NOTES AND QUERIES: 



A MEDIUM OF INTER-COIDIUNICATION 



roR 



LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIUUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. 



" "Wlaen found, make a note of." — Captain Cuttle. 



Vol. IIL— No. 85.] 



Saturday, June 14. 1851. 



f Price Threepence. 

 I Stamped KditioD, 4.^- 



CONTENTS. 



Notes ; — 



Illustrations of Chaucer, ijo. VIII.: The Armorican 

 \\"ord *' Menez " - 



Folk Talk >" Eyscll," " Captions" 



An Old Man whose Father lived in the Time of Oliver 

 Cromwell ------- 



Minor Notes : — On a Passage in Sedley — On a Passage 

 in " Itomeo and Juliet" — Inscription on a Tablet in 

 Limerick Cathedral ..... 



Queries : — 



Princesses of Wales ..... 



Minor Queries : — Lady Marv Cavendish — Covey — 

 Book wanted to purcliase — The Devil's Bit — Corpse 

 passing makes a Right of Way — Nao, a Ship — "W^il- 

 iiam Hone — Hand giving tiie B]essi>ig — Tinsell, a 

 Meaning of — .\rches of Pelaga — Emiott Anns — Well 

 Chapels — Davy Jones's Locker — ^sopus Epulans — 

 Wr.tten Sermons — Pallavicino and the Conte d'Oli- 

 ▼ares ------- 



Minor QiiEniES Answered: — Athelney Castle, Somer- 

 setshire — Legend of St. Molaisse — Bogutzky 



Replies ; — 



Greene's Groatsworth of Witte, by Rev. Thos. Corser 



The Dutch Martyroloay . - . . . 



Replies to Minor Queries : — Spick and Span New — Under 



ti»e Rose — Handel's Occasional Oratorio — Stone 



Chalice — Thanksgiving Book — Carved Ceiling in 



Dorsetshire — " Felix quem facinnt," &c The Saint 



Graal — Skeletons at Egyptian Banquet — Sewell — 



Col-fabias — Poem from the Digby MS Umbrella — 



The Curse of Scotland— Bawn— Catacombs and Bone, 

 houses — Bacon and Fagan — To learn by Heart — 

 Auriga— 'Vineyards in Engl.ind — Barker — The Tan- 

 thony, &c. ..... 



Miscellaneous : — 



Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. . 

 Books and Odd Volumes wauted ... 

 Notice* to Correspondents ... 



Advertisements ..... 



Page 



473 

 474 



475 

 476 



477 



477 



478 



479 

 479 



- 480 



487 

 487 

 4S7 

 487 



llfltCiS. 



ILLUSTRATIONS OF CHAUCER, NO. VIII. 



(Vol. iii., pp. 388. 420.) 

 The Armorican Word " Menez." 



I h;ive been induced, in consequence of the 

 Bcene of one of the Canterhunj Tales being 

 " In Armorike tliat called is Bretai.i:;nc'," 

 to rc-exaniine that tale (the Frankleine'.s) in the 

 expectation that in it, if anywhere, some light 

 might be thrown upon this newly discovered 

 Chaucerian word "menez"; and I think I have 

 succeeded in detecting its use in the sense oi points 

 or summits of rocks emerging froui the surface of 

 the water. 



But in weighing the probability of this being the 

 true sense in which it is used in the present in- 

 stance by Chnucer, the wide applicability of the 

 word "means" in its usual acceptation of instru- 

 ment to an end, must not be lost sight of. There is 

 scax'cely the name of any one thing for which 

 " means " may not be made a plausible substi- 

 tution ; so much so, that if a man were to ask for 

 a hat to cover his head, his demand would be 

 quite intelligible if expressed by " a means " to 

 cover his head. 



I make this proviso as an answer to the probable 

 objection, that " menes," in its usual acceptation, 

 gives sufficiently good sense to the passage in 

 question ; it may do so, and still not be the sense 

 intended by the author. 



The footing on which I wish to place the in- 

 quiry is this : 



1st. We have an Armorican word which it is 

 desirable to prove was known to, and used by, 

 Chaucer. 



2(lly. We find this identical word in a tale 

 written by him, of which the scene is Armorica. 



3dly. It bears, however, a close resemblance to 

 another word of different meaning, which ditfei-ent 

 meaning happens also to alFord a plausible sense 

 to the same passage. 



Tlie question then is, in case this latter meaning 

 should not appear to be better, nor even so good, 

 as that aflbrded by the word of which we are in 

 search, shall we not give that word the preference, 

 and thereby render it doubly blessed, giving and 

 receiving light ? 



In coming to a decision, it is necessary to take 

 in the whole context. Arviragus and Dorigene 

 live in wedded hajipiness, until the former, leaving 

 his wife, takes shipping 



■ to gon and dwellc a yere or twaine 



In Englelond, tliat clepeJ was the Bretaigne." 



Dorigene, inconsolable at his loss, sits upon the 

 sea-shore, and views with horror the " grisl)', 

 fendly, rockes," with which the coast is studded, 

 in every one of which she sees certain destruction 

 to her husband in his return. She accuses the 

 gods of injustice in forming these rocks i\)v the 

 sole apparent purpose of destroying man, so fa- 



VoL. Tir.— No. 85. 



