Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/285

 9 th S. 1

S. I. APRIL 2, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

277

New Methodists for having abused the power they have assumed : a great many of these abuses the New Methodists have formally protested against, which are enumerated in various publications, and particularly in the preface to the life of one of their deceased friends, Mr. Alexander Kilham. Hence these New Methodists have been sometimes denomi- aated Kilhamites."
 * They (the Methodists) are also upbraided by the

In a note Dr. Evans says the article was furnished to him by a correspondent at Nottingham. JOHN T. CUERY.

"MERRY" (8 th S. ix. 108, 270; 9 th S. i. 193). I am afraid your last correspondent is easily satisfied. The explanation of merry which he quotes at the last reference is all guesswork, and patched up by help of a curious blunder.

1. First of all, merry is simply the M.E. merie, murie, mirie, A.-S. myrge, merge, mirige, a perfectly well-known word, of which a fair account is given in Toller's 'A.-S. Diet.,' s.v. mirige; in Stratmann's 'M.E. Diet.,' s.v.murie; and in the 'Century Diet.,' s.v. merry. All that is odd about this word is that it had a wide range of meanings, which are exemplified in a large number of glossaries. I give thirteen examples in my glossary to Chaucer, nearly thirty examples in my glossary to 'Piers Plowman' (under mery, mury, murye, myry\ not to mention the numerous examples of the sb. murlhe (mirth) and the verb murthen (to cheer). The standard quotation for merry men is from Chaucer's 'SirThopas' (Group B, 2029): "His merie men com- manded he." There is not the ghost of a pretext for supposing that the merie in this quotation is a different word from the merie in ' Troilus,' iii. 952 : " For sone hope I we shulle ben alle merie."

2. The " Old Teut. mere " is all moonshine. There is no such language as " Old Teutonic." The^ reference is to the O.H.G. mare, 0. Sax. mdri, Goth, mers, A.-S. mcere (with long OB), renowned, famous, a very common word in A.-S. poetry. It occurs in M.E. as mere, mare, with the sense of "glorious"; but it was obsolete by the end of the fourteenth century (see Stratmann). But this word has nothing whatever to do with merry. The vowel was long, which makes all the differ- ence. What should we say of one who pro- posed to connect the Latin merus, unmixed, with the Latin mceror, grief? We should ask him to explain the difference in the vowel. But in English etymology confusion of this kind seems to count for nothing. And the reason is clear, viz., that scholars know the length of a Latin vowel, as it was driven into them at school. But what do our schools

care about the length of an A.-S. vowel? Not a button.

3. We are asked to connect this word with the Gaelic mara (!), there being no such word. However, the word meant is the Gael, mor, great, W. mawr, O. Irish mar, mor, great. It so happens that this word is cognate with the Goth, mers, famous; but I suspect that it was merely a lucky shot. But ail this has nothing to do with the A.-S. mirige (myrige), or the M.E. merie, or the mod. E. merry.

Those who start such hypotheses should verify their results. The use of Stratmann's 'M.E. Dictionary' would have dissipated the illusion at once. WALTER W. SKEAT.

It may be that our forefathers " did not ought," but they certainly spoke of Lincoln as "Merry Lincoln." Why should the city have been lacking in renown in former days? It was certainly a place of commercial im- portance, and the commanding position of its beautiful minster, towering upwards from the brow of "The Cliff," would be memorable to all natives of our flat Eastern and Midland counties who had had the good fortune to see it. Its happy position allows it to be visible from many far distant points besides

Belvoir's lordly terraces,

and on nearer approach no one can fail to be struck by its appearance.

It is probable also that the familiar phrase " Lincoln green " would render the city well known. However this may be, that Lincoln was " Merry Lincoln" is certain. Do we not find it in one of the old ballads relating to the death of Little St. Hugh?

The bonny boys of merry Lincoln

Were playing at the ba', And wi' them stu' the sweet Sir Hugh, The flower amang them a'.



Gae hame, gae hame, my mither dear,

Fetch me my winding-sheet, For again in merry Lincoln town

We twa shall never meet.

In another version of the same tragedy we are also told :

And a' the bells o' merry Lincoln

Without men's hands were rung; And a' the books o' merry Lincoln

Were read without men's tongue; And ne'er was such a burial Sin Adam's day began.

FLORENCE PEACOCK. Dunstan House, Kirton-in-Lindsey.

JOSIAH CHILD (9 th S. i. 207). Sir Josiah Child (not Childs), as far as I know, had nothing to do with the West Indies. He was supreme director of the East India Company, and made his brother commander-in-chief of