NOTES AND QUERIES: 



A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION 

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LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. 



** "Wlieii found, make a note of." — Captain Cuttlk. 



No. 187.] 



Saturday, May 28. 1853. 



f Price Fourpence. 

 Stamped Edition, ^d. 



CONTENTS. 



Notes : — Page 



On Chaucer's Knowledge of Italian - - - 517 



The Rebellion of '45 : unpublished Letter - - 519 



Oliver St. John, by James Crossley - - . 520 



Notes on several misunderstood Words, by the Rev. 



W. K. Arrowsmith - - - - - 520 

 Folk LonE:— Weather Rules— Drills presaging Death 



— Superstition in Devonshire; Valentine's Day - 622 



A Note on Gulliver's Travels, by C. Forbes - - ."522 



Sbakspeare Correspondence .... 523 



The Coenac'ulum of Lionardo da Vinci, by E. Smirke - S24 



Minor Notes: — Scotter Register (County Lincoln) — 

 " All my Eye: " " Over the Left " — Curious Marriages 

 —Child-mother - - - - - - 625 



Queries : — 



Further Queries respecting Bishop Ken . - - 526 



The Rev. John Lawson .nnd his Mathematical Manu- 

 scripts, by T. T. Wilkinson . - . - ,520 



MifOR Queries: — "Wanderings of Memory " — 

 " Wandering Willie's Tale "—Chapel Sunday — Proud 



Salopians— George Milli-r, D.D Members of Parlia- 



nienc—Taret- Jeroboam of Claret, &c William Wil- 

 liams nf Geneva— The First of April and " The Cap 



awry " Sir G. Browne, Bart. — Bishop Butler— Oaken 



Tombs — Alleged Bastardy of Elizabeth —" Pugna 

 Porcorum "— Parviso — Mr. Justice Newton ^ Mufti 



— Ryming and CucuUing — Custom at the Savoy 

 Church 627 



Minor Queries with Answers: — Faithful Teate — 

 Kelway Family— Regatta— Coket and Cler-mantyn - 529 



Keplies : — 



Curfew - - - - - - - 530 



The " Salt-Peter-Man," by C. H. Cooper - . 530 



Forms of Judicial Oaths, by John Thrupp, &c. - 532 



Photographic Correspondence : — Washing Collo- 

 dion Pictures — Test for Lenses — Improvement in 

 Positives— Cheap Portable Tent — Rev. Mr. Sisson's 

 New Developing Fluid ----- 533 



Replies to Minor Quehiks : — Vanes — Loselerius 

 Villerius— Westminster Parishes — Hevristic— Creole 



— General Monk and the University of Cambridge — 

 Ecclesia Anglicana — Gibbon's Library — Golden Bees 



— Passage in Ornsius — Names first given to Parishes 

 — Grafts and the Parent Tree — Lord Cliffand Howell's 

 Letters — Tlie Bouillon Bible — Rhymes on Places — 

 Serpents' Tongues — Consecrated Roses, &c. . - 534 



Miscellaneous : — 



Notes on Books, &c. 

 Books and Odd Volumes wanted - 

 Notices to Correspondents 

 Advertisements - - - 



. i)37 



- 538 



- 538 



- 538 



VoL.VIT. — No. 187. 



ON Chaucer's knowledge of Italian. 



In the Memoir prefixed to the Aldine edition of 

 the Poetical Woi-ks of Chaucer, London, 1845, Sir 

 Harris Nicolas expresses an opinion that Dan 

 Geoffrey was not acquainted with the Italian lan- 

 guage, and therefore not versed in Italian litera- 

 ture. 



" Though Chaucer undoubtedly knew Latin and 

 French, it is by no means certain, notwithstanding his 

 supposed obligations to the Decameron, that be was as 

 well acquainted with Italian. There may have been a 

 coimrion Latin original of the main incidents of many, 

 if not of all the tales, for which Chaucer is supposed 

 to have been wholly indebted to Boccaccio, and from 

 which originals Boccaccio himself may have taken 

 them. That Chaucer was not acquainted with Italian 

 may be inferred from his not having introduced any 

 Italian quotation into his works, redundant as they are 

 with Latin and French words and phrases," — Life of 

 Chaucer, pp. 24, 25. 



To which the following note is subjoined : 



" Though Chaucer's writings have not been exa- 

 mined for the purpose, the remark in the text is not 

 made altogether from recollection, for at the end of 

 Speght's edition of Chaucer's Works, translations are 

 given of the Latin and French words in the poems, but 

 not a single Italian word is mentioned." 



If Sir Harris Nicolas had examined the writings 

 of Chaucer with any care, he would scarcely have 

 formed or expressed so strange an opinion, for he 

 must necessarily have discovered that Chaucer 

 was not only well acquainted with the language, 

 but thoroughly well versed in Italian literature, 

 and that he paraphrased and translated freely 

 from the works of Dante, Petrarca, and Boccac- 

 cio. Chaucer would naturally quote Latin and 

 French, as being familiar to his cotemporaries, 

 and would abstain from introducing Italian, as a 

 knowledge of that language must have been con- 

 fined to a few individuals in his day ; and he wrote 

 lor the many, and not for the minority. 



The circumstances of Chaucer's life, his missions 

 to Italy, during which he resided several months 

 in that country, when sent on the king's business 

 to Genoa, and Florence, and Lombardy, afforded 



