Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/400

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vn. APRIL 27, 1907.


Dubricius. It is impossible to equate the French -eux, which presupposes Latin os or -osus, with the Latin suffix -icius. The suffix -icius appears in Old French as -ez and in modern French as et ; compare chevet (in Hatzfeld and Darmesteter) ; see Ducange (s.v. capitium).

Is St. Devereux a distinct saint from St. Dubricius ? Or have we here merely an alteration of a name, due to the influence of a family name of wide repute ?

A. L. MAYHEW.

AUTHORS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED. Speak, History ! Who are life's Victors ? Unroll

thy long annals and say. Are they those whom the world called the victors,

who won the success of a day The martyrs or Nero ? The Spartans who fell at

Thermopylae's tryst ?

Or the Persians and Xerxes ? His judges or Christ ? I shall also be grateful if any reader can reply to my question at 10 S. vi. 408 re- garding the author of " Then asked I what of Home," &c. F. L. S.

I praise the Frenchman ; his remark was shrewd, How sweet, how passing sweet, is solitude ! But grant me still a friend in my retreat, Whom I may whisper, Solitude is sweet.

Who is the Frenchman alluded to ? and whence the quatrain ?

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

[The quatrain is from Cowper's 'Retirement,' 1. 739. Mr. Gurney Beriham, in ' CasselPs Book of Quotations,' notes on "the Frenchman": "La Bruyere; also attributed to Jean Guez de Balzac (1594-1654)."]

TRAD AGH= DROGHEDA. In the Daily Express of 8 April Mr. J. Cunningham, editor of the Drogheda Argus, is quoted as saying, " We call our [football] team the Tradagh team, from the old Irish word for Drogheda." I should like to know if there is any authority for this alleged Irish word. It looks like a mere corruption. The proper spelling of Drogheda in Gaelic is Droichead Atha, the bridge over the ford. In Gaelic conversation it is often called for short " An Droichead," the bridge, par excellence. JAS. PLATT, Jun.

BACON'S APOPHTHEGMS. In an article on 'Shakespeare's Geography' (9 S. xi. 470) several instances are cited of literary- errors in Bacon's ' Apophthegmata ' "for which, Byron says, a boy at a public school would be soundly thrashed." It would be kind of the author of that article, or of any other expert, to give a few exact references on some of the points there raised.

1. Where does Byron [? Lord Byron] say what is attributed to him ?


2. Bacon is said to confound " a king of Hungary with Richard Coaur -de - Lion " (Apoph. 129). Where is the story told of Richard ?

3. Bacon wrongly credits Chilon with a saying about kings' favourites, which belongs to Orontes, son-in-law of Artaxerxes (Apoph. 168). Where is this saying to be found assigned to Orontes ?

4. Bacon " gives an apophthegm as happening in the time of Hadrian instead of Augustus." Apoph. 216 is the only one I can find mentioning Hadrian. The incident did occur temp. Hadrian, according to- Spartianus, ' Vita Hadr.,' 15. Is it related by any other ancient author of Augustus also ? Bacon repeats the Hadrian version in ' Advancement of Learning,' i. 3, 10.

5. Bacon attributes to " one of the Seven " a comparison of the laws to cobwebs, which belongs properly not to a Greek, but to " a Scythian." What Scythian ? And where is the story told of a Scythian ?

6. Bacon attributes " to Demetrius an apophthegm instead of to Philip of Macedon. The only apophthegm I can find ascribed to Demetrius is No. 162 (of the original 8vo edition) ; and here also Bacon has authority. His story tallies with that of Plutarch, ' Vit. Demetrii,' cap xlii (m. p. 909), save that Bacon's " divers times " is a gra- tuitous addition to the anecdote, like the " Persian " (sic) arrow in Apoph. 179. Bacon did not always trouble to be exact in details ; see, for instance, Apoph. 209, 212, 227.

H. K. ST. J. S.

" WOUND " : ITS PRONUNCIATION. When and how did the modern pronunciations of the word " wound " arise ? The old pro- nunciation was as " sound," as shown by the hymn " How sweet the name of Jesus sounds." I do not remember another instance of " ound " being pronounced as oond. J. W. B.

A. MACDUFF BAXTER. He was Attorney- General of New South Wales in 1827, the year in which he married. Had he any issue ? J. M. BULLOCH.

118, Pall Mall.

RUDYARD FAMILY. " Mrs." Rudyard, daughter of Major Rudyard, commanding the Royal Engineers in Scotland, married in 1796 Robert Gordon, of Xeres de la Frontera, Spain. Had she any issue ? What is known of her family and of her husband ? J. M. BULLOCH.

ROSCOE ARMS AND FAMILY. When were the arms used by William Roscoe of Liver-