Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/266

 258

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. XL MARCH 23, 1903.

ROBIN HOOD (9 th S. xi. 169). If the French novelist referred to is a modern writer, it is possible that he became acquainted with Robin des Bois from Weber's opera 'Der Frei- schiitz,' which in the French version has been rendered Robin des Bois. The scene is laid in Bohemia, and Robin is represented as a fiend, who supplies his victim in exchange for his soul with seven magic bullets in order that he may be the winner in a shooting con- test, for which the prize is a girl. The girl, of course, is in love with some one else, but is saved by the intervention of a holy hermit, while the owner of the magic bullets dies uttering the most dreadful imprecations. T. P. ARMSTRONG.

Selon toute apparence, 1'expression " Robin des bois" n'a rien a faire avec le Robin Hood des Anglais (qui etait du reste un personnage reel), car voici 1'explication de cette premiere phrase :

"C'est, en Allemagne, un chasseur mysterieux de la foret, procurant a qui en veut des balles en- chantees, moyennant le contrat terrible qui lui assure Tame de son prote"g6. Ce heros n'est qu'une des nombreuses personnifications sous lesquelles la croyance superstitieuse du peuple a d^peint le g^nie du mal. Robin des bois est le sujet d'un opera de Weber [i.e., Treyschiitz']."

EDWARD LATHAM.

61, Friends' Road, East Croydon.

For the identification of Robin Hood with the being of French folk-lore, see the notice in the'D.N.B.' That Robin Hood is a cor- ruption of Robin of the Wood is a theory borne out by the spelling Robin Whode, which is noticed in Gent. Mag., 1793, part i. p. 226, and occurs in the account of the visitation of the Bishop of Winchester's Commissary to New College, Oxford, in 1566/7, during which Martin Colepepper (who afterwards was Warden from 1573 to 1579) was accused of having called the metrical version of the Psalms "Robin Whode's Ballads."

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

Robin des Bois is mentioned in Wheeler's ' Noted Names of Fiction/ He is said there to be the same as Der Freischiitz. A refer- ence is given to one of Eugene Sue's novels in which it is said that his name is used by French mothers to frighten their children.

E. YARDLEY.

GENERAL HAYNAU (9 th S. xi. 168). I well remember the tale told to children about fifty years ago of the misdeeds of Haynau, and how he was set upon by workmen when he came on a visit to London. The flogging of the Hungarian lady caused in country places great indignation, and the retribution

which overtook him at the hands of the London draymen was heartily approved by country people. The act was not generally known until after the general's punishment. The common belief was that the lady was flogged by the general himself.

THOS. RATCLIFFE. Worksop.

HANOVER OR SAXE - COBURG ? (9 th S. xi. 169.) I see by the 'Almanach de Gotha' of 1888, French edition, that the royal family of England (p. 30) are styled "Maison des Guelfes, ou cle Brunswick -Lunebourg (Ligne Cadette)," while the " Branche Royale de flanovre" (p 33) is called "Branche non- Regnante de la Ligne Cadette de Bruns- wick-Lunebourg." 1 see that the late Prince Albert on p. 82 comes under the heading ' Saxe-Cobourg et Gotha,' and this is line c of the Branche Ernestine (ou Ainee) of the house of Saxe on p. 76.

This year's edition of the above book would show how our royal family are styled.

R. B. B.

EASTER (9 th S. xi. 182). MR. LYNN, an astronomical specialist, proposes to abandon the lunations and fix Easter for the first or second Sunday in April ; but, alas ! with our fluctuating calendar, this leaves the day of the month a still open question.

Now, if every month began on a Monday and ended on a fixed day, the first and second Sundays would necessarily fall on 7 or 14 April, to all eternity. LYSART.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

Chrifit Church, Canterlmry. I. The Chronicle of John Stone. Monk of Christ Church, 1415-1471. II. Lists of Deans, Priors, and Monks of Christ Church Monastery. Edited and compiled by William George Searle. (Cambridge Antiquarian Society ; Deighton & Bell.)

THIS chronicle cannot be regarded as of first-class importance ; but because we say this it must not be assumed that we think the labour bestowed on it by the editor has been a work of supererogation. In our opinion it is highly necessary that all such docu- ments should be printed, and especially those, like the present, which, so far as is known, exist in only a single manuscript. These small local chronicles contain many minor facts which have been passed over by the more voluminous writers, and they not unfrequently give differing statements on important subjects, which it is highly necessary to compare with those of writers who took, on the whole, wider views, but who in some cases were not so near the sources of knowledge. Attention may be directed to one example. Stone was, we may assume pretty confidently, not in the North Country on that terrible Palm Sunday when the battle of Towton