282 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 177. 



" Remember that the only regulai-ly authorised dis- 

 penser of Cupid's goods is George Howard, 



" Two doors East of the American House, Woos- 

 ter, O. 



" ^' Orders by mail promptly attended to. Prices 

 ranije from six cents to five dollars." 



" VALENTINES I ! 

 " A large and splendid assortment of Valentines, to- 

 gether with all the necessary fixings, for sale wholesale 

 and retail, at the New Column Building. 



" J. H. Baumgaiidnepv & Co. 

 "Wooster, Feb. 3, 1853." 



" Valentines. — Behold St. Valentine's day is coming, 

 and all are seeking for messages to be dispatched under 

 cover of this Saint, to friend or foe, Tliey are provided, 

 of all kinds, styles, and varieties, ready for use. The 

 turtle dove kind, with its coo ! coo ! the sensibly sen- 

 timental, the cutting and severe, and in short every- 

 thing that can be required. Just call on George 

 Howard or J. H. Baumgardner & Co., and you can 

 be suited to a T." 



S. R. P. 



Minor ^aUi, 



His Excellency David Hartley. — In the Gen- 

 tlemaris Magazine of January last (which I have 

 only lately seen), there is inserted at page 8. a 

 letter signed by " Benjamin Franklin and John 

 Jay," and addressed to His Excellency David 

 Hartley, announcing the arrival in Europe of the 

 ratification, by the Congress of the United States, 

 of the definitive treaty of peace between Great 

 Britain and the United States, and stating that 

 they were ready to exchange the ratification with 

 Mr. Hartley. 



In a note prefixed to this letter, the editor of 

 the review states that Mr. Hartley " then held 

 some other diplomatic appointment from the 

 United States." 



Now this is a mistake. Mr. Hartley was the 

 British plenipotentiary who signed that treaty at 

 Paris in September, 1783, with the American ple- 

 nipotentiaries, and held no diplomatic appointment 

 from the United States. He was therefore the 

 proper person to exchange the ratifications with 

 the American plenipotentiaries. 



The treaty is printed at full length in Chalmers' 

 Collection of Treaties, together with Mr. Hartley's 

 full power as the British plenipotentiary. J. B, 



The Life and Correspondence of S. T. Coleridge. 

 — It is much to be regretted that no proper life of 

 the " noticeable man " has yet appeared. Tliere 

 is no lack of " reminiscences," and " recollections," 

 and " conversations," conveying distorted views of 

 his life and character, and exaggerated statements 

 of his faults and failings ; but his life has yet to 



be written. And now would be the time, whilst 

 some of his friends and cotemporaries are still 

 living, to do justice to his memory. Scott, Soiithey, 

 Wordsworth, have had their lives copiously il- 

 lustrated, and even little Tommy Moore is {coses' 

 stupenda) to have ten volumes devoted to his life,, 

 whilst Coleridge, the myriad-minded, still wait* 

 for a biographer. And who would be so suitable 

 as Derwent Coleridge to perform the office ! 



J. M. B. 



An old Riddle. — I lately found the following 

 mysterious verse upon a scrap of paper. It is oi 

 the time of Henry VIII. : 



" Vj is come, v is goone, wyth thris tene beware al mca 

 Vij wyth vij shall mete wyth viij"' and viij"' manye- 

 A thousande shall wepe Ad parabulam banc 

 If I shulde seye what it is I sluild have no tlianke 

 For he that ne rekketh where that he steppeth 

 He mav ligh'ly wade to depe." 



J. Bt. 



The Word '■'■rather." — The word rather is, as 

 far as I know (if I am wrong, perhaps some of your 

 correspondents will correct me) a solitary instance- 

 in our language of a comparative regularly formed 

 from a positive which is now obsolete. In the- 

 Cant. Tales, v. 13029., we find the positive form: 



" What aileth you so rathe for to arise ; " 

 where rathe means " early, soon." 



The earliest use of the comparative degree whicb 

 I can find, is in a piece of Anglo-Norman poetry 

 preserved in Hickes's Thesaurus, and given ii> 

 Ellis's Specimens, vol. i. p. 73. : 



" The chrystal turneth into glass 

 In state that it rather was." 



Here we have the adverbial form ; but in Chaucer's 

 Troilus and Creseide, iii. 1342., we find the adjec- 

 tival form : 



" But now to purpose of my rather speech," 



where, according to .the principle laid down by 

 Dr. Latham, in his English Language, p. 262.,, 

 2nd edit., we should, I suppose, pronounce it 

 rayther. 



This word has sustained various modifications- 

 of meaning, but they are in general easily deducibl& 

 from the original signification : e.g. the phrase "I 

 had rather " is easily explained, as far as the word 

 rather is concerned ; for that v/hich we do more 

 quickly, we do preferably. But in such expres- 

 sions as " I am rather tired," equivalent to " I am 

 a little tired," the explanation is not so obvious. 

 In this case rather seems to mean " In a greater 

 degree than otherwise." Now, in such sentences \ 

 as " I am glad you are come, the rather that I have- 

 work for you to do," rather seems to require the 

 signification " in a greater degree ;" and may we 

 not therefore explain the case in question as an 

 elliptical expression for "rather than not?" If 



