Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/173

 9*8. IV. Sept. 23, '99.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 257 poets and popular writers, which sufficiently shows the popularity of the binding called by this name. Mr. Yapp was a publisher of tracts and religious books in London. He was a very earnest Bible student, and carried the Word of Life with him everywhere and at all times. For many years he had longed for a binding that would stand the steady wear his Bible was subjected to and be com- fortable in the pocket, but could not find one. One day he walked into Bagster's shop and asked him to bind a Bible to a special design. The result was the "Yapp" binding, which was named after the inventor. Francis Henderson. Perth. I believe that Mr. William Yapp, who during the fifties and sixties had a Bible warehouse and dep6t for the sale of Evan- gelical literature in Old Cavendish Street, and afterwards in Welbeck Street, W., was the first to place Bibles bound with over- lapping edges upon the market, and I imagine that this form of binding was named after hira. R. Cheyne. "Elixir Vitje"in Fiction (9th S. iv. 187). i—I can add two stories of the elixir to Mr. Auld's list, viz., Balzac's ' Don Juan ; or, the Elixir of Long Life,' and Hawthorne's 'Septimius.' The querist also apparently desires the names of stories which deal witn the immortality derived from other sources. His second list quotes (1) 'Frankenstein'; (2) 'The Wandering Jew,' where it is con- ferred as a punishment (compare'The Flying Dutchman') ; (3) 'Phra' and 'Valdar,' which treat of metempsychosis. Other means of compassing the same end are (1) exchange of bodies, as in ' Dr. Basilius,' by Dumas ; (2) compact with the Evil One, as in the Faust legend (there are two novels on this theme by G. W. M. Reynolds, 'Faust' and 'The Necromancer'); (3) the wearing of a talismanic ring, as in Scott's 'Anne of Geiei stein'; (4) the method attempted by Virgil, according to Neapolitan tradition; (5) a plot differing from any of the foregoing will be found in my romance 'The Seven Sigils,' in my 'Tales of the Supernatural.' James Plait, Jun. In addition to the works named, I would direct attention to the Coxmopolitun, vol. viii., 1890, and to the following lines in Ben Jonson's ' Alchemist,' 1610 :— He that, has once the " Flower of the Sun," The perfect Ruby which we call elixir; by its virtue Can confer honour, love, respect, long life, Give safety, valour, yea, and victory, To whom he will. In eight and twenty days He'll make an old man of fourscore a child. Everard Home Coleman. 71, Brecknock Road. Add 'Dr. Heidegger's Experiment' in Hawthorne's 'Twice-Told Tales.' If the 'Wandering Jew' be included, Mr. Auld should also add to his list Dr. Croly's ' Salathiel,' the proprietor of the " Virtuoso's Collection " in Hawthorne's ' Mosses,' and the latter novelist's 'Septimius Felton.' The subject of the undying man was a favourite with Hawthorne. G. L. Apperson. Wimbledon. " Marsouin " (9th S. iv. 205).—There is no difficulty at all about this extremely easy word. A reference to Brachet's 'Etymo- logical Dictionary' or to any similar work would have explained it at once. It is not a French compound at all, but was borrowed bodily, already compounded, from a Teutonic source, such as the Icel. marsvin or the O.H.G. meriswln, a porpoise, lit. a " mere-swine." The A.-S. mere (whence E. mere), Icel. marr, G. meer, and L. mare are all ancient cognate forms from a common Indo-Germanic source. It is sad to see so many misconceptions crowded into a few lines. The confusion is terrible, and suggests that the writer would do well to learn the elements of phonetics. The pronunciation of the E. mere is quite unlike that of the A.-S. mere, which was pronounced like the mod. E. merry. Neither form accounts for Margate. The F. mar- in marsouin is due to the borrowing from Teutonic ; the true F. form of mare is mer. The tendency of vowel-sounds varies in different languages ; in English the vowels e, i, have become higher in tone, and the vowels m, o, have become lower, showing that different vowels have different ten- dencies, at any rate in our own language. The French mer is certainly from L. mare, but so is the Ital. mare ; and it is the Italian form, not the French one, which accurately gives the Latin sound. The suggestion that it is the French form that does so is an elementary blunder. Walter W. Skeat. Pinaseed (8th S. xi. 377 ; 9th S. iv. 205).— The verses quoted by Mr. Whitwell at the last reference are by Henry Carey, the author of 'Sally in our Alley' and 'Chrononhoton- thologos.' The poem, which is a satire levelled at Ambrose Philips, the "A— P—, Esq.," of the address, is given, apparently in extenso, in 'Burlesque Plays and Poems in "Morley's Universal Library," 1887, p. 136,