Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/339

 s. m. APRIL 29, '99.] NOTES AND QUEKIES.

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.Jugh O'Neill, which has been photographed, full size, from a copy of an old work in Italian, ' La Spada cr Orione Stellata nel Cielo di Marte,' by Damaschino (Rome, 1680), which can be seen in the British Museum.

^ALEX. LEEPER. inity College, University of Melbourne.

WELSH CUSTOM (9 th S. iii. 208). The placing of a fresh-cut sod on the bowels of a corpse is not a universal custom in Wales. It is only resorted to when rapid decomposition is feared, in the belief that it is a likely means to check it. O. B. JONES.

IMPRESSIONS OF SEALS (9 th S. iii. 169). To be satisfactory, your shellac should be the best procurable. After dropping a sufficient quantity for the size of the impression desired, gently stir, and be in no hurry to impress, or the wax will adhere to the seal, and there may be difficulty in releasing the seal. Do not wet the seal, as this is detrimental to a good impression. Methylated spirits applied with a stiff brush will remove any particles of wax left on seals. HAROLD MALET, Col.

Warm the seal a little, and rub over it the end of a wax candle ; then sprinkle it with the best vermilion. Melt the sealing-wax by holding it over a candle, so that it does not catch fire, suffering it to drop upon the paper; impress the prepared seal upon it, and if done carefully a fine impression will be made. If several impressions are to be made at once, or even one of a large size, it is customary to melt the sealing-wax in a small ladle or crucible, from which it may be poured as wanted. Impressions of different colours are made by dusting the seal with coloured powder ; thus, dust the seal with lampblack and impress it upon red wax, the impression will have a black centre and red edge. To get out the particles of wax, warm the seal, and take another impression on good sealing- wax. JOHN BADCLIFFE.

"LICENSE" OR "LICENCE" (9 th S. iii. 248). It is impossible to settle the question of spell- ing such a word as licence with any hope of finality. The only rule is to conform with the prevailing fashion. Just now the fashion seems to be to spell the substantive with a -ce and the verb with an -se, to create an arti- ficial distinction. There is no sense in this idiotic notion, which contradicts etymology and history. Historically the verb was merely boined out of the substantive, being suggested by the F. verb licencier. And historically -he substantive is only the F. licence, where the F. -ce represents the -tia of the Latin

licentia, according to a rule of which there is a very large number of examples. Never- theless, it is not 'particularly uncommon to see license used as a spelling for the substan- tive also ; and this, at least, we might have been spared.

Todd's ' Johnson ' is instructive ; it gives, for the sb., the spelling licence with a cross- reference only; but under license is the remark that it is from the French licence, "and our own word is perhaps more fre- quently spelt licence than license." Nine examples are appended, in every one of which licence appears ; and there is no instance of license at all. The examples of the verb to license are truly curious. We are referred to a famous passage in Milton's
 * Areopagitica,' where the word occurs very

often : "There must be licensing dancers

the lutes must be licensed what they may

say."

The evidence is carefully cooked, and the true spelling suppressed. Turn to the edition by Prof. Hales, which follows the old copy, and behold ! the true spelling gives licencing and licenced ! The same page (p. 24) has also licencing.

After this Dr. Johnson (or Todd) quotes from Pope : " And the press groaned with licensed blasphemies." Of course he suppresses the reference.

Abbott's * Concordance to Pope ' refers us, under the same spelling, to the 'Essay on Criticism,' 1. 553. In Cary's edition the spell- ing is licensed. The word occurs again else- where, as, e.g., in the 'Dunciad,' iv. 587, and 'Sat.'viii. (or iv.) 158, 271.

Let us make a fight for licence at least for the substantive. Yet nothing can prevail against the "license" of fashion.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

As a professional reader I have found that licence as the noun is more generally used now, and licensed as the verb. The same occurs in the case of the word practice : " I have a practice to sell," in contradistinction to " practise " the art of a conjuror. A similarly necessary difference is always advisable in the word shew or shoio, where a- " galanty show " is more correct, and "tickets to snew the premises " is a proper distinction. The word connexion, which MR. CECIL CLARKE uses, is much better understood in the way contrary to that in which he uses it, as connexion now implies a relative, and connection a tying together or forming a "connection" with electric wires. Beaders in printing offices invariably keep a list of such words by them, and now, when so many registers are