2»* S. IX. June 23. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



491 



its present sense above three hundred years ago. 

 It is in Sir T. Elyot's Governour, and in Bishop 

 Hall's Old Religion, the quotation from which, 

 being shorter, I add : — 



" The ventilation of these points diffused them to the 

 knowledge of the world." — C. 2. 



Harrington also has it in his Oceana ; and other 

 examples will be found both in Johnson's and 

 Richardson's Dictionaries. D. S. 



This word has long been used by the French 

 in the sense to which I suppose H. X. alludes. 

 The Dictionnaire de V Academie has the following : 



" Ventiler, v. a. II signifie aussi, discuter une affaire, 

 agiter, debattre une question avant que d'en delibe'rer en 

 forme. Ilfaut ventiler premierement cette affaire ; ce sens 

 est vieux." 



John Williams. 



Arno's Court. 



In replying to your correspondent, the explana- 

 tion must necessarily be received as derived from 

 authorities under the influence of local phrase- 

 ology : it may admit of that derivation which is 

 peculiar to folk-lore, but the words are familiar 

 throughout the county. 



Balk, in Blofield Hundred, Norfolk, is, in the 

 language of your querist, the " raised earth thrown 

 up by two adjoining furrows," and is common on 

 whole fields where lands lie fallow for the winter. 



Rie-balk, probably " raised balk," is applied 

 where one furrow only is made, the raised earth 

 resting on the unploughed soil. 



Mire-balk. Where lands are cultivated in open 

 fields a single strip is left to mark the limits of 

 each occupation. 



Pightel is a small field, seldom if ever exceeding 

 two acres, but it is generally preceded by a pre- 

 fix, as Ball's, Parson's, or Cherry-tree, pightel. 

 Where it forms part of an old wood from which 

 it is separated by a road or river, &c, it is called 

 a " Spinny." H. D'Aveney. 



DUTCH TRAGEDY. 



(2 nd S. viii. 309.) 



W. J. F. writes in the Navorscher, x. p. 174. : 



" After a cursory perusal of the number in which J. F. 

 J.'s query was inserted, I thought I would be able to 

 point out where the ' Curiosities of Literature ' he men- 

 tions were to be brought home. I opened the work he 

 had recalled to my mind, and wondered at so much con- 

 formance and so much deviation. It wdfc not long before 

 I had come to the inference that the author of Remarks 

 vpon Remarks — be it then in good faith or knowingly — 

 had mashed up several pieces of the same poet (and per- 

 haps also of others) and had thereupon founded his in- 

 dictment. After a repeated reading of the article, I saw 

 that my supposition very well congrued with the que- 

 rist's, where he says: ' I observe the author prefers face- 

 tiousness to accuracy, though I cannot accuse him of 

 wilful falsification.' 



" Now this is what I know of the matter: 

 " In vol. iii. of the. Pampiere Wereldmeest alle de Rijmen 

 en Werhen van J. H. Krut, afgezondert in vier Deelen (Tot 

 Amsteldara. In 't jaer cioioclxxxi) one meets with a 

 'Blij-eindend Treurspel (well-ending Tragedy) Helena,' in 

 which a dialogue occurs between the heroine and her 

 lover Rogier, treating of their premeditated flight ; further 

 on Rogier appears before Helena's bed, and indeed makes 

 a speech of thirteen lines, but in spirit and manner quite 

 different from the alleged. The reclining Helena — in 

 the way in which she is figured on the corresponding 

 engraving — in my opinion would pass as well for the 

 image of a man with a toga-like robe and a very long 

 and broad band. The head, which is uncovered and very 

 large, could very well give birth to such a mistake. In 

 the same tragedy [a well-ending one!], a person, yclept 

 Karel, transpierces himself, because the young lady he 

 loves does not accede to his wishes, by resisting the pro- 

 posal of a run-away match, and this in obedience to her 

 parents, who would not approve of their wooing, and also 

 because her inflamed admirer had killed some one a few 

 moments ago. Karel's ghost now appears, with a torch 

 to his lady-love, who is sleeping ' in the shadow of the 

 glistening aldertrees ' ; and addresses the unconscious 

 fair one in the following strains : 



" ' Waek op elyzabeth, waek op, waek op van 't slapen, 

 En ziet uw karel hier (elyzabeth) wanschapen, 

 Met wangen bleek ; waek op, aenschouwt wie dat ik 



ben, 

 Een die u niet genoeg voldoen met bidden ken.' 

 [Wake up, Elizabeth, wake up, wake up from dozing, 

 Elizabeth, look up, thy cruel eyes unclosing, 

 And see thy Karel now, so shapeless, pale and drear, 

 And what thou rnad'st of him, unmoved one, look 

 here ! ] 



" Now upon this page there stand 14 lines : but on the 

 following one the text still proceeds uninterrupted for 

 18, a cut being interjected between these and the former. 

 O conscientious Critic ! Somewhat later, Elizabeth comes 

 forth ' with a nun's habit and a skull,' her image cor- 

 responding well enough with its description in the query 

 as ' thin ' ; but I note by the way, that she does not seem 

 to be carrying the nun's dress with her, as the play says, 

 but looks as having it on, though no doubt it is an 

 ' idealised' one. 



" I leave it to literary men, more competent than I am, 

 to decide whether Krul's works ought to be produced as 

 ' fair specimens of Dutch Tragedy.' 



" To conclude I must confess, that I have not been 

 able to discover either Maximinus or his monologue ; 

 now, however, it will not be difficult to find him out : I 

 had no leisure to do so at present." 



The Editors of the Navorscher add : — 



" That Krul's Helena was to the taste of a tasteless 

 public is evident from the different editions existing of 

 his works. Besides the above quoted, the Maatschappij der 

 Nederlandsche Letterhunde te Leyden possesses three issues 

 of the author's works. See the Catalogus van Tooneel- 

 stukhen, pp. 129, 130." 



J. H. van Lennep. 

 Zeyst, near Utrecht. 



AVright op Plowland (2" a S. ix. 313.) — I 

 believe the arms mentioned by your correspondent 

 Ache as being quartered with those of the above 

 family, and for which he wishes to find an owner, 

 to be those of the Yorkshire family of Kyder 



