Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/457

 9*s. vii. JUNE s, i9oi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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liis enmity and had been pursued by his dislike, the result being that she lost her employment and was driven from Cape Town, where the incident occurred. I believe this Dr. Barry to be identical with the military surgeon who is mentioned by one or two other writers as having a long career in the army, and having died many years after 1830 in London, when his secret was discovered. Can any reader supply refer- ences ? W. H. QUARRELL.

[The ' D.N.B.' states that Dr. James Barry entered the army as a hospital assistant 5 July, 1813 ; be- came inspector-general 7 Dec., 1858; and died in London 25 July, 1865, the fact that the doctor was a woman not being discovered till after death.]

ERNEST BUSSY. Amongst my poetic and other extracts I have, in one of my manuscript books, a little poem entitled 'Chant des Amours,' by Ernest Bussy, "a Swiss poet," as I have noted. It consists of four five-line stanzas, and, like Mr. Alfred Austin's poem seasons, only it does not end so painfully as Mr. Austin's pathetic lyric. Can any one tell me anything about Ernest Bussy 1 What else has he written 1 Here is the first verse of Bussy 's * Chant ':
 * The Golden Year,' it goes through the four

Dans les soirs d'Ayril ou toute flour pousse, Oil le coeur s'emplit de pensees d'amour, Parle-lui tres bas d'une voix tres douce. Dans les soirs d'Avril ou toute flour pousse Hate-toi d'aimer ! Le printemps est court. JONATHAN BOUCHIER.

" BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP SEA." Origin and earliest references for this phrase are asked. G.

SCHILLER, PHILOSOPHER. Will some kind reader inform me if there are any French translations of the works of this philosopher, especially of his most valuable contribution to the philosophy of evolution called 'Riddles of the Sphinx ' ? He was a professor of the Cornell University and an M.A. (Oxon.) in 1894. Is he still alive 1 Who have been his critics ? TYRONE.

DUAL NUMBER IN PROVINCIAL GERMAN. In the Fliegende Blatter, vol. cvii. p. 216, a peasant speaking to his two sons is made to say, " Scho' war's, Buab'n, brav habt's Enka Sach' g'macht !" Is enka ( = enker) a late sur- vival of the dual possessive, meaning " your" (comp. Early English inker) 1 What is the dialect represented, and are any other dual forms still in use 1 E. B.

ARISTOTLE ON A FLY. In a sermon of Dr. South I read, "Life is so high a perfection of being that in this respect the least fly or

mite is a more noble being than a star." This nemorable observation I long ago heard to 3e as old as Aristotle, and yet I have not net with it in his works. I shall therefore
 * eel very grateful to any Aristotelian reader

af ' N. & Q.' who will enlighten my ignorance in this regard. Where is it ?

JAMES D. BUTLER. Madison, Wis.

GEORGE COOPER, of Clarendon Park, Wilts, next brother to the first Earl of Shaf tesbury. Is it known when he died ] He was alive in 1677. His only surviving son died un- married in 1727 ; but he left six daughters, of whom the eldest was wife of William Hanham, of Wimborne, Dorset, ancestor of the present baronet. W. D. PINK.

GREEK PRONUNCIATION. (9 th S. vii. 146, 351.)

I AM surprised that there seems still so much difference of opinion on the pronuncia- tion of Latin and Greek. Surely, when French, Italians, and Germans agree as to the pro- nunciation of the vowels a (" ah "), e (" eh "), i (as in " oblique "), it is absurdly insular in us to set up Queen Elizabeth's Protestant prejudices in defence of an English pronun- ciation which is only semi-English, for Eng- lish fit is the short of "feet," is of "ease." Our short a in "Ann " is somewhat peculiar, differing slightly in quality from the a in " father," but in the infinite gradations of the vowel scale this goes for little. To my ear Italian o in Roma is a diphthong = English o in " home "=French au in " chaux "=French 6 in " le notre " = English oiu in " show," i.e., 6 of " not " followed oy and combined with w of " Llwellyn." Here then Italian, and to some extent French, vary the quality of a vowel between long and short, or in lengthen- ing add another sound, as we do in lengthen- ing i. adding an a sound and getting the diphthong ai, as "ice"=pp, sit, site, &c.

It is probably impossible to say certainly whether Cicero pronounced the o in nobilis as the French sound the o in noble, i.e., nearly like English aw in " caw," or as the Italians sound the o in Roma.

As absolute certainty is unattainable, is it not legitimate to teach such a pronunciation as shall be uniform, letting each sign stand for one sound only? Thus I would pronounce the diphthong ce in Caesar like the a* in German Kaiser, though it cannot be gain- said that at some time Latinists pronounced it like the e in fete.