Mar. 30. 1850.] 
NOTES AND QUERIES. 
357 
of the antiquated, unfashionable, and false style 
which the word ‘“ Rococo” is employed to desig- 
nate. The use of the word is said to have first 
arisen in France towards the end of the reign of 
Louis XV. or the beginning of that of Louis XVL., 
and it is now employed in the above senses, not 
only in architecture, but in literature, fashion, and 
the arts generally. J. M. 
Oxford, March 18. 
Rococo. —This is one of those cant words, of no 
very definite, and of merely conventional, mean- 
ing, for any thing said or done in ignorance of 
the true propriety of the matter in question. 
“C'est du rococo,’ it is mere stuff, or nonsense, 
or rather twaddle. It was born on the stage, 
about ten years ago, at one of the minor theatres 
at Paris, though probably borrowed from a wine- 
shop, and most likely will have as brief an exist- 
ence as our own late “flare-up,” and such ephe- 
meral colloquialisms, or rather vulgarisms, that 
tickle the public fancy for a day, till pushed from 
their stool by another. X. 
March 18. 1850. 
God tempers the Wind, §c.—The French pro- 
verb, “A brebis tondue Dieu mesure le vent” 
(God tempers the wind to the shorn lamb), will 
be found in Quitard’s Dictionnaire étymologique, 
historique et anecdotique, des Proverbes, et des 
Locutions proverbiales de la Langue francaise, 8vo. 
Paris, 1842. Mons. Quitard adds the following 
explanation of the proverb : — “ Dieu proportionne 
A nos forces les afflictions qu'il nous envoie.” I 
haye also found this proverb in Furetiere’s Dic- 
tionnaire universel de tous les Mots frangais, &c. 
4 vols. folio, La Haye, 1727 J. M. 
Oxford, March 18. 
The proverb, “A brebis pres tondue, Dieu luy 
mesure le vent,” is to be found in Jan. Gruter. 
Florileg. Ethico-polit. part. alt. proverb. gallic., 
p- 353. 8vo. Francof. 1611. M. 
Oxford. 
Guildhalls (No. 20. p. 320.).—These were an- 
ciently thé halls, or places of meeting, of Guilds, 
or communities formed for secular or religious 
purposes, none of which could be legally set up 
_ without the King’s license. Trade companies 
were founded, and still exist, in various parts of 
the kingdom, as “ Gilda Mereatorum ;” and there 
is little doubt that this was the origin of the 
municipal or governing corporate bodies in cities 
and towns whose “Guildhalls” still remain — 
“gildated” and “incorporated” were synony- 
mous terms, 
In many places, at one time of considerable im- 
portance, pe Guilds were established, though 
the latter have vanished, the name of their Halls 
has survived, 
Your correspondent “ A SusscRIBER AB INITIO” 
is referred to Madox, Firma Burgi, which will 
afford him much information on the subject. : 
T. E. D. 
Exeter. 
Treatise of Equivocation.—In reply to the 
inquiry of your correspondent “J. M.” (No. 17. 
p: 263.), I beg to state that, as my name was men- 
tioned in connection with that Query, I wrote to 
the Rey. James Raine, the librarian of the Dur- 
ham Cathedral Library, inquiring whether The 
Treatise of Equivocation existed in the Chapter 
Library. From that gentleman I have received 
this morning the following reply: —“I cannot 
find, in this library, the book referred to in the 
‘Nores anp Queries,’ neither can I discover it 
in that of Bishop Cosin. The Catalogue of the 
latter is, however, very defective. The said pub- 
lication (‘ Nores AnD Queries’) promises to be 
very useful.” Although this information is of a 
purely negative character, yet I thought it right 
to endeavour to satisfy your correspondent’s cu- 
riosity. ; Beriau Botriep. 
Nortan Hall. 
Judas Bell (No. 13. p.195.; No. 15. p. 235.).— 
The lines here quoted by “C. W. G.,” from “a 
singular Scotch poem,” evidently mean to express 
or exemplify discord; and the words “to jingle 
Judas bells,” refer to “bells jangled, out of tune, 
and harsh.” 
The Maltese at Valletta, a people singularly, 
and, as we should say, morbidly, addicted to the 
seeming enjoyment of the most horrid discords, on 
Good Friday Eve, have the custom of jangling the 
church bells with the utmost violence, in execra- 
tion of the memory of Judas; and I have seen 
there a large wooden machine (of which they have 
many in use), constructed on a principle similar 
to that of an old-fashioned watchman’s rattle, but 
of far greater power in creating an uproar, in- 
tended to be symbolical of the rattling of Judas’s 
bones, that will not rest in his grave. The Maltese, 
as is well known, are a very superstitious people. 
The employment of Judas candles would, no doubt, 
if properly explained, turn out to mean to imply 
execration against the memory of Judas, where- 
ever they may be used. But in the expression 
Judas bell, the greatest conceivable amount of 
discord is that which is intended to be expressed. 
Rosert Snow. 
6. Chesterfield Street, Mayfair, March 23. 1850. 
[To this we may add, that the question at present 
pending between this country and Greece, so far as re- 
gards the claim of M. Pacifico, appears, from the 
papers laid before Parliament, to have had its origin in 
what Sir Edward Lyon states “to have been the cus- 
tom in Athens for some years, to burn an effigy of 
Judas on Easter day.” And from the account of the 
origin of the riots by the Council of the Criminal Court 
of Athens, we learn, that “ it is proved by the investi- 
