Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 8.djvu/623

 12 S. VIII. JUNE 25, 1921.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 513 violent movements may be in part explained by the relief experienced through muscular exertion, and in part by the undirected overflow of nerve-force from the excited sensorium. He goes on to explain that the commonest sensation in the circumstances is a thought that more might have been done, and quotes a passage from Mrs. Oliphant's ' Miss Marjoribanks,' in which a girl went about the house, " wringing her hands like a creature demented," saying it was her fault, &c. The conclusion here as to the meaning of the gesture seems clearer than that of " antithesis." " With such ideas vividly present before the mind, there would arise, through the principle of associated habit, the strongest tendency to energetic action of some kind." I take this to mean that the sorrowing person stretches out the hands or moves them rapidly, with the idea of affording some help, and continues to do so in abrupt and futile movements. Com- pare Tennyson in ' In Memorianv canto Iv. : I stretch lame hands of faith, and grope, And gather dust and chaff ; and Hecuba in ' The Trojan Women,' 1305, " beating the earth with both her hands." A footnote in Darwin (p. 80) shows a curious difference of opinion as to the exact action indicated by " wringing the hands." V. R. In ' Two Gentlemen of Verona,' Act II., sc. iii., Launce speaks of " our cat wringing her hands," and in Act III., sc. i., speaks of Silvia Wringing her hands, whose whiteness so became them, As if but now they waxed pale for woe. In this last case the hands so wrung are described as " pure hands held up." In * Hamlet,' Act III., sc. ii., Hamlet, after killing Polonius, says to the Queen : Leave wringing of your hands : peace ! sit you down, And let me wring your heart. I understand Wringing the hands to mean clasping them tightly and raising them with a look of appeal. If so, there are plenty of passages in the classics which show this gesture to have been a common one in antiquity. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT. I am convinced that this is an instinctively human action and is quite independent of manners and customs. Years ago, at a time of great misery, I found myself wringing my hands, and fancying myself comforted by the act. Until then, I think, I regarded " wringing the hands " as being a mere literary form of expression of despairing agitation. Charles Kingsley clearly saw his fisherwomen " weeping and wringing their hands " for those who would never come back to them again. ST. SWITHIN. Perhaps the following may be of use as providing some early examples of the use of this expression : So efter that he longe hadde hyre compleyned His hondes wronge and seyde that was to seye. Chaucer, ' Troilus,' iv. 1171. She wrings her Hands and beats herJBreast. Congreve, * Death of Queen Mary.' In ' The Two Gentlemen of Verona,' Act II., sc. iii., Launce, describing the lachry- mose condition of the family at his de-. parture, tells how he left them, my mother weeping, my father wailing, my sister crying, our maid a howling, our cat wringing: her hands. JOHN A. KNOWLES. HACKNEY (12 S. viii. 470). The deriva- tion of this word is referred to in Deron and Cornwall Notes and Queries, vol. x., p. 122, par. 123, in considering the meaning of the word "Haccombe." The absurdity of the explanation that it is the ey, eyot, I or island belonging to the Danish chief I Hacon is emphasized by the fact that i London has not a monopoly of the place- name Hackney. Not only is there, as MR. POWER points out, another Hackney at Matlock, but to quote my note above ! mentioned : On the north side of the old course of the Teign, opposite Buckland Barton, is a site called Hack- ney, which gives name to Hackney channel as distinguished from Newton (Newton Abbot) channel, and Hackney- lane forms part of the direct route from Haccombe through Higher Netherton to reach the site of the ancient ford over the Teign. The name Hackney also occurs on the Dart and the word had no connection with a Danish name. Hackney and Haccombe are doubtless, as regards the first syllable, of kindred derivation. , Haga, plural I lagan, means a hay or hedge and in the adjectival use something enclosed. The enclosed, hedged in, or staked island or valley I believe to be the meaning of Hackney and Haccombe respectively. The so-called Hackney Marshes, as a district in the north of London was once known, was doubtless a similar site to those chosen on the Teign and the Dart as places of !' safety by the early Saxon settlers. HUGH R. WATKIX.