330 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 205. 



not unreasonable to suppose that table-turning, 

 the principle of which lies so near the surface of 

 social life, was practised in former ages. 



This reminds one of the expression, so familiar j, 

 among controversialists, of " turning the tables " 

 upon an adversary. What is the origin of the 

 latter phrase ? It is time some explanation of it 

 were offered, if only to caution the etymologists 

 of a future age against confounding it with our 

 "table-turning." Henry H. Breen. 



St Lucia. 



"Well's a fret" (Vol. viii., p. 197.).— I beg 

 leave to suggest to Devoniensis the following as 

 a probable explanation of the use of this phrase ; 

 the rhyme that follows being superadded, for the 

 sake of the jingle and the truism, in the best style 

 of rustic humour. 



Well ! is often used in conversation as an ex- 

 pletive, even by educated people, a slight pause 

 ensuing after the ejaculation, as if to collect the 

 thoughts before the reply is given. Is it not 

 therefore called a jfret, or stop, in the Devon 

 vernacular, figuratively, like the fret or stop in 

 a musical instrument, the cross bars or protube- 

 rance in a stringed, and a peg in a wind instru- 

 ment ? 



Hamlet says, in taunting Rosencrantz for his 

 treasonable attempts to worm himself into his con- 

 fidence, — 



" Call me what instrument you will ; though you 

 can fret me, you cannot play upon me." 



Taken in this other sense in which we use the 

 ■word fret, is it not probable that it has passed into 

 a proverb ; and that the lines, as given by Devo- 

 NiENSis, are a corruption of 



" Well ! don't fret ; 

 He who dies for love will never be hang'd for debt." 



— the invention of some Damon to comfort Stre- 

 phon in his loneliness. M. (2) 



Tenet for Tenent (Vol. viii., p. 258.).— The note 

 of your correspondent Balliolensis does not 

 address itself to the Query put by Y. B. N. J. in 

 Vol. vii., p. 205., When did the use of tenent 

 give way to tenet ? 



You will find that Burton, in the Anatomy of 

 Melancholy, which was published in 1621, uses 

 uniformly tenent (vide vol. i. pp. 1. 317. 408. 430. 

 446. &c.). 



But Sir Thomas Browne in 1646, twenty-four 

 years later, printed the first edition of his Vulg^ar 

 Errors under the title of Pseudodoxia epidemica, 

 or Enquiries into very many received Tenets and 

 commonly presumed Truths. 



I cannot find that Burton in any passage respects 

 the grammatical distinction suggested by both 

 your correspondents, that tenet should denote the 

 opinion of an individual, and tenent those of a sect. 

 He applies the latter indifferently, both as regards 



the plural and singular. Thus, "Aponensis thinks 

 it proceeds," but "Laurentius condemns his 

 tenent" (parti, sect. iil. mem. 3.). And again, 

 "they are furious, impatient in discourse, "stiff 

 and irrefragable in their tenents" (ib. p. I. s. iv. 

 mem. 1. sub. 3.). J. Emersox Tbnnent. 



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