Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 6.djvu/385

 9*8. vi. OCT. 20, i9oo.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 319 not trace—there is no need why we should—occurs in Sir Philip Sidney's ' Astrophel and Stella':— While their eyes, by Loue directed, Enterchangeaoly reflected. Enterchangeably is, of course, an earlier form of interchangeably. Very interesting is the growth of interdict, which in the form tnlredit is encoun- tered so early as 1297 in Robert of Gloucester. The affection of Samuel Daniel for words beginning with inter is curious. Compounds such as inter- dependent, interdependent!;/, mterdespiae—the last is a vile phrase—are respectively found in Coleridge, Herbert Spencer, and D&Quiucey. Inttresse termini is fortunately only met with in legal writers such as Coke and Tomfins. The first use of interfere is when a horse strikes the inside of the fetlock with the shoe or hoof of the opposite foot, a thing still unfortunately common, which we ascribed to bad farriery, but which, it appears, is due to some con- genital infirmity or malice. This is a very curious origin of a common word. It appears to have been rarely used of persona who knock one leg or foot against the other. Interlard, as more easily might have been conceived, takes its rise in cooking. Interlibelling has, we regret to think, the authority of Bacon. Interlinffuitlic has to depend on the authority of Mr. George Meredith. The lope in interlope is a dialectal form of leap. Cf. a landloper. A good account is given of interiuult. We fancy some valuable instances might be got from the Acts of the Privy Council, but enough is said. Jeremy Bentham first uses international in 1780. Special attention is drawn to the different meanings of instance, a sentence quoted in the opening note being, " At the instance of a friend, I went in the first instance to London, an instance of how badlj one may be advised." The history of a word useo with such different meanings is naturally of in- terest and value. Of thirty - three senses and sub-senses of intend not more than six are now in use. In this case an attempt at chronological order would, it is said, end in chaos, and the sense of early quotations is often difficult to determine. It early signification is sometimes the same as extend as in the use by George Sandys, who speaks o: "The camelion swiftly intending his tongui of a marvellous length wherewith he preys upon flyea." Under intent a good quotation from Fleteher's ' Faithful Shepherdess' might be given:— Only my intent To draw you thither was to plight our troths. Contrary to what we should have expected, the earliest use of innolence and insolent is in the sense of arrogance, arrogant. Under intelligence we shoulc have liked Shakespeare's that affable familiar ghost Which nightly gulls him with intelligence, the meaning of which in Schmidt seems onl; conjectural. Very interesting is the history c intoxicate. The superiority in number of word and illustrations over all previous dictionaries—o which we have often insisted—is as evident as before The close of the year will witness the completio of vol. iv. The Women of Ike Renaissance: a Study of Feminism By R. de Maulde la Claviere. Translated b George Herbert Ely. (Sonnenschein & Co.) So warm was the reception awarded in France t M. de Maulde's ' Lea Femmes de la Renaissance lat its translation into English was a foregone onclusion. It is, indeed, a thoroughly note- rorthy work, written by one who is a master [ his subject, and who has embroidered it from 10 stores of large and singularly diversified erudi- lon. It is difficult in modern literature to find nything with which to compare it. Though con- ned to a single and well-defined subject, it wanders ver the entire field of Renaissance times. It brims ver with quotations from French and Italian poets nd thinkers—Bembo, Pontano, Castiglione, Rabe- ais, Marguerite de Navarre, Montaigne, Ronsard, Vlarot, Coquillart, Melin de St. Gelais, Du Bellay, nd innumerable others of equal or less note. On he ' Heptameron' the author continually draws, the lustrations concerning the life, views, and respon- ibilities of woman being mainly taken therefrom. Jur own Ruskin is also a favourite with him, and is requently quoted. That we find ourselves always n accord with our writer we may not say. Not in he least necessary to enjoyment or advantage is it hat we should be so. The book is encyclopaedic in nformation, and is illumined by many singularly luaint and humorous touches. It might be used, ndeed, to establish the point still in debate whether Frenchmen possess humour as well as wit. Translation though it be—and the quotations are as a rule rendered into vigorous English—its thorough injoyment presupposes some knowledge of French ust as that of Montaigne presupposes a knowledge of Latin. We find ourselves recurring to Montaigne, of whom in a strange fashion, since the works are x>tally different, we are constantly reminded. Other authors whom in its treatment the book suggests are Sir Thomas Browne and Burton of the ' Ana- tomy of Melancholy." One whom the subject interests—and it interests most—will not be content with a single perusal, but will place the book near at liand, to be taken up as one takes up Montaigne or Rabelais, and never to be far out of the reach of the hand. It can, of course, be read straight through, and the task of so reading it was to us so fascinating as to be suspended with regret, and to induce us, in Tom Moore's words, " to steal a few hours [or at least quarters of hours] from the night." Most emphatically do we say that the book, with its five hundred pages, is one to be purchased, and not to be read in a copy from a circulating library. Woman in it is studied in all her relations—con- jugal, domestic, social, political, intellectual. Her influence upon social and ethical problems is depicted, she herself being treated with a mixture of worship and banter that leaves the author's own estimate to be guessed rather than gathered. The main purpose of the book is historical, and the treatment supplies a picture of the feminist movement of Renaissance times as it originated in Italy, and slowly, and in face of opposition, won its way into France. We are not familiar with the original, though we have ordered it from Paris on the strength of the translation, and we cannot, accord- ingly, judge how the translation is executed. It roads very glibly, and we see no signs of in- accuracy. It appears to us to be nervous and idiomatic, if a little familiar. The rendering of m'amye by "my doxy dear" is rather after the free-and-easy fashion of Motteux. We could easily point to other instances of a similar kind. We are prepared, however, to find the whole as accurate as it is readable and vigorous. An inter- esting portrait of the author serves as frontispiece to a delightful volume.