338 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 288. 



ployed a librarian and seven scribes, four for 

 Greek and three for Latin : they copied both an- 

 cient and recent works. (Guizot's Civilisation, 

 Tol. i. p. 351., Bogue's edit.) 



Charlemagne, by means of Alcuin and others, 

 encouraged the collection, correction, and tran- 

 scription of ancient MSS. Qlbid. vol. ii. pp. 234. 

 236.) 



There was at Treves a grand library at the im- 

 perial palace, concerning which no special details 

 have come down to us. (Ibid. vol. i. p. 351.) 



B. H. COWPER. 



(To be continued.) 



PHILOLOGICAL NOTES. 



I take the following from that storehouse of 

 choice things, HoweWs Letters, part 4. letter xix. : 



" I find that there are some single words antiquated in 

 the French which seem to be more significant than those 

 that come in their places, as Maratre, paraire, filatre, 

 serourge, a step-mother, a step-father, a son or daughter- 

 in-law, a sister-in-law, which they now express in two 

 words, belle mere, beau pere, belle sceur. Moreover I find 

 there are some words now in French which are turned 

 to a counter-sense, as we use the Dutch word crank in 

 English, to be well disposed, which in the original signi- 

 fieth to be sick. The word pleiger is also to drink after 

 one is drunken unto, whereas the first true sense of the 

 word was, that if the party drunk unto was not disposed 

 to drink himself, he would put another for a pledge to do 

 it for him, else the party who began would take it ill. 

 Besides this word, Abiy derived from the Latin Apricus 

 is taken in French for a close place or shelter, whereas in the 

 original it signifieth an open free sunshine. They now term 

 in French a free boon companion Roger bon temps, whereas 

 the original is rouge bon temps, reddish and good weather. 

 They also use in France, when one hath a good bargain, 

 to say // ajoue a boule veue, whereas the original is bonne 

 veue. A beacon or watch-tower is called Beffroy, whereas 

 the true word is UEffroy. A travelling warrant is called 



passeport, wiereas the original is passe partout. I 



will add hereunto another proverb which had been quite 

 lost, had not our order of the Garter preserved it, which 

 is, Iloni soit qui mal y pense : this we English, 111 to him 

 who ill thinks, though the true sense be, Let him be be- 

 wrayed that thinks any ill. 



" Furthermore, I find in the French language, that the 

 same fate hath attended some French words as usually 

 attend men ; among whom some rise to preferment, others 

 fall to decay, and an under value: I will instance in a 

 few. The word Maistre was a word of high esteem in 

 former times among the French, and applied to noblemen 

 and others in high office only, but now 'tis fallen from the 

 baron to the boor, from the count to the cobbler, or anj' 

 Other mean artisan; as, Maisire Jean le Suavetier, Mr. 

 John the cobbler ; Maistre Jacquet le Cabaretier, Mr. 

 Jammy the tapster. Sire was also appropriated only to 

 the king, but now, adding a name after it, 'tis applicable 

 to an J' niean man, upon the endorsement of a letter, or 

 otherwise. Mareshal was at first the name of a smith, 

 farrier, or one that dressed horses, but it is climbed by 

 degrees to that height that the chiefest commanders of 

 the gendarmery and militia of France are come to be 

 called marshals." 



The letter contains also several other curious 



bits of philological information. In the piece 

 quoted is an exam[)le of the use of the word party 

 as it is employed in our time. 



Would not a selection from HowelVs Letters be 

 worth publishing ? Pelicanus Americanus. 



COPT OF JUNIUSS LETTERS WITH SOME MANU- 

 SCRIPT CORRECTIONS BY THE AUTHOR. 



In the library of Trinity College, at Hartford, 

 Connecticut, is a copy of Junius's Letters (pub- 

 lished by H. S. Woodfall), with the engraved title- 

 page, without date ; having the table of contents, 

 dedication, and preface, and at the end of the first 

 volume, the " Index to the First and Second Vo- 

 lumes of Junius's Letters." The volumes are 

 handsomely bound, and have the name of the 

 " Surrey Institution " stamped on the covers. 

 They were " presented to the College of the Pro- 

 testant Episcopal Church in the State of Connec- 

 ticut, by Thomas Hartwell Home, M.A." On a 

 fly-leaf of the first volume is the following note : 



" This is the first edition of the Letters of Junius in 

 a collective form. The proof-sheets were corrected by 

 Junius himself (whoever he was) : and in page xx. of 

 the preface, and in p. 25. of this volume, there are two 

 manuscript corrections made by Junius. 



" The above particulars were communicated to me by 

 Mr. George Woodfall, printer (son of the original pub- 

 lisher, Henry Sampson Woodfall), at the time he pre- 

 sented this copy to the library of the (late) Surrey In- 

 stitution, of which I was one of the librarians. On the 

 dissolution of that library, in March, 1823, this edition of 

 Junius came into my possession. 



Thomas Hartwell Horne." 



The corrections indicated are the same which 

 were noted by Junius in his letters to Woodfall 

 (F. Z., Nos. 59. and 44.). In the preface, p. xx. 

 line 10., "unreasonable" is corrected to "unsea- 

 sonable," by a line drawn through the r, and an * 

 placed in the margin. [Was it a mistake of Ju- 

 nius, or of the printer, that referred this error to 

 "line 7," instead of "line 10?" P. L., No. 59.'] 

 In p. 25. (vol. i.) the first word of Letter IIL is 

 changed from " Your " to " The," by lines drawn 

 through the former word, and the correction 

 written above the line. ["A woeful mistake," 

 writes Junius ; " pray take care for the future." 

 (P. L., No. 44.) How happened it that, in points 

 ing out this mistake to Woodfall, Junius did not 

 note the line ? " In p. 25. it should be the instead 

 of yowr," &c.] 



Besides these, there is a correction which Mr. 

 Home has not indicated, in p 58. of vol. i. line 12.: 

 " if Mr. Foot's evidence was sufficient," is corrected 

 to " if Mr. Foot's evidence was insufficient." The 

 omission is not marked by a caret at the place of 

 the missing letters, but by a line drawn obliquely 

 through the space, with "in" placed In the 

 margin. 



