124 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 111., Feb. 13. '58. 



It will, however, be perceived by the attentive 

 reader, that in the couplet cited above the metre 

 of the second line requires that gnof should retain 

 in a measure the character of a dissyllable, which 

 it possessed in its full form, gannof. In the pro- 

 nunciation of words commencing with gn, the 

 Germans often introduce the sound of a vowel, 

 perceptible though slight, between the first two 

 letters; witness g-nade, g-neiss, g-nug (forgemig), 

 &c. So g-n6f. 



Thus gnof is only partially abbreviated in this 

 passage \xoxa. gannof . The Jewish-German, how- 

 ever, abounds with instances of abbreviation. 

 The term for a Gentile who has been circumcised 

 iajidscht, pro'perly jildischt (made a Jew of). Jil- 

 discht, however, has been abbreviated, and is pro- 

 nounced yitcht. 



In farther illustration of the Jewish-German 

 forms of the verb 33J, it may be remarked that 

 the Jews, among themselves, often mingle words 

 of Hebrew origin with whatever modern language 

 they speak. Thus, a pedlar robbed of his wares 

 would say, " Ganz mein s-choro [mhD] ist ge- 

 ganfft geworden " (All my merchandise has been 

 stolen !) 



Gnof seems to have passed from its original 

 meaning of thief to that of miser, through the 

 intermediate signification of extortioner, which 

 appears in the lines cited by Todd in his Illus- 

 trations : 



"That gnof, that grub, of pesants blude 

 Had store of goud, j'et did no gude." 



Thomas Boys. 



The Cambridge publishers, Macmillan and Co., 

 annpunce as in preparation an elaborate " Memoir 

 of Milton and his Times," to extend to three 

 volumes, from the pen of Professor Masson. There 

 are points in the poet's history still requiring elu- 

 cidation, and perhaps by ventilating the subject in 

 *' N. & Q." some interesting facts may be elicited. 

 First, let me notice a passage in Symmons's Life : — 



"For the fact of bis (Milton's) second wife dying in 

 childbed we have the testimonye not only of Philips, but 

 of Milton himself, who, in the sonnet on her death, makes 

 a direct allusion to its cause ; and yet Mrs. I'oster (the 

 poet's grand-daughter) affirmed that this lady died of a 

 consumption, at a period of more than three months after 

 her lying-in." {Life of Milton, 3rd ed. p. 448.) 



Mrs. Foster's testimony has been confirmed by 

 the undoubted evidence of parish registers. Mil- 

 ton's marriage to Katherine Woodcock is recorded 

 in the register of St. Mary Aldermanbury, under 

 the date of November 12, 1656. The baptism of 

 the_ only child of this union is registered in the 

 parish of St. Margaret, Westminster, on October 

 19, 1657: " Katherin Milton, d. to John, Esq., by 

 Katherin." (Cunningham's ed. of Johnson's Lives, 



vol. ill. p. 423.) And the burial of Mrs. Milton 

 is registered in the same parish under February 

 10, 1657-8, the death of the mother thus occur- 

 ring between three and four months after the birth 

 of the daughter. A search in the same register 

 would probably disclose the date of the death of 

 Milton's first wife, Mary Powell ; and the register 

 (if existing) of the parish in Oxfordshire, includ- 

 ing Shotover, might give the dates of her birth 

 and marriage: Symmons also states (p. 335.) that 

 a copy of the Defensio Secunda, " with a compli- 

 ment from its author, was presented to the Protec- 

 tor by Andrew Marvell, whose letter to his friend 

 on the occasion was first published by Dr. Birch." 

 It is clear that Birch and Symmons were wrong 

 in supposing that the presentation was made to 

 Cromwell : Bradshaw was the party ; and as the 

 letter illustrates Milton's sensitiveness as an au- 

 thor, and his desire to stand well with Bradshaw, 

 I may be allowed to quote part of it : — 



"Honored Sir — I did not satisfy myself in the ac- 

 count I gave you of presenting your book to my Lord, 

 although it seemed to me that I wrote to you all which 

 i the messenger's speedy return the same night from Eton 

 j would permit me ; and I perceive that by reason of that 

 haste, I did not give you satisfaction neither, concerning 

 j the delivery of your letter at the same time. Be pleased, 

 j therefore, to pardon me, and know that I tendered them 

 both together. But mj' Lord read not the letter while I 

 was with him ; which I attributed to our dispatch, and 

 j some other business tending thereto, which I therefore 

 j wished ill to, so far as it hindered an affair much better, 

 and of far greater importance — I mean that of reading 

 your letter. And to tell you truly mine own imagination, 

 I thought that he would not open it while I was there, 

 because he might suspect that I, delivering it just upon 

 my departure, might have brought in it some second pro- 

 position, like to that which yon had before made to him 

 by your letter to my advantage. However, I assure my- 

 self that he has since read it, and you that he did then 

 witness all respect to your person," &c. 



The allusion here is to a letter written about 

 four months before by Milton to Bradshaw, which 

 was found in the State Paper Office in 1826, and 

 first published by Todd. It is not in Milton's 

 hand, though sealed with his armorial bearing, the 

 Spread Eagle (see my accountof it in "N. & Q.," 

 Oct. 13, 1855); and in this communication the 

 poet recommends Marvell as a person "of sin- 

 gular desert for the State to make use of." As 

 Bradshaw is said to have, in his will, recognised 

 Milton as a kinsman, leaving him a legacy of lOL, 

 the style of address in this letter, taken in con- 

 nexion with the subsequent one quoted above, is 

 worthy of notice : — 



" My Lord — But that it would be an interruption to 

 the publick, wherein your studies are perpetually im- 

 plo}'ed, I should now and then venture to supply this my 

 enforced absence [allusion to his blindness] with a line 

 or two, though it were my onely business, and that would 

 be noe slight one, to make my due acknowledgments of 

 your many favours ; which I both doe at this time, and 

 ever shall," &c. 



This deferential mode of address shows, I think, 



