Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/489

 9* s. vm. DEC. 14, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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He labours in the quern, retarding the grind- ing, or making it come to naught, just as he labours in the churn to prevent the desired result. To find the milk skimmed the most valuable part gone would be annoying, but to explain "labour in the quern " as "grinds the corn when it is not wanted " is something like saying "saws and splits the wood when it is not wanted." The surprise of finding the work done in either case would be rather a pleasant one than otherwise. E. M. DEY.

' A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM/ II. i. 68- 72.

Why art thou here,

Come from the farthest steppe of India ? But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon, Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior love, To Theseus must be wedded.

Is there not an idea of compulsion in " must" as here used ? Theseus had wooed Hippolyta with his sword, and, according to Titania, although the bouncing Amazon was Oberon's buskined mistress and his warrior love, she was the captive of Theseus, and, as such, subject to his will to Theseus must be wedded.

In another instance where "must" is used, according to Abbott (app. Furness), to indicate definite futurity (* Merchant of Venice,' IV. i. 182) :

Then must the Jew be merciful, is not the meaning, " Then there is no other way out of the difficulty than for the Jew to be merciful the logic of the situation com- pels the Jew to be merciful then must the Jew be merciful'"? Shylock evidently so understood it :

On what compulsion must I? Tell me that.

As for the word "steppe," the reading of the first quarto, there would seem to be reason for adopting "steepe" of the second quarto and folios. " Steppe " has a modern meaning at variance with the idea Shakespeare pro- bably had in mind a distant elevation, " the farthest steep of India." E. M. DEY.

'A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM,' III. ii. 25.

And, at our stamp, here o'er and o'er one falls. " Stamp " refers to the distinguishing mark, the cast or form, that has been placed upon Bottom. Puck was the active agent in trans- lating Bottom, but the " our " may refer to the joint conspiracy to use the love- juice " our stamp," a fairy creation. E. M. DEY.

1 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM,' IV. i. 92.

Now thou and I are new in amity. Instead of " new," of which Mr. W. A. Wright says, " It is difficult to say whether it is here

an adjective or an adverb, probably the atter," I believe we may with certainty read ntended. They were friends again, not riends for the first time "new in amity." ' Are new " and are anew are so similar in sound that the a could easily have been lost
 * he adverb anew, which expresses the idea
 * >y a compositor who set up from dictation.

E. M. DEY. [More probably due to stage recitation.]

"BORE" OR " BOAR," AND OTHER FASHION- ABLE SLANG. A passage in the recently published life of Lady Sarah Lennox gives some clue to the date at which this expression came into use, and it would be curious to ascertain when it changed its spelling from boar "to "bore":

" 1 told you the word 'boar' is a fashionable expression for tiresome people and conversations, and is a very good one, and very useful, for one may tell anybody (Ld G. Cavendish, for example), 'I am sure this will be a boar, so I must leave you, Ld George.' If it were not the fashion, it would be very rude; but I own I encourage the fashion vastly, for it 's delightful, I think. One need only name a pig or pork, and nobody dares take it ill ; but hold their tongues directly.

" To 'grub up such a one' is also a new expression, which cannot be better illustrated to you than by supposing you were talking to Mr. Robinson, who diverted you very much : in comes the D. of York, or Gloucester, and sitting down by you ' grubbs up poor Mr Robinson, perhaps, for the whole evening. The Dukes will either of them serve for an example of a boar too, also Ld Clanbrassil.

" When you know what ' lending a tascusa ' is, you are au fait of the Ion ton. You have lent that puppy Major Walpole many a 'tascusa,' and, indeed, I think you have the knack of lending them better than anybody, so when you are glumpy and

that puppy comes and talks to you, the snub that they will get from you is exactly a tascusa m its full force. Take notice the word, tho' it appears Italian, has no meaning of its own; its like 'chiquinno,' which is used for any card under a 5 at quinze."

K. D.

Upton.

[The 'H.E.D.' says that bore, in the sense of a dull time, arose after 1750, the etymology being unknown. The earliest quotation for the sub- stantive is 1766, in a letter from the Earl of March, the earliest quotation for the verb being 1768.]

TOBIAS WHITAKER. In the 'D.N.B.,' vol. Ixi., it is stated that " Whitaker died early in 1666, before 21 May." His burial is thus recorded in the Wandsworth parish registers : "1666, May 19, Dr. Tobias Whittacar, primarie phesicon to his Ma tis housold."

LIBRARIAN.

MERCHANTS OF LUKES : MERCHANTS OF LUK. (See ante, p. 338.) COL. PRIDEAUX in his contribution as to St. Mary Matfelon, White-