138
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9 th B. ix. FEB. 15, 1902.
cated classes make changes. Poor folk still
say rayther, as their forefathers did, but the
higher ranks are accustomed to pronounce
this rarther. Similarly in such words as
ask, wasp, hasp, the educated folk agree to
transpose the two consonants, while humbler
people adhere steadfastly to the A.-S. akse,
wops, apse. Nor is this conservatism confined
to Anglo-Saxon words. Witness, for instance,
theatre, which the humbler of the_ lieges
steadfastly continue to pronounce theater.
LOBUC.
MR. BAYNE should follow up his com- parison of this interesting word. Here are some instances of its use. 1. As adjective : "The rathe primrose" ('Lycidas'), "Rathe and riper years" ('In Memoriam,' which he quotes), "The rather lambs" ('Shepherd's Calendar,' ii. 83). Rathest as an adjective I cannot find. 2. Adverb: "All too rathe" ('Shepherd's Calendar,' xii. 98), "Why rise ye so rathe? " (Chaucer, ' Cant. Tales,' 1. 3768) "Beginning ever rathest " (King James L, 'Basilicon Doron,' p. 162, fol., 1616). Morris, p. 93, gives " rathest-riping " from Palladius, which I cannot verify. W. T.
[Lydgate, in his ' Chronicle of Troy ' not the full title has rathest (book i. c. 5). We find this in a note taken very many years ago, but have not the book for reference.]
JOHN BYROM'S EPIGRAM (9 th S. viii. 445, 533). The true reading is asked for. ] transcribe from Byrom's 'Poems' (1814, Leeds), vol. i. p. 241. It is there headed u To the same [i.e., to an officer in the army" extempore, intended to allay the Violence of Party- Spirit."
God bless the king, I mean the faith's defender ; God bless (no harm in blessing) the pretender ; But who pretender is, or who is king, God bless us all that 's quite another thing. In that very interesting pamphlet by the Rev. Dr. Hoole entitled 'Byrom and the Wesleys' (Lond., Nichols, 1864), where or p. 5 the epigram forms a foot-note, the firsl line reads :
God bless the King, and btess the Faith's Defender C. LAWRENCE FORD, B.A.
ST. HELIERS (9 th S. ix. 45). This statuu seems to have exercised the minds of writen on Jersey a good deal. ' The Picturesque anc Historical Guide to the Island of Jerse ky Rev Edward Dure11 ' A ' M -' Published u.y Philip John Ouless, artist, 50, Paradise Row, Jersey, 1852, says (chap, vi.) :
ro" T n e o e is a statue afc the upper end of the [Royal] Square which passes for one of George II though doubts are entertained on the matter It was given in exchange for permission to build against one of the ends of the Court House, by one
Gosset, a Frenchman, in 1749. It was inaugurated
with a good deal of ceremony by all the local
authorities, civil and military. The statue is gilt,
and in a Roman dress, but is said to be of lead,
with a new head which was fitted to its bust, when
t was allowed to assume the name of George II.
["hat head is not unlike those on the coins of that sovereign."
The statue is thus referred to in * The Com-
plete Guide to Jersey ' (London, Elliot Stock,
1896) :
' The gilt statue in the middle of the Square
represents, as will be seen by the monogram on
- he pedestal, George II. Critics say that the cast-
ng was meant for some Roman emperor, taken
- rom a Spanish vessel, and pressed, nolens volens,
nto the honour of the king."
W. B. H.
PRONUNCIATION OF NIETZSCHE (9 th S. viii. 362). It sounds like neeche, the last vowel being short and unaccented, as in " finger." Very likely the name is derived from the dement J\ T id= envy; compare the compounds Nid-hart, Nied-mar, Nit-perht ; Nid+el= Niedel, Neidel ; Nid + k=Niedke ; Nid + z= Nizs, Nietze, Nizze, Nitz, Nitzsch(e), with lengthened i. Nietzsche. G. KRUEGER.
Berlin.
NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.
Nova Legenda Anglie. Edited by Carl Horstman,
Ph.D. 2 vols. (Oxford, Clarendon Press.) DR. HORSTMAN is already well known as an inde- fatigable student of English hagiology. His accurate editions in German of the ' Alt-englischen Legenden,' and in English of the works of Richard Rolle of Ham- pole, are held in high esteem by all who are interested in the religious life and literature of England. Few of our native writers have such a grasp of the sub- ject as he. In the two handsome volumes here noticed he devotes himself to re-editing, with fresh material from MS. and printed sources, the Latin lives of the saints which long passed current under the name of John Capgrave. This text, which was printed under that ascription, with sundry addi- tions, by Wynkyn de Worde in 1516, Dr. Horstman has carefully collated with the fourteenth-century original among the Cottonian MSS. of the British Museum, and has further supplemented with some additional lives from the Bodleian and Dublin libraries which have not hitherto been printed. He demonstrates that the honour of compiling this ample collection of legends is really due to John of Tynemouth, who in his ' Sanctilogium Angliae' brought together from the most varied sources all the material he could glean concerning the pious worthies whom his country had produced. He intended it to be essentially and exclusively a national work, not admitting any saint except those belonging to England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. He relaxed this rule, however, in favour of a few, like Joseph of Arimathea and Augustine, who were intimately identified with the history of the English Church. Accordingly, we look in vain for such popular, but foreign, saints as St. Nicholas,
