Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/156

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th S. I. FEB. 19, '98.

the source of the plot, that he has reprinted the tale on which ' Othello ' is founded from the original edition of 'Gli Hecatommithi,' issued in Vinegia, M.D.LXVI. This is not quite correct, as the original edition, in two volumes, was printed "Nel Monte Eegale Appresso Lionardo Torrentino, M.D.LXV." I shall be grateful if any of your readers can tell me the meaning of ' Gli Hecatommithi.' MAUEICE JONAS.

SOUECES OF QUOTATIONS WANTED. Can any of your readers give the sources of the following quotations 1

"Jam non consilio bonus, sed more eo perductus, ut non tantum recte facere possim, sed nisi recte facere non possim."

Quam nihil ad genium, Papiniane, tuum ! The former is the motto before the later editions of Wordsworth's ' Ode to Duty '; the latter is on the title-pages of the ' Lyrical Ballads,' editions _ 1800, 1802, 1805. _ It is mentioned in ' Anima Poetse,' a compilation from S. T. Coleridge's note-books and mar- ginalia, and was likewise quoted by the illustrious Selden in the prefatory address " From the Author of the Illustrations " to the reader of Michael Drayton's ' Polyolbion.'

K. A. POTTS.

PLUEAL OF NOUNS ENDING IN O. What is the plural of these nouns ? Can they all be brought under a common rule 1

HAPHAZAED.

[In school days, very long ago, we were told that nouns in s, sh, ch, x, and o formed the plural by add- ing es. When it was preceded by a vowel the plural was only in s, as folio, folios. We have incurred some unfavourable comment for writing (as per- sonally we always should) potatoes, cantoes, quartoes, &c. The vowel sound of y suggests that the plural of embryo should be embryos. Chillingworth, quoted in ' H. E. D.,' has embrio's, Tate embryos, and French embrioes. You have the choice of embryons.]

LEONAEDO DA VINCI'S TLOEA' AT HAMP- TON COUET. Among the pictures at Hampton Court there is the portrait of a lady called ' Flora.' It is attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, and the face is the same as that of ' La Gioconda,' by the same painter, at the Louvre that face which Mr. Walter Pater used to admire so much, and which has held so many spectators spell-bound. Le Directeur des Musees Nationaux et de I'Ecole du Louvre has been kind enough to send me the following answer to a query about 'Flora,' which I venture to submit to the combined learning of the many friends of ' N. & Q.' :

"Monsieur, En reponse a votre lettre, j'ai 1'honneur de vous exprimer mes regrets de ne pouvoir vous dire si le portrait de femme 'Flora' qui est a Hampton Court reproduit la figure de la

'Joconde' du Muse"e du Louvre. C'est dans les nombreuses publications anglaises relatives aux tableaux de Hampton Court que vous pourrez trouver quelque renseignement k ce sujet. Recevez, Monsieur, 1 assurance de ma consideration dis- tingue" e."

Is it known whose face Leonardo da Vinci put into this famous picture ?

PALAMEDES.

CEITICISMS ON PEDIGEEES. In 1894 or thereabouts, when the last edition of Burke's ' Landed Gentry ' was published, an article appeared in some magazine or paper criticiz- ing some of the pedigrees ; among them that of Swinton of Swinton. I should be much obliged to any one who would tell me where I could find that article.

GEOEGE S. C. SWINTON.

36, Pont Street, S.W.

HANSOM. Information wanted about Mr. Hansom, the inventor of the hansom cabs now in general use. J. T. THOEP.

Leicester.

SWANSEA. (9 th S. i. 43, 98.)

IN referring to the foregoing place-name ME. J. P. OWEN calls attention to a pam- phlet written by Col. Morgan, of this town, in which a new theory is advanced by him as to the origin of the name of Swansea, in which it is pointed out, if not con- clusively, yet quite sufficiently, that it is not due to English, Danish, or any other alien source, but to a purely Celtic one, thereby brushing aside all other and hitherto believed-in definitions. ME. OWEN also refers to me as endorsing the views of Col. Morgan. PEOF. SKEAT, under a misapprehension, I think, takes exception to a statement by ME. OWEN that Sein would develope into Sweyn, later Swan, in Welsh, while PEOF. SKEAT says it is an impossible development in English.

At first sight the derivation of Swansea, apparently, is a very easy one, as it is so English in form, and many people have come to the conclusion that the name is simply made up of the two vocables Swan and sea, or Sioeyris and eye. Even many Welshmen are almost unable to resist this conclusion, and I am not surprised to learn that ME. OWEN appears to have had an unquestioning faith in this theory, as attested by his adoption of it in the course of teaching English history and his taking the name of Swansea as a capital illustration of the presence of Danish