2nd s. N« 43., Oct. 25. '56.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



331 



of King Henry VIII.'s houses of pleasure ; and disguised 

 by the name of Jericho. So that when this lascivious 

 prince liad a mind to be lost in the embraces of his courte- 

 sans, the cant word among the courtiers Avas, that ' He 

 was gone to Jericlio.' "] 



" Deuce take you.'' — It is not unlikely that the 

 word Deuce, as thus used, may owe its origin to 

 the name of the Roman general, Claudius Drusus, 

 the son of Livia, and step-son of Augustus. 



Albert Mirseus, in his Annales Belgici (Brussels, 

 1624), p. 9., says that the name of Drusus, after 

 his German victories, became so dreaded, that 

 even " at the present day it is used in the impre- 

 cation common with the Flemings, Dat u den 

 Droes hale, 'May Druse take you.' Drusus te 

 auferat seu aveJmt." 



We find that a similar imprecation is still in 

 use with the Germans : 



" The misery that Drusus must have occasioned among 

 the German tribes was undoubtedly excessive. Some an- 

 tiquaries have imagined that the German imprecation, 

 J)as dich der Drus hole, may be traced to the traditional 

 dread of this terrible conqueror." — Dr. Smith's Dictionary 

 of Ancient Biography, vol. i. p. 108G. 



Henry T. Rilet. 



[Junius, in his Etymologicum, gives a different origin 

 to this popular imprecation: "Deus take you, Abi in 

 nialam rem, Diaboluste abripiat. Hue facit, quodlsidori 

 glossis legimus ; Dusius, daemon, quod itidem auctori 

 Gem. gemm. Dusius exp. daemon, qui homines educit h. 

 sensu. Etiam Teuton. Dusius, J~>ie duuel die de luyde 

 buten Jinnes of toe dode brenght. Imo et illud Augustini, 

 lib. XV. de Civitate Dei, c. 23. : ' Quosdam da3mones, quos 

 Dusios nuncupant Galli, banc assidue immunditiam et 

 tentare et efRcere,' &c." Sharon Turner, also, farther 

 informs us, that " Bede, in his Commentary on Luke, 

 mentions demons appearing to men as females, and to 

 women as men, whom, he says, the Gauls call Dusii, the 

 presumed origin of our word deuce." See Dr. Whitaker's 

 learned argument for deriving this imprecation from " the 

 goddess nymph of the Brigantes" in his Cathedral of 

 Cornwall, vol. i. pp. 345 — 347.] 



Lloyd Arms. — To which family of the Lloyds 

 do the following armorial bearings belong ? and 

 how can I find out inhy they were granted ? 



Arms, Argent, a griffin, segreant, vert. 



Crest, Out of a ducal coronet, or, a cock's head 

 between two wings, gules, combed, beaked, and 

 wattled of the first. 



Granted a.d. 1578. N. E. P. 



[We have not seen any authority bej'ond Edmond- 

 son for the arms blazoned by our correspondent. He 

 says they were borne by Lloyd of J^ondon and Wales. 

 There is no family of Lloyd in the Visitation of London, 

 A.D. 15G8, nor in the subsequent one of 1634. In the 

 Visitation of London in 1687 the arms of Lloyd are quite 

 different, being four stags.] 



Omission of f in the Marginal References of the 

 Oxford Bible. — I find, on examination, that the 

 letter f has been uniformly, and therefore it 

 would seem designedly, omitted in the marginal 

 references of the Old and New Testament, which 



bears the date 1851 on its title-page ; printed at 

 the University Press, Oxford, for the S. P. C. K. 

 The Book of Common Prayer is bound up to- 

 gether with the copy to which I refer (y.y.y. 

 Pearl 8vo.). Can any one give the reason for 

 this omission ? BoEOTicus. 



Tonbridge. 



[The italic letters /and/, being what are technically 

 called kerned letters, or such as have part of tiieir face 

 hanging over one or both sides of their shanks, are very 

 liable to lose their tails whilst subject to the pressure of 

 machine work. Hence they are frequently omitted as 

 reference letters in marginal notes of the Bible and law 

 works.] 



Fast in 1640. — In the churchwardens' book of 

 this parish I find an entry in the above year as 

 follows : 



£ s. d. 

 " Item. P"! for a booke against the fast - 2 0." 



What fast was this ? Alfred T. Lee. 



Tetburj', Gloucestershire. 



[lu Toone's Chronological Historian, under Nov. 12, 

 1640, we read that " the Commons, in concurrence with 

 the Lords, moved the King for a fast, which was ap- 

 pointed and held. Dr. Cornelius Burgess and Stephen 

 Marshall preached on that day before the House of Com- 

 mons, and preached and prayed seven hours betwixt 

 them."] 



" Comoedia Sacra." — Some time ago an ancient 

 " comedy " in Latin fell into my hands, and I should 

 be much obliged by any dramatic antiquary giving 

 me an account of its author. The subject is 

 somewhat remarkable, inasmuch as it refers to the 

 history of Joseph when in Egypt. 



The following is a copy of the title : 



" Comoedia Sacra, cui Titulus Joseph, ad Christiana3 

 juventutis institutionem iuxta locos inventionis, vete- 

 remq; artem, nunc primum et scripta et edita per Cor. 

 Crocum, Amsterodami ludimagistrum. Ex Genesios, 

 cap. xxxix. xl. et xli. Abstine sus, non tibi spiro. 

 Colonise. loannes Gvmnicus excudebat. Anno MDXxxvir. 

 12mo." 



Master Crocus dedicates the production to 

 Martin Niven of Amsterdam, " Virginum Ger- 

 trudensium moderatori meritissimo." Query, 

 who was Crocus, and what sort of office was it 

 held by his patron Martin Niven ? The drama 

 in which Potiphar and Mrs. Potiphar appear must 

 surely be very rare. J. M. 



[An edition of this work was published during the 

 same year at Strasbourg : " Excusuni Argentinae, in asdi- 

 bus Jacobi Jucundi. Anno m.d.xxxvii." The author, 

 Cornelius Crocus, was a Jesuit of Amsterdam, and died in 

 the year 1550. He published a Grammar and Colloquies 

 to supersede in the schools those of Melancthon and 

 Erasmus. He had the reputation of writing with great 

 perspicuity ; and Adrian Junius gives Father Crocus the 

 commendation of having successfully imitated the polite- 

 ness of Terence and Tully. For some account of him and 

 his works, see Biographic Universelle, vol. X. p. 282., and 

 Moreri, Dictionnaire jfistorique.^ 



