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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. i. APRIL 9, 1904.
The simple truth is that the word should really be
spelt ' Mortella,' and as such appears in the con-
temporary map given by Sir J. F. Maurice in his
recently issued publication of ' Sir John Moore's
Diary.' The name was applied to a tower and bay
on the north coast of Corsica, and in all probability
was given in allusion to the myrtle, which grows
luxuriantly on that part of the coast."
The Punta Mortella is a small promontory situated in the Gulf of St. Florent, on the north-western coast of Corsica, a few miles to the north of the town of that name. Readers of the late Henry Seton Merriman's novel ' The Isle of Unrest,' which gives a life- like picture of the people and scenery of Corsica, will remember that this old but decayed town frequently figures in that story. The coast of Corsica is studded with these Genoese watch-towers, now generally in a state of ruin. In the interior of the island the forts built to dominate the surrounding country were constructed according to the approved rules of fortification in the four- teenth and fifteenth centuries, and are gene- rally provided with moats and drawbridges. The old square tower of Vivario is a pic- turesque ruin. The fort of Vizzavona, which was built upon the narrow tongue of land that forms the watershed between the valley of the Gravona to the south and the valley of the Vecchio to the north, has unfortu- nately undergone a sort of restoration. The results are disastrous, as from a distance it resembles a modern house with a tiled pitched roof and gable ends, and from its commanding position it forms a blot upon a landscape that otherwise possesses every element of beauty. The myrtle, which is said to grow luxuriantly upon the coast in the neighbourhood of Mortella, is found in abundance everywhere. With the arbutus, the cystus, and various other shrubs, it forms a principal constituent of the macchie, Fr. maquis, or Corsican "bush," of which the aromatic odours im- pregnate the atmosphere of the island. The Corsican name for the myrtle is murta in the dialect of Ajaccio, and morta in that of Bastia. Of the latter word mortella may perhaps be a diminutive. W. F. PRIDEAUX.
Vizzavona, Corsica.
TORPEDOES. A correspondent in the Times has drawn attention to Ben Jonson's 'Staple of News,' which contains the following dialogue :
Barber. They write here one Cornelius Son hath made the Hollanders an invisible eel, to swim the haven of Dunkirk, and sink all the shipping there.
Pennyboy. But how is 't done?
Cymbal. I '11 show you, sir. It is an Automa, runs under water, with a snug nose, and has a nimble tail made like an auger, with which tail she wriggles
Betwixt the costs (ribs) of a ship, arid sinks it
straight.
Pennyboy. A most brave device, to murder their lat bottoms.
The ' Staple of News ' was, I understand, produced in 1625. Although the use of torpedoes in naval warfare was proposed in the early part of the nineteenth century, no successful application of them was made until the American Civil War of 1861-64. This matter is, perhaps, sufficiently curious to deserve mention in ' N. & Q.'
RICHARD EDGCUMBE.
Edgbarrow, Crowthorne, Berks.
BURNS ANTICIPATED. It is mentioned in a MS. album, circa 1830-34, in my possession, that
" there is a remarkable eoincidence, almost amount- ing to identity, between a passage in one of Burns's poems and a sentence in an old dramatist. Burns says :
Her prentice han'
She tried on Man
And then she made the Lasses, oh !
In ' Cupid's Whirligig,' a comedy printed in 1607, is the following passage : ' Man was made when Nature was but an apprentice, but \Voman when she was a skilful Mistress of her Art.' "
Whether this anticipation of Burns has been previously noticed in print, I am not aware.
W. I. R. V.
PIT OF A THEATRE. In his recently pub- lished volume on the Elizabethan - Stuart stage, Dr. Karl Mantzius hazards a guess as to the original significance of the word "pit" in its theatrical application. It appears to him that the ground was so called because it formed the base of a well-like structure. But surely there were other and more distinctive reasons for the upspringing of the phrase. To trace its origin is to map out the genesis of the English theatre.
When the players were forced by Bumbledom to desert their temporary scaffolds in the old inn-yards, they removed across the river and built themselves permanent theatres on the plan of the neighbouring amphitheatres in which bulls and bears had long been baited. That is to say, the disposition of the audi- torium was circus-like, out the arrangement of the stage, with its traverses and permanent balcony, remained as in the inn-yards. For long there was little inclination to keep the art of the drama free from the brutalities of bear-baiting. Some, but not all, of the theatres were built with removable stages so that acting might be diversified occasionally by less refined entertainments. Ludwig, Prince of Anhalt, visited London in 1596, and subsequently wrote an account of his
