2«'-i S. VIII. Aug. 27. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



171 



see by comparing the enclosed photographic copy 

 of p. 177- with the printed Dictata to Eunuchus, 

 Act III. Sc. 3. vers. 3—10. 



I am inclined to think that my MS. is not a 

 copy taken down from dictation ; it is far too well 

 and carefully written for that. It may be liuhn- 

 ken's own copy, written by himself or copied for 

 him by an amanuensis. If you have any means of 

 comparing the specimen I enclose with any auto- 



fraph of Ruhnken to be found in the British 

 luseum, it would be of great interest to me and 

 to any future editor of the Dictata, to know if the 

 MS. is from Ruhnken's own hand. W. Ihre. 



Carlton Terrace, Liverpool. 



[No autograph of Ruhnken's is to be found in the 

 British Museum. — Ed.] 



Supernaturals at the Battles of Clavijo and 

 Prague. — A reference to the best account of the 

 support given to the Spaniards by St. James at 

 the battle of Clavijo, and to any account of the 

 phantoms which encouraged the Imperialists at, 

 and the night before, the battle of Prague, will 

 oblige T. E. 



The Termination Hayne. — In the neighbour- 

 hood of Sidmouth, Devon, is an ancient earth- 

 work called Blackberry Castle. Close around it 

 are names of places ending in " hayne," as 

 " Wickshayne," " Hornshayne," " Bonehayne," 

 " Blamphayne." Perhaps there are a dozen such. 

 I am not aware that the termination is so common 

 elsewhere. Query its derivation, and if at all in- 

 dicative of the former possessors of the camp. 



N. S. Heineken. 



Tamherlin. — I have in my possession an old 

 Bible, date 1660, on the first leaf of which is 

 written this name. Can any of the readers of 

 " N. & Q." kindly give any particulars of this 

 family, believed to be of Dorset or Somerset ? C. 



Lady Rous. — Who was a Lady Rous, living at 

 Warwick in 1646, a friend or relation of Lord- 

 Keeper Coventry's family ? W. C. 



[The lady above referred to was Jane, daughter of Sir 

 John Ferrers, of Tamworth Castle, Warwickshire, Bart., 

 and first wife of Sir Thomas Rous, of Rouse -Lench, Worces- 

 tershire, who was created a Bart, by Charles I., 23 July, 

 1641. She died in 1656. FVf^e Betham's Baronetage, 4to. 

 Lond. 1804, vol. iv. 220.] 



Sing si diderum. — At York, an angry mother 

 will tell her offending child that she will make It 

 " sing si diderum." I could never understand 

 what was particularly meant by this threat, but 

 imagined it might originally have borne an allu- 

 sion to some old penitential psalm or confession 



commencing with the words " Si dederim." That 

 the expression is very ancient is certain. I have 

 lately met with it, in a slightly varied form, in 

 the poem •' On the Evil Times of Edward III.," 

 contained in The Political Songs of England from 

 the Reign of John to that of Edward II., pub- 

 lished by the Camden Society in 1839. The fol- 

 lowing is the verse containing the words : — 



" Voiz of clerk is sielde i-herd at the court of Rome ; 

 Ne were he nevere swicb a clerk, silverles if he come, 

 Thouh he were the wiseste that evere was i-born, 



i-souht. 

 Or he shal sing si dedero, or al geineth him noht." 



Can any reader of "N. & Q." give me in- 

 formation respecting the origin or significancy of 

 " Sing si dedero ? " Ozmond, 



[We are quite inclined to agree that si dederim, or 

 si dedero, may have been the initial words of some longer 

 composition. Is it not possible that they were the com- 

 mencement of a legal form ? Dedi is a word of some im- 

 portance in legal documents, as it amounts in law to a 

 warrant!/. Then if it be said in a deed or conveyance 

 that A. B. hath given so and so to C. D., it is a warranty 

 to C. D. and his heirs (Jacob, Cowel). And again, 

 Janus Gulielmus, in attempting to explain an obscure 

 passage in Cicero's Orations, saj'S that covenants occa- 

 sionauy commenced with the word si. It is possible, 

 then, that si dedero may have been known in ancient 

 days as the initial phrase of a legal contract, — a point on 

 which our friends learned in the law will perhaps give 

 us farther light. The words of J. Gulielmus are, " Allusit 

 ad sponsinum et stipulationum formulas, quas certis 

 verbis concipiebant, et fere ordiebantur a si,_sive, ni, 

 NIVE." (^Plantinarum Qucestionum Cominentari'is, 1583, 

 p. 44.) 



We take this stipulating or binding force of si dedero 

 to be the true explanation of the last line of the passage 

 so appositely cited b^' our correspondent from an old 

 poem. At Rome, be the clerk never so learned, either he ' 

 must say " I will give so much " (si dedero), or all his 

 learning profits him nothing. 



With regard to the threat which angry mothers ad- 

 dress in Yorkshire to a naughty child, ""I'll make you 

 sing si diderum," we apprehend that their great-great- 

 grandmothers did not use it exactly in the same form, but 

 kept close to a legal sense. They said, interposing a 

 comma, " I'll make you sing, si dederim " : — that is, " Si 

 dederim"— if I give it you, oh! wont I? ("Dedit illi 

 dolorem," says Cicero), — " I'll make you sing." But in 

 process of time the two parts of the sentence were run 

 into one; and " si dederim," no longer significant of the 

 threatened castigation, came at length to stand for the 

 outcry which that castigation would not fail to elicit, — 

 « I'll make you sing si diderum."] 



Sir John Danvers. — Any information about 

 Sir John Danvers, brother (?) of Henry Danvers, 

 Earl of Danby, living in the middle of the seven- 

 teenth century, would be acceptable. W. C. 



[Sir John Danvers, of Danvers House, Chelsea, the 

 brother and heir of Henry Danvers, Earl of Danbj', was 

 a gentleman of the Privy-Chamber to Charles I. After 

 the death of Lady Danvers (George Herbert's mother) he 

 was deeply plunged in debt ; and on the breaking out of 

 the Rebellion identified himself with the rebels, and was 

 discarded bv his sovereign and his own family. At the 

 trial of Charles I. he sat as a judge, and affixed his sig- 



