298
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. v. APRIL u,
pp. 305-16, where a large number of ex
amples are given, extending over ten octavo
pages. Or you may have it in English, in
Wright's translation, London, 1888, vol. i.
pp. 145-55.
The former is the fuller and better account, as it is a second edition. Brugmann says that the digamma, equivalent to the modern E. iv, disappeared first in Ionic and Attic, and latest in Pamphylian, viz., in the second century before Christ. It occurs in Boeotian and Cretan inscriptions. It was replaced, in later Greek, sometimes by the rough breath- ing, as in Hesperus Lat. uesper, and some- times by the smooth breathing, as in eros, a year, allied to Lat. mtus, old, and E. wether, a year-old sheep. I give further ex- amples in my * Primer of Classical and Eng- lish Philology,' p. 38. It was fully explained years ago. WALTER W. SKEAT.
"Pious FOUNDER" (10 th S. v. 107, 257). Thomas War-ton, in his * Progress of Dis- content/ published in 1750, makes the country parson sigh for the days when he Dined untaxed, untroubled under The portrait of our pious founder.
C. W. B.
CHARING AND CHARING CROSS (10 th S. v. 146, 197, 238). It is quite true, as PROF. SKEAT points out, that no authority can be found for the existence of an A.-S. cerring, or any later form of it ; but this does not prove very much. We know Anglo-Saxon through its literature, and not through the speech of the common people, as we know French or German. Many words were pro- bably used colloquially, which have not been" handed down in manuscript. C err ing or cherriny is as regular in formation as chiding and numerous other verbal substan- tives which we have inherited from our Saxon ancestors. And, if I may say so, the existence of a family of Cerringas is also a mere hypothesis. Nothing is known of them in history. Kemble himself gave a warning against driving the -ing patronymic theory too hard ('The Saxons in England,' ed. 1876, i. 60, note). And yet, forgetful of this warning, he derived the numerous Chippings in England from a hypothetical family of Cypingas.
PROF. SKEAT'S remarks about the Normans, on whose broad shoulders the burden of so many real or hypothetical errors has been laid, are not, I submit, entirely justified. As I have previously shown, we find in the Fines mention of the church of St. Margaret atte Cherring (' Calendar of Feet of Fines for London and Middlesex,' ed. Hardy and
Page, i. 33). This proves that the place was
called in English "The Cherring" in
34 Henry III. The law-writers or scriveners,,
in turning this into Norman- French, wrote
"Le Cherring" or "La Cherring." In a
couple of centuries after the Conquest,,
the niceties of Anglo-Saxon gender had fallen
into desuetude, and either the masculine or
feminine article was used a discretion. A
glance at the numerous names of signs in
Dr. Sharpe's 'Husting Wills' will demonstrate
this. The sign of "The Bell," for instance,
is written indifferently " Le Belle" and "La
Belle." But what I have not yet found is the
definite article before a local name derived
from a patronymic, and I think, therefore,
it is for PROF. SKEAT to show how the A.-S,
" Cerringas " became "The Cherring." Is
Barking, which is derived from the Beor-
cingas. ever called "The Barking"? I admit
that the form "Cerringes" for the Kentish
Charing is a difficulty; but I confine myself
to the Middlesex name for the present. I
have not yet looked into such names as-
Charrington and Carrington.
In conclusion, supposing the word is derived from a hypothetical cerring, it does- not follow that a large number of places on a river bend would bear the name. Every stony place in England is not called Staines. The chares of the North are confined to a small area, though every old town in the- country has plenty of winding lanes.
W. F. PRIDEAUX.
ARIEL (10 th S. v. 249). Ariel, which means "Lion of God," was originally a male name. It must be taken in conjunction with Gabriel, Uriel, and a host of others. They all belong to the Kabbalistic nomenclature of the spirit world, in which every angelic name must nd in either -el or -jdh. This rule is so well known that it is sometimes burlesqued. In a "Yiddish" play I once met with Schnappsiel and other humorous formations of this class. The fact that Ariel is used as feminine in a novel proves nothing. Did not Miss Corelli actually call one of her heroines Ziska ?
JAS. PLATT, Jun.
Shakspeare's Ariel assumed the shape of a nymph of the sea. Milton in ' Paradise Lost '
- ias the words :
For spirits, when they please, Can either sex assume, or both.
And Pope in ' The Rape of the Lock ' makes-
ris Ariel say something similar : For spirits, freed from mortal laws, with ease Assume what sexes and what shapes they please.
[n Cazotte's * Diable Amoureux ' Beelzebub
.s in the form of a woman ; and when Siva
