He adds that the extract from the Australian paper is "all imaginary." My friend traces the origin of this strange custom to the Moors, which is, I believe, the general and prevalent opinion. I would, however, if you will allow me the space in your valuable paper, suggest a still earlier date for its origin, and offer my idea for as much as it is worth to those of your correspondents who may have time to enter more fully into the subject, and test the correctness of my surmise. Tarshish of Scripture being generally admitted to be Spain, we find that as early as the days of King Solomon a Hebrew colony was established there of sufficient importance to require a collector of tribute, whose name is handed down to us as a Prince Adoniram (1 Kings iv. 6), and, to take a long step in time, in 1480 a gravestone was found at Saguntum, near Valencia, with the following inscription in Hebrew characters: "This is the tomb of Adoniram, Legate of King Solomon, who came to collect tribute and died here" (Vilalpandus, His Commentary on Ezekiel,' vol. ii. ch. lviii. p. 544). Taking the above for granted, I feel no difficulty in believing that the dance performed by these boys as a part of a most solemn function is a tradition handed down through the dim ages from the days of King Solomon, until the establishment of Christianity in Spain. Then the Church, which has the reputation (rightly or wrongly) of adapting herself to all men, and all things to her own use, finding this ceremonial remnant of the ancient faith, a memorial of David's solemn dance before the ark of God (2 Samuel vi. 14), at once incorporated it with the most solemn portion of the then modern liturgy, and continued in Christian times a similar performance before the ark of the new covenant as the royal father of Solomon had offered before the ark of the old. In support of my idea I have no further proof; but the action, time, and circumstances induce me to consider the suggestion I make as a probable or possible explanation. I am not overlooking the disasters which befel the Hebrew colonists and drove them westward, nor the Moorish invasion which so revolutionized the south of Spain, and which to this day shows its effects on the mental and physical condition of the people as plainly as its artistic influence may be read in the gorgeous remains of its architecture left to us in the famous Palace of Grenada. I believe that stretching across the stream of time, perverted by paganism and many casualties, the dance of los Seises may be traced to the ancient Hebrew colony of Tarshish, many of whose members might have been present when David the king performed his act of adoration. My only excuse for asking you to insert this is that it may perhaps elicit further information from some more learned of_your_correspondents. RITA FOX. Send us roast beef in store, Whence he obtained it I am quite unable to say. MARGINAL NOTES TO BIBLES (7th S. iv. 110). ―These have been a gradual growth, and began soon after the first Bible, printed by Guttenberg about 1455 (wrongly and foolishly called by some the "Mazarine Bible"). There are marginal references in Bernard Richel's 1474 Bible. Koburger's first edition, 1475, has none, but he introduced them in subsequent Bibles. Nicholas Lyra's Bible (1478?), I believe to be the first Bible in any language with notes and comments. As I have no copy of this in my collection, I speak from memory. The first English Bible, Coverdale's, had a few marginal references; the next, Matthew's, 1537, had more, and is the first English Bible with notes, which in this Bible are a very remarkable feature. Some of them are very long, and many of them very bitter. It and Edmund Beck's, 1549, which is a reprint of it, are the most interesting of the old Bibles; and I look upon my copies of them as some of the gems of ay library. No doubt these notes were the chief cause of Tyndale's martyrdom. After this the putters forth of Bibles appear to have been more cautious for some time. There are numerous marginal references, but not many notes, in the various editions of the Great Bible (1539-66). All the editions of the Bishops' Bible (folio, 1568-1602) have marginal references and a few short notes. The Genevan Bible, 1560 and onwards, has a lot of marginal references, various readings, and annotations-some editions more and others less-but I think it would be safe to say that the notes, &c., first began to be really important in the Genevan version. There is a great deal of curious and useful information to be found in many of the headings to chapters, introductions, and notes of the old Bibles. Many of the most lauded of the new readings of the lately revised Bible are simply a going back to the very earliest versions. This is a most interesting study or amusement-the collection of old Bibles. As a curious illustration of the fluctuation of value, or change in fashion, I have this day received from a London second-hand bookseller a copy of Scott's 'Commentary,' best edition, 6 vols. 4to., whole bound in purple morocco, as good as new, for sixteen shillings. A few years ago it would have cost ten guineas, or more. The very proper but prosy old gentleman's work will be just the thing for the library of a village in which I am interested. R. R. Boston, Lincolnshire. "I'M A DUTCHMAN" (7th S. iv. 25, 158).-Your correspondents are all more or less astray. Whatever may have been the origin of this phrase, it has not as now used any necessary connexion with refusals to grant requests. A reference to the 'Mill on the Floss' will best illustrate its real meaning. "Eh, miss," said Luke (I quote from memory), when Maggie showed him her picture of a Dutchman, "I don't mek no account o' Dutchmen"; and when the child asks him why, he tells her that his old master, if at any time urged to do anything contrary to his own judgment, would say, "If I do I'm a Dutchman"; "which," adds Luke, 66 was as much as to say as a Dutchman was a fool." George Eliot may be trusted in a matter of this sort, and this is precisely the sense in which I have always heard the phrase used. Why Dutchmen should be accounted fools, I cannot say. Perhaps nothing more is meant than that they are outlanders, and, therefore, to the insular mind, contemptible; but I have read that a "Muff" is properly a Dutchman, and that this is the meaning of the term in Marlowe's line Sclavonians, Almains, Rutters, Muffs, and Danes. C. C. B. seen painted on the signboard of an inn, "The Case is Altered." Ought not a distinction to be made between inns having a sign depicting a subject and those merely having the name of the subject painted? Gunning, in his 'Reminiscences on the authority of Bishop Watson of Llandaff, of Cambridge,' tells the following amusing anecdote, who always resided in Westmoreland : been known as the 'Cock,' but the landlord, by way of "The principal inn at the head of Windermere had compliment to his distinguished neighbour, substituted the Bishop' as the new sign. An innkeeper close by, who had frequently envied mine host of the 'Cock' for his good fortune in securing a considerable preponderattracted many travellers to his house by putting up the ance of visitors, took advantage of the change, and sign of the Cock.' The landlord with the new sign was much discomfited by seeing many of his old customers deposited at his rival's establishment; so, by way of remedy, he put up in large red letters under the edition, vol. i. p. 213). portrait of the bishop, 'This Is The Old Cock'" (second JOHN PICKFORD, M.A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge. THE JUBILEE (7th S. iv. 44).—May I be allowed to protest against the term "personal spite" in this connexion? John of Gaunt was a patron of Geoffrey Chaucer and a favourer of Wycliffe. I also take it that all politicians are at liberty to "make hay while the sun shines," and, when in power, to mark their sense of opposition by proscription. I do not approve; but it is "the way of the world." Chaucer had his own vicissitudes, similarly to William of Wykeham. The latter was Clerk of the Works at Windsor before 1366; the former held the same office in 1389. This is the only point of contact known to me between these eminent persons. The cleric attained the episcopate in 1366, became Chancellor in 1371, and was deprived in 1376, which disability rein force during the Jubilee of 1377. Possibly John of Gaunt found him a dangerous was first cited, and it is to be assumed that the soopponent. It was in 1377 that John de Wycliff called queen mother acted under Lancaster's influence when she intervened in his favour. he was condemned in 1381; cited afresh in 1382. Chaucer was deprived in 1386, and dismissed in 1391. John of Gaunt may well have known the facts, if William of Wykebam really intervened against Chaucer and the Lollards. Here we must A. HALL. MR. RATCLIFFE explains "talking Dutch" as meaning the employment of more refined language than that usually employed; and in this part of Cheshire the phrase is similarly used. We have a sort of proverbial saying, "He talks as Dutch as Denpurt's dog," which is said when any uneducated person tries to talk in a refined or affected manner. But about Macclesfield rather an opposite mean-mained ing is attached to "talking Dutch." There it means "to scold"; and one sometimes hears the following threat: "If tha does na gie o'er I's talk ROBERT HOLLAND. Dutch to thee." Frodsham, Cheshire, The expression "If I do I'm a Dutchman" is familiar in New York. Another form of it is "You do beat the Dutch, and the Dutch beat the devil." Both are supposed to have their origin in a fancied superiority of the English settlers in wit and quickness; and they are, in fact, a good-look for his justification. natured way of making fun of the descendants of Sandwich. the Dutch colonists. BEVERLEY R. BETTS. Jamaica, N.Y. [See "Dutch," ' N. & Q.,' passim.] INN SIGNS (7th S. iii. 448; iv. 35, 152).—At Coverham, in North Yorkshire, is a village inn having the sign "Lady Bab," depicting rather artistically a racer, probably trained on the adjacent moor at Middleham. At Woodbridge may be But SEBASTIAN CABOT (7th S. iv. 68, 155).-I must thank both MR. JONAS and MR. PAYEN-PAYNE for their replies to my query respecting this most extraordinary and eminent man. I have taken in the 'Dictionary of National Biography' from the beginning, so have no need of MR. PAYEN-PAYNE'S kind offer. On referring to the above-mentioned authority I find Mr. C. H. Coote places Cabot's birth at 1474. This puts it two years later than I had previously, and seven years later than MR. JONAS's quotation from Lemprière's 'Universal Biography.' MR. JONAS then again mentions 1477 from another authority. All I wanted, and still wish to know, is the true date. EDWARD R. VYVYAN. CREATURE DRINK (7th S. iv. 7).—I send you further passages showing the use of this word :"The confusion of Babel was a parcel of drunkards, who fell out among themselves when they had taken a cup of the creature."-J. Brown (1605-1682). "Come, master, let us go and get something to eat; you will never be able to hold out as Mr. Whitfield does. He seems to like a bit of the good cretur as well as other folks."-Graves (1715-1807), Spiritual Quixote.' 71, Brecknock Road, EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. Inwit' that is, the pain or remorse of conscience. Is not Acts ix. 5, the passage NEMO was search- DULCARNON (1st S. i. 254; v. 180, 252; 5th S. xii. 407, 454; 6th S. v. 384; 7th S. iv. 48, 76, 130).-May I be permitted to add to MR. E. H. MARSHALL's note in reply to MR. HARDY's third query the single remark, viz., that the sixth edition of the New World of Words' (1706) was edited by John Kersey, not Kesey; a misprint which has led PROF. SKEAT into the committal of an error. ROBERT F. GARDINER. "NOTHING'S NEW, AND NOTHING'S TRUE, and NOTHING MATTERS" (7th S. iv. 129).-The Cornish version of this proverb has been known to me for many years: "There's nothing new, and there's nothing true, and it don't sinnify" (signify); and I supposed it to be peculiar to that county. It is probably an old proverb adapted to different localities. C. G. BOGER. St. Saviour's, Southwark. THE PRICKINGS OF CONSCIENCE (7th S. iv. 128).-Conscience pricks may be taken to be as old as Cicero, who bas, "Te conscientiæ stimulant maleficiorum tuorum" (Paradox.,' ii.); or in the singular more exactly, "Bessus, quanquam erat Græci sermonis ignarus, tamen stimulante conscientia, indicium profecto Patronem detulisse credebat; et interpretis Græci relato sermone exempta dubitatio est " in Q. Curtius Rufus (v. 11). So for the prick of conscience there is Richard of Hampole's "stimulus conscientia" in the original Latin MS., which is translated "the pricke of con- MR. EBSWORTH. It is high time that the voice BYRON (7th S. iii. 527).-Warm thanks to science" in the MS. translations. his History of English Poetry,' in making an ex-lent vituperation directed against "the genius of Warton, in of protest was raised in scorn of the trucutract from this, curiously remarks, "This is one of Byron under the shallow disguise of [pretended] the most common manuscripts in our libraries, and criticism." May I ask, Does the Byron Memorial I prophecy that I am its last transcriber" (p. 170, Committee still exist? I never heard of that London, Ward & Co., s. a.). It is not safe to pro- body's dissolution. If existing it might be well phecy. steps to be taken to commemorate the centenary for the members to come together to consider the of the great poet's birth, January 22, 1888. G. JULIAN HARNEY. NEMO, after all, was not far wrong in connecting the expression with the Bible. asticus xiv. 1, there is in Coverdale's version, For at Ecclesi"Blissid is the man, that hath not fallen with ye worde of his mouth, and is not pricked with the conscience of synne." It is the same in the Bishops' version, only with a more modern spelling. The word is thus brought in by Shakspeare :— Leave her to heaven ance. And to those thorns that in her bosom lodge ED. MARSHALL. Cambridge, Mass., U.S. THE CLARKE FAMILY AND THE DUC DE FELTRE (5th S. xii. 67, 97, 119, 256).-In looking through some back numbers of 'N. & Q'I found the above query had not been fully answered; I therefore send the following information, which may perhaps be worthy of insertion in your columns. The father of Henri Jacques Guil NEMO's memory seems better than his concord-laume Clarke, Duc de Feltre, was Thomas Clarke, Acts ii. 37 will give him what he seeks, Louisa, daughter of William Shee (by his wife a colonel in the French service, who married except that the word is "heart," not conscience, Maria Thérèsa, daughter of Peter Preponier, of the meaning being the same. He may also look at Landrecies, whom he married in 1738). Thomas daughter of Clarke's father, Psalm 1xxiii. 21. HERMENTRUDE. Richard Rolle, hermit of Hampole, wrote a work, about the middle of the fourteenth century, entitled 'The Prick of Conscience.' About the same time, or a little before, Dan Michel wrote a devotional manual which he called 'The Again-biting of Clarke, Esq., married the Shee, colonel of horse, Knight of St. Louis, and Rows OF CHESTER (7th S. iv. 189).-Bologna At Dinan, in Brittany, arcades resting on carved CANTLING STONE (7th S. iv. 109).—No doubt this means rocking-stone." It is only another form of canting, the I added for euphony. A cant is a corner or angle; a thing with any inclination from the perpendicular is said to "cant over." A cantle is the same thing-a corner or angle. This seems to be almost universal. In Finnish kunn-out kanta is a "horn of the moon" (Wedgwood). It also means a thrust or push; so here you get the full description of a large stone hanging so that a thrust will move it from the perpendicular or balance. C. A. WARD. Haverstock Hill, WEARING HATS IN CHURCH (7th S. i. 189, 251, 373, 458; ii. 272, 355; iii. 31, 134, 258, 375)."And baptizing of children he saw to be a foolish and groundless thing; and that called the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, he saw idolatry in the receivers, in putting off their hats, or holding them before their faces while they eat the bread, which he thought too much honour to the elements and shadows."-J. Whitney's Memoirs of the Sufferings of the Quakers,' second edition, p. 344, London,' 1791. The author is speaking of Thomas Zachary, who was born in 1622 and died in 1686. are similar arcades. Is it not likely, also, that the word ooze, appa- Briser. Is not this merely the French name for Crombes.-Grose, in his 'Provincial Glossary,' REFERENCE WANTED (7th S. iv. 190).-The EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M. A. Hastings. J compelled to take exception to MR. W. J. BAYLY'S statement, at the last reference, that Benjamin Disraeli "served his apprenticeship in an attorney's office." The word apprentice has never been used in connexion with attorneys (now styled "solicitors"). A law student "enters into articles of clerkship" or serves his articles," and is only liable to a civil action for neglect of his duties, whereas a refractory "apprentice" is subject to the criminal law, and may be dealt with summarily by a magistrate. FREDERICK E. SAWYER, F.S.A.. Brighton, Miscellaneous. NOTES ON BOOKS, &c. Old English Plays. New Series.-The Works of Thomas Nabbes. Edited by A. H. Bullen. 2 vols. (Privately printed.) Flow, flow, delight, And pleasures swell to height, are good enough to suggest that the lyrics are the work opinion on the subject, there cannot be a question that of another hand. Whatever may be the divergence of in tragedy Nabbes is at his worst. Though he had apparently some influence, he could not get his tragedy of The Unfortunate Mother' acted. He addresses an apologetic "Proeme" to the reader, but few, indeed, will and Scipio,' a tragedy acted 1635 by the Queen's Servants be those it will reach, Not much better is Hannibal at their private house in Drury Lane, 4to., 1637. This is one of the few pieces of that date which give opposite the characters the names of the actors, and in so doing have a special interest for students of stage history. Much brighter are the comedies. Tottenham Court' is, indeed, one of the best pieces of its date, and may compare favourably with most works of Randolph, Brome, or even of Shirley. Covent Garden' is a fairly stimulating play; and 'The Bride' has a pleasant and sympathetic plot, and some characters that are fairly realizable, even in these days. Mrs. Tongall in Covent Garden' is a ONE by one the dramatists of the seventeenth century handsome daughter Jynny, who is never seen, and is in singularly diverting personage, and her references to her are being reprinted, and comparatively few plays of the post-Shakspearian epoch are now left to the chances of turn promised to everybody, are in a vein of true comedy. time and accident. In the all-important task of collect-Worthy, and Dorothy, the last especially, with her The characters generally in the piece, Artlove, Young ing and preserving the minor dramatists, as well as the noble vindication of her lover, are excellent. In 'Tottenmajor, Mr. Bullen has been an indefatigable worker, keeping up worthily the traditions of Gifford and Dyce.ham Court,' Act I. sc. iii., in the following conversationApart from his editions of Marlowe, Middleton, and Marston, concerning which we have spoken, he has given us in his "Old Plays" the most interesting and important series of miscellaneous plays that has yet seen the light. This collection he has now enriched by the works of Thomas Nabbes, which are, in a strictly limited edition, reprinted in two volumes, uniform with the original series. Concerning the task he has accomplished and the merits of the man he has rescued from the chances of oblivion, Mr. Bullen speaks with a modesty and justice of criticism that leave little for any subsequent writer. Fresh from the perusal of Nabbes's entire product, we turn to the introduction, and find anticipated every impression we had formed, and every verdict we had passed. The last word to be said in favour of or against Nabbes is there to be found. Mr. Bullen's concluding words are: "His place is at the feet of Shirley, on the lower slopes of Parnassus. He had much of Shirley's fluency and refinement, with not a little of his limpness and tenuity. He was well nigh the last of the runners in the torch race, and the light burned very dimly. But it was a light not unfathered by the fire of Ida,-оvк άяаππшv 'Idaíov Tuρóc." In the very defects of the dramatists of this day, indeed, there was a certain element of greatness missing from subsequent work. To quote a phrase from one of the number, The very lees of such millions of notes Exceed the wine of others. In Nabbes the lees are exhibited, but there are still some strength and flavour in them. The masques of Nabbes are the things by which he is best known. It may be doubted, however, whether he is here seen at his highest. He is always prone to moralize, and the temptation held out to him in dealing with abstract qualities or influences, as Melancholy, Love, Sensuality, Fear, &c., is too strong for him. In the lyrics of these, however, he rises above the ordinary level. Very little singing power has he, but the address of Love and the song "Descend, thou fairest of all creatures," in 'Microcosmus,' Act II., and a second song in the following act, "Second Tenant: 'I am as sleepie as if I had eaten a Custumals of Battle Abbey in the Reigns of Edward 1. THE portion of the records of Battle Abbey now care- |