Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/171

 9 th S. III. MAR. 4, '99.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

165

their seats the candidates were sent for to compete for the gift. A cup and two dice were handed to them, and they threw the latter on the table. Frog ley succeeded in scoring eight, while her rival scorec five. The gift was thereupon handed to Frogley Later on the award of the Parson gift ' was made This was a present of 131. 7s. 10c/. to a male ap prentice who must serve a freeman of the borough for a term of seven years. The recipient was George Townsend, who is in the employ of Mr. Williamson, a cabinet-maker. Last year there was no applicant for this gift, and it was decided to hand the money to the unsuccessful maid, who thereby received more than the winning competitor."

D. M. K.

" FRETISHED." This is a common Northum- berland word, meaning starved with cold, thoroughly chilled. ' H.E.D.' has a quotation for the word from the State Papers of Henry VIII., year 1523. The editor derives "fretish" from O.Fr. freidir (froidir), hut the t in the English form makes a difficulty. The etymology is as follows : A.Fr. *freitiss-, pres. part, stem of *freitir y to shiver with cold, the equivalent of M.Lat. frigutlre, " soy demener ou traveller pour le froid, friller ou frissonner " (Ducange). A. L. MAYHEW.

EXTREME UNCTION. In the English Illus- trated Magazine for .January there appears a story of the Franco-Prussian war of 1870 ' entitled ' Reprisals,' the details of which are vouched for by the writer as correct. On one point there is, I think, a mistake. Three men are about to be shot by the Prussians, and pre- vious to their execution " the funereal cere- mony of extreme unction " takes place. This is inconsistent with Catholic practice. The anointing is administered to those who are in danger of death from disease ; hence the oil is termed " oleum infirmorum." It cannot be administered to soldiers about to fight, or to persons undertaking a perilous voyage or journey, or to criminals about to be exe- cuted. There must be an ailment affecting the body. In ' Reprisals ' the men about to be shot make their confessions and receive communion, which is quite correct. But the anointing, as related, cannot, I think, be founded on fact. GEORGE ANGUS.

St. Andrews, N.B. "

LORD LYTTON AND IBN EZRA. Many years ago I had occasion to read the lighter poems of the famous Hebrew scholar, mathematician, and traveller Ibn Ezra (it is recorded, I believe, that he lectured on mathematics in Oxford). In one of these poems he tells us, in ^ species of humour characteristically Jewish in essence i.e., in a Heine-like vein of melancholy poking of fun at his own expense that " if he were a lampmaker the sun would always shine, and if he were an

undertaker people would never die." I was very young then, and thought that conceit the acme of brilliant wit and a master-stroke of originality. In the simplicity of youth I nourisned this appalling delusion, till one day I read Lord Lytton's clever comedy 'Money ' (rarely acted in these days), in which one of the characters as I think, Graves records in an identical strain his grievance against Fortune's capriciousness. The editor of Lytton's plays, strangely enough, in a foot-note, at once destroyed the dramatist's chances of claiming any merit of originality by quoting from an Italian poet, who, pre- sumably, was the inventor of this pretty, albeit commonplace witticism. It is years, too, since I. read that comedy, and I cannot remember whether the name of the Italian poet was given. In all probability some one of your readers will be able to furnish me with the iiame, date, and source of the Italian quotation, in order that palmam qui meruit ferat^ and that one more delusion of mine may be carted to Lethe.

M. L. BRESLAR. Percy House, South Hackney.

DRYDENIANA. 'Indian Emperor,' Saints- bury's edition, 1882, vol. ii. p. 409 : Enter Guyomar and Alibech bound, with Soldiers. Cort. Prince Guyomar in bonds ! friendship's

- shame ! [t makes me blush to own a victor's name.

[Unbinds him, Cydaria, Alibech.

The editorial note on the stage direction, ' Unbinds him, Cydaria, Alibech," is as 'ollows :

" It has not been said that Cydaria was bound, [f it be not a mistaken direction, the binding must lave been implied in Almeria's 'overpowering' her." -P. 404.

y we not understand by this stage direc- tion, however, that Cortez should unbind Guyomar and Cydaria unbind Alibech ?

E. MERTON DEY.

St. Louis, U.S.

WALLER. We must not allow our judgment )f poets as men to interfere with our judg- ment of them as poets. The conduct of

Waller cannot be defended. He sacrificed lis friends in the most cowardly way in order save his own life. If, however, he had

been magnanimous, and had perished on the ,caffold, we should have lost the greater part,

and perhaps the better part, of his poems. A 3oem of just twenty lines has placed Waller

amongst the eternals. He has written much hat is excellent ; but if he had not written his beautiful song, it is possible that, with ither once celebrated poets, he might have