76
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. i. JAN. 23, 190*.
the Asiatic Society of Japan, vol. xix. partiii.,
October, 1891, to illustrate a paper by Major-
General H. S. Palmer on the game of Hana
Awase, for which the cards are made. Another
paper on the game was printed at Yokohama
in 1892 by Mr. C. M. Belshaw, under the title
of ' Hana Fuda, the Japanese Flower Game
or Eighty-Eight.' The rules of this and
other Japanese card - games are also to be found in ' Korean Games, with Notes on the Corresponding Games of China and Japan,' by Stewart Culin (Philadelphia, 1895).
F. JESSEL.
In 'Things Japanese,' by Basil Hall Cham- berlain, 1890, p. 21, is the following :
" Ever since the early days of foreign intercourse they have likewise had certain kinds of cards, of which the Jiana-garuta, or the 'flower-cards,' are the most popular kind so popular, indeed, and seductive that there is an official veto on playing the game for money. The cards are forty-eight in number, four for each month of the year, the months being distinguished by the flowers proper to them, and an extra value attached to one out of each set of four, which is further distinguished by a bird or butterfly, and to a second which is inscribed with a line of poetry. Three people take part in the game, and there is a pool. The system of counting is rather complicated, but the ideas involved are graceful."
Prof. Chamberlain, at the end of his article on ' Amusements,' from which the quotation is taken, refers to ' The Games and Sports of Japanese Children,' by W. E. Griffis, vol. ii. of the Asiatic Transactions. Under the game 1 Go ' he refers to the German Asiatic Trans- actions. As these are (or I should say were in 1890. and I presume are still) the publica- tions of two scientific societies in Tokyo, I should think ME. PLATT will find full in- formation in them. H. J. GIFFOED.
LORENZO DA PA VIA (9 th S. xii. 349, 398). I am much obliged to MES. ADY for her kind help, but as she has not given me the title of the book I have not yet been able to discover the passage I am in search of. The entries under Sansovino fill seven printed columns in the British Museum Catalogue.
L. L. K.
SHAKESPEAEE'S ' : VIETUE OF NECESSITY" (10 th S. i. 8). The drift of ME. DODGSON'S query is not apparent to me, but the endeavour to twist out of St. Gregory's words any connexion with the proverb is as needless as it is fruitless. For the phrase "facere de necessitate virtutem," letter for letter, was current about a century and a half before the saint was born, as I informed your readers twelve years ago (8 th S. i. 94). To the examples which I then adduced of its employment by St. Jerome and later writers
now add the following from the 'Cent
Nouvelles Nouvelles ' (No. 36, sub fin.) :
" Force est que tu faces de necessite vertuz."
The phrase appears in French and Italian
collections of proverbs published in the six-
teenth century, and must have been as familiar
to Britons of the period as to their continental
neighbours. F. ADAMS.
Chaucer may be cited as a witness to the truth of ME. E. S. DODGSON'S remark that "a imilar expression is probably to be found in many books written between the time of St. Gregory and Bacon." The saying occurs twice in the famous ' Canterbury Tales.' In that of the Knight we read, " Then is it wis- dom, as thenketh me, to maken vertu of necessite ; ' ; and in the Squire's tale the phrase runs " Than I made vertu of neces- site." Shakespeare's works abound in Chaucerian quotations. They were pro- bably sayings in common use, and, to judge by St. Gregory's Epistles, were much older than the time of either poet.
ELEANOE C. SMYTH. Harborne.
KING EDGAE'S BLAZON (9 th S. xii. 247). What purports to be the coat of arms of King Edgar appears on p. 147 of ' Divi Britannici : being A Remark upon the Lives of all the Kings of this Isle from the year of the world 2855 unto the year of grace 1660,' by Sir Win- ston Churchill, Kt. (London, 1675). It con- sists of a shield, having on it a cross and a bird in each angle of the cross. The cross is what I believe is called a "cross fleury." The shield has a crown above it. The birds look to the left; they have their upper beaks slightly hooked, and their legs have the thighs only. I regret that my ignorance of heraldic terms obliges me to describe the arms as I have done.
The same coat of arms is attributed to Edward the Elder and to Ethelred ; also, with the addition of a fifth bird under the cross, to Edward the Confessor. Eadred has the four birds, but the cross is a cross pattee.
I suppose that many of the coats of arms and devices given by Churchill are imagi- nary ; e.g., he gives devices to Brute (grand- son of yEneas), Malmude, Belin, Ludbelin, Cassibelin, Tubelin, A.M. 2855-3921, and other kings of fabulous history.
ROBEET PlEEPOINT.
St. Austin's, Warrington.
"GOING THE BOUND": "ROUNDHOUSE" (10 th S. i. 9). Surely the most reasonable explanation of the term roundhouse for a prison is that round towers were very com- mon, and were well adapted for prisons. The
