Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/133

 9* s. ix. FEB. is, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Edward the Elder in 900, with the addition of one martlet.

What shall we say as to the " science " so called 1 Edmund's coat of arms in 940 was Azure, three crowns, each transfixed with two arrows saltirewise, or. Keeping in mind that a doubt exists as to there being any such thing as invention, I ask, in all humility, Is there no " science " in this coat of arms ; was it by chance that such a coat of arms was chosen ; does it exhibit the art of a herald ; and does it not point to the "science" of conventional distinctions ?

Again, Uther Pendragon's arms : Vert, a cross argent, on the first quarter our Lady, with her Son in her arms. Will any one say this has no more meaning or significance than a simple coat of arms chosen or fixed upon for self, being evolved simply from the con- sciousness of Pendragori 1 Does it speak anything for even the superior heraldic order of things from 1066 to 1442 when we find that the coat of arms of John Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, was Teudar Mawr's in 1073? Was this an appropriation ; or does it mean "continuity"?

In connexion with this subject I may be allowed to refer to Shakspere. Horatio, speaking of Fortinbras of Norway, uses the words " who, by a seal'd compact, well ratified by law and heraldry." More to the point, perhaps, is the first player's speech, which begins, " The rugged Pyrrhus, he whose sable arms, black as his purpose, did

the night resemble With heraldry more

dismal ; head to foot now is he total gules : horridly trick d" (the italics are my own). There are other references to heraldry in Shak- spere, to which I need not now call attention.

May I hazard the opinion that heraldry existed long before William's time ; that it was a " science " as much then as now ; that it was equally an art; that there was a system which regulated it ; that heraldry pointed then, as now, to conventional distinc- tions of caste ; and that any difference exist- ing between the heraldry prior to William and the present day is simply a development or extension of what existed on the Continent, if not in our own country, long before heraldry was introduced by William, if its introduction is due to him? I may mention that I have before me * Divi Britannici,' 1660, Dr. Heylyn's 'Help to English History,' 1773, and 'A Synopsis of Heraldry,' 1682.

ALFRED CHAS. JONAS.

FILBERT. Prof. Skeat expresses a decided opinion that this word is clearly taken from a proper name, but adds, "We have no

sufficient evidence to show from whom the nut was named. A common story is that it was so named after Philibert, King of France, but there was no such king." In Syme's ' English Botany ' the derivation from a supposed King Philibert is mentioned, but preference is given to that proposed by Wedgwood, " quasi fill-beard" because the nut " just fills the cup made by the beards of the calyx." This is rejected by Prof. Skeat, because " the spelling fylberde is a mere corruption of the earlier trisyllabic form in Gower." (That poet's suggestion of a derivation from Phillis is not worth notice, as it takes no account of the last syllable.) There is no historical record of any King Philibert ; but it was the name of two dukes of Savoy, the earlier of whom (called "the hunter") died of excess at Lyons in 1482, when only eighteen years of age, while on a visit to the King of France (Louis XL). Prof. Skeat contends strongly for a derivation from St. Philibert of Jumieges, similar to the German word for the nut, Lambertsnuss, from St. Lambert of Maestricht. The day of the former is 20 August, that of the latter 17 September. But is it not rather remarkable that the English name of the nut should be derived from that of a French saint not recognized in any Anglican calendar ? The two saints, it may be mentioned, were nearly contem- porary, the date usually assigned for the death of St. Philibert being A.D. 684, and that of the martyrdom of St. Lambert A.D. 708. The days given for the deaths would corre- spond in the Gregorian style of the calendar to 23 August and 20 September, and it is supposed that the connexion with the filberts is that they become ripe about that season.

W. T. LYNN.

[The 'H.E.D.' says probably from the nut ripen- ing near St. Philibert's day.]

"VERIFY YOUR QUOTATIONS." This counsel is always needful, for one is constantly coming across a citation that either is not in verbal agreement with the original or is attributed to a wrong source. An instance illustrating both points has just come under my notice. Canon Hicks, of Manchester, in addressing the Manchester and Salford Equitable Co- operative Society at Ardwick on Saturday, 25 January, concluded his remarks by begging his hearers to "take as their motto the words of a great poet and reformer, William Morris " :

I will not cease from mental strife [fight], Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand,

Till I [we] have built Jerusalem In England's green and pleasant land.

The poet of the * EarthJy Paradise ' was cer-