2- S. NO 76.. Juke 13. '57.] NOTES AND^UEBIES. 



471 



fond, out of one's wits. Dan. Fiamsk, fiunte, is 

 one who behaves like a fool; Norw. Faaming, 

 Jiamsen, fomme; Swed. Fane. I observe that 

 Todd's Johnson gives maffle, after Huloet and 

 Cockerham, and derives it from Teutonic maffelen., 

 balbutire, citing Kilian as his authority. 



Muzzled (never maisled) and muddled are inter- 

 changeable terms, not remotely connected with 

 those last noticed ; but I am unable to speak posi- 

 tively as to their etymology. I suspect, however, 

 they have the same roots wit^ inuze and mud, to 

 which, indeed, they assimilate in signification. 

 The obsolete verb maze, to be bewildered, to be con- 

 founded, used by Chaucer, "Yemase, ye masen," 

 has the precise meaning of muzzle, which is, to be 

 in a state of doubt and perplexity, to lose one's 

 way whether with the tongue or the feet; and 

 maze and miss, another cognate expression, are 

 compared by lexicographers with the Dutch and 

 German Missen. Dan. Mislig is uncertain, mis- 

 lighed is uncertainty, and miste is to miss one's 

 mark or object. The A.-S. prefix mis- denotes 

 error, defect, as misladun, to mislead ; and being 

 muzzled is, in fact, being misled. Muddled I take 

 to be simply " a little mad." Todd defines muddle, 

 to wander, to forget, to be in a kind of confusion, 

 and refers to "Craven dialect" and Brockett's 

 " N. C. Words." Mad was originally m6d, which 

 amongst our Anglo-Saxon forefathers denoted 

 mood, passion, violence, &c. of mind. All these 

 words I may venture to refer to Icel. substantive 

 and adjective modr, heat of mind, ardent, moody, 

 listless, with which may be compared Dan. Mod, 

 modig ; Germ. Muth, gemillh, muthig, mild, milde ; 

 Lapp. Mvjtto. The Moeso-Gothic Mods is anger; 

 the Sansc. Unmadoh, hairbrained, silly, &c. ; the 

 Persian Miden or meiden, impaired in mind ; and 

 the obsolete Latin Mutttis, tristis. 



Wm. Matthews. 



Cowgill, in Dent Dale. 



" Stuwed." In Lancashire when a horse is not 

 to be depended upon for continuous drawing its 

 load, it is said to be a " stawing " horse : if it 

 will not pull, it " stuws ; " and if it has given 

 over pulling, it has " stuwed^ In another sense, 

 if a person is in either mind or body fatigued, or 

 harassed, or perplexed, he says, I am " stuwed." 



" Kursmus Teea." I am inclined to think that 

 " Teeu'^ is "eve;" "Kursmus" or " Christmus 

 Eve." The latter word is often pronounced in 

 Lancashire and Yorkshire " Eea," and it is very 

 common to prefix " T," thus rendering the words, 

 " Kursmus TEea." Thus the sentence quoted 

 by Ma. Temple, " At Kursmas Teea ther was t' 

 maskers, and on Kursmas day at mworn they gav 

 us," &c. is perfectly intelligible as well as con- 

 sistent. 



To the general unsatisfactoriness of Dictionaries 

 I add my testimony, and had I leisure could easily 



adduce many examples of their scanty and un- 

 satisfactory information. W. H.. 

 Blackburn, Lancashire. 



FIRST ACTRESS AND FIBST SCENE. 



(2"'' S. iii. 206. 257.) 



It is universally known that Queen Henrietta,, 

 the wife of Charles I., and the young ladies of the 

 court, performed characters, and danced in the 

 plays and masques exhibited in the royal palaces ;• 

 but it is not so generally known, that in the year 

 1629, some French dramatic pieces were per- 

 formed at the Black-friars' theatre, when, accord- 

 ing to the custom on the Continent, the female- 

 parts were played by the sex. This is considered 

 to have been th.^. first attempt to introduce female 

 actors on our public stage. 



William Prynne animadverts on this breach of 

 morality, in a note to his Histriomastix, in these 

 words : — 



" Some Frenchwomen, or monsters rather, on Michael- 

 mas Terme, 1629, attempted to act a French Play, at the 

 Play-house in Black-friers : an impudent, shamefull, un- 

 womanish, graceless, if not more than whorish atteirpt." 



This upright, but querulous old barrister, was 

 not the only reformer who felt the age scanda- 

 lised by these doings ; for a Thomas Brande thus 

 stigmatised them in an address, as is supposed, to 

 Archbishop Laud : — 



" Furthermore you should know, that last daye (No- 

 vember 8.) certaine vagrant French players, who had 

 beene expelled from their own countr)', and those women, 

 did attempt, thereby giving just offence to all vertuous 

 and well-disposed persons in this towne, to act a certayn 

 lascivious and unchaste Comedye, in the French tongue, 

 at the Black-fryers. Glad am I to saye they were hissed, 

 hooted, and pippin-pelted from the stage; so that I do 

 not thinke they will soone be ready to try the same 

 againe." 



Prynne, however, says, " there was great resort" 

 to the play, which seems to have been acted more 

 than once. 



Mrs. Coleman, " wife to Mr. Edward Coleman," 

 is justly entitled to the distinction of having been 

 the first Englishwomun who appeared upon our 

 public stage. But she can only be regarded as an 

 amateur ; as, indeed, were all the actors in the 

 Siege of Rhodes in 1656. 



1'he "first edition" being now before me, I 

 copy the list of drumatis personce : — 



" Solyman. Captain Henry Cook. 



Villerius. Mr. Henry Thorndel and Mr. Dubartua 

 Hunt. 



Alphonso. Mr, Edward Coleman and Mr. Roger Hill. 



Admiral. Mr. Mathew Locke and Mr. Peter Kymon. 



Firrhus. Mr. John Harding and Mr. Alphonso March. 



Mustapha. Mr. Thomas Blagrave and Mr. Henry 

 Purcell. 



lanthe. Mrs. Coleman, Wife to Mr. Edward Cole- 

 man." ^ 



