Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/95

 9"> s. xit. AUG. i, iocs.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

87

"Obscure, possibly an evergreen shrub, a species of Anthospermum, whose leaves when bruised smell sweetly." Surely the poet is referring to the familiar fable of Phaethon's sisters changed to trees, while their tears became amber.

On p. 67 we are informed that Dionysius the Areopagite was "the follower of one Areopagus," and thereby pleasantly reminded of that " miserable fanatic " John Presbyter, who, according to Mr. Robert Dempster, founded the sect of Presbyterians in the reign of the monarch under whom Crashaw wrote. Further, no explanation is given of "the right-eyed Areopagite's " "vigorous guess," though the words apparently refer to Dionysius's legendary remark at the time of the Crucifixion.

A note on p. 89 states that Geryon was " a monster with three heads carried off by Hercules." Geryon was killed ; his cattle were driven off. Hercules carried off " three gentlemen at once " in the person of the three- headed hound Cerberus.

On p. 145 Argus of the hundred eyes is described as a son of Jupiter. Presumably he has been confounded with the eponymous hero of the city Argos.

The " conceit " on p. 161 in " The humorous strings expound his learned touch | By various glosses" does not appear to have been caught, if one may judge by the fact that "sounds" is offered as an interpretation of the last word.

In one note on p. 87 the name Triopas appears as Trispar, and in another Procne as Proco, while on p. 89 Megaris should be printed instead of Mageris. On p. xxi "ne fasto " is for nefasto. One might protest against grutch (p. 161) being described as a " corruption " of grudge, (see ' H.E.D. 7 ).

In the introduction (in which, though the year when the poet took his degree of M.A. is carefully recorded, no date is given for his death, or for the first issue of his * Steps to the Temple ') the statement is made that the Chapel of Peterhouse was "sacked by the Rebels " on 21 December, 1642. This should be 1643. See Cooper's * Annals of Cambridge,' vol. iii. p. 364.

No sane person nowadays would maintain that a " classical education " by itself fitted any man for the office of critic or commentator on an English writer. On the other hand, it is, I trust, not a piece of pedantry or prejudice to affirm that for the satisfactory elucidation of a modern poet whose thought or expression or subject-matter depends to any appreciable extent on ancient authors, some acquaintance with Greek and Latin literature can hardly be dispensed with.

More than one notable example could be pointed out in recent days of the neglect of this principle. In the case of the "Little Library " the reader is inclined to be more exacting because of its excellent get-up and the statement of the publishers in their prospectus that "the books will be edited with the most sympathetic and scholarly care." I have not examined the important question of the textual accuracy of this edition of Crashaw. The tone of the introduc- tion is certainly sympathetic ; but the editor's notes can scarcely be called scholarly.

EDWARD BENSLY.

The University, Adelaide, S. Australia.

WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest Do affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers maybe addressed to them direct.

"PADDY PERSONS." In Motley's 'United Netherlands,' vol. i. chap. vii. p. 393, there is incorporated in the text a passage from a letter of 2 Jan., 1585 ( = 12 Jan., 1586, N.S.), from Muster-master Thomas Digges, in the Netherlands, to Secretary Walsingham, in which the writer is cited as saying, " I doubt not the flower of the pressed English bands are gone, and the remnant supplied with such paddy persons as commonly, in voluntary procurements, men are glad to accept." The queer phrase "paddy persons" appears to have tickled Motley, on the principle, perhaps, of omne ignotum pro magnified. He adopts it, without inverted commas, in his next para- graph, in which we are told that " the con- dition of the paddy persons continued most destitute." They turn up again as old acquaintances in chap, viii., where "Alex- ander Farnese and his heroic little army" are in the same plight as "Lord Leicester and his unfortunate ' paddy persons.' " From Motley the adjective was picked up by the dictionary - makers. Naturally it was gar- nered by the editors of Webster, 1864, with a quotation attributed to Digges (as given in Motley), and one from Motley himself. It was thence compiled into Ogilvie's 'Imperial,' 1882, and Cassell's ' Encyclopaedic,' 1886, and thence transferred back to the American 'Century,' 1890, and Funk & Wagnalls's ' Standard,' 1895. If dictionary recognition could establish the genuineness of a word, paddy ought to be beyond suspicion. Seeing, however, that all this long chain of second, third, fourth, and fifth hand authority hung upon the slender thread of Motley's quota-