Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/99

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

NOTES AND QUERIES.

93

Another of Scott's favourite habits is that c : making foreigners, or uneducated people, E .angle actual names in a very comic way. 1 1 Dousterswivel's mouth poor Mr. Blatter- g:>wl becomes Dr. Bladderhowl and Dr. 1 otherhowl, whilst, en revanche, Douster- s .vivel's own name is gloriously mangled by 1 die Ochiltree Dustandsriivel, Dusterdeevil, 1 'ousterdeevil, Dunkerswivel, Dustersnivel, and, best of all, DustanshoveJ. Botherhowl and Dustanshovel "Quis talia fando tem- peret a risu?" Then look at the delicious way in which Mrs. Blower muddles Dr. Quackleben's name Dr. Cocklehen, Dr. Cacklehen, Dr. Kickalpin, Dr. Kittleben, Dr. Kittlepin, Dr. Kittlehen, Dr. Kickherben. Here is an " air with variations " indeed !

C. C. B. has noticed the reviewer's remark at p. 380 that there are more of these de- scriptive names in ' Kenilworth ' than in the Scottish romances. * The Fortunes of Nigel ' (really a Scottish story, although the scene is laid in London) arid, as C. C. B. points out, ' The Heart of Midlothian ' would seem to contradict this.

I am sorry that the reviewer should speak somewhat coldly of 'Kenilworth.' He says, "It is, after all, a fine romance." I should rather think it is ! Edward FitzGerald, who appears to have much preferred Sir Walter's Scotch to his English romances, in writing to Fanny Kemble on 6 June, 1872, says, " I believe I should not care for the Ivanhoes, Kenil worths, &c., any more. But Jeanie Deans, the Anti- quary, &c. I shall be theirs as long as I am yours sincerely E. F. G." Yet in less than a year from this time he writes again : " Kenil- worth, which very place which very name of a place makes the English world akin."

For my part, I ask, Is ' Guy Mannering ' better than 'Ivanhoe,' is 'Old Mortality' better than ' Quentin Durward,' and is ' The Bride of Lammermoor' better than 'Kenil- worth ' 1 May we not say, " Les uns valent bien les autres," and be thankful for the Black Knight as well as for Dandie, for Louis XL (from a literary point of view, I mean) as well as for Claverhouse and Burley, and for poor murdered Amy as well as for poor equally (by her mother and brother) murdered Lucy? JONATHAN BOUCHIER.

Ropley, Alresford, Hants.

I think for characteristic surnames in this series Richie Moniplies (' Fortunes of Nigel ') will be hard to beat. J/cw?/ = many (ply, 1, a fold, a plait, a twist [of string, worsted, &c.] ; 2, bent, turn, direction, bias, Ogilvie) ; plies = shifts, turns, evasions. NEMO.

Temple.

FRENCH SONG (9 th S. ii. 529). This song is printed in the "Students' Tauchnitz Edition" of ' Tom Brown's School Days/ published by Tauchnitz, Leipzig, 1888 (part i. 29, 266). No author's name is stated. The commentator, Dr. Immanuel Schmidt, gives the name of the song as ' Le Bohemien Parisien,' and says that M. Ducre, of Geneva, states that the song was composed about forty years before that time, i. e., before 1888. It is, however, not clear whether the verses printed in this edition of the song. B.
 * Tom Brown ' are the whole or only part of

WEST INDIAN FAMILIES (9 th S. ii. 508). W. A. Feurtado's 'Official and other Personages of Jamaica froin 1655 to 1790,' issued by Feur- tado's Sons, Kingston, Jamaica, 1896, will be found extremely useful so far as families in that colony are concerned, although, as a matter of fact, it does not contain any refer- ences to either of the two names, Barrif and Ewins, mentioned by the REV. A. T. MICHELL.

W. ROBERTS.

Carlton Villa, Klea Avenue, Clapham.

COUNTS OF HOLLAND (9 th S, ii. 468; iii. 31). Your correspondents describe William, Count of Holland, by various titles : (a) Emperor of the Romans; (b) Emperor of Germany; (c) Deutscher Konig ; (d) King of the Romans. May I venture to inquire whether he was ever entitled to more than the last two ? Further I may remark that I did not expect to find a correspondent of ' N. & Q.' indulging in such an inaccurate description as that of "Em- peror of Germany," a title never assumed by the head of the Holy Roman Empire. MR. CHURCHILL appears to be the most scholarly in his description. The German king might or might not become Roman emperor.

H. R. J.

THE SWALLOW'S SONG (9 th S. ii. 143, 471). Liddell and Scott, in their dictionary, say that Philomela was changed into anightingale, and, in support of what they say, refer to the passage of Apollodorus which I- have quoted ; but in that passage quite the contrary is said. It is there said that Procne became a nightingale, and Philomela a swallow. Liddell and Scott say that the name Philo- mela may mean lover of song ; but the lady had her name before she was changed into a bird. As she had lost her tongue, it seems more probable that she should be changed into a swallow, which generally is supposed incapable of singing and only able to twitter. I know that the more common form of the legend makes her the nightingale ; but the other form is well known. Francklin in one