226
NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. vi. MAY 22. 1920.
The battle .of 1677 was fought on the
jplain to the west of the mount near the
little river Peene. The site is marked by an
obelisk, which stands close to the roadside
between the villages of Noordpeene and
.Zuytpeene. The obelisk bears two inscript-
tions :
PR-ELIUM
JfEEN^E
AD
CASTLETOM XI APRILI8 MDCLXXVII
En 1677 le 11 avril
a ete livree
dans cette plaine
une bataille decisive.
Elle fut cause
de 1'annexion
de cette contree
a la France.
.(Back)
Cet obelisque
a etc erige et benit
en 1865
avec
la haute protection des autorites
et le patriotique concours
des souscripteurs. Le Dr. P. J. F. DE SMYTTERE, promoteur.
These inscriptions were copied by me
iin April, 1918, at a time when a greater
'battle than any of those recorded above
was raging in "the plain a few miles to the
-south-east. Cassel was the headquarters
of General Foch for eight months in 1914-15.
-A commemorative tablet affixed to the house
where he lodged was inaugurated Oct. 19,
1919, in the presence of the Marshal. It
1 bears the inscription, " A la memoire du
marechal Foch, 23 octobre, 1914 22 juin,
1915." F. H. CHEETHAM.
NOSTRIFICATION. I came across this word
in a recent issue of The Economic Review,
which quoted it in inverted commas from
- a German paper. On turning to the
'N.E.D.' I find it duly registered therein and a quotation given (1885) from a U.S. Consular Report stating that " there are no definite rules for the nostrification of foreign diplomas" in Austria. "To nostrificate " ds explained to mean " to admit foreign degrees to the same status as the native ones" in Austrian universities. In The Economic Review it is used in connexion with the proposed formation of a new com- pany for the nostrification of the mines, iron
and steel works and other property of the
Austro -Hungarian State Railways at Resicza
in lower Hungary now annexed by Rumania.
L. L. K.
SIGN-PAINTING. At the recent Royal Academy dinner Prince Albert suggested that artists might usefully take up this subject. In 1762 Bonnell Thornton opened in Bow Street, London, the exhibition by the Society of Sign-painters in ridicule of the Society of Arts, 1754. Some readers may like to know that in the appendix to ' The History of Sign-Boards,' published by Chatto & Windus there is an interesting account of this matter.
STAPLETOX MARTIN. The Firs, Norton, Worcester.
DANTEIANA. Readers of the 'Divina Commedia ' will remember a passage at the end of the fifth canto of the ' Purgatorio,' where a spirit says to Dante :
Bicorditi di me che son la Pia !
Siena mi fe' ; disfecemi Maremma.
Salsi colui che innanellata pria, Disposando, m'avea con la sua gemma.
Of Pia Stendhal writes :
" Son mari la conduisit dans la maremme de Siena, clebre alors comme aujourd'hui par les effets de ('aria cattiva. . . .11 vivait seul avec elle, dans une tour abandonnee, dont je suis alle visiter les ruines sur le bord de la mer ; la il ne rompit jamais son dedaigneux silence, jamais il ne r^pondit aux questions de sa jeune Spouse, jamais il n'6couta ses prieres .... Les vapeurs de ces marais ne tarderent pas a fletrir ses traits, les plus beaux, dit-on, qui, dans ce siecle, eussent paru sur la terre. En peu de mois elle mourut." ' Promenades dans Rome,' vol. i., p. 261.
The common account, to judge from the quotations in Scartazzini, is that the young wife was thrown out of a window by the order of her husband and in this way she met her death. Stendhal implies that it was due to the miasmatic gases of the locality, and it may be urged in his favour that he bad visited the spot where the tragedy occurred, and had perhaps picked up his story there, as there may have been an oral tradition as to the cause of Pia's death. His ' Promenades dans Rome ' were written about 1829. T. PERCY ARMSTRONG.
The Authors' Club, Whitehall Court, S.W.
" CORIOL,! " IN SHAKESPEARE'S 'CoRio- LANUS.'- As there has been some discussion n The Times on the pronunciation of Corioli," it may be well to point out that Shakespeare never uses the word. To judge >y the First Folio (our only authority), always wrote Corioles, making it a
