Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/51

 12 s. via. JAN. s, i92i.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 39 expression of doubt, na, na, na. Is there any connexion between this and the nah having the same pronunciation so fre- quently used in the West Riding of York- shire and referred to by your correspondent, J. T. F.? HENRY W. BUSH. JOHN WILSON, BOOKSELLER, HIS CATA- LOGUE (12 S. v. 237, 277, 297 ; vi. 21). It may interest contributors at above references to know that in The Bookworm, iv. 336 ( 1891), are thirteen lines commencing : Give me a nook and a book, And let the proud world spin round, giving William Freeland as the author. W. B. H. DANTEIANA, 'Puna.' v. 130-136 (12 S. vi. 226). Stendhal, as quoted by MR. T. PERCY ARMSTRONG at this reference, pro- vides a charitable, and therefore acceptable, version of the story of the unfortunate Pia de'Tolomei. But why did Dante place her in the 'Purgatorio ' amongst the "Neghit- tosi morti violentemente " (as Scartazzini terms those in this canto), or, as Lombardi calls them "negligent! che tardando il pentimento, sopraggiunti da morte violenta, si pentirono, e furono salvi " ? Of what had she to repent ? Not assuredly of Nello's mere suspicions of her infidelity nor of his taciturnity. Clearly Dante, in consigning her to purgatorial sufferings must have shared the then common belief in her lapse from fidelity to her husband, and have had some knowledge of her repentence as of her violent death. Lombardi quotes Volpi as holding that : "Pia, moglie di M. Nello della Pietra, la quale, come fu creduto, trovata dal marito in adulterio, fu da lui condo^ta in Maremma e quivi uccisa," but Lombardi 's ' Nuovo Editore ' adds : "ill Postill. del Cod. Caet. con mplta da grazia la storia, che sembra la piu genuina di questa donna, in tal guisa ' ' Ista fuit la Pia nobilis Domina de Tholomeis de Senis, et uxpr Domini Nelli de Petra de Panoteschis in Maritima, quse cum staret ad fenestram per aestatem, maritusejus misit unum famulum, qui csepit earn per crura, et projecit deorsum, propter suspectum, quern halm it ae ipsa, et ex hoc ortum est magnum odium inter illas domos.' " Seeing that opinions differ so widely as to the guilt or innocence of Pia (Landini, L'Ottimo and Commente, Volpi, and Buti for the former, with the Anonimo Fiorentino, Benvenuti, &c., for the latter view), and in doubt as to Dante's bias, I am constrained to hold that, to quote Mr. H. F. Tozer's words, as " of the manner of her death nothing is certainly known," neither is there of th& motive for that death. Yet one wonders why Nello did not find a corner to himself in 'Inf.' xii. amongst the "violenti contra ilprossimo." Dante's retributive justice is oftentimes curiously unbalanced. J. B. McGovERN. St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester. HOOK: OXENBRIDGE : MORTON (12 S.- viii. 10). If the Morton referred to is the son of Robert Morton and an ejected minister afterwards an M.D. there is a portrait of him in a full bottom wig and a gown of the R.C.P. engraved in line by W T. Elder after B. Orchard D. A. H. MOSES. 0tt The Place- Names of Northumberland and Durham^ By Allen Mawer. (Cambridge University Press, IL net.) THIS volume is worthy of its place in the Cam- bridge Archaeological and Ethnological Series. It carries forward a tradition of study now welL established, and the author claims to have developed this tradition in one or two respects on new and fruitful lines. In the first place he virtually confines himself to names for which we have documentary evidence dating before 1500, making a clear distinction between documented and undocumented names. Next, he lays great stress on the importance of topographical condi- tions and has rejected explanations which do not harmonize with those conditions, even if ety- mologically satisfactory. This principle is un- doubtedly sound. We are glad, too, to note hia interest in sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth century spellings, with their suggestion of pecu- liarities in local pronunciation. The great mass of names in Northumberland and Durham are of Anglian origin, and Mr. Mawer notes that no special frequency of Celtic names is to be observed on the north-western or western border whence the survival of a Celtic population in tke hill-country might be deduced. He observes, however, with justice that names- readily assigned to English and plausibly ex- plained may, after all, be etymological perver- sions of Celtic forms instancing the old English forms for York and Salisbury which could (and assuredly would) have been explained quite wrongly but for the Roman version of the original Celtic having been preserved. Several examples occur in which folk-etymology may well be suspected almost detected as Hexham, Gateshead and Auckland which are well dis- cussed here. The interesting question of the interpretation of -ing- names is dealt with in a good note, wherein Mr. Mawer accepts Prof. Moorman's dictum that the ordinary O.E. -ing-n&me (as distinct from -inga- and inges--nam.es) is simply a compound of a- genitive, -ing- being the possessive element therein. This is certainly the only view that covers all the facts and Mr. Mawer is able to