374
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vn. MAY n, 1907.
people not to spit on the floor is to be seen
in French, German, Italian, and English in
all tramcars, railway carriages, &c. The
notice in the first three languages is couchec
in the most courteous terms : " You are
particularly requested to be so good as to
abstain from spitting on the floor." The
English or American translation runs as
follows " No spitting on the floor ! "
Some months ago a well-known personage writing to The Times on the subject, I think of the destruction of Swiss scenery by the new railways, &c., remarked that, Englisl visitors being on the decrease, British opinion had no longer much weight here. French Germans, and Italians, he said, now visitec the country in increasing numbers, and were regarded as of greater importance. In support of this view he mentioned that public notices were invariably to be seen printed in French, German, and Italian, English being seldom used. He overlooked the fact, that, the Confederation being com- posed of French-, German-, and Italian- speaking cantons, these three languages are the official languages of the country, and that all official notices are printed in these tongues. This will be seen at once by a reference to a Swiss post card. The absence of a notice in English thereon has nothing to do with indifference to British interests, and a preference for those of the three nations whose languages are to be seen on the address side of the card. J. H. RIVETT-CABNAC. Schloss Rothberg, Switzer land.
Like MB. HEMS, I was at first not a little surprised at the brutal curtness of notices in America. One which I first saw in Santa Barbara, and subsequently elsewhere in California, was positively aggressive : '* Keep out. This means you." But other countries other manners. DOUGLAS OWEN.
The following is also brusque, but to the point : " Don't spit. Fine one dollar."
L. L. K.
" BULK " AND BASKISH " BULKA " (10 S vii. 227, 273). One would think that Gaelic mulcadh, mulcaidh, and possibly Baskish bulka too, are connected rather with mulcdtum than with mulcere, as the latter has mulsum, and less commonly mulctum, for its past participle. See the Latin dictionary of Lewis and Short. It is disheartening for the etymologist, who is but a seeker after truth, to read on p. 74 of 'Aphorisms on Man, translated from the original manuscript of the Rev. J. C. Lavater ' (2nd ed., London, 1789), that " the wrangler, the puzzler, the
word hunter, are incapable of great thoughts
or actions." E. S. DODGSON.
AUTHOBS OF QUOTATIONS WANTED (10 S. vii. 309).
1. In marriage are two happy things allowed, &c. The first two lines seem to be a paraphrase of an epigram by Palladas in ' Anth. Pal.,' xi. 381 :
Hcura yvvrj ^oAo? ccrrtv' fX et *ya$as Suw
w/oas,
TT)I> //.t'ai/ tv OaXd/Jito, rrjv piav V 6avdr<i). JOHN B. WAINEWBIGHT.
11. For the quotation from Wycherley, which was not given accurately, see Act IV. sc. i. of ' The Plain Dealer ' (not far from the beginning, p. 126 in Moxon's one-vol. edi- tion of ' The Dramatic Works of Wycherley, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and Farquhar,' 1840) : Fidelia, [She said] That she would rather trust her honour with a dissolute debauched hector, nay worse, with a finical baffled coward, all over loath- some with affectation of the fine gentleman. Cf. Olivia's remark in Act II. sc. i. : " The ill-favoured of our sex are never more nauseous than when they would be beauties, adding to their natural deformity the artificial ugliness of affectation."
14. This is an inexact quotation from Cicero, ' Pro Archia Poeta,' i. 1 :
" Aut si huiusce rei ratio aliqua ab optimarum artium studiis ac disciplina profecta, a qua ego nullum confiteor setatis meae tempus abhor- ruisse," &c.
EDWABD BENSLY.
University College, Aberystwyth.
The lines quoted by EZTAKIT are not quite correct. They should run : Whate'er in her Horizon doth appear, She is one Orb of Sense, all Eye, all aiery Ear. They are by Henry More, and appear in his ' Antidote against Atheism ' (4th ed., 1712), p. 131. J. WILLCOCK.
Lerwick.
" Tears are the oldest," &c., is from ' Glenaveril,' by the Earl of Lytton. I am sorry I cannot give the precise reference ; but probably the above will satisfy your correspondent. I think the punctuation in lines 2 and 3 should be
And yet how new The tale each time told by them ! &c.
J. R. F. G.
"FOBWHY" (10 S. vii. 185, 237, 294). [s it certain that this was " a pet archaism " of Freeman's ? Was it not rather a rustic phrase of the country-side ? My late friend George Sidney Harrison had no love for
