2nd 



JLT 7. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



11 



hexameter and iambic verses by Fridericus Wide- 

 bramus : — 



" On my first entrance," says Narcissus, " some of them 

 salute me as the Prince of Freshmen (Archibeanus) ; 

 others grin and jeer ; some derisively point their middle 

 finger; at length they all crowd around me, and pluck 

 me°as birds do an owl. I was forced to lie down on my 

 back, stretched out and motionless like a corpse. I was 

 most liberally thrashed on my legs, arms, and ribs, nay, 

 on mj' whole body, and nicely adjusted with hatchet, 

 adze, and axe, as if I were a beam of timber. It is there- 

 fore no wonder you think me thinner than I was yester- 

 day or the day before, since I have lost considerably bj' 

 these chipping operations.* Then these kind barbers 

 shaved me, although as yet I am guiltless of a beard ; 

 they doused my head in cold water, ^vliich I was myself 

 forced to bring from the kitchen in a dirty copper kettle, 

 whilst one of the merriest kept splashing the water in 

 my face and shoving me forward. Afterwards I was 

 combed down with a comb no finer than a rake, and 

 which reminded me of the comb of Polyphemus in Ovid. 

 As to the towel they rubbed me down with, its smooth- 

 ness and softness corresponded with the rest of the toilet. 

 .... And what is more, for such injuries and outrages 

 as these, undeserved as they were, t had ever so much 

 money to pay, to return thanks, and to take a formal 

 oath that I would never seek to revenge myself. If I 

 had not taken it, I could with difficulty refrain from re- 

 turning their kindness in full to some of my more active 

 torturers. . . . '. Hear further an admirable trick. They 

 placed before me an inkstand, with pens and paper, and 

 bid me write something. When I attempted to open the 

 inkstand, I found the lid was immoveable: the whole 

 being one solid piece of wood turned in the shape of an 

 inkstand. Hereupon one of them jumped up, and rapped 

 me on the fingers with a stick. ' Ye Gods,' says he, * this 

 greenhorn has not yet learned how to open an inkstand.' 

 They all roared. Verily my fingers itched to punch 

 their heads. Then some rascal secretly thrust into my 

 trowsers-pocket a letter supposed to be written by my 

 mother, which he drew out and read aloud before them 

 all amidst the most uproarious laughter from himself and 

 his companions. The contents were as follows: — My 

 mother lamented my absence, and consoled me in the 

 most silh' and weak manner : saying how carefully she 

 had nursed, how often kissed her sweetest child, how 

 carefullj' she had brought me up, and how she had made 

 me her darling all my life, calling me her little angel, her 

 sweet lambkin, her chickabiddy sweeter than honey. 

 Then she added that she could not sleep at night, and 

 that she shed floods of tears every day on account of the 

 torments she had heard I must suffer in this depositio. 

 Of course this epistle was concocted and written by my 

 tormentors themselves. How thej' enjoyed it — they al- 

 most burst with laughter ; they thrust the letter into my 

 face. How they knocked me about! I had rather die 

 than go through it again. If I had known what I had 

 to undergo, I would have gone where there are schools in 

 which nothing of this sort is allowed." 



BiBLIOTHECAR. ChETHAM. 



" Si qua dante Deo tam crasso e stipite possira, 

 Pingere Mcrcurium, et quod curvum est ponere 

 rectum." — Widebramus. 



" Ut hunc novum ceu militem 

 Nostrum referre in ordinem 

 Queamus, eque stipite 

 Formare doctam Palladem." 



Widebramus. 



" COQUELINER." 

 (•2°'i S. ix. 88. 234. 454.) 



It is rather strange that your correspondent 

 R. S. Q. should oppose to the very highest au- 

 thority on a matter of pure French philology, 

 quoted by me as to the meaning of coqueliner, the 

 English authority of Dr. Samuel Pegge, referring 

 to another English authority, Cotgrave ! Pegge 

 and Cotgrave versus the French Academy, on 

 the meaning of a French word ! Just reverse the 

 case. Suppose an appeal to a French critic from 

 the decisions of Johnson, Richardson, or Webster, 

 on the signification of a purely English word. 

 The inconvenance would be at once apparent ; 

 and yet the Academic is of greater authority as 

 to French than any Individual. lexicographer here 

 as to English. 



The Dictionnaii'e de VAcademie, as I observed, 

 altogether ignores the word in the original work. 

 But some twenty years ago (in 1842) there issued 

 from the press of Firmin Didot Freres, printers 

 to the French Institute, a most learned 2^i'oduc- 

 tion, which, it would appear, is not yet much 

 known in England. This is the Complement du 

 Dictio7mai7'e de VAcademie Frangaise, published 

 under the Auspices of the Academy, and under 

 the immediate direction of one of its members, 

 assisted by twenty colldborateursy consisting of the 

 most distinguished savans, and whose names ap- 

 pear on the title-page. It Is nearly as voluminous 

 as the original work, containing not less than 

 1281 pages of large quarto size, and each page 

 having four columns of small print. ISTow a part 

 of the plan is to Introduce all old, quaint, and 

 obsolete words ; and these may be counted in the 

 book by thousands, for there are' on an average, 

 I think, at least twenty in a page, marked " V. 

 lang " (vieux langage). Coqueliner is consequently 

 admitted, with Its sole meaning, the crowing of a 

 cock. The work is preceded by a very learned 

 philological disquisition from the pen of M. Barre, 

 Professor of Philosophy, In which, among other 

 things, the merits of all previous lexicographers 

 are discussed. And is our own Randle Cotgrave 

 there mentioned ? He is, and with very high 

 commendation, as he deserves to be ; for assuredly 

 his Dictionary is excellent. But still, being an 

 Englishman — employed also, I will observe in 

 passing, as secretary to William Cecil, Lord Bur- 

 leigh — he was liable to mistakes, of which M. 

 Barre gives the following curious specimen : — 



" La nomenclature de Cotgrave est riche ; on pourrait 

 meme dire qu'elle est exube'rante : car des mots crees par 

 mutilation et addition de lettres ou de syllabes y figurent 

 quelquefois. On y trouve, par exemple, le pretendu mot 

 Arcotic, traduit par benumbing, soporifique: c'est evi- 

 demmfent une partie du mot narcotique, ecrit autrefois 

 7iarcotic ; et de cette location un narcotic une oreille mal 

 exercee, ou tout a fait Britannique, aura fait celle-ci — un 

 arcotic" — Preface, p. xvi. 



The edition of Cotgrave's Dictionary examined 



