Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/135

 9* s.x. A. 16, M02.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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certain thing, and cannot mean only to try to produce that effect. Now we are all familiar with the famous story told in two places in Plutarch (under Themistocles and Aristides) that Themistocles proposed to the Athenians a scheme for securing their supremacy, but was ordered to refer it to Aristides, and he reporting that it was advantageous but unjust, it was rejected without being explained ; and that it con- sisted in burning the whole of the confederate fleet except the Athenian portion. Lang- horne, in his translation of the life of Themistocles, without stopping to consider whether the story could be true or indeed possible (for the confederates would scarcely stand by and see all their ships destroyed without resistance), indulges in a note on the enormity of the scheme, prompted by a " policy which was diabolical." Kollin uses similar language. It may be worth while to refer to Grote's note (vol. iv. p. 293) on this story, which owes its wide circulation to the popularity of Plutarch. Grote says that

"some allusion to it was necessary, though it has

long ceased to be received as matter of history

Pagasse was Thessalian, and as such hostile to the Greek fleet rather than otherwise ; the fleet seems to have never been there ; moreover we may add that, taking matters as they then stood, when the fear from Persia was not at all terminated, the Athenians would have lost more than they gained by burning the ships of the other Greeks, so that Themistocles was not very likely to conceive the scheme, nor Aristides to describe it in the language put into his mouth. The story is probably the invention of some Greek of the Platonic age, who wished to contrast justice with expediency, and Aristides with Themistocles as well as to bestow at the same time panegyric upon Athens in the days of her glory."

But what I am pointing out now is that the expression in Mr. Bury's reference to the story implies that the imaginary and nefarious scheme was not merely proposed, but actually carried out " that he induced the Athenians to set fire to the Peloponnesian fleet in Thessalian waters." W. T. LYNN.

Blackheath.

" SWINDLER." This has been regarded by Prof. Skeat and others as one of our few loan- words from the German viz., Schwindler. It should be noted, however, that the Germans themselves consider their Schwindler to be an adaptation of the English swindler, intro- duced by Lichtenberg in his explanation of Hogarth's engravings (1794-99). See Dr. H. Dunger, 'Englanderie in der deutsche Sprache,' 1899, p. 7. It is not easy to see what is the original meaning of the word, whether it is (from A.-S. swindan, to vanish)

one who vanishes or cuts away with his booty, or one who dazzles or deceives the eyes of his victim, like a thimble-rigger, by assimilation to Ger. Kfatwndeln, to be dizzy. A. SMYTHE PALMER. S. Woodford.

Qumes,

WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers maybe addressed to them direct.

"LIVINGS "IN THE GAME OF MAW. What is the meaning of the term livings in the following extracts from ' The Groome- porters lawes at Ma we ' (about 1570), in ' Collection of Black-Letter Ballads and Broadsides' (1867), pp. 124-5?

"If you turne vp the ace of hartes, and thereby make either par tie aboue xxvj, the contrary part must haue liuings ; but if the contrary parte bee xxv, by meanes whereof liuings sets them out, then* is he who turned vp the ace of hartes to make for the set."

" You may not aske a carde to set the contrary parte or your selfe at liuings or out.

" Prouided alwaies that, if the contrarie parte be xxiij or aboue, by reason that fower sets the other partie behinde the liuirfi^es, it shalbe lawfull for the partie which is behinde to aske a carde,' although the carde so asked piit the other to liuings."

HENRY BRADLEY. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

CHARLES GORDON, OF THE CHESAPEAKE. To what family did Charles Gordon, of the U.S. warship Chesapeake, belong] He was tried with the captain, James Barron, for surrendering to H.M.S. Leopard, 1808.

J. M. BULLOCH.

118, Pall Mall.

"SiTHENCE NO FAIRY LIGHTS." Can any reader of ' N. & Q.' tell me the name of the author of the following lines, which are quoted by Hazlitt in his essay on Jeffre*y 'Spirit of the Age,' 1825, p. 307?

Sithence no fairy lights, no quickning ray, Nor stir of pulse, nor object to entice Abroad the spirits ; but the cloister'd heart Sits squat at home, like Pagod in a niche Obscure.

THOMAS HUTCHINSON. 141, Ebury Street, S.W.

FRENCH QUOTATION. "Beaucoup de per- sonnes voudraient savoir, mais peu desirent apprendre." Whence does this come?

Hie ET UBIQUE.

NAME OF BOOK WANTED. Could you or any of your readers tell me the name or title