Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/271

 gtb 8. vn. APRIL 6, loci.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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where.) "Great Arabia" is 'Tamburlaine ' phraseology, and the promise of tho 'Selimus' Conclusion is, if I mistake not, directly asso- ciated by the author with the speech he puts into Tamburlaine's mouth when that con- queror addresses his victorious generals : But, noble lord of great Arabia.

<lTamb.,'IV. iii. p. 28, col. 2. Tamb. And now, my lords and loving followers, That purchas'd kingdoms by your martial deeds, Cast off your armour, put on your scarlet robes, Mount up your royal places of estate, &c.

'ITamb.,' V. ii., pp. 37-8.

These circumstances tell in favour of the priority of ' Selimus ' over ' Tamburlaine,' and are worthy of consideration. Moreover, the strange words of Spenser and his peculiar phraseology are more prevalent in ' Selimus ' than in ' Tamburlaine,' and I conclude, there- fore, that Marlowe in the latter play was gradually drawing away from his master, although still greatly under his influence. A young writer would more closely imitate his master at first than afterwards. But let the student closely read the Prologue to Part I. of ' Tamburlaine,' and he will, I think, con- clude with me that it is not the production of a writer who was appealing to the public for the first time. This Prologue will also bear comparison with the Prologue to 'Selimus.' CHAELES CKAWFORD.

(To be continued.)

VERBS FORMED OUT OF PROPER NAMES. (See 9 th S. vi. 248, 312 ; vii. 182.)

To gregory. To gibbet, to hang, from three successive hangmen of the name of Gregory. Hence the "Gregorian Tree," a name for the gallows.

To grimthorpe. To restore an ecclesiastical edifice badly, e.g., the west front of St. Alban's Abbey and its window, when taken in hand by Lord Grimthorpe : a word first used in the Athenaeum of 23 July, 1892.

To guillotin.To suffer the penalty of de- capitation by means of the instrument invented by Dr. Joseph Ignatius Guillotin, a French physician during the Revolution.

To jerry-build. To build in an insufficient, careless, or hasty manner. Jerry Brothers, builders and contractors, were a Liverpool firm in the early part of last century who used to put up rapidly built, showy, but ill- constructed houses, so that they gave their name to such work, first in Liverpool, then throughout England.*

[* See 7 th S. ix. 507 ; x. 116 ; xii. 376. At the last reference the derivation now given is disputed.]

To levant. To run away as it were to the Levant, the eastern portion of the Mediter- ranean Sea, to escape one's creditors : " Never mind that, man [having no money to stake],

run a levant but be circumspect about

the man " (Fielding, ' Tom Jones ').

To lush. The slang word " lush," meaning beer or other intoxicating liquor, is an abbreviation of Lushington, the name of a London brewer. Its adoption in this sense was perhaps facilitated by the fact of Shakespeare having used the old adjective " lush," meaning succulent, rich, luxuriant :

" How lush and lusty the grass looks ! how green !" 'The Tempest,' II. i.

"They didn't look like regular Lushingtons at all." Mayhew, ' London Labour and London Poor.'

To lynch. To act according to mob law, to inflict summary punishment, either with no trial at all or after trial by an informal and self-appointed body of men who act as an extemporized court. Originally the kind of law administered by Charles Lynch, a Quaker and Virginia planter, who in the early part of the Revolution, in conjunction with his neighbours Robert Adams and Thomas Galloway, undertook to protect society and support the revolutionary government, in the region where he lived on the Staunton River, by punishing with stripes or banishment such lawless or dis- affected persons as were accused ; but the death penalty was never inflicted. " Lynch law is an outbreak of the reformatory spirit among people of low or recent civilization " (E. Egglestori, * The Graysons,' ch. xii. p. 135).

To maffick. A transient phrase, much in vogue for a few days after the relief of Mafeking during the Boer war.

To sandwich. To place one object between two others of a different kind, character, &c. The Earl of Sandwich, a famous admiral who served under both Cromwell and Charles II., is said to have been the inventor of the sandwich composed of two pieces of bread and a thin slice of ham or other meat.

To simpson. To adulterate milk by adding water thereto, from a dairyman of this name who in the sixties was prosecuted on this account.

To talbot-type.To produce a photographic image on the surface of paper chemically prepared. The process was invented by Fox Talbot.

To thomas, or to go about thomasing. To beg on St. Thomas's Day, as is still done in some parts of the country, especially in the district of Almondsbury and Hudders- field. Also to dement* on St. Clement's Day &c.