Linguist ic Discussions, 



317 



dialects of German, Dutch, Swedish and Icelandic. Lantern is another 

 conspicuous example of the same. Of course wo get the word direct 

 from the French lanterne, but our forefathers for generations spelled 

 it lanthorn, as if tho name had some connection with the horn slabs 

 on the sides through which glimmers its faint light. The habits of 

 the great and good Falstalf furnished opportunity for one Shakespeare 

 to render immortal the name of a light wine which entered, so largely 

 into the famous reckoning at the tavern, a half-penny worth of 

 bread to seven shillings of sack. This wine was exported to Spain 

 from Xeque, a town in Morocco, not far from the straits of Gibraltar, 

 and from Spain found its way to England. Tho transition was easy 

 to the name that was found so often coming from the lips of the doughty 

 knight. So also the word valance is said by Junius, an old lexico- 

 grapher, to have been borrowed and Anglicized from the Italian valen- 

 zane, which was derived from Valentia, the city where the article 

 came into use and fashion. 



There is or was a church in London, called the Marylebone church. 

 It has also given its name to a street in the same city. The same au- 

 thority, Junius, thinks it equivalent to Marybone and that a corrup- 

 tion of marrow-bones, and that designation to have originated from 

 the kneeling posture of the worshipers. But it seems more likely to 

 have been simply derived from Marie la bonne, Mary the good, mean- 

 ing, of course, the Virgin mother of our lord. Marry, the exclamation 

 so often seen in the literature of the Elizabethan period, is, of course, 

 but a variation of the same name. 



SIGN-BOARDS. 



Nothing is easier than to make mistakes in etymology and sometimes 

 very curious ones. The signboards of the taverns of England have 

 been a fruitful theme of philological guessing. Regarding them as 

 corruptions of something lost that was more dignified, philologists have 

 shown much ingenuity in their wrestle with these word puzzles. Thus 

 the goat and compasses have been regarded as a relic of the pious motto 



God encompasses us." But the truth is, the sign was addressed very 

 largely to the illiterate, and the more grotesque it was — the more in- 

 congruous the objects associated — the more likely it would attract 

 attention. Thus the one mentioned — what has a goat to do with com- 

 passes? He is neither carpenter, cooper nor philosopher, though he 

 hath a long beard. But the name once heard could never be forgotten, 

 and that was reason enough for its adoption. The Cat and Fiddle is 

 another instance. The cat suggests cosiness, comfort, and the fiddle 

 tells of merriment. The combination flows from the lips like water, and 



