500
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 s. v. JUNE 23, im
quotations from our authors indicating dis-
paragement of " politicians." There has
already been given (8 th S. xii. 434) one from
John Ford's 'The Lover's Melancholy,' and
there is another in his 'Love's Sacrifice'
(Act III. sc. iii.), where the duke exclaims to
his secretary :
Thou art a traitor : do not think the gloss Of smooth evasion, by your cunning jests, And coinage of your politician's brain, Shall jig me off.
Thomas Fuller's ' Andronicus ; or, the Un- fortunate Politician : showing Sin slowly Punished, Right surely Rescued,' published in London in 1646, dealt with a different idea ; but Swift, in 'A Voyage to Brpbdingriag,' crystallized the old impression in the im- mortal utterance of the king, who
"gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together."
Gay's works abound in such disparaging remarks.
None but the crocodile 's a politician
is a line in the epilogue to ' Three Hours after Marriage.'
That politician tops his part Who readily can lie with art
is onljr a portion of a studied attack upon politicians generally in the sixth fable, ' The Squire and his Cur '; and this was repeated in the ninth, ' The Jackal, Leopard, and other Beasts.' In the tenth, ' The Degenerate Bees,' addressed to Dean Swift, it is observed : Though courts the practice disallow, A friend at all times I '11 avow. In politics I know 'tis wrong : A friendship may be kept too long ;
and Trapes in ' Polly ' sings an acrid assault upon politicians, as, later in the opera, does the heroine herself.
Goldsmith followed suit, and in an epilogue to * The Sister,' spoken by Mrs. Bulkley on its production in 1769, observed :
Lord ! what a group the motley scene discloses, False wits, false wives, false virgins, and false
spouses ;
Statesmen with bridles on ; and, close beside 'em, Patriots in party-colour'd suits that ride 'em. Yon politician, famous in debate, Perhaps to vulgar eyeg bestrides the state ; Yet, when he deigns his real shape t' assume, He turns old woman, and bestrides a broom. Yon patriot, too, who presses on
your sight,
'hite,
And seems to ev'ry gazer all in w
If with a bribe his candour you attack,
He bows, turns round, and whip the man is black !
ALFRED F. ROBBTNS.
JOHN ANTHONY FONBLANQUE (9 th S. v. 247).
Antoine Grenier de Fonblanque died at
Bruniquet in 1766 ; he had three children,
who were brought up in England. He married
a Miss Bagshaw, sister of his brother's wife.
His brother was Jean Grenier de Fonblanque,
merchant and banker, born 1702, became a
naturalized British subject, died 1795, having
married Eleanor Bagshaw in 1755, by whom
he had : (1) John Martin de Grenier de Fon-
blanque, born 1760, M.P. for Camelford, &c. ;
(2) Anthony Grenier de Fonblanque, of Lon-
don, merchant, and four other children. The
John Anthony who was admitted to West-
minster School in 1774 would probably be a
brother of the member for Camelford. Further
information could perhaps be obtained through
Mrs. Harter, 28, Eaton Terrace, S.W.
CHEVRON.
/'NESQUAW" (9 th S. v. 395). I cannot state with certainty whether this name, as the equivalent of "the dilling," the smallest of a litter of pigs, is known outside Monmouth shire, but I think so. I may, however, inform your readers that I have in London often heard the youngest of a family of children and consequently the pet, spoken of as " the dilling," by a lady born and bred in North- amptonshire, where in her younger years she had doubtless known the same commonly used in the latter sense. I considered it at the time merely a corruption of " the dear- ling " (or " darling "). W. I. R. V.
This dialect expression is evidently akin to German Nest-quak (or also in South German dialects Nest-quatsch\ i.e., "das quackende piepende Nestjunge " ("Ultima nidi avicula, quse assidue clamat "), also applied to a last- born, spoiled child (s. Grimm's, Weigand's, and H. Paul's ' Deutsche Worterbiicher ').
H. KREBS.
Oxford.
CUTTING BABIES' NAILS (9 th S. v. 375). This question has been answered before (see 'N. & O.,' 4 th S. vi. 130, 204, 376), and one of the replies indicates that the " superstition " is widespread, and as common in Germany as in England. Henderson's 'Notes on the Folk-lore of the Northern Counties of England and the Border' contains what is perhaps the best account of the practice :
" The baby's nails must not be cut till he is a year old, for fear he should grow up a thief, or, as they nuaintly express it in Cleveland, Might fingered.' The mother must bite them off, if need be ; and in the west of Northumberland it is believed thati the first parings are buried under an ash tree, the child will turn out ' a top singer.' The mention of the ash is curious, for has it not been from very
