Page:Notes and Queries - Series 2 - Volume 1.djvu/245

 2 nd s. N 12., MAR. 22. '56.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

237

mail to have a Celtic origin, whence comes black f Have we here a compound of Saxon and Celtic, the former applied as in Black- Monday, &c. ? Or is black also of Celtic origin ? Perhaps it is only a corruption of the Gaelic word glac, to take ; or (as the Caterans made cattle a main object of the foray) of bleagh, to milk, to draw milk, figura- tively used ?

It is curious, to find the radical in some form or other, bearing a similar meaning, throughout the family of Indo-European languages : a whole page might be filled with examples.

Mr. Matthews (1 st S. xii. 394.) says, " Both in Persian and Armoric mal signifies such wealth as is acquired by the strong hand." Of this kind may be the plain called Mai-Amir, somewhere in Kurdistan (?), mentioned in the Travels of Baron De Bode (vol.ii. p. 29.), which he translates " com- mander's wealth." Query, "estate or property of the Amir," or Emir ; for I believe mal in Persian means property in general, since there is a com- plimentary mode of address, " Mal-e-mun, mal-e- shumah Mal-e-shumah, mal-e-mun;" translated " My property is yours, yours is mine," &c.

Again, in AfFghanistan the contribution levied on a village is called mallia. (See Masson's Travels in Beloochistan, vol. ii. p. 295.) Pushtu, the lan- guage of the Afighans, is, I think, allowed to be a branch of the Indo-European family, and to be connected both with the Zend and the modern Persian. A. C. M.

Exeter.

DODSLET'S " COLLECTION OF POEMS : " COLLINS'S " ODE TO EVENING."

(2 nd S. i. 151.)

The following particulars relative to this once popular collection, may be interesting to H. A. T. I have a copy of what I presume to be the first edition. It is in three volumes. The title runs as follows : " A Collection of Poems, by Several Hands. In Three Volumes. (Here is a circular copper-plate of the Three Graces, C. Mosley, scult.) London : Printed for R. Dodsley at Tally's Head in Pall Mall. MDCCXLVIIL" The words which I have marked in Italics being in red ink.

The following MS. notes, written apparently at the time of publication, may be thought worth preserving in the columns of " N". & Q."

Vol. I. " Dodsley affirms that the Collection was pict out by Mr. Spence, who went abroad Avith Lord Lincoln."

" The test poem in this volume is, I think, London wrote by Johnson, and equal to any of Mr. Pope's satires. The Author's Honest but Poor two words often coupled together."

Vol. II. " All the Poems to the end of the

61st page in this vol. are written by Mr. Lyt- telton.

" All from the 156 page to the 228, are written by Mr. Nugent.

"All from 276 to 291 Page, by Mr. Hawkins Brown, M. o. P. for Wenlock.

"Epilogue to Tamerlane by Hon blc Horace Walpole, Jun r, M. o. P. for Callington."

Vol. III. " The two first peaces in this vol. by Mr. Lowth, Profess r of Poetry in Oxford, and are most incomparably good ; as are likewise the Essay on Satire, and Musseus and Psyche, all I think admirable, together with the Education of Achilles.

"From page 153 to 208, are by Soam Jen- nings, M. o. Parl* for the County of Cambridge."

" The two Epistles, from page 240., by the late Lord Hervey Incomparable. Fashion, a Satire, printed by Jo. Warton. Printed when a Boy at Oxford, and Put in this Collection without his knowledge vexes him much.

" From 274 to 309 by Lady M. W. Montagu."

It is right to add that the Collection differs most materially in its contents from the subse- quent editions.

These three volumes were followed in the suc- ceeding year (1749) by a fourth, with title-page, which corresponds exactly with those of the other three volumes, except that the Collection is stated to be in "four volumes" In my copy of this volume, which had belonged to the same library, viz. that of Sir George Shuckburgh, there are no MS. notes ; from which it may be inferred, that those already quoted were written when the three volumes were first published.

In this fourth volume are three Poems by Col- lins, viz. the Ode to a Lady on the Death of Colonel Charles Boss. Here it contains only eight stanzas, instead of ten, of which the fourth begins :

" O'er him, whose doom thy virtues grieve," the stanzas which are wanting being those which commence :

" Blest youth, regardful of thy doom," for which the one just quoted is substituted : and

" But lo, where sunk in deep despair," Sfc. " Ne'er shall he leave that lonely ground," Sfc.

The Second Poem is entitled, Ode ivritten in the same Year, and is the well known

" How deep the brave who sink to rest."

The Third Poem of Collins, printed in this volume, is The Ode to Evening, the subject of H. A. T.'s inquiries, and here are contained the variations to which H. A. T. refers.

It begins

" If ought of oaten stop, or pastoral song, May hope, chaste Eve, to sooth thy modest ear, Like thine own solemn springs," &'c.