Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/345

 S. X. OCT. 25, 1902.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

337

reference to Satalie in Chaucer's ' Prologue,' 1. 58) by Thomas Tyrwhitt, in his notes to Chaucer. This note has been reprinted over and over again, in nearly all the editions of this celebrated ' Prologue,' so that one begins to wonder how often a word or name has to be explained before it can be said to be " known." It shows that there are many who talk about Chaucer who have never read so much as his ' Prologue.'

But there is one more thing to be said. If Sathalia means Attalia, where does tlje initial s come from ? The answer is that this s represents the Gk. es i.e., the preposition ets, which was used with place-names much as cet (at) was used in Anglo-Saxon. Sathalia means ts (or is)'ATTaA'av, which is the very formula found in Acts xiv. 25. Similarly Stamboul, Byron's Istambol, represents Is rav TroXiv. WALTER W. SKEAT.

Boiardo in his ' Orlando Innamoratp ' has the same story about the monster in the tomb, and the monster is begotten in exactly the same way. His story would confirm the reading adder, for he says that the monster was a dragon. Boiardo in the same poem has another story which can also be found in 'Sir John Mandeville's Travels.' A dragon is transformed to a lovely woman by being kissed. There are other stories of this sort. In the legend of Sir Lybius (or Sire Libeux, as Chaucer calls it) the dragon transforms itself into a beautiful lady by kissing the knight. E. YARDLEY.

FASHION IN LANGUAGE (9 th S. ix. 228, 352, 435 ; x. 251). The term " Muller," or " Muller- cut-down," applied to a hat, referred to an incident connected with the murder of Mr. Briggs in a railway carriage on 9 July, 1864. The murderer was Franz Muller, and the fact that he was found with his victim's hat was the most damning piece of evidence against him. The hat had been specially made for Mr. Briggs, but Muller had had it cut down in a way that was common in the second- hand hat trade. For some years after a low hat was spoken of as a "Muller-cut-down," or a man was spoken of as having had his hat "mullered." WM. H. PEET.

May I supplement the last paragraph of MR. HERBERT B. CLAYTON'S interesting letter by a brief explanation of the origin of the term "a Muller hat," as used in urban slang?

In the summer of 1864 a jeweller named Briggs, a highly respectable tradesman, was murdered in a first-class compartment of a train on the North London Railway by a young German named Muller, afterwards

executed for the crime. The assassin ap- propriated his victim's hat, leaving his own behind. When he was subsequently arrested under extradition he had been traced to New York it was found that he had cut down Mr. Briggs's hat, and was wearing it in an abbreviated state, resembling the head- gear made immortal by " Phiz " as crowning the rubicund old coachman Tony Weller. Since 1864 such a dwarfed chapeau has been in colloquial argot referred to by the criminal's name as a Muller. GNOMON.

Temple.

It were a pity that ' N. & Q.' should convey misleading information even on so trivial a matter as slang. MR. CLAYTON is in error in giving "juggins" and " mug" as the modern, equivalents to ."cure." The first two expres- sions signify a simpleton or dupe ; the last he has correctly interpreted as an eccentric character. HERBERT MAXWELL.

If with the indicative mood may be found in most great Englisl^ writers. I give a few examples :

I '11 never care what wickedness I do If this man comes to good.^-' King Lear.'

" If a man is thorough with them in honest taking up, then they must stand upon security." ' Henry IV.,' Second Part.

" Are the times so much more reformed now than they were fi ve-and-twenty years ago ? If they are, I congratulate the amendment of our morals." Dryden, preface to the ' Fables.'

"If it pleases others as well as me, you have got your end in profit and reputation." Swift to Pope, 28 June, 1715.

" To which he added that the French Nation was so addicted to Grimace that, if there was not a stop put to it," &c. Addison, Spectator, 481.

" Yet the scenes are for the most part delightful ; they exhibit a kind of illustrious depravity, and majestic madness, such as, if it is sometimes de- spised, is often reverenced." Dr. Johnson on Dry den's ' Conquest of Granada.'

Bacon and Milton, so far as I have observed, never have the indicative mood after if.

E. YARDLEY.

In the ' Grammar ' I was taught sixty odd years ago there was a rule which I quote from memory : "Sentences which imply con- tingency ana futurity require the subjunctive mood ; when contingency and futurity are not both implied the indicative is to be used." I have always found this adequate.

SEPT U AGENARIAN.

" If I were " or " If I was." The distinction is clear. " If I were you, I would not do it": a mere supposition, hence subjunctive. ' If I was wrong, it was not for you to set me right " : an almost admitted fact, hence indi- cative. In the former case, " If I was you "