or, the Musical Magazine, 1739. It was originally

an air for the harpsichord, which under the- name of ' The St. Catharine ' is part of " A set of Ayers by Mr. John Barrett," published in ' A Choice Collection of Ayres ' [by Blow,. Croft, and others], 1700. It occurs in several of the ballad operas (see Mr. Barclay Squire's ' Index of Tunes in the Ballad Operas,' Musical Antiquary, October, 1910).

Act III., Air 10, ' Would Fate to me Belinda give.' I cannot supply references for this song earlier than the year 1728, the date of the appearance of ' The Beggar's Opera,' but under the name ' The Faithfull Lover ' it is printed in ' The Musical Miscellany,' 1729, p. 17 ; and G. Calmus cites ' The Merry Companion,' 1750, for it.

Act I., Air 17, ' Gin thou wert mine own- thing.' This is probably one of the spurious Scottish songs which were exceedingly popular at the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries. The' line is thus quaintly translated into German in ' Zwei Opern-Burlesken,' p. 122 : " Schnaps,., du bist mein' einzige Freude."

G. E. P. A.

PRONUNCIATION OF " EA " (12 S. ii. 530)- Some years ago, in the pages of ' N. & Q.,' Prof. Skeat and others wrote explicitly and very suggestively on this point. The tradi- tional pronunciation was traced and copi- ously illustrated from an early date to the- close of the eighteenth century, after which it seemed to linger only faintly in ' ' break ' ' and some other words. What was regarded as one of the latest normal examples of the original sound was Cowper's use of " sea " as rime-word to " survey " in his ' Alex ander Selkirk ' verses :

I am monarch of all I survey, My right there is none to dispute,

From the centre all round to the sea I am lord of the fowl and the brute.

Perhaps some methodical reader may b able to give the reference to this discussion

Books that may be advantageously con suited on the subject are : Dr. Sweet' ' History of the English Sounds from th Earliest Period ' ; Marsh's ' Lectures on th English Language,' Lecture xxii. (' Students Manual of the English Language,' Murray) and Prof. Earle's ' Philology of the Englis] Tongue,' especially the last se\en section of chap. ii. THOMAS BAYNE.

[See 'Pronunciation of "Tea," &c.,' 6 S. vi 129, 171, 213, 277.]

See essay on the ' Pronunciation o Chaucer ' in the Aldine edition of that poet and the article on Shakespeare's Englis] in ' Shakespeare's England.' The old sount