70 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2"<i S. N» 30., JuTA- 26. '66. 



" Marry" — What is the exact meaning of the 

 adverbial exclamations " Marry," " Marry trap," 

 " Marry and Amen," " Marry, Heaven forbid," 

 "Marry come up," so common in these and vari- 

 ous other forms in our earlier writers ? In Twiss's 

 valuable Index to Shakspeare (1805) I find above 

 250 instances of its occurrence in this our great 

 dramatist. With most of the writers of his age, 

 the " Great Lord Digby " too, in bis Elvira, em- 

 ploys this term ; as thus : 



" So one displeased to find his crawfishes 

 Shrivei'd within and emptj', said to his cook, 

 (who laid the fault upon the wane o' th' moon), 

 ' What has the moon to do with crawfishes ? ' 

 ' Marrj' ! she has, 'tis she that governs shellfish.' " 



So in Monsieur Thomas, Beaumont and Fletcher : 



" Marry ! thou hast taught him, like an arrant rascal. 

 First, to read perfectly ; which, on my blessing, 

 I wam'd him from ; for 1 knew if he read once. 

 He was a lost man." 



The more modern use of " Marry come up " is 

 found in Pericles, Act IV. Sc. 6. ; Romeo and Ju- 

 liet, Act II. Sc. 5. Are these corruptions of St. 

 Mary ? or whence derived ? C. H. P. 



[Halliwell's explanation, " Marry," as an interjection 

 equivalent to " Indeed," has been already noticed in our 

 1" S. viii. 9. ; but Nares is of opinion that in many in- 

 stances it is a corruption of 3Iarie, as an asseveration 

 confirmed by the name of the Virgin Mary. Thus Coles 

 says, " Marry (oath) per Mariam." Such is the origin of 

 Marry come up, originally Marry guep, gip, or gup. " I 

 suspect," says Nares, " that guep is a corruption of go up, 

 which it seems was contemptuous. Thus, the children 

 said to Elisha, ' Go up, thou bald-head, go up !' "] 



Ancient Oaths. — If a collection of the very 

 curious and interesting oaths that have been in 

 use has not been made in the pages of "N. & Q.," 

 may I be allowed to make a beginning, hoping 

 that other contributors to its pages will follow, 

 and build up such a collection on my foundation ? 

 Old Chaucer's " Host," in the Cantei^hunj Tales, 

 strengthens au assertion "By Seinte Poules bell." 



Peter the apprentice, in Henry VI., holds up 

 his hands, and accusing Horner says, — 



" By these ten bones, my Lords, he did speak them to 

 me, in the garret one night, as we were scouring my Lord 

 of York's armour." — Henry VI., Pt. II. Act 1. Sc.'4. 



T. H. P. 



[The habit of profane swearing in former times by the 

 English has been noticed in our !«' S. iv. 37. ; vi. 299. 

 3G6. 471. ; but we need scarcely add, it is only oaths that 

 are "curious and interesting" that should be included 

 in the collection, as many of them in our earlj' writers 

 are peculiarly impious and irreverent. JCven in Chaucer 

 it is advisable to make a selection, such as the following ; 



The Host swears — " By my father's soul." 



Sir Thopas — " By ale and bread." 



Arcite — " By my pan [head]." 



Theseus — "By mighty Mars the rede." 



The Carpenter's wife — " By Saint Thomas of Kent." 



The Marchaunt— « By Saint Thomas of Inde." 

 The Cambridge scholar—" By my father's kinne."] 



Thomas Knaggs, of St. Giles's Church, pub- 

 lished a funeral sermon on Prince George of Den- 

 mark, 1708. Who was he? Did he publish 

 aught else ? and was he ever minister of Trinity 

 Chapel, Knightsbridge ? H. G. D. 



[The Rev. Thomas Knaggs was lecturer at St. Giles- 

 in-the-Fields for twenty years. He published thirty-one 

 single sermons between the years 1691 and 1722. See a 

 list of them in Watt's BibKotheca. His successor, Mr. 

 Riddle, was elected lecturer. May 16. 1724.] 



Cohnan's '■'•Iron Chest." — 1 possess a copy of 

 this play, of which the following is the title-page : 



"The Iron Chest, a Play in Three Acts, written by 

 George Colman the Younger. With a Preface. First 

 represented at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane, on Satur- 

 day, 12th March, 1796. ' The principal Characters ' by 

 Mr. Kemble, &c. (Drury Lane Play-Bill.) ' I had as 

 li eve the town-crier had spoke my lines.' — Shakespeare. 

 Dublin, 1796." 



This copy contains Colman's original preface, 

 which I believe to be excessively rare. Is this 

 preface worthy of being inserted in " JST. & Q." ? 



JUVEBNA. 

 [Colman's Preface to the Iron Chest is certainly a racy 

 production, but Time has robbed it of its interest. Col- 

 man attributes the condemnation of his play to Mr. Kem- 

 ble, owing to the rehearsal being imperfect, and from Mr. 

 Kemble acting " Sir Edward Mortimer " whilst under the 

 effects of opium pills. No doubt the Thespian fraternity 

 look upon this Preface as a dramatic literary curiosity, 

 and Jones QBiograph. Dramaticd) says that 30s. and even 

 40s. have been paid for a copy of it. But it makes twenty 

 pages of 8vo., and would occupy ten in our larger, or 

 six in the smaller type ; it is therefore obvious that we 

 have no alternative but to decline Juverna's kind offer 

 with many thanks.] 



Penrith Castle. — Where is there any account 

 of Penrith Castle, now in ruins ? A. 



[For descriptive notices of Penrith Castle, consult 

 Hutchinson's History of Cumberland, vol. i. p. 317 ; and 

 Nicolson and Burn's Cumberland, vol. ii. p. 404. Views, 

 with short notices, of this castle, are inserted in Buck's 

 Antiquities, vol. i. pi. 48., and in Grose's Antiquities, vol. i. 

 pi. 30.] 



The Old Hundredth (2"'' S. ii. 34.) — H. J. G. 

 says this tune has no English name. He is mis- 

 taken, as all, or nearly all the tune books I have 

 seen give it as " Savoy, or the Old Hundredth." 



H. G. D. 



[Savoy is not an English name, and, being a second 

 name applied to a tune first known as the 134th Psalm, 

 and then as the 100th, cannot afford an argument for 

 taking the time out of the list of the Old Psalter tunes. 

 It was not called Savoy for at least fifty j'ears after its 

 creation. But the application of this name to the tune, 

 showing its common use with the Germans in the Savoy 

 Church, may have led to the popular delusion that the 

 tune was made by Luther. ] 



