284 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°<i S. IX. App.il 14. 'CO. 



for the two pages, according to the situation in the 

 play. 



" Sigh no more, Ladies" (Much Ado about No- 

 thing) has been set as a glee by E. Stevens, as a 

 song by W. Linley, with the burthen, and by J. 

 C. Smith, in The Fairies (1754), icithout the bur- 

 then, being sung by Master Keinhold in the cha- 

 racter of Oberon. Dr. Arne has also set it to be 

 sung by Mr. Beard in Much Ado about Nothing. 

 In this setting (published 1740) there is an un- 

 pleasing change of the burthen, " Hey nonny, 

 nonny," into " Hey down derry," with " bonny " 

 turned into " merry" for the rhyme. 



" Orpheus with his Lute " (King Henry the 

 Eighth) has been set at least four times as a solo, 

 and by Mr. G. Macfarren as a four- part piece. 



Respecting these words, and his own setting of 

 them, Mr. William Linley has thus written : — 



" The beautiful words, ' Orpheus with his Lute,' were 

 set many years ago by the Editor's late much-lamented 

 father, but he grieves to add that the score and parts of 

 the song were destroyed when Drury-lane Theatre was 

 burnt down, and he has not the slightest vestige of it re- 

 maining, and but a very imperfect recollection even of 

 the subject. It was composed for the late Mrs. Crouch. 

 As the poetiy of the song in question is de- 

 serving of the highest efforts of a musical mind, the 

 author is particularly disappointed that he has not been 

 able to find a setting of them in any of the works of the 

 old English masters. He has taken all the pains in his 

 power with them, but is satisfied he has not done them 

 the justice they deserve, and deeply regrets that his 

 father's composition cannot so much more effectively fill 

 the space in this volume." — Dramatic Songs of Shak- 

 speare, 18 1G. 



Although Mr. Linley had not met with com- 

 positions to these words, yet two at least bad 

 existed long before the time of his writing. One 

 of these was by C. J. Smith, one in his opera 

 of The Fairies, and the other by Dr. Maurice 

 Greene. It is in one of the Dr.'s little collections, 

 entitled "A Cantata and Four English Songs," 

 published in 1741. Alfred Roffe. 



Somers Town. 



ENGLISH ETYMOLOGIES. 

 (2 nd S. ix. 176.) 



1. Jean, pronounced Jane. Your correspon- 

 dent Jatdee is perhaps not aware that the female 

 name Jane is generally so written in Scotland. 



2. Rumble. This I have heard called a " rumble 

 tumble," and I always thought rumble to be 

 merely an abbreviation, like bus. These seats 

 when, as formerly, not on springs, must have com- 

 municated a good deal of motion to their contents, 

 animate or inanimate. A closed boot when empty, 

 the carriage being in motion, makes a kind of 

 drumming noise : in a small way, not unlike the 

 rumbling of distant thunder. 



While on the subject of carriage seats, I may 

 perhaps be allowed again to allude to the 



hammer, or hammock-cloth. I regret that your 

 correspondent Q. (2 nd S. viii. 539.) should think 

 me too presumptuous ; and, no doubt, I ought 

 to have subjoined "in my opinion" to "there 

 can be no doubt," &c. Bailey I see gives a 

 Saxon derivation to hammock, when used to 

 denote the hanging bed of a sailor. What does 

 this Saxon word mean ? I had fancied it in some 

 way taken from its being hooked up to the beams 

 of the deck above : Lat. hamits, French hameqon. 

 The sailor's hammock itself is called hamuc or 

 branle in French ; hangematte or hdngematte, in 

 German; amaca or lette pensile, in Italian; ha- 

 maca, Spanish — explained, " cama suspendida en 

 el ayre." The French carters use the word branle 

 for a small oblong frame hung down below the 

 axle of the carts or waggons in France and Ger- 

 many, in which they usually put fragile things, 

 and which their dog often selects as easy riding, 

 by comparison. The term box, as applied to a 

 driving seat, is not, I apprehend, taken from a 

 chest, whether to hold hammers or anything else. 

 Germany seems to be the fatherland of carriages, 

 whether berlins, landaus, or britsckas ; and there 

 it is called "kutscher bock." See Gothe's Her- 

 mann und Dorothea : — 



" bequemlich 



Sitzen viere darin, und auf dem Bocke der Kutscher." 



Bock, besides its primary meaning of a buck, is 

 used, as my little dictionary says, for a block, bar, 

 beam, a stand or support for scaffolding, a con- 

 trivance for bearing or propping anything, heav- 

 ing-block, cross-block : and in this way may easily 

 have come to mean a stage or seat for the driver. 



3. Sjilinter-bar. Had I not received a lesson 

 so lately on laying down the law, I should say the 

 Imperial Dictionary must be wrong. As it is I 

 will only say, as a coachman of some forty-five 

 years' standing (or sitting), that I never heard " a 

 cross-bar in a coach which supports the springs " 

 called anything but a spring-forf. Adams, in his 

 work On English Pleasure Carriages (Chas. 

 Knight & Co., London, 1837), says : " the splinire- 

 bar is bolted to the fore-end of the feetshells, and 

 secured by two branching stays, one at either end, 

 connecting it with the axletree bed." And again : 

 " on the splinter-bar are fixed the roller bolts for 

 fastening the traces." 



Felton, an older author (my copy is 3rd edition, 

 1805), says (vol. i. p. 50.) : " The splinter-bar, a 

 long timber to which the horses are fastened." 

 And again (vol. i. p. 220.) : " Splinters, or splin- 

 ter-bars, are the short bars which are hung to a 

 hook at the end of the pole when leading horses 

 are required : there are three used, hung to each 

 other," &c. Swingle-trees and whipple-trees are 

 provincial names for the same things as used with 

 ploughs, harrows, &e. ; heel-bar is also used. Stage- 

 coaclmien, on the true English abbreviation prin- 

 ciple, used to speak of the bars. Halliwell, in voc. 



