262 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°'i S. No 66., April 4. '67. 



expedition, that soe (if itt bee the will of God) the ser- 

 uice beinge done theise poor wasted cuntries may be freed 

 from the burthen of the Armye. 



" In the next place wee desire some D cannon shott, 

 and some culveringe shott may with {ill possible speede 

 bee cast for vs and hasted too vs alsoe. 



" Wee giue you thankes for your care in helping vs 

 w"" bread and .... You doe herein a verj- speciall ser- 

 uice to the State, and 1 doe most earnestly desire you to 

 continew herein accordinge to our desire in the late Let- 

 ters. I desire that copies of this paper may be published 

 thorough out your countye, and the effects thereof ob- 

 serued, for the ease of the countj-e, and to avoj-d the 

 wronginge of the cuntrie men. Not doubtinge the con- 

 tinewance of your care to giue assistance to the publicke 

 in the seruices wee haue in hand, I rest, 



" Your affectionate seruant, 

 0. Ckomweli.. 



" The Leaguer before Pembrooke, 

 June the 9'^, 1648." 



C. D. Lamont. 



NICKNAMES. 



Old Camden defines them as '^ cogtiomina or 

 sobriquets, as the French call them, bye- names, 

 as we term them, if that word be indifferent to 

 good and bad, which still did die with the bearer 

 and never descended to posterity." We have im- 

 proved on Johnson and Todd's derivation from 

 " nique " and Camden's cognomen, substituting 

 rightly agnomen as the origin of the phrase. 

 Nicknames are as old as the most venerable of 

 chronicles. The divinities of the ancients were 

 peculiarly distinguished by such additions. Even 

 thundering Jove had no better name at Rome 

 than Pistor the Baker, and it were well if his 

 subalterns had received no worse appellation, 

 and been associated with as reputable a calling. 

 Tyrant was a favourite adjunct. At Rome, the 

 Piso, Publicola, Verres, Cicero, Scaurus, Len- 

 tulus, Balbus, Asinius, were eminently sugges- 

 tive of deformities ; while one of the first was 

 further distinguished as Frugi. Tarquin had his 

 nameof Superbus, Romulus of the Lancer (Quiri- 

 nus), Julius Caesar of Baldpate, and Caligula and 

 Caracalla and others bore appellations of meaning 

 in the imperial purple. Constantine the Great 

 himself, jealous of Trajan's name on every wall, 

 though monstrous "posters," "with Iris and all 

 her seven," were then unknown, dubbed him Pa- 

 rietarius. In Greece they were more compli- 

 mentary in defiance of the Dogs, and Porchers 

 and Walkers, Cynic, Stoic, and Peripatetics : Pe- 

 ricles was the Olympian, Aristides the Just, though 

 the innovators tired of that : Xenophon the Muse 

 of Greece, Herodotus the Father of History, Plato 

 the Attic Bee, though Socrates figured as Flat- 

 nose. And with the semi-Greek descendants St. 

 John of Constantinople was known as Chrysostom, 

 and St. Ignatius as Theophorus. 



The wit of an individual invented a name to 

 which statues and inscriptions gave celebrity, and 



rhymer and prose- writer currency, — even coins 

 lent it an enduring remembrance. Kings, great 

 captains, divines, statesmen, have received from 

 malice,_ humour, or revenge, a sportive title, drawn 

 from singularity in address, habit or gesture, ac- 

 cident or circumstance of life, which will cling to 

 them to the end of time. We shall endeavour to 

 classify them according to our ability. Those 

 which are intractable we must submit in detail. 

 Great and Good are numerous beyond belief, and 

 would persuade one, if sufficiently credulous, to 

 become Optimist and Utopian. The title Great is 

 claimed for our own Alfred and Canute ; the 

 Welsh Roderick ; the Scot Gregory ; the Irish 

 Ugaine and Cathoire ; the Persian Cyrus ; the 

 Emperors Constantine and Theodosius ; the Dane 

 Waldemar ; the Swede Gustavus Adolphus ; the 

 Savoyard Amadeus IV. and Emmanuel ; the Prus- 

 sian Frederick III. ; the Saxon Otho I.; the Pole 

 Casimir; thie Russian Peter; William I. of Nassau; 

 the Macedonian Madman; the Persian Abbas; the 

 Popes Gregory, Leo, and Nicholas ; the German 

 Albert II. and Otho I.; the Frank Clovis, Dago- 

 bert, Charlemngne, Henry IV. ; the Spaniard Al- 

 phonso in., Sancho III., Ferdinand, Napoleon I. : 

 and Louis XIV., le grand Monarque, must be 

 added to the list, which is very far from being 

 exhausted. 



Among the Good we may enumerate the Dane 

 Magnus ; Eric III. ; the Hessi.an William VI. ; 

 the Frank John II., Charles III. ; the Welshman 

 Howel Dha ; the Sicilian William IL ; and, I pre- 

 sume, our own " good Queen Bess." Beards and 

 locks figure : the German Otho III. and Frede- 

 rick Barbarossa; Henry III. the Black; the Frank 

 Clodius the Hairy ; the Bavarian Henry VII. the 

 Black ; the Pole Lesko V. the White, and his 

 namesake the Black ; the Eastern Emperor Con- 

 stantine IV. was Pogonatus ; the Irishman Mac- 

 hadh, the same as our Rufus ; Murrogh the 

 Black ; the Tuscan Godfrey and Prussian Jossus 

 the Bearded ; the Dane Sweyn the Forked- beard ; 

 the Welshman Barmtruch, Spade-bearded ; and 

 Eberhard the Bearded of Wurtemburgh. Some- 

 times the absence of hair denotes the man : as 

 Charles I., the Bald of France. 



Then come Longs and Shoi-ts: of the former, our 

 Edward, yclept Longshanks; Philip V. of France: 

 of the latter, Pepin of France ; and the Pole La- 

 dislas IV. 



Beasts and animal qualities too flourish : the 

 Dane Eric V. the Lamb ; the Scot William I., the 

 Bavarian Henry X., and the Saxon Henry IV., the 

 Lion ; Harold I., and the Dane Eric IV., Hare- 

 foot ; Pope Sergius was Hogsnout, Antiochus the 

 Syrian Griffin head, Albert of Brandenburg the 

 Boar ; our R,ichard I., Louis VIII. of France, the 

 Pole Boleslas I. claim to be Cceur-de-Lion ; Eric 

 the Child, a Dane, and our Edward VI., the boy- 

 king, and Charles le Jeune, may walk together. 



