Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/394

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NOTES AND QUERIES. P th s. xn. NOV. u, im.

je ne seal comment, parmi les draps Puis, luy

ayant dit quelques mots, il sortoit de la chambre, conduit pourtant du gentilhomme, qui ampres ,[;] estre retourne, par cas fortuit trouva le gand du marquis perdu dans les draps, dont la dame ne s en estoit pas appercue."

The husband tacitly drew his own con- clusions, and ceased to treat her as his wife. The neglected lady tried to win him back by writing, and leaving in a position where he would see them, these lines : Vigna era, vigna son : Era podata, or piu non son ; E non so per qual cagion Non mi poda il mio patron. The husband saw the verses and replied : Vigna eri, vigna sei, Eri podata, e piu non sei ; Per la granf a del leon Non ti poda il tuo patron.

She sent both sets of verses to the marquis, and he wrote in reply :

A la yigna che voi dicete lo fui, e qui restete ; Alzai il pamparo, guardai la vite ; Ma non toccai, si Dio m' ajute. The husband, on reading these, was appeased, and " they lived happily ever after."

I would note that Brantome gives a trans- lation of the Italian lines, and that he translates " Per la granf a del leon " by " Pour 1'amour de la griffe du lyon." There seems to be here an echo of the "lion's track." I cannot trace the word granf a, but I suspect that it is an error (possibly a misprint) for yrampa, one of the variants of Tampa.

JAMES H. WILLIS. 4, Cranfield Road, Brockley, S.E. (In the Elzevir edition, Leyde, 1666, the word granf (i appears as yraffio. Other alterations nol wholly unimportant are made and copied in later editions.]

PUNS. Some austere authority has some where laid down the stern canon that the unfailing test and touchstone of true wil consists in its capability or otherwise o1 being translated into all languages without evaporation of its essence ; and, consequently that if an idea is truly humorous, it woulc be as funny in Chinese as in English. This principle would, of course, rule out all pun and other jokes whose fun consists only in verbal jingles and plays on words. Well, it may be admitted that the highest and trues humour the humour which consists in a thought or a sentiment would lose nothing by translation, and would be equally amusing in all languages, whereas the humour of a pun, being purely verbal, must perish if ii were proposed to transplant it to anothei tongue it cannot be transplanted. Never

heless, let us concede that there is often much fun and ingenuity in these verbal okes, and that they are a form of humour, uhough of a humbler kind than those conceits whose roots strike down to the subsoil of entiment and idea.

All readers of Shakespeare must be well aware that this was with him a favourite form of fun I have myself counted no fewer than thirty-nine of such pleasantries which occur in his various plays. Many of these are of a somewhat forced and strained cha- racter, and would not at the present day be thought particularly amusing.

PATRICK MAXWELL. Bath.

THE Two FROWYKS. Scholars^acquainted with the municipal history of mediaeval London will readily recognize the name of Henry de Frowyk, who, as sheriff and alderman, played an important role in the metropolis late in the reign of Henry III., and early in that of his successor Edward I. An earlier Frowyk also Peter must have been a man of 'some note, seeing that he married Joan, the daughter of Radulph Hardel, alderman.

Certain entries relating to these worthies claim some attention. We are informed that Henry possessed houses in Ironmongerlane forfeited " eo quod predictum Henricum apostatasse dicebatur " (Watney's ' St. Thomas of Aeon,' p. 258). The Close Roll of 1254 likewise informs us that Henry, the king's surgeon, became possessed of thirteen shops formerly belonging to Peter de Frowyk, " who had left the Christian faith." This is confirmed by an entry on the Gascon Rolls (Michel, 432a, No. 3493) which speaks of Magister Henry, " cirurgien," and Peter, "qui fidem Christianam sprevit, ut dicitur."

It will be seen from these notices that nothing decisive is declared with regard to the " apostasy," and that no allusion is made to their having entered the fold of Judaism, although presumably both had dealings with Jews, and Henry lived in Milk Street, with a Hebrew on one side, and Muriel, a Jewess, on the other. These cases do not imply con- version to the Jewish faith. They must be regarded as suspected, but unproven instances of what was called, in the jargon of the day, " judaizing " acting as usurers after the fashion of their Jewish neighbours. The case is clear with regard to Peter, as we are told (Watney, ibid.) that he lent money to Adrian Eswy.

In an age when borrowers were plentiful, and large demands were made for ready cash, we must not be surprised to learn that