Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/246

 238

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. ix. MARCH 22, 1902.

followed, and as little altered as the truth of the original will permit."

"The Bishops' Bible " (popularly so called because some eight of the revisers were bishops) appeared, under Archbishop Parker's supervision, in 1568. New editions, in which the New Testament was carefully revised, were published in 1572 and 1578.

MR. PAYNE'S first query may now be passed by. But it is of importance to remember the pre-eminent merit of Tyndale as the first of this series of translators. The following appreciation is taken, as are the previous statements, from a volume now rare, ' A General View of the History of the English Bible,' by B. F. Westcott, B.D. (then a Harrow master), first edition, 1868, p. 210 :

"In rendering the sacred text he remained throughout faithful to the instincts of a scholar. From first to last his style and his interpretation are his own, and in the originality of Tyndale is included in a large measure the originality of our English Version. For not only did Tyndale con- tribute to it directly the substantial basis of half of the Old Testament (in all probability) and of the whole of the New, but he established a standard of Biblical translation which others followed. It is even of less moment that by far the greater part of his translation remains intact in our present Bibles, than that his spirit animates the whole."

Coverdale was not an independent trans- lator. His Bible was, as the title-page bears, "faithfulty translated out of Latin and Dutch " (=:German, viz., the Swiss-German version of ^Zwingli and Leo Juda, and also Luther's ; in Latin, Pagninus and the Vul- gate). But " his phrasing is nearly always rich and melodious" (Westcott, p. 217). The Prayer Book version of the Psalms is a favourable specimen of his style. C. P. PHINN.

Watford.

BURIAL OF A SUICIDE (9 th S. viii. 502 ; ix. 96, 158). In referring to the "story" men- tioned by MR. HARRY HEMS, MR. F. CLAYTON has, I think, confused two distinct traditions. In Murray's 'Surrey' (fifth edition, p. 114) it is stated that Tallis says Leith Hill is crowned by a small structure traditionally supposed to mark the spot where a farmer of the neighbourhood was buried on horseback upside down (' Topographical Dictionary of England and Wales'). MR. HEMS referred to box Hill, as to which Murray says (p 93 X that on the N. W. brow of the hill, and nearly in a line with the stream of the Mole, wa< buried, 11 June, 1800, a Major Labelliere, who had lived for some years at Dorkin^ and whose mind had become unsettled in conse- quence of "an unrequited attachment." He was buried here at his own request, and with his head downwards. Like the Leith Hil

armer he hoped that as the world was 'turned topsy-turvy" he would come up 'right at last." MR. CLAYTON'S details as x) the burial in Leith Hill Tower are correct, Dut they do not dispose of the story men- tioned by MR. HEMS. G. T.

TENNIS : ORIGIN OF THE NAME (9 th S. ix. 27, 75, 153). Your correspondent MR. JULIAN MARSHALL inadvertently states that tiens and tenez are mere expressions of surprise. The statement is only true of the former expres- sion, tiens. As for the plural form tenez, it denotes not surprise, but a desire to draw the hearer's attention to a statement about bo be made, an appeal ad captandum, e.g., "Tenez, voici des preuves irrecusables " =

Now look here, these proofs cannot be gainsaid." CHARLES A. FEDERER.

Bradford.

ANTINOMIAN SECT (9 th S. ix. 108). This sect was so named by Luther when John Agricola, in 1538, maintained that under the Gospel dispensation the moral law is of no use or obligation, as doctrines superseded the necessity of good works and a virtuous life } "that it mattered not how wicked a man was, if he had but faith." The Antinomians were condemned by the British Parliament in 1648. EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.

71, Brecknock Road.

TIB'S EVE (9 th S. ix. 109). Jamieson, in his ' Dictionary of the Scottish Language,' says that Tibbe, Tibbie, are corruptions of the name Isabel. If this be so, the irresponsi- bility of one who promises to do anything on Tib's Eve is obvious, as there is said to be 'no such saint in the calendar. The phrase will be found in the 'Antrim and Down Glossary' (W. H. Patterson). I was at first under the impression that u Tib " was an abbreviation of Theobald, by way of "Tibbald," but it appears to have been a common feminine name. "Tib and Lai" is a jocular name given to a man and woman in the neighbour- hood of Sheffield ('Glossary,' S. O. Addv) ; and in Bohn's edition of Ray's 'Proverbs' there is a proverbial phrase, " He struck at Tib and down fell Tom." In the game of gleek Tib is the ace of trumps and Tom the knave of trumps. Hence the derivation from "Tibba," the Saxon saint, is, I think, very improbable, and if it can be shown that Tib was really a familiar form of Isabel, it will, perhaps, give the advocacy of the "St. Tibba" theory its coup de grace. At previous refer- ences I do not see the equivalent phrases "When three Thursdays meet," "In a month of Sundays," " To-morrow come never/'