Feb. 5. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



137 



dyes, or tinges {i. e. communicates its own hue to) 

 the contents or satisfaction of the spectators (i. e. 

 makes them sympatliise with the actors). While 

 on the other "hand : My good lord, when, as in 

 3'our late attempt, great things labouring perish 

 in the birth, tlieir confusion causes laughter and 

 derision instead of pleasure, like the former simple 

 effort. 



I take, as will be seen, contents, in the third line, 

 as the substantive of the preceding verb content, 

 and not, with Mr. Knight and A. E. B., as " things 

 contained." The poet put it in the plural evi- 

 dently for the sake of the rhyme. In the next 

 line, zeal may not be the word actually written by 

 the poet, but it makes a very fair sense ; and I 

 know no word that could be substituted for it 

 with certainty — we still use the phrase, to dye in. 

 In understanding the last two lines of the remark 

 of the king and his lords, I think I am justified by 

 the remark of Byron : 



" A right description of our sport, my Lord." 



Perhaps it is needless to add, that labouring is 

 i. q. travailing ; and that most form in mirth means 

 the highest form in (i. e. the greatest degree of) 

 mirth. 



In these, and any other remarks on Shakspeare 

 with which I may happen to trouble you at any 

 time, I beg to be regarded as a mere guerilla as 

 compared with regularly trained and disciplined 

 Shakspearians like Ma. Singer, Mr. Collier, and 

 others. I have never read the folios of 1623 or 

 1632. I do not even possess a variorum edition 

 of the poet ; my only copy being Mr. Collier's ex- 

 cellent edition. Finally, my studies have lain most 

 about the sunny shores of the Mediterranean ; and 

 I am most at home in the literature of its three 

 peninsulas, and the coasts of Asia. 



Thos. Keightley. 



NIAGARA, OR NIAGARA. 



(Vol. vi., p. 552. ; Vol. vii., p. 50.) 



As I consider J. G.'s apology for the popular, 

 though undoubtedly erroneous, pronunciation of 

 this word to be far from satisfactory, may I trouble 

 you with some evidence in favour of Niagara, 

 which Mr, W. Fraser truly says is the Huron 

 pronunciation ? I also agree with him, that it is 

 " unquestionably the most musical." For my own 

 part, the sound of Niagara is painful to my ear ; 

 even Moore himself could not knock music out of 

 it. Witness the following lines : 



" Take, instead of a bowl, or a dagger, a 



Desperate dash down the Falls of Niagara," * 



How very different is the measured, solemn 

 sound, which the word bears in the noble lines of 



* I quote these lines from memory. They occur, 

 I believe, in the Fudge Family, 



Goldsmith, who, it is reasonable to suppose, was 

 as well informed of its proper pronunciation as of 

 its correct interpretation. 



Travelling a few years since in Canada, I was 

 assured by an old gentleman, who for many years 

 held constant intercourse with the aborigines, that 

 they invariably place the accent upon the penult. 

 If this be true, as I doubt not, it is conclusive : 

 and in order to testify to the correctness of the 

 assertion, I could cite numberless aboriginal names 

 of places in " The States," as well as in Canada : 

 a few, however, will here suffice : 



Stadacona. Alleghany. Narragauset. 



Hochelaga. Apalachicola. Oswego. 

 Toronto. Saratoga. Canandaigua. 



Mississippi. Ticonderoga. Tuscaloosa. 



Now, I am aware that there are other Indian 

 words which would seem, at first sight, if not to 

 contradict, to be at least exceptions to the rule, 

 but upon investigation they, I conceive, rather 

 strengthen my argument : for instance, Connec- 

 ticut — the original of which is, Quonehtacut, the 

 long river. 



In conclusion, we should bear in mind that we 

 have the prevalent pronunciation of such words 

 through either of two channels, — the French or 

 the American ; consequently, in Canada, we find 

 them Frenchified, and in "The States" Yankeefied. 



I therefore hold that Niagara is a most inhar- 

 monious Yankeefication of the melodious abori- 

 ginal word Niagara. Robert Wright. 



40, Tavistock Street, Covent Garden. 



srenoage. 



(Vol. vii., p. 39.) 



The tenure in dr engage was common in, if it was 

 not confined to, the territory which was comprised 

 in the ancient kingdom of Northumbria. Drenghs 

 are mentioned in Domesday on the lands between 

 the Kibble and the Mersey, which then formed 

 part of Northumbria. They occur in Yorkshire ; 

 and they are mentioned in the survey, called the 

 Boldon Book, compiled in a.d. 1183, by order of 

 Hugh Pudsey, the great Bishop of Durham, which 

 may be termed the Domesday of the palatinate. 

 Sir Henry Ellis, in his General Introd. to Domes- 

 day, says, " The drenchs or drenghs were of the de- 

 scription of allodial tenants . . . and from the 

 few entries in which they occur, it certainly ap- 

 pears that the allotments of territory they pos- 

 sessed were held as manors." (Domesd., torn. i. 

 fo. 269.) But as menial services (to be rendered, 

 nevertheless, by the villans of the tenant in dren- 

 gage) were attached to the tenure, at all events in 

 the county of Durham, it was inferior to military 

 tenure ; and the instance in the Pipe Rolls of 

 Westmoreland, 25 Henry II., of the enfranchise- 

 ment of drenghs, together with the particulars 



