304
NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. v. NOV., im
lierring flapped in the boat for some time
after being caught. Is not the real ex-
planation that in the early days Dutch
salted herrings were largely used on days of
fast and that the herring was known to
most people solely as a dead fish as dead
as mutton ? DOUGLAS OWEN.
Mr. W. Gurney Benham, in ' Cassell's Book of Quotations,' p. 189, quotes from William Langland or Langley, ' The Vision of William concerning Piers the Plowman,' Passus ii. 1. 183 :
Faith without feet ys tebelere than nought, And ded as a dorenayle.
and explains that "feet" ("fet" in the 1393 M.S.) = "works " and that the earlier MS. have " doretree " for " dorenayle."
The reviewer of Mr. Svartengren's ' In- tensifying Similes ' at 12 S. iv. 343 says :
" We think Mr. Svartenpcren is right about ' dead as a doornail,' but he should have made a reference to : cold as a wagon tire.' The cold metal suggests the cold, dead body."
JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.
Although John Gay includes " dead as a door -nail " in his * New Song of New Similios,' published in the reign of George I., yet this expression is of much more ancient date. It is found twice in the alliterative romance of ' William of Palerne ' (c. 1350) and it also occurs in the A. -text of Langland's ' Piers Plowman ' (1362), where faith without works is said to be " ded as a dore-nayle." In the B.-text (1377) the expression was changed to " ded as a dore-tre," and Prof. Skeat, in his Clarendon Press edition of the poem, explains that " tre " is here used, as elsewhere in O.E., to indicate wood that is cut down and dead. Cf. the modern " axle- tree." In this form the simile is easily intelligible, and Langland, in the later version of his work, may have deliberately substituted " tre " for " nayle " for the sake of clearness.
But is it not possible that both expressions were then in current use, and that " ded as a dore-tre " was the original one, but was gradually superseded by the other, which, being more striking, may have caught the popular fancy ?
Another old writer (Alexander, 1400-1450) has " Dom as a dore-nayle and defe was he bathe," but there is no difficulty in this com- parison, nor in Urquhart's " Deaf as a door- nail " (Rabelais iii. 34). It is interesting to note that the alternative form of the latter, viz., "deaf as a post," or "deaf as a door- post " has been the one to survive.
Shakespeare, ' 2 Hen. VI.' IV. xi., make;
Jack Cade say to Alexander Iden, "If !
doe not leave you as dead as a doore-naile
I pray God I may never eat grass more.'
Since then the expression occurs frequently
in English literature. N. E. TOKE.
If Dickens did write " a coffin-nail is th< deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade,' he, nevertheless, emphasised the complete ness of Marley's decease by insisting tha " Marley was dead. . . .There was no doub
about that Old Marley was as dead as ;
door-nail " ('The Christmas Carol,' p. 1).
Who may track the originator of th comparison ? ST. SWITHIN.
[MR. DE V. PAYEN- PAYNE, MR. ARCHIBAL RPARKE, and MR. W. G. WILLIS WATSON als thanked for replies.]
HEDGEHOGS (12 S. iv. 76, 140; v. 105
160). Two legends relating to the habit of the hedgehog are of great antiquity, an< from time to time the inquiry is mad whether there is any truth in either of them In one it is alleged that the hedgehog i accustomed to roll itself amongst fa-llei apples and figs, and to carry off the frui impaled upon its spines ; in the other i is asserted that the hedgehog being fon< of milk will suck the udders of cows whei lying down and even when grazing. Th subject has been recently discussed ver; exhaustively by Mr. Miller Christy, F.L.Sl in a paper read before the Mancheste Literary and Philosophical Society ii March last and just published in the Memoir and Proceedings of that society. It i contained in pt. 1 of vol. Ixiii. and may b obtained from the Secretary, 36 Georg Street, Manchester. In this article Mi Christy has collected a great many quota tioas bearing on the subject, from ancien and modern authors , which he criticise on their merits, and draws his own con elusions. J. E. HARTING.
HAMPSHIRE CHURCH BELLS AND THEI FOUNDERS (12 S. iv. 188, 341 ; v. 44, 109).- After reading the interesting notes by Di J. L. WHITEHEAD and MR. H. B. WALTER on the mystery of the unknown f ounder wit] the initials R. B., I am inclined to thin] that the original ring of six bells at St. Mary's Bampton, Oxon, may possibly have som connexion with his foundry. The rini remained intact till 1865, when the seconi was recast by Mears & Stainbank. Th treble, 2 (before recasting), 3, 4, and 5, wer inscribed: " +Anno Domini +1629. Th Tenor -f come . when . I . call . to . serve God . all 1629+ " (between the rims).
