June 7. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



465 



London, 1812 : and not the least curious circum- 

 stance is the curious form which Bacon, evidentlj 

 quoting from memory, has given to the passage. 



Heney H. Breen. 

 St. Lucia, March, 1851. 



Shahapeare s Designation of Cleopatra (Yo\. iii., 

 p. 273 ). — I fully agree with your correspondent 

 S. W. Singer that an imperfect acquaintance with 

 our older language has been the weak point of the 

 commentators, but at the same time I think they 

 have been equally guilty of an imperfect acquaint- 

 ance with the history and character of Cleopatra, 

 and one at least of a careless reading of the text ; 

 otherwise it appears incomprehensible how, on the 

 one liaiid, the words of the great poet could have 

 been so distorted; on the other hand, how Scarus 

 could be thought to allude, by the word " ribald," 

 to Antony. On reference to Rider's Dictionary , 

 published in 1589, the very year in which Malone 

 places Shakspeare's first play. First Part of 

 Henry VI., may be found the word Ribaud, leno, 

 a bawd, a pander ; Ribatidrie, lascivia, obsccEnitas, 

 hiijiudicitia, Venus; and Ribaudroiis, obsccenus, 

 impudicus, impurus. 



Hagge, doubtless the word of Shakspeare, also 

 may be found in Rider, answering to the Latin 

 lamia, fascinatrix, oculo maligna mulier. 



Arguing from the above, what more appropriate 

 term than " ribaudred hagge " could be applied to 

 Cleopatra, a queen celebrated for her beauty, her 

 cunning, her debauchery, nay, even adultery. 

 The sister and wife of Ptolemy Dionysius, she 

 admitted Ca3sar to her embraces, and by him had 

 a son called Csesarion, and afterwards became 

 enamoured of Antony, who, forgetful of his con- 

 nexion with Octavia, the sister of Cassar, publicly 

 married her ; thus causing the rupture between 

 him and Cassar, who met in a naval engagement off 

 Actium, where Cleopatra, " when 'vantage like a 

 pair of twins appeared," by flying with sixty sail, 

 ruined the interest of Antony, and he was de- 

 feated ; and so were called forth the imprecatory 

 words of Scarus. 



" Yond ribaudred Hagge of Egypt, 

 Whom leprosy o'ertake." 



Fkanciscus. 



Harlequins (Vol. iii., p. 287.). — The origin of 

 the word hellequin, unknown to M. Paul Paris, is 

 to be sought in Scandinavia, especially Norway, 

 whence so many swarms of fierce Pagan settlers 

 rushed into Normandy and otiier parts of France. 

 The helle-quiniiu or hell-quean was the famous hela 

 or hel, the death-goddess (whence our word hell, 

 the death-realm, as still used in the Creed, &c.), so 

 well known also to our own AVest Scandinavian 

 (commonly called Anglo-Saxon) foreftithers. The 

 Wild Hunt of the llelle-quiima (the Dealh-qucan 

 and her Meynie) was therefore soon easily syno- 

 nymous with that of La Mori, and, as M. Paris 



has well observed, naturally led to the grotesque 

 mummeries of not?-e famille d'Arlequin. 



Geobge Stephens. 

 Stockholm. 



Christ s-cross Roic (Vol. iii., p. 3.30.). — Quarles, 

 in his Emblems, b. 2. 12, p. 124., edition 1812, has 

 the following passage : " Christ's cross is the 

 christ-cross of all oiu- happiness," i. e. the alphabet, 

 the beginning, perhaps the alpha and omega. 

 Grose, in his Olio, p. 195., 1796, relates the follow- 

 ing story : 



" An Irishman explaining the reason why the Al- 

 phabet is called the Criss-cross-Rowe, said it was because 

 Christ's cross was prefixed at the beginning and end 

 of it." 



W. B. H. 



Manchester. 



Meaning of " Waste-booh" (Vol. iii., pp. 118. 

 195. 251. 307.). — The gentlemen who have 

 hitherto attempted to explain this term are very 

 evidently unacquainted with the subject on which 

 they write ; with the exception, however, of Mr. 

 Crossley, whose quotation from the Merchants 

 Mirronr confirms what I am about to say. To 

 the clerk in a merchant's counting-house, like 

 him 



" Who pens a stanza when he should engross," 

 the waste-book may indeed be a weary waste ; 

 but he does not call it so for that reason, any more 

 than he gives poetical names to the day-book or 

 ledger. In short, we must not go to the mer- 

 chant's counting-house at all to discover its mean- 

 ing; or, if we do, " the book-keeper and cashier" 

 who makes the Query may refer us to one of the 

 elders, or head of the firm, who, if he be not too 

 proud to own it, may just recollect that his pro- 

 genitors or predecessors in the chandlers shop 

 made their rough entries in a book which was 

 literally waste. For origins we must look to the 

 lowest forms or types existing. The merchant's 

 system of book-keeping was not invented perfect ; 

 and we may see its various stages in the different 

 gradations of trade at the present day. In many 

 respectable shops, in the country especially, the 

 waste-book is formed by a quire or two of the 

 commonest paper used in the particular trade, that 

 will bear pen and ink, sown together. An advance 

 upon this is the waste- book as a distinct book, 

 bound and ruled, of which the day-book or journal 

 is merely a fair copy ; and this being made, the 

 former is held of no account. The importance, 

 however, of refei'ence to original entries has no 

 doubt led to the preservation of the "Waste-book" 

 in regular book-keeping, and a modification of its 

 character. S. II. 



St. John's Wood, April 22. 1851. 



Sallust (Vol. iii., p. 325.). — May I ask your 

 correspondent whether the following lines in the 



