394 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[No. 107. 



posltory must contain it, but I made no inquiry ; 

 and as Mb. de St. Croix so diligently pursued 

 the search without discovering it, I conclude, of 

 course, that it is not there; but if he authorises 

 M. Kenouard's son, who resides in the Rue Garan- 

 ciere, or any respectable bookseller, to provide the 

 little volume for him, I feel confiilent of his suc- 

 cess. Nor do I apprehend that the price will cor- 

 respond with its rarity, like the works of so many 

 other writers ; such even as the prophecies of 

 Merlin, as stated in the article referred to by 

 j\Ir. de St. Croix, without recurring to our 

 Shakspeare's early editions, or to those of Ariosto, 

 Cervantes, Boccacio, Moliere, Froissart, Le Roman 

 de la Rose, Amadis de Gaule, the Romances of 

 Chivalry in various languages, and the editiones 

 principes of the classics, &c. &c., a comparison of 

 the value of which two centuries or less ago, as 

 we find them in old catalogues, with their present 

 cost, so strikes the reader. Numerous books, on 

 the other hand, have experienced a proportionally 

 equal depreciation : 

 " Sic volvenda cctas commutat tempora rerum ; 

 Quod fuit ill pretio, fit nullo deniqiie honore," &c. 

 Lucretius, lib. v. 1276. 



J. R. (Cork.) 



Expressions in Milton (Vol. iii., p. 241.). — If 

 this Query has already met with an answer, my 

 apology for troubling you with this must be, that 

 it has escaped my notice. 



R. is undoubtedly right in supposing that a 

 "toothed sleek stone" means a toothed or jiigged 

 whetstone ; the word sleek preserving a greater 

 resemblance to its Danish cousin slecht than the 

 modern slick. 



For " bullish," Milton shall be his own inter- 

 preter. " I affirm it to be a bull, taking away the 

 essence of that which it calls itself." 



The phrase " bid you the base " is apparently 

 taken from the old game of Prisoner's Base, for 

 which, if necessary, reference may be made to the 

 Boy's Own Book. I am inclined to think that the 

 very phrase was, in my school days, used in the 

 game; but if wrong in my remembrance, I may 

 still be right in my conjecture, and then the 

 phrase would be equivalent to, " I challenge you 

 to follow me," as one boy follows another in 

 Prisoner's Base ; and we should then have a 

 curious illustration of the antiquity of the game. 



Philip Hedgeland. 



The Termination ''-ship" (Vol. iv., p. 153.).— 

 A. W. H. is referred to Dr. Latham's English 

 Language, § 294. p. 372., ed. 2. The Dutch ter- 

 mination -schap, e. g. wiendschap, may be added. 



Charles Thiriold. 



".4 little Bird told 7«e" (Vol. iv., p.232.).— 

 The following are merely a few rough notes made 

 from time to time on this saying. I have tried to 



put them into some kind of order, but they are 

 too trivial, and too easily verified by reference, to 

 deserve more space in print than they have 

 hitherto had in writing : — 



1 . Last lines of King Henry IV. Part IL, and 

 Steevens's note. 



2. The " pious lie " of Mahomet's pigeon. See 

 Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. 1. Marg. lemma — 

 "His character," the note beginning — "The 

 Christians, rashly enough," &c. And — " Life of 

 Mahomet" {^Library of Useful Knowledge'\ note 

 on p. 19. For line from — Dunciad — [a slovenly 

 reference] see book iv. 358. 



3. From the Greek? See Potter's Gr. Anti- 

 guities, book ii. chap. sv. — or Robinson's Autiq. 

 Greece, book iii. chap. xv. ad init. as both refer 

 to Aristoph. Aves. [600. GOl. Bekker.] 



4. Ecclesiastes, chap. x. 20. 



To these I may add the origin assigned to the 

 saying by Mr. Bellenden Ker, in his Essai/ on the 

 ArchcBology of our Popular Phrases and iiursery 

 Rhymes, 1837, vol. i. p. 63., viz. : — 



" A LITTLE Blan. 



" A good humoured way of replying to, who told you 

 this story'? And imparting you don't mean to inform 

 him, that you have a good reason for not letting hivn 

 know. • Er l/J t'el baerd ; q. e. by so doing [telling] / 

 should betray [<lo wrong to] another" &c. 



C. Forbes. 



Mark of Reference in Bible (Vol. iv., p. 57.) — • 

 May not this originate in the Hebrew Keri, used 

 for the same purpose, and of nearly the same 

 shape ? F. J. 



Bradford. ^ 



For the purpose of expounding the law in the 

 Jewish assemblies, the Pentateuch was divided 

 into fifty-four sections (on account of the inter- 

 calary year), that the whole might be read over 

 once annually. The sections were distinguished, 

 as they still continue to be, in the Hebrew copies, 

 by the letter Pe, or Phe, the initial of Phai-asha, 

 which signifies separation or division. This pro- 

 bably was the original reason for adopting the 

 inverted black P [^] which is retained in our 

 translation of the Bible to mark paragraphs or 

 transitions. The division of the Old and New 

 Testament into chapters is a modern practice, and 

 the subdivision of chapters into verses still more 

 modern. See Shepherd on the Moiniing and 



Evening Prayer, 



j.y. 



King Charles II. and Written Sermons (Vol. iv., 

 p. 9.). — The document inserted at this place is 

 quoted with some variations, and the omission of 

 the part referring to periwigs by the late Mr. 

 Grimshawe, in his Life of the Rev. Leigh Richmond, 

 p. 157. 4th edit. There is added the date, "Oct. 8. 

 1674 ;" and the following foot-note is appended, 

 " See Statute Book of the University of Cambridge, 



