NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd S. No 63., Jan. 3. '57. 



" The printer to the curious reader. 



" It were a hard taske and rarely to be performed, for 

 any printer to vndertake the printing of a booke of this 

 bii'lke and nature, without some faults; yea, were his 

 copy neuer so fayre, or his apprehension so quicke. It is 

 a decorum in Guzman to commit many solecismea, whose 

 life was so full of disorders. This life of his being 26. 

 seuerall times printed in the Spanish tongue in a few 

 3'ears, did neuer appeare to the world, but with irrata : 

 which makes me the more presuming on your humane 

 courtesie: and as in the first, so in this second part, 

 vouchsafe with j'our pen, the amendment of these few 

 faults, before you begin to read the rest of his life." — 

 Gvzman de Alfaruche, part II. 1623. Folio. 



" To the reader. 



" If any faults haue escap'd the presse, (as few bookes 

 can bee printed without), impose them not on the author 

 I intreat thee; but rather impute them to mine and the 

 printers ouersight, who seriously promise on the re-im- 

 pression hereof, by greater care and diligence for this our 

 former default, to make thee ample satisfaction." — Micro- 

 cosmographie, 1628. 12°. 



In the Horce subsecivee, twenty-five errors are 

 noticed. Some are material ; as least for 7nosi, 

 nations for natures, must for much, prescription for 

 proscription. Others are slight, or relative to 

 punctuation. In Guzman de Alfarache we have 

 forty errors save one. Examples : time for ayre, 

 in clearing for indearirig, many for money, top for 

 toy, cartas for cantos^ indisposition for in disposition, 

 the for they, ad ebbe for an ebbe, SfC. The last 

 error noticed is a turned letter ! 



Whatever be the merits or defects of the folio 

 of 1623, and whatever may have been the pre- 

 Tailing state of the press at that period, it is 

 manifest that the author of the above addresses 

 To the reader was perfectly aware of the import- 

 ance of typographic correctness, and very anxious 

 to secure it. 



Now, the author of those addresses was no other 

 than the aforesaid Edward Blount; and it is my 

 conviction, which I can justify by a variety of 

 circumstantial evidence, that he was the real 

 editor of the first folio Shakespeake. 



Bolton Cobney. 



The Terrace, Barnes. 



Miixav ^atti» 



Inn- Signs painted by Eminent Artists. — The 

 Birmingham Journal of Dec. 13. contains an in- 

 teresting article (copied, with additions, from the 

 Brighton Gazette,) entitled " An Artist's Haunt," 

 descriptive of Bettws-y-Coed and David Cox. 

 It states, that the sign of " The Oak," at Bettws, 

 was painted by Mr. Cox ; and amusingly tells 

 how that bold landscape painter, while mounted 

 upon a ladder, and working away at his sign, was 

 caught in the very act by one of his lady-pupils. 

 Then follows this extract : — 



" Sign painting haa been the occasional amusement of 



many artists; and, sometimes, it has been adopted by 

 the less provident followers of art, as a convenient mode 

 of settling an account with the landlord- Morland is 

 known to have had recourse to this expedient on more 

 than one occasion. Wales can boast of another sign from 

 the pencil of a distinguished landscape painter. For the 

 little inn of the hilly Ruthin, Richard Wilson painted the 

 well known 'Loggerheads,' with the inscription, 'We 

 three Loggerheads be.' " 



This seems to open up a fit, and not uninter- 

 esting, subject for " N". & Q.," some of whose 

 correspondents may be able to point out how 

 many of Morland's four thousand pictures were 

 inn-signs? painted for "The Plough," at Kensal 

 Green, or the like places of resort ; and may also 

 add similar instances of other artists. 



CUTHBERT BeDE, B.A. 



Size and Sizings. — Richardson, in his Die- 

 tionary, explains our Cambridge word size and 

 sizings thus : size, the same as assize, means to 

 "allot," "weigh," or "portion out ;" hence, '■'■sizings, 

 the allotted part," (1 am quoting from memory). 

 In Matthew Robinson's Biography, edited by 

 Mayor, we find (p. 23.) an extract from Strype's 

 letter to his mother ; in which he says he some- 

 times got a ciza, i. e. a farthingworth of beer from 

 the butteries : and also, that his breakfast cost 

 five farthings; two farthings for his bread, and 

 two for his butter or cheese, atid a cize of beer. 

 I wish to know whether sizings, Sfc, may not 

 come from this word ciza? I will just add, that 

 I do not find this word iii either Richardson or 

 Webster. B. A. H. 



Trin. Coll. Camb. 



Adjuration in Pembrokeshire. — The peasantry 

 of Pembrokeshire are still in the habit of using a 

 form of adjuration which has descended to them 

 from the old Roman Catholic times. They swear 

 to this day " By our Lady," although they have 

 corrupted the phrase into " b'lady," and are quite 

 ignorant of its origin: still it forms a curious link 

 between the past and present, and shows how 

 forms of speech will linger in the memory, when 

 the tinje and circumstances which gave them their 

 origin have passed away. John Pavin Phillips. 



Haverfordwest. 



Cardinal Wiseman and " Nice." — The cardinal, 

 in a very ingenious lecture, delivered by him in 

 April last, at the Marylebone Institution, remarks 

 on the vague and indiscriminate use of the word 

 "Nioe,"and the necessary result, "vague and indis- 

 criminate thoughts." But the cardinal is himself 

 in great error in insisting that the word in the 

 English language properly designates " accuracy, 

 precision, discrimination," and seeks to confirm 

 his assertion by a reference to any old dictionary. 

 Such old dictionaries as Ainsworth and Johnson 

 are in his favour; but our older dictionaries (which 

 the cardinal cannot have consulted) all agree that 



