312
NOTES AND QUERIES. p* s. i. APRIL ie,
and Queries" In the volume for 1881, the
year treading close on that in which the
opera first saw the light, and when it could
still be described as "la nouvelle piece des
Bouffes - Parisians," we find an inquiry as
to the origin of its name and in the replies
the mystery is unravelled. The title belongs
to the patois of Marseilles, of which city the
composer Audran was a native, and by him
it was suggested to the librettists. Mascotte
is a diminutive of masque, and if MR. BUTLER
turns again to Littre, under the latter word,
he will find, not, indeed, any mention of
mascotte, but something that bears upon it,
viz., examples of the use of masque in that
sense of " sorcerer " or " sorceress " which is
at the bottom of the whole matter. To be
brief, a mascotte is anything or anybody that
brings good fortune ; the term can be applied
with equal propriety to a sixpence with a
hole in it, a habit, such as spitting for luck,
or a person, as in the opera. In this last
sense the word is very old ; as far back as
1399 we find a woman alluded to as Petronille
la Mascotte. The opposite of the mascotte, in
the south of Europe, is the evil eye ; in the
United States, where the word mascotte has
made itself a permanent home, its reverse is
indicated by the slang word hoodoo or voodoo,
which will be found in the ' Century Diction-
ary,' but with a false etymology. It is not
French, but pure Negro, and was proved by
the late Sir R. F. Burton to belong to the
language of Dahomey. JAS. PLATT, Jun.
Your correspondent will find mascot&nd also mascotte (the French spelling) in Webster's 'English Dictionary,' latest edition (George Bell & Sons), and mascotte in Barrere's * Dic- tionary of Argot and Slang' (Whittaker Co.), 1889, translated by "gambler's fetish." F. E. A. GASC.
Brighton.
"HER MAJESTY'S OPPOSITION" (7 th S. xii. 468; 8 th S. vii. 69, 151; viii. 211). A corre- spondent in the Standard of 27 Nov., 1897, wrote :
" With regard to the origin and history of most things it is safe to turn to Notes and Queries. There is no oracle whose wisdom and knowledge of matters historic is more unimpeachable. But as regards the origin and history of this phrase Note* and Queries is not infallible."
After reviewing the information already given in its columns, the writer furnishes other references to the speeches of Lord Brougham and of Mr. Cam Hobhouse, M.P., who, he alleges, was the originator of the expression in a speech delivered on 10 April, 1826, "which is earlier than the dates on
which Lord Redesdale and De Quincey em-
ployed it." EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.
71, Brecknock Road.
GRUB STREET (8 th S. xii. 108, 212, 251, 373 ; 9 th S. i. 15). The information furnished by the many correspondents respecting this world-famous thoroughfare prompts one to ask for more. In John Coleman's 'Players and Playwrights' (1888) several references are made, in vol. i., to Phoebe Carey (Mrs, Cuthbert), the reputed sister of Edmund Kean, and I quote the following, which Mr. Coleman himself extracts from an anonymous ' Life of Edmund Kean ': " Kean now played at the Grub Street Theatre for the benefit of his sister Phoebe Carey, who acted with him on that occasion and has never since been heard of." Where was this Grub Street Theatre ? In Grub Street ? Can any reader give me any particulars of this playhouse?
S. J. A. F.
When I read the assertion that the exist- ence of Grub Street had been denied it occurred to me that I possessed books pub- lished in that street, but I was unable to find any. I have, however, just opened "Dis- coveries | or | an Exploration | and | Expli- cation | of | some ./Enigmatical Verities, hitherto j not handled by any Authour | by S. Sheppard | London ; Printed by B. Alsop, near the I Upper Pump in Grubstreet. 1652."
W. H. DAVID. 46, Cambridge Road, Battersea Park.
TENNYSON FAMILY (7 th S. xii. 188, 252; 8 th S. iii. 21). The charming life of the late Lord Tennyson, by his son, begins by stating that "the Tennysons may pro- bably in their origin have been Danes, and they appear to have settled north of the Humber, in Holderness." Reference is then made to the earliest notice of them in 1343 as pointed out by me in ' N. & Q.,' but the gap between the Tudor yeomanry of the name and the poet's ancestor Ralph Tennyson (1672-1735), father of Michael the apothecary of Preston, in Holderness, is by the author only vaguely filled up. He says: "From these (Holderness) Tennysons, through a Lancelot Tennyson of Preston, and Ralph Tennyson, who raised a troop of horse to support William III., descends Michael" (above named). It is clear, however, there cannot be more than two or three generations missing. In the Preston parish register we find a " Michael Tenison married 16Nov., 1598. This entry was given in a paper in the East Riding Transactions as an example of the carelessness of the registrars in not even troubling to record the bride's name ! In
