470 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 238. 



recollect any rival, and this is not my judgment alone, 

 but that of the man k<xt' i^oxh" <pi\6ita.\ov, John Hook- 

 ham Frere), the second on the receipt of your ' Letter 

 to Charles Butler,'" &c. 



In a subsequent letter, without date, Coleridge 

 thus again reverts to the circumstance of its 

 having been published without his or White's 

 sanction : 



" But first of your sonnet. On reading the sen- 

 tences in your letter respecting it, I stood staring 

 vacantly on the paper, in a state of feeling not unlike 

 that which I have too often experienced in a dream : 

 when I have found myself in chains, or in rags, 

 shunned, or passed by, with looks of horror blended with 

 sadness, by friends and acquaintance ; and convinced 

 that, in some alienation of mind, I must have perpe- 

 trated some crime, which I strove in vain to recollect. 

 I then ran down to Mrs. Gillman, to learn whether 

 she or Mr. Gillman could throw any light on the sub- 

 ject. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Gillman could account 

 for it. I have repeated the sonnet often, but, to the 

 best of my recollection, never either gave a copy to 

 any one, or permitted any one to transcribe it ; and as 

 to publishing it without your consent, you must allow 

 me to say the truth : I had felt myself so much flat- 

 tered by your having addressed it to me, that I should 

 have been half afraid that it would appear to be asking 

 to have my vanity tickled, if I had thought of applying 

 to you for permission to publish it. Where and when 

 did it appear ? If you will be so good as to inform 

 me, I may perhaps trace it out : for it annoys me to 

 imagine myself capable of such a breach of confidence 

 and of delicacy." 



In his Journal, October 16 [1838?], Blanco 

 White says : 



" In copying out my ' Sonnet on Night and Death' 

 for a friend, I have made some corrections. It is now 

 as follows : 



' Mysterious Night ! when our first parent knew 

 Thee from report divine, and heard thy name, 

 Did he not tremble for this lovely frame, 

 This glorious canopy of light and blue ? 



Yet 'neatti a curtain of translucent dew, 



Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame, 

 Hesperus with the Host of Heaven came, 

 And lo ! creation widen'd in man's view. 



Who could have thought such darkness lay conceal'd 

 Within thy beams, O Sun ! or who could find, 

 Whilst fly, and leaf, and insect stood reveal'd, 

 That to such countless orbs thou mad'st us blind ! 



Why do we then shun death, with anxious strife? 

 If light can thus deceive, wherefore not life ? ' " 



S. W. Singer. 



GOLOSHES. 



(Vol. ix., p. 304.) 



This word, Seleucus says, " is of course of 

 American derivation." By no means : it is found 

 in German, gallosche or gallusche ; and in French, 



galoche or galtoche. The word itself most likely 

 conies to us from the French. The dictionaries 

 refer to Spenser as using it under the form galage ; 

 and it occurs written galege, galosh, calosh, &c. 

 The French borrowed the term from the Latin 

 Gallicce; but the Bomans first derived the idea 

 and the thing itself from Gaul, Gallicce denoting 

 Gallic or Gaulish shoes. Cicero speaks of the 

 Gallica? with contempt. — "Cum calceis et toga, 

 nullis nee gallicis nee lacerna;" and asrain, "Cum 

 gallicis et lacerna cucurristi" {Philip, ii. 30.). 

 Blount, in his Law Dictionary (1670), gives the 

 following, which refers to one very early use of 

 the term in this country : 



■ Galege (galicice), from the French galloches, which 

 signified of old a certain shoe worn by the Gauls in 

 foul weather, as at present the signification with us does 

 not much differ. It is mentioned 4 Edw. IV. cap. 7., 

 and 14 & 15 Hen. VIII. cap. 9." 



Therefore the thing itself and the word were 

 known among us before America was discovered. 

 As it regards the Latin word Gallica?, I only know 

 of its use by Cicero, Tertullian, and A. Gellius. 

 The last-named, in the Nodes Attica?, gives the 

 following anecdote and observations relating to 

 this word. T. Castricius, a teacher of rhetoric at 

 Borne, observing that some of his pupils were, on 

 a holiday, as he deemed, unsuitably attired, and 

 shod (soleati) with gallica? (galloches, sabots, 

 wooden shoes or clogs), he expressed in strong 

 terms his disapprobation. He stated it to be un- 

 worthy of their rank, and referred to the above- 

 cited passage from Cicero. Some of his hearers 

 inquired why he called those soleati who wore 

 goloshes (gallica?} and not shoes (soleo?). The 

 expression is justified by a statement which suffi- 

 ciently describes the goloshes, viz., that they call 

 solea? (shoes) all those which cover only the lower 

 portions of the foot, and are fastened with straps. 

 The author adds : 



" I think that gallica: is a new word, which was 

 begun to be used not long before Cicero's time, there- 

 fore used by him in the Second of the Antonians. 

 ' Cum gallicis,' says he, 'et lacerna cucurristi.' Nor do 

 I read it in any other writer of authority, but other 

 words are employed." 



The Bomans named shoes after persons and 

 places as we do : for examples, see Dr. W. Smith's 

 Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, sub 

 voc. " Calceus." B. II. C. 



Poplar. 



This word is not of American derivation. In 

 the Promptorium Parvulorum we find, — 



" Gal ache or Galoche, undersolynge of manny's 

 fote." 

 Mr. Way says in his note : 



" The galache was a sort of patten, fastened to the 

 foot by cross latchets, and worn by men as early as the 



