Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/406

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. i. MAY u,

old resident in Boston, Mass., he would know that the word " barge " so used had no sailor origin, but came from Nile's stable in School Street and his big sleigh " Cleopatra's Barge.'

F. J. P. Boston, Mass.

PORT ARTHUR (9 th S. i. 367). Port Arthur takes the name (but now under new occupiers reverting to its Chinese one) from the captain of one of Her Majesty's ironclads on the China station (the Iron Duke, I think) at the time the coasts of Manchuria and Corea were surveyed. R. B.

Upton.

HONGKONG AND KIAO-CHOU (9 th S. i. 348). " Fragrant water " is a fair translation of the first name; but it must be noted that the mandarin or literary Chinese pronuncia- tion is Hiang Kiang, and that Hong Kong is provincial, as are several other names in the vicinity of the island ; for instance, it is separated from the mainland by the Strait of Ly-ee-moon, derived from the Cantonese words ly-ee, a sort of fish (the carp), and moon, a gate. As to Kiao Chow, the final syllable denotes a city of the second order. The Chinese have been said to be the only people who can, by means of a termination added to the name of a place, designate its relative rank. Kiao, according to Williams's 'Dictionary,' p. 368, means glue or gum. I do not quite understand why INQUIRER writes Pekin, Nankin, as both vowels are short. His accents cannot be marks of length ; and as the stress is upon the syllable kin the accents can equally little be marks of emphasis.

JAS. PLATT, Jun.

SONNETS ON THE SONNET (7 th S. iv. 429, 532 ; v. 72, 456 ; 8 th S. i. 87, 135, 177). These numerous references show that several readers of ' N. & Q.' took an interest in this subject some years ago. After a longer delay than Horace recommends, a curious collection bearing this title is about to be published by Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co. The Italian sonnets by Marino and Nencioni, about which I sought assistance in this journal, have nol been discovered ; but the anthology, confining itself strictly to its subject, forms quite a large volume. I shall still be glad to receive additions to the store.

MATTHEW RUSSELL, S.J.

86, St. Stephen's Green, Dublin.

CERVANTES ON THE STAGE (9 th S. i. 327). S. J. A. F.'s query covers, I presume (though he does not say so), the dramatic work written by Cervantes himself as well a* dramatic adaptations of his romances. I have

not met with any of the latter so treated ex- cept 'Don Quixote'; but your correspondent may possibly not know of Cervantes's own Ocho Comedias y ocho Entremeis nuevos,' Drinted at Madrid in 1615, and again in 1749. The collection is rare, as it has never (I think) >een reprinted, the reason, according to Srunet, being that "on estime peu ces comedies."

OSWALD HUNTER BLAIR, O.S.B. Fort Augustus, N.B.

MILITARY TROPHIES (9 th S. i. 327). In a jook in my possession, which I believe to be somewhat scarce, entitled 'The Battle of Waterloo,' stated to have been published by ' Authority " in the year 1816, an account is given of the ceremony of lodging at the Jhapel Royal, Whitehall, on 18 January, 1816, he eagles captured from the enemy. The Eloyal United Service Institution now occupies
 * he building formerly known as the Chapel

[loyal, Whitehall, but this note may perhaps give C. R. a clue as to the present whereabouts of the eagles. A, R. B,

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant, By Bernard Shaw.

2vols. (Richards.)

ENGLISHMEN have ceased to be readers of plays. Mr. Bernard Shaw, in his preface to his published volumes, notes the fact, without being at much trouble to find an explanation. It has always to some extent been thus in England. The guarto versions in which the masterpieces of the Tudor drama first saw the light were as often as not pirated, and the folio collections by which they were succeeded were, as is well known, in other cases than that of Shakspeare, posthumous, and wholly without supervision from the authors, their publication being, in the instance of Shakspeare, a speculation of theatrical managers. Ben Jonson incurred much banter and some attack for daring to print a collection of his plays under the title of 'Works.' Complete editions of our Elizabethan, Jacobean, and Carolinian dramatists have been given to the world in more or less modern editions. Even now, however, we are scarcely reconciled to the publication of plays, and recent editions of Drayton, Daniel, and other poets omit entirely the dramas. The occasion is scarcely suited to pursuing a subject of interest, introduced principally for the purpose of showing that in printing his collected plays Mr. Bernard Shaw is to some extent an innovator. Reasons for his adoption of the plan of publication are easily found. Mr. Shaw is an apostle of a creed which, whatever progress it mav have recently made, is not yet that of England, i His plays, moreover, deal with subjects at which English prudery looks askance, and the treatm is such as is sure to embroil him with the censure. Anxious to advocate views to which, howev eccentric they may be, he strongly holds, he aow