Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 5.djvu/306

 -300

NOTES AND QUERIES.

[12 fiJ. V. Nov., 1919.

Anonymous and was printed in 1624 (iii. 76), a date about twenty-nine years before Lee was born, and abouc fifty years before his .first play was produced.

'The Tragedy of Nero,' 1624, which Mr. JFleay ('Chronicle,' ii. 84, 334) suspected to Jbe the work of May, has not lain neglected. It was reprinted by Mr. Bullen in ' Old English Plays ' (1882), and it is also included in the volume entitled 'Nero and Other Plays' in the "Mermaid Series." Two copies of the version printed in 1676 appear in the British Museum Catalogue under the .heading of Piso. GEORGE NEWALL.

LUCIEN BONAPARTE : PRISONER IN ENG- LAND (12 S. v. 236). Lucien Bonaparte did not stay at Ludlow Castle whilst a prisoner in England as the following ex- tracts show.

The Annual Register for 1811, under date 'Jan. 3, has the following :

" Madame Lucien Buonaparte, with her family, fend a numerous train of servants, arrived at Ludlow on Wednesday, the 3rd, having per- formed the journey from Plymouth in a week. Lucien removed on the preceding day from the inn, to Lord Powis's residence in that town, called Dinham House ; his Lordship's seat in the neighbourhood (Stone House) being found too small for the reception of so numerous a suite. It is believed they will remain at Ludlow during several months."

Brayley and Britton's ' Beauties of Eng- land and Wales,' vol. xiii. (Shropshire), published in 1813, states that Ludlow Castle " has long remained a total and .absolute ruin," so that it could not have Jbeen habitable at that time. Mention is made of Lucien Buonaparte's stay in the town, but the place of residence is not stated. ARCHIBALD SPARKE.

The statement by Madame Junot is not -correct. I was certain that Ludlow Castle was not inhabitable in 1810; but in order that I might be able to answer the question correctly, I communicated with my friend, ) Mr. H.T. Weyman, F.S.A.,of Ludlow, who' iias a thorough knowledge of facts con- nected with the Castle. I give the substance of his reply to me.

Lucien Bonaparte was captured by an English Cruiser when on his way to the United States of America in 1810. He was brought to England, and in December, 1810, was lodged, as a prisoner, in Dinham House, Ludlow. (The Castle being then, practically a ruin.) He was placed under the charge of Col. Knyvett Leighton about Dec. 17.

Dinham House, belonging to Lord Powis, chosen as Lucien 's residence, because

the Stone House, Onibury (now Stokesa Court) and another house, Lymore, wei not in good enough state for so distinguishe a prisoner. He remained at Ludlow, wit his family, until June, 1811. He bought house called Thorngroye in June, 181] and went to live there with his family.

Col. Leighton has left it on record that h had no easy time with his charge, who wa discontented with his life at Ludlow.

HERBERT SOUTHAM.

GENDER OF " DISH " IN LATIN (12 S v. 266). 1. Pape (1880) and Lidde and Scott (1890) give the Greek word a /za^byo/zos, masculine, regarding it as a adjective in agreement with Ku/cAo? or -rival An examination, however, of the passage in Greek literature to which they refer sho-w that in all instances but one the gender is un determined, the word occurring in a cas where it could be equally masculine c neuter.

The one exception is in the ' Corpus In scriptionum Grsecarum,' 2852, 51, a referenc given only by Liddell and Scott, wher /xaovo/uos x/awous is said to be founc This would seem at first sight to settle th question. But if any one takes the troubl to look at the inscription carefully he wii see that the statement in Liddell and Scot is wrong. The words are /za^oi'd/zoi/ xP V(ro ^ They are in a long list of objects dedicate* by Seleucus II. in 243 B.C. in the temple o Apollo at Didyma, and the separate items of which the /mbi>o/zov \pva-ovi' is one, ai expressed in the nominative. Moral : Tea all references. What a dictionary says i not (conclusive) evidence.

2. In the three passages (Varro, Horace and Nemesianus) quoted by dictionaries fo the Latinised form of the word, the gerde is again undetermined. But the Commen tator Cruquianus on Hor. Sat. II. viii. 8 writes : " Mazonomus genus est lanci capacioris," &c.

There appears then to be no purel; literary instance in Greek or Latin to detei mine the usage as regards gender. Th evidence of the inscription in 243 points t< the neuter, and the Latin scholiast, take bin for what he is worth, to the masculine.

But that the practice as regards what i known as gender was not always as consisten as seems sometimes to be thought is showi by the existence of /3ap/3iTos as both mascu line and feminine and fodpftiTov, neuter. EDWARD BENSLY.

Oudle Cottage, Much Hadham, Herts.