424 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 183. 



Muratori, in describing the " Cangiamento dell' 

 Lingua Latina nella volgare Italiana," observes, — 



•< Cosi a poco a poco il volgo di questa bella Provlncia 

 [Italia], oltre adottare moltissimi vocaboli forestieri, 

 ando ancora alterando i proprj, cioe i Latini, cambiando 

 le terminazioni delle parole, accorciandole, allungan- 

 dole, e corrompendole. In somma se ne formo un 

 nuovo Linguaggio, che Volgare si appellava, perche 

 usato dal Volgo d'ltalia." — Muratori, Delia Perfetta 

 Poesia Italiana, tomo i. p. 6., ed. Venez., 1730. 



So Boccaccio, giving an account of the intention 



of his poem, the "Teseide," writes, — 



" Ma tu, o libro, primo al lor cantare 

 Di Marte fai gli afFanni sostenuti, 

 Nel vulgar latino mai non veduti," 



where, as in the letter to La Fiammetta, prefixed 

 to this poem, vulgar latino is evidently Italian 

 (" Trovata una antichissima storia .... in latino 

 volgare .... ho ridotta"), and not the Proven9al 

 tongue, as Mr. Craik suggests in his Literature and 

 Learning in England, vol. ii. p. 48., where he sup- 

 poses Boccaccio to have translated from, and not, 

 as is clear, into, latino volgare. 



Dante repeatedly uses Latino for Italiano, as in 

 Purg-atofio, xi. 58.'} 



** t^ fwi Latinc^ 6 nato d' un gran Tosco." 

 And in Inf. xxii. Q5. : 



" Conosci tu alcun, che sla Latino." 

 In Paradiso, iii. 63., 



" Si che il raffigurar m' § piu latino," 



latino evidently means easy, clear, plain. " Forse 

 contrario di barbaro, strano," says Volpi, " noi 

 LombardI in questo significato diciamo ladin." 

 The " discreto latino " of Thomas Aquinas, else- 

 where in Paradiso (xli. 144.), must mean "sage 

 discourse." Chaucer, when he invokes the muse, 

 in the proeme to the second book of " Trollus and 

 Creseide," only asks her for rhyme, because, salth 

 he, — 



" Of no sentement I this endlte. 

 But out of Latine in my tongue it write." 



Where " Latine," of course, means Boccaccio's 

 Filostrato, from which Chaucer's poem is taken. 



In the " Poema del Cid," latinado seems to mean 

 a person conversant with the Spanish or Romance 

 language of the period : 



" Quando esta falsedad dicien los de Carrion, 

 Un Moro Latinado bien gelo entendio." — v. 2673. 



Mr. TIcknor remarks, that when the Christian 

 conquests were pushed on towards the south of 

 Spain, the Moors, who remained inclosed in the 

 Christian population, and spoke or assumed its 

 language, were originally called Moros Laiinados; 

 and refers to the Cronica General, where, respect- 

 ing Alfaraxi, a Moor, afterwards converted, and a 

 counsellor of the Cid, it is said he was " de tan 



buen entendimento, e era tan ladino que semejava 

 Christlano." — Ticknor, Hist. Span. Lit, ill. 347. 



Cervantes (Dora Q., Parte I. cap. xli.) uses la- 

 dino to mean Spanish : 



" Servianos de interprete a las mas destas palabras y 

 razones el padre de Zoraida como mas ladino." 



Latin, in fact, was so much the language as to 

 become almost synonymous with a language. So 

 a Latiner was an interpreter, as it is very well ex- 

 pressed in Selden's Table Talk, art. " Language": 



" Latimer is the corruption of Latiner : it signifies 

 he that interprets Latin; and though he interpreted 

 French, Spanish, or Italian, he was the king's Latiner^ 

 that is, the king's interpreter." 



This use of the word is well illustrated In tha 

 following extracts : 



" A Knight ther language lerld in youth j 

 Breg hight that Knight, born Bretounj 

 That lerid the language of Sessoun. 

 This Breg was the Latimer, 

 What scho said told Vortager." 



Robert de Brunne's Metrical Chronicle. 



" Par soen demein latinier 



Icil Morice iert latinier 

 Al rei Dermot, ke mult Tout cher." 

 Norman- French Chronicle of Conquest of Ireland^ 

 edited by F. Michel (as quoted in Wright's 

 Essays, vol. ii. p. 215.). 



I here conclude, as I must not seek to mono- 

 polise space required for more valuable contri- 

 butions. J. M. B» 



Tunbridge Wells. 



INEDITED POEMS. 



I send you two poems which I have found in a 

 little rough scrap-book of a literary character of 

 last century, and which, not having myself met witlv 

 in print, I trust you will consider worth preserving 

 in your pages. The one styled " A Scotch Poena 

 on the King and the Queen of the Fairies," has a 

 vein of playful satire running through it, but I do 

 not detect any word which justifies the ascription: 

 of its paternity to Scotland. Perhaps some of 

 your readers would oblige me by indicating the 

 source from which this poem has been taken, if it 

 is already in print. 



A SCOTCH POEM ON THE KING AND THE QUEEN OF 

 THE FAIRIES. 



Upon a time the Fairy Elves, 

 Being first array'd themselves, 

 Thought it meet to clothe their King 

 In robes most fit for revelling. 



He had a cobweb shirt more thin 

 Than ever spider since could spin, 

 Bleaeh'd in the whiteness of the snow, 

 When that the northern winds do blow. 



