May 20. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



larity of one Anglo-Saxon word branching off 

 into two forms, signifying different ways of acting 

 •wrong ; one, awkward, implying ignorance and 

 clumsiness ; the other, wayward, perverseness and 

 obstinacy. That the latter word is derived from 

 the source from which he deduces awkward, can, 

 as I conceive, admit of no doubt. J. S. Warden. 



Life and Death (Vol. ix., p. 296.).— What is 

 death but a sleep ? We shall awake refreshed in 

 the morning. Thus Psalm xvii. 15. ; Rom.vi. 5. 

 For the full meanings, see these passages in the 

 original tongues. Sir Thomas Browne, whose 

 Hydriotaphia abounds with quaint and beautiful 

 allusions to this subject, says, in one place, "Sleep 

 is so like death, that I dare not trust him without 

 my prayers:" and he closes his learned treatise 

 with the following sentence : 



"To live indeed is to be again ourselves; which 

 being not only a hope, but an evidence in noble be- 

 lievers, it is all one to lie in St. Innocent's churchyard 

 as in the sands of Egypt ; ready to be anything in the 

 ecstasy of being ever, and as content with six feet as 

 the moles of Adrianus." 



" Tabesne cadavera solvat, 

 An rogus, baud refert." — Lucan. 



How fine also is that philosophical sentiment of 

 Lucan : 



" Victurosque Dei celant, ut vivere durent, 

 Felix esse mori." 



Can any of your correspondents say in what 

 work the following analogous passage occurs, and 

 who is the author of it ? The stamp of thought 

 is rather of the philosophic pagan than the Chris- 

 tian, though the latinity is more monkish than 

 classic : 



" Emori nolo, sed me esse mortuum, nihil euro." 



J. L. 



Dublin. 



These notes remind my parishioners of an epi- 

 taph on a child in Morwenstow churchyard : 



" Those whom God loves die young ! 

 They see no evil days ; 

 No falsehood taints their tongue, 

 No wickedness their ways ! 



" Baptized, and so made sure 

 To win their blest abode ; 

 What could we pray for more ? 

 They die, and are with God !" 



E. H. Morwenstow. 



Shelley's " Prometheus Unbound " (Vol. ix., 

 p. 351.). — I offer a conjecture on the meaning of 

 the obscure passage adduced by J. S. Warden. 

 It seems that Shelley intended to speak of that 

 peculiar feeling, or sense, which affects us so much 

 in circumstances which he describes. With the 

 slight alterations indicated by Italics, his meaning 



I think will be apparent ; though in his hurry, or 

 inadvertence, he has left his lines very confused 

 and ungrammatical. 



" Who made that sense which, when the winds of spring 

 Make rarest visitation, or the voice 

 Of one beloved is heard in youth alone, 

 Fills the faint eyes with falling tears," &c. 



F. C. H. 



" Three Crowns and a Sugar-loaf" (Vol. ix., 

 p. 350.). — The latter was perhaps originally a 

 mitre badly drawn, and worse copied, till it re- 

 ceived a new name from that it most resembled. 

 The proper sign would be " The Three Crowns 

 and a Mitre," equivalent to " The Bishop's Arms : " 

 if Franche was in the diocese of Ely, or Bristol, 

 the reference would be clearer. Similar changes 

 are known to have happened. G. R. York. 



To the inquiry of Cid, as to the meaning of the 

 above sign of an inn, I answer that there can be 

 little doubt that its original meaning was the 

 Pope's tiara. F. C. H. 



Stanza in " Childe Harold" (Vol. viii., p. 258.). 

 — I fear that, considering Lord Byron's caco- 

 graphy and carelessness, a reference to his MS. 

 would not mend the matter much ; as, although 

 the stanza undoubtedly contains some errors 

 due to the printer or transcriber for the press, 

 the obscurity and unconnected language are 

 his lordship's own, and nothing short of a com- 

 plete recast could improve it materially : however, 

 to make the verses such as Byron most probably 

 wrote them, an alteration of little more than one 

 letter is required. For " wasted," read " washed ;" 

 to supply the deficient syllable, insert " yet " or 

 " still " after " they," and remove the semicolon in 

 the next line from the middle to the end of the 

 verse. Then the stanza runs thus : 



" Thy shores are empires, changed in all save thee; 



Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage, where are they ? 

 Thy waters wash'd them while they yet were free, 



And many a tyrant since their shores obey, 

 The stranger, slave, or savage — their decay 



Has dried up realms to deserts," &c. 



The sentiment is clear enough, although not 

 well expressed ; and the use of the present tense, 

 " obey," for " have obeyed," is not at all warranted 

 by the usage of our language. In plain prose, it 

 means — 



" Thy waters washed their shores while they were 

 independent, and do so still, although many a race of 

 tyrants has successively reigned over them since then : 

 their decay has converted many fertile regions to wil- 

 dernesses, but thou art still unchanged." 



Not having your earlier volumes at hand, I cannot 

 be sure that these conjectures of mine are original 

 (the correction in the punctuation of the fourth 

 line certainly is not), and have only to request the 



