Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/574

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474


NOTES AND QUERIES. [io- s. v. JUNB is, woe.


been a prolonged one. He slept, of course, at the " Bridge " Hotel, not the " Ship." The East Sussex News states that the royal fugitive was amused to find that the land- lady was called Smith, a name he had himself temporarily adopted.

CECIL CLARKE. Junior Athenseum Club.

"CAST NOT A CLOUT TILL MAY BE OUT"

(10 th S. v. 388, 433). The complete form of the proverb is

Button to chin

Till May be in ;

Cast not a clout

Till May be out,

thus evidently meaning the month, and not the blossom, of May. R. E. FRANCILLON.

MAY SONG (10 th S. v. 403). Is not your esteemed contributor MR. J. T. PAGE misled in his emendation of the second stanza of the song quoted, which has nothing to do with drinking? To which song]should be accorded the priority it is not for* me to say ; but as to the "sobriety," the reference is to the chorus of the well-known song 'Three Jolly Postboys,' of which the chorus ran : Landlord, fill the flowing bowl

Until it doth run over ; For to-night we '11 merry be (ter), To-morrow we '11 be sober.

H. P. L.

The second verse seems a free adaptation of the chorus of * Three Jolly Postboys ' : Landlord, fill the flowing bowl until it doth run

over (twice) ; For to-night we '11 merry be (thrice),

To-morrow we '11 be sober.

What is the date of the ' Three Jolly Post- boys '? JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

[MR. WILLIAM CHAPPELL said at 4 th S. vi. 104 that the tune and the varied traditional versions of the words are derived through a duet of the eighteenth century, entitled 'The Jolly Fellow, for two voices.' See other communications at 4 th 3.v. 475,543; v. 33.]

MACAULAY'S "NEW ZEALANDER" (10 th S. y. 344, 418).-MR. W. T. LYNN is quite right in saying that Macaulay's reference was to London Bridge, although it is obvious that if a traveller from New Zealand wished to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's, he would obtain a much better view from Blackfriars Bridge. The point is not, however, relevant to the issue. In the magazine article of 1745 the "Briton of the future" did not take his stand on the broken arch of any bridge, but was described as walking along the banks of the Thames with his son, to whom he points out the spots on which


St. Paul's, the Mansion House, and " other places of the first distinction" formerly stood. To the annotator of the* Essays 'a fact of greater interest is that, sixteen years previously to the date of his review of Ranke's * History of the Popes,' Macaulay anticipated the famous New Zealander passage in a notice of Mitford's * History of Greece' which was contributed by him to Knight's Quarterly Magazine, No. 6, Novem- ber, 1824. See 5 th ' S. v. 214, 338.

W. F. PRIDE AUX.

CAPT. ONLEY, R.N., 1735 (10 th S. v. 409). Charnock, in his * Biographia Navalis,' vol. iv., mentions a Capt. John Onley, who was appointed captain of the Lively frigate, 18 Jan., 1728. He was dismissed from the command of this ship, and declared inca- pable of holding any subsequent commission in the navy, by a court-martial held at Portsmouth, 3 Dec., 1728. A private MS. memorandum says 1738, but this must be a slip for 1728. His offence appears to have been not cruising according to his instruc- tions. Dates of birth and death not known. (Rev.) A. G. KEALY, R.N.

H.M.S. Sapphire 2, Portland.

DANTE'S SONNET TO GUIDO CAVALCANTI (10 th S. iv. 207, 277). As regards the reading Lagia in 1. 9 of this sonnet in place of Bice, Dr. Paget Toynbee has been so good as to inform me as follows :

" The change was made because a careful colla- tion of the best MSS. proves beyond a doubt that the correct reading is Lagia, not Bice (see M. Barbi in Bullettino delta Societd Dantesca Italiana, Nuova Serie, vi. 206; and also Giornale Dantesco, yii. 113, n. 2). Prof. Michele Barbi, who is editing the Canzoniere for the Italian Dante Society, and is probably the greatest authority on the subject, has no hesitation in reading Lagia in this passage."

He adds in a P.S. :

"You will find a similar alteration in Son. xliv. 3, 12 ('Oxford Dante,' p. 175), where Lisetta is substituted for 'una donna' and 'quella.' On this emendation see a note of mine [Dr. Paget Toyn- bee's] in Athenceum for Oct. 29, 1898."

With reference to what MR. JOHN HEBB says of the improbability that Dante should make use of such a familiar address as Bice in addressing Beatrice, he would seem to have overlooked '"MonnaBice" in the fourteenth sonnet of the ' Vita Nuova.' See also 1 Parad.,' vii. 14. J. F. R.

JAPANESE AND CHINESE LYRICS (10 th S. v. 429). B. H. Chamberlain's ' Classical Poetry of the Japanese,' 1880, is a good anthology, with renderings into English verse of many ballads, love songs, elegies, and short stanzas. For Chinese there are two recent works,