Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/232

 224

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th s. VIL MARCH 23, 1901.

year in the United Kingdom 551 journals ; of these 14 were issued daily viz., 42 in England and 2 in Ireland. Of those now established and circulated no fewer than 247 are issued daily. The press of the country has more than quadrupled during the last fifty-five years. The increase in daily papers has been still more remarkable, the daily issues standing at 247, as against 14

There are now published in the United Kingdom 2,446 magazines, of which at least 536 are of a decidedly religious character. In 1846 it is estimated that only 200 maga- zines were in existence. The journalist has a great responsibility, for he can say, "Quse regio in terris nostri non plena laborisT

EDITOR.

EL COXDE DE CASERTA. As a correspond- ent of the Royal Academy of History at Madrid, I venture to correct some mistakes which any Spaniard would observe at once in reading, in the Times of 16 February, the leading article on the royal marriage cele- brated at Madrid on St. Valentine's Day. The father of the bridegroom is not "the Duke,'' but the Conde, i.e.. Count or Earl, of Caserta. It might be said of him, but not of his son, " he has borne arms on the Carlist side, and was once responsible for a Carlist proclamation."' Lower down the son, now consort of the heiress apparent to the throne of Spain, is described as " the Carlist prince." But he has always been a loyal servant to King Alfonso XIII., as a member of his army. Moreover, even his father, nominally pre- tender to the throne of Naples, has abjured Spanish Carlism in practice.

E. S. DODGSOX.

BLUE BEARD. -The Daily News of 28 Feb. gives the following account of Comte Gilles de Hais (who is supposed to have been the original of the legendary Barbe Bleue), which may be worth while rescuing from the unindexed columns of a daily newspaper. The para- graph gives a fairly full description of the facts, but does not explain clearly how the Comte became accused of wife- murder. The sacrifice to the devil is not alluded to in the English version of the legend :

" M. Lelire furnishes an interesting paper on Blue Beard to the Revue de# Revues. That legendary I>erson was, he says, no mere wife-murderer. We all know that his real style and title was Comte <iilles de Rais, but it is new to us that he was, for his time and from youth upwards, a man of' ex- quisite culture. He was first married at the a*e of sixteen in 1420, and celebrated his weddin bv theatricAl mysteries at Angers. The subject "was the * Passion of Christ,' and the author of the dialogues was the Bishop of Angers. Two canons

Dlaved the parts of the Blessed Virgip and St. Mary Magdalen. The names of the dramatis persona: were placarded on the breasts of the players. Lawyers clerks were engaged in the minor parts, and then there were dancing girls brought at great expense from Spain. The success of the Angers mysteries was such that Gilles de Rais set up as an impre- sario, trained a company of players and dancing <rypsies, and went round the west of France with them, stopping at all the great towns and castles. His farcical plays and ballets became the rage. His favourite mystery in after years was I he biege of Orleans,' in which he made his debut as an actor. It was a grand scenic drama, and he himself was the hero, which, it appears, was not claiming too much. The cost was so great of horses, housings, costumes, musicians, fireworks, and machinery that he soon found himself ruined. His next-of-kin obtained a decree withdrawing from him the management of his estates. He then became the legendary Blue Beard. Probably to hide the snows of advancing years, he dyed his hair and beard. At any rate, he plunged into alchemy to recover his lost fortune, 'raised the devil' by his incantations, and sacrificed to him the hearts of his successive wives and of the village children near his castle. Blue Beard was at the siege of Orleans with Joan of Arc, and went there with her from Tours. He may have thought that she dealt in the Black Art, and owed to it her success in bringing Charles VII. to Rheims. But in his play he allowed her but little of the glory of forcing the English to raise the siege."

JOHN HEBB.

[The life of Gilles de Raiz, or de Retz, Marshal of France, is given in the ' Biographies Generates ' of Hoefer and Michaud, and the particulars of his strange career are to be found in other works.]

" ZAEEBA " OR " ZERIBA." This word has become so well known of late that geo- graphers apply the expression "Zareba Land," or u Zareba Country,'' to the northern slope of the Nile-Congo divide. The 'Encyclopaedic Dictionary ' says of it : " A word which came into use in the early part of 1884, during the military operations in Egypt, to denote an enclosure." The date given must, however, be taken as that at which the word became general in English, rather than that at which it came into use, as I find it in use long before, in an old periodical, -Eliza Cook's Journal for March, 1852, in an article entitled 'Slave Hunts of Dar Wadey and Dar Four.' The quotation is as follows : " The Sultan has planted a zerybeh, or circular enclosure, with two issues." JAS. PLATT, Jun.

LIZARD FOLK-LORE. The following extracts from an old note-book, relating to super- stition in India regarding lizards, were, I think, contributed by Mr. Vidal, of the Indian Civil Service, to the Pioneer many years ago, and were noted by me at the time*:

"Hindus, whether they believe any lizard to be venomous or not, have some wonderful superstitions concerning them. The omens portended by the