12 8. IV. OCT., 1918.]
NOTES AND QUERIES.
269
Secondly, the statement that mcebus
occurs in Korner's verses is unproved His
works have been thoroughly explored from
the lexicographical point of view for the
great German dictionary of Grimm-Heyne
(Bd. vi., Leipzig, 1885), and the word is not
registered therein. I have sought for it
also in vain in the standard works of Schade
and Kluge.
There can be little doubt that mebus is a word of recent coinage. M. ESPOSITO.
" Lucus A NON LUCENDO." The account of this saying given in the latest edition of King's ' Classical and Foreign Quotations ' is insufficient. It is true that we find in Quintilian, ' Inst. Orator.,' i. 6, 34, " Etiamne a contrariis aliqua sinemus trahi, ut lucus,
quia umbra opacus parum luceat ? " but
for the earliest known instance of the epigrammatic form " Lucus a non lucendo " we must go to the Servian Commentary on Virgil, ' ^Eneid,' i. 22, " et dictse sunt Parcse Kar' avrtypacriv, quod nulli parcant, sicut lucus a non lucendo, bellum a nulla re bella." Biichmann, who gives this source (' Ge- flxigelte Worte,' fcd. 25, pp. 401, 402), adds that according to the scholia of Lactantius Placidus (6th cent. A.D.) on Statius,
- Achilleis,' " iii. 197," the phrase was
originated by an unknown grammarian, Lyoomedes. The reference " ' Achilleis,' iii. 197," appears in many successive editions of Biichmann ; but there are only two books of the ' Achilleis.' EDWARD BENSLY.
" TOTTENHAM SHALT. TURN FRENCH. "- The meaning of this phrase has previously been discussed, and instances of its use given, in ' N. & Q.,' 9 S. xi. 185, 333, *and 10 S. ix. 67. Another passage in which it occurs is to be found in Arthur Hall's translation of the first ten books of the ' Iliad,' published in 1581. In book iv., 11. 33-37, Juno, addressing Jupiter, says :
hast thou founds out the meanes To get a safegard for the state of Priam and
Troyans ? Do what thou canst, the time will come, that
Totnam French shal turn. The Gods and I will so prouide, but that shall
serue our turne Khal hap at all.
[t is interesting to note so early an example of this usage. Here it clearly means that a great or strange alteration must take place if Juno and the gods are to be prevented from carrying out their desires. This signification agrees with that given by Puttenham in his
Arte of English Poesie,' though from other passages it will be seen that he erred in
saying Totnes instead of -Tottenham. The
construction put on the phrase by Hall and
Puttenham appears to be tlie original one.
HERBERT WRIGHT.
LE CATEAU : CAMBRAI. Cateau Cam- bresis, as it was called in the Middle Ages from its inclusion in the district of Cambrai, leapt into fame on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 1914, as the scene of the battle of Le Cateau, when, during the retreat from Mons, the Second Army Corps of General Sir Horace Smith- Dorrien resisted successfully the legions of General von Kluck till the arrival of General Sordet's cavalry permitted a gradual retire- ment of the whole force. Le Cateau is a town 'of 10,000 inhabitants, founded in the ninth century, and received its name from a castle (Fr. chateau) built by Bishop Hallius in the tenth. The treaty of Cateau Cam- br^sis was signed here in 1559 by representa- tives of Henri II. of France, Queen Elizabeth, and Philip II. of Spain. By it France secured the bishoprics of Metz, Toul, and Verdun, and the final cession by England of Calais ; it also put an end to the devastating French wars in Italy. The place was re- peatedly pillaged in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and during the French Revolutionary war. It now forms part of the arrondissement of Cambrai.
Cambrai (Rom. Cameracum), a town of 25,000 inhabitants, about fifteen miles distant from Le Cateau, has been celebrated since the twelfth century for its fine linen fabrics, known as " cambrics "* in English, and as batiste in French, from the name of the man who first produced them, Baptiste Chambray. Historically Cambrai is famous for the con- clusion of the treaty negotiated in 1508 by Pope Julius II. between the Emperor Maximilian, Louis XII. of France, and Ferdinand of Aragon, known as the League of Cambrai, whieh had for its object the destruction of the republic of Venice. Again in 1529 another treaty, sometimes called the Paix des Dames, was ratified here by Louise of Savoy on behalf of her son Francis I., and by Margaret of Austria on behalf of her nephew Charles V. Fenelon, the author of ' Telemaque,' became Arch- bishop of Cambrai, and was buried in its cathedral. It was the birthplace of General Dumouriez, as was Le Cateau of Marshal
Mortier.
N. W. HILL.
- The word is said to be derived directly
from the Flemish form of the place-name, Kamerijk, that variant being given in the ' N.E.D.' s.v. as the earliest recorded instance. The 6 crept in at a later date.
