Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/359

 9- B. vii. MAY 4, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

351

and in the Southern States the records are very meagre. MR. YEATMAN gives a good outline of an investigation in a city of one of the Middle States. G. K. C.

Boston, United 8tates.

BLANCHE FANE (9 th S. vii. 308). Miss Blanche Fane made her first appearance in London under Buckstone's management at the Haymarket in the autumn of 1855 as Lucy Merton in Planche's comedy ' Court Favour,' and met with immediate success. Her Gertrude in the 'Little Treasure,' adapted from ' La Joie de la Maison,' was a genuine triumph. Her coquettish scenes with Buck- stone (Cousin Walter Maydenblush) were simply delightful. She succumbed to ill health, and died at a very early age.

R. W.

LOCATION OF THEATRE (9 th S. vii. 268, 331)' The Theatre Royal in George's Street, Cork, was opened upon 21 July, 1760, the entertain- ment having been : first night, ' The Orphan '; second night, 'Othello'; and the 'Beggar's Opera' on the third. In 1776 it was the scene of a singular exhibition. A tailor named Patrick Redmond had been hanged at Gallows Green for robbing the dwelling-house of John Griffin. Glover (then a performer on the Cork boards) restored him to life, " by the dint of friction and fumigation," after he had hung for nine minutes and was cut down. Redmond, having got drunk, attended the theatre on the night of his execution, to express his gratitude to his preserver, and by so doing put the audience into terror and consternation. Tuckey, in his ' Cork Remem- brancer,' states that he was the " third tailor who made his escape from the gallows since the year 1755." The theatre was burnt down accidentally on 11 April, 1840.

ROBERT DAY.

GREEK PRONUNCIATION (9 th S. vii. 146). Capt. Sir Richard F. Burton has the follow- ing on this point in his * Life,' vol. i. p. 83, -1893 :

"The history of the English pronunciation of Latin is curious. In Chaucer it was after the Roman fashion, in Spenser the English a appears, and the change begins to make itself felt under the succession of Queen Elizabeth. It is most probable that this was encouraged by the leaders of educa- tion in order more thoroughly to break with Rome. The effect was, that after learning Greek and Latin for twenty years, a lad could hardly speak a sentence, because he had never been taught to converse in the absurdly called Dead Languages ; and if lie did speak, not a soul but an English- man could understand him. The English pro- nunciation of Latin vowels happens to bo the worst in the world, because we have an o and

an a which belong peculiarly to English, and which destroy all the charms of those grand- sounding vowels. Years after I was laughed at at Oxford, public opinion took a turn and Roman pronunciation of Latin was adopted in many of the best schools. I was anxious to see them drop their absurd mispronunciation of Greek ; but all the authorities whom I consulted on the subject de- clared to me that schoolmasters had quite enough with learning Italianised Latin, and could not be expected to trouble themselves with learning Athenianised Greek."

The Owens College here adopted Latin in "Roman fashion" in 1876, I believe. But what does Capt. Burton mean by the "Athenianised Greek " pronunciation 1 What are the peculiarities of the vowel pronun- ciation in Greek 1 Or is it according to the " Roman fashion of Latin," or what 1

RICHARD HEMMING.

Ardwick.

[It would be interesting to know what pronuncia- tion of Latin prevails in our public schools to-day. Greek, we fancy, is nearly always pronounced in the English fashion there and at the universities too, except in Ireland.]

MORSAY, OR COUNT MARS AY (9 th S. vii. 249). Can this be a misprint for Mornay 1 According to Darling's 'Cyclopaedia Biblio- graphica,' " Philip de Mornay, Lord of Plessis Marlay, a celebrated Protestant statesman and controversial writer," was " born in 1549." His " Worke concerning the trunesse of Christian religion " was ** translated into English by Syr Philip Sidnev, Knight, and Arthur Golding," and u the third time pub- lished, Lond., 1604." CHARLES HIGHAM.

" THERE, BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD ;> (9 th S. vii. 269). A similar incident occurred once when Goldsmith and Johnson were out together. Mr. Austin Dobson narrates it in his 'Life of Oliver Goldsmith' ("Great Writers " series), p. 199, as follows :

"Some of the pleasantest anecdotes of Gold- smith's career are connected with Johnson. No one seems to have dared to make that great man 'rear' in precisely the same way as ' Doctor Minor. Once, relates Johnson, in a well-remembered in- stance, they were in Westminster Abbey together, and pausing in Poets' Corner, Johnson said, sonorously (as we may assume) :

Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur istis. As they returned citywards, Goldsmith pointed slyly to the blanching heads on Temple Bar.

Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur ixtis, he whispered."

The incident is also given in Hill's Boswell ' Johnson,' 1887, ii. 238. ARTHUR MAYALL.

" PETERING" (9 th S. vii. 29, 195). What your correspondent M. supposes, " that the term was originally applied to the exuding ot