322 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 51. 



ruption of " Robin o' th' Wood " equivalent to 

 " silvaticus " or " wildman" — a term which, as we 

 learn from Ordericus, was generally given to those 

 Saxons who fled to the woods and morasses, and 

 long held them against their Norman enemies. 



It is not impossible that " Robin o' the Wood" 

 may have been a general name for any such out- 

 laws as these; and that Robin Hood, as well as 

 " Roberd the Robbere" may stand for some earlier 

 and forgotten hero of Saxon tradition. It may be 

 remarked that "Robin" is the Norman diminutive 

 of "Robert;" and that the latter is the name by 

 which we should have expected to find the doings 

 of a Saxon hero commemorated. It is true that 

 Norman and Saxon soon came to have their feel- 

 ings and traditions in common ; but it is not the 

 le^ curious to find the old Saxon name still tradi- 

 tionally applied by the people, as it seems to have 

 been from the Vinton of Piers Ploughman. 



Whether Robin Goodfellow and his German 

 brother " Knecht Ruprecht " are at all connected 

 with Robin Hood, seems very doubtful. The 

 plants which, both in England and in Germany, 

 are thus named, appear to belong to the elf rather 

 than to the outlaw. The wild geraniuM, called 

 "Herb Robert" in Gerarde's time, is known in 

 Germany as " Ruprecht's Kraut." " Poor Robin," 

 " Ragged Robin," and " Robin in the Hose," pro- 

 bably "all commemorate the same " mei-ry wan- 

 derer of the night." Richard John King. 



ON A FAS9AGE IN "THE MERRT WIVES OF WINDSOR, 

 AND ON CONJECTURAL EMENDATION. 



The late IMr. Baron Field, in his Conjectures on 

 some Obscure and Corrupt 

 spear e, published in 

 Papers," vol. ii. p 



Passages 



of Shah 

 the " Shaksp"eave Society's 

 47., has the following note on 

 JTie Merry Wives of Windsor, Act ii. Sc. 2.: — 



" ' Fahlaff. I myself sometimes, having the fear of 

 heaven on the left hand, and hiding mine honour in 

 my necessity, am fain to shuffle, to hedge, and to lurch ; 

 and yet you, you rogue, will ensconce your rui/s, your 

 cat-a-mountain looks, your red-lattice phrases, and 

 your bold-beating oaths, under the shelter of your 

 honour.' 



" Pistol, to whom this was addressed, was an ensign, 

 and therefore rags can hardly bear the ordinary inter- 

 pretation. A rag is a beggarly fellow, but that wil] 

 make little better sense here. Associated as the phrase 

 is, I think it must mean ruges, and I find the word 

 used for ragings in the compound bord-rags, border- 

 ragings or incursions, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, ii. x. 

 63., and Culin Clout, v. 315." 



HavintT on one occasion found that a petty lar- 

 ceny couTmitted on the received text of the poet, 

 by taking away a superfluous b, made all cleai-, 

 perhaps f may be allowed to restore the abstracted 

 letter, which had only been misplaced and read 

 brags, with, I trust, the like success ? Be it re- 



membered that Pistol-, a braggadocio, is made up 

 of brags and slang ; and for that reason I would 

 also read, with Hanmer, bidl-baiting, instead of the 

 unmeaning " bold-beating oaths." 



I well know with what extreme caution conjec- 

 tural emendation is to be exercised ; but I cannot 

 consent to carry it to the excess, or to preserve a 

 vicious reading, merely because it is warranted by 

 the old copies. 



Regretting, as I do, that Mr. Collier's, as well 

 as Mr. Knight's, edition of the poet, should both 

 be disfigured by this excess of caution, I venture 

 to subjoin a cento from George Withers, which has 

 been inscribed in the blank leaf of one of them. 

 " Though they will not for a better, 

 Change a syllable or letter. 

 Must the Printer's spots and stains 

 Still obscure the Poet's strains? 

 Overspread with antique rust. 

 Like whitewash on his painted bust. 

 Which to remove revived the grace 

 And true expression of his face. 

 So, when I find misplaced B's, 

 I will do as I shall please. 

 If my method they deride. 

 Let them know I am not tied, 

 In my free'r course, to chuse 

 Such strait rules as they would use ; 

 Though I something mi.«s of might, 

 To express his meaning quite. 

 For 1 neither fear nor care 

 What in this their censures are ; 

 If the art here used be 

 Theii dislike, it liketh me. 

 While I linger on each strain.l 

 And read, and read it o'er again, 

 I am loth to part from thence. 

 Until I trace the poet's sense. 

 And have the Printer's errors found. 

 In which the folios abound." 



Peeieegus BrBUOPDiius 

 October." 



Chaucer's Damascene. — Warton, in bis account 

 of the physicians who formed the Library of the 

 Doctor of Physic, says of John Damascene that 

 he was " Secretary to one of the caliphs, wrote in 

 various sciences before the Arabians had entered 

 Europe, and had seen the Grecian philosophers." 

 {History of English Poetry, Price's ed., ii. 204.) 

 Mr. Saunders, in his book entitled Cabinet Pic- 

 tures of English Life, " Chaucer," after repeating 

 the very words of this meagi'e account, adds, " He 

 was, however, more famous for his religious than 

 his medical writings ; and obtained for his elo- 

 quence the name of the Golden-flowing." (p. 183.) 

 Now Mr. Saunders certainly, whatever ^Va^ton 

 did, has confounded Damascenus, the physician, 

 with Johannes Daiijascenus Chrysorrhoas, " the 



