12 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 219. 



Explanation of the Word '■'■Miser." — Can any 

 of your readers explain how and when miser came 

 to get the meaning of an avaricious hoarding man ? 

 In Spenser's Faerie Queene, n. 1. 8., it is used in 

 its nearly primary sense of " wretch :" 



" Vouchsafe to stay your steed for humble miser's sake." 



Again, Faerie Queene, n. 3. 8. : 



" The miser threw himself, as an offall, 

 Straight at his foot in base humility." 



In Milton's Comus, which was written about 

 fifty years after the first three books of the Faerie 

 Queene, the present signification of the word is 

 complete : 



" You may as well spread out the unsunn'd heaps 

 •Of mister's treasure by an outlaw's den, 

 'And tell me it is safe, as bid one hope 

 Danger will sink on opportunity," &c. 



J. D. Gardner. 

 Bottisham. 



[The modern restricted use of the word miser is 

 subsequent to Shakspeare's time ; for in Part I. King 

 Henry VI., Act V. Sc. 4., 



" Decrepit miser ! base ignoble wretch !" 



Steevens say s has no relation to avarice, but simply means 

 a miserable creature. So in the interlude of Jacob and 

 Esau, 1568 : 



" But as for these misers within my father's tent." 



Again, in Lord Stirling's tragedy of Crwsus, 1604 : 



•" Or think'st thou me of judgement too remiss, 

 A miser that in miserie remains." 



Otway, however, in his Orphan, published in 1680, 

 uses it for a covetous person : 



" Though she be dearer to my soul than rest 

 To weary pilgrims, or to misers gold, 

 Rather than wrong Castalio, I'd forget thee." 

 So also does Pope : 



*' No silver saints by dying misers given, 



Here brib'd the rage of ill-requited heaven."] 



"Acis and Galatea." — Is there any good evi- 

 dence in support of the commonly received opinion 

 that the words to Handel's Acis and Galatea were 

 written by Gay ? Hawkins merely states that 

 they " are said to have been written by Mr. Gay." 

 I have no copy of Burney at hand to refer to ; 

 but I find the same statement repeated by various 

 other musical historians, without, however, any 

 authority being given for it. The words in ques- 

 tion are not to be found among' the Poems on 

 several Occasions, by Mr. John Gay, published in 

 1767 by Tonson ancl others. Have they ever 

 been included in any collective edition of his 

 works ? G. T. 



Reading. 



[In the musical catalogue of the British Museum, 

 compiled by Thomas Oliphant, Esq., it is stated that 



the words to Acis and Galatea " are said to be written, 

 but apparently partly compiled, by John Gay." This 

 serenata is included among Gay's Poems in Dr. John- 

 son's edition of the English Poets, 1790, as well as in 

 Chalmers's edition of 1810, and in the complete edi- 

 tion of British Poets, Edinburgh, 1794.] 



Birm-banh — The bank of a canal opposite to 

 the towing-path is called the birm-bank. What 

 is the derivation of this ? Uneda. 



Philadelphia. 



[The word hirm seems to have the same meaning as 

 berme (Fr. berme), which, in Fortification, denotes a 

 piece of ground of three, four, or five feet in width, 

 left between the rampart and the moat or foss, designed 

 to receive the ruins of the rampart, and prevent the 

 earth from filling the foss. Sometimes it is palisaded, 

 and in Holland is generally planted with quickset 

 hedge.] 



General Thomas Gage. — This officer com- 

 manded at Boston at the breaking out of the 

 Revolution, and served under General Braddock. 

 Where can I find any details of the remainder of 

 his history ? Serviens. 



[An interesting biographical account of General 

 Gage is given in the Georgian JEra, vol. ii. p. 67.] 



RAPPING NO NOVELTY. 



(Vol.viii., pp.512. 632.) 



The story referred to is certainly a very curious 

 one, and I should like to know whether it is ex- 

 actly as it was told by Baxter, especially as there 

 seems to be reason for believing that De Foe 

 (whom on other grounds one would not trust in 

 such a matter) did not take it from the work 

 which he quotes. Perhaps if you can find room 

 for the statement, some correspondent would be 

 so good as to state whether it has the sanction of 

 Baxter : 



" Mr. Baxter, in his Historical Discourse of Appa- 

 ritions, writes thus : ' There is now in London an un- 

 derstanding, sober, pious man, oft one of my hearers, 

 who has an elder brother, a gentleman of considerable 

 rank, who having formerly seemed pious, of late years 

 does often fall into the sin of drunkenness ; he often 

 lodges long together here in Ills brother's house, and 

 whensoever he is drunk and has slept himself sober, 

 something knocks at his bed's head, as if one knocked 

 on a wainscot. When they remove his bed it follows 

 him. Besides other loud noises on other parts where 

 he is, that all the house hears, they have often watched 

 him, and kept his hands lest he should do it himself. 

 His brother has often told it me, and brought his wife, 

 a discreet woman, to attest it, who avers moreover, that 

 as she watched him, she has seen his shoes under the 

 bed taken up, and nothing visible to touch them. They 

 brought the man himself to me, and when we asked 



