Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/467

 9*s. viii. DEC. 7, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

459

Latin line, could not give correctly what Sir Philip Sidney wrote :

" But for the uttering sweetly, and properly the conceits of the minde, which is the end of speech, that hath it [his mother-tongue] equally with any other tongue in the world." ' Apologie for Poetrie,' p. 70, Arber's reprint.

I do not know who Vindex Anglicus was. One is tempted to think that he must have been a schoolmaster who composed this essay for the benefit of his pupils, and was able, through their ignorance, to deck himself in borrowed plumes without any fear of detection. But I must be just to him and say that he had a genuine love for the language, and protested against the hideous neologisms of the time, which threatened to destroy its purity. As this is the only original part of his article, it is but right that the list of words which must be avoided should be quoted :

"Let me afford you a few examples, and I am deceived if they will not move both your anger and laughter ; read and censure. Adpugne, Algale, Adstupiate, Daffe, Defust, Depex, Brochity, Bulbi- tate, Extorque, Ebriolate, Caprious, Contrast, Catillate, Fraxate, Froyce, Imporcate, Incenabe, Incasse, Gingreate, Glabretall, Halitate, Ligurition, Lurcate, Kemand, Mephitick, Mirminodized, Ob- salutate, Orbation, Nixious, Naustible, Plumative, Prodigity, Puellation, Raption, Rerest, Rumatize, Sudate, Solestick, Sracone, Subgrund, Tridiculate, Tristful, Wadshaw, Xantical, Yexate, Vitulate, Undosous, Vambrash, Zoografe."-^-P. 433, I feel sure that Dr. Murray, if unacquainted with it, will be glad of the reference. Vindex ends his paper thus :

" Though in this conclusion I here strike sail, and vail to the learned languages ; let not that detract from the worth of ours, which is parallel, if not superior to the best remaining ; it is as courteous as the Spanish, and court-like as the French, as amorous as the Italian, and as fluent as any ; wherefore think me not over-weighted with affec- tion, if I believe the most renowned of other nations, jl to have laid the very elixir of their tongue's perfec- tion in trust with our island." Pp. 443-4.

lit is " tristful " to say that this is a plagiarism


 * from Camden, who wrote:

"Omitting this, pardon mee and thinke me not overbalanced with affection, if I thinke that our English tongue is (I w r ill not say as sacred as the Hebrew, or as learned as the Greeke), but as fluent as the Latine, as courteous as the Spanish, as court- like as the French, and as amorous as the Italian as some Italianated amorous have confessed." ' Remaines,' p. 28.

The peroration of R. Carew's discourse, if I may so term it, is very interesting, as will be seen from the following quotation, with which, as it contains an apology, I will finish :

" And thus if mine owne eyes bee not blinded by affection, I have made yours to see that the most renowned of other nations have layed up, as in

treasure, and entrusted the Divisos orbe JBritannos, with the rarest iewels of their lips perfections, whether you respect the understanding for sig- nificancie, or the memorie for easinesse, or the con- ceite for plentifulnesse, or the eare for pleasant- nesse : wherin if enough be delivered, to adde more ihen enough were superfluous ; if too little, 1 leave it to be supplyed by better stored capacities ; if ought amisse, I submit the same to the discipline of every able and impartiall censurer." ' Remaines,'

>. 44.

JOHN T. CURRY.

' JOHN ADROYNS IN THE DEVIL'S APPAREL.' The third in one edition and the fourth in the other edition of the 'Hundred Merry Tales' relates that in a market town of Suffolk there was a stage play in which a man named John Adroyns, who came from another vil- lage, acted the part of the devil. In the evening when the acting was over he " departyd fro the sayde market towne to go home to his owne house, & because he had there no change of clothyng he went forth in hys dyvellys apparell."

On the way he surprises a priest and some other poachers who are cony-catching. They are frightened by the apparition of the demon, and leave behind them a horse with the conies they had caught. John mounts the horse and rides to the house of the gentleman to whom the warren belongs, and there also causes a consternation, but at length con- vinces them of his harmlessness and of his identity.

"By this tale ye may se that men feare many tymes more than they nede, whiche hathe caused men to beleue that sperytes and deuyls haue ben sene in dyuers places, whan it hathe ben nothynge so."

There is a Lancashire variant of this legend. The story, however, like many others, has an Oriental analogue, and is to be found in the ' Avadanas/ which were translated from Sanskrit into Chinese some fifteen centuries ago :

" Once upon a time, in the kingdom of Gandhara, there were some actors who (then, as now, suffering from want) went to seek a livelihood in other lands. They had to cross Mount Balasena, in the middle of which there were of old many demons, who feasted on human flesh and were called rakshas. Now they gathered together and laid themselves down to rest in the middle of this mountain ; but as the wind was cold they lighted a fire and slep* around it. Amongst the actors was one who suf fered much from the cold, and so, putting on the stage dress in which the part of a rakshas was played, he turned again to the fire and seated him- self. At this moment, roused probably by his move- ments, some of the band started from slumber, and, scarcely awake, saw a demon sitting by the fire. Without stopping to examine, they left him there, running off as fast as their legs would carry them, and with cries of fear mutually frightening each other until all the baud was roused and in com-