152 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 60., Feb. 21. '57. 



Carrikra (Rosalba), and in Bryan's Dictionary of 

 Painters and Enifravers, art, fiosALQA. ] 



*' THE IMPERIAL DICTIONAEY," BY DK. OGILVIE. 



(2°'> S. iii. 6.) 



3)k. Ogilvie is quite right in supposing that, 

 ill my first paragi-aph (quoted by him), I merely 

 refer to the word check* I thinic nobody could — 

 and I hope nobody did — understand it otherwise. 

 Dk. Ogilvie calls himself the Editor of The Im- 

 perial Dictionary. In " N. & Q. " the character 

 of Author is most distinctly assumed. Dr. Ri- 

 chardson's and Dr. Ogilvie's Dictionaries are 

 named, as equally entitled to be so named, that 

 is, named as works of which those gentlemen are 

 respectively the authors. And we are subse- 

 quently told that in Dr. Ogilvie's, — 



" The etymologies of English words are deduced from 

 a comparison of words of corresponding elements in the 

 principal languages of Europe and Asia, and contains 

 many thousand words and terms in modern use, not in- 

 cluded in any former Dictionary." 



The claim for all this learning and industry is 

 here most unscrupulously made for Dr. Ogilvies 

 Dictionary — not for a Dictionary of which Dr. 

 Ogilvie is editor only. 



Db. Ogilvie ap[)eals to the title and preface of 

 The Imperial Dictiona7'y, in which he professes to 

 have adopted Webster as the basis of his own 

 labours. What is the import of this word basis in 

 Dr. Ogilvie's vocabulary ? Are the etymologies 

 and explanations, incorporated unchanged from 

 Webster, to be apportioned to basis or super- 

 structure ? Dr. Ogilvie says, " / have raised 

 the superstructure" on a "foundation" laid by 

 Dr. Webster. 



In 2"^ S. ii. 310., we are told that of the word 

 Muggy, " Dr. Ogilvie gives the following deri- 

 vation." And both " the etymology (i. e. deriva- 

 tion) and explanation," I have asserted to be "the 

 entire property of Dr. Webster" (2""^ S. iii. 59.) 



I have not offered, nor do I intend to offer, one 

 word on the merits or demerits of Db. Ogilvie's 

 alterations, emendations, and additions, to Web- 

 ster. I hope all his alterations are emendations. 

 But I want to know, and the public have a right 

 to know, when Webster is the instructor and when 

 Ogilvie ? 



And this information might easily have been 

 given. Mr. Todd, by the use of an * and a f, 

 enables us to ascertain what belongs to Dr. John- 

 son, and what to himself. And in a 2nd edition 

 of The Imperial Dictionary, 1 hope some such 

 plan will be adopted. • 



* Very, if not most, commonly written in the mer- 

 cantile world, cheque. 



The work is handsomely got up, and in a very 

 convenient form. Q. 



Bloorasbury. 



the wife of beith, 



(2"'» S. iii. 49.) 



Your correspondent G. N. will find the original 

 of his chap-book under the head of " The Wanton 

 Wife of Bath " in Percy's Reliques. In this latter 

 form it is also an old chap, to be sung to the tune 

 of the " Flying Fame." When the Wife of Bath 

 (whose antecedents entitled her to the pre-emi- 

 nence) was first engrafted upon the old legend of 

 " Le Vilain qui Conquist Paradis par plait," I 

 know not; but that is undoubtedly the original of 

 the post mortem adventures of Chaucer's heroine : 



" Le Vilain ^tant mort " (says Barbazon, Fabliaux, 

 &c., 1808), " sans qu'il se trouvat ni ange ni diable pour 

 re^evoir son ame, elle erra seule. Ayant apper9u St. 

 Michel qui en conduisoit une, il le suivit jusqu'en Paradis. 

 St. Pierre vouloit Ten faire sortir, mais il plaida si bien 

 ea cause, et contre lui, et centre St. Thomas, et contre 

 St. Paul, et entin devant Dieu meme, qu'il la gagna. Le 

 poete finit par ce proverbe : ' Miex valt engien qui ne fet 

 force.' " 



The Wanton Wife satirises the loquacity of the 

 sex, and affords Addison, in a paper upon that 

 subject (Spectator, No. 247.), an opportunity at 

 once to praise this excellent old ballad, and to use 

 it for his purpose, where, in the scene between 

 St. Thomas and the wife, the former finding him- 

 self unable to cope with the eloquence and bitter 

 invectives of the applicant, exclaims : 



" ' They say,' quoth Thomas, ' Women's tongues 

 Of aspen-leaves are made.' 

 ' Thou unbelieving wretch,' quoth she, 

 'All is not true that's sayd.' " 



G. N". asks for an authentic copy, and the name 

 of the author of the Scotch version of the " Wife 

 of Bath." I have had an opportunity of examin- 

 ing that called the second edition, bearing the 

 following title : The New Wife of Death much 

 better Reformed, Enlarged, and corrected, than it 

 was formerly in the old uncorrect Copy. With 

 the Addition of many other Things. 16mo. pp. 23. 

 Black letter. Glasgow: E.. Sanders, 1700; and 

 from a hasty glance, find no difference between it 

 and a Paisley reprint of 1812 ; except that the Ad- 

 dress " To the Reader " has dropped out of the 

 modern copies, and as it is a curious proverbial bit, 

 I subjoin it : 



" Courteous Reader, what was Papal or Heretical in the 

 former Copy is left out here in this 2nd Edition : For there 

 is nothing that can offend the Wise and Judicious, not 

 being taken up into a literal sense, but be waj' of allegory 

 and m3'stical, which thus may edifie. The whole Dia- 

 logue is nothing but that which is recorded in Scripture 

 for our example, therefore I appeal from the Capi-Critick 

 and Censoring, who start at Straws and leap over blocks; 

 And whose Nature is with the Spider to suck nothing- 



