Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/73

 .V.JAN. 27, i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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for his Reward. Now this will appear an Hazard both to himself and the Publick, these Patentees having no Fund for Tryals, nor for assigning a Reward, and besides having lett Leases of their Engines for many Years are wholly regardless whether the same be improved or not. This is therefore to invite those who have purchased such Leases, or are Proprietors of such Mines where this Engine is or may be useful, to meet at St. Paul's Coffee House on Tuesdays <fc Fridays between the Hours of four & seven in the Evening where they will be informed more fully of these Matters, and of some others it may concern them to know."

I am not able to furnish any explanation of this advertisement, but it will no doubt serve to supply a missing link in the chain of the history of the steam engine. R. B. P.

"AN END." Dr. Morris says in his 'Ele- mentary Lessons in Historical English Grammar' that the expression "an end" sometimes signified " in oon " = continually. I was interested in reading this because my late father used to say that he remembered an old Warwickshire labourer who used the words in this sense. He was accustomed to sew the buttons on his shirt with the same material as a cobbler would use with his shoes, and when asked by my father why he did so, he answered, " Because they most an ind stops on." I wonder if any of your readers have ever heard the expression.

W. A. C.

"MAYFAIR MARRIAGES." Curzon Chapel, situated between Chapel Street and Market Street, on the south side of Curzon Street, Mayfair, is about to disappear, as the ground has been secured by the Duke of Marlborough for the purpose of erecting thereon a town house. This ecclesiastical building had an unenviable notoriety in the last century in connexion with clandestine marriages, of which the following concise account appears in the Daily News of 27 Dec., 1899:

" With the disappearance of Curzon Chapel, or ' the little Chapel in Mayfair,' as it was once called, a curious link with the odd customs that prevailed in the middle of last century will be severed. This unlovely building was erected about 1740, and be- came the scene of the scandalous 'Mayfair mar- riages,' performed there by the once notorious Dr. Keith. He performed the ceremony when called upon with promptitude and dispatch, and asked no questions. Accordingly, he did an enormous business. Prices did not rule high, for the charge, inclusive of Crown stamp, minister's and clerk's fees, and certificates, amounted only to the round sum of one guinea. The thoroughly trading spirit in which Dr. Keith conducted these affairs may be judged from the fact that he advertised his chapel and his terms freely in the newspapers of the Period His success, as much as the scandal of the thing, aroused the jealousy of his clerical brethren, and they procured the passing of the Act for preventing Clandestine Marriages in 1754. In

1742, while there were but forty marriages celebrated at the parish church of St. George's, Hanover Square, the Rev. Alexander Keith had officiated at over seven hundred in his little chapel, and, as Lord Orford remarked, was securing a very bishopric of revenue. It was here that the Duke of Hamilton was married to the beautiful Miss Gunning at half -past twelve o'clock at night, the ceremony being performed with the ring of a bed curtain, February 14th, 1752."

The chapel contained a splendidly carved oak pulpit. This, I am glad to learn, is to be preserved, it having been presented to the parish church of Penn, in Buckinghamshire. G. YARROW BALDOCK.

"THE GREEN-EYED MONSTER." I doubt if

the full force of this well - known Shake- spearian phrase has been rightly perceived.

My belief is that the epithet must be taken in the subjective sense ; that is to say, it is not the monster which appears green-eyed to others, seeing that green eyes were often con- sidered to be beautiful, but a creature which sees a green colour in all that it looks upon. Hence it is that Schmidt explains it by "of a morbid sight, seeing all things discoloured and disfigured." This explanation tends in the right direction, but throws very little light on the reason for the use of green instead of yellow or red.

With regard to the word green itself, Schmidt defines it as "of a sick and lurid complexion "; with reference to green- sickness, to a "green and yellow melancholy," as in 'Tw. Nt.,' II. iv. 116; "sick and green," 'Rom.,' II. ii. 8; "green and pale," 'Macb.,' I. vii. 37. It also means "inexperienced, raw," as in 'Haml., 3 I. iii. 101, &c. But this is not all ; the principal point of the compound epithet is still missed.

This point is that green was well known in mediaeval times as being the special sym- bol of fickleness and inconstancy, its opposite (as to sense) being blue. The contrast is clearly brought out in the refrain of the 'Ballad against Women Unconstant,' "In stede of blew, thus may ye were al grene." I have explained, in my notes to Chaucer, i. 565, that this refrain is taken from Machault, who expressly says that blue denotes loyalty, green, fickleness, and yellow, falsehood.

Hence the green-eyed person is one who sees fickleness and inconstancy in the woman whom he watches, and who is thus filled with suspicions ; "who dotes, yet doubts; suspects, yet strongly loves." Or, to take the immedi- ate context, "which doth mock [i.e., scorn, feel distaste of] the meat it feeds on."

The same idea throws a strong light on ' L. L. L.,' I. ii. 90, where Armado says, " Green, indeed, is the colour of lovers ; but