Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/282

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NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th S. X. OCT. 4, 190-2.

crediting the popular derivation of Bungay from the French bon gue, and, looking to the situation of the place, inclines to the view that the name can be explained from the Icel. bung-a, a round elevation or knoll, and ey, an island. As ME. LYNN points out, a loop in the descent of the river Waveney forms a small peninsula below Bungay, and this would account for the final constituent of the name.

There is a place-name in Middlesex with a similar termination for which no satisfactory explanation has yet been offered. This is Harringay, anciently called Haringeye, and more recently corrupted into Harnsey or Hornsey. Lysons derives the name from Har-inge, the meadow of hares (' Environs,' second edition, 1811, p. 421) ; and Mr. J. H. Lloyd, in his ' History of Highgate,' 1888, p. 5, accepts this derivation, but in order to account for the terminal adds the word haia, an enclosure. As I cannot find that kaia is an A.-S. word, haga is probably intended. But if Prof. Skeat's views are correct, the name should be divided into the two con- stituents Haring and ey, and the former, though not a common A.-S. name, is found as Hering in the 'A.-S. Chronicle,' and as Hsering in runes on a comb, dating probably from the fourth century, in the Copenhagen Museum (Searle, 'Onomasticon Anglo-Saxoni- cum,' pp. 277, 295). The modern surname Herring is probably derived from this word. On this hypothesis, Harringay would mean the island or peninsula of Hering. The place is situated on high ground, almost surrounded by land of much lower elevation, which in early times was probably marsh or fenland. The surname Harington or Harrington is derived from a place with the same eponymus. W. F. PRIDEAUX.

Bungay and Waveney are etymologically the same. Koot is Welsh a/on, river ; thus a/on, avon, avona, avena, Waverney; waver- ney, verney, voney, vongey, bongey, bongay, Bungay. Conf. Cowell's ' Law Diet.', Append, under 'Avena,' 'Avona.'

B, S. CHARNOCK, Ph.D., F.S.A.

SHAKESPEARE'S SEVENTY - SIXTH SONNET (9 th S. x. 125). With reference to the use of the words "a noted weed" in this sonnet, it may be of some interest to point out that m the prayer composed by Bacon after his fall he says : "I have (though in a despised weed) procured the good of all men." What was this " despised weed " 1 It can scarcely refer to the philosophical, literary, scientific historical, or legal work of Bacon/as none of these departments were "despised" at the

iime, although play-writing certainly was ooked upon as rather an ignoble profession. Even this is acknowledged in the Shake- speare Sonnets, Nos. ex. and cxi. :

Alas, 'tis true, I have gone here and there,

And made myself a motley to the view,

Gor'd mine own thoughts, sold cheap what is most

dear, Made old offences of affections new.

3, for my sake, do you with Fortune chide, The guilty goddess of my harmful deeds, That did not better for my life provide Than public means, which public manners breeds. Thence comes it that my name receires a brand, And almost thence my nature is subdued To what it works in, like the dyer's hand ; Pity me then, and wish I were renew'd.

What reason had Shakespeare a butcher's apprentice, according to Mr. Sidney Lee for running down in this manner the profession of playwright ? Every line of my quotation every word of it fits into the life of Bacon if he was the author of the plays the member of a noble family reduced to making money by the then ignoble means of writing for the stage.

Another point in the Baconian argument which has never been explained is that when Sir John Davies, politician and poet, went to greet King James on his entry into Eng- land, Bacon addressed a letter to him asking his (Davies's) influence with the king on his behalf, this letter concluding with the words, " So desiring you to be good to con- cealed poets." Here Bacon clearly styles him- self a " concealed poet," otherwise the passage is meaningless. What was the poetry Bacon was concealing? Mr. Spedding, Bacon's

freatest biographer, gave up the conundrum, trust some reader of ' N. & Q.' can supply a satisfactory reply to the question, which is of some interest. GEORGE STRONACH.

DR. JOHN BOND (9 th S. x. 165). H. C.'s interesting note will do much towards allay- ing a long - standing doubt. John Bond, LL.D., M.P. for Wey mouth in the Long Parliament, was unquestionably the son of the well-known active Parliamentarian Dennis Bond, and was admitted to the Inner Temple in 1650/1. As proved by the entry in the ' Commons' Journals ' quoted by H. C., he was also the Master of Trinity Hall, and was likewise a Master in Chancery ; but that he was the Presbyterian divine of that name, and the member of the Westminster Assembly who preached before the Parliament, has, though so commonly received, ever appeared a matter of grave doubt. Whether Presby- terian Orders would be deemed a bar to Parliamentary honours is not quite clear ;