2''« S. X. Sept. 29. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



259 



derings and interpolations of the famous Bordeaux 

 edition of 1682, as soon as I have leisure I shall 

 give you a special Note of it. That a version so 

 falsified should be dedicated, in a long and solemn 

 preface, to God, is one of the curiosities of litera- 

 ture. B' H. C. 



KriFEBENCE IN Baktholinus (2""^ S. X. 147.) — 

 Possibly " Zil." may be a misprint for " Sil.," i. e. 

 Silius Italicus. My own copy of that poet unfor- 

 tunately is without an index, but I am inclined to 

 think that the passage, as quoted by E. M., is not 

 quite correct! The position of " sed" in the first 

 line seems strange, and the meaning of the last 

 line obscure. C. J. RoBiirsosr. 



Square Pi.ay (2"^ S. x. 127.) —I do not find 

 " square play," but Nares explains to square as 

 " to quarrel," as in Midsummer Nighfs Dream, Act 

 II. Sc. 1. I believe it is still a pugilistic term ; 

 and " square play " may either have been equiva- 

 lent to modern sparring, or, as Mb. J. G. Nichols 

 suggests, an exhibition of skill with the quarter- 

 staff. H. 



Leete Family, Cambridgeshire (2°'* S. ix. 

 304.) — One branch settled at Diddington and 

 Southoe, in Huntingdonshire. See Visitation of 

 Huntingdonshire, edited for the Camden Society 

 by Sir Henry Ellis, p. 67. Also the parochial 

 registers of Southoe. Joseph Rix. 



St. Neot's. 



MONTHLY FEUILLETON ON FRENCH BOOKS. 



FAudes Historigues Lilleraires et Morales sur les Pro- 



■ verbes Frangais et le Langage proverbial, contenant VEx- 



pUcution et VOrigine d'un grand nonibre de Proverbes 



remarquables oublies dans tous les Recueils, par T. M. 



Quitard, Paris, 18G0. BP. Techener. 



The study of proverbs has always been a favoarite one, 

 and long before Erasinus thought of collecting together 

 his Adagia, the various nations both of the Eastern and 

 of the Western worlds could boast of voluminous compi- 

 lations, or recueils, containing in a pithy and striking 

 form the lessons dictated by the experience of wise men. 

 Like everything else here below, the science of paremio- 

 logy has been subjected more or less to the vicissitudes of 

 fashion ; and we find, during the seventeenth centur}', a 

 French author, Adrien de Montluc, Comte de Cramail, 

 composing a play called La Com^die des Proverbes for the 

 purpose of turning them into ridicule; but still the use 

 of proverbs is so natural, so thoroughly in accordance 

 with the moral and intellectual constitution of man, that 

 there is no fear of its ever disappearing, and for a long 

 time to come it is probable that we shall be called upon 

 to notice occasionally the publication of works on the 

 nature, origin, history, and influence of proverbs. Our 

 only hope is, that such works may always be as interest- 

 ing, and likewise as useful, as the Etudes Historiques of 

 M. Quitard. 



In his first chapter our French paremiologist begins by 

 tracing the history of proverbs from its earliest com- 

 mencements, and the long list which he gives us, headed 



with the name of Solomon, includes, amongst many others, 

 Pythagoras, the mediaeval Sydrac, the Conde Lucanor, 

 Janotus Gruter's Florilegium, Sancho Pan9a, Menage and 

 Furetifere. These are very weighty and serious autho- 

 rities in behalf of the use of proverbs, and backed by 

 them we can boldly encounter the sarcasms of another 

 Comte de Cramail, if any should arise in these degenerate 

 da3-s. This, however, is a supposition which is not likely 

 to be realised ; for the composition of even a drama such 

 as La Comedie des Proverbes would require an amount of 

 intellectual labour not to be expected from the men (we 

 allude, of course, exclusively to our Gallican neighbours,) 

 who divide their time between the boudoirs of the demi' 

 monde and the excitement of money-making. " L'etudo 

 des proverbes," says M. Quitard, " est aujourd'hui negli- 

 gee, comme le sont presque toutes les etudes qui n'ont 

 pas une valeur commerciale et industrielle. Notre sifccle, 

 sous prdtexte de positivisme (mot barbare cr^e de nos jours 

 et bien digne de ce qu'il exprime), parait vouloir aban- 

 donner le culte de I'intelligence et la recherche des choseg 

 spirituelles, afin de se livrer specialement aux soins du 

 corps et aux charmes du comfortable." Such is M. Qui- 

 tard's doleful remark; it is, we think, somewhat too 

 gloomy, but we must make every allowance for an au- 

 thor naturally engrossed by his favourite subject. 



The Etudes Historigues are subdivided into eleven chap- 

 ters, fragments of which have already appeared in various 

 French periodicals, particularly the Moiiiteur Universel; 

 they evidence an extraordinary amount of erudition, inge- 

 nuity, and taste, and the moral reflections suggested spon- 

 taneously by the various proverbs, or " wise saws," do the 

 greatest credit to the character of the learned author. 

 We must leave our readers to appreciate for themselves 

 the merits of the interesting book we are now noticing, 

 and merely give them, by way of specimen, an extract or 

 two taken indiscriminately. 



Respecting the origin of some proverbs or proverbial 

 sayings, M. Quitard has corrected many errors which, 

 until quite lately, had passed current in the literary world. 

 For instance, Beaumarchais {Le Barbier de Seville, Act II. 

 Sc. 13.) says amusingly: "La medecine est un art dont 

 le soleil s'honore d'eclairer les succfes, — et dont la terre 

 s'empresse de couvrir les bevues ;" but it is a mistake to 

 ascribe to the witty dramatist the authorship of this de- 

 finition of medicine. Let us, indeed, open Montaigne's 

 Essays, and we shall find (lib. ii. cap. 37.) the following 

 sentence : " Mais ils ont (les medecins) cette heur, selon 

 Nicolas, que ' le soleil eclaire leur succez, et la terre cache 

 leur faulte.' " The Nicolas mentioned by Montaigne is 

 no other than Nicocles, as quoted by Stobseus in the 

 Florilegium. 



The proverb "Celaleve " or "enleve lapaille," is another 

 sentence which has never been correctly understood or 

 properly explained. It is generally applied to things 

 " dont on veut," says M. Quitard, " louer I'excellence ou 

 la supe'rioritd" Many persons unacquainted with ety- 

 mology still believe that the allusion is taken from the 

 property which amber possesses of attracting, lifting up, 

 small fragments of straw {paille) ; but we must listen to 

 M. Quitard : " Paille est ici un vieux mot qui, comme 

 paile, designait une espbce de drap, ce drap dont on grati- 

 fiait les vainqueurs a la course ou h, quelque autre exer- 

 cice dans les fetes nationales des villes. II correspondait h, 

 I'italien palio, employe pour dire la recompense, le prix, 

 Nolia il palio chi non corro. Ainsi, enlever la paille aigniGe, 

 au propre et au figure, enlever ou remporter le prix." 



" Les Femmes ont des souris a la bouche et des rats dans 

 la tSte." This pithy remark, besides the pun which it 

 contains, is perfectly unintelligible to those who are not 

 aware that the word rat here is an old Celtic monosyl- 

 lable signifying thought, or a derivation from the Latin, 

 ratum. Avoir des rats is said of those who are capricious, 



