April 16. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIEa 



Z8t 



handwriting : " The above advertisement was 

 written or revised by Dr. Johnson. — J. E,." 

 Reed's general correctness and capacity of judging 

 in literary matters are too well known to render 

 it necessary for me to enlarge upon them ; and 

 with this support I am quite content to leave the 

 point in issue between your correspondents and 

 myself to the decision of that part of your readers 

 who take an interest in similar literary questions. 



It will be observed that I have confined myself 

 in my remarks to the Prospectus exclusively. 

 The authorship of the Lives themselves is another 

 question, and a very curious one, and not, by any 

 means, as your correspondent C. appears to think, 

 " settled." Perhaps I may, on a future occasion, 

 trouble you with some remarks upon the Lives in 

 detail, endeavouring to assign the respective por- 

 tions to the several contributors. 



JaM£S CBOSSIiET. 



(Vol. vii., p. 23.) 



As I consider that the true origin of pic-nic 

 remains yet to be discovered, permit me to try 

 and trace the word through France into Italy, and 

 to endeavour to show that the laud with the " fatal 

 gift of beauty" was its birthplace; and that when 

 the Medici married into France, the august ladies 

 probably imported, together with fans, gloves, and 

 poisons, a pastime which, under the name ofpique- 

 nique, became, as Leroux says in his Dictionnaire 

 Comique, " un divertissement fort h, la mode a 

 Paris." 



I will not occupy space by quoting the article 

 *' at length " from Leroux, but the substance is 

 this : — Persons of quality, of both sexes, who 

 wished to enjoy themselves, and feast together, 

 either in the open air or in the house of one of the 

 number, imposed upon each one the task of bring- 

 ing some particular article, or doing some par- 

 ticular duty in connexion with the feast. And 

 to show how stringent was the expression pique- 

 nique in imposing a specific task, Leroux quotes 

 " considerant que chacun avait besoin de ses pieces, 

 pronon9a un arret de pique-nique." (Rec. de Piec. 

 Com.) 



Thus, I think Leroux and also Cotgrave show 

 that the word pique-nique involves the idea of a task, 

 or particular office, undertaken by each individual 

 for the general benefit. 



Let us now go to Italian, and look at the word 

 nicchia. Both from Albert! and from Baretti we 

 find it to bear the meaning of " a charge, a duty, 

 or an employment;" and if before this word we 

 place the adjective piccola, we have piccola nicchia, 

 " a small task, or trifling service to be performed." 

 Now I think no one can fail to see the identity of 

 the meanings of the expressions />JccoZa nicckia and 



pique-nique ; but It remains to show how the word* 

 themselves may be identical. Those who have 

 been in the habit of reading much of the older, 

 Italian authors (subsequent to Boccacio) will bear 

 me out in my statement of the frequency of con- 

 traction of words in familiar use : the plays, par- 

 ticularly, show It, from the dialogues In Machiavelli 

 or Goldoni to the libretto of a modern opera ; so 

 much as to render it very probable that piccola 

 nicchia might stand as pice' nice,' just as we our-> 

 selves have been in the habit of degrading scau' 

 dalum magnatum into scan. mag. It only remains 

 now to carry this pice' nice' into France, and,, 

 according to what is usual in Gallicising Italian 

 words, to change the c or ch into que, to have what 

 I started with, viz. the divertissement concerning 

 which Leroux enlarges, and in which, I am afraid, 

 it may be said I have followed his example. 



However, I consider the Decameron of Boccacio 

 as a probable period where the temporary queen 

 of the day would impose the arret oi pique-nique 

 upon her subjects ; and when I look over the en- . 

 gravings of the manners and customs of the 

 Italians of the Middle Ages, all indicating the fre- 

 quency of the al fresco banquets, and find that 

 subsequently Watteau and Lancret revel in simi- 

 lar amusements in France, where the personages 

 of the fete manifestly wear Italian-fashioned gar- 

 ments ; and when we are taught that such parties 

 of pleasure were called pique-niques, I think it is 

 fair to infer that the expression is a Gallicised one- 

 from an Italian phrase of the same signification. 



I do not know if it will be conceded that I have 

 proved my case positively, but I might go so far 

 negatively as to show that in no other European 

 language can I find any word or words which, 

 having a similar sound, will bear an analysis of 

 adaptation ; and though there is every probability 

 that the custom o? pic-nic'mg obtained in preference 

 in the sunny south, there are few, I think, that 

 would rush for an explanation into the Eastern, 

 languages, on the plea that the Crusaders, being in 

 the habit of al fresco banquetting, might have 

 brought home the expression pic-nic. 



John Anthony, M.D. 



Washwood, Birmingham. 



This word would seem to be derived from the 

 French. Wailly, in his Nouveau Vocabulaire, de- 

 scribes it as " repas oil chacun paye son ecot," a 

 feast towards which each guest contributes a por- 

 tion of the expense. Its etymology is thus ex- 

 plained by Girault-Duvivier, in his Grammaire 

 des Grammaires : 



" Pique-nique, plur. des pique-nique : des repas oii 

 ceux qui piquent, qui mangent, font signe de la tete 

 qu'ils paieront. 



" Les Allemands, dlt M. Lemare, ont aussi leur 

 picknick, qui a le meme sens que le notre. Picken sig- 

 niiie piquer, becqueter, et nicken signifie /aire signe de la 



