If "certain" in this case means in truth "uncertain," conf., as a similar linguistic specialty, the use of the word "believe." A man believes that of the truth of which he has an assured conviction; but if anybody asks you if it is one o'clock, and it chances that you have just heard the clock strike, you do not say that you believe that it is one o'clock, but simply it is so; whereas if you suppose that to be the time, but are uncertain, you say, "I believe that it is one o'clock."

I think that other instances might be found of words that have come to be used to mean or imply the exact reverse of their proper meaning. T. A. T.

USE OF YORK AT THE INSTALLATION OF CANONS (7th S. v. 505).—The Chapter of York being the first in rank and the oldest in age of any of the old foundations, and being also unique as to the constitution of the governing body, I should be glad to be allowed to make a correction of ST. SWITHIN's note. There are not, as he imagines, any "Honorary Canons" at York, where, alone among English foundations, the prebendaries have retained all their ancient rights and privileges, with the sole exception that by recent legislation they have been deprived of the emoluments formerly attached to their prebends. The residentiaries, as such, have no stalls or preaching turns assigned to them, and are not mentioned in the list of precedence, while the non-residentiaries present to all benefices and offices, and have a right to be present and to vote at all meetings of the Chapter, as well as to control and audit the expenditure of the revenues derived from the cathedral estates.

At the ceremony of installation the canons receive the book, the loaf of bread, and the kiss of brotherhood, symbols of the ancient constitution of the Chapter, which was a brotherhood of secular canons, devoted to study and to the instruction of youth, having a common refectory, but bound by no monastic vows. Since Alcuin was one of the canons it is believed that the foundation must be at least as ancient as the time of Archbishop Egbert (735-758 A.D.). King Athelstan in 936 calls them Colidei (Dei Cola), and the name of Culdees was retained as late as the reign of Henry I. This appellation is only one indication among many that the descent of York is not from St. Augustine, Canterbury, and Rome, but from St. Patrick, St. Columba, Iona, and Lindisfarne. If St. Chad had not unhappily been ousted by St. Wilfrid, we should undoubtedly have retained more relics of the primitive constitution of the most ancient existing foundation in the kingdom, which enables me to designate myself A CANON AND CULDEE.

THE CURTIN (7th S. v. 407).-According to a note by Dr. Furnivall in the New Shakspere Society's edition of Stubbs's Anatomy of Abuses,' p. 43, the Curtain Theatre was close by the

Theatre near Curtain Court, now Gloster Street, Shoreditch, and was built by 1577; but in Mr. Percy Fitzgerald's 'New History of the English Stage' it is stated, on the authority of Mr. Collier, that it was built in 1580. It would appear from an extract quoted in Arber's reprint of Gosson's School of Abuse,' p. 79, from Stow's 'Survey of London,' that both the Curtain and the Theatre were erected on the site of the Priory of St. John Baptist, called Holywell (Shoreditch), "both. standing on the south-west side, towards the field." Mr. J. A. Symonds, in 'Shakespeare's Predecessors in the English Drama,' p. 277, says the Curtain took its name, in all probability, from the plot of ground on which it was built, and subjoins a note, "Curtina in base Latin means a little court." A. COLLINGWOOD Lee. Waltham Abbey, Essex.

The theatre named the Curtain "derived its name from the piece of ground of considerable size termed the Curtain, which anciently belonged to Holywell Priory." It is so named in a lease 29 Hen. VIII., 1538. Further very interesting particulars may be read in Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps's Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare'; in my copy, sixth edition, vol. i. pp. 338 et seq.

Forest Hill,

WILLIAM RENDLE.

EXTRACT FROM PARISH REGISTER (7th S. v. 367).-If MR. PIGOTT has copied the entry correctly, the words "were married" I should conAbout 1562, and for sider are a clerical error.

some years afterwards, marriages were celebrated before a justice of the peace, the banns having been published three several Lord's Days after the close of the morning exercise, or at the market cross on three market days in three several weeks, according to Act of Parliament. Would not the dates Jan. 8 and 15 be two of the days when the banns were published? In the year 1653 Parliament directed registrars to be chosen in every parish for the registering births and burials, and to whom notice of intended marriage had to be given. It is quite possible the registrar mentioned had been elected, but had not taken his oath before some county justice before the first publication of the banns. See Burn's 'Parish Registers of England,' 1862.

JOHN RADCLIFFE.

F. TAVARES (7th S. v. 329).-Francisco Tavares was a member of the Council of the Prince Regent of Portugal, afterwards D. Joam VI., Knight of the Order of the Christ, M.D., professor at the University of Coimbra, first physician of the Royal Chamber, Great Physician of the Realm, Member of the Junta do Proto-medicato, Fellow of the Academy of Sciences of Lisbon, of the Academy of Medicine of Barcelona, &c. He was born in Coimbra about the middle of the last century, and

died at Lisbon, May 20, 1812. Besides the book quoted by MR. TAVARÉ, he is the author of eight more medical works. See Francisco Innocencia da Silva, 'Diccionario Bibliographico Portuguez,' Lisboa, 1859, vol. iii. p. 71, and Gazeta Medica de Lisboa, No. 121, June 1, 1858. EDUARDO PRADO.

Paris.

"DEAD MEN"-EMPTY BOTTLES (7th S. v. 448). -I have always heard that empty bottles were, especially among army men, called "marines." And I remember that some sixty years ago a good story used to be told, I think, of the Duke of York. His Royal Highness, at some military convivial meeting, little thinking of giving offence to the susceptibilities of any man present, ordered a servant to "take away those marines." Upon which a grey-headed veteran belonging to that corps arose, and wanted to know what H.R.H. intended by so designating the body to which he had the honour to belong. Empty bottles !” said H.R.H. "Why, fellows who have done their duty and are ready to do it again, to be sure!" T. A. T. "TO CHEW THE RAG " (7th S. v. 469). Is this confined to soldiers? To " rag a man is good Lincolnshire for chaff or tease. At school, to get a boy into a rage was called "getting his rag out." Sometimes this was improved into "shirty," and "getting his shirt out."

66

I have heard that when soldiers are flogged it is a great comfort to them to have something to chew, whether a lump of rag or a bit of lead-often a bullet hammered out flat. They say it keeps them from biting their tongue. And there is no doubt that some children in a sulk will chew their pocket-handkerchiefs. I have seen them.

Boston, Lincolnshire.

R. R.

"TO MAKE UP HIS MOUTH" (7th S. v. 387).—This expression is still in use in some parts of Shropshire with regard to eating. After a person has eaten a sufficiency he will be tempted to have just a little more of something different, e. g., "a snack of bread and cheese to make up your mouth" is often the good wife's suggestion to her farmer lord. The transition from this practical use of the term to the figurative one quoted is not difficult, and makes the meaning of the latter clear. JOSIAH OLDFIELD, B. A.

Dorrington, Shrewsbury. To popular words or phrases of last century foreign dictionaries of the period seem to be the most complete index so far as sense is concerned. In German and French word-books of the time the above phrase is rendered as if meaning profit or make profit. Littleton's 'Latin Dictionary' (1706) gives the rendering of the phrase as "os componere,"

presumably to make up one's face, arrange it, and thence perhaps to cease from being "down in the mouth," a phrase which is of no new origin.

Can the sense of making up one's face, being affected or joyful, have gradually come to mean the usual cause of pleasure, namely, that of gain? JULIUS STEGGALL.

This is an ancient proverbial expression, but one which I have not found included in the more modern collections, such as Ray's, Hazlitt's, &c., which are, indeed, very imperfect. It is used in the Proverbs of John Heywood,' Sharman's reprint of 1546 edition, p. 76:—

Herewithall his wife to make up my mouth,
Not onely her husband's taunting tale avouth,
But thereto deviseth to cast in my teeth
Checks and choking oysters.

Decker makes use of it in the 'Seven Deadly Sins of London,' Arber's reprint of 1606 edition, P. 12: "The poore Orator having made up his mouth, Bankruptisme gave him very good words," &c. In both cases it means to close or finish one's speech. I suppose by Walpole's time it had reached some such signification as "to square one's affairs," ," "conclude one's business," but the sense is considerably varied. H. C. HART. This is equivalent to "make mowes," i. e., wry It is used by Shakspere :—

faces.

Persevere, counterfeit sad looks,

Make mouths upon me when I turn my back. And by Addison :

how making mouths turns to account in Warwickshire more than any other parts of England, I cannot comprehend."

"Why they should keep running asses at Coleshill, or

It is uncertain whether the worde mowe is a

corruption of mouth, or from the French moue. It

occurs as a verb in the interlude called 'The World and the Child' (1522) :—

'NEW ENGLISH DICTIONARY' (7th S. v. 504). — My instance of almaundey is wrong. It was unluckily taken from a proof before my collation of it with the MS., which has almaunden, the plural noun. Let me, therefore, substitute for this two words from the revise of the same sheet of Mr. Austin's text, of which one, at least, is not in our 'Dictionary':

1. "Arbolettys.-Take Milke, Boter an Chese, and boyle in fere; pen take eyroun, and cast per-to; pan take Percely & Sawge, & hacke it smal, & take powder Gyngere & Galyngale, and caste it per-to, and pan serue it forth."-P. 20.

2. Bawde, v.t. pan take pin Purpays as a Freysshe Samoun, & sethe it in fayre Water; & when he is I-sothe

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles. Edited by Jas. A. H. Murray, LL.D., &c. Part IV. Sections 1 and 2. (Oxford, Clarendon Press.) PART IV. of the New English Dictionary,' which now sees the light, consists of two sections the first, "Bra' to "Byz," completing vol. i., the second, "C" to "Cass," opening vol. ii. It is pleasant to congratulate the editor and his staff upon the "substantial instalment" of the work which is now given the public. It will be obvious to all who glance at the portly volume, with its twelve to thirteen hundred pages, each page consisting of three closely-printed columns, that the task already accomplished is greater than that involved in almost any completed dictionary. Concerning the manner in which it has been executed little information is needed by readers of N. & Q.' Instead, then, of attempting to analyze or describe a book which defies alike analysis and description, we will commend to our readers the importance of assisting to the utmost of their power in a task which is, in the full sense, of national importance. This many of them have shown themselves anxious to do. Time is, however, a matter of signal importance, and the gain to Dr. Murray and his assistants that would accrue if correspondents would forward to Dr. Murray, at the Scriptorium, Oxford, answers to the words after which he inquires is not easily calculable. These replies, if so marked, would be forwarded to N. & Q.,' and would take their turn for insertion. Another duty, which applies to the few only, is that of consulting the Dictionary' before writing to 'N. & Q.' on words beginning with A and B, since rare indeed must be the cases in which information is obtain able that is not contained in the volume now at hand. Yet another duty-which weighs heaviest upon scholars -that of supporting by purchasing the successive numbers a labour the expense of which is in proportion to its importance, is too obvious to call for comment. A large portion of Dr. Murray's preface to vol, i, consists of acknowledgment of indebtedness to those who have laboured in the collection and the arrangement of materials. These include, in addition to many Englishmen of highest eminence, many American and German scholars. Thanks to the collaboration of Mr. Henry Bradley, who is at work upon a different section of the dictionary, it is hoped and expected that the rate of progress will be greatly accelerated. The aim and scope of the work, the method upon which it is conducted, and its claims to consideration are naturally explained by the editor. These also are matters upon which our readers are well informed. We may recommend, however, a study of the introductory paper, since few even of the best informed can be aware how many are the workers, and how numerous and important are the responsibilities involved in the production of the book.

The Works of Sir George Etherege: Plays and Poems. Edited by A. Wilson Verity, B.A. (Nimmo.) To the majority of readers Etherege and Sedley are less known than some contemporary or immediately subsequent dramatists. A collection such as that edited by Leigh Hunt for the dramatic series of Moxon does much

to popularize writings, and Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar have, since its appearance, enjoyed a supremacy which, in one case at least, is not incontestable. The quarto editions of Etherege have never been common, and the collection of plays and poems issued in 1704, though more than once reprinted, has become absorbed, and is now seldom encountered. A new edition of Etherege is accordingly welcome, especially when, as in the present case, it takes a handsome library form, in which shape the dramatist has not previously been accessible. Fortunately, moreover, for the modern biosidence as English envoy at Ratisbon has become acgrapher, the correspondence of Etherege during his recessible, and a man who, in spite of the endearing epithet could not easily be dissociated from the Mohocks, his of "Gentle George" bestowed upon him by his associate, companions, has now something approaching to an inmatic services of Etherege may yet, possibly, be brought dividuality. Further revelations concerning the diploas Mr. Verity asserts, that "his prose is generally clear to light. His correspondence seems, at any rate, to show, and straightforward." Not heavy is Etherege's literary baggage. It consists of a few poems, chiefly erotic, in avowal of inconstancy, and three plays, which show a which perhaps the most notable feature is the open vein of genuine comedy, and brought reputation and fortune to the stage of the Restoration. In judging these productions it is fair to compare them with the works of D'Avenant and Crowne rather than with those of their more brilliant successors. licensed for printing so early as 1664, and contains rhymed passages, which, however, in his subsequent works Etherege dropped. In the general joy at the cessation of Puritan rule, such freedoms of expression as distinguished our poet were pardonable. Mild, indeed, do these appear beside the coarseness and obscenities of his successors. Etherege, moreover, enriched the stage with types that were copied, and with more than one character which survived for years, and, in a sense, survive even now. Mr. Verity, who in his prefatory matter and his few The reprint, indeed, is judicious, and is well edited by notes displays both scholarship and judgment. Meanwhile the lover of books is only too thankful to possess works of this stamp in editions such as Mr. Nimmo supplies. Veritable bibliographical treasures are these, right in all respects, and the collector watches with augmenting satisfaction the line expanding upon his shelves. No English publisher is rendering to bibliography services more acceptable than those of Mr. material subsequently known as moreen is indicated in Nimmo. Will some learned reader tell whether the the following lines from Etherege's 'Song of Basset'? Let equipage and dress despair Since Basset is come in; For nothing can oblige the fair Like money and moreen.

The earliest was

In a following verse coney is used in a sense with which we are not familiar; and the last verse contains a term apparently belonging to the game which we fail to find in the New Dictionary':—

What pity 'tis, those conquering eyes,
Which all the world subdue,
Should, while the lover, gazing, dies,
Be only on Alpue.

The Morall Philosophie of Doni. By Sir Thomas North.
Edited by Joseph Jacobs, late of St. John's College,
Cambridge. (Nutt.)

We have nothing but praise to bestow upon this reprint, which forms the latest volume of Mr. Nutt's delightful " Bibliothèque de Carabas." The first portion of a general title which we have been compelled to abridge, The