Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/329

 9* B.X. OCT. 25, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

321

LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER S5, 1902

CONTENTS. No. 252.

NOTES D for tfi in Middle Bnglish, 321 Rats' Bones in Tumuli "Bucks" and "Good Fellows" in 1778, 322 Women Chaplains in Convents, 324 Queen Anne " Swift's starling" Prayers to the Point' Pickwick "Opeagha" "Belle Alliance" as Christian Name, 325 Lightowler "Trance" Adams's Jaffa Colony, 326.

OUBEIBS : Coleridge s ' Christabel ' " Nebular hypo- thesis " Phipps Family, 326 Sir F. Walsingham "Divet" Zachary Hicks Dr. John Fryer Angelica Kauffmann " I '11 try and find a v link," &c. French- christen Gold Chain of Charles II 's Time, 327 "Carant" or " Coranf-Anselm Hewitt, Surgeon and Author Browning and Ruskin Old Pewter-MarksIrish Saving German Armour Lally Tollendal " Bonnet- laird" and " Cock-laird " lanthe " Beer ": "Bur," 328 " Compass Window" : " Compass Ceiling " Lesbian Rule Dragons " Corycian " " Teens " Frankliniana, 329.

REPLIES : Thackeray and Homoeopathy, 329 Coronation Sermons, 330 Experts American Knee - breeches " Taste of the potato " " Thirty days," &c. Polygraphic Hall 331 De Laci Family, 332 Place-names Ewins Stamp Collecting Heriot. 333 -Title of Book' The Vicar and Moses 'Jews and Eternal Punishment, 334 West- minster Changes Red Hand of Ireland Ludgersall, 335 Lady Nottingham Westpbalie Close, Navy Officer "Lutes of amber " Sathalia, 336 Fashion in Language, 337 "The" as Part of Title St. Pancras: Arms of the Borough Delaval-Carey, 338.

NOTES ON BOOKS: The 'New English Dictionary' Lang's 'James VI. and the Gowrie Mystery ' Loftie's 'Coronation Book of Edward VII.' ' Photominiature.'

Notices to Correspondents.

THE USE OF D FOR TH IN MIDDLE

ENGLISH.

IN the Appendix to my ' Notes on English Etymology ' I have printed a few ' Notes on some Peculiarities of Anglo-French Spelling,' by means of which it is very easy to detect the work of a Norman scribe when he had to write out an English poem. When such peculiarities are once thoroughly understood it is easy to allow for them, and to reproduce in English spelling the words which the said scribe has exhibited in a travestied form.

Perhaps a clear example of the effect thus produced may prove interesting to students who care to read Middle-English texts. In Weber's ' Metrical Romances ' there is a copy of ' Octavian Imperator,' in which the hand of a Norman scribe is conspicuous. He has the characteristic misuse of the initial h, such as hour for our (869), and Hak for Ac, i.e., but (1217) ; where the numbers refer to the lines. He confuses wh with w like a modern Londoner ; and he has so little knowledge of the old guttural gh (which he ignores in the modern fashion) that he actually writes wroghtk when he means wroth "(742), anc makes it rime with both. Without enlargin on his other numerous oddities, it is wort

while to see what he makes of the English h, a sound which it cost the Norman a good ieal of trouble to achieve, though he learnt t at last. His method was simple, viz., to writes de, he means the (105, 128, 206) ; but only writes de occasionally, in moments of relapse. I now give numerous examples, so limself.
 * onfuse it with d ; and when once we know
 * his it is easy to tell what he means. When
 * hat any reader may realize this fact for

In 11. 904, 1163, we find harkened ; but he means harkeneth, with the characteristic -eth of the imperative plural in the Southern dialect ; hence the sense is " hearken ye." Similarly, casted means casteth, i.e., "cast," indie, plural ; and fallyd means fallyth, i.e., falleth," indie, singular. The lines are :.

And fele [many] of hem casted a cry Of thyng that fallyd to rybasdy.

LI. 13, 14.

Here rybasdy is perhaps a mere misprint ; the word meant is rybaudy, i.e., "ribaldry." So in 1. 44, " Wyde sprynged hys ryche fame"; where sprynged is foV spryngeth, i.e:, springs. Some of these changes are certainly astonish- ing ; e.g., de, i.e., the, "the" (105, 128, 206) ; dan, i.e., than, "then " (106) ; blyde, for blythe, i.e., "blithe" (109); hathd, for hathth, i.e., "hath" (119) ; do, for tho, i.e., "then" (139, 872), correctly written tho elsewhere (300) ; dyder,forthyder,i.e., "thither"(237) ; doughte, for thoughte, i.e., "thought" (301); vnswade, for unswathe, i.e., " uns waddle " (302) ; swyde rode, for swythe rathe, i.e., " very quickly " (305), where we should notice that bathe, to bathe, vnswade, to unswaddle, unbind, scathe, scath, harm, and rade, quickly, all rime together ; forsode, for forsothe. i.e, " for- sooth" (400, 1103); brodyr, for brothyr, i.e., "brother" (520, 711, 962); oder, for other (663) ; with many others. See 11. 1333, 1479, 1531, 1538, 1574, <fec. Of course, the editor who is not always aware of such idiosyncrasies is apt to be puzzled ; and we can only smile when Weber rightly tells us in his glossary that do (for tho) means "then," and yet in 1. 139 prints "'-Do,' spakke hys modyr wordys fell" putting "Do" be- tween marks of quotation as if it were a part of the mother's speech, and (presumably) a verb in the imperative mood !

It is still more odd to find the scribe sub- stituting th for the English d ; as in onther, for onder, ie., "under" (515), correctly spelt onder (with the Norman o for u) in 1. 550 ; thoth, for doth, i.e., " does " (598) ; thonryght (1114), a variant of donryght (1560), i.e., " downright " ; with other traps for the un- wary. For instance, dar in 1. 1337 does not