Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/253

 9'S. X. SEPT. 27, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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at the Royal Circus, " and will be produced in a few days."

E. RIMBAULT DIBDIN. Morningside, Sudworth Road, New Brighton. (To be continued.)

LINGUISTIC CURIOSITIES. The following lines may interest some of your readers. They are intended to prove the near relation- ship of Latin and Italian. I do not remember to have seen them in any English book.

Te saluto, alma Dea, Dea generosa, O gloria nostra, o Veneta regina ! In procelloso turbine funesto Tu regnasti secura : mille membra Intrepida prostrasti in pugna acerba. Per te miser non fui, per te non gemo, Vivo in pace per te. Regna, o beata Regna in prospera sorte, in alta pompa, In augusto splendore, in aurea sede. Tu serena, tu placida, tu pia, Tu benigna : tu salva, ama, conserva.

The following lines contain Gothic of a very old stage. They were probably written by an Italian in Africa under the domination of the Vandals, who spoke Gothic, a tongue more nearly related to Anglo-Saxon than is O.H. German :

Inter citz Gothicum scapia matzia ia drinkam Non audet quisquam dignos educere versus.

Here citz is supposed to mean kiss ; scapia matzia (or matia) = sheep-meat ; ia may be some Gothic expletive or affirmation =ja, though Burmann would read wina=\vine; drinkam=& drink. Another version gives tils for citz, which will = Germ. Heil.

H. A. STRONG. University College, Liverpool.

ALLAN RAMSAY AND THOMSON. At the present time, when it is fashionable to assign an author's works to one or other of his eminent contemporaries, it is singular that no one should utilize the floating legend by which Thomson of ' The Seasons ' is credited with the authorship of 'The Gentle Shep- herd.' A friend of Ramsay's, by name John Steel, averred that Allan himself told him how the thing came about. The wigmaker, says Steel, was one day shaving the author of 'The Seasons,' when he was pressed to lend his name for the title-page of ' The Gentle Shepherd,' and ultimately consented on an assurance being given him that reason- able conditions would attend the obliging accommodation. "So," concludes this cir- cumstantial report, " from what is said above, Mr. Thomson, the author of ' The Seasons,' is the author of ' The Gentle Shepherd,' and Allan Ramsay is the father of it." Sir Harris Nicolas chronicled this story in the memoir prefixed to his edition of Thomson, 1831-47;

and although it is the case that Leigh Hunt, in 'Men, Women, and Books,' scouts it as ridiculous finding, he says, "not a trace of resemblance to Thomson's style in 'The Gentle Shepherd ' "his is but an individual opinion, and may be erroneous. There is certainly room here for investigation and chronicle of ingenious surmise. Ramsay and Thomson were undoubtedly contemporary Scotsmen, and Thomson was a great force in the movement that culminated in the Romantic revival of letters. Now 'The Gentle Shepherd' is a rural poem, and its author seems to have been thoroughly familiar with shepherds, which is a thing hardly to be looked for in an Edinburgh wigmaker credited with shaving descriptive poets. Some one should trace this story to its source and finally resolve the impending doubt. The leading points to be settled are (1) Did Ramsay shave Thomson? and (2) Did he stand sponsor for his customer's work 1

THOMAS BAYNE.

PICK = STEAL. "phis has generally been re- garded as a secondary use of the ordinary verb pick (legere), but it is probably a distinct word, and a derivative of Ital. picare, to rogue, to cheat up and down (Florio) ; picaro, a rogue (id.\ which comes from It. pica (Lat. pica), a magpie, a notoriously thievish bird. Thus picare was originally to play the magpie. To pickeer, Fr. jncorer, to maraud, originally to steal cattle (Lat. pecus, pecoris), is also un- connected. A. SMYTHE PALMER.

S. Woodford.

OLDEST WOODEN CHURCH AND UNIVERSITY.

" The oldest wooden building in the world is a church at Borgund, in Norway. It was built in the eleventh century, and has been protected by fre- quent coverings of pitch, says a contemporary. The oldest university in the world is El Azhar, meaning ' the splendid,' situated at Cairo. It is the greatest Mohammedan school, and has clear records dating from 975." *S1 James's Gazette (Special Edition), 6 February. Both fine records, if true. URLLAD.

WESLEY AND HOMER. I do not know whether John Wesley was as great a student of Homer as Gladstone, but he makes a quotation from the poet in one of his letters which is worthy of notice. The portion con- taining this is given in Canon Overton's ' Life of Wesley ' (p. 151), and the letter was written to Fletcher in 1773, requesting him to take up the organizing work, which Wesley (then seventy years of age) thought he could not hope to continue much longer. A head was required, for, he says, OVK dyaOov These words occur ('II.,'