66
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io> s. n. JULY 23, 190*.
ever, an occasion arose for examination of
-the point, with the result that a curious
revelation was made. Turning to the passage
indicated, one finds a long letter written by
Campbell from Algiers, one item discussed
being the Barbary fig. The following extract
will show what misled the index-maker in
his haste :
"Its fruit, called the Barbary fig, so rich and delicious, grows on the road side, to the size of a lemon : it is to be had for the gathering, and sells at twelve for a sou. These are a day's food for an Arab or a Cabyle. The latter is the old Numidian, different both from the Moor and the Arab."
It is very diverting to find the author of / Sartor Kesartus ' confounded with an old Numidian, and regarded as a dyspeptic epicure carefully economizing his dozen Bar- fcary figs. THOMAS BAYNE.
NAMES COMMON TO BOTH SEXES. The fol- lowing extract from an unknown source seems worth recording in permanent form :
"Somebody has discovered that the editor of a backwoods newspaper in America bears the name 'Mary Jane.' It is rather a long way to go for a curiosity which is a good deal nearer at hand. Evelyn, Anne, and Mary are among the Christian names borne by men in this country. To balance matters, we have the name Arthur employed for nearly all the women of the Annesley family ; while Lady Robinson is Eva Arthur Henry.. The late garl of Arundell was, inter alia, Mary Fitzalan- fioward. But the name Mary is popularly used in Koman Catholic families. Of different origin was a curiously named son of that Lord Westmorland who wooed and won, surreptitiously, the pretty daughter of a banker. ' What would you do if you were m love with a lady and her father refused his consent?' he had asked the wealthy Child, her lather. Why, run away with her, of course,' was the answer. Westmorland took the advice and did run away with her. The old man did not forgive
i e i ^ a o' but lef b a11 his wealth to their eldest child called barah. To protect themselves, the anxious mother and father called all their children Sarah, even their son. 3;
RONALD DIXON.
46, Marlborough Avenue, Hull.
ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH ANTICIPATED. The original MS. Commonplace Book, in my possession, of that eminent lawyer Heneage Finch (afterwards Earl of Nottingham and Lord Chancellor), 1647, contains on p. 467 the following remarkable anticipation of the electric telegraph invented some two hundred years afterwards :
7 i?7 t0 disc t ou r rse wifch one beyond sea. Agree with y e party before his departure at what time you will discourse and you may effect it thus: make a Circle wherein y e Alphabet shall be con- tained, within this put a needle, under y c Table move a loadstone to those letter[s] of which vou would compose yo r words, and then the needle will nove according to the loadstone, y party beyond
sea must haue such a circle and needle, and then at
y e motion of yo r loadstone his needle will moue to
y e letters in y Circle."
In the opposite margin are the letters "D. B.," which appear to be the initials of the person who gave this information to the writer (Heneage Finch).
It is not, however, at all clear how the telegraphic communication was to be made between the parties without connecting wires, &c. It seems to me that the idea was suggested by the mariner's compass, which was then well known. W. I. R. V.
[See also 5 th S. ii. 483 ; 6 th S. ii. 266, 403 ; iii. 55.]
" CRY YOU MERCY, I TOOK YOU FOR A JOINT- STOOL." In ' Narcissus, a Twelfe Night Mer- riment' (1600), in the third Porter's speech of the appendix (ed. Margaret Lee, 1893, Nutt), the following passage occurs at p. 34 :
" Some of them are heires, all of good abilitye ; I beseech your lordshipp with the rest of the ioynd stooles, I would say the bench, take my foolish iudgment, & lett them fine for it, merce them according to their merritts and their purses, wee shall all fare the better for it."
Does this pun throw light on the Fool's exclamation in 'Lear' (III. vi. 54), when Goneril is arraigned before the mock bench of justicers? He may mean "I took you for one of the bench " (not a prisoner) when addressing a stool supposed to represent her. The expression occurs earlier in Shakespeare and in Lyly.
In this 'Merriment' there are several obvious echoes of Shakespeare, chiefly, as the editor points out, from * 1 Henry IV.,' showing the immediate popularity of that inimitable play. But she has not referred to the earlier Twelfth Night 'Narcissus' acted at Court by the "Children of the Chappell" in 1571. It is twice mentioned in Cunningham's 'Kevels' Accounts' (Shaks. Soc., 1842, pp. 11, 13). This play is lost. But the reprint of the 'Merriment,' which was acted at St. John's, Oxford, and which the writer claims to be " Ovid's pwne Narcissus " (p. 6), may be, and very likely is, the old play with the Head Porter's parts added on to suit the situation. It is in the Porter's
Earts the Shakespearian references occur, n the 'Revels' Accounts' we have "for the hunters that made the crye after the fox (let loose in the Coorte) with the houndes, homes, and hallowing in the playe of Nar- cissus"; and "money to him due, for his device in counterfeting Thunder & Light- ning in the play of Narcisses." A hunt (of a hare) crosses the stage in the reprint ; and there is a suggestion of a storm.
H. C. HART.
