2"«» S, No 79., July 4 '57.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



15 



justify Mr. Beckford's quiet remark, that " some 

 justly-admired authors had condescended to glean 

 a few stray tlioughts from his letters." 



The following extracts will show that Moore at 

 least did not disdain to appropriate one of the 

 most striking thoughts in the MS., lent him, I 

 believe, by the author ; a privilege also extended, 

 and it will be seen with similar results, to Mr. 

 Samuel Rogers : 



" I left them to walk on the beach, and was so charmed 

 with the vast azure expanse of ocean, which opened sud- 

 denly upon me, that I remained there a full half hour. 

 More than two hundred vessels of different sizes were in 

 sight, the fast sunbeam purpling their sails, and casting a 

 path of innumerable brilliants athwart the waves. What would 

 I not have given to follow this shining track ! It might have 

 conducted me straight to those fortimate western climates, 

 those happi/ isles which you are so fond of painting, and I 

 of dreaming about." — Bechford, Letter II. [1780.] 



" How dear to me the hour when daylight dies, 

 And sunbeams melt along the silent sea ; 

 For then sweet dreams of other days arise. 

 And memory breathes her vesper sigh to thee. 



" And, as I watch the line of light, that plays 

 Along the smooth wave to the burning west, 

 I long to tread that golden path of rays. 



And think 'twould lead to some bright isle of rest." 

 Moore, Irish Melody. 



A few pages farther on I find the following in a 

 letter from Venice (Aug. 1, 1780) : 



" Our prow struck foaming against the walls of the 

 Carthusian garden before I recollected where I was, or 

 could look attentively around me. Permission being ob- 

 tained, I entered this cool retirement, and putting aside 

 with my hands the boughs of figs and pomegranates, got 

 under an antient bay-tree on the summit of a little knoll, 

 near which several tall pines lift themselves up to the 

 breezes. I listened to the conversation they held with a 

 wind just flown from Greece, and charged, as well as I 

 cpuld understand this airy language, with many affec- 

 tionate remembrances from their relations on Mount Ida." 



Again, Letter from Venice, No. VI. : 



_«' An aromatic plant, which the people justly dignify 

 with the title of marine incense, clothes the margin of the 

 waters. It proved very serviceable in subduing a musky 

 odour which attacked us the moment we landed, and 

 which proceeds from serpents that lurk in the hedges." 



Now turn we to Rogers's Italy, p. 66., ed. 1830: 



*' Adventurer-like I launched 



Into the deep, ere long discovering 



Isles such as cluster in the southern seas, 



All verdure. Everywhere, from bush and brake. 



The musky odour of the serpents came .... 



Dreaming of Greece, whither the waves were gliding, 



/ listened to the venerable pines 



Then in close converse, and, if right I guessed. 



Delivering many a message to the winds 



In secret, for their kindred on Mount Ida." 



There is, in the third Letter from Venice, an- 

 other passage that Rogers has copied nearly 

 verbatim, but I cannot find at this moment my 

 reference to his poems. A glance forwards over 

 the remaining Letters has shown me several re- 

 markable coincidences with Moore, Rogers, and 



Byron, which I have not time to verify. I leave 

 them for the discovery of any of your readers who 

 may be disposed to engage in the (to me) not 

 very agreeable employment of hunting after pla- 

 giarisms. W. L. N. 

 Bath. 



*' DXJRST." 



(2"'^ S. iii. 486.) 



This word is the original preterite of the verb 

 to dare. Ang.-Saxon Dearan or Durron; Ger- 

 man Durfen. 



Fre'sent. Past. 



Ang.-Sax. - ic dear - ic durste. 



German - ich darf - ich durfte. 



The preterite dared is of quite modern intro- 

 duction. The word is not found in our autho- 

 rised version of the Scriptures. Durst, therefore, 

 in reply to Anon's first Query is a thoroughly 

 English word. 



In reply to his second Query, "whether durst 

 is related to dare in the same way as must seems 

 to be to may," there appears here a slight con- 

 fusion of ideas. Properly speaking must has no 

 more relation to may than there exists between 

 any other two verbs in the language. May is the 

 present, and might the past tense of the Ang.- 

 Saxon verb Magan, German Mogen, always used 

 in the sense of expressing ability. The Ang.- 

 Saxon verb most is defective, only existing in a 

 single tense, the present or indefinite. The 

 modern English mu^t, which is its lineal de- 

 scendant, labours under the same defect. It is 

 always used to express the idea of necessity or 

 obligation. The German equivalent verb, Milssen, 

 is not subject to the same deficiency, forming its 

 preterite in the same manner as other verbs. 



Such phrases as " I durst n't," " / could 7it," " / 

 should n't," are in the conditional mood, and are 

 really auxiliaries to a verb understood, implying a 

 hypothetical state of things irrespective of time. 

 Our mother tongue, the Anglo-Saxon, possessed 

 no inflections to mark the difference between the 

 simple expression of past time and the statement 

 of a possibility whether past or future, nor is its 

 congener, the German, much better off. In this 

 respect the classical tongues have much the ad- 

 vantage. The verb must only existing in a single 

 tense, is frequently the cause of ambiguity and 

 circumlocution. We can say for instance, " I can 

 do this to-day, I could have done it yesterday," 

 but we cannot say, " I must do this to-day ; I 

 must have done it yesterday." We say, " I was 

 obliged to do it yesterday ; " the phrase " I must 

 have done it," conveying not the statement of a 

 fact, but the expression of what would have taken 

 place under given circumstances. J. A. P. 



Liverpool. 



