Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/351

 8. III. MAY b', '99.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

345

that his fables are by J3sop. 'The d Frog,' which is in CroxalPs book, has b< en told by Horace, by Babrius (who cl singes the frog into a toad), by Phaedrus, ai d by La Fontaine. * The Mouse and the "W aasel ' is told by Horace, by Babrius, with th 3 animals changed into two foxes, and by Li Fontaine. I make out that eleven fables in Croxall have been told both by Babrius and Phaedrus. Forty-one fables in Croxall have been told by Babrius, and not by Phaedrus. Thirty-eight have been told by Phaedrus, and not by Babrius. 'TheMouii- ta ns in Labour ' has been told both by Horace and by Phaedrus. 'The Horse and the Stag,' said to be the invention of Stesi- chorus, is in Aristotle, Horace, and Phaedrus; 'The Fox and the Sick Lion' is told both by Horace and Babrius; and there seems to be in Horace a reference to another fable of ^Espp, narrated by Babrius, that of the fly which fell into the soup. Other fables have other classical authority. The fable of ' The (Bald Knight who lost his Wig ' looks modern, jbut there are Greek versions of it. 'The (Serpent and the Man' undoubtedly has jbeen found amongst the Indian fables, but it has been told also in Greek prose. 'The It seems to be also amongst the Eastern fables. 'The Old Man and his Sons' is by Babrius, but it has been mentioned as historical by Plutarch. 'The Dog in the Manger' is in a dialogue of Lucian. As ill know, the fable of 'The Belly and the Members' was told by Menenius Agrippa, ind that of ' The Lark and her Young Ones ' s in a work of Aulus Gellius. ' The Ass in he Lion's Skin' is mentioned as a fable of Ssop by Libanius, who lived 360 A.D. ' The ox and the Hedgehog ' has been mentioned y Aristotle as a fable of ^Esop. Plutarch ells the fable of ' The Fox and the Stork,' or, s he says, 'The Fox and the Crane,' and entions vEsop as the author of it. There is pretty fable told by Croxall, and called Death and Cupid.' It is not in La Fontaine, cannot find it amongst the 426 Greek Esopian fables. I dare say that the origin f it is known, although unknown to me.
 * Wind and the Sun' is told by Babrius.

E. YARDLEY.

" BAGATELLE." In the 'H.E.D.' the first lotation for this word is from Howell's -letters,' 1645, and the derivation, tentatively "ven, is :

t. bayatefla, a diminutive form which Dicz

tfiches to the Parmesan bayata, a little property,

robably from baga. See Baggage."

Prof. Skeat, in his ' Etymological Diction-

ry (second edition, 1884, p. 48), quotes Brachet

and Diez to the same effect. The 'Encyclo- paedic Dictionary' connects the word with Old French bague and ProvenQal bagua, a bundle.

Now there is an interesting analogue of the word bagatelle in the Low Latin bagatinus, or bagathinus, which occurs in the ' Colloquies of Erasmus,' first published, I believe, in 1524. The passage is from the 'Opulentia Sordida,' in which Jacobus and Gilbertus discuss the sordid ways of misers :

"Sunt illic naviculatores qui concharum minutum genus hauriunt, potissimum e latrinis : hi clamore certo significant quid habeant venale, ab his interdum jubebat emi dimidio nummuli, quern illi bagathinum appellant. "

In my edition of the 'Colloquies' (1740, edited by S. Patrick, tubprazceptor of the Charterhouse) is the following note to bagathinum :

"Npmen est monetse minutissimee apud Italos, veluti apud nos one farthing, credamque vocem Gallicam, bagatelles, res nihili, hinc profectam."

Then in the invaluable ' Glossary ' of the Seigneur Du Cange we find :

"Bagatinus, monetse species apud Italos. Re- gimina Paduae ad an. 1274, apud Murator., to. 8, col. 424. Dominus Gotifredus de la Turre de Mediolano Potestas Paduae. Hoc anno de mense Februarii fuit inventum in clausura Domus Dei per fratrem Rolandum tantum aurum in meaglis \_aic] quod valuit circa xvii millia librarum Bagatinorum. Eadem Italice scripta legantur ibid. pag. 380 : ' Messer Gufredo della Torre di Milan o Podesta de Padoa ; in quest' anno del mese di Febraro fit ritrovato nella chiesa della ca de Dio per frate Orlando tanta quantita d'oro in medaglie che valse circa dicia sette millia libre de Bagattini.' Glossarium vero Italicuni ad hanc vocem: 'Bagat- tino, moneta immaginaria che vale il quarto d un quattrino, e si chiama anco un denario, e picciolo.' Bagattare, Nugari, Tricari, apud Muratorium, to. 2, pag. 214, col. 2. Cognomine vocatus el Bagatella, propter ejus cavillationes umbratiles et pueriles, velquod illamartem noveritBagattandi." 'Glossa- rium ad Scriptores Mediae et Infimse Latinitatis,' Paris, 1733, vol. i. p. 926.

From these passages it would seem that a bagattino was really a petty coin of the value of the fourth part of a quattrino, which latter 1 take to be the equivalent of the Latin quadrans, old English quadrins, or mites, but in Latin the fourth part of a denarius. See 'Farthing 'in the 'H.E.D.'

As one who has experienced considerable difficulties from vague references, I have given the above in rather minute detail a lesser sin so to give them than casually to refer to an authority merely by name.

Prof. Skeat and other expert philologists can, no doubt, say if it is possible that the Italian bagattino has been transmuted into French bagatelle. In any case the above