428 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°d S. No 48., Nov. 29. '56. 



stating why I venture for once to form an opinion 

 contrary to that of this very eminent crific, I am 

 not about to say anything on the general question 

 of the origin of these Miracle-Plays, but merely 

 to draw attention to one or two out of many in- 

 stances in which the word French is manifestly 

 used for language. 



Ellis used for dissertation and extract in the 

 *' Specimens " that copy of The Seven Wise 

 Masters which is preserved in the Auchinleck 

 MS. The date of this MS. is singularly coinci- 

 dent with that which, in Mr. Collier's opinion, is 

 the date of the earliest English version of the 

 Miracle-Plays ; agreeing, indeed, to a very few 

 years. 



The following occurs in the tale of the " Mag- 

 pie:" 



" A burgess was in Rome town, 

 A rich man of great renoun. 



The burgess had a pie in his hall 

 That couth tellen tales all 

 Apertlich in French language." 



Again, in the " Two Dreams : " 



" The knight took up the parchemyne 

 And red the French full fair and tine." 



Mr. Ellis makes a note upon this, " The word 

 French is used for language in general." C. M. 

 Leicester. 



LincoMs Inn Fields. — There was a time when 

 Lincoln's Inn Fields was probably the hand- 

 somest square in the whole metropolis ; but for 

 much more than a hundred years, it has continued 

 without a suitable access from any surrounding 

 quarter, although, for the same full period of time, 

 this inconvenience has been complained of; as 

 will be seen in the following extract from the 

 St. James's Chronicle, from June 6 to 9, 1761 : 



" A Plan for a New Street, from the end of Serle Street 

 to Temple Bar, is actually concerting, which has been a 

 thing long wanted; as the Avenues to Lincoln's-Inn- 

 Square are so extremely bad. It is also said, that in 

 order to make it complete, Turnstile will be widened, so 

 as to admit of Carriages passing." 



Y. S. 



The Name of Canada. — The derivation of the 

 name of this province has been a matter of specu- 

 lation to the curious, and may not, therefore, be 

 uninteresting to the readers of " N. & Q." Two 

 Spanish derivations are given : one taken from an 

 ancient Castilian tradition of an early visit of the 

 Spaniards (before the French), who, perceiving 

 no appearance of mines or riches, exclaimed, in 

 the hearing of the natives, Aca Nada I " here is 

 nothing ; " and this being repeated by the natives 

 to other European visitors was supposed to be 

 their name for the country. Father Hennipin 

 gives the other, — confirming this early visit of the 

 Spaniards, — that finding nothing to gratify their 



desire for gold, they called the country El Capo 

 di Nada, " Cape Nothing." These, however, as 

 well as the speculation of its being named after 

 M. Cane, a French nobleman, are unreliable. 

 The more generally received derivation, which is 

 supported by the analogy of other names, is either 

 that given by Charleroix from the Iroquois, 

 Kannata, "a collection of huts;" or, by other 

 writers, from two Indian words, Kan or Can, " a 

 mouth," and Ada, "a country," — signifying "the 

 mouth of the country," — originally applied per- 

 haps to the River St. Lawrence, and mistaken 

 for the name of what is now one of the greatest 

 colonial possessions of the empire — the province 

 of Canada. Thomas Hodgiss. 



Toronto, Canada. 



^xxtxiti. 



wotton's "courtlie conteoveksib of Cupid's 



CAUTEL8." 



Can any of your readers inform me who was 

 Henry Wotton, who wrote and published "^ 

 Courtlie Controversie of Cupid's Cautels, contain- 

 ing Five Tragicall Historyes by three Gentlemen 

 and two Gentlewomen, translated out of French 

 by Hen. Wotton." 4to., black letter. Imprinted 

 at London by Francis Coldocke and Henry Byn- 

 neman. Anno 1578. It was licensed to them in 

 the same year. See Herbert's Ames, p. 982. It 

 is dedicated to his sister, the Lady Anne Dacre of 

 the South, in which he speaks of himself as a 

 rolling stone, of this " being the first fruits of his 

 baraine braine," and alluding to the love of his 

 sister, remarks, that " dayly experience notifyeth 

 to the world your noble minde, natural loue, and 

 bountiful liberalitie towards all the poore Or- 

 phanes of my good Lorde his and our noble 

 mother, since hir deceasse." I am anxious to as- 

 certain who was the Lady Anne Dacre of the 

 South, and also the noble person here alluded to 

 in this dedication. The work itself, independently 

 of its great rarity (an imperfect copy in the Bod- 

 leian Library being the only one I know of besides 

 my own, also wanting the title-page) is extremely 

 curious, consisting of five Histories or Tales, and 

 is interspersed with numerous pieces of poetry, 

 some of them of considerable length. See Cens. 

 Lit., vol. i. p. 158. Sir Henry Wotton, the Pro- 

 vost of Eton, was only ten years old when this 

 work was published, and is therefore quite out of 

 the question. I know of only one other Henry 

 Wotton, who was the son of Dr. Edward Wotton, 

 Fellow of Corpus Ch. Coll., Oxford, and physician 

 to King Henry VIH. This Henry Wotton was a 

 student of Ch. Ch., Oxford, and was afterwards 

 Greek Reader and Fellow of Corpus Ch. Coll., and 

 like his father became celebrated as a physician ; 

 but whether he was the author of this work or 



