Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/95

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10'" 8. 1. JAN. 23, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


75


exhaustive. The origin of Theism in ancestor- worship with its correlative tornb - worship need not be referred to, it being already sufficiently established (cf. Phoen. " Betyl," name of a god, and Heb. "Beth-el"). The connexion, moreover, between smooth stones and the tumulus is obvious when we consider that the most ancient tumuli were constructed of surface or river boulders, which thus acquired a certain degree of sanctity.

E. SIBREE.

MARLOWE AND SHAKESPEARE (10 th S. i. 1). MR. HERPICH has done good work in publishing his collection of parallel phrases and expressions from Marlowe and Shake- speare, and every Shakespearian student should be thankful for them. But why, after showing how much Shakespeare was influenced by Marlowe, does he try to spoil the effect of his labour by supposing that the well-known lines in 'As You Like It 'refer rather to Chapman than to Marlowe, and were "an intentional fling" at a rival poet? The words in the play (First Folio),

Dead Shepheard, now I find thy saw of might, Who ever lov'd, that lov'd not at first sight?

certainly contain nothing in the nature of a fling. On the contrary, the quotation is made reverently, and almost, as one might say, as an apostrophe to a dead friend. The fact that Marlowe was dead when this was written, whereas Chapman was alive, makes the inference that Marlowe was intended, and that he was the "Dead Shepheard," simply irresistible and unmistakable. As far as I know, Shakespeare never has a fling at any other poet. He left such things to meaner minds. E. F. BATES.

CANDLEMAS GILLS (9 th S. xii. 430 ; 10 th S. i. 36). Church ales and observances form the subject of chap. iv. of the late Mr. W. T. Marchant's erudite volume 'In Praise of Ale.' The author was a diligent student of

  • N. & Q.,' and acknowledges the assistance

derived from its columns. It has been more than once referred to since his death. Those who knew this amiable and painstaking scholar will remember him. as a mine of curious lore of marriage customs, proverbs, ancient London, and antiquarian topics.

FRANCIS P. MARCHANT.

Brixton Hill.

" COUP DE JARNAC" (10 th S. i. 6). A question on this was asked at the London University D.Lit. examination in 1880. " Un coup de Jarnac" means "a treacherous blow." See Belcher and Dupuis's ' Manuel,' 1885 <Hachette). B. WHITEHEAD, B.A.


" SIT LOOSE TO " (10 th S. i. 5). The following quotation is from Thomson's ' Alfred : a Masque,' 1740 :

Attach thee firmly to the virtuous deeds

And offices of life ; to life itself,

With all its vain and transient joys, sit loose.

This was a favourite quotation of Burns ; see letter to Mrs. Dunlop, G December, 1792.

H. E. POWELL. Twickenham.

MARRIAGE KEGISTERS (10 th S. i. 9). The registers and records of the marriages per- formed at the Fleet and King's Bench Prisons, at May Fair, at the Mint in Southwark, and elsewhere between the years 1674 and 1754, were transferred from the Registry of the Bishop of London to the custody of the Registrar-General of Births, Marriages, and Deaths at Somerset House, under the pro- visions of 3 & 4 Viet., cap. 92, sec. 20. Some of the registers of May Fair are at St. George's, Hanover Square, and some of those of the Fleet (for there were many) are in private hands. If MAJOR THORNE GEORGE requires any further information he should consult ' The Fleet Registers,' 1837, and The History of the Parish Registers in England,' 1842, both by J. S. Burn ; also ' Parish Registers in England, 5 1883, by R. E. C. Waters. The history of 'The Mint, Savoy, and May Fair Marriages ' is given in Cham- bers's ' Book of Days,' ii. 120.

.EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road, N.W.

"HEARDLOME": "HEECH" (10 th S. i. 29). A heard-lome must be a herd-loom. Loom was used in a most varied manner for any kind of instrument or implement, so that herd- loom merely means "a contrivance for herding." See * Loom ' in H.E.D.'

Heech I take to be a variant of hitch, with the sense of hitching, explained in the ' Eng. Dial. Diet.' (which see) as an Oxfordshire word meaning "a part of a field ploughed and sown during the year in which the rest of the field lies fallow."

WALTER W. SKEAT.

[MR. HOLDEX MAcMiCHAEi, gives cattle-pen as the meaning of heardlome, and refers to Jamieson's 'Diet,,' s.i: 'Werklome.' W. C. B. suggests that lome may be htm, a woody valley, and quotes from the ' E.D.D.,' rf.i'. ' Loom' and 'Lum.']

JAPANESE CARDS (10 th S. i. 29). The only work on Japan with which I am acquainted that contains an account of Japanese games is 'The Mikado's Empire,' by W. E. Griffis, but the account is meagre and confused. A set of facsimiles of the pack described by MR. PLATT is printed in the Transactions of