"ROAD OF WORDS" (10 S. vii. 290).
I suppose this to be merely an error for
" rote of words," i.e., a set of words said by
rote. The o in rote was once open, so that
it was also spelt roat. Hence Nares has the
verb to rote or to roat, to repeat by memory ;
so that rote could mean " repetition by
memory." The ' Century Dictionary ' gives
.a similar example from Swift (no reference) :
" a rote of buffoonery that serveth all
occasions." WALTER W. SKEAT.
" NON SENTIS, IN-QUIT, TE ULTRA MALLEUM
LOQUI ? " (10 S. vii. 249.) See Athenseus,
viii. 351a : (
Greek characters)
Munnacus was a shoemaker. Erasmus mistook the exact meaning of Stratonicus's sarcasm through a confusion of o-^vpov (ankle) with ar<J>vpa (hammer). The ed. princ. of Athenaeus (Venice, Aid., 1514), while giving the disputant's name as ,fAivva.Kov, prints quite clearly avwTepov rov o-(f>vpov (p. 133, 11. 49, 50).
Erasmus repeats the error in his ' Apoph- thegmata ' (lib. vi., heading ' Stratonicus,' No. 18) : " Idem Minnaco fabro, ut opinor, secum de musica disceptanti, non ani- maduertis, inquit, te supra malleum loqui[?l" (p. 375, Paris, 1533).
The same saying of Stratonicus is correctly quoted by L. Caelius Rhodiginus (Richerius) in his ' Lectiones Antiquse ' (lib. iv. cap. xii. ad fin. of the enlarged edition, p. 132, Basel, 1542).
In his * Adagia ' (" Festinatio Praepropera ; Festina lente," p. 243, ed. 1629) Erasmus mentions that when publishing an edition of that work (' Prouerbiorum opus') with Aldus at Venice (September, 1508), he was indebted to the kindness of learned men for the loan of many works which had not yet appeared in print, among them Athenseus's ' Deipnosophists.' So the error may be due to a manuscript. Perhaps some corre- spondent could say in which edition of the ' Adagia ' this story first occurs.
EDWARD BENSLY. University College, Aberystwyth.
EDINBURGH STAGE : BLAND : GLOVER : JORDAN (10 S. vii. 89, 131, 191). I sum- marize the information gleaned in reference to John Bland. He was the son of Nathaniel Bland, LL.D. (Judge of Prerog. Court, Dublin), by his first wife, Diana Kemeys ; served under his relative (presumably) General Humphry Bland as a cornet of dragoons ; carried the colours of his regi-
ment at the battle of Dettingen ; was taken
prisoner at the battle of Fontenoy ; left the
army, and took to the stage at Edinburgh,
where he resided for many years (actor, and
treasurer of the Theatre Royal), and where
he died in 1808. He was uncle of Mrs.
Jordan her father, Capt. Francis Bland,
being also a son of Judge Bland, by his
second wife, Lucy Heaton. In obituary
notice in Walker's Hibernian Magazine his
wife's Christian name is incidentally men-
tioned as " Nancy," and he is described as
" a kind husband, an indulgent parent, and
a steady friend " ; and in the ' Memoirs of
Charles Lee Lewis ' mention is made of him
as acting with his eldest son in the play
called ' Such Things Are, ' and he is described
subsequently by the same writer as " a brave,
proud, generous,, affable, liberal, friendly,
honest, unthinking worthy man." The men-
tion of his eldest son is proof that he had at
least two sons. The presumption is that
he had a large family. The Angelo pedigree
in vol. viii. of The Ancestor gives the mar-
riage of a granddaughter, Elizabeth Martha
(daughter of Edward Bland by his wife Jane);
and Dibdin, in his ' History of the Edinburgh
Stage,' says that he left many descendants,
among whom were Glovers of the famous
actor family. My desire has been to trace
all his descendants ; but my appeal to
readers of ' N. & Q.' has not yet resulted
satisfactorily.
There are two statements in Carlisle's ' History of the Bland Family,' one of which could not be correct, and for the other I can find no confirmation. Carlisle says that John Bland was at the siege of Vigo, but this memorable event took place at least two years before he was born ; he may, however, have been present in the attack by the Earl of Northesc [sic] in July, 1742, or that by Capt. Holmes in December, 1742. The second statement, that he was, when a very young man, called to the Bar at the Temple, does not appear to be a fact. His anonymous novel ' Frederick the For- saken ' is advertised in Falkner's Dublin Journal, 24 Feb., 1761, with the following note by the publisher :
"The satisfaction and pleasure that Politicians, and indeed intelligent readers of all casts, will receive by perusing, must redound greatly to the Reputation of the author, and stamp a Stirling Signature upon the work itself."
My efforts to discover a copy of the book have been as unavailing as my efforts to trace John Bland's posterity. I trust that this, my final demand on the space at dis- posal of ' N. & Q.,' may have some more
