Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/327

 9 th S. I. APRIL 16, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

319

1 he fanciful derivations of this word are scouted or ijimentioned. We should like to hazard a con- - acture on the word harlock, as applied to a flower 1 ,y Drayton, but are prudent, and refrain. Under 1 air the explanation of many proverbs is supplied. ' The gradual arrival at the present figurative use of harbinger as a forerunner, from its first sense as a jiarbourer or host, is very interesting to trace. Hangment, in the use " what the hangment "=what the deuce, must be much, very much, older than 1825. but probably only as a colloquialism, not likely to get into print. One would have expected to find a use of hang-dog earlier than 1687. Fully to understand handkerchief we must wait for a later instalment of the volume, under kerchief, the origin of which, couvrir and chefhe&d, seems plain enough. Handicap is a word the history of which is obscure. What is known concerning it is told with commendable fulness. Hamper, again, in the cense of to restrain or hold back from roving, is one more word of obscure origin, though its use goes back to the fourteenth century. Wherever the student or the reader turns he will find matter of historical interest. Its treasures are, in fact, inexhaustible.

Certain Tragical Discourses of Bandello. Trans- lated into English by Geffraie Fenton, Anno 1567. 2vols. (Nutt.)

To the delightful and rapidly augmenting series of " Tudor Translations " have been added two further volumes, worthy in all respects of the companion- ship into which they are thrust. We are personally anxious to see the collection enriched by Mabbe s translation of the ' Novelas Exemplares ' of Cer- vantes. This aspiration, however, we must leave to Mr. Henley and Mr. Nutt ; and we are ? mean- while, more than content to receive this edition or i instalment we are not quite able to say which of Sir Geoffrey Fenton's translation of the ' Histoires I Tragiques' of Belief orest and Boistuau. Such is i the supposed character of the book now reprinted. Mr. Robert Langton Douglas, who supplies the I introduction, and who is rather disappointingly ! sparing of bibliographical particulars, accepts this j view. The translation is, however, reprinted from i the first edition, which appeared in 1567. The title I of this is 'Certaine Tragicall Discourses written oute of Frenche and Latin by Geoffraie Fenton,' &c., I the publisher being Thomas Marshe. This title in the reprint has undergone many modifications, the principal being the omission of the two words " and Latin. Then, again, the first part only of the 'Histoires Tragiques' appeared in France in 1560 in 4to., and was reprinted in 1561, and again in 1566. A subsequent portion appeared in 1567-8, and a third part, by Belief orest, in 1571, while the concluding portion of the Italian original did not see the light until 1573. Now it is clear that the first part only of Boistuau's rendering could be French contained it would be interesting to know. The stories in Fenton are not confined to the first volume of the French edition. These are points on which Mr. Douglas is silent, and with which biblio- graphers, French and English, might well concern themselves. Fenton, in common with Sir Thomas Malorye, incurred the censure of the puritanical Ascham, for which his shade may perhaps find con- solation in the fact that Warton speaks of his work as " the most capital miscellany of this kind." It has, indeed, very keen interest, and from a philo-
 * accessible to Fenton. What that first part in

logical standpoint is of great value. Fenton shows himself distinctly a euphuist, though his translation anticipated by a dozen years the appearance of Lyly's ' Euphues.' His illustrations are amongthe quaintest we possess, and his attempts at giving balance to his sentences constitute a very significant feature. Thus, when his original says of the Comtesse de Celant that she was before her marriage " yne fille assez belle, mais gaillarde, viue, & trop esueillee "- we quote verbatim from the edition, in 16mo., of 1567 -this becomes with Fenton " a doughter, more faire then vertuouse, less honest then was neces- sarie, and worse disposed then well given any wave." One or two gems of expression may be quoted. Of one dame, more kind than chaste, he says that "her chief and common exercise there was to force a frizilacion of her haire with the bod- kind, converting the natural coolour into a glister- ing glee, suborned by arte to abuse God and nature." We have in Twyne's Virgil, 1573, " Lockes with bodkins frisled fine"; but "frizilacion" is not to be found in the ' H. E. I).,' while "glee" we will leave philologists to discuss. " Vacaboundes " for vaga- bonds is a curious and early form, and " tyntamar," though printed in italics, should be noted. For the use of the ' H. E. D.,' we may say both words occur vol. ii. p. 21. Here, vol. ii. p. 28, Blanche Maria, " seing ner newe mynyon so sewerly lymed with the blushe of her bewtie, that only a simple becke was sufficient to commaunde hym, taught hym a newe croscaprey, wyth a thousand trickes and sleightes in vawtynge." Here, again, we will not hazard a guess as to the significance of " croscaprev," though we fancy we recognize it. Uses of "cockney "and " cyvilyan" are interesting, but not unprecedented. We have dwelt on the philological rather than the literary aspects of the work. From both points of view it is equally worthy of the attention of scholars. Mr. Douglas has not a very high opinion of the political worth of Fenton, the translator, who was described in his own time as "a moth in the garment," "a flea in the bed of all the lord deputies of that time," and who came " to be more deeply and universally hated than any other officer of the queen in Ireland." In this matter we will not join issue with him.

Proverbs, Maxims, and Phrases of all Ages. Com- piled by Robert Christy. 2vols. (Fisher Unwin.) ON the first appearance of this work, which in 1888 reached us from America, we praised its general utility and the attractions of its appear- ance, but did not omit to point out its shortcomings (see 7 th S. vii. 59). It now in a new and cheaper edition appeals to a larger public. Some of the shortcomings it then revealed have been made good, but it is still capable of great improvement. We should like to see many of the lanmte filled up and some serious mistakes corrected. " Only the actions of the great smell sweet and blossom in the dust," instead of "the actions of the just," spoils rhyme and sense. "April borrows three days from March, and they are ill," destroys the character of the proverb, which should be

March lends to April Four days, and they are ill.

" A man often admits that his memory is at fault, but never his judgment," is given as anonymous! It is one of the best-known sayings of La Roche- foucauld. The same may be said of "When our vices leave us, we flatter ourselves we leave them."