Skip to main content

Full text of "Leaves from a word-hunter's note-book"

See other formats 


a§  '  §55§ ■;"''-■■■■•.■..■  -:':    •  ' 

H^n8HBBB&9SKSSffl 

;.'.■.":,.'"'; 
■'•■-"'"•'''■■■'." 

583  ■•'■  •"■••■.■:  -  BbBSBHiB 


Mt£ 


■Mfe 


*• 


"        .■..-■■'''.■.•■.■.- 


jtgWfrCiiwg  m&i*    ECS 

■■:■••■■•••.••■•■ 


•wfs 


ra 


Slou|{«b         BJBSB      SSS2        BBtHI        KB 

■■■-".•■■■.••■..■■■■■■■•■■ 


MR 


ywowiw 


fipaPWabftiiii 


ssztw 


sBSH 


BBMfPg  : 

BBS 
'   Hn  i 


5,%as§ 


KiffiBi 


hbrI 


LEAVES 


WOKD-HUNTEK'S  NOTE-BOOK, 


PRINTED  BY  BALLANTYNE,  HANSON  AND  CO. 
EDINBURGH  AND  LONDON 


LEAVES 


WORD-HUNTER'S  NOTE-BOOK 


;onu  Contributions  to  (Etujlisjj  (Ktnmologtr. 


BY 


EEV.  ABEAM   SMYTHE   PALMER,    B.A. 

SOMETIME  SCHOLAR  IN  THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  DUBLIN. 


"  Philologists,  who  chase 
A  panting  syllable  through  time  and  space, 
Start  it  at  home,  and  hunt  it  in  the  dark, 
To  Gaul,  to  Greece,  and  into  Noah's  ark." 

Cowper,  Retirement. 

'  Polonius.  What  do  you  read,  my  lord  ? 
Handet.  Words,  words,  words." 

Hamlet,  act  ii.  sc.  2. 


LONDON: 
TRUBNEE    &    CO.,    LUDGATE    HILL. 

1876. 

[All  rights  reserved.'] 


EI  CHARD     CHENEVIX. 


LORD   ARCHBISHOP   OF  DUBLIN, 


I    DEDICATE 


GTijis    Book 


IN    TOKEN    OF    RESPECT. 


isii 


524 


PREFACE. 


In  the  following  papers  I  have  endeavoured  to 
give  a  full,  and,  so  far  as  it  lay  in  my  power,  an 
exhaustive,  examination  of  certain  words  in  the 
English  language,  the  derivations  of  which,  being 
curious  and  recondite,  present  some  special  features 
either  of  interest  or  of  difficulty.  With  that  ob- 
ject I  have  freely  availed  myself  of  the  labours  of 
my  predecessors  in  the  same  field,  and  have  tried 
to  concentrate  in  one  view  the  results  obtained  by 
many  independent  and  scattered  investigations. 
Indeed,  all  the  best  authorities  that  lay  within  my 
reach  have  been  had  recourse  to.  I  may  mention 
the  names  of  MM.  Littre,  Scheler,  Pictet,  and 
Renan,  among  French  philologists;  of  Benfey, 
Diez,  Diefenbach,  Ebel,  Grimm,  Ed.  Miiller,  M. 
Miiller,  &c,  among  the  German.  The  English 
writers  from  whom  I  have  received  most  help  are 
Cleasby,  Farrar,  Ferrar,  Garnett,  Haldeman,  La- 
tham, Morris,  Skeat,  Wedgwood,  Monier  Williams, 
and  the  contributors  to  the  <  Philological  Society's 


Vlll  PREFACE. 

Transactions.'  From  the  old  dictionaries  of  Cot- 
grave  (French),  Fiorio  (Italian),  Minsheu  (Span- 
ish), and  the  '  Promptormm  Parvulorum '  (Eng- 
lish), much  latent  word-lore  of  a  valuable  nature 
has  been  dug  out. 

With  lights  so  many  and  various  coming  to  me 
from  different  sources,  it  will  not  be  thought,  I 
hope,  that  my  '  word-hunting '  has  been  prose- 
cuted altogether  '  in  the  dark.'  That  in  every 
case  I  have  been  successful  in  running  down  my 
quarry  would  be  too  much  to  expect.  The  most 
enthusiastic  lover  of  the  chase  must  be  prepared 
for  some  blank  days.  This  I  may  say,  however, 
that  if  I  have  not  dogged  every  word  which  I 
have  started  through  all  its  doublings  till  it  has 
taken  cover  at  last  in  '  Noah's  ark,'  I  have  at 
least  never  desisted  from  the  pursuit,  nor  rested 
content  till  I  have  run  it  to  earth  in  a  Sanskrit 
root ;  and  that,  in  the  eyes  of  a  philologist,  is 
pretty  much  the  same  as  winning  its  brush. 

It  should  be  understood  that,  notwithstanding 
my  acknowledged  obligations,  many  of  the  deriva- 
tions here  adopted  are  now  advanced  for  the  first 
time,  and  differ  from  the  conclusions  arrived  at  by 
previous  writers.  In  most  cases,  I  have  adduced 
copious  illustrations  from  all  periods  of  our  litera- 
ture, and  confirmatory  proofs  from  the  cognate 
languages,  either  in  the  way  of  verbal  parallels  or 
analogous  usages. 


PREFACE.  IX 

In  a  few  instances,  where  the  evidence  for  two 
conflicting  etymologies  seemed  almost  equally 
balanced,  I  have  stated  both  sides  of  the  question 
without  prejudice,  and  left  the  decision  to  others. 

I  should  perhaps  apologise  for  printing  here 
the  rather  long  chapter  which  treats  of  the  super- 
stitious beliefs  connected  with  the  West  and 
North  as  regions  of  darkness.  That  discussion, 
though  it  belongs  rather  to  the  province  of  folk- 
lore, was  suggested  by  the  preceding  chapter  on 
the  word  '  Night,'  and  arose  naturally  out  of  it. 
The  interesting  nature  of  the  subject  may  perhaps 
render  its  appearance  excusable. 

Every  page  of  the  volume,  it  will  be  seen, 
bears  witness  to  the  title  that  these  are  truly 
'  Leaves  from  a  Note-Book.'  If,  however,  they 
are  found  to  be  at  all  interesting,  aud  not  devoid 
of  information,  the  candid  reader  will  not  be  so 
unjust  as  to  condemn  them  for  not  being  other 
than  they  pretend  to  be. 

Though  I  have  striven  to  be  accurate  in  my 
quotations  and  references,  some  mistakes  will, 
in  all  probability,  have  escaped  my  observation. 
These,  when  pointed  out,  I  shall  be  thankful  and 
happy  to  correct. 

St  John's  Hill, 

Wandsworth  Common. 

February  12*/*,  1876. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE 

THE    WORDS    '  BODY  ' — '  CARCASS  ' — '  COAT  ' — '  HOOD  ' — '  CHAS- 
UBLE,' ETC 1 

CHAPTER  II. 

THE  WORDS  '  FLIRT  ' — '  FLUNKEY  ' — ' SCORN '     ....         32 

CHAPTER  III. 

THE    WORDS     '  TRY  ' — '  FLATTER  ' — '  ADULATION  ' — '  SOOTHE  ' — 

'PERSUADE' — 'INDULGE,'  ETC. 40 

CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  WORDS  'TREE'  AND  '  TRUE ' — 'VICE,'  '  VITIUM,'  AND  '  VITIS* 

—  'BAD  ' — '  VETCH,'  '  WICKER/  '  WEAK,'  AND  '  WICKED  '        .         73 

CHAPTER  V. 

THE  WORDS  '  DUPE  '  —  '  DOTTEREL  '  —  '  DUNCE  '  —  '  COWARD  ' — 

'  POLTROON,'  ETC.         .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .115 

CHAPTER  VI. 

THE   PHRASE     '  HE   HAS    A    BEE    IN    HIS    BONNET  ' — THE   WORDS 

'  FRET  ' — '  CHAGRIN  ' '  TO    NAG  ' — '  NIGGARD  ' —  '  TEASE  ' — 

'  BRUSQUE  ' — '  CAPRICE  ' — '  TO  LARK  ' — '  MERRY  AS  A  GRIG  ' 

— 'ETRE  GRIS,'  ETC 142 

CHAPTER  VII. 

WORDS   FOR   THE    '  PUPIL  '  OF  THE  EYE — THE  HUMAN  TREE — THE 

WORDS  'TOE' — 'DOTE,' ETC 174 


XII 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  WORDS  '  CHIGNON  ' — '  NODDLE  ' — '  PATE  ' 
NUT  ' — '  FOOL  ' — '  BOAST  ' — '  BUFFOON  ' 


PAGE 

-'skull' — 'coco- 

-'  FATUOUS,'  ETC.         198 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  WORDS  '  HEARSE  ' — '  HOE  ' — '  FURROW  ' — NAMES  OF  MA- 
CHINES DERIVED  FROM  ANIMALS — '  PULLEY,'  ETC. — '  HATCH- 
MENT '  — '  LOZENGE  '  —  '  BLAZON  '  —  '  TIMBRE  ' — '  HALO  ' — 
'  AUREOLE  ' 223 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE  WORD   'CLEVER' 243 

CHAPTER  XI. 

THE  WORD  '  NIGHT  ' 259 

CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  WORDS  'WEST  ' — '  EAST  ' — '  AURORA  ' — SUPERSTITIONS  CON- 
NECTED WITH  THE  WEST  AND  NORTH  AS  REGIONS  OF  DARK- 
NESS— THE  WEST  THE  LAND  OF  THE  DEAD — THE  NORTH  THE 

devil's  quarter 27 G 

INDEX 313 


The  following  contractions  have  occasionally  been  used  : — 


A.S.  or  A. -Sax  for  Anglo-Saxon  (i.e., 

Lat. 

for  Latin. 

the  oldest 

form    of    the 

English 

L.  Lat. 

,,  Low  Latin. 

speech). 

Lett. 

,,  Lettish. 

Cf. 

for  Compare. 

Lith. 

,,  Lithuanian. 

Dan. 

,,  Danish. 

0.  N. 

„  Old  Norse. 

Dut. 

,,  Dutch. 

0.  H.  G. 

,,  Old  High  German 

Fr. 

,,  French.- 

Pers. 

,,  Persian. 

G.  or  Ger. 

,,  German. 

Pg.  or  Portg. 

,,  Portuguese. 

Gk. 

„  Greek. 

Prov. 

,,  Provencal. 

Heb. 

,,  Hebrew. 

Sk.  or  Sansk. 

,,  Sanskrit. 

Ic.  or  Icel. 

,,  Icelandic. 

Sp. 

,,  Spanish. 

Ir. 

,,  Irish. 

Sw. 

,.  Swedish. 

It. 

,,  Italian. 

W. 

„  Welsh. 

LEAVES 


FROM  A 


WOBD-HUNTEE'S  NOTE-BOOK 


CHAPTER   I. 

THE  WORDS  '  BODY" — '  CARCASS  ' — '  COAT' — 
'  HOOD  ' — '  CHASUBLE,'  ETC. 

1  The  derivation  of  words  is  like  that  of  rivers — 
there  is  one  real  source,  usually  small,  unlikely, 
and  difficult  to  find,  far  up  among  the  hills  ;  then, 
as  the  word  flows  on  and  comes  into  service,  it  takes 
in  the  force  of  other  words  from  other  sources,  and 
becomes  itself  quite  another  word  after  the  junction 
— a  word,  as  it  were,  of  many  waters,  sometimes 
both  sweet  and  bitter.' *  If  the  origin  of  the 
word  be  undiscovered  hitherto,  then,  owing  to  this 
confluence  of  vocables  and  commixture  of  meanings, 
any  attempt  to  mount  the  stream  is  attended  with 

1  Mr  Ruskin  in  Fraser's  Magazine,  April  1863. 

A 


2  BODY. 

perplexity  as  to  which  is  the  main  river  and  which 

is  only  the  tributary.      It  is  with  words  as  with  a 

winding  river ;  not  only  do  they  change  the  colour 

and  characteristics  which  they  once  possessed  when 

near  the  fount,  but  often  reverse  the  very  direction 

of  their  former  current. 

1 A  word  that  comes  from  olden  days, 
And  passes  through  the  peoples  ;  every  tongue 
Alters  it  passing,  till  it  spells  and  speaks 
Quite  other  than  at  first.'  x 

Thus,  when  we  are  engaged  in  exploring  the 
hidden  source  of  some  word  which  has  challenged 
our  attention,  it  sometimes  happens  that  we  do 
not  proceed  far  in  our  research  until  we  find  our- 
selves brought  face  to  face  with  an  unexpected 
difficulty.  A  divergent  path  presents  itself  which 
branches  away  in  two  different  directions,  and  the 
puzzling  thing  is,  that  each  of  these  directions 
promises  almost  equally  fair  to  lead  us  to  the  de- 
sired object  of  our  inquiry.  It  sometimes  happens, 
too,  that  the  reasons  in  favour  of  adopting  one  of 
these  courses  in  preference  to  the  other  are  so  evenly 
balanced,  that  an  impartial  investigator  will  feel 
bound  to  suspend  his  judgment,  and  will  hesitate 
to  pronounce  an  absolute  decision  in  a  case  where 
much  may  be  advanced  on  either  side  of  the  ques- 
tion, and  definite  certainty  seems  hardly  attainable. 
Such  a  difficulty  meets  us  when  we  make  the 

1  Tennyson,    Queen    Mary,    act  iii.    sc.    5.        Thus   the    verbs 
'  blacken, '  '  blanch/  and  '  bleach, '  are  radically  identical. 


BODY.  3 

word  c  body  '  the  subject  of  examination,  and  pro- 
pose to  ourselves  to  trace  out  its  primary  and 
radical  significance. 

6  Body  '  is  (A. -Sax.)  bodig,  (Gaelic)  bod/iag,  (0. 
Ger.)  botah.  In  Bavarian,  the  words  botic/i,  pottich, 
and  potacka,  which  mean  '  body/  are  only  different 
forms  of  bottig,  potig,  potacka,  which  mean  a 
1  cask.'  Wedgwood  therefore  suggests  that  our 
6  body '  is  etymologically  akin  to  the  German 
bottich  (a  cask),  and  appeals  to  the  parallel  in- 
stances of  'trunk''  and  (Ger.)  rump/,  which 
signify  a  hollow  case  as  well  as  the  body  of  an 
animal.  We  may  compare  also  the  Spanish 
barriga  (the  belly),  identical  with  barrica  (a 
cask),  French  barrique,  and  we  still  call  the 
round  part  of  a  horse's  body  the  6  barrel.' 
i  Kedgy  '  and  '  kedge-belly  '  in  provincial  Eng- 
lish are  used  for  a  '  pot-bellied '  person  (Wright), 
literally,  one  whose  stomach  resembles  a  keg  or 
cask  (Norse,  kaggje). 

The  following  quotation  from  the  old  chronicler 
Speed,  in  which  the  word  '  cask  '  is  used  for  '  body, 
gives  much  probability  to  this  derivation  : — 

'  Onely  the  heart  and  soule  is  cleane,  yet  feares  the  taincture 
of  this  polluted  caske,  and  would  have  passage  (by  thy 
reuenging  hand)  from  this  loathsome  prison  and  filthy 
truncke.'  Speed,  Hist.  G.  Britain,  p.  379  (1611). 

It  may  be  noticed  in  confirmation  that  panze 


4  BODY. 

in  Carinthian  and  panzl  in  Bavarian  denote 
both  a  cask  and  a  paunch  or  stomach,  and  that 
the  Grisons  buttatsck,  stomach  or  belly,  is  from 
butt,  a  barrel.  Similarly,  '  cqffre '  in  French,  and 
'  chest '  in  English  (It.  casso),  are  used  for  the 
breast  or  trunk  ;  areas  in  Spanish,  a  coffer,  is  also 
'a  man's  chest  or  breast '  (Minsheu)  ;  and  the  word 
breast  itself  (Ger.  trust)  means  the  box  or  trunk 
in  which  the  vitals  are  enclosed,  being  near  akin 
to  (Prov.)  brostia,  brustia  (a  box).  Compare  also 
6  bust,'  'busk,'  (Fr.)  buste,  busck,  connected  with 
(Sp.)  buche  (breast),  bucka  (a  chest  or  box),  (L. 
Lat.)  busta  (a  box).  Shakspere  frequently  em- 
ploys '  case  '  for  l  body,'  e.g.,  when  speaking  of  the 
lifeless  Antony,  "  This  case  of  that  huge  spirit 
now  is  cold"  (Antony  and  Cleop.  iv.  15). 

On  the  whole,  then,  we  need  not  hesitate  to 
bring  our  word  i  body  '  (Bavarian,  bodi)  into  con- 
nection with  the  Bavarian  boding  (a  barrel),  bottich, 
&c,  as  meaning  a  round  hollow  vessel;  cf,  (Erse) 
bodhaigh  (body),  (Irish)  bold  (a  cask). 

All  these  words  Pictet  (Orig.  Indo-Europ.,  ii. 
275)  traces  up  to  the  Sanskrit  bandha  (1,  a  barrel, 
2,  a  body),  from  bandh  (to  bind,  tie,  or  hoop  in).1 


1  The  M&heswaras,  a  sect  of  the  Hindus,  term  the  living  soul 
pdsu,  i.e.,/astened  or  fettered,  conceiving  it  to  be  confined  in  bandha, 
the  bondage  of  sense  (Colebrooke,  Essays,  vol.  i.  p.  431).  In  Per- 
sian, bandha  is  (1)  a  binding  or  fetter;  (2)  a  body  ;  (3)  a  building. 
Another  word  for  body  in  that  language  is  badan.  Cf.  '  His  soul  is 
wrapped   in  the   truss    of   his  senses '    ( Adams,   Sermon  on  the 


BODY.  5 

Cf.  i  Thou  hast  fenced  me  with  bones  and 
sinews'  (Job  x.  11),  (A.-Sax.)  feorh-loca,  i  life's 
enclosure/  the  body. 

If  the  above  account  were  not  so  satisfactory  as 
it  is,  we  would  be  tempted  to  see  in  *  body '  only 
another  form  of  '  bothy,'  Gaelic,  bothag,  both  (a 
hut,  cottage),  Welsh,  bod  (a  house),  bwth  (a  booth). 
In  this  case  it  would  be  connected  with  (Irish)  buth, 
both,  (Ger.)  bude,  (0.  H.  Ger.)  boda,  (Polish)  buda, 
(Lith.)  budd,  (Scand.)  bildh,  (Dut.)  boede,  (Icel.) 
bud,  (Bohem.)  bauda,  budka,  (Russ.)  budka,  (Pers.) 
bud — all  meaning  a  house,  hut,  or  dwelling-place, 
and  traceable  to  the  root  bhu  (to  exist). — Pictet, 
Origines  Indo-Europeenes,  ii.  239.  Cf.  German 
leib  (body),  from  leiben  (to  exist).  The  Welsh  bod, 
bodau,  besides  meaning  a  house,  is  also  used  for  a 
living  being  ;  and  there  is  no  figure  more  common 
than  that  by  which  the  human  frame  is  compared 
to  a  building  or  mansion,  in  which  the  immortal 
spirit  has  been  placed  to  dwell  as  a  tenant  for  life. 
For  instance,  in  Gen.  ii.  22,  where  it  is  said 
that  God  i  made  the  woman,'  the  original  says  He 
'  builded '  her  (Heb.  banah).  Compare  Gk.  demas, 
dome  (a  body,  Be'/ias,  Bo/jlti)  derived  from  demo  (to 
build,  Befico),  the  Sanskrit  dhaman,  a  house,  also 
the  body  ;  and  it  will  be  remembered  that  St  Paul 

Soul's  Sickness).  In  Sanskrit  the  body  is  also  called  deha,  *  what  de- 
files or  envelopes '  the  soul,  from  the  root  dih,  cognate  with  which 
are  the  Gothic  leik,  Ger.  Iciche,  0.  Eng.  lich.  See,  however,  M. 
Miiller,  Chips,  iv. 


6  BODY. 

(2  Cor.  v.  1)  calls  our  body  a  tabernacle,  house, 
or  building  (cf.  2  Pet.  i.  13,  14)  ;  and  Eliphaz 
long  before  had  described  men  as  *  them  that 
dwell  in  houses  of  clay '  (Job  iv.  19).  Compare 
Dryden's  well-known  lines — 

*  A  fiery  soul,  which,  working  out  its  way, 
Fretted  the  pigmy  body  to  decay, 
And  o'er-informed  the  tenement  of  clay.' 

Absalom  and  Achitophel,  11.  156-158. 

The  prophet  Daniel,  using  a  somewhat  similar 
figure,  declares  (ch.  vii.  15) — '  I,  Daniel,  was 
grieved  in  my  spirit  in  the  midst  of  its  sheath  ' 
(Heb.  nidneh,  A.  V.  c  my  body '),  as  if  the  active 
working  of  his  mind,  like  a  sharp  sword,  was 
wearing  through  the  case  that  held  it ;  which  re- 
minds us  of  a  saying  recorded  of  the  good  George 
Herbert,  that  his  wit,  '  like  a  penknife  in  too 
narrow  a  sheath,  was  too  sharp  for  his  body.'1 
Compare  also  the  following  from  Lilly's  play  of 
1  Mother  Bombie ' — c  So  faire  a  face  cannot  bee  the 
scabbard  of  a  foolish  mind  '  (act  ii.  sc.  3).2 


1  Sidney  Smith's  bon-mot  is  not  very  different — '  There  is  my 

little  friend  ,  who  has  not  body  enough  to  cover  his  mind 

decently  with  ;  his  intellect  is  improperly  exposed.' 

a  Was  Dickens  conscious  of  the  plagiarism  when  he  put  these 
almost  identical  words  into  the  mouth  of  the  redoubtable  Mrs  Harris 
in  one  of  his  fragmentary  sketches  ?  '  Your  mind  is  too  strong  for 
you,  Sairey.  It  is  useless  to  disguise  the  fact ;  the  blade  is  a  wear- 
ing out  the  sheets  '  (sheath).     Forster,  Life  of  Dickens,  vol.  ii.  p.  346. 

Lord  Byron  in  a  letter  says  of  himself  that  '  the  sword  is  wearing 
out  the  scabbard.'  Carlyle,  in  his  '  Life  of  John  Sterling,'  observes 
that  '  he  wore  holes  in  the  outward  case  of  his  body  '  by  his  restless 
vitality,  which  could  not  otherwise  find  vent. 


BODY.  7 

la  a  similar  manner  the  '  fur '  of  an  animal  is 
etyniologically  the  sheath  in  which  it  is  comfort- 
ably encased.  It  is  the  Spanish  and  Portuguese 
forro,  Icel.  Jodr,  and  identical  with  the  Gothic 
fodr,  It.  fodero,  Fr.  fourreau,  G-er.  /utter,  which 
signify  a  sheath  or  scabbard. 

Cotgrave  gives  the  proverb,  JST,admirons  lefour- 
reau  pour  mespriser  la  lame,  c  Let  not  a  faire 
outside  make  the  inside  less  esteemed  of.' 

How  extensively  the  Scripture  metaphor  of  the 
body  being  a  house  has  been  adopted  by  our  best 
English  writers  will  be  seen  by  the  quotations 
which  I  now  subjoin. 

'  It  is  commonly  seen  that  misshapen  trunks  are  houses  of 
the  sharpest  wits.'         Thomas  Adams  ( Works,  vol.  i.  p.  19). 

1  Our  great  Landlord  hath  let  us  a  fair  house,  and  we  suffer 
it  quickly  to  run  to  ruin.    That  whereas  the  soul  might  dwell 
in  the  body  as  a  palace  of  delight,  she  finds  it  a  crazy,  sickish, 
rotten  cabinet,  in  danger  every  gust  of  dropping  down.' 
Thomas  Adams,  DeviFs  Banquet. 

*  The  body  is  the  soule's  poore  house,  or  home, 
Whose  ribs  the  laths  are,  and  whose  flesh  the  loame.' 
Herrick,  Hesperides  (ed.  Hazlitt),  ii.  299. 

Browning,  in  hi3  poem  of  'The  Statue  and  the  Bust,' has  the 
same  idea  when  he  represents  Duke  Ferdinand  as  being 
•Empty  and  fine,  like  a  swordless  sheath.' 

So  the  term  cullion  for  a  long,  lank,  lubberly  coward,  a  fool,  Fr. 
couillon,  It.  coglione,  has  been  connected  with  the  Lat.  coleus,  Gk. 
KoKeos,  a  sheath,  as  much  as  to  say,  the  outward  semblance  of  a  man, 
a  case  without  its  treasure,  a  'soulless  clay.'  The  innuendo  here, 
however,  may  be  different  {vide  Diez,  s.vv.  Coglione,  Minchia). 

Compare  the  Icelandic  skauftir  (A.-Sax.  scea%,  Ger.  schote,  Dan- 
skede),  meaning,  first,  'a  sheath,'  and  then,  as  a  term  of  abuse,  '  a 
poltroon,'  skavti,  akin  probably  to  our  '  scut.' 


8  BODY. 

1  The  Body  indeed  is  not  the  Man,  but  the  House  or  Taber- 
nacle of  the  diuiner  Spirit,  and  both  together  make  up  Man  ; 
the  one  as  the  Shell;  the  other,  the  Kernel.  .  .  .  One  the  Tene- 
ment, the  other  the  Tenant'  Purchas,Microcosmus  (1619),  p.  18. 

(God  the  Son) 

*  Forsook  the  courts  of  everlasting  day, 
And  chose  with  us  a  darksome  house  of  clay.' 

Milton,  Ode  on  Christ's  Nativity. 
1  The  body  is  domicilium  animce,  her  house,   abode,  and 
stay  ;  ...  as  wine  savours  of  the  cask  wherein  it  is  kept, 
the  soul  receives  a  tincture  from  the  body  through  which  it 
works.'  Burton,  Anatomy  of  Melancholy,  p.  173. 

(Winter) 

'  All  unawares,  with  his  cold-kind  embrace, 
Unhoused1  thy  virgin-soul  from  her  fair  hiding-place.' 
Milton,  On  the  Death  of  a  Fair  Infant. 
1  If  thou  beest  not  so  handsome  as  thou  wouldst  have  been 
...  be  glad  that  thy  clay  cottage  hath  all  the  necessary 
forms  thereto  belonging,  though  the  outside  be  not  so  fairly 
plaistered  as  some  others.'  Fuller,  Holy  State,  iii.  c.  15. 

'  Lord,  be  pleased  to  shake  my  clay  cottage  before  thou 
throwest  it  down.  May  it  totter  a  while  before  it  doth 
tumble.'  Fuller,  Good  Thoughts,  p.  19  (ed.  Pickering). 

'  I  hold  from  God  this  clay  cottage  of  my  body  (a  homely 
tenement,  but  may  I  in  some  measure  be  assured  of  a  better 
before  outed  of  this).'  Ibid.,  p.  128. 

'  God  .  .  .  hath  shaked  the  house,  this  body,  with  agues 
and  palsies,  and  set  this  house  on  fire,  with  fevers  and  calen- 
tures, and  frighted  the  Master  of  the  house,  my  soule,  with 
horrors,  and  heavy  apprehensions,  and  so  made  an  entrance 
into  me.'  Donne,  Sermons  (fol.  1640),  p.  777. 

When  the  good  Sir  Guyon  found  the  fair  lady 
Amavia  slain,  and  wallowing  in  blood, 

1  Chaucer,  if  I  remember  right,  somewhere  uses  the  phrase, 
'  spirit  changing  house  '  for  dying.     Cf.  2  Cor.  v.  1. 


BODY.  9 

'  He  hoped  faire 
To  call  backe  life  to  her  forsaken  shop.' 

Faerie  Queene,  II.  i.  43. 
1  I  looked  upon  my  Body  but  as  the  Instrument,  the  Vehicu- 
lum  Animce,  and  not  so  much  given  for  its  own  sake,  as  to  be 
an  Engine  for  the  exercise  of  my  Soul,  and  a  Cottage,  wherein 
it  might  inhabit  and  perfect  itself.' 

Sir  Matt.  Hale,  Contemplations,  p.  305  (1685). 
'  The  soul's  dark  cottage,  battered  and  decayed, 
Lets  in  new  light,  through  chinks  that  time  has  made  ; 
Stronger  by  weakness,  wiser  men  become, 
As  they  draw  near  to  their  eternal  home.' 

Edmund  Waller. 

Compare — 

"  Through  the  chinks  of  an  unhighted  flesh  we  may  read  a 
neglected  soul." — Adams,  1629  (Works,  vol.  iii.  p.  143). 

The  Sanskrit  word  for  body,  de/ia,  meaning 
literally  that  which  envelopes  the  soul,  is  used 
also  for  a  rampart  or  surrounding  wall.  The  root 
from  which  it  comes,  dik,  to  shape,  is  seen  also 
in  dehiy  a  wall,  Gk.  toichos,  Pers.  dik,  a  village. 
Compare — 

'  Within  this  wall  of  flesh 
There  is  a  soul  counts  thee  her  creditor.' 

Shakspere,  King  John,  act  iii.  sc.  3. 
'  Weak  cottage  where  our  souls  reside  ! 

This  flesh  a  tottering  wall ! 
With  frightful  breaches  gaping  wide, 

The  building  bends  to  fall.' x       Br  Isaac  Watts. 
1 A  white,  pure,  innocent  spirit  may  be  shadowed  under 
the  broken  roof  of  a  maimed  corpse.' 

Adams's  /Sermons,  The  White  Devil. 
'  The  Soul,  in  the  Body  or  out  of  the  Body,  differs  no  more 

1  Compare  Toplady's  hymn,  'When  languor  and  disease  invade.' 


10  BODY. 

than  the  Man  does  from  himself  when  he  is  in  his  House  or 
in  open  air.'  Spectator,  No.  90  (1712). 

'  How  ruinous  a  farm  hath  man  taken,  in  taking  himself. 
How  ready  is  the  house  every  day  to  fall  down,'  &c. 

Dr  Bonne's  Devotions,  xxii.  (1624). 

Hogarth,  giving  a  humorous  account  of  Mr 
Wilkes,  who  was  notoriously  ugly,  says — 

'  I  believe  he  finds  himself  tolerably  happy  in  the  clay  cot- 
tage to  which  he  is  tenant  for  life,  because  he  has  learnt  to 
keep  it  in  pretty  good  order.  "While  the  share  of  health  and 
animal  spirits  which  heaven  has  given  should  hold  out,  I  can 
scarcely  imagine  he  will  be  one  moment  peevish  about  the  out- 
side of  so  precarious,  so  temporary,  a  habitation  ;  or  will  ever 
be  brought  to  our  Ingenium  Galbce  male  habitat : — Monsieur 
est  mal  loge?  Quoted  in  JSouthey's  Doctor,  p.  472. 

Compare  Spenser's  c  Hymne  in  Honour  of  Beau- 
tie  '  (passim),  Globe  ed.  p.  59 6. x 

I  will  finish  this  long  list  of  illustrations  with 
these  curious  verses  of  Francis  Quarles,  prefixed  as 
a  suitable  introduction  to  that  curious  anatomical 
poem,  Fletcher's  '  Purple  Island  ' — 

1  Man's  Body 's  like  a  House  :  his  greater  Bones 
Are  the  main  Timber  ;  and  the  lesser  ones 
Are  smaller  Splints :  his  Ribs  are  Laths,  daub'd  o'er, 
Plaster'd  with  Flesh  and  Blood :  his  Mouth 's  the  Door, 
His  Throat 's  the  narrow  Entry ;  and  his  Heart 
Is  the  Great  Chamber,  full  of  curious  Art.' 2 


1  See  also  Bp.  Andrewes'  Sermon  (1595)  on  John  ii.  19,  'The 
Temple  of  the  Body,'  a  text  which  is  itself  an  illustration ;  and  Dr 
Donne's  Works,  vol.  vi.  p.  61  (ed.  Alford). 

5  *  The  House  I  Live  in,'  a  popular  account  of  the  human  body, 
published  by  Parker,  1S46,  treats  the  subject  from  the  same  point  of 
view,  and  has  chapters  on  the  Framework,  the  Sills,  the  Windows, 
the  Furniture,  the  Hinges,  &c. 


BODY.  11 

The  nose  he  makes  the  chimney,  the  eyes  the 
windows,  the  stomach  the  kitchen,  &c.  Cf.  Pur- 
chas,  Microcosmus,  v.  ix. 

Keaders  of  Spenser's  '  Faerie  Queene  '  will  re- 
member his  elaborate  allegorical  description  of  the 
body  as  a  goodly  castle  '  not  built  of  bricke  ne  yet 
of  stone  and  lime,'  inhabited  by  a  virgin  bright, 
Alma  (i.e.,  the  soul,  so  called  in  the  Italian, 
Spanish,  and  Portuguese,  Latin  anima),  with  its 
five  bulwarks  of  the  senses  ever  besieged  by  temp- 
tations night  and  day.  The  head  is  the  turret 
ascended  by  ten  alabaster  steps,  wherein  '  two 
goodly  beacons,  set  in  watches  stead,  gave  light 
and  flamed  continually.'  The  mouth  is  the 
porch,  in  which  l  twise  sixteen  warders  satt,  all 
armed  bright  and  strongly  fortifyde,'  leading  to 
the  hall,  where  ministered  the  steward  Diet,  and 
the  marshall  Appetite.  The  stomach  is  the  kitchen, 
with  its  '  caudron  wide  and  tall,'  and  '  fornace  that 
brent  day  and  night,  ne  ceased  not,'  its  '  maister 
cooke  'Concoction,  and  '  kitchen  clerke  that  hight 
Digestion/  while  a  '  huge  great  payre  of  bellows  ' 
(the  lungs)  '  did  styre  continually  and  cooling 
breath,  inspyre.' 1 

In  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes  (xii.  3  seq.),  the 
frame  which  the  spirit  is  ready  to  desert  is  repre- 
sented under  the  image  of  a  tottering  house,  of 

1  Book  II.,  cantos  ix.,  xi. 


12  BODY. 

which  the  windows  (the  eyes)  are  darkened,  the 
doors  (the  ears)  are  shut,  and  the  mill  (the  mouth) 
lies  idle  with  its  grinders  (the  teeth).1  A  similar 
idea  is  probably  meant  to  be  conveyed  by  '  the 
golden  bowl  being  broken  '  (v.  6),  the  body  being 
conceived  as  the  precious  reservoir  (as  in  Zech. 
iv.  3),  which  contains  the  oil  of  life  that  keeps  the 
flame  burning.2 

In  Greek,  tezichos,  a  vessel,  is  found  with  a  like 
signification. 

All  these  passages  make  it  probable  that  '  body ' 
might  come  from  a  word  meaning  house  (Welsh 
bod,  &c),  by  showing  that  the  transition  of  mean- 
ing is  easy  and  natural.  This  view,  moreover, 
derives  strong  confirmation  from  the  very  similar 
account  that  has  to  be  given  of  another  word  of 


1  Hengstenberg,  in  he.     Speaker's  Commentary,  in  loc. 
5  Henry  More  compares  the  relation  of  the  soul  to  the  body  to 
that  of  a  light  enclosed  within  a  lantern. 

'  Like  to  a  Light  fast  lock'd  in  Lanlhorn  dark, 
"Whereby,  by  night,  our  wary  Steps  we  guide 
In  slabby  streets,  and  dirty  Channels  mark, 
Some  weaker  rays  through  the  black  top  do  glide, 
And  flusher  streams  perhaps  from  the  horny  side  : 
But  when  we've  past  the  peril  of  the  way, 
Arriv'd  at  home,  and  laid  that  case  aside, 
The  naked  light,  how  clearly  doth  it  ray, 
And  spread  its  joyful  beams  as  bright  as  summer's  day. 

Even  so  the  Soul,  in  this  contracted  state, 

Confin'd  to  these  strait  instruments  of  Sense, 

More  dull  and  narrowly  doth  operate  : 

At  this  hole  hears,  the  Sight  must  ray  from  thence  ; 

Here  tasts,  their  smells  :    But  when  she's  gone  from  hence, 

Like  naked  lamps,  she  is  one  shining  sphear, 

And  round  about  has  perfect  cognoscence 

"Whate'ra  in  her  Horizon  doth  appear  ; 

She  is  one  Orb  of  Sense,  all  Eye,  all  airy  Ear.' 

Antidote  against  Atheism,  Bk.  III.  ch.  iv. 


CARCASS.  13 

like  signification.  I  mean  the  word  c  carcass/ 
which  we  will  next  proceed  to  examine. 

1  Carcass,'  which  is  now  used  for  a  body,  espe- 
cially the  lifeless  body  of  a  beast,  when  traced  to 
its  origin,  is  found  to  mean  a  '  house  of  detention 
or  constraint,'  a  6  prison.' 

Carcass — (Fr.)  carquasse,  (It.)  car  came,  (It. 
and  Port.)  carcassa  (=  a  skeleton) — is  another 
form  of  (Fr.)  carquois,  (Sp.)  carcax,  (It.)  carcasso 
(=  a  quiver).  In  modern  Greek  karkasi has  both 
meanings,  (1)  a  quiver,  (2)  a  skeleton.  All  these 
words  are  connected  with  (Welsh)  carchar  (re- 
straint, prison),  (Gaelic)  carcair  (prison,  coffer), 
(Ir.)  car  car,  (Goth.)  karkara,  (Ger.)  kerker,  (Gk.) 
kdrkaron,  (Lat.)  career  (an  enclosure,  or  prison), 
(Sans.)  cdraka,  kdrdgara,  from  the  root  kar  (to 
wound,  punish).  It  is  curious,  though  perhaps 
only  a  coincidence,  that  the  Talmudic  word  for  the 
case  in  which  written  rolls  were  commonly  kept  is 
cared} 

The  old  derivation,  which  once  passed  current, 
that  c  carcase  '  is  compounded  of  the  two  Latin 
words  caro  and  casa,  as  if  it  meant  '  fallen-flesh ' 


1  A  '  carcanet '  is  an  ornament  that  confines  or  imprisons  the 
neck — '  Oarcan,  a  carkanet,  or  collar  of  gold,  &c. ,  worne  about  the 
necke  ;  Also  an  Iron  chain e,  or  collar,  wherein  an  offender  is  tyed  by 
the  necke  to  a  post '  (Cotgrave).  Compare  the  following,  from  an 
old  play  : — 

*  Did  you  not  see  the  key  that's  to  unlock 
My  carcanet  and  bracelets  ? 

Till  you  give  it  back,  my  neck  and  arms 

Are  still  your  prisoners.  Webster,  vol.  iii.  p.  281. 


14  CARCASS. 

(which,  indeed,  is  the  primitive  meaning  of  cadaver 
from  cado,  and  of  the  Greek  ptoma  from  pipto,  to 
fall),  is  alluded  to  in  the  following  passage  from 
Samuel  Ward,  wherein  the  writer,  unknown  to 
himself,  has  a  much  truer  conception  of  the  word's 
etymological  significance.  Speaking  of  the  unim- 
paired powers  of  the  mind  at  death,  he  asks — 

'  Do  they  not  tell  the  body,  the  soul  means  not  to  fall  with 
the  carcase  (which  hath  the  name  of  falling),  lies  not  a  dying 
with  it,  but  erects  itself,  means  only  to  leave  it  as  an  inhabi- 
tant doth  a  ruinous  house,  or  as  a  musician  lays  down  a  lute 
whose  strings  are  broken,  a  carpenter  a  worn  instrument  unfit 
any  longer  for  service  and  employment,  and  as  a  guest  makes 
haste  out  of  his  inn  to  his  long  home  and  place  of  abode.' 

The  Life  of  Faith  in  Death. 

From  meaning  a  i  prison  '  the  word  came  after- 
wards to  be  applied  in  a  secondary  sense  to  the 
body,  as  being  the  structure  wherein  the  soul  is 
incarcerated,  while 

1  This  muddy  vesture  of  decay 
Doth  grossly  close  it  in,' 

like  the  '  bone-enclosure  '  or  i  bone-cloister  '  of  our 
remote  ancestors,  (A. -Sax.)  ban-loca,  ban-cofa. 
Compare  the  following,  also  from  Shakspere : — 

'  My  heart  all  mad  with  misery 
Beats  in  the  hollow  prison  of  my  flesh.' 

Titus  Andronicus. 

1 A  grave  unto  a  soul 
Holding  the  eternal  spirit  against  her  will 
In  the  vile  prison  of  afflicted  breath.' 

King  John. 


CARCASS.  15 

1  My  soul's  palace  is  become  a  prison.' 

3d  Ft.  Henry  VI.,  ii.  1. 

Plato  frequently  calls  the  body  the  prison-house 
of  the  soul ;  *  and  Virgil,  when  philosophising  on 
the  doctrine  of  the  one  great  spirit  of  nature  (iEn. 
vi.  734),  explains  that  in  the  case  of  men,  while 
confined  within  '  these  walls  of  flesh/  it  is  clogged 
and  blinded,  being  shut  up  in  the  darkness  of  a  dun- 
geon ('  clauses  tenebris  et  carcere  caeco'),  or  as  we 
might  render  it  with  etymological  literalness,  '  in 
the  darkness  of  a  sightless  carcass.''  A  belief 
almost  identical  with  this  was  held  by  the  Jews. 
The  Hebrews  consider  (we  are  told  in  '  The  Con- 
ciliator '  of  Rabbi  Manasseh  Ben  Israel,  trans,  ii. 
22)  that  souls  were  created  in  the  six  days  of  the  be- 
ginning, and  not  together  with  bodies.  They  com- 
pare its  state  (1st)  prior  to  coming  into  the  world, 
to  a  king  seated  on  his  throne  ;  (2d)  when  inspired 
into  the  body,  to  a  king  placed  in  confinement ; 
(3d)  when  released  by  death,  and  it  returns  to  its 
former  regions,  to  a  king  returning  to  his  kingdom 
after  being  delivered  from  prison.      Compare— 

1  Is  there  no  charitable  hand  will  sever 
My  well-spun  thread,  that  my  imprisoned  soul 
May  be  deliver'd  from  this  dull  dark  hole 
Of  dungeon  flesh  ] '     Quarks,  Emblems,  Bk.  V.  Emblem  7. 

'  What  need  that  house  be  daub'd  with  flesh  and  blood  ? 
Hang'd  round  with  silks  and  gold  ?  repair'd  with  food  ? 

1  E.g.,  Cratylus,  p.  400  C ;  Phasdo,  p.  62  B. 


16  CARCASS. 

Cost  idly  spent !  that  cost  doth  but  prolong 

Thy  thraldom.     Fool,  thou  mak'st  thy  jail  too  strong.' 

Quarks,  Emblems,  Bk.  V.  Epig.  8. 
1  The  soul  once  fled 
Lives  freer  now  than  when  she  was  cloystered 
In  walls  of  flesh — 

But  an  imprison' d  mind,  though  living,  dies, 
And  at  one  time  feels  two  captivities  ; 
A  narrow  dungeon  which  her  body  holds, 
But  narrower  body  which  her  self  enfolds. 

Death  is  the  pledge  of  rest,  and  with  one  bayl 
Two  prisons  quits,  the  Body  and  the  Iayl.'  1 

Bp.  Henry  King's  Poems  (1657,  ed.  Hannah),  p.  12. 

'  He  that  hides  a  dark  soul  and  foul  thoughts, 
Benighted  walks  under  the  mid-day  sun  ; 
Himself  is  his  own  dungeon.5  Milton,  Comus,  347. 

'My  body  is  my  prison,  and  I  would  be  so  obedient  to 
the  law  as  not  to  break  prison  :  I  would  not  hasten  my 
death  by  starving  or  macerating  this  body  ;  but  if  this  pri- 
son be  burned  down  by  continual  fevers,  or  blown  down  with 
continual  vapours,  would  any  man  be  so  in  love  with  that 
ground  upon  which  that  prison  stood,  as  to  desire  rather  to 
stay  there  than  to  go  home.' 

Br  John  Bonne  (Selections  from),  Oxford,  1840,  p.  14. 

.  .  .  '  The  Body  is  the  Soules  Prison  ;  that  I  mention  not 
that  Hell-darke  Prison  of  the  Graue,  nor  that  darke  Hell- 
Prison  of  the  Damned.'     Purchas,  Microcosmus  (1619),  p.  298. 

We  might  also  adduce  here  an  exclamation  re- 
ported to  have  been  made  by  Archbishop  Leigh  ton 
(d.  1684),  who  was  himself  slender  in  person, 
when  informed  that  a  corpulent  friend  had  pre- 

1  In  language  almost  identically  the  same  Howell  speaks  of  his 
twofold  imprisonment  when  writing  from  the  Fleet,  1643.  Vide 
Familiar  Letters,  Bk.  I.  sect.  vi.  48. 


CARCASS.  17 

deceased  liim — c  How  is  it  that  A has  broke 

through  these  goodly  brick  walls,  while  I  am  kept 
in  by  a  bit  flimsy  deal  ?  ' 

*  Our  soden  feete  stick  in  the  Clay, 
Wee  thro'  the  bodye's  Dungeon  see  no  day/ 

Evelyn,  Life  of  Mrs  Godolphin,  p.  227. 

'  0  who  shall  from  this  dungeon  raise 
A  soul  enslaved  so  many  ways  ? 
"With  bolts  of  bones,  that  fettered  stands 
In  feet,  and  manacled  in  hands  ; 
Here  blinded  with  an  eye,  and  there 
Deaf  with  the  drumming  of  an  ear  ; 
A  soul  hung  up,  as  'twere,  in  chains 
Of  nerves,  and  arteries,  and  veins  1 ' 

Andrew  Marvell,  Dialogue  between  Soul  and  Body. 
'  Great  Muse,  thou  knowest  what  prison 
Of  flesh  and  bone,  curbs,  and  confines,  and  frets 
Our  spirits'  wings.'  Keats1  Endymion,  Bk.  IV. 

'  How  weak  the  prison  is  where  I  dwell ! 

Flesh  but  a  tottering  wall ! 

The  breaches  cheerfully  foretell 

The  house  must  shortly  fall. 

*  Now  let  the  tempest  blow  all  round, 

Now  swell  the  surges  high, 

And  beat  this  house  of  bondage  down 

To  let  the  stranger  fly  ! '  Dr  Watts. 

'  The  soul  contending  to  that  light  to  fly 
From  her  dark  cell,  we  practise  how  to  die.' 

Waller,  Of  Divine  Love. 

The  comparison  in  the  last  three  extracts  of  the 
sonl  to  a  captive  bird,1  eager  to  escape,  but  encaged 

1  '  They  who  prink,  and  pamper  the  Body,  and  neglect  the  Soul, 
are  like  one,  who  having  a  Nightingale  in  his  House,  is  more  fond 
of  the  Wicker  Cage  than  of  the  Bird.' 

Howell,  Familiar  Letters,  Bk.  IV.  21. 
B 


18  CARCASS. 

within  the  body,  from  which  it  is  only  permitted 
to  take  flight  at  its  dissolution,  is  made  explicitly 
in  the  following  from  Quarles  : — 

1  My  soul  is  like  a  bird,  my  flesh  the  cage, 
Wherein  she  wears  her  weary  pilgrimage.     .     .     . 
The  keys  that  lock  her  in  and  let  her  out, 
Are  birth  and  death  ;  'twixt  both  she  hops  about 
From  perch  to  perch,  from  sense  to  reason ;  then 
From  higher  reason  down  to  sense  again.' 

Bk.Y.  Emblem  10. 

The  same  thought  is  found  in  the  c  Silex  Scintil- 

lans  '  of  Henry  Yaughan,  the  Silurist  (1655). 

And  so  Pope — 

*  Most  souls,  'tis  true,  but  peep  out  once  an  age, 
Dull,  sullen  prisoners  in  the  body's  cage  : 

Like  Eastern  kings,  a  lazy  state  they  keep, 
And,  close  confined  to  their  own  palace,  sleep/ 

Elegy  to  the  Memory  of  an  Unfortunate  Lady. 

And  Adams — 

'The  imprisoned  bird,  when  she  sees  no  remedy,  sings 
in  her  cage  ;  but  she  flies  most  and  highest  when  she  is 
at  liberty.  Set  the  soul  once  at  freedom,  she  will  then 
most  cheerfully  sing  the  praises  of  her  Maker.  Yet  the 
common  course  is  to  fortify  this  prison,  and  to  boast  in 
corporal  abilities.  But  qui  gloriatur  in  viribus  corporis, 
gloriatur  in  viribus  career  is.'         Meditations  upon  the  Creed. 

It  is  curious  to  observe  that  in  Sanskrit  the 
word   for  cage,1  pa?ijaray  is  actually  used  for  the 

1  Cf.  'Ex  corporum  vinculis  tanquam  e  carcere  evolaverunt ' 
(Cic.  Rep.  vi.  14).  It  is  a  widespread  and  ancient  superstition  that 
the  soul  escapes  from  the  dead  body  under  the  form  of  a  bird  or 
other  winged  creature.  Grimm,  D.  Myth.,  214,  478  ;  Kelly,  Indo- 
Furop.  Tradition,  p.  103  ;  Trevor's  Egypt,  192  ;    Didron,  Christian 


CARCASS.  19 

skeleton  or  body.  The  same  idea  has,  I  suppose 
unconsciously,  been  used  by  an  American  writer, 
Dr  Holmes — 

'They  said  the  doctors  would  want  my  skeleton  when 
I  was  dead.  .  .  .  Don't  let  'em  make  a  show  of  the  cage, 
I  have  been  shut  up  in,  and  looked  through  the  bars 
of,  for  so  many  years.' 

Professor  at  Breakfast- Table,  p.  105. 

Compare  ban-hus  (bone-house),  ban-sele  (bone- 
hall),  ban-loca  (bone-enclosure),  A.-Sax.  terms  for 
the  body;1  Icelandic  beina-grind  (' bone-lattice'), 
the  skeleton. 

As  our  ancestors  show  by  their  nomencla- 
ture that  they  had  formed  a  true  estimate 
of  this  perishing  dust-built  frame,  the  c  body  of 
our  humiliation  '  (Phil.  iii.  21),  whether  on  the 
one  hand  they  called  it  a  c  cask '  or  '  chest,'  or  on 
the  other,  a  '  house '  or  l  prison  ; '  so  they  would 
seem,  on  the  testimony  of  other  words,  not  to  have 
forgotten  what  a  '  treasure '   we   have    in    these 


Iconography,  460.  A  graphic  delineation  of  the  imprisoned  soul 
looking  out  through  its  cage  of  bones,  and  intended  to  represent 
the  idea  contained  in  Rom.  vii.  24,  'Who  shall  deliver  me 
from  the  body  of  this  death  ? '  will  be  found  in  Quarles,  Bk.  V. 
Emblem  8. 

1  'The  flames  consumed  the  bone-Jwuse  of  the  mighty -handed 
chief  '  is  Mr  Jones'  paraphrase  of  the  burning  of  Be6wulf  (Popular 
Romances  of  the  Middle  Ages,  p.  398). 

«  This  body  then,  I  say,  is  like 
An  house  in  each  degree  ; 
The  soule  the  owner  of  the  house 
I  do  account  to  bee.' 

Ro.  Vn.  {temp.  James  I.) 


20  CARCASS. 

'  earthen  vessels.'     If  the  body  was  to  them  no 

more  than  a  case  or  coffer,  still  it  was  one,  they 

felt,  that  guarded  the  most  precious  of  possessions, 

a  house  of  clay  indeed,  but  one  that  harboured  the 

most  exalted  of  inhabitants.     In  the  Anglo-Saxon, 

besides  the  words  'feorh-kus  '  (i.e., '  life-house  ')  = 

'body,'  (cf.  Shakspere's  'bloody  house  of  life  '),and 

i feorh-cofcC  1(i. e.,  mind's  cave,  or  sours  chamber) 

==  breast,  we  meet  the  very  poetical  term  '  breost- 

hord'  for  the  soul,  i.e.,  the  hoard  or  treasure  of 

the  breast — a  word  upon   which  no  more  fitting 

commentary  could  be  made  than  these  verses  of  a 

little-remembered  poet — 

'  0  ignorant  poor  man  !  what  dost  thou  bear 
Lock'd  np  within  the  casket  of  thy  breast  ? 
What  jewels,  and  what  riches  hast  thou  there  ? 
What  heavenly  treasure  in  so  weak  a  chest.' 

Sir  John  Barnes  (d.  1626). 

Beside  this  we  may  set  the  scarcely  less  poetical 

prose  of  Bishop  Hall — 

*  This  body,  if  it  bee  compared  to  the  soule,  what  is  it,  but 
as  a  clay  wall  that  encompasses  a  treasure  ;  as  a  wodden  boxe 

1  (A.-Sax.)  cof  (a  cave  or  receptacle),  (Bret.)  kdf,  1c6v  (belly), 
(Fr. )  coffre  (1,  a  coffer;  2,  chest  of  the  body).  Compare  (Heb.) 
guph,  (jupha  (a  body),  from  the  root  guph  (Cpi),  to  be  hollow,  shut 
in).  The  Heb.  Mb  hah  (stomach),  and  '  alcove,'  (Sp. )  alcoba,  (Arab.) 
al-qobbah  (a  hollow  recess),  (Heb.)  Kubbah  (translated  '  tent,'  Num- 
bers xxv.  8),  are  of  kindred  origin.  Cp.  '  We  are  so  composed, 
that  if  abundance  or  glory  scorch  and  melt  us,  we  have  an  earthly 
cave,  our  bodies,  to  go  into  by  consideration  and  cool  ourselves/ 
(Donne,  Letters,  p.  63).  Synonymous  are  A.-Sax.  hrether-cofa  and 
hrether-loca  (mind's  cave  or  inclosure),  Icelandic  hug-borg,  'castle 
of  thought,'  a  poetical  term  for  the  breast ;  6dhar-rann,  *  mind's- 
house ; '  fjor-rann,  '  life's-house  ;'  hjarta-salrt  '  heart-hall.' 


CARCASS.  21 

of  a  jeweller ;  as  a  coorse  case  to  a  rich  instrument ;  or  as  a 
niaske  to  a  beautifull  face  ? ' 

Contemplations,  Bk.  I.  Cont.  2  (1634). 

The  same  thoughts,  expressed  in  the  very  same 

words,  are  to  be  found  in  the  treatise  of  another 

divine    whom    Hall    much    resembled.      Thomas 

Adams,  in  his  '  Meditations  on  some  Parts  of  the 

Creed/  1629,  moralises  thus  : — 

1  The  body  is  to  the  soul  as  a  barren  turf  to  a  mine  of 
gold,  as  a  mud  wall  about  a  delicate  garden,  as  a  wooden 
box  wherein  the  jeweller  carries  his  precious  gems,  as  a 
coarse  case  to  a  fair  and  rich  instrument,  as  a  rotten  hedge 
to  a  paradise,  as  Pharaoh's  prison  to  a  Joseph,  or  as  a  mask 
to  a  beautiful  face.'  '  We  love  the  cabinet  for  the  jewel's 
sake,  esteem  it  for  that  it  contains.  .  .  .  Yet  how  many 
men  pollute  this  fair  house,  by  drunkenness  making  it  a 
swine-sty,  by  uncleanness  a  brothel,  by  worldliness  a  dung- 
hill, by  oppression  a  lion's  den,  by  voluptuousness  a  boar's 
frank,  by  malice  a  stove  or  burning  furnace,  and  by  con- 
tinual sin  a  barricaded  jail  to  imprison  the  soul  ! ' 1 

Nichol's  edition,  vol.  iii.  pp.  142,  146. 

Compare  the  following  from  Shakspere : — 

1  (I  have)  mine  eternal  jewel 
Given  to  the  common  enemy  of  man.'    Macbeth,  iii.l. 

'A  jewel  in  a  ten-times-barred  up  chest 
Is  a  bold  spirit  in  a  loyal  breast.'     Richard  II. ,i.  1. 

'  They  found  him  dead  and  cast  into  the  streets, 
An  empty  casket,  where  the  jewel  of  life 
By  some  damn'd  hand  was  robb'd  and  ta'en  away.7 


1  Howell  (1635)  has  the  same  similitude, — '  Whereas  my  Creator 
intended  this  Body  of  mine,  though  a  Lump  of  Clay,  to  be  a 
Temple  of  His  Holy  Spirit,  my  Affections  .  .  .  turn  it  often  to  a 
Brothel-house,  my  Passions  to  a  Bedlam,  and  my  Excesses  to  an 
Hospital.'  Fam.  Letters,  Bk.  I.  6,  xxii. 


22  CARCASS. 

'  (My  heart)  A  jewel,  lock'd  into  the  wof ull'st  cash 

That  ever  did  contain  a  thing  of  worth.' 
2d  PL  Henry  VI.,  iii.  2. 

We  have  seen  that  the  body  was  called  a 
1  house,'  as  being  the  outward  shell  or  case  wherein 
the  spiritual  part  of  man  was  appointed  to  dwell. 
This  bodily  6  house  '  was  also  regarded  sometimes 
as  the  clothiDg  wherein  he  was  invested,  e.g.,  by 
St  Paul  in  2  Cor.  v.  2,  3,  where  he  expresses  an 
earnest  desire  to  'be  clothed  upon''  with  a  better 
house  from  heaven — i.e.,  a  house  6  to  be  put  on  as 
an  outer  garment  over  this  fleshly  body'  (e-n-evSv- 
cracrOai).  Immediately  afterwards  he  uses  the  cor- 
relative phrase  '  to  put  off  one's  clothing '  for  i  to 
become  disembodied,'  i  to  die.'  In  the  ancient 
Gothic  version  the  apostle's  expression  c  to  be 
clothed '  with  the  body  is  rendered  by  the  verb, 
ufar-hamon,  ana-kamon,  and  the  '  stripping  off'  of 
it  by  the  verb  af-hamon, — hamon  being  to  clothe. 
It  is  not  a  little  interesting  to  observe  that  this 
same  radical,  which  is  still  traceable  in  the  German 
hemd,  a  shirt  or  garment,  supplies  a  name  for  the 
body  in  many  kindred  languages.  It  is  seen  in 
the  latter  part  of  the  A. -Saxon  lic-lwma,  0.  H. 
German  lik-hamo,  German  leichnam,  Old  Norse 
lik-hamr, — i.e.,  i  the  garment  of  flesh,'  the  un- 
tenanted body,  or  corpse;  A.-Saxon  Jtcesc-hama.1 

1  Cognate  with  A.-Sax.  hama,  homa,  Dan.  ham,  Icel.  hammr, 
the  covering,  skin,  or  shape  of  the  body,  are  the  Sansk.  carnima  ; 
Hind,  cam,  camra,  of  similar  meaning  ;  and  the  It.  camisa,  Fr. 


CARCASS.  23 

Such  was  the  poetical  conception  that  found  favour 
with  the  old  Teutonic  and  Scandinavian  races.  At 
death  the  weary  spirit  slips  off  its  clinging  raiment, 
our  Maker  (to  use  the  language  of  an  old  poet) 
doth— 

1  Thresh  the  husk  of  this  our  flesh  away, 
And  leave  the  soul  uncovered,' l 

and  then  the  divested  remains  or  exuvice  is  the 
lifeless  corpse — the  body-clothes,  lie-harm;  Old 
Eng.  lie-am. 

This  idea  has  received  a  feeling  expression  in 
the  following  pretty  verses  by  the  Duchess  of 
Newcastle : — 

1  Great  Nature  she  doth  cloathe  the  soul  within 
A  Fleshly  Garment  which  the  Fates  do  spin  ; 
And  when  these  Garments  are  grown  old  and  bare, 
With  sickness  torn,  Death  takes  them  off  with  care, 
And  folds  them  up  in  Peace  and  quiet  Best ; 
So  lays  them  safe  within  an  Earthly  Chest, 
Then  scours  them  and  makes  them  sweet  and  clean, 
Fit  for  the  soul  to  wear  those  cloths  again.' 

Poems,  p.  135. 

Compare  these  lines  from  Herrick's  *  Epitaph  on 
Sir  Ed.  Giles  '— 

1  But  here's  the  sunset  of  a  tedious  day. 
These  two  asleep  are  ;  I'll  but  be  undrest, 
And  so  to  bed.     Pray  wish  us  all  good  rest.' 

chemise.      Cleasby  &  Vigfusson,   Icel.  Diet.  ;    B.-Gould,  Book  of 
Werewolves,   pp.   47,  163.     The   same  word   is   seen  in  '  yellow- 
Jiammer,'1  Ger.  gelb-ammer,  and  in  0.  Swed.  hamber,  prov.  Eng. 
an  article  of  clothing  (Atkinson,  Cleveland  Glossary,  s.v. ) 
1  George  Wither. 


24  COAT. 

The  bodily  tenement  is  here  regarded  as  being 
the  raiment  in  which  the  spirit  was  enveloped ;  by 
a  somewhat  similar  association  of  related  ideas, 
but  from  a  directly  opposite  point  of  view,  the 
literal  clothing  of  the  body  was  conceived  as  being 
to  it  a  kind  of  portable  dwelling,  and  so  the 
covering  or  vestment  wherein  the  entire  man  is 
wrapped  was  in  many  instances,  we  shall  find, 
quaintly  styled  his  '  house.'  The  idea  that  under- 
lay this  use  of  the  term  is  well  brought  out  by  this 
query  of  Carlyle's — 

'  Hast  thou  always  worn  them  [thy  clothes]  perforce,  and  as 
a  consequence  of  Man's  Fall ;  never  rejoiced  in  them  as  in  a 
warm  movable  House,  a  Body  round  thy  Body,  wherein  that 
strange  Thee  of  thine  sat  snug,  defying  all  variations  of 
climate  ?  ...  In  vain  did  the  sleet  beat  round  thy  temples  ; 
it  lighted  only  on  thy  impenetrable,  felted  or  woven,  case  of 
wool.'  Sartor  Resartus,  ch.  ix.  p.  39  (ed.  1871). 

Now  take  the  word  c  coat,'  (Fr.)  cotte,  (It.)  cotta. 

It  is  plainly  identical  with  i  cote '  *  (a  shelter  for 

animals),  'cot,'  and  'cottage,'  (A. -Sax.)  cote,  (Dut.) 

kot,  (Ir.)  cotta,  (Welsh)  cwt,  (Fin.)  kota,  koti  (a 

house);  and  so  it  meant  originally  the  6  house'  or 

shelter  wherein  the  monk  on  his  travels  (it  was 

especially  a  monkish    garment  at    first),   or  the 

working-man  in   the  field,   encased  himself  as  a 

protection  against  the  inclemency  of  the  weather. 

Thus  l  coats '  served  almost  as  well  as 


1  *  Coat'  was  formerly  spelt  'cote,'  e.g.,  Chaucer,  Rom.  of  Rose, 
461;  and  'cote'  was  spelt  'coat,'  e.g.,  '  Bordieux,  little  cottages, 
coats '  (Cotgrave). 


COAT.  25 

'  Cotes  that  did  the  shepherds  keep 
From  wind  and  weather.'        Chapman,  Horn.  II. ,  xviii.  535. 

and  hence  they  got  their  name. 

Verstegan,  one   of  the  best  and  earliest  of  our 

English  etymologists,  pointed  this  out  long  ago. 

He  says — 

'  A  cote  in  our  language  is  a  little  slight  built  country  habi- 
tation (such  as  after  the  French  we  call  a  cottage).  .  .  .  TVe 
also  use  this  word  cote  for  a  garment,  but  it  seemeth  to  have 
been  at  first  metaphorically  brought  in  use,  in  regard  of  being 
shrowded  therein,  as  in  the  little  house  or  cote  of  the  body, 
but  anciently  we  so  used  it  not,  for  our  ancient  word  for  a  cote 
in  this  sence  was  a  reaf.' 

Restitution  of  Decayed  Intelligence,  p.  286  (1634). 

The  cota  mor  l  (great  coat)  of  the.  ancient  Irish, 
which  seems  to  have  been  a  kind  of  mantle,  was 
one  of  their  national  peculiarities.  It  is  to  it,  pro- 
bably, that  Spenser  refers  when  he  says — 

'The  out-lawe.  .  .  .  maketli  his  mantell  his  howse, and 
under  it  covereth  himself  from  the  wrath  of  heaven,  from  the 
offence  of  the  earth,  and  from  the  sight  of  men.  When  it 
rayneth  it  is  his  pent-howse  ;  when  it  blowes,  it  is  his  tent ; 
when  it  freezeth  it  is  his  tabernacle.' 

State  of  Ireland  (1643).  Globe  ed.  p.  631. 

Other  instances  of  the  same  word  being  used  for  a 
house  and  an  article  of  clothing  are  the  following — 
(Fr.)  caban,  gaban,  (It.)  gabbano,  cabarino,  (a 
cloak),  (Eng.)  i  gabardine. ,'  (Bohem.)  habane  (a 
jacket),  the  same  word  as  (Fr.)  cabane,  (It.)  ca- 
panna,  (Welsh)  caban  (a  booth,  hut),  our  '  cabin.' 

1  Cf.  Castle  Rackrent  (Miss  Edgewortb),  1815,  p.  2.  A  repre- 
sentation of  it  will  be  found  in  Plauche's  '  British  Costume/  p.  369. 


26  HOOD,    CHASUBLE,   ETC. 

The  heavy  Maltese  cloak  worn  by  the  farmers  in 
Sardinia  they  call  their  '  cabbanu.' 

i  Cape  '  and  i  cap,'  (Fr.)  chape,  chapeau,  (Sp.) 
capa,  (It.)  cappa,  is  the  0.  Sp.  cappa,  (1)  a  hut, 
(2)  a  mantle,  according  to  Isidore  so  called  quia 
totum  capiat  hominem,  because  it  takes  in,  or  con- 
tains, the  whole  man. 

'Hood/  (Ger.)  hut,  (Welsh)  hotan,  (Dut.) 
hoed  (lit.  a  covering,  shelter),  is  identical  with 
'  hut,'  (Dut.)  hut,  hutte,  (Sans.)  kuti  (a  house), 
hot  (a  hut),  (Egypt.) kdti  (a  circuit,  and  to  surround). 

c  Cassock/  (Fr.)  casaque,  (It.)  casacca,  (Gael.) 
casag  (a  long  coat), is  from  the  Latin  casa  (a  house). 
Cf.  (Gk.)  kdsson  (tcdaaov,  Hesjxh.,  a  thick  garment), 
(Pers.)  kdshah  (hut),  all  connected  with  (Sans.) 
kakshd  (enclosure).1 

Another  ecclesiastical  vestment,  the  l  chasuble,' 
(Sp.)  casulla,  (Fr.)  chasuble,  (It.)  casupola,  (M. 
Lat.)  casula,  is  of  the  same  origin,  and  means  a 
little  house  or  hut,  for  so  the  Roman  labourer 
called  the  smock-frock  in  which  he  shut  himself 
up  when  out  at  work  in  bad  weather. 

(Ir.)  rocan,  (1)  a  cot,  (2)  a  cloak.  Cf.  (Ger.) 
rock  (a  coat). 

It  is  open  to  doubt  whether  i  hose,'  (Fr.)  house, 
houseau,  (Ger.)  kosen,  (A.-Sax.)  hosa,  (Welsh)  hosan 
(covering  for  the  leg),  and  '  housing,'  (Fr.)  housse, 

1  Pictet,  Orig.  Indo-Europ.,  ii.  255. 


HOOD,    CHASUBLE,    ETC.  27 

(Welsh)  hws  (covering,  housing),  are  connected 
with  '  house. ' 1 

In  Coptic  one  and  the  same  root  is  still  serving 
for  '  house  '  and  '  garment.' 2 

The  same  comparison  which  led  Shakspere  to 
speak  of  the  body  as  the  soul's  c  vesture,'  and  St 
Paul  as  its  i  clothing,'  was  implicitly  made  long 
before  by  the  author  of  the  139th  Psalm,  where  he 
breaks  into  a  fine  ascription  of  praise  to  the 
Creator  on  contemplating  the  marvellous  structure 
of  his  own  frame — 

'  I  will  praise  Thee ;  for  I  am  fearfully  and  wonderfully 
made.  .  .  .  My  substance  was  not  hid  from  Thee,  when  I 
was  made  in  secret,  and  curiously  ivrought  in  the  lowest  parts 
of  the  earth.  Thine  eyes  did  see  my  substance  yet  being  un- 
perfect ;  and  in  Thy  book  all  my  members  were  written  [drawn 
out,  as  it  were,  in  pattern],  which,  in  continuance,  were 
fashioned,  when  as  yet  there  was  none  of  them '  (vv.  14-16). 

The  word  here  rendered  i  curiously- wrought' 
has  a  definite  and  much  more  expressive  force  in 
the  original  Hebrew,  viz.,  '  wrought-with-a- 
needle.' 3  It  is  the  very  same  word  which  is  used 
in  Exodus  xxviii.  39,  with  reference  to  the  em- 
broidered garments  of  the  high  priest,  and  in 
Exodus  xxvi.  36  for  the   hangings  of  the  Taber- 


1  But  cf.  2  Kings  xxiii.  7,  '  hangings,'  marg.  c  houses.'  So,  per- 
haps, (Gk.)  ndaas  (housings)  is  connected  with  (Pers.)  Mshah,  (Lat.) 
casa. 

2  Dr  Abel  in  Philolog.  Soc.  Trans.  (1855),  p.  57. 

3  Vide  Lowth,  Sacred  Poetry  of  the  Hebrews,  in  loc. 


28 

nacle  made  of  fine-twined  linen,  and  various 
colours  wrought  with  needlework ;  Heb.  rdkaMf 
Arab,  raqama,  which  may  still  be  traced  in  the 
Spanish  reca?nar,  It.  ricamare,  Fr.  reca?ner,  to 
embroider. 1 

And  when  we  consider  the  wonderful  ingenuity 
and  manifold  marks  of  design  displayed  in  the 
fabric  of  man's  body,  the  closely  interwoven  fibrous 
appearance  of  the  cellular  tissue,  the  interlacing 
and  ramifications  of  the  blood-vessels,  the  impli- 
cations of  the  muscles,  the  knots  or  ganglions  of 
the  nerves,  the  exquisite  embroidery  of  the  veins, 
the  gauze-like  membrane  of  the  skin,  technically 
termed  '  network'  (rete  mucoswri) — we  cannot  but 
perceive  how  true  and  appropriate  is  this  meta- 
phor of  the  Psalmist  by  which  the  texture  of  the 
human  structure  is  likened  to  a  piece  of  tapestry 
or  needlework,  elaborated  with  subtle  varieties  of 
colour  and  material  by  the  hand  of  a  skilful  arti- 
ficer.     Even  so  curiously  wrought  are  the  curtains 

1  It  is  radically  the  same  word  rlhndh  which  is  found  in  Ezek. 
xvi.  18,  '  broidered  garments;'  and  Psalm  xlv.  14,  'raiment  of 
needlework.' 

'Such  is  the  human  body,  ever  changing,  ever  abiding.  A 
temple,  always  complete,  and  yet  always  under  repair.  A  mansion, 
which  quite  contents  its  possessor,  and  yet  has  its  plan  and  its 
materials  altered  each  moment.  A  machine  which  never  stops 
working,  and  yet  is  taken  to  pieces  in  the  one  twinkling  of  an  eye, 
and  put  together  in  the  other.  A  cloth  of  gold,  to  which  the  needle 
is  ever  adding  on  one  side  of  a  line,  and  from  which  the  scissors 
are  ever  cutting  away  on  the  other.  Yes  !  Life,  like  Penelope  of 
old,  is  ever  weaving  and  unweaving  the  same  web  ;  whilst  her 
grim  suitors,  Disease  and  Death,  watch  for  her  halting.' 

Br  George  Wilson,  Edinburgh  Essays  (1856),  p.  316. 


HOOD,    CHASUBLE,    ETC.  29 

of  the  tabernacle  wherein  we  dwell.  There  is 
scriptural  authority  for  so  styling  our  bodies.  The 
inspired  apostle  employs  the  phrase,  declaring  that 
the  Eternal  Word,  when  He  vouchsafed  to  take  our 
flesh,  '  tabernacled  among  us  '  (la/crjvcoaev,  John  i. 
14).  When  Job  (iv.  21)  speaks  of  the  death  of 
man,  and  the  soul  being  separated  from  the  body 
which  it  upholds,  he  likens  it  to  the  ropes  of  a 
tent  being  loosened  or  severed,  using  the  same 
word  that  in  Exodus  is  applied  to  the  cords  of  the 
Tabernacle,  6  Are  not  the  cords  of  their  tent  torn 
away  ? '  where  the  rendering  in  our  authorised 
version  is  diluted  into  6  Doth  not  their  excellency 
which  is  in  them  go  away  ?  '  x 

Our  bodies,  it  is  implied,  constituted  as  they  are 
at  present,  are  intended  but  for  a  temporary  habi- 
tation while  passing  through  the  wilderness.  They 
are  removable  at  any  time,  like  a  shepherd's  tent 
(Isa.  xxxviii.  12).  Shortly  we  must  put  off  this 
our  tabernacle  (2  Pet.  i.  14).  When  the  Yoice  is 
heard  saying,  c  Arise  ye,  and  depart,  for  this  is 
not  your  rest ;  because  it  is  polluted '  (Micah  ii. 
10),  the  life  which  is  in  us  will  be  taken  up  from 
us  like  the  pillar  of  cloud,  and  will  pass  away  like 
an  expiring  vapour.  Then  the  house  of  this 
earthly  tabernacle  will  be  taken  down — the  silver 
cord  will  be  loosed — this  curious  frame,  with  its 

1  Delitscb,  in  loc. 


30 

mortices,  its  tenons,  its  woven  coverings,  and  all 
its  cunning  work,  will  be  levelled  to  the  dust. 
Then  it  will  he  said  of  each — 

1  His  spirit  with  a  bound 

Burst  its  encumbering  clay  ; 
His  tent,  at  sunrise,  on  the  ground 
A  darken'd  ruin  lay.'  l 

But  He  who  undoes  His  own  work  is  able  to 
raise  it  up  again,  and  has  pledged  Himself  to  do 
so.  *  Though  He  slay  us,  yet  we  may  trust  in  Him ' 
(Job  xiii.  15).  '  He  will  show  wonders  to  the  dead  ; 
the  dead  shall  arise  and  praise  Him.  His  loving- 
kindness  shall  be  declared  in  the  grave,  and  His 
faithfulness  in  destruction.  His  wonders  shall  be 
known  in  the  dark,  and  His  righteousness  in  the 
land  of  forgetfulness '  (Ps.  lxxxviii.  10-12).  Even 
in  the  tomb  our  substance  is  not  hid  from  Him. 
In  His  book  are  still  all  our  members  written ; 
not  one  of  them  will  be  overlooked  or  forgotten  ; 
but  we  will  be  made  again  in  secret,  and  curiously 
wrought  (like  needlework),  even  in  the  lowest  parts 
of  the  earth — even  in  those  dark  places  the  Divine 
Work-master  can  renew  His  handiwork. 

'  He  which  numbereth  the  sands  of  the  sea,  knoweth  all 
the  scattered  bones,  seeth  into  all  the  graves  and  tombs, 
searcheth  all  the  repositories  and  dormitories  in  the  earth, 
knoweth  what  dust  belongeth  to  each  body,  what  body  to 
each  soul.  Again,  as  His  all-seeing  eye  observeth  every  par- 
ticle of  dissolved  and  corrupted  man,  so  doth  He  also  see 

]  Montgomery. 


31 

and  know  all  ways  and  means  by  which  these  scattered  parts 
should  be  united,  by  which  this  ruined  fabric  should  be  re- 
composed  :  He  knoweth  how  every  bone  should  be  brought  to 
its  old  neighbour- bone,  hoiv  every  sinew  may  he  re-embroidered 
on  it ;  He  understandeth  what  are  the  proper  parts  to  be  con- 
joined, what  is  the  proper  gluten  by  which  they  may  become 
united.' l 

Not  only  will  He  reform  our  bodies,  but  He 
will  transform  them.  Natural,  earthly,  perishing, 
they  will  be  raised  up  spiritual,  incorruptible,  im- 
mortal. The  Lord  Jesus  Christ  '  will  change  the 
body  of  our  humiliation,  that  it  may  be  fashioned 
like  unto  His  glorious  body,  according  to  the  work- 
ing whereby  He  is  able  even  to  subdue  all  things 
unto  Himself  (Phil.  iii.  21),  and  this  will  be  'a 
house  not  made  with  hands,  eternal  in  the  heavens' 
(2  Cor.  v.  1). 

1  Pearson,  The  Resurrection  of  the  Body. 


(  32  ) 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  WORDS  '  FLIRT' — '  FLUNKEY' — '  SCORN? 

How  sadly  deficient  even  our  best  dictionaries  are! 
Monuments  though,  they  be  for  the  most  part 
of  patient  and  laborious  industry — Latham,  and 
"Richardson,  and  Todd's  Johnson,  Worcester,  and 
Webster,  ponderous  tomes  as  they  are — how  often 
will  we  turn  to  their  pages  in  vain  if  we  need 
something  out  of  the  trite  and  beaten  track,  or 
put  them  to  the  test  by  anything  more  than  very 
moderate  requirements  in  matters  of  verbal  lore. 
It  has  been  the  fortune  of  most  people,  I  should 
think,  at  some  time  or  other,  to  consult  those 
standard  works  of  reference  in  hopes  to  obtain 
some  conclusive,  or  at  least  satisfactory,  iuformation 
as  to  the  etymology  and  primitive  signification  of 
a  word  which  has  refused  to  yield  its  secret  to  their 
own  unassisted  efforts — but  only  to  encounter  a 
vexatious  disappointment.  The  oracle  is  found 
dumb  just  at  the  moment  when  its  response  was 
most  earnestly  desired.  A  note  of  interrogation, 
or  the  curt  remark,  '  origin  unknown,'  is  all  the 
reward  vouchsafed  to  our  unsatisfied  curiosity.     In 


FLIRT.  33 

many  cases,  of  course,  these  blanks  and  silent  gaps 
are  unavoidable.  They  are  a  part  of  the  necessary 
imperfection  of  all  human  knowledge.  Still,  many 
of  these  deficiencies  would  disappear  if  only  a 
more  careful  research  and  diligent  investigation 
were  brought  to  bear  upon  them ;  and  it  may 
well  be  believed  that  not  a  few  neglected 
nooks  and  corners  of  the  philological  field  still 
remain  to  recompense  the  industry  of  future 
gleaners. 

One  of  these  words,  of  which  no  satisfactory 
account  has  as  yet  been  given,  is  6  flirt.'  What- 
ever we  may  think  of  the  thing  which  it  denotes, 
it  must  be  admitted  that  the  word  itself  is  pic- 
turesque and  pretty  enough  when  we  trace  it  to 
its  origin.  It  is  a  matter  of  surprise  to  me  that 
Wedgwood  and  our  other  professed  etymologists 
have  quite  failed  to  discover  it.  Dr  Johnson — 
whom  we  may  in  general  depend  upon  for  our 
definitions — tells  us  that  '  to  flirt '  is  6  to  run  about 
perpetually,  to  be  unsteady  and  fluttering.'  He 
makes  no  allusion,  however,  to  its  now  more  com- 
mon signification  of  coquetting — trifling  with  the 
affections  of  another,  or  amusing  one's  self  at  the 
expense  of  one's  admirers.  And  yet  that  use  of 
the  word  is  of  considerable  antiquity.  In  the 
'  Gorgeous  Gallery  of  Gallant  Inventions,'  1578,  we 
find  a  lover  complaining  to  his  mistress  in  the 
following  terms : — 


34  FLIRT. 

1  Hath  light  of  love  held  you  so  softe  in  her  lap  ? 

Sing  all  of  greene  willow  ; 
Hath  fancy  provokte  you  ?  did  love  you  intrap  1 

Sing  willow,  willow,  willow  ; 
That  now  you  heflurting,  and  will  not  abide, 

Willow,  willow,  willow,  willow, 
To  mee  which  most  trusty  in  time  should  have  tride 
Willow,  willow,  willow,  willow.' 

Eel  1814,  p.  133. 

'  Flirt,'1  or,  as  we  see  it  used  to  be  spelt  formerly, 
c  flurt,'  is  in  fact  nothing  else  but  a  slightly  con- 
tracted form  of  the  French  fleureter  (from  fleur) 
to  go  a-flowering,  or,  as  old  Cotgrave  gives  it  in 
his  dictionary  (1660),  '  Fleureter,  lightly  to  pass 
over ;  only  to  touch  a  thing  in  going  by  it  {meta- 
phorically from  the  little  Bee's  nimble  shipping  from 
flower  to  flower  as  she  feeds)  ; '  and  so  the  cognate 
word  in  Spanish,  florear,  means  c  to  dally  with, 
to  trifle'    (Stevens,    1706).       Any  one  who   has 
observed  a  butterfly  skimming  over  a  gay  parterre 
on  a  hot  summer's  day  will  admit  that  its  c  airy 
dance '  is  no  unapt  comparison  for  the  course  of 
that  frivolous    and   ephemeral   creature,  whether 
male    or  female,   which    is    known  as  a   '  flirt.' 2 


1  The  word  may  have  been  insensibly  affected  by,  perhaps  blended 
with,  the  A.-Sax.  fleardian,  to  trifle.  In  Scotch,  flyrd  is  to  flirt,  and 
fiivd  to  flutter  ( Jamieson).  Compare  the  German  flattern,  to  flutter, 
rove  about,  and  flatterhafi,  flirting,  fickle. 

2  '  Comme  un  papillon  voletant  de  fleurette  en  fleurette.'  Yver 
(16th  cent.)     Compare  the  use  of  papilloner. 

Some  verses  which  appeared  in  '  Punch  '  in  the  summer  of  1875 
speak  of  one  who, 

'  A  butterfly  vagrant, 
Flits  light  o'er  the  flower-beds  of  Beauty  in  June.' 


FLIRT.  35 

It  is  the  very  ideal  of  inconstancy — it  veers  and 
flickers 1  about  hither  and  thither  in  the  most  fickle 
and  uncertain  way  imaginable ;  and  when  it  does 
light  upon  some  favoured  flower,  and  closes  its 
wings  over  it,  and  we  think  that  now  at  last, 
having  found  what  it  had  long  been  seeking,  it 
will  rest  and  sip  its  sweets  contentedly — lo !  in  a 
moment  it  is  off  and  away  as  unsettled  and  un- 
captivated  as  ever.  This  hovering  of  insects  from 
flower  to  flower  seems  to  have  suggested  the  same 
idea  to  the  people  of  different  countries.  For 
instance,  in  Sanskrit,  bhramara,  which  primarily 
means  a  bee,  is  used  also  for  '  a  lover,  a  gallant,  a 
libertine.'  The  bee-like  humming-bird  is  said  to  be 
called  '  the  kiss-flower '  by  the  Brazilians,  as  if  it 
were  enamoured  of  their  beauty.  Similarly,  far- 
falla,  a  butterfly  in  Italian,  is  also  applied  to  a 
fickle  man,  and  in  the  Parisian  argot,  an  an- 
tiquated beau  who  keeps  up  the  airs  and  graces  of 
youth  is  termed  an  '  old  butterfly '  (papillon  vieux). 

In  the  following  lines  the  word  ( butterfly' 
seems  to  be  employed  in  very  much  the  same 
sense : — 

*  Amongst  that  fine  Parterre  of  handsome  Faces, 
Do  any  like  a  Joynture  in  Parnassus  ?  .  .  . 
Will  Beaus  and  Butterflies  then  please  your  Fancies 


1  The  Scotch  flicker,  according  to  Jamieson,  also  means  to  flirt. 

'I  flycker,  as  a  birde  dothe  whan  he  hovereth,  Jevolette. 
I  flycker,  I  kysse  togyther,  Je  baise.' 

Palsgrave,  Lesclarcissement. 


36  FLIRT. 

"Well  vers'd  in  Birthrights,  Novels  and  Romances 
Scandal,  Plays,  Operas,  Fashions,  Songs  and  Dances, 
We'll  show  you  those  that  most  politely  can, 
Or  tap  the  Snuff-box,  or  gallant  the  Fan.' 

The  Music  Speech,  spoken  at  the  Public  Commencement  in 
Cambridge,  1714,  by  Roger  Long,  M.A. 

A  word  which  we  had  occasion  to  use  above  may 
be  noted  in  passing  as  embodying  a  like  concep- 
tion. '  Fickle,'  A.-Sax.  jicol,  is  a  derivative  from 
0.  Eng.  fyke,  North  Eng.  feek,  <  to  fidget/  Scot. 
fikey  to  be  restless,  to  move  from  place  to  place 
unsteadily,  also  to  dally  with  a  girl,  to  flirt ;  and 
is  akin  to  0.  Norse  fika,  Dut.  Jlcken,  to  move 
rapidly  to  and  fro,  Swiss  Jltsc/ien,  to  flutter  about. 

In  the  following,  from  a  poem  entitled  t  Why 
the  Rose  is  Red,'  which  appeared  in  the  '  Temple 
Bar  Magazine  '  some  years  ago  (No.  cxxvi.  p.  285), 
the  word  we  are  discussing  will  be  found  used 
with  perfect  propriety,  and  in  its  original  signifi- 
cation : — 

1  The  rose  of  old,  they  say,  was  white, 
Till  Love  one  day  in  wanton  flight, 
Flirting  away  from  flower  to  flower 
A  rose-tree  brushed  in  evil  hour/ — 

lines  which  recall  Spenser's  comparison  of  the 
little  god  of  the  restless  wing  to  a  bee  (Globe  ed., 
p.  586). 

The  subjoined  quotations,  indeed,  will  show  that 
this  '  flirting '  of  insects  is  quite  a  commonplace 
with  our  English  poets  ;  they  will  also  serve  to 


FLIRT.  37 

illustrate   how    easy   the    transition   was    to    the 

present  use  of  the  term  : — 

*  For  love's  sake,  kiss  me  once  again  ! 
I  long,  and  should  not  beg  in  vain  ; 

I'll  taste  as  lightly  as  the  Bee 
That  doth  but  touch  his  flower,  and  flies  away.' 

Ben  Jonson. 

'  The  flow'r  enamoured  busy  bee 
The  rosy  banquet  loves  to  sip  ; 

But  Delia,  on  thy  balmy  lips 
Let  me,  no  vagrant  insect,  rove  ; 

O  let  me  steal  one  limpid  kiss, 

For,  oh  !  my  soul  is  parched  with  love.' 

Burns. 

1  My  youth  ('tis  true)  has  often  ranged, 

Like  bees  o'er  gaudy  flowers  ; 
And  many  thousand  loves  has  changed, 
Till  it  was  fixed  in  yours.' 

Prior. 

'  When  the  first  summer  bee 

O'er  the  young  rose  shall  hover, 
Then,  like  that  gay  rover, 
I'll  come  to  thee. 
He  to  flowers,  I  to  lips,  full  of  sweets  to  the  brim — 
What  a  meeting,  what  a  meeting,  for  me  and  for  him  ! 
Then  to  every  bright  tree 
In  the  garden  he'll  wander  ; 
While  I,  oh,  much  fonder, 
Will  stay  with  thee. 
!    In  search  of  new  sweetness  through  thousands  he'll  run, 
While  I  find  the  sweetness  of  thousands  in  one.' 

T.  Moon. 

In  one  of  Sir  John  Suckling's  love-poems  occur 
these  lines,  with  an  amatory  significance  : — 


38  FLIRT. 

1  If  where  a  gentle  bee  hath  fallen, 

And  laboured  to  his  power, 
A  new  succeeds  not  to  that  flower 

But  passes  by, 
Tis  to  be  thought  the  gallant  elsewhere  loads  his  thigh. 

But  still  the  flowers  ready  stand, 

One  buzzes  round  about, 
One  lights,  one  tastes,  gets  in,  gets  out ; 

All  always  use  them, 
Till  all  their  sweets  are  gone,  and  all  again  refuse  them/ 
Vol.  i.  p.  24  (reprint,  1874). 

When  a  bee  came  sipping  at  the  lips  of  Her- 
rick's  l  sweet  lady-flower  '  Julia,  he  excuses  himself 
by  urging,  with  pretty  gallantry — 

*  I  never  sting 
The  flower  that  gives  me  nourishing  : 
But  with  a  kisse,  or  thanks,  doe  pay 
For  honie,  that  I  bear  away.' 

Hesperides,  vol.  i.  p.  73  (ed.  Hazlitt). 

1  The  bee  through  all  the  garden  roves, 

And  hums  a  lay  o'er  every  flower, 
But  when  it  finds  the  flower  it  loves 
It  nestles  there  and  hums  no  more.' 

(?) 
*  I'd  be  a  butterfly  born  in  a  bower 

Where  roses  and  lilies  and  violets  meet, 
Koving  for  ever  from  flower  to  flower, 
And  kissing  all  buds  that  are  pretty  and  sweet.' 

T.  H.  Bayly. 

1  Oh  say  not  woman's  false  as  fair, 

That  like  the  bee  she  ranges  ! 
Still  seeking  flowers  more  sweet  and  rare, 

As  fickle  fancy  changes. 
Ah  no  !  the  love  that  first  can  warm, 

Will  leave  her  bosom  never  ; 


FLIRT.  39 

No  second  passion  e'er  can  charm  ; 
She  loves,  and  loves  for  ever.' 

Isaac  Pocock. 

In  illustration  of  the  formation  of  the  word,  I 
might  adduce  the  term  Cflurt-Bilk9>  i.e.,  i  floret 
silke,  cowrse  silke  '  (Cotgrave,  s.v.  Filoselle),  from 
the  French  fleurett  Ger.  Jioret-seide,  and  so  = 
'  flowered  '  silk ;  likewise  the  heraldic  term  <  crosse 
JlurV  (Fuller,  Church  History,  ii.  227-228,  ed. 
Tegg),  q.d.,  croix  JleureUe,  a  flowered  cross,  i  croix 
Jlorencde '  (Cotgrave).  It  is  curious  to  note  that 
the  French  within  these  last  few  years  have  bor- 
rowed back  from  us  the  word  which  originally  was 
altogether  their  own.  In  the  '  Dictionnaire  de 
1' Argot  Parisien  '  appears  i  Flirtation,  badinage 
galant,  manege  de  coquetterie,  Anglicanisme,' 
with  two  quotations  from  works  published  in  1872  ; 
'  Flirter,  se  livrer  a  la  flirtation.' 

From  the  assiduity  of  his  attentions  to  the 
heather,  Thomas  Hood  concluded  that 

'  The  broom's  betroth'd  to  the  bee,' 

forgetting  that  he  is  a  6  chartered  libertine  ' 
pledged  to  no  flower  in  special,  but  wooing  them 
all  in  turn.1     Lever,  we  cannot  but  think,  showed 

1  M.  Littre,  apparently  unconscious  of  the  close  relationship  to 
our  English  word,  traces  the  history  of  fieureter  somewhat  differ- 
ently, as  follows  : — 

Fleurette,  a  little  flower,  (2)  anything  trifling,  fig.  <  Propos  galant. 
C'est  par  une  mdtaphore  facile  a  saisir  que  des  propos  galants  out 


40  FLUNKEY. 

much  truer  insight  into  the  character  of  this  in- 
constant insect  when  he  wrote  the  playful  doggrels 
which  will  furnish  a  suitable  illustration  where- 
with to  conclude  these  remarks — 

'  And  as  for  the  bee 
And  his  industry, 

I  distrust  his  toilsome  hours, 
For  he  roves  up  and  down 
Like  a  '*  man  upon  town," 

"With  a  natural  taste  for  flowers.' 1 

1  Flunkey  '  is  the  Old  French  Jlanchier,  one  who 
waited,  or  ran,  at  his  master's  Jtanc,  or  side,  and 
so  is  literally  '  a  flanker,' just  asjianqueur  denotes 
one  who  fights  on  the  flank.  It  is  from  Jianquer, 
6  to  run  aloDg  by  the  side  of,  to  be  at  one's  elbow  for 


ete*  assimiles  a  une  petite  et  jolie  fleur.    II  y  avait  un  verbe fleureter, 
qui  signifiait  babiller,  dire  des  riens.' 

Fleurelte  also  = '  Conteur  de  fleurettes,  homme  volage  qui  en 
conte  a  toutes  les  femrnes.  En  general,  compliments,  choses 
flatteuses.' 

1 '  One  of  Them,'  ch.  vii.  Quite  recently  we  have  seen  much  more 
serious  charges  brought  against  the  bee  than  that  of  being  merely 
'  a  flirt.'  Apropos  of  the  ravages  which  he  has  been  convicted  of 
making  on  peaches  and  other  wall-fruit,  and  the  ill-repute  into 
which  he  has  fallen  in  some  quarters  in  consequence  of  his  incon- 
tinence, we  are  told,  'The  fairy-like  recesses  of  the  purple  bloom  of 
the  heather  no  longer  content  this  newly-developed  rake  ;  and,  to 
the  shame  of  his  origin  and  his  backers,  he  turns  his  wings  from 
the  broad  masses  of  borage,  whose  blue  flowers  have  been  purposely 
cultivated  for  him,  and  plunges  his  dainty  tooth  into  the  ripening 
cheek  of  a  prize  nectarine.'  Accordingly  the  once  favourite  *  busy 
bee  '  is  denounced  not  only  as  '  a  cormorant,  an  idler,  and  &  flaneur,' 
but  as  '  a  sensualist,  a  greedy  loafer, — in  fact,  a  roue  of  the  worst 
and  most  dangerous  sort.'  See  adively  article  in  the  '  Standard'  of 
Oct.  4,  1875. 


HENCHMAN.  41 

a  help  at  need '  (Cotgrave).1  '  And  flunkies  shall 
tend  you  wherever  you  gae'  (Auld  Robin  Gray). 
The  phrase  tegere  latus  in  Latin  is  of  quite  the 
same  import,  and  we  might  with  the  most  literal 
accuracy  translate  Horace's  query,  '  Utne  tegam 
spurco  Damre  latus  ? ' — Am  I  to  flunkey  filthy 
Dama?  Martial  actually  uses  latus,  side,  for  a 
companion  or  constant  attendant — 

'  Inter  Bajanas  raptus  puer  occidit  undas 
Eutychus,  ille  tuum,  Castrice,  dulce  latus.'  2 

Compare  our  c  sides-men/  parish-officers  ap- 
pointed to  assist  the  churchwardens.  Legate  a 
latere,  a  cardinal  whom  the  Pope  sends  as  his  am- 
bassador to  foreign  courts,  is  as  much  as  to  say  a 
'  counsellor  always  at  his  elbow '  (Bailey). 

Similar  expressions  are  c henchman,'3  he  who 
stands  at  a  person's  haunch  to  support  and  second 
him ;  c  ambassador,'  It.  ambasciadore,  from  the 
Low  Latin  ambactia,  charge,  business,  and  this 
again  from  ambactus,  a  servant.  Ambactus  repre- 
sents the  0.  H.  Ger.  ambaht,  Goth,  andbahts,  which 
Grimm  resolves  into  and,  and  bak,  back.      So  it 


1  Mr  Wedgwood  surely  let  himself  be  led  away  by  the  dazzling 
appearance  of  the  superfine  menial  of  modern  Belgravia  when  he 
connected  the  word  with  Ger.  flunke,  a  spark,  Dutch  flonkeren,  to 
glitter. 

2  Epigrams,  vi.  68,  '  De  Morte  Eutychi,'  11.  3,  4. 

3  Formerly  sometimes  spelt  'hancheman,'  e.g.,  among  the  dresses 
prepared  for  the  coronation  of  Edward  VI.  were  '  two  cotts  of 
hanchemen '  (The  Losely  MSS.,  p.  68).  To  kench,  on  the  other 
hand,  in  Cumberland  is  to  jerk  a  stone  from  the  haunch. 


42  SCORN. 

means  originally  a  *  back-man,'  one  who  backs  up 
and  supports  another.  Cf.  It.  codiatore,  a  man's 
follower  or  attendant,  from  coda,  the  tail  or  back. 
The  verb  '  to  side '  was  once  used  like  Jianquer 
in  the  sense  of  accompanying. 

*  Every  masquer  was  invariably  attended  by  his  torch-bearer, 
who  preceded  his  entrance  and  exit,  and  sided  him  (though  at 
a  distance)  while  in  action.'  B.  Jonson,  vol.  vii.  p.  7. 

Compare  the  Old  French  term  costereauls,  i  a 
nickname  given  unto  certain  footmen  that  served 
the  kings  of  England  in  their  French  wars ' 
(Cotgrave),  which  is  akin  to  the  verb  costoyer,  6  to 
accoast,  side,  abbord  ;  to  be,  or  lie,  by  the  side  of:' 
Eng.  'to  coast,'  to  go  by  the  side  of,  approach ; ' 
6  to  cote,'  to  go  by  the  side  of,  pass  by  {e.g.,  i  We 
coted  them  on  the  way,'  Hamlet,  ii.  2),  all  from 
Fr.  cote,  anciently  coste,  Lat.  costa,  the  side. 

6  Scorn '  is  the  Italian  scornare,  Fr.  escorner,1 
to  ruin,  deface,  or  disgrace.  The  original  mean- 
ing of  the  latter,  as  we  find  it  given  in  Cot- 
grave,  is  'to  unhorn,  dishorn,  or  deprive  of  horns  ; 
to  cut,  pull,  or  take  from  one  a  thing  which  is 
(or  he  thinks  is)  an  ornament  or  grace  unto  him  ; 
to  lop  or  shred  off  the  boughs  of  trees.'  The  past 
participle  escornt,  unhorned,  means  also,  he  tells 
us,  '  melancholike,  out  of  heart,  out  of  countenance, 
ashamed  to  shew  himself,  as  a  Deere  is,  when  he 

1  We  need  not,  perhaps,  suppose  any  direct  connection  with  the 
German  sckerno,  0.  H.  Ger.  skernon,  Fr.  escharnir. 


SCOKN.  43 

hath  cast  his  head  ;l  .  .  .  and  hence,  defaced, 
ruined,  scorned,  disgraced.'  So  Pliny,  in  his 
account  of  that  animal — 

*  The  males  of  this  kind  are  horned,  and  they  (aboue  all 
other  liuing  creatures)  cast  them  euery  yeare  once,  at  a  cer- 
taine  time  of  the  Spring  :  and  to  that  purpose,  a  little  before 
the  very  day  of  their  mewing,  they  seek  the  most  secret  cor- 
ners, and  most  out  of  the  way  in  the  whole  forest.  When  they 
are  pollards  they  keep  close  hidden,  as  if  they  were  disarmed.' 
Holland's  Trans.,  vol.  i.  p.  214  (1634). 

Florio,  in  his  i  New  World  of  Words,'  1611,  gives 
a  like  account  of  the  Italian  scornare,  'tounhorne, 
to  dishorne.  Also  to  scorne,  to  mocke,  to  vilifie, 
to  shame.' 

Both  these  words  come  from  a  Low  Latin  form, 
discornare  or  excornare,  to  render  ex-cornis,  or 
destitute  of  horns.  And  inasmuch  as  to  deprive  an 
animal  of  its  horns  is  to  deprive  it  of  its  chief 
glory  and  ornament,  to  render  it  quite  defenceless 
and  despicable,2  the  word  by  an  easy  transition  be- 
came applicable  to  any  species  of  contemptuous  and 
dishonourable  treatment,  e.g.,  c  Sothli  Eroude  with 
his  oost  dispiside  him  and  scornyde  him  clothid 
with  a  whit  cloth'  (WyclifTe,  Luke  xxiii.  11). 

1  Camden,  in  his  '  Remains,'  mentions  an  imprese  he  had  seen,  '  a 
Bucke  casting  his  homes  with  inermis  defoemis  over  him  ;  and 
under  him  cur  dolent  habentes ''  (p.  358,  ed.  1637).  *  Escorchie 
I'ont  comme  buef  escorne '  (Jourdains  de  Blaivies).  In  the  French 
argot,  ecorner=injurier  (Fr.  Michel,  Etude  sur  1' Argot). 

a  The  expression  an  '  humble  '  deer,  an  '  humble '  ewe,  is  applied 
to  one  without  horns  ;  but  this  is  a  corruption  of  hummel' d,  from 
prov.  Eng.  hummel,  hammel,  0.  N.  hamla,  to  mutilate,  lop,  A. -Sax. 
hamelan,  to  hamstring. 


44  SCORN. 

In  Spenser's  i  Faerie  Queene,'  when.  Diana  and 
her  nymphs  detected  the  prying  Faun, 

'  Forth  they  drew  him  by  the  homes,  and  shooke 
Nigh  all  to  peeces,  that  they  left  him  nought ; 
And  then  into  the  open  light  they  forth  him  brought.' 

Or,  in  other  words,  as  his  treatment  is  described 

a  little  afterwards — 

'  They  mocke  and  scorne  him,  and  him  fonle  miscall ; 
Some  by  the  nose  him  pluckt,  some  by  the  taile, 
And  by  his  goatish  beard  some  did  him  haile,' 

Bk.  VII.  canto  vi.  47,  49. 

The  secondary  sense  of  the  word — not  so  much 

to  make  one  hornless,  as  to  regard  him  as  such, 

to  despise  him  as  unarmed — may  be  illustrated  by 

a  passage  from  the  Epigrams  of  the  same  author, 

in  which  Cupid  exclaims,  when  smarting  from  the 

sting  of  a  bee,  before  heedlessly  set  at  nought  by 

him — 

'  The  Fly,  that  I  so  much  did  scorne, 
Hath  hurt  me  with  his  little  home.' 

It  will  be  remembered  that  amongst  the  Hebrews 
the  horn  was  regarded  as  the  natural  symbol  of 
power  and  honour,1  and  to  break  or  bring  down 
one's  horn  was  to  degrade  and  humble  him,  e.g., 
"  All  the  horns  of  the  wicked  also  will  I  cut  off, 
but  the  horns  of  the  righteous  shall  be  exalted  ' 

1  '  The  horn,  the  horn,  the  lusty  horn 
Is  not  a  thing  to  laugh  to  scorn.' 

As  You  Like  It,  iv.  2. 
Cf.  '  Addis  cornua  pauperi.' 

Hor.  Od.  iii.  21,  18. 


SCORN.  45 

(Ps.  Ixxv.  10),  q.d.,  <  I  will  scorn  the  "wicked.' 
Similarly,  to  cut  off  the  hair  and  beard,  which  are 
the  natural  ornament  of  the  human  head,  just  as 
horns  are  that  of  the  beast,  was  an  act  expressive 
of  contempt  and  mockery  (2  Sam.  x.  4),  and  to 
have  one's  head  so  denuded  was  to  be  made  a  sub- 
ject of  derision  (2  Kings  ii.  23).  In  Jeremiah 
(ix.  25;  xxv.  23;  xlix.  32,  marg.),  a  common 
term  of  reproach  for  the  Arabian  nations  is,  l  the 
men  with  shorn-off  whiskers  '  (Gesenius).  So  the 
Sanskrit  munda,  shorn,  hornless  (from  mund,  to 
shave),  a  baldpate,  means  also  low  and  mean. 
The  Gaelic  maol,  without  horns,  bald,  is  also 
i  foolish,  silly  ; '  maol-ckeannack,  bald-headed, 
stupid,  sheepish  ;  Irish  maol,  shaved,  bald,  also 
obtuse,  humble,  a  servant.  Compare  the  Eng. 
word  '  dod,'  '  Doddyd,  wythe-owte  hornysse,  De- 
cornutus,  incornutus'  (Prompt.  Parv.)  ;  of  trees  = 
lopped  of  its  foliage,  decomatus ;  i  dodderel,'  a 
pollard  ;  '  doddypate  '  or  '  doddipoll,'  a  blockhead 
or  numskull ;  -1  Frisian  dodd,  a  simpleton.  We 
may  also,  perhaps,  compare  '  to  contemn/  Lat. 
contemno,  temno,  which  is  the  representative  of  the 
Greek  Umno  (refiva)),  to  cut  off;  and  the  Greek 
verb  koldzo  (fcoXafo),  to  check  or  chastise,  coming 
from  kolos  (koXos),  docked,  clipped,  hornless. 


1 '  Doddy-poll  was  originally  applied  to  a  person  who  had  his  hair 
cut  very  short,  or  to  a  tonsured  priest.' 

Atkinson,  Cleveland  Dialect,  b.v.  '  Dodded.'' 


(  46  ) 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   WORD  'TRY'      THE  WORDS  { FLATTER' — (ADU- 
LA  TION ' — '  PERSUADE  ' — 4  INDULGE;  ETC. 

Words,  like  photographs  of  our  friends,  have  a 
natural  tendency  in  process  of  time  to  fade  and 
lose  the  sharpness  of  their  outlines.  Many,  which 
once  on  a  time  conveyed  to  the  mind  a  distinct 
and  vivid  picture,  lose  their  chief  characteristics 
after  a  while  ;  and  thus,  as  the  lights  grow  dark 
and  the  shadows  grow  pale,  a  word  becoming  quite 
general  and  undefined  in  its  meaning  assumes  an 
inexpressive  aspect  of  colourless  monotony,  like 
one  of  those  blanched  and  pallid  likenesses  which 
have  ceased  to  interest  us.  It  is  only  with  effort, 
and  by  holding  the  word,  as  it  were,  in  a  favour- 
able light,  that  we  can  trace  again  the  imprint  of 
individuality  which  formerly  it  possessed.  Of  the 
multitudes  of  such  dulled  and  exhausted  words 
which  are  stored  up  in  the  crowded  album  of  faded 
pictures  which  we  call  a  dictionary,  we  will  bring 
out  one  for  examination  in  the  present  chapter. 
We  will  take  the  word  '  try,'  in  such  a  sentence 
as  i  Jack  is  trying  to  skate' — a  use  of  the  word, 


TRY.  47 

by  the  way,  which  appears  to  be  quite  modern ; 
for  often  as  it  occurs  in  the  authorised  version,  it 
is  never  found  with  a  dependent  infinitive  in  the 
sense  of  attempting  to  do  a  thing.  The  verb  here 
is  so  simple  and  transparent  in  its  mere  auxiliary 
position,  that  we  would  not  expect  it  to  have  been 
impressed  once  with  a  graphic  and  full-toned 
significance.  Let  us  see  if  we  can  revive  the 
picture. 

To  'try'  is  the  French  trier,  (Pro v.)  triar  (to 
pick,  cull  out),  (0.  It.)  triare,  (It.)  tritare  (to 
triturate,  sift,  examine),  from  (Lat.)  tritare,  fre- 
quentative of  terere  (to  thrash). 

The  original  meaning  therefore  of  i  to  try,'  or, 
according  to  the  old  phrase,  i  to  try  out,'  was  to 
separate  the  grain  from  the  straw  and  chaff  by 
thrashing  and  winnowing,  to  distinguish  the 
worthless  from  the  good ;  then,  in  a  secondary 
sense,  to  sift  out  the  truth  by  examination,  to  put 
to  the  test,  to  make  assay  or  experiment  of,  to 
attempt.1 

Accordingly,  in  our  pattern  sentence  the  full 
and  fundamental  meaning  would  be,  Jack  is  dis- 
criminating, or  learning  by  experience  the  differ- 
ence, between   skating  and   not  skating — distin- 


1  "With  '  trial'  =  affliction,  &c,  cf.  the  very  similar  word  'tribu- 
lation.'    Trench,  Study  of  Words,  Lect.  II. 
Milton  speaks  of  a  life 

*  Tried  in  sharp  tribulation,  and  refined 
By  faith  and  faithful  works.'  Far.  Lost,  xi.  63. 


48  TRY. 

guishing  what  is  from  what  is  not  in  his  power 

— and  following  up  the  discovery  thus  made  by  a 

correspondent  effort,  perhaps  a  painful  one. 

The  word  is  frequently  used  in  its  primary  sense 

in  old  writers,  e.g. — 

'  Euentilare,  to  winnow  or  trie  in  the  wind.1 

Florio,  New  World  of  Words,  1611. 

'  The  wylde  come,  beinge  in  shape  and  greatnesse  lyke  to 

the  good,  if  they  be  mengled,  with  great  difficultie  wyll  be 

tryed  out,  but  either  in  a  narowe  holed  seeve  they  wyl  stil 

abide  with  the  good  corne,'  &c. 

Sir  T.  Elyot,  The  Governor.    Bk.  II.  c.  14  (Richardson,  Diet.) 

'  I  let  all  go  to  losse,  and  count  the  as  chaffe  or  refuse  (that 
is  to  say,  as  thinges  which  are  purged  out  and  refused  when  a 
thyng  is  tryed  and  made  perfect),  that  1  might  wynne  Christ.' 
Tyndall,  Works,  p.  219  (Richardson). 

'  Alas,  now  when  the  trial  doth  separate  the  chaff  from  the 
corn,  how  small  a  deal  it  is,  God  knoweth,  which  the  wind 
doth  not  blow  away.' 

Ridley,  quoted  in  Palmer's  Eccles.  Hist,  p.  272. 

'  Gods  (temptation)  is  like  the  tryall  of  gold,  1  Pet.  i.  7, 
which  the  oftener  it  is  tryed,  the  purer  it  waxeth  ;  the  devils, 
like  that  of  Manna,  which  stinketh  and  corrupteth  by  tryall. 
Gods  is  like  the  tryall  of  the  fanne,  Matth.  iii.  12,  the  devils 
like  that  of  the  scive,  Luke  xxii.  31,  which  lets  goe  the  flower 
and  keepes  the  branne.' 

Bp.  Andrewes,  Temptation  of  Clirist,  p.  11  (1642). 

Compare  this  also,  from  the  works  of  Isaac 
Williams — 

'  The  fidelity  of  Luke  here  appears  in  sad  contrast  with  the 
falling  away  of  Demas.  .  .  .  Now  the  trial  had  sifted  the 
chaff  and  the  wheat,  and  they  are  parted  asunder.  How  awful 
is  this  separation  ever  going  on  between  the  good  and  the 
bad  ! '  Sermons  on  Saints1  Days,  p.  332. 


TRY.  49 

So  '  a  try'  is  an  old  word  for  a  sieve  or  riddle.1 
i  This  breaking  of  his  has  been  but  a  try  for  his 
friends '  (Shakspere,  Tirnon,  v.  1),  meaning  his 
bankruptcy  is  only  a  device  for  distinguishing  his 
true  friends  from  the  false.  '  To  try  tallow '  is, 
I  believe,  still  the  technical  phrase  for  separating 
the  fat  from  the  refuse  by  melting  it.  This  word 
was  also  used  especially  for  the  testing  and  purify- 
ing of  gold  by  smelting  it  in  a  furnace,  and  thus 
separating  it  from  all  dross  and  baser  admixture. 
Then  in  a  figurative  sense  it  was  applied  to  the 
testing  of  a  man's  faith  and  patience  under  the 
fiery  heat  of  temptation  (1  Pet.  i.  7).  In  the  Old 
Testament  Scriptures  the  Hebrew  word  tzdrap/i,2 
to  melt  a  metal,  and  so  free  it  from  dross  (Ps.  xii. 
7  ;  Isa.  i.  25),  is  often  used  for  the  proving  and 
purifying  of  the  human  heart  (Ps.  xvii.  3,  xxvi.  2, 
cv.  19;  Dan.  xi.  35),  and  our  word  £  try/  when 
employed  to  translate  it  in  those  passages,  must 
no  doubt  be  understood  in  its  proper  and  original 
sense — '  to  sift  and  separate  from  impurity.' 

*  Compare  their  temptations  to  a  fire  which  burns  out  dross 
and  corruption,  and  makes  the  metal  purer,  and  so  God  may 
he  said  to  tempt,  "  I  will  sit  as  a  refiuer  and  purifier  of 
silver  ; "  because  by  this  fiery  trial  the  virtues  of  His  children 
are  made  the  clearer,  their  vicious  inclinations  beiug  separated 

1  Vide  quotation  from  Holland  in  Trench,  Deficiencies  in  English 
Dictionaries,  p.  17. 
2  C^# 


50  TRY. 

and  removed.     "  When  He  hath  tried  me,  I  shall  come  forth 
as  gold."'  Bp.  Nicholson  on  the  Catechism,  1661. 

A  comparison  of  the  following  verses  in  our 
authorised  version,  in  each  of  which  the  word  we 
are  examining  occurs,  will  show  conclusively  that 
the  primary  meaning  was  ever  present  to  the  minds 
of  the  translators : — Job  xxiii.  10 ;  Ps.  xii.  6, 
lxvi.  10,  cxix.  140  (marg.) ;  Prov.  xvii.  3  ;  Jer. 
ix.  7  ;  Dan.  xii.  10  ;  Zech.  xiii.  9  ;  1  Cor.  iii.  13 ; 
1   Pet.  i.  7  ;   Eev.  iii.  18. 

In  each  and  all  of  these  passages  there  is  a 
direct  reference  to  the  refining  of  silver  or  gold 
in  the  furnace,  and  this  idea,  though  few  persons 
know  or  remember  it  when  reading  them,  is  accu- 
rately conveyed  by  our  verb  '  to  try.'  So  Shaks- 
pere,  in  his  lines  on  the  silver  casket — 

*  The  fire  seven  times  tried  this  : 
Seven  times  tried  that  judgment  is, 
That  did  never  choose  amiss.' 

Merchant  of  Venice,  ii.  9. 

'  Shall  I  think  in  silver  she's  immured 
Being  ten  times  undervalued  to  tried  gold  1 ' 

Ibid.  ii.  7. 

Similarly,  to  c  put  a  person  to  the  test/  or  to 
'test'  him,  meant  originally  to  place  him  in  the 
test,  which  is  an  old  word  for  the  crucible  or  melt- 
ing-pot of  the  refiner,  wherewith  he  assayed  the 


TRY.  51 

quality  or  value  of  a  metal  submitted  to  him  (It. 
testo,  Lat.  testa,  an  earthen  vessel).1 
Those  who  have 


*  Beguiled  with  a  counterfeit, 
.     .     .     which,  bei: 
Proves  valueless,' 2 


which,  beiug  touch'd  and  tried, 


and  whose  virtue,  therefore,  has  failed  under  the 
test  or  fiery  trial,  carrying  out  the  figure,  were 
called  c  reprobate ' — a  word  properly  applied  to 
metals  which  do  not  stand  the  proof,  and  are 
therefore  condemned  as  adulterate,  or  rejected  as 
spurious  (Lat.  reprobus),3  e.g. — 

1  Keprobate  silver  shall  men  call  them,  because  the  Lord 
hath  rejected  them.'  Jer.  vi.  30. 

This  comparison  of  trials  or  afflictive  dispensa- 
tions to  the  fierce  action  of  fire,  which  exercises, 
nevertheless,  an  ameliorating  and  purifying  virtue, 
by  consuming  whatever  of  worthless  may  be  mingled 
with  the  good,  is  common  to  many  languages. 
For  example,  Kidd,  in  his  work  on  China  (p.  44), 
tells  us  that  the  Chinese  symbol  meaning  <  to 
refine  metals '  is  '  compounded  of  ho,  fire,  and  keen, 
to     separate,    which    exhibits    both    the    act    of 


1  Cf.  It.  coppellare,  *  to  refine  or  bring  gold  or  silver  to  his  right 
and  due  test  or  loye '  (Florio),  from  copjoella,  a  cupel  or  melting- 
pot. 

2  Shakspere,  King  John,  hi.  1. 

3  Eastwood  and  Wright,  Bible  Word-Book,  sv.  It  translates 
Gk.  ddoKi/xos,  opp.  to  doKifios,  and  So/ct^udfw,  which  latter  is  the  word 
for  trying  and  proving  a  metal,  &c,  in  1  Cor.  iii.  13  j  1  Pet.  i.  7,  &c. 


52  TRY. 

separating  the  dross  from  the  pure  metal,  and  the 
agent  (fire)  by  which  that  separation  is  effected ; 
the  moral  use  of  which,  collated  with  that  beauti- 
ful passage,1  "  He  will  sit  as  a  refiner's  fire,"  is 
illustrated  in  the  (Chinese)  phrase,  "  to  try  men's 
hearts,"  by  afflictive  events  or  prosperous  circum- 
stances ;  that  is,  to  test  human  character  by  means 
of  providential  dispensations.'  'Another  symbol 
is  formed  of  metal  and  to  separate.  This  is  expres- 
sive not  only  of  refining  metals  in  the  furnace,  but 
of  man  undergoing  a  trial  for  the  purpose  of 
proving  and  benefiting  him  :  whence  it  is  used 
to  denote  experience,  maturity,  expertness,  but 
whether  in  a  good  or  bad  sense  depends  upon  the 
context '  {Id.  p.  45). 

'  By  many  a  stern  and  fiery  blast 
The  world's  rude  furnace  must  thy  blood  refine.' 

Keble,  Christian  Year. 

The  same  idea  is  beautifully  developed  in  Miss 
Proctor's  well-known  poem  of  '  Cleansing  Fires  ' — 

1  Let  thy  gold  be  cast  in  the  furnace, 
Thy  red  gold,  precious  and  bright ; 
Do  not  fear  the  hungry  fire, 

With  its  caverns  of  burning  light  : 
And  thy  gold  shall  return  more  precious, 

Free  from  every  spot  and  stain  ; 
For  gold  must  be  tried  by  fire, 

As  a  heart  must  be  tried  by  pain  ! ' 

Poems,  i.  63. 

1  Mai.  iii.  2,  3. 


T  RY.  53 

These  lines,  and  still  better  the  following — 

1  The  fettered  spirits  linger 
In  purgatorial  pain, 
With  penal  fires  effacing 
Their  last  faint  earthly  stain/ 

Poems,  ii.  190. 

bring  out  in  a  very  clear  and  striking  manner  the 
connection  and  ultimate  identity  of  the  words 
'  fire,'  '  pain,'  l  penal,'  '  pure/  and  c  purgatory,'  all 
of  which  have  sprung,  philologists  tell  us,  from 
one  and  the  same  root — the  Sanskrit  root  pu  (to 
purify).  For  hence  come  (1)  Lat.  purus,  '  pure,' 
pur  go  (i.e.,pur-igo),  Ho  cleanse/  '  purgatory ' x  (the 
place  of  cleansing)  ;  (2)  (Sans.)  puna, punt,  (Lat.) 
punire,  (to  make  pure,  punish — cf.  castigo,  to  make 
chaste,  chastise),  Gk.  poine  (jroivrj),  Lat.  poena, 
'pain/  'penal/  (Goth.) /on  (gen.  funins)  =  fire; 
(3)  Gk.pur  (irvp),  (A.-Sax.)  fyr,  'fire.' 

Max  Miiller  quotes  from  the  ancient  Sanskrit 
Hymns,  entitled  the  i  Atharva-Veda/  an  address  to 
the  God  of  Fire — *  The  prophets  carry  thee  as  the 
Purifier  (pavitram) :  purify  (puniM)  us  from  all 
misdeeds '  (Chips,  vol.  iv.  p.  228). 

And  how  true  it  is  that  fires,  which  seemed  only 
to  punish,  are  overruled  and  made  to  purify  and 
refine — that  the  fiery  heat  of  pain,  persecution, 
and  temptation,  if  entered  into,  and  borne,  with  a 

1  With  the  penal  fires  of  pwrgatory  compare, 

'Infectum  eluitur  scelus,  aut  exuriturigni.' 

Virgil,  JEn.  Lib.  VI.  742. 


54  TRY. 

faithful  and  unswerving  heart,  will  be  made  unto 
us,  not  only  an  effectual  means  of  deliverance  from 
bondage  and  oppression,  but  even  of  furtherance, 
and  advancement  to  heights  hitherto  unattainable, 
we  may  learn  from  the  history  of  the  Three  Holy 
Children.  When  they  were  i  tried  as  the  gold  in 
the  fire,'  and  their  faith  and  allegiance  to  God 
were  tested  in  the  glare  of  the  seven-times  heated 
furnace,  so  far  from  destroying  them,  it  became 
to  them  the  very  presence-chamber  of  their  God, 
wherein  He  revealed  Himself  to  them  sensibly,  as 
He  had  never  done  before ;  it  served  but  to  burn 
away  the  bonds  with  which  they  were  before  held 
fast,  for  whereas  they  were  cast  in  bound,  they  now 
walked  about  loose;  and  eventually  it  restored 
them  unharmed,  so  that  all  men  marvelled,  many 
were  turned  to  believe  in  Him  that  had  such 
power  to  save,  and  they  themselves  were  pro- 
moted to  very  great  honour.  When  they  called, 
therefore,  upon  the  whole  creation  to  join  them  in 
their  song  of  thanksgiving — that  earliest  anthem 
of  Te  Deum — well  might  they  address  that  con- 
suming element  above  all,  which,  in  their  hour  of 
sorest  need,  had  sheltered  them  in  a  canopy  of 
flame,  and  say,  "  0  ye  fire  and  heat,  bless  ye  the 
Lord ;  praise  Him,  and  magnify  Him  for  ever ! ' 
Accordingly  the  lesson  which  this  word  '  trial '  has 
for  us  in  the  fulness  of  its  meaning,  as  literally 
exemplified  in  the  case  of  the  Three  Children,  may 


SEARCH.  55 

be  drawn  out  in  these  words  of  the  wise  Son  of 
Sirach — i  My  son,  if  thou  come  to  serve  the 
Lord,  prepare  thy  soul  for  temptation.  For 
gold  is  tried  in  the  fire,  and  acceptable  men 
in  the  furnace  of  adversity.' 1  For  though,  in 
the  words  of  another  apocryphal  writer,  '  He  hath 
not  tried  us  in  the  fire,  as  He  did  them,  for  the 
examination  of  their  hearts,  neither  hath  He  taken 
vengeance  on  us,'  yet,  '  the  Lord  doth  scourge 
them  that  come  near  unto  Him,  to  admonish  them.'2 
'  But  the  souls  of  the  righteous  are  in  the  hand 
of  God,  and  there  shall  no  torment  touch  them. 
And  having  been  a  little  chastised,  they  shall  be 
greatly  rewarded  ;  for  God  proved  them  and  found 
them  worthy  for  Himself.  As  gold  in  the  furnace 
hath  He  tried  them,  and  received  them  as  a  burnt- 
offering.  And  in  the  time  of  their  visitation  they 
shall  shine.' 3 

If,  as  may  be  conjectured,  the  word  (  search,' 
though  itself  of  quite  another  origin,4  has  been  ap- 
proximated both  in  form  and  meaning  to  the  Old 
English  c  searce,'  a  sieve,  it  would  afford  a  close 
parallel  to  the  words  '  try,'  to  sift,  '  try/  a  riddle. 
Compare  the  French  c  sasser,  to  sift,  searce  ; ' '  sas, 
a  ranging  sieve,  or  searce  ; '  tamiser,  to  searce,  to 
boult,  to  pass  or  strain  through  a  searce'  (Cotgrave). 

1  Ecclus.  ii.  1,5.  2  Judith  vii.  27.  3  Wisdom  iii.  1, 5-7. 

4  From  the  Fr.  ckercher,  It.  cercare,  Lat.  circare,  to  go  around, 
from  circus,  a  circle. 


56  DISCRETION. 

'  The  men  of  Bercea  would  not  receive  Pauls  Doctrin 
before  they  had  tried  it  :  and  how  did  they  try  it  ?  It  is  said 
that  they  searched  the  Scripture. 

II.  Smith,  Sermons,  p.  145  (1657). 

They  sifted  and  examined  the  apostle's 
statements,  and  only  accepted  them  when  they 
had  been  passed  through  the  scarce  of  Scrip- 
ture. 

■  Let  vs  search  deepe  and  trie  our  better  parts.' 

Sir  John  Beaumont  (d.  1623),  The  Miserable 
State  of  Man. 

6  To  sift,  to  search,  also  to  chuse  or  cull  out,'  is 
Florio's  definition  of  the  Italian  cernere. 

The  synonymous  word  in  Latin  yields  us  our 
verb  '  to  discern  '  (Lat.  dis-cernere),  meaning  origi- 
nally to  sift  apart,  or  separate  by  riddling,  the 
good  from  the  refuse.1  A  person  who  is  careful 
in  thus  making  a  difference,  who  knows  how  to 
discriminate  in  doubtful  cases,  refusing  the  evil 
and  choosing  the  good,  is  said  to  have  '  discretion ' 
(Lat.  discretio).  Fuller,  in  his  '  Church  History,' 
says  of  a  certain  legendary  story  of  doubtful 
credit,  that  it  '  calleth  aloud  to  the  discretion  of 
the  reader  to  fan  the  chaff  from  the  corn  ;  and  to 
his  industry,  to  rub  the  dust  from  the  gold  which 


1  Compare  the  Sp.  cernir,  to  sift  meal,  cierna,  the  flower  or 
best  of  anything;  It.  cerna,  a  culling  or  choosing  out;  Lat. 
cribrum,  a  sieve,  whence  Fr.  cribler,  to  sift,  our  '  garble.'  Akin 
is  the  Gk.  krino>  to  separate,  distinguish  between  good  and  bad, 
decide,  try  ;  Sans.  Jcri,  to  separate.     But  see  Pictet,  i.  203. 


SKILL.  57 

almost  of  necessity  will  cleave  to  matters  of  such 
antiquity'  (vol.  i.  p.  23,  ed.  1868).  Many  other 
instances  might  be  adduced  of  words  which,  having 
a  primitive  signification  of  winnowing,  separating, 
or  dividing,  have  come  to  be  used  in  ordinary 
language  in  the  sense  of  examining,  trying,  un- 
derstanding, or  perceiving.  For  example,  if  we 
say  one  is  a  man  of  science,  of  skill,  or  of  intelli- 
gence ;  i  science  '  (Lat.  scientia,  knowledge)  is  from 
scio,  to  know,  which  is  from  Sanskrit  root  k'hd,  to 
divide,  seen  also  in  the  Greek  verbs  keid,  kedzo, 
to  cleave ; 1  '  skill '  is  the  0.  Norse  skil,  separation, 
discrimination,  Dan.  skille,  to  sever,  put  asunder.2 
To  skill  in  Old  English  means  to  matter,  or  make 
a  difference,  as  well  as  to  know  or  understand  ;  in 
some  of  the  provincial  dialects  it  signifies  to  hull 
oats ;  and  spelt  skile,  it  means  to  separate.  While 
'  intelligent,'  from  the  Latin  intelligere  {i.e.,  inter- 
legere,  to  pick  out  here  and  there),  is  applicable 
to  a  person  who  exercises  judgment  in  select- 
ing, and  putting  this  and  that  together.  A 
schoolboy  who  is  quick  in  construing,  in  picking 
out  the  verb  and  the  nominative  and  dependent 
genitive,  when  dispersed  over  a  long  and  involved 
Latin  sentence,  might  be  accurately  described  as 
i  intelligent.'     With  '  skill '  we  may  compare  the 


1  Ferrar,  Comparative  Grammar,  vol.  i.  p.  71. 

2  Scale,   shell,   skull,  shield,  and  inauy  other   words   are    con- 
nected. 


58  discuss. 

Sanskrit  word  patu,  skilful,  coming  from  pat,  to 
divide  (originally  j^cirt,  Lat.  par(t)-s)} 

In  Hebrew,  bin,  to  separate,  means  also  to  dis- 
cern, distinguish,  understand,  or  know ;  and  the 
participle  ndbon  means  intelligent,  skilful.  Simi- 
larly, Lat.  video,  to  see,  akin  to  Gk.  vid-ein 
(fiSelv),  Ger.  wissen,  our  l  wit,'  Sans,  vid,  to  know, 
probably  signified  originally  to  separate  or  dis- 
tinguish one  thing  from  another.  Compare  Lat. 
divido,  to  divide.  In  Hebrew,  bdqar,  to  cleave,  in  a 
secondary  sense  means  to  inspect,  consider,  think 
upon.  In  the  passage  Psalm  cxxxix.  3,  rendered 
by  Gesenius,  (  Thou  hast  searched  me  in  my  walk- 
ing and  in  my  lying  down,'  the  verb  in  the  ori- 
ginal implies  '  Thou  hast  winnowed  me,' — zdrdh,  to 
winnow,  then  to  shake  out  and  examine  thoroughly. 
Beside  this  we  may  set  our  word  c  to  discuss,' 
coming,  as  it  does,  from  the  Latin  verb  discutio 
(dis-quatio),  to  shake  asunder.  Its  proper  signifi- 
cation is  to  separate  and  loosen  by  shaking,  to 
disentangle  and  clear  a  subject  by  getting  rid  of 
the  extraneous  matter  with  which  it  has  been 
encumbered.  Spenser  uses  the  word  in  its  primi- 
tive sense — 

'All  regard  of  shame  she  had  discusV  {i.e.,  shaken  off). 

Faerie  Queene,  III.  i.  48. 

In  old   medical  writers   it  means   to  disperse 

1  Ferrar,   Comparative  Grammar,  vol.  i.  p.  337. 


CANVASS.  59 

humours.  Holland  tells  us  that  a  decoction  of 
Parthenium  is  good  '  to  discusse  all  inflammations  ' 
(<  Translation  of  Pliny,'  vol.  ii.  p.  Ill,  1635). 

Our  verb  '  to  canvass '  meant  originally  to  sift 
or  examine  by  passing  through  canvas. 

1  Wening  it  perhaps  no  decorum  that  shepheards  should  be 
seene  in  matter  of  so  deep  insight,  or  canvase  a  case  of  so 
doubtful  judgment.' 

General  Argument  to  the  Shepheard's  Calender. 

Compare  Fr.  '  berner,  to  vanne  or  winnow  corn, 
also  to  canvass  or  toss  in  a  sive '  (Cotgrave). 

Somewhat  similarly,  Lat.  putare,  to  think,  comes 
from  the  adjective  putus,  pure,  unmixed,  clean, 
and  this  from  the  root  pu,  above.  It  meant  first 
to  expurgate  or  cleanse  from  all  superfluous  ad- 
mixture ;  then  to  clear  up  a  matter,  to  reckon  up 
and  balance  an  arithmetical  account,  as  we  speak 
of  clearing  fractions,  or  liquidating  accounts;  then, 
of  mental  operations,  to  distinguish  clearly. 

The  verb  to  '  distinguish  '  itself  meant  once  on 
a  time  to  prick  off,1  as  the  markers  at  the  uni- 
versity, when  calling  the  roll,  mark  off  with  a  pin 
the  students  who  answer  to  their  names.  A  man 
of  '  distinction  '  is  one  separated  from  the  com- 
mon herd,  and  set  apart  as  superior  to  his  fellows. 
Compare  Heb.  ndqad,  to  prick,  mark  with  points, 


1  Stinguo,  to  prick,  is  from  the  root  stig,  which  is  also  seen 
in  '  stimulate/  Lat.  sti(g)mulus,  '  instigate,'  '  instinct,'  '  extinct,' 
'stake,'  'sting,'  Gk.  stizo,  'stigma,'  &c. 


60  FLATTER. 

also  to  select  or  set  apart  things  which  are  of  a 
better  quality  than  the  rest  by  marking  them 
off  (Gesenius).  In  like  manner,  when  we  give 
special  attention  to  anything  that  comes  under 
our  notice,  affixing,  as  it  were,  a  mental  asterisk 
to  it,  or  ticking  it  off  in  the  tablets  of  ourmemorj', 
we  are  said  to  '  mark,'  or  '  remark '  it,  Ger. 
merken. 

To  take  another  case  of  a  word  which  had 
once  a  sensible  image,  that  now  eludes  general 
cognisance,  but  which  only  needs  to  have  a  de- 
veloping solution  applied  to  it  (so  to  speak)  in 
order  to  bring  out  the  latent  picture,  let  us  sub- 
mit the  verb  6  flatter '  to  the  philological  '  bath,' 
and  note  the  interesting  results  of  the  process  as 
it  grows  into  a  concrete  distinctness. 

*  Flatter,'  the  French  flatter x  (to  pat,  stroke, 
caress,  flatter)  audflater  ('  to  flatter;  sooth,  smooth; 
also,  to  claw,  stroke,  clap  gently]  Cotgrave),  (Pro v.) 
flatar,  is  a  derivative  from  '  flat '  (A.- Sax.  and  0. 
Norse)  flat,  (0.  H.  Ger.)  A*,  (Gk.)  pldx  (77-Aaf), 


1  Placare  would  probably  be  in  Latin  the  etymological  represen- 
tative oi  flatter,  with  a  primitive  meaning  of  flattening  or  smoothing. 
"We  frequently  read  of  a  sea-god  in  Ovid  or  Virgil  cequora  placat,  he 
smoothes  the  waters.  Compare  plac-enta,  a  flat  cake  (  =  0.  Eng. 
Jlathc,  0.  H.  Ger.  flado),  pldga,  a  flat  surface,  planus  for  plac-nus, 
planca  for  plac-na,  a  flat  board,  a  '  plank.'  The  root  is  plac  or 
plag,  seen  in  Gk.  plak-s,  Fr.  plaque  and  plat,  Ger.  flach,  '  flat,' 
jlachen,  to  flatten.  Of  the  same  origin,  beyond  doubt,  and  affording 
an  interesting  parallel  to  '  flatter,'  are  the  words  Jlatch,  in  the  dialect 
of  Cleveland  a  flatterer,  Danish  flegrc,  Swed.  Jleha,  Scotch  fleech  or 
flcich,  to  flatter. 


FLATTER.  61 

(Fr.)  plat  (flat),  '  Bailler  du  plat  de  la  langue, 
to  sooth,  flatter ',  A  metaphor  from  a  dog's  licking  ■ 
(Cotgrave). 

The  form  i  to  flat  •  is  found  in  Gawin  Douglas's 
translation  of  the  <  JEneid  '  (1553)— 

*  Quhat  sliclit  dissait  quentlie  to  flat  and  fene.' 

Prologue  of  the  Fourth  BoJce. 

Accordingly  the  meaning  of  the  word  would 
have  passed  through  the  following  transitions : — 
(1)  To  make  flat  or  even ;  (2)  to  smooth  down  the 
hair  of  an  animal,  to  lick;  (3)  to  stroke,  caress;1 
(4)  not  to  go  against  the  grain,  but  to  humour  a 
person's  weaknesses,  to  flatter,  or  as  Burns  ex- 
presses it — 

'  For  G — d  sake,  sirs  !  then  speak  her  fair, 
An'  straiJc  her  cannie  wi}  the  hair.'' 

Tennyson,  therefore,  would  seem  to  have  divined 
the  true  force  of  the  word  when  he  wrote — 

1  Then  to  his  proud  horse  Lancelot  turn'd,  and  smooth'd 
The  glossy  shoulder,  humming  to  himself. 
Half-envious  of  the  flattering  hand,  she  drew 
Nearer  and  stood.' 

Idylls  of  the  King,  p.  165  (ed.  1859). 

So  '  to  stroke '  in  prov.  Eng.  means  to  soothe, 
to  flatter  (Wright,  Prov.  Diet.),  and  *  stroker '  is 


1  Gk.  Karappifa.  M.  Littre  quotes  the  following  instances  of 
flatter  being  used  in  this  sense  : — '  Ton  cou  nerveux  [d'un  cheval]  de 
sa  main  fid  flatte'  (Millev.);  *  De  la  main  qui  leflatte  il  se  croit 
redoute'  (Voltaire). 


62  FLATTER. 

used  for   a  flatterer  by  Ben   Jonson.1     Compare 

the  following : — 

'Campian  .  .  .  being  excellent  at  the  flat  hand  of 
Ehetorick  (which  rather  gives  pats  then  blows),  but  he  could 
not  bend  his  fist  to  dispute.' 2 

Fuller,  Holy  State,  p.  60  (ed.  1648). 

1  This  is  a  fairing,  gentle  sir,  indeed, 
To  soothe  me  up  with  such  smooth  flattery.' 

Greene,  Friar  Bacon  (1594),  p.  157  (ed.  Dyce). 

'  His  [the  flatterer's]  Art  is  nothing  but  a  delightful  coozen- 
age,  whose  rules  are  smoothing,  and  garded  with  perjurie  ; 
whose  scope  is  to  make  men  fooles,  in  teaching  them  to  over- 
value themselves,  and  to  tickle  his  friends  to  death.' 

Bp.  Hall,  Characterismes  of  Vices,  p.  173  {Works,  1634). 

'  Let  not  his  smoothing  ivords 

Bewitch  your  hearts 

.        .         .        .        .        for  all  this  flattering  gloss 
He  will  be  found  a  dangerous  protector.' 

Shahs.,  2d  Ft.  Henry  VI.,  i.  1. 

1  Dangerous  peer 
That  smoothest  it  so  with  king  and  common-weal.' 

Shake.,  2d  Ft.  Henry  VL,  ii.  1. 

'His  [Henry  III.'s]  expression,  "licking  the  chancery,"  hath 
left  posterity  to  interpret  it,  whether  taxing  him  for  ambition, 
liquorishly  longing  for  that  place;  or  for  adulation,  by  the 
soft  smoothing  of  flattery  making  his  way  thereunto.' 

Fuller,  Worthies,  vol.  i.  p.  117  (repr.  1811). 

There  are  numerous  instances  of  words  expres- 


1  Magnetic  Lady,  iv.  1.  Cf.  '  To  wipe  a  person  down,'  to  flatter 
or  pacify  (Slang  Dictionary). 

2  There  is  an  evident  reference  here  (as  pointed  out  by  the 
brothers  Hare,  '  Guesses  at  Truth,'  1st  Ser.  p.  137,  3d  ed.)  to  Zeno's 
illustration,  '  Cum  autem  diduxerat,  et  manum  dilataverat,  palmse 
illius  similem  eloquentiam  esse  dicebat '  (Cic.  de  Orat.,  32). 


FLATTER.  63 

sive   of  the  idea  of  flattering    having  originally 
meant  to  smooth,1  or  stroke  down,  e.g. — 

1.  '  To  claw '  is  very  commonly  used  in  old  writers 
for  to  flatter — 

1  Claw  no  man  in  his  humour.' 

Shaks.,  Much  Ado  About  Nothing,  i.  3. 

1  Some  object  that  he  [Cambden]  claws  and  natters  the  Gran- 
dees of  his  own  age.'  Fuller,  H.  State,  p.  137  (1648). 

'Why  the  King  cajoleth  the  great  Monasteries  ...  in  the 
foresaid  preamble  the  King  fairly  claweth  the  great  Monas- 
teries.' Fuller,  Church  Hist,  ii.  211  (ed.  1842). 

So  c  clawback '  was  used  for  flatterer,  e.g. — 

1  Parasite,  a  clawback,  flatterer,  soother,  smoother,  for  good 
chear  sake.'  Cutgrave. 

2.  6  To  curry/  or  c  curry  favour,'  originally  to 
e  currg  Javel,2  (Fr.)  etriller  fauveau,  to  curry  the 
chestnut  horse,  to  soothe  an  animal  by  rubbing 
him  down  and  combing  him,  to  flatter. 

'  Thei  curreth  kynges  and  her  back  claweth.' 

P.  P.  Creole,  c.  iii. 

So  we  meet  (Dut.)  streelen,  to  flatter,  soothe, 
from  sir  eel,  a  curry-comb.3 

3.  '  To  glaver,'  or  6  glafTer '  (prov.  Eng.)  =  to 
flatter,  connected  with  (Welsh)  glaf  (=  smooth), 
(prov.  Bug.)  glafe^  (Lat.)  glaber  (smooth),  'glib.' 


1  So  the  Latin  verb  calvor,  to  deceive  (whence  calumnia),  seems 
to  contain  the  root  of  calvus,  smooth. 

2  Vide  Douce's  Illustrations  of  Shakspere,  p.  291. 

3  Philolog.  Soc.  Proceedings,  gvol.  iii.  p.  149. 


64  FLATTER. 

4.  (Russ.)  gladit  (to  flatter,  smooth,  stroke), 
(Boliem.)  Idaditi,  connected  with  (Dut)  glad,  (Ger.) 
glatt,  (Bohem.)  hladhj  (=  smooth),  cf.  l  glatte 
worte'  =  flattery  (Ger.,  Prov.  ii.  16).  So  (Swed.) 
sliita  ord  (smooth,  i.e.,  flattering,  words),  from  slkt 
(smooth),  (Goth.)  slaihts,  (Ger.)  slicht,  l  sleek.'  * 

Compare  — 

'  The  schilling  vissage  of  the  god  Cupicle, 
And  his  dissimilit  slekit  wourdes  quhyte.' 

Gawin  Douglas,  Bulces  of  Eneados  (1553). 

5.  (Fr.)  palper  ('  to  handle  gently,  stroak 
softly,  also  to  flatter,  sooth,  cog,'  Cotgrave),  (Lat.) 
palpari? 

6.  (Fr.)  chatouiller,  'to  tickle,  touch  gently, 
also  to  flatter,  claw,  smooth,  please  with  faire 
words/  (Cotgrave). 

7.  (It.)  lisciare  ('  to  smooth,  to  sleeke,  to 
stroke,  or  claw  smoothly  and  softly.  Also,  to  flatter 
or  cog  withall,'  Florio),  from  liscio  (smooth), 
Gk.  \iaaos. 

8.  (Prov.  Eng.)  rchane  (to  stroke,  to  coax), 
Tchanter  (to  flatter),  (North). — Wright.  (Cleve- 
land) wholly,  to  stroke  the  back  of  an  animal  gently, 
also  to  wheedle  or  cajole  a  person  (Atkinson). 


1  Cf.  Ps.  xii.  2 ;  Prov.  vi.  24,  where  the  original  implies  smooth 
speeches,  &c. 

2  Cf  '  Cui  male  si  palpere  recalcitrat  undique  tutus'  (Hor.  Sat. 
ii.  1,  20).  So  Buttmann  connects  Gk.  airarav  (to  deceive)  with 
d.Tra.(petv  and  dirreadai  (to  touch,  handle),  (Lexilogus,  s.  v.) 


FLATTER.  65 

9.  (Ir.)  sliomaim,  (Gael.)  sliom  (to  flatter), 
from  sliom  (smooth,  sleek,  '  slim  '). 

10.  (Lat.)  mulcere  (1,  to  stroke  down  ;  2,  soothe, 
flatter),  connected  with  mulgere  (to  milk  a  cow), 
dfieXyco,  (Ir.)  miolc  (milk)  ;  and  near  akin  are  the 
(Ir.)  miolcaim}  (to  flatter,  soothe)  and 

11.  (Lith.)  milzu  (1,  to  stroke  down,  milk;  2, 
cajole,  persuade). 

12.  (Ir.)  bladairim  (I  flatter),  bladar  (flattery, 
soothing),  {cf,  6  blether '  and  '  blather')  from 
bladh  (smooth,  flat,  also  flattery).  With  n  inserted, 
blandar,  blandaraim,  which  seem  to  account  for 
the  Latin  blandus,  blandior  (to  flatter.)  '  Blan- 
disseur,  sl  soother,  smoother,  flattering  sycophant, 
or  claw-back '  (Cotgrave). 

13.  (Ger.)  schmeicheln,  (Dut.)  smeecken,  (Dan.) 
smigre  (=  to  flatter),  Eng.  '  smicker,'  (Swed.) 
smeka  (to  stroke,  caress),  smickra,  to  flatter. 
Skinner  (Etymologicon,  1671)  gives  Eng.  to 
6  smuckle  '  =  to  flatter. 

14.  (Heb,)  chdlaq2  (to  be  smooth),  Hiphil 
(1)  to  smooth,  (2)  to  flatter  (Prov.  xxix.  5  ; 
Ps.  xxxvi.  3),  (?  cf.  Ko\a%).  A  cognate  word 
is — 


1  Cf.  (Ir.)  bleacktaire  (1,  a  milker;  2,  a  soother),  Ueachd  (milk), 
&c.     Similarly  (Gk.)  dwirrio  (to  flatter,  orig.  to  caress  or  stroke  with 
the  hand),  has  been  traced  to  the  Sanskrit  root  duh  (to  milk). 
M.  Miiller  quoted  by  Pictet,  Orig.  Ind.  ii.  25. 
2  P?n. 

E 


66  FLATTER. 

15.  (Heb.)  cMld/c1  (to  be  smooth),  Piel  (1)  to 
stroke  or  smooth  anyone's  face,  (2)  soothe,  caress, 
flatter.  Thus  we  are  told  in  a  curious  anthropo- 
morphic phrase  in  Zech.  vii.  2,  that  Sherezer  and 
others  were  sent  '  to  stroke  the  face  of  Jehovah,  i.e., 
to  conciliate  or  entreat  His  favour.2 

16.  (Esthon.)  libbe  (smooth,  flattering),  con- 
nected with  libbama  (to  lick).  Cf  (Prov.)  lepar  (1, 
to  lick  ;  2,  to  cajole,  flatter). 

17.  (Prov.)  lagot  (flattery),  (Sp.)  lagotear  (to 
flatter),  connected  with  (QoW\.)\>i-laigo7i  (to  lick), 
Diez.     Compare 

'  I  learn  that  smooth-tongu'd  flatteries  are 
False  language.'  Quarks,  Grammar  of  the  Heart. 

And    the    German    proverb,     '  Schmeichler    sind 
Katzen,  die  vorne  lecken  und  hinten  kratzen.' 
And  so  Macaulay — 

'  The  amiable  king  had  a  trick  of  giving  a  sly  scratch  with 
one  hand,  while  patting  and  stroking  with  the  other.' 

Essay  on  Frederick  the  Great. 

*  It  is  observable  that  which  way  soever  a  wicked  man 
useth  his  tongue,  he  cannot  use  it  well.  Mordet  detrahendo, 
lingit  adulando :  He  bites  by  detraction,  licks  by  flattery  ; 
and  either  of  these  touches  rankle  ;  he  doth  no  less  hurt  by 
licking  than  by  biting.' 

Thos.  Adams,  Sermon  on  the  Taming  of  the  Tongue. 

1  n^- 

2  Vide,  Keil  on  Minor  Prophets,  in  he,  vol.  i.  (Clark,  Trans.) 


ADULATION.  67 

Synonymous  with  flattery  is  i  adulation/  the 
Latin  adulatio,  from  adulor.  This  last  word  has 
sorely  perplexed  almost  every  etymologist  that 
has  attempted  to  analyse  it ;  and  yet,  if  I  am  not 
mistaken,  the  true  explanation  of  it  is  neither  dif- 
ficult nor  recondite.  The  most  absurd  and  con- 
flicting derivations  have  been  suggested;  for 
example,  ad  aulam  (from  i  standing  in  the  hall ') 
by  Wedgwood,  ad  and  a  supposed  word  via  (= 
Greek  ovpa,  '  tail '),  from  a  dog  wagging  its  tail,1 
by  Donaldson  (Varron.,  p.  259),  adoro  (pray  to) 
by  others.  It  is  much  more  probable,  I  think, 
that  adulor  represents  the  Greek  d&uXlfo  (Jiadulizo), 
from    aSvkos  (Jiddulos),    Doric   forms   of  rjBu\l^co, 


1  As  'wheedle 'is  the  (Ger.)  wedeln  (to  wag  the  tail),  cf.  (It.) 
codiare  (Florio).  This  is  the  origin  that  Wedgwood  adopts  for 
'flatter,'  connecting  it  with  (0.  Norse)  Jladra  (to  wag  the  tail). 
He  might  have  quoted  in  support  of  his  view  the  following 
from  Bp.  Keynolds,  where,  speaking  of  the  '  flattery  of  dogs,'  he 
quotes — 

1  Ovprj  fih  p    6y  Zo-yve,  xal  oUara  /ca/3/3a\ev  &fj.(pu.      Od.  p.  302. 

For  wanton  joy  to  see  his  master  near, 

He  wav'd  h\s,  flattering  tail,  and  toss'd  his  ear.' 

Works,  vi.  32  (ed.  1826). 

Beaumont  and  Fletcher  speak  of 

'  Lying,  or  dog  flattering, 
At  which  our  nation's  excellent.'  The  Mad  Lover. 

King  Charles  I.  confessed  to  Sir  Philip  Warwick  that  he  loved 
greyhounds  better  than  spaniels,  '  for  they  equally  love  their 
masters,  and  yet  do  not  flatter  them  so  much  '  (Mem.  of  Charles  I. 
p.  365).  The  type  of  the  'flattering  sycophant,'  says  the  great 
puritan  divine  Thomas  Adams,  is  '  the  fawning  spaniel,  that  hath 
only  learned  to  fetch  and  carry,  to  spring  the  covey  of  his  master's 
lusts,  and  to  arride  and  deride  him '  (Works,  vol.  ii.  p.  119, 
Kichol's  ed.) 


68  PERSUADE. 

?;8u\o?,  from  rjSvs  (sweet),  and  so  means  to  say 
sweet  things,  "be  sweet  upon  a  person  (cf.  rjSuvco, 
rjSvXoyeco).1 

So  our  '  soothe  '  is  without  doubt  the  verbal 
form  of  (0.  Eng.)  '  soote,'  '  sote '  (sweet),2  Dan. 
sod,  and  meant  originally  to  sweeten  ;  (Goth.) 
sutkjan,  connected  with  sutis  (sweet),  (Dut.)  zoet, 
(A. -Sax.)  swet,  swaes,  (Ger.)  suss,  (Gk.)  tfSvs, 
(Sans.)  svddu  (sweet,  tasty),  from  the  root  svdd  (to 
taste,  eat).  Hence  also  '  to  soother  '  (Devon.), 
i  sooter  '  (to  court)  ;  (A.-Sax.)  swadkrian,  from 
swaes  (sweet).     Cf. — 

1  Witli  sothery  butter  theyr  bo-dyes  anoynted.' 

The  Four  P's,  0.  PL  v.  87  (i.e.,  sweet,  savoury. 
"Wright,  Prov.  Diet.,  s.v.) 

1  Jellies  soother  than  the  creamy  curd.' 

Keats,  Eve  of  St  Agnes,  xxx. 

And  Shakspere  uses  '  words  of  sooth  '  for  '  words 
of  sweetness'  (Richard  II.  iii.  3.) 

The  (Sans.)  svddu  (sweet)  also  appears  in  the 
Latin  suadere  (lit.  to  soothe  or  sweeten),  per- 
suadere,  ( to  persuade '  (lit.  to  sweeten  thoroughly 
and  effectually,  per  intensive)  corresponding  to  an 
Eng.  '  to  for-soothe.'  '  To  sweeten '  was  once  used 
pretty  nearly  in  the  same  sense,  e.g. — 

1  Since  writing  the  above,  I  have  found  that  the  same  origin  had 
been  previously  suggested  in  Richardson's  Diet.  The  long  u  in 
adulor,  it  must  be  admitted,  remains  a  difficulty. 

*  '  The  rose  wexeth  soote,  smooth,  and  soft.' 

Chaucer,  Trollus  and  Creseide. 


PERSUADE.  69 

*  Amadouer,  To  flatter,  to  smooth,  to  gloze  with  .  .  .  ;  to 
sweeten,  or  appease  a  harsh  or  angry  spirit  with  faire  words.' 

Gotgrave,  1660. 

1  The  Holland  Embassador  here  do  endeavonr  to  sweeten  us 
with  fair  words.'  Pepys'  Diary,  June  16,  1664. 

Closely  akin  is  the  Latin  suavis  (sweet,  for  suad- 
vis,  (Sans.)  svad,  svddu),  which  gives  us  our 
■  assuage  '  (from  the  0.  Fr.  assouager,  through  a 
Latin  assuaviare),  ( to  sweeten,  soothe,  or  soften.' 
Cf— 

1  Al  my  breste  Bolleth*  for  bitter  of  my  galle  ; 
May  no  Suger  so  swete'  a-swagen  hit  vnnethe.' 

Vision  of  P.  Plowman  (1362),  Pass.  v.  1.  100 
(E.E.T.S.,  Text  A). 

As  flattery  pleases,  or,  as  we  sometimes  say, 
tickles  a  person's  vanity  and  self-esteem  pretty 
much  in  the  same  way  that  sweetmeats  and  dain- 
ties gratify  his  palate,  it  was  a  natural  mode  of 
expression  to  call  such  plausive  language  '  sweet 
or  sugared  speech,'  i  soothing,'  '  soft  sawder  '  (pro- 
bably for  6  soother  '),  '  suasion,'  or  6  adulation,' 
words  all  having  in  common  the  same  idea  of 
sweetness,  and  all  springing  from  the  same  root. 
Compare  also  (A.- Sax.)  swaes-sprdec  (sweet-speech) 
=  flattery,  swaes-laecan  (make-sweet),  to  flatter. 

1  Sin,  the  mind's  harlot,'  says  Thomas  Adams,  '  preaches 
according  to  the  palate  of  her  audience,  placentia  ;  nay,  it  is 
placenta,  a  sweet  cake,  whose  flour  is  sugar,  and  the  humour 
that  tempers  it  honey,  sweet,  pleasant.' 

TJie  Fatal  Banquet. 


70  PERSUADE. 

In  the  curious  old  comedy  of  '  The  Conibate  of 
the  Tongue  and  the  Five  Sences  for  Superiorities 
the  heroine  soliloquises  as  follows  : — 

'Fie  Lingua  wilt  thou  now  degenerate? 
Art  not  a  woman  1  do'st  not  loue  reuenge  ? 
Delightful  speeches,  sweete  persuasions  ? 

Oft  have  I  seasoned  sauory  periods 

With  sugred  words,  to  delude  Gustus  taste.' 

Lingua,  i.  1  (1632,  sig.  A  3). 

(She)  '  The  selie  soul  ycaught  hath  in  her  nette 
Of  her  sugred  mouth  alas  !  nothing  ware.' 

Chaucer,  Remedy  of  Love. 

Phineas  Fletcher  describes  Colax  the  flatterer 
as  one  that 

'  All  his  words  with  sugar  spices.' 

The  Purple  Island,  canto  viii.  44. 

'  Her  she  soone  appeas'd 
With  sugred  words,  and  gentle  blandishment.' 

Spenser,  F.  Q.,  Bk.  III.,  canto  vi.  25. 

1  Your  fair  discourse  hath  been  as  sugar, 
Making  the  hard  way  sweet  and  delectable.' 

Shaks.,  Richard  II,  ii.  3. 

1  Hide  not  thy  poison  with  such  sugar  d  words* 

U  Ft.  Henry  VI.,  iii.  2. 

{ So  I  have  seen  an  unblown  virgin  fed 
With  sugar'd  words.' 

Quarks,  Emblems,  Bk.  I.  ii. 

Other  examples  are  the  following : — 

1  Amieller,  To  sweeten  ;  intice,  allure,  inveagle  with  honeyed 
words  ; ' 


INDULGE.  71 

and 

'  Emmieller,  To  behoney,  to  sweeten,  .  .  .  pacifie,  or  ap- 
pease, with  sweet  means.'  Cotgrave. 

Both  from  miel.  So  c  to  honey '  was  used  by  the 
Elizabethan  writers  with  the  signification  of  coax- 
ing or  flattering. 

'  Cans't  thou  not  honey  me  with  fluent  speach.' 

Antonio  and  3/ellida,  A  4  (in  Nares). 

Compare  the  Gk.  ixeCkiaao),  fjueXlaaco  (to  soothe), 
connected  with  fiekca-aa,  fiiki  (honey) ;  and  the 
phrase,  <Tiroty\vKaLveLv  pyjuarcoh  ixayeipiicois,  i.e.,  as 
De  Quincey  renders  it,  '  to  wheedle  the  people  with 
honeyed  words  dressed  to  its  palate '  (Aristophanes, 
Knights,  216). 

(0.  Norse)  milda  (to  soothe,  appease),  mildr 
(gentle,  'mild'),  are  connected  with  (Gael.)  mills 
(sweet),  (Ir.)  mills,  and  mil  (honey),  (Lat.)  mel. 
So  (Lat.)  mulceo,  mulsus  (to  soothe,  flatter,  also  to 
sweeten  drinks,  &c),  would  seem  to  have  been  in- 
fluenced by,  if  not  directly  derived  from,  mel, 
mulsum  (mead).  '  Indulge,'  (Lat.)  indulgere,  is 
for  indulcere  (to  be  sweet  to  a  person),  connected 
with  dulcis  (sweet)  ;  and  (Fr.)  adouclr,  (Sp.) 
adulcir,  (It.)  addolcire,  from  a  Latin  form  dulcire, 
'  to  sweeten,  smooth,  asswage,  appease,  pacifie ' 
(Cotgrave),1  are  similar  formations.  In  like  man- 
ner, douceur  (a  gift)  is  the  Lat.  dulcor  (sweet- 

1  From  adoucir,  through  a  Swiss  form  adauhir,  comes  the  0. 
Eng.  '  adaw  '  in  Spenser,  to  abate,  soften  (Wedgwood).  Cf.  '  as- 
suage,' supra. 


72  INDULGE. 

ness),  0.  Eng.  dolce,  a  gift,1  and  exactly  corre- 
sponding to  this  is  the  Gk.  ehva  (gifts),  from  the 
Sanskrit  svad,  sv&du  (sweet),  lit.  '  sweet  things 
wherewithal  to  "persuade.''  Cf.  (Fr.)  pot-de-vin 
and  our  l  bribe,'  which  originally  meant  a  piece  of 
bread,  (Fr.)  bribe,  as  it  were  a  '  sop  to  Cerberus,' 
(Gk.)  fjieiXia,  gifts,  lit.  i  soothers.'  See  fjueiXicraa 
above. 

The  following  apt  illustration  is  to  be  found 
in  Lord  Campbell's  '  Life  of  Lord  Lyndhurst ' 
(1869)  :— 

'He  never  condescended  to  anything  like  direct  flattery, 
but  he  felicitously  hit  upon  the  topic  which  he  knew  would 
tickle  the  amour  propre  of  those  whom  he  wished  to  dulcify ' 

— i.e.,  to  soothe,  l swage,''  persuade,  or  sweeten. 


1  I  give  this  word  on  the  authority  of  Wright's  '  Dictionary  of 
Obsolete  and  Provincial  English.' 


[  73  ] 


CHAPTEK  IV. 


THE       WORDS      '  TREE 
'     AND 


AND      '  TRUE'  —  '  VICE, 
VITIS  ' — '  BAD  ' — '  VETCH, 


'   VITIUM  '     AND     '   VITIS  ' — '  BAD  - 
'  WICKER ,'  '  WEAK,'  AND   '  WICKED.1 

What  a  noble  object  is  a  full-grown  tree  !  How 
stalwart  in  its  gnarled  bulk,  how  lofty  in  its  sturdy 
independent  growth  !  What  a  staid  and  reverend 
aspect  they  wear,  i  those  green-robed  senators  of 
mighty  woods/  hoary  with  eld,  wrinkled  and 
scarred  by  numberless  years  !  Stand  at  the  foot 
of  an  ancient  tree,  whether  it  be  a  stately  elm  or 
a  rugged  oak ;  look  up  at  its  towering  expanse  of 
branches,  observe  its  whelked  and  furrowed  bole, 
and  try  to  clasp  it  round.1  One  feels  overwhelmed 
almost  with  a  sense  of  his  own  weakness  and  di- 
minutiveness,  compared  with  the  grandeur  of  its 
majestic  height,  its  massive  proportions,  its  sem- 
piternal duration.  It  seems,  too,  the  very  emblem 
of  stability.  Let  the  stoutest  athlete  try  his 
strength  against  a  tree  (like  Milo  of  old),  and  with 


1  The  Marton  Oak  at  Prestbury,  in  Cheshire,  is  no  less  than  64 
feet  5  inches  in  girth  at  the  bottom  (N.  and  Q.,  5th  S.  ii.  366). 


74  TREE    AND    TRUE. 

what  a  grim  stolidity  of  indifference  it  smiles  down 
at  his  puny  efforts — contemptuous  in  its  immo- 
bility. And  it  is  almost  the  same  in  its  warfare 
with  the  forces  of  nature.  It  may  indeed  so  far 
comply  with  '  the  season's  difference '  as  to  sur- 
render its  crown  of  leaves  ;  but  the  powers  of  life 
are  still  strong  at  its  heart,  and  are  ever  adding 
new  circles  to  its  girth.  A  tree  is  no  time-server. 
The  veteran  of  the  forest  lifts  its  head  as  erect 
into  the  azure  calmness  of  the  summer  sky,  as 
towards  the  threatening  gloom  of  winter  when  the 
heavens  are  gathering  blackness ;  when  the  storm 
breaks  and  roars  against  its  branches,  it  seems  to 
exult  in  its  unshaken  might — as  the  winds  bluster 
and  spend  their  force,  the  rooted  giant,  swaying  its 
huge  arms  aloft,  seems  to  grapple  with  its  adver- 
sary and  return  blow  for  blow.  It  may,  perhaps, 
be  altogether  overborne  and  laid  prostrate  by  the 
violence  of  the  tempest;  but  it  is  incapable  of  bend- 
ing, it  scorns  to  yield  to  hostile  pressure.  If  it 
falls,  we  deplore  its  untimely  fate  with  something 
of  human  sympathy,  accounting  it  an  irreparable 
loss  when  a  lordly  tree  is  torn  up  from  its  roots 
and  stretched  along  upon  the  earth,  battered  and 
disfigured.  It  seems  like  the  overthrow  of  a 
mighty  man  of  valour,  of  a  king  who  had  survived 
a  hundred  well-fought  battles,  and  has  now  met 
his  doom  at  last,  and  fallen  in  the  fulness  of  his 
strength. 


TREE    AND    TRUE.  75 

Indeed,  this  heroic  vigour  and  strength  of 
character  so  apparent  in  trees  has  often  been  com- 
pared to  the  corresponding  qualities  in  men. 
1  Some  men/  says  George  Fox,  the  founder  of  the 
Quakers,  '  have  the  nature  of  tall,  sturdy  oaks,  to 
flourish  and  spread  in  wisdom  and  strength.'  As 
we  delight  in  applying  the  phrase  6  hearts  of  oak  ' 
to  our  brave  sailors,  so  did  the  Eomans  apply  the 
word  robur,  expressive  of  the  strength  or  robustness 
of  the  oak,  to  the  courage  of  their  invincible 
soldiery;  and  in  Italian,  according  to  Florio's 
definition,  robore  is  '  an  oake,  also  courage,  hardi- 
nesse  or  stoutnesse  of  minde.'  In  his  i  Essay  on 
Gardening,'  Shenstone  the  poet  remarks  that  '  all 
trees  have  a  character  analogous  to  that  of  men  : 
oaks  are  in  all  respects  the  perfect  image  of  the 
manly  character:  in  former  times  I  should  have 
said,  and  in  present  times  I  think  I  am  authorized 
to  say,  the  British  one:  As  a  brave  man  is  not 
suddenly  either  elated  by  prosperity  or  depressed 
by  adversity,  so  the  oak  displays  not  its  verdure 
on  the  sun's  first  approach,  nor  drops  it  on  his 
first  departure.  Add  to  this  its  majestic  appear- 
ance, the  rough  grandeur  of  its  bark,  and  the  wide 
protection  of  its  branches.'  He  further  expresses 
the  opinion,  in  which  most  people  will  coincide 
with  him,  that  i  a  large,  branching,  aged  oak,  is 
perhaps  the  most  venerable  of  all  inanimate  objects.' 
That  these  heroic  qualities  of  vigour  and  strength 


76  TREE    AND    TRUE. 

so  remarkable  in  trees  were  shared  by  them  in 
common  with  men  was  noticed  by  the  most  ancient 
writers,  and  it  was  even  supposed  that  the  stoutest 
warriors  derived  their  origin  from  certain  of  the 
hardest  kinds  of  trees.  Thus  Hesiod 1  states  that 
the  third  generation  of  articulately-speaking  men 
were  made  by  Father  Zeus  out  of  ash-trees — a 
proper  material  for  a  tough  and  hardy  race.  It 
was  out  of  the  sacred  ash,  Yggdrasil,  that  the  first 
man  was  believed  to  have  been  created  in  the 
Northern  mythology ;  and  in  Anglo-Saxon,  cesc,  an 
ash,  is  also  the  word  for  a  man,  a  warrior.  The 
Arcadians 2  were  said  to  be  a  race  of  men  sprung 
from  the  trunks  of  hard  oaks  ;  while  Isaiah,  it  may 
be  remembered,  styles  the  warriors  of  the  invading 
Assyrian  army  '  trees  of  the  forest '  (Ch.  x.  19. 
Compare  Amos  ii.  9).3 

Of  things  endued  with  life,  the  largest,  and 
beyond  all  question  the  longest-lived,  is  a  tree. 
So  far  as  any  earthly  thing  can  be,  it  is  the 
emblem  of  changeless  duration,  of  immortality.4 


1  Works  and  Days,  11.  143-145. 

2  Virgil,  ^En.  VIII.  315. 

3  In  Icelandic,  skati,  a  poetical  term  for  a  towering,  lordly  man,  is 
said  to  be  cognate  with  the  Swedish  skata,  the  top  of  a  tree 
(Cleasby,  Diet,  s.v.) 

4  Hence,  doubtless,  it  was  that  such  trees  as  the 

'  Trusty  yew, 
Cheerless,  unsocial  plant,  that  loves  to  dwell 
Midst  skulls  and  coffins,  epitaphs,  and  worms/ 

have  been  from  time  immemorial  adopted  as  appropriate  denizens 
of  Christian  burying-places. 


TKEE    AND    TRUE.  77 

The  way  in  which  it  seems  to  defy  tne  attacks 
of  all-destroying  Time  is  perfectly  marvellous. 
Generations  of  men  may  come  and  go,  but  it 
makes  no  difference  to  it.  Dr  Holmes,  speaking 
of  a  leafy  veteran  blown  down  in  the  year  1852, 
and  counting  its  years  by  its  rings,  moralises  as 
follows : — 

'Here  are  some  human  lives  laid  down  against  the  periods 
of  its  growth  to  which  they  corresponded.  This  is  Shake- 
speare's. The  tree  was  seven  inches  in  diameter  when  he  was 
born ;  ten  inches  when  he  died.  A  little  less  than  ten  inches 
when  Milton  was  born  ;  seventeen  when  he  died.  Then  comes 
a  long  interval,  and  this  thread  marks  out  Johnson's  life,  dur- 
ing which  the  tree  increased  from  twenty-two  to  twenty-nine 
inches  in  diameter.  Here  is  the  space  of  Napoleon's  career  ; 
the  tree  doesn't  seem  to  have  minded  it.  ...  It  remembers 
all  human  history  as  a  thing  of  yesterday  in  its  own  dateless 
existence.' x  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast- Table. 

One  or  two  instances  of  their  remarkable  longe- 
vity may  be  mentioned.  The  tree  known  as  the 
Tortworth  Chestnut  is  calculated  to  be  not  less 
than  1100  years  old.2 

A  fir-tree  near  Mont^  Blanc,  called  the  Chamois 
Stable,  has  been  ascertained  to  be  more  than  1200 
years  of  age.3 


1  Compare  Cowper's  address  to  the  Yardley  Oak — 

'  By  thee  I  might  correct,  erroneous  oft, 
The  clock  of  history,  facts  and  events 
Timing  more  punctual,  unrecorded  facts 
Recov'ring,  and  misstated  setting  right — 
Desp'rate  attempt,  till  trees  shall  speak  again  » ' 

2  Notes  and  Queries,  1st  S.  iv.  401-403,  488.  3  Id.  vi.  45. 


78  TREE    AND    TRUE. 

The  Salcey-Forest  Oak,  in  Northamptonshire,  is 
believed  to  have  weathered  the  gales  of  more  than 
fifteen  centuries.1 

A  few  of  the  olive-trees  at  present  to  be  found 
at  Gethsemane,  it  is  supposed,  may  have  been 
witnesses  of  the  Agony  in  the  Garden.  Even  a 
greater  antiquity  has  been  claimed  for  some  of  the 
cedars  of  Lebanon ;  and  the  gigantic  terebinth,  or 
'  oak,'  of  Mamre,  beneath  which  the  Patriarch 
Abraham  pitched  his  tent  (Gen.  xiii.  18),  used  to 
be  pointed  out  in  the  time  of  Josephus,  was  still 
standing  and  revered  in  the  days  of  Constantine 
the  Great,  and  its  trunk  was  actually  still  visible, 
it  is  said,  in  the  seventeenth  century.2  Evelyn 
mentions  a  cypress  in  Persia  which  was  reputed  to 
be  2500  years  old  (Silva,  Bk.  III.  ch.  3). 

1  Grindon,  Trees  of  Old  England,  p.  18.  Other  historic  tree3 
are  the  '  Shire  Oak  '  at  the  meeting  of  York,  Nottingham,  and 
Derby  shires  ;  and  '  Orouch  Oak  '  at  Addlestone,  Surrey,  beneath 
which  Wicliffe  is  said  to  have  preached. 

2  Stanley,  Jewish  Church,  vol.  i.  p.  33. 

*  II  y  a  aux  bains  de  Casciano,  en  Toscano,  entre  Pise  et  Florence, 
un  cheue  qui  e"tait  de'ja  fameux  par  sa  masse  et  par  sa  vetuste  dans 
les  guerres  de  1300  entre  les  Pisans  et  les  Toscans.  II  n'a  pris  un 
jour  ni  un  cheveu  blanc  depuis  ces  cinq  siecles.  Sa  tige  s'eleve 
aussi  droite,  sur  des  racines  aussi  saines,  a  quatre-vingts  pieds  du 
sol :  et  ses  bras  immenses,  qui  poussent  d'autres  bras  iunombrables 
comine  un  polype  terrestre,  n'ont  pas  une  brauche  seche  a  leurs  ex- 
tremites.  II  a  mille  ou  douze  cents  ans,  et  il  est  tout  jeune.  C'est 
assis  sous  ce  chene  de  Casciano  que  j'ecrivis  cette  Harmonic,  en 
1826.  J'ai  vu  depuis  le  platane  de  Godefroi  de  Bouillon,  dans  la 
prairie  de  Constantinople  ;  les  croises  camperent  a  ses  pieds,  et  un 
regiment  de  cavalerie  tout  entierpeut  encore  aujourd'huis'y  ranger 
a  l'ombre  en  bataille.  J'ai  vu  depuis  les  oliviers  de  la  colline  de 
Golgotha,  vis-a-vis  de  Jerusalem,  qui  passent  peur  avoir  etc*  temoins 
de  l'agonie  et  de  la  sueur  de  sang  du  Christ.' 

Lamai'tine,  Harmonies  Poetiques,  p.  137  (Paris,  1863). 


TREE    AND    TRUE.  79 

The  sacred  Bo-tree  of  Ceylon  (Ficus  religiosa) 
is  still  reverenced  as  the  identical  one  planted  on 
the  introduction  of  Buddhism,  307  years  before 
the  Christian  era  (Tennent,  Christianity  in  Ceylon, 
p.  335). 

But  even  these,  ancient  as  they  were,  are  but  babes 
compared  with  others  that  naturalists  make  men- 
tion of.  Humboldt,  in  his  6  Yiews  of  Nature  '  (pp. 
268  seq.,  ed.  Bohu),  records  an  instance  of  a  bao- 
bab-tree estimated  to  have  reached  the  astonishing 
age  of  5150  years,1  while  that  known  as  the  dragon- 
tree,  and  found  in  Madeira  and  the  other  '  islands 
of  Atlantis,'  is  put  down  by  the  same  writer  as 
attaining  to  just  double^that  number  of  years.  One 
particular  tree  of  the  latter  species,  which  existed 
4000  years  ago,  is  declared  to  be  in  life  at  this 
day,  identified  by  historical  description.  This 
dragon-tree  is  a  vegetable  relic  of  an  earlier  world, 
says  M.  Pegot-Ogier,  and  cohabitant  with  the 
monstrous  animals  which  have  long  since  vanished 
from  the  scene.2  And  such  is  Mr  Macmillan's 
opinion  with  respect  to  the  still  living  gigantic 
cedars  of  the  Sierra  Nevada — '  They  seem  relics  of 
"  the  reign  of  gymnosperms,"  a  fragment  of  the  an- 


1  Dr  Livingstone  called  attention  to  the  extraordinary  vitality  of 
the  baobab-trees  he  met  in  South  Africa,  some  continuing  to  grow 
even  after  they  were  cut  down.  One  which  he  measured  at  three 
feet  from  the  ground  was  eighty-five  feet  in  circumference. 

Missionary  Travels  in  S.  Africa,  p.  162. 

2  The  Fortunate  Isles  ;  or.  The  Archipelago  of  the  Canaries. 


80  TREE    AND    TRUE. 

cient  carboniferous  epoch  preserved  in  this  lonely 
solitude,  amid  all  the  cosniical  changes  elsewhere 
going  on,  keeping  in  their  annual  rings  of  wood 
the  imperishable  record  of  their  growth,  while 
human  races  and  dynasties  sprang  up  and  perished 
around  them.  And  still,  though  the  shadows  of 
forty  centuries  are  sleeping  under  their  boughs, 
their  vital  processes  are  as  active  as  ever,  they 
exhibit  no  signs  of  what  can  be  regarded^  physio- 
logically as  old  age.'1 

The  same  to-day  that  they  were  at  the  beginning, 
we  discern  something  of  absolute  excellence  in 
their  '  serene  and  invulnerable  perfection.'  And 
therefore,  as  Dr  Grindon  truly  remarks,  '  trees  are 
adapted  by  their  original  and  inalienable  constitu- 
tion to  serve  as  metaphors  for  almost  everything 
great  and  good  and  wise  and  beautiful  in  human 
nature.  Hence  the  countless  citations  of  trees  in 
Holy  Writ  ...  on  account  of  their  being  the 
absolute  representations  and  pictured  forms  in  the 
temporal  world  of  the  high  and  sacred  realities 
that  belong  to  the  invisible  and  eternal.' 2  *  They 
stand  still  in  quiet  dignity  while  we  talk  of  four- 
score as  a  wonderful  lifetime,  and  for  their  own 
part  watch  the  rise  and  fall  of  nations.  .  .  . 
Hence  it  is  that  the  grand  scriptural  image  acquires 
such  richness  and  force,  "As  the  days  of  a  tree 

1  Macmillan,  Bible  Teachings  in  Nature,  p.  88. 

2  The  Trees  of  Old  England,  by  Leo  Grindon,  p.  3. 


TREE    AND    TRUE.  81 

are  the  days  of  my  people  "  (Isa.  lxv.  22).  Hun- 
dreds of  trees  are  standing  at  this  moment  that 
were  alive  when  those  words  were  written.' 1 

It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  among  the 
heathens,  and  sometimes  even,  as  we  know,  among 
the  early  Christian  converts,  trees  were  regarded 
with  religious  veneration  as  the  aptest  emblems  of 
eternity  and  changeless  existence,  '  tanquam  sacras 
ex  vetustate.' 2 

'  Eelics  of  ages  !     Could  a  mind,  imbued 
With  truth  from  Heaven,  created  thing  adore, 
I  might  with  reverence  kneel,  and  worship  thee. 
It  seems  idolatry  with  some  excuse, 
"When  our  forefather  Druids  in  their  oaks 
Imagined  sanctity.'  3 

Another  most  striking  feature  in  the  growth  of 
many  kinds  of  trees  is  their  exact  uprightness.  It 
is  so  in  the  poplar,  the  fir,  the  cedar,  and  the  pine. 
Mr  Ruskin  4  calling  attention  to  the  straightness 
and  rounded  uprightness  of  the  last  as  its  two 
chief  characteristics,  observes  that,  placed  nearly 
always  among  scenes  disordered  and  desolate,  it 
brings  into  them  all  possible  elements  of  order 
and  precision.  c  Let  storm  and  avalanche  do  their 
worst,  and  let  the  pine  find  only  a  ledge  of  vertical 
precipice    to    cling   to,  it  will   nevertheless  grow 

1  The  Trees  of  Old  England,  by  Leo  Grindon,  p.  5. 

2  Quintilian,  vide  Evelyn's  Silva,  ch.  3. 

3  Cowper,  The  Yardley  Oak. 

4  Modern  Painters,  v.  Pt.  VI.  ch.  9. 


82  TREE   AND   TRUE. 

straight.  Thrust  a  rod  from  its  last  shoot  down 
the  stem ;  it  shall  point  to  the  centre  of  the  earth 
as  long  as  the  tree  lives.  .  .  .  Other  trees/  he 
adds,  in  his  usual  eloquent  style,  '  tufting  crag  or 
hill,  yield  to  the  form  and  sway  of  the  ground, 
clothe  it  with  soft  compliance,  are  partly  its  sub- 
jects, partly  its  flatterers,  partly  its  comforters. 
But  the  pine  rises  in  serene  resistance,  self-con- 
tained ;  nor  can  I  ever  without  awe  stay  long  under 
a  great  Alpine  cliff,  far  from  all  house  or  work  of 
men,  looking  up  to  its  companies  of  pine,  as  they 
stand  on  the  inaccessible  juts  and  perilous  ledges 
of  the  enormous  wall,  in  quiet  multitudes,  each 
like  the 'shadow  of  the  one  beside  it — upright, 
fixed,  spectral,  as  troops  of  ghosts  standing  on  the 
walls  of  Hades,  not  knowing  each  other,  dumb  for 
ever.  You  cannot  reach  them,  cannot  cry  to  them; 
those  trees  never  heard  human  voice ;  they  are  far 
above  all  sound  but  of  the  winds.  No  foot  ever 
stirred  fallen  leaf  of  theirs.  All  comfortless  they 
stand,  between  the  two  eternities  of  the  Vacancy 
and  the  Rock ;  yet  with  such  iron  will,  that  the 
rock  itself  looks  bent  and  shattered  beside  them — 
fragile,  weak,  inconsistent,  compared  to  their  dark 
energy  of  delicate  life,  and  monotony  of  enchanted 
pride ; — unnumbered,,  unconquerable. '  In  another 
place  he  speaks  of  '  their  right  doing  of  their  hard 
duty.'  And  therefore  in  the  pine,  to  use  the  words 
of  a  more  recent   writer,   i  we  have  the   highest 


TREE  AND    TRUE.  83 

moral  ideal  of  trees,1  which  is  dependent  on  their 
right  fulfilment  of  their  appointed  functions  amid 
the  greatest  difficulties.  .  .  .  Poverty  -  stricken, 
hunger-pinched,  and  tempest-tortured,  it  maintains 
its  proud  dignity,  grows  strong  by  endurance,  and 
symmetrical  by  patient  struggle.' 2  No  marvel 
that  the  early  settlers  in  India  honoured  the  loftiest 
and  noblest  of  the  conifers  they  there  met  with, 
with  the  title  of  the  'deodara,'  i.e.,  devaddru,  the 
divine  or  godlike  tree,  even  as  David  styled  the 
cedars  of  Lebanon  '  the  trees  of  the  Lord  '  (Ps.  civ. 
16;  lxxx.  10).3 

That  these  noble  qualities  of  uprightness,  dura- 
bility, stability,  and  strength,  so  conspicuously 
displayed  by  the  '  kings  of  the  woods,'  and  gene- 


1  As  an  instance  of  a  moral  conception  being  embodied  in  the 
name  of  a  tree  may  be  mentioned  the  aspen,  A. -Sax.  aepse,  if,  as 
seems  very  probable,  that  be  the  same  word  as  A. -Sax.  ajse 
trembling,  aepsenys  disgrace,  dishonour,  shame.  There  is  a  common 
tradition  that  the  cross  of  our  Lord  was  constructed  out  of  the 
wood  of  this  tree,  and  that  ever  since  it  has  never  ceased  to  shiver 
like  a  guilty  thing  at  the  remembrance  of  the  crime  to  which  it  was 
made  accessary.    (French,  le  tremble.) 

2  Macmillan,  Bible  Teachings  in  Nature,  p.  69. 

3  Hengstenberg  observes  that  the  cedar,  as  the  loftiest  among 
created  things,  symbolises  the  elevation  and  majesty  of  God  ;  the 
hyssop,  on  the  contrary,  as  the  least,  His  lowliness  and  condescen- 
sion ;  and  hence  he  supposes  they  were  both  symbolically  employed 
in  the  Sacrifice  of  the  Red  Heifer  (Num.  xix.  6). — Egypt  and 
the  Books  of  Moses,  p.  175.  Other  instances  of  trees  similarly 
consecrated  are  the  bogaha  or  god's  tree  of  Ceylon,  the  shejcret 
allah  of  the  Arabs,  the  diu-dar  of  the  Persians,  the  jambu  of  the 
Buddhists,  'Jove's  stout  oak'  (Tempest,  v.  1),  which  Herrick 
calls  the  '  holy-oke  or  gospel  tree '  (H.  C.  Barlow,  Essay  on  Sym- 
bolism, p.  92  seq.) 


84  TREE    AND   TRUE. 

rally  characteristic  of  '  treeship,'  should  have  been 
present  to  men's  minds,  and  influenced  them  in 
selecting  an  appropriate  name  for  the  entire  class, 
is  no  more  than  might  have  been  expected.  Thus 
in  Hebrew  itz,  the  word  for  a  tree,  is  derived  from 
a  root  dtzdh,  to  be  hard  and  firm,  which  also  sup- 
plies the  word  dtzeh  for  the  backbone,  so  called 
from  its  firmness  and  erectness.  Similarly,  the 
English  '  tree,'  A.-Sax.  tre,  Goth,  triu,  Gk.  drus, 
Sans,  dru,  come  without  doubt  from  the  root 
drih,  to  be  firm  and  strong,1  to  increase,  dru,  to 
grow. 

There  is  another  root  of  the  same  significance  as 
drik,  and  differing  but  slightly  in  the  initial  letter, 
which  may  probably  be  regarded  as  ultimately 
identical  with  it.  This  is  the  root  dhri,  to  be  firm 
and  stable,  other  forms  being  dhru,  dhruv,  d/iar, 
to  stand  fast,  be  established.  Thence  comes  the 
Sanskrit  word  dhruva,  meaning  (1)  what  is  firm, 
stable,  solid,  lasting,  permanent  ;  (2)  what  is 
true ;  (3)  a  post,  stock,  the  trunk  of  a  tree,  cer- 
tain plants. 

We  thus  arrive  at  the  curious  and  interesting 
result  that  the  word  i  tree  '  and  the  word  c  true ' 
are  at  bottom  really  the  same,  and  contain  the  one 


1  The  derivation  of  dru,  a  tree,  from  the  root  dri,  dar,  to  divide, 
rend,  or  split,  either  supposing  it  to  mean  that  which  is  fissile 
(as  Pictet),  or  that  which  can  be  stripped  of  its  bark  (as  Kuhn), 
seems  very  improbable.     Vide  also  Ebel,  Celtic  Studies,  p.  110. 


TREE    AND    TRUE.  85 

radical  conception  of  permanence  and  stability.1 
That  which  cannot  be  shaken,  but  is  unalterably 
fixed  and  unchangeable  by  time,  is  i  truth.'  That 
which  cannot  be  shaken,  but  is  unalterably  fixed 
and  unchangeable  by  time  is  a  '  tree.'  Of  all 
things  that  excel  in  strength,  truth,  as  King 
Darius  rightly  gave  his  decision,  is  strongest — 

'As  for  the  truth,  it  endureth,  and  is  always  strong  :  it 
liveth  and  conquereth  for  evermore.  .  .  .  She  is  the  strength, 
kingdom,  power,  and  majesty  of  all  ages.  .  .  .  Great  is  truth, 
and  mighty  above  all  things.' 2  1  Esdras  iv.  38,  40,  41. 

Truth,  says  a  Spanish  proverb,  is  an  evergreen, 
La  verdad  es  siempre  verde.  In  fact,  says  Dr 
Holmes,  with  exact,  but  no  doubt  unconscious, 
etymological  insight,  *  there's  nothing  that 
keeps  its  youth,  so  far  as  I  know,  but  a  tree  and 

truth.' 3 

1  Les  sillons,  oil  les  bles  jaunissent 
Sous  les  pas  changeants  des  saisons, 


1 1  am  not  aware  that  this  relationship  of  '  tree  '  and  '  true  '  has 
been  made  the  subject  of  remark  by  any  of  the  great  German 
philologers.  A  competent  scholar  of  our  own,  however,  Dr  Prior, 
has  noted  it  in  his  '  Popular  Names  of  British  Plants,'  s.v.  Tree. 
It  was  a  happy  guess  of  Dr  Richardson,  though  certainly  nothing 
more,  when  he  suggested  that  'tree'  was  akin  to  the  A. -Sax. 
treowan  (confirmare),  and  defined  it  as  '  a  plant  advanced  to  firm 
growth,  strong,  steadfast,  established — with  a  strong  stem,  trunk, 
branches.' 

2  '  Though  all  the  winds  of  doctrine  were  let  loose  to  play  upon 
the  earth,  so  Truth  be  in  the  field,  we  do  injuriously,  by  licensing 
and  prohibiting,  to  misdoubt  her  strength.  Let  her  and  Falsehood 
grapple  ;  who  ever  knew  Truth  put  to  the  worse  in  a  free  and  open 
encounter?'  MUton,  Areopagitica. 

3  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast- Table. 


86  TREE  AND   TRUE. 

Se  de'pouillent  et  se  vetissent 
Comme  un  troupeau  de  ses  toisons  ; 
Le  fleuve  nait,  gronde  et  s'ecroule  ; 
L'hiver  effeuille  le  granit  ; 
Des  generations  sans  nombre 
Vivcnt  et  meurent  sous  son  ombre  : 
Et  lui  1  voyez,  il  rajeunit ! ' 

What  Lainartine,  in  these  lines,  has  said  of  a  tree 
may  with  equal  correctness  be  affirmed  of  the 
truth — it  also  possesses  the  secret  of  rejuvenescence. 
Heaven  and  earth  may  pass  away,  but  the  truth 
is  immortal,  and  doth  not  pass  away. 

1  Truth  crushed  to  earth  shall  rise  again  : 

The  eternal  years  of  God  are  hers  ; 

But  Error,  wounded,  writhes  with  pain, 

And  dies  among  his  worshippers.'1 

Accordingly,  the  early  Aryan,  as  he  roamed  the 
primeval  forests,  not  only,  like  the  lover  of  the 
greenwood,  found  <  tongues  in  trees/  but  further- 
more, found  truth  there,  the  notion  of  a  stable  and 
immutable  principle ;  and  evolving  two  kindred  ex- 
pressions from  a  verbal  radical  which  he  already 
possessed,  the  principle  he  called  l  truth,'  the 
subtantial  type  he  called  a  '  tree.' 

For  '  true,'  Sanskrit  d/iruva,  stands  in  the  same 
relation  to  d/iri,  dkru  (firm,  stable),  that  '  tree,' 
Sanskrit  dru,  does  to  drih  (firm,  stable),2  two  roots 
whose  approximation  and  identification  has  been 


1  Bryant,  The  Battle-field. 

2  Hearue  would  seem  to  have  had  some  hazy  notion  of  the  cog. 


TREE  AND   TRUE.  87 

proposed  above.  As  to  the  form  of  the  two  words 
in  question,  a  striking  correspondence  is  observable 
in  most  of  the  Indo-European  languages.  In  Old 
English,  to  begin  with  our  own,  treowe  1  is  true, 
and  treow  a  tree;  treu  is  faith,  trust,  and 
treu  a  tree ;  trywe  is  true,  and  tryw  a  tree  ;  truwa 
is  trust,  faith,  and  trurcung  a  prop  or  stay,  (compare 
;he  Hebrew  dman  (1)  to  prop  or  stay,  (2)  to  be 
firm,  (3)  be  true).  When  Moses  cast  the  tree  into 
the  bitter  waters  of  Marah,  according  to  the  *  Story 
cf  Genesis  and  Exodus'  (1.  3301,  ab.  1250)— 

'  A  funden  trew  ^or-inne  dede  Moyses.' 
In   other   lan^ua^es   the  words    are  found  as 


Tree. 
tre. 
tra. 
trae. 
dar,  derw. 


nation  of  the  words  *  tree '  and  '  true,'  when  he  jotted  down  in  hi3 
journal  the  remark — '  Some  groves  now  in  Scotland  held  sacred  ; 
nor  will  they  permit  the  trees  to  be  cut  down  ;  stones  in  some  of 
them.  Dru,  alias  trou,  in  the  German  and  British  tongue  signifies 
faith  ;  and  the  old  Germans  called  God  Drutin  or  Trudin;  hence 
Drutin  signifies  a  divine  or  faithful  person. 

Reliquce  Eearniance,  Oct.  15,  1718. 

From  the  same  root  come  the  A.-Sax.  trum,  firm,  strong,  sound  ; 
trymian,  trymman,  to  strengthen,  confirm,  set  in  order,  dispose 
fitly,  'trim.'  Whether  the  Irish  trean,  treun,  strong,  be  related 
is  questionable.     Compare  French  dru,  thick,  close,  luxuriant. 

1  Treoioe  is  frequently  applied  to  things  that  are  immovable,  sure 
and  steadfast.  It  is  used  of  a  hill  in  an  old  luue  ron,  or  love- 
song,  where  it  is  said  of  a  house,  '  Hit  stont  vppon  a  treowe  mote  ' 
(Old  English  Miscellany,  E.E.T.S.  p.  97). 


follows  : — 

True. 

0.  Icel. 

trtir. 

Swed. 

tro. 

Dan. 

tro. 

Welsh 

dir. 

88  TREE  AND   TRUE. 


True. 

Tree. 

Irish          dir,  dior,  direach. 

dair,  darach  (cf.  Pers.  dirach). 

Goth.         triggivs,  tranan. 

triu. 

0.  Fris.     triuwe,  trouwe. 

trS. 

0.  L.  Ger.  triuui. 

trio. 

0.  Eng.     treowe,  trewe,  triwe,  trig. 

treo,  trcou,  trew}  treowe,  trowc. 

0.  H.  Ger.  trtiwer. 

Bav.  ~der,  -ter. 

With  '  true '  we  may  also  compare  the  Irish 
drotk,  constant  (Pictet,  Langues  Celtiques,  p.  69). 

In  the  identification  of  these  words  we  mar 
adduce,  as  strongly  confirmatory  of  it,  the  Sanskrit 
word  bhaw/a,  denoting  that  which  is,  what  exists, 
the  truth,1  and  also  a  tree.  That  the  truthfulness 
of  trees  has  not  failed  to  attract  attention,  ths 
following  extract  from  a  letter  of  Horace  Walpole 
proves.  Writing  from  Houghton  in  1743,  he 
says — 

c  My  flatterers  here  are  all  mutes.  The  oaks,  the  beeches, 
the  chestnuts  seem  to  contend  which  shall  best  please  the  lord 
of  the  manor.     They  cannot  deceive.     They  -will  not  lie.' 

Our  surprise  at  discovering  that  the  word  ex- 
pressive of  a  high  moral  conception,2  and  the  term 


1  So  '  sooth,'  A. -Sax.  sddh,  is  for  santh,  Lat.  sens  (part,  of  sum 
in  prcB-sens,  Sec.)  =  being,  existing.  Cf.  '  tooth '  and  dens,  '  goose ' 
and  gans,  &c. 

2  Other  ethical  words  yielded  by  the  root  dhri,  dhar  (to  stand 
firm),  are  the  Sanskrit  dharma,  something  established  as  an  in- 
variable rule,  law,  justice,  duty,  virtue  ;  dhdrd,  custom  ;  dhrtvan, 
virtue;  dhtra,  firm;  Irish  dir,  just,  dior,  direach,  just,  honest, 
dior,  law ;  Lith.  dora,  dermic,  duty,  doras,  virtuous.  (Pictet,  Orig. 
Indo-Europ.,  vol.  ii.  p.  427). 

Compare  statue  and  statute,  something  set  up  for  a  memorial  or 


TREE  AND   TRUE.  89 

for  the  mere  vegetable  product  of  the  earth,  are  of 
kindred  origin,  is  lessened  when  we  find  that  in 
Hebrew  the  words  for  a  tree  and  for  the  Divine 
Being  Himself  are  quite  as  intimately  connected. 
For  there  the  name  El,  God,  and  eldh  the  terebinth, 
elon  the  oak,  Slim  trees,  come  alike  from  the  root 
ul  or  il,  strong,  mighty.1  On  this  no  better  com- 
mentary is  needed  than  the  exclamation  of  the 
same  poet  already  quoted  as  he  stood  beneath  the 
branches  of  an  aged  oak — 

'  Seigneur,  c'est  toi  seul,  c'est  ta  force, 

Ta  sagesse  et  ta  volonte, 

Ta  vie  et  ta  fecondite, 

Ta  prevoyance  et  ta  bonte  ! 
Le  ver  trouve  ton  nom  grave  sous  son  ecorce, 
Et  mon  oeil,  dans  sa  masse  et  son  eternite  ! ' 

He  adds  in  a  note — 

1 II  n'y  a  pas  plus  de  mesure  a  la  force  et  a  la  duree  de  la 
vegetation  qu'il  n'y  eu  a  la  puissance  de  Dieu.  II  joue  avec 
le  temps  et  avec  l'espace.  L'homme  seul  est  oblige  de  compter 
par  jours.  Ces  arbres  comptent  per  siecles,  les  rockers  par  la 
duree  d'uu  globe,  les  etoiles  par  la  duree  du  firmament.  Qu'est- 
ce  done  de  Celui  qui  ne  compte  par  rien,  et  pour  qui  toutes 
ces  durees  relatives  sont  un  jour  qui  n'a  pas  encore  com- 
mence ? ' 

The   '  truth '  of  the  Almighty  is  an  expression 


a  rule,  Sanskrit  stheya,  a  judge,  all  from  sthd,  to  stand,  the  radical 
idea  being  the  fixedness  of  legal  decisions.  So  the  Hebrew  shophet, 
a  judge,  Punic  suffes,  is  traced  to  a  root  meaning  to  set  up,  to 
erect. 

1  In  Johnson's  '  Persian  Dictionary '  the  word  ddr  is  said  to  be 
a  name  of  God,  as  well  as  meaning  a  tree. 


90  TREE   AND   TRUE. 

frequently  used  in  Holy  Scripture  to  denote  the 
constant,  stable,  and  unchangeable  nature  of  His 
mercy  and  goodness  (e.g.,  Gen.  xxiv.  27,  xxxii.  10 ; 
Deut.  xxxii.  4).  It  would  be  fanciful,  perhaps, 
to  see  an  allusion  to  the  similitude  of  a  tree  in 
other  expressions,  such  as  these,  that  His  truth 
'shall  spring  out  of  the  earth'  (Ps.  Ixxxv.  11), 
1  reacheth  unto  the  clouds '  (Ps.  lvii.  10),  '  is  fallen 
in  the  street'  (Isa.  lix.  14).  At  all  events,  there 
is  no  doubt  that  Abraham  planted  a  tree  at  Beer- 
sheba  as  an  appropriate  sign  of  the  perpetual 
troth1  and  covenant  between  himself  and  '  the 
Everlasting  God,'  El-olam  (Gen.  xxi.  33).  «  The 
hardiness  of  the  tree,  its  long  endurance,  and  the 
perpetual  greenness  of  its  leaves,  rendered  it  a  fit 
emblem  of  Him  to  whom  the  place  was  dedi- 
cated.'2 Joshua's  dying  act  of  setting  up  the 
tables  of  the  law  as  a  memorial  under  an  oak, 
according  to  Mr  Grindon,  had  a  similar  meaning. 
That  tree  was  chosen,  because  of  its  symbolic  sig- 
nificance of  permanence  and  endurance,  to  be  a 


1  '  The  Tree  of  Troth '  was  an  appellation  given  to  a  tree  in  the 
garden  of  Sir  Thomas  More,  at  which,  if  Fox  the  niartyrologist  is 
to  be  believed,  several  of  the  Reformers  underwent  flagellation 
under  his  superintendence.  See  Lord  Campbell's  '  Lives  of  the 
Chancellors,'  vol.  i.  It  is  very  remarkable  that  in  Hebrew  the 
same  word  dldh,  elah,  is  used  for  an  oath,  a  covenant  confirmed  by 
an  oath  {e.g.,  Gen.  xxvi.  28)  and  for  the  oak.  Mr  H.  C.  Barlow 
observes  that  this  tree  is  the  natural  symbol  of  the  divine  presence 
and  a  divine  covenant,  and  that  for  this  reason  we  find  frequent 
instances  in  Germany  of  decrees  being  ratified  and  dated  beneath 
its  branches,  sub  quercu  (Essays  on  Symbolism,  p.  89). 

2  Bishop  Wordsworth,  Comm.,  in  loc. 


TREE  AND   TRUE.  91 

witness   to  the  people  that  the  '  laws  of  truth ' 
Kv)l    w&ZQ  given  to  last  for  ever  (Joshua  xxiv.  26). 
*  y       ^The  Shemitic  conception  of  truth  seems  to  have 
LP-    been  primitively  that  of  straightness  and  steadfast- 
^n  ess*})  such  as   might   be   suggested  by  a  pine   or 
^"palni-tree.     For  instance,  the  Hebrew  emeth,  truth, 
£     is  from  dman,  to  be  firm  and   unshaken,  whence 
also  amen,  truly,  a  word  naturalised  by  the  Church  ; 
tzddaq,    to  be  just,    righteous,   originally   to    be 
straight,  in  the  Arabic  to  be  stiff  and  rigid  like 
a  lance,   means  also  to  be   true ;    qoshet,   truth, 
from    qdshat,  to  be  hard,  inflexible,  unwavering. 
Compare  these  words  from  an  ancient  poem  sup- 
posed to  have  been  made  on  Eobert  Vere,  Earl  of 
Oxford — 

1  He  hovyth  ne  lie  wanyth  for  wynde  ne  Waste, 
He  dredeth  no  mystys,  ne  stormys,  ne  schowrys ; 
But  standyth  styffe  in  tryeuth,  stronge  as  a  maste.' 1 

The  Egyptian  tr,  ( the  shoot  of  a  palm-tree,' 
corresponds  to  the  Coptic  tar,  i  the  shoot  of  a 
tree,'  and  tor,  6  to  stand  upright,'  '  fixed  in  the 
ground '  (Osburn,  Monumental  History  of  Egypt, 
vol.  i.  p.  157). 

'  Upright  as  the  palm-tree  '  is  the  comparison 
that  naturally  occurs  to  Jeremiah  (x.  5).  In  early 
Christian  art  it  was  the  recognised  symbol,  some 

1  Todd,  Illustrations  of  Gower  and  Chaucer  (1810),  p.  304,  8vo. 


92  TREE  AND   TRUE. 

say,  of  strength,  durability,  and  virtue  ; 1  and  from 
a  notion  that  the  more  heavily  its  branches  were 
weighted  the  more  rapidly  it  increased  in  stature, 
this  tree  was  especially  adopted  as  an  emblem  of 
virtue  oppressed  and  suffering  wrongfully,  but 
lifted  heavenwards  by  the  very  means  employed  to 
keep  it  down.2 

Home  Tooke's  well-known  heretical  views  as  to 
the  nature  and  origin  of  truth  have  often  been  re- 
futed.3 Supposing  that  6  truth '  is  only  what  each 
man  c  troweth,'  he  maintained  that  it  had  no  objec- 
tive existence  per  se,  and  that  it  was  only  relatively 
to  the  percipient  that  any  proposition  could  be  pro- 
nounced to  be  true  or  not  true.  What  is  true  to 
one  man  is  false  to  another,  and  so  the  same  thing 
may  be  true  and  not  true  at  the  same  time. 
Thence  he  inferred  that  there  can  be  no  truth 
apart  from  mankind  of  a  necessary  and  immutable 
nature.  If  it  has  any  existence,  it  must  be  a  re- 
lative, not  an  absolute  and  essential,  one.  This 
attempt  to  prop  up  bad  philosophy  by  bad  philology 
was,  in  the  fullest  sense  of  the  term,  preposterous. 
A  thing  is  truth,  not  merely  because  a  man  troweth 
it ;  but  on  the  contrary,  a  man  troweth  it  when  he 


1  M.  Tournal,  in  Didron's  *  Christian  Iconography,'  vol.  i.  p.  357. 

2  An  instance  of  the  palm-tree,  with  the  motto  Crescit  siibpondcrt 
virtus,  emblematically  applied  to  the  royal  captive  Charles  I.,  will 
he  seen  in  the  frontispiece  to  the  '  Eikon  Basilike,'  1649;  the  notion 
is  embodied  in  Vaughan's  '  Silex  Scintillans,'  Pt.  II.  p.  12. 

3  See  his  Diversions  of  Purley,  p.  401  (4to,  1798). 


TREE   AND   TRUE.  §3 

believes  or  holds  it  to  be  truth— trowan  from  trow, 
not  trow  from  trowan.  His  conception  of  what 
is  fixed  and  immutable  may  change  and  fluctuate, 
and  still  the  fixed  and  immutable  loses  none  of  its 
essential  attributes.  His  subjective  truth  is  uncer- 
tain, variable,  and  often  false ;  the  objective  truth 
is  steadfast,  consistent,  and  always  true. 

As  we  drive  rapidly  by  the  skirts  of  a  wood,  the 
trees,  according  to  their  nearness  or  remoteness, 
seem  to  our  eyes  to  shift  their  relative  positions, 
and  thread  the  figure  of  a  mazy  dance.  The  panic- 
stricken  tyrant  believed  that  he  saw  Birnam  Wood 
in  motion,  and  advancing  to  hem  him  in.  The  in- 
experienced eyes  of  the  man  but  newly  gifted  with 
sight  knew  not  whether  in  the  moving  objects  be- 
fore them  they  beheld  menlike  trees,  or  treelike 
men.  It  would  be  a  hasty  conclusion,  however, 
to  take  these  as  the  standards  of  correct  vision, 
and  assume  that  trees  may  forego  their  rooted 
fixedness  and  share  in  the  weakness  of  human 
mobility,  moving  hither  and  thither  as  men  run  to 
and  fro.  It  was  only  the  hastiness,  the  passion, 
the  ignorance  of  the  observers  that  made  those  im- 
passible natures  seem  like  our  own.  And  so  it  is 
with  truths — which  partake  (as  their  name  im- 
ports) of  the  stability  and  steadfastness  of  trees. 
They  may  seem  to  move  and  vacillate,  they  may 
appear  to  change  their  nature  and  veer  from  their 
own  position ;  but  if  they  do;  the  fault  lies  in  our- 


94  TREE  AND  TRUE. 

selves,  the  observers,  we  may  be  sure,  and  not 
in  them.  Truth  rests  unmoved,  the  same  in  all 
times  and  places,  being  the  Sanskrit  d/iruva,  fixed, 
established,  certain. 

That  the  word,  however,  was  occasionally  used 
by  early  English  writers  in  a  sense  such  as  Tooke 
would  assign  to  it  as  its  primary  one,  and  denoted 
any  belief  whether  correct  or  otherwise,  may  be 
proved  by  many  passages.  In  Langland's  6  Vision 
concerning  Piers  the  Plowman '  (1393)  we  even 
meet  a  phrase  so  strange  to  modern  ears  as  6  false 
truths.' 

When  Lechery  armed  himself 

1  He  bar  a  bowe  in  hus  honde,  and  meny  brode  arwes 
Were  fetherede  with  faire  by-heste  and  many  a  fals  treuthe.' l 

So  in   Hampole's  i  Pricke  of  Conscience '  (ab. 

1340),  Antichrist  says — 

'  Thai  ly ved  in  fals  troivthe  alle 
That  has  bene  fra  the  worldes  bygynnyng 
Until  the  tyme  of  his  commyng.'         LI.  4228-30. 

Dr  Morris  quotes  a  parallel  to  this  from  the 
Harleian  MS. — 

<  That  fals  Crist  as  I  telle  the 
In  the  flum  sal  baptist  be, 
To  save  man  sWles  he  salle  be  send, 
And  alle  fals  trowth  he  salle  defend.' 

The    Three   Kings,   therefore,   in    the   6  Cursor 

Mundi'  (ab.   1320),   were  guilty  of  no  tautology 

1  Pass,  audit  11.  117,  118,  E.E.T.S.,  ed.  Skeat,  text  C. 


vice.  95 

when  they  declared   that  they  were  come  to  the 

new-born  Saviour,  prepared  to 

1  Honur  him  wit  tiicthes  tru.1 

In  the  following,  from  the  prose   treatises  of 

Richard   Rolle   de   Hampole  (died  1349),  '  truth  ' 

occurs  where  we  now  would  use  i  faith.' 

1  Sayne  Paul  sais  that  als  lange  als  we  ere  in  this  "body  we 
ere  pilgrymes  fra  owre  Lorde.  ...  we  go  by  trouthe,  noghte 
by  syghte,  that  es  we  lyff  in  trouthe,  noghte  in  bodily 
felynge.' 1 

Burke,  in  his  '  Treatise  on  the  Sublime  and 
Beautiful,'  observes  that  trees  generally  manifest 
much  more  of  the  former  quality  than  of  the  latter, 
being  deficient  in  those  features  of  delicacy  and 
softness  which  he  holds  as  essential  to  the  true 
ideal  of  beauty,  and  remarks  as  conspicuous  in 
flowers  and  women.  '  It  is  not  the  oak,'  he  says, 
'  the  ash,  or  the  elm,  or  any  of  the  robust  trees 
of  the  forest,  which  we  consider  as  beautiful  ; 
they  are  awful  and  majestic,  they  inspire  a  sort 
of  reverence/  Though  i  the  excellence  of  a  strong, 
independent  life,  which  is  the  exception  among 
flowers,  is  the  rule  among  trees/ 2  there  are  cer- 
tain of  these  latter,  however,  of  a  smaller  stature, 
and  less  harsh  and  rugged  outlines,  which  par- 
take more  of  the  character  of  womanish  softness 
and  pliability  than  of  masculine  sternness  and  in- 


!P.  34.    E.E.T.S. 

2  Saturday  Review,  Oct.  2,  1869,  p.  439,  Tree  v.  Flowers. 


96  vice. 

flexibility.  Such  are  the  drooping  willow,  the 
feathery  larch,  the  limber  sallow,  the  clinging 
vine,  the  golden-chain  laburnum,  the  soft-leaved 
lilac,  and  many  others  of  those  which  bear  fruit 
and  flowers.  These  are  suggestive  of  feminine 
beauty  and  bending  grace.  Their  characteristics, 
for  the  most  part,  are  weakness  and  buxomness, 
contrasted  with  the  strength  and  rough  rigidity  of 
their  forest  brethren.  The  vine,  as  is  well  known, 
was  regarded  by  the  Latin  poets  as  standing  to- 
wards the  supporting  elm  in  the  dependent  rela- 
tion of  a  wife  wedded  to  a  husband,  and  suggested 
to  the  Psalmist  a  similar  comparison  (Ps.  cxxviii. 
3).  So  Spenser  speaks  of  i  the  cedar  proud 
and  tall/  but  l  the  eugh  obedient  to  the  bender's 
will.'1 

Again,  it  has  been  said  that  c  no  one  can  look 
at  the  Norfolk  Island  pine  without  being  angry 
with  it  that  so  much  beauty  should  be  combined 
with  so  much  effeminacy.  Perhaps  we  blame  and 
punish  other  weaknesses  and  unrobust  idiosyncracies 
with  the  same  degree  of  reason  and  justice  as  we 
should  exercise  in  scolding  the  delicate  araucaria 

1  Faery  Queen,  I.  i.  8,  9.  Compare  the  following,  which  I  ex- 
tract from  Mr  Jacox's  'Shakspere  Diversions  :' — '  Lady  Percy  has 
alone  been  characterised  as  one  of  those  women  that  Shakspere  has 
painted — timid,  restless,  affectionate,  playful,  submissive — "  a  lovely 
woodbine  hanging  on  the  mighty  oak  "  (p.  336).  Miss  Broughton 
pictures  one  of  her  characters  as  '  standing  by  the  tea-table,  slim 
and  willowy,  ladling  tea  into  the  deep-bodied  pot '  (Nancy,  vol.  i. 
p.  64). 


vice.  97 

excelsa  because  it  is  not  gifted  with  the  obstinate 
temper  of  a  Norway  fir.' l 

And  Mr  Kuskin  in  a  very  similar  passage  ob- 
serves that  trees  present  the  varying  characteristics 
of  t  fragility,  or  force,  softness,  and  strength,  in 
all  degrees  and  aspects  ;  unerring  uprightness,  as 
of  temple  pillars,  or  undivided  wandering  of  feeble 
tendrils  on  the  ground ;  mighty  resistances  of 
rigid  arm  and  limb  to  the  storm  of  ages,  or  wav- 
ings  to  and  fro  with  faintest  pulse  of  summer 
streamlet.' 2 

If  then  that  superior  growth  of  tree  be  (as  we 
have  shown  above)  notionally  and  nominally  akin 
to  the  virtue  of  moral  strength,  straightness,  and 
steadfastness,  it  is  nothing  strange  if  we  shall  find 
that  the  inferior  growth  bears  an  analogous  relation 
to  the  ideas  of  moral  weakness  and  instability,  of 
effeminacy  and  frailty. 

Now  vitis,  the  Latin  name  for  '  the  gadding 
vine,'  and  vitex,  the  name  of  a  species  of  willow, 
contain  the  same  radical  as  the  word  vitiutn,  faulti- 
ness,  vice,  the  idea  common  to  all  three  being  that 
of  bendingness,  pliability,  weakness,  deflection, 
crookedness.3     In  German,  whatever  be  the  point 


1  Quarterly  Review,  vol.  xc.  pp.  41,  42. 

2  Modern  Painters,  vol.  v.  Pt.  VI.  i. 

3  The  difference  of  quantity  in  vitis  and  vitium  is  no  valid  objec- 
tion to  this  approximation,  as  is  proved  by  another  word  on  the 
same  page  of  the  dictionary,  vltellus,  evidently  a  diminutive  of 
vita,  the  life,  quick,  punctum  saliens,  or  yolk  of  the  egg. 

G 


98  VICE    AND    WICKED. 

of  contact  (if  any),  rank  is  an  evasion,  shuffle,  or 
artifice,  ranke  the  shoot  of  a  vine. 

Vitis,  according  to  Columella,  is  from  vieo  (to 
bind,  twist,  plait,  tie),  l  either  because  it  needs  to 
be  tied  to  a  prop  in  order  that  it  may  stand,  or 
(and  this  is  the  correct  view)  because  it  is  pliant 
and  easily  bent.'  1  Compare  the  Hebrew  sorek,  a 
vine,  from  sdrak,  to  intertwine  or  plait.  The  vine, 
says  Cicero,  is  naturally  apt  to  fall,  and  sinks  to 
the  earth  unless  propped  up.  He  notices  also  its 
habit  of  manifold  and  erratic  creeping,  which 
needs  to  be  checked  by  the  knife  of  the  vine- 
dresser.2 

Vitis,  therefore,  is  literally  the  binding,  twining 
plant,  from  the  verbal  stem  vit-,  i  bend,'  seen  in 
vit-ex,  the  bending,  pliant  tree,  the  willow  ;  vit-ilis, 
easy  to  bend,  made  of  osiers,  '  wattled ;'  Greek 
(v)it-6a  (-FLT-ea)  ;  Eng.  c  withe,'  '  withy  ; '  A.-Sax. 
widhig,  Dan.  vidie,  Ger.  weide,  0.  H.  Ger.  wida, 
Scand.  vidhir,  Goth,  vithan?  Also  in  Sanskrit 
viti,  a  climbing-plant  (le  betel),  vita,  a  bough  (which 
word  <  bough '  itself  means  l  the  bender  '),  Lith. 


1  '  Vitis  est  a  vieo,  alligo,  vincio,  quia,  ut  stet,  pedamento  in- 
diget  cui  adalligetur  :  vel  quia  lenta  est,  et  facile  flectitur.'  So 
the  German  rebe,  a  vine,  is  probably  akin  to  the  A.-Saxon  roepan,  to 
bind. 

2  '  Vitis  qua?  natura  caduca  est,  et  nisi  fulta  sit,  ad  terrara 
fertur,  .  .  .  quam  serpeutem  multiplici  lapsu  et  erratico,  ferro 
amputans  ccercet  ars  agricolarum. ' 

3  See  Pictet,  Orig.  Indo-Europ.,  vol.  i.  pp.  223,  253;  vol.  ii.  p.  166. 
Stokes,  Irish  Glosses,  p.  47. 


VICE    AND    WICKED.  99 

roytis,  branch,  osier,  wyti,  to  plait ;  Sanskrit  vetasa, 
the  calamus  rotang,  and  perhaps  vata,  a  rope, 
Indian  fig-tree,  vat,  to  tie.1 

Vit  itself  seems  to  be  a  participial  form  from  a 
root  0t,  to  bend,  plait,  interweave,  Sanskrit  ve,  to 
weave,  seen  in  the  Latin  vieo,  to  bend,  plait,  weave  ; 
vietus,  bent,  shrunken,  withered ;  vi-men,  an  osier ; 
A. -Sax.  we/an,  to  weave,  weed  (woven)  clothes, 
'  weeds ;'  Ger.  weifen  and  weben,  Goth,  weipan, 
0.  Fr.  guiper,  i  guipure '  lace. 

Vitium,  a  fault,  containing  the  same  stem,  would 
originally  mean  something  bent,  crooked,  or  de- 
flected from  being  straight  and  upright  ;2  a  bending 
or  giving  way  of  what  should  be  firm  and  strong, 
as  a  wall,  one's  limbs.  Cicero  tells  us  that  it  was 
the  proper  term  for  a  crookedness  or  deformity  of 
the  latter.  Vitium  (appellant)  quum  partes  cor- 
poris inter  se  dissident,  ex  quo  pravitas  membrorum, 
distortio,  deformitas  (Tusc.  4,  13,  29). 

When  we  Englishmen  would  express  a  high 
opinion  of  anything  worthy  to  be  relied  on,  we  say 
i  as  true  as  steel :' 1  for  we  know  that  the  well- 


1  From  the  same  stem  apparently  comes  Lat.  vitare,  to  bend 
aside  from,  avoid.  Compare  '  eschew,'  Fr.  eschever,  to  turn  askew 
(Dut.  scheef),  or  bend  away  from.  Sofugio,  Gk.  pheugo,  to  flee,  is 
identical  with  Sk.  bhug.  Goth,  biuga,  to  bend,  A.-Sax.  bugan,  to 
bow,  bend,  also  to  avoid,  flee,  0.  Eng.  bowen,  e.g.,  '  Apology  for 
Lollards,'  Camden  Soc.  p.  62 — '  Forsothe  Jhesu  boivvde  him  fro  the 
company,'  John  v.  13  (Wycliffe);  '  Se  Hselend  sdthlice  beah  fram 
dhaere  gegaderunge  (Ibid.  A.-Sax.  version). 

2  Key,  Philological  Society  Proceedings,  vol.  v.  p.  94. 


100  VICE    AND    WICKED. 

tempered  metal,  bend  as  it  may,  will  never  break, 
and  so  deceive  ns,  when  put  to  the  trial;  and  a 
sword  of  such  metal  we  call  a  '  trusty  sword.'  Our 
ancestors,  however,  the  early  Aryans,  framed  a 
finer  comparison,  as  we  have  seen,  when  they  con- 
ceived *  truth '  as  bearing  a  resemblance  in  some 
sort  to  the  uncompromising  rigidity  of  the  forest 
tree,  the  patient,  stout-hearted  giant  which  never 
sways  aside  under  any  adverse  influences,  never 
stoops  to  the  storm,  but  holds  itself  erect,  un- 
changed, unshaken,  in  one  generation  of  men  as  in 
another. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  weakness  of  a  timid, 
time-serving  spirit  has  found  its  type  in  the  pliancy 
of  plants  of  a  feebler  growth,  which  bow  their 
heads  without  resistance  to  every  passing  breeze. 
Instances  are  *  the  reed  shaken  by  the  wind  '  in 
the  Gospel,  the  yielding  bramble  in  the  fable, 
the  vine,  whose  branches  are  in  some  provincial 
dialects  called  '  Souple- Jacks.'  Compare  the  fol- 
io wins:  from  Howell's  i  Familiar  Letters  ' — 


1  E.g.  In  Chaucer's  '  Legend  of  Good  Women,'  where  the  poet  is 
charged  that  he 

I  Maketh  men  to  women  lesse  trist, 
That  ben  as  trewe  as  ever  was  any  stele.' 

The  Prologue. 

'  This  abbes  trowed  hir  ful  wele, 
And  wend  that  scho  war  treu  als  stele.' 

Eng.  Metrical  Homilies  of  the  \Wi  Century  (ed.  Small),  p.  167. 

I I  am  trew  as  steylle  alle  men  waytt.' 

Towneley  Mysteries,  Pastores. 


VICE    AND    WICKED.  101 

1  There  being  divers  Bandy  in  gs  and  Factions  at  Court  in  his 
[Marquis  Pawlet's]  Time,  yet  he  was  beloved  by  all  Parties, 
and  being  asked  how  he  stood  so  right  in  the  Opinion  of  all, 
he  answered,  By  being  a  Willow  and  not  an  Oak' l — 

meaniDg  that  lie  complied  with  all,  and  bent  to 
circumstances.  With  this  we  may  contrast  the 
proverbial  Latin  expression  for  one  made  of  more 
stubborn  stuff  and  of  more  steadfast  character, 
Ortus  a  quercu,  non  a  salice,  '  He  is  sprung  from 
the  oak,  and  not  from  the  willow ;'  and  may  note 
the  use  made  of  a  similar  comparison  by  the  poet 
Burns  in  the  words  wherewith  he  reproaches 
<  Dame  Life '  for  her  want  of  stability  and  con- 
stancy— 

'  Oh  !  flickering,  feeble,  and  unsicker 

I've  found  her  still, 

Aye  wavWing  like  the  willow  wicker, 

'Tween  good  and  ill.' 

Foem  on  Life. 

As  we  have  seen  that  the  stern  virtue  of  *  truth  ' 
is  akin  to  the  sturdy  '.tree,'  so  now  we  may  per- 
ceive that  the  yielding  pliancy  of  'vice,'  Fr.  vice, 
Latin  vitium,  is  own  brother  to  vitis,  the  voluptuous, 
drooping  vine,  which,  by  reason  of  the  frailty  of 
its  nature,  cannot  keep  itself  upright.2     That  the 


1  Howell,   Familiar   Letters,    p.   293,  Bk.  I.  sec.   6,   Letter  5i 
(1644).     Of.  Bailey,  Life  of  Fuller,  p.  318. 

2  The  vine,  regarded  as  a  timber  tree,  and  compared  with  all 
other  trees  of  the  forest,  was  used  as  a  byword  for  worthlessness:— 

'  The  vine  fruitless  is  of  all  trees  most  useless.  ...  If  barren, 
it  is  good  for  nothing ;  not  so  much  as  to  make  a  pin  to  hang 


102  VICE    AND    WICKED. 

transition  of  meaning  from  being  weak,  bent,  or 
twisted,  to  being  wicked,  vicious,  or  wrong,  is  one 
of  very  frequent  occurrence  in  all  languages  the 
annexed  instances  will  sufficiently  prove.  The 
Romans  used  to  speak  of  '  depraved  legs'  (depravata 
crura),  i  a  depravity  of  the  feet  or  joints  '  {pedum, 
articulorum,  depravatio),  while  we  have  now  limited 
the  word  altogether  to  moral  crookedness  and 
deformity. 

Similarly  '  luxury,'  which,  in  Shakspere  and 
his  contemporaries,  commonly  bears  the  definite 
meaning  of  wantonness,  lewdness,  lechery  (the 
Latin  hixuria  signifying  the  luxuriance  and  rank- 
ness  of  vegetation,  as  well  as  the  uncurbed  extra- 
vagance of  riotous  living),  is  the  immediate 
derivative  of  luxus,  excess,  originally  a  '  luxation ' 
or  dislocation  of  a  limb.  The  radical  idea  is 
swerving  or  turning  aslant  from  the  line  of  recti- 
tude, luxus  being  the  Greek  loxos,  slanting.1 

When  Hamlet  is  still  labouring  under  the  ex- 


a  hat  on.  Oaks  and  cedars  are  good  for  building,  poplars  for 
pales,  very  bushes  for  hedging,  doted  wood  for  firing ;  but  the 
fruitless  vine  is  good  for  nothing.' 

Adams,  The  Barren  Tree. 

1  The  practice  and   use  of  all   operative  arts  is  all  in  all ;    in 
divinity,  the  chief  of  all,  which  else  is  as  the  vine,  excellent  only  in 
the  sweet  juice  of  it,  otherwise  fit  not  so  much  as  for  pin  or  peg.' 
Ward,  The  Happiness  of  Practice.     Cf.  Ezek.  xv. 

1  If  Mr/os,  a  withe,  or  willow-twig,  a  tree  of  the  willow  species,  is 
akin  to  loxds,  that  rapprochement  would  fall  in  admirably  with  the 
subject  of  the  present  paper.  Compare  luglzd,  to  bend  or  twist, 
Ger.  liigen,  to  lie,  and  vide  '  Lie '  infra,  p.  105. 


VICE    AND    WICKED.  103 

citement  of  the   supernatural  disclosure   that  the 
royal  bed  of  Denmark  had  become 

'  A  couch  for  luxury  and  damned  incest,' 

he  exclaims — 

'  The  time  is  out  of  joint ;  0  cursed  spite, 
That  ever  I  was  born  to  set  it  right !     Hamlet,  i.  v. 

Bishop  Taylor,  in  his  '  Life  of  Christ/  speaks 
of  a  6  luxation  of  a  point  of  piety.' 

'  Wrong '  is  primarily  applicable  to  something 
crooked,  twisted,  or  wrung,  when  it  should  be 
straight  or  right  (rectus). 

1  Crokyd  or  wronge,  curvus,  tortus,  Crokyn',  or  makyh' 
wronge,  Curbo.'  Prompt.  Parvulorum. 

Compare  the  following  from  Fuller : — 

1  An  act  which  the  judicious  behold,  not  as  a  crooked  deed 
bowing  them,  from  their  last,  but  as  an  upright  one  straighten- 
ing them  to  their  first  and  best,  oath.' 

Church  History,  vol.  i.  p.  304  (ed.  1842). 

So  l  worse,'  '  worst/  Goth,  vairs,  seems  to  answer 
to  the  Latin  versus  (per-versus),  turned  aside, 
twisted,  or  declined,  from  an  original  rectitude, 
from  verto,  to  turn. 

Tort,  a  legal  and  Old  English  term  for  a  wrong, 
denotes  a  tortuous  or  crooked  course  of  action, 
being  the  French  tort,  Latin  tortus,  twisted,  past 
participle  of  torqueo,  to  twist.  Spenser  speaks  of 
some  who  were 

'  Long  opprest  with  tort, 
And  fast  imprisoned  in  sieged  fort.' 

Faerie  Queen,  I.  xii.  4. 


104  VICE    AND    WICKED. 

'  Twisted  '  and  '  twisty  '  are  provincial  words  for 
a  perverse,  cross,  or  Wrong-headed  person.  Dutch 
twistig,  quarrelsome,  from  twist,  a  quarrel  (the 
original  meaning,  however,  perhaps,  being  standing 
at  two  or  at  variance,  not  at  one). 

6  Queer,'  originally  a  cant  term  meaning  bad, 
naught,  is  the  G-er.  quer,  oblique,  athwart,  cross, 
Welsh  gwyr,  crooked.  Compare  Dutch  dwars,  0. 
Norse  thwerr,  A.-Sa.x.  tkweor,  cross,  crooked, 
bad.  So  the  Dutch  verkeerd,  wrong,  wicked,  der 
praved,  is  from  verkeeren,  to  turn  aside ;  Eng. 
'  froward,'  perverse,  is  '  fromward/  turned  away, 
that  will  not  listen,  just  as  i  wayward'  is  'away- 
ward,'  opposite  to  '  toward,'  turned  to  one,  tract- 
able ; 1  Fr.  revecke,  harsh,  intractable,  cross,  is  the 
Portuguese  revesso,  It.  rivescio,  from  reversus, 
turned  away;  and  the  Italian  ritroso,  stubborn, 
is  from  the  Latin  retrorsus,  i.e.,  relroversus,  turned 
away  back  (Diez). 

To  slant  or  slent  in  provincial  and  Old  English 
is  to  deviate  from  truth,  to  lie,  equivocate,  jest. 
Thus  Fuller  speaks  of  one  c  using  sometimes  slent- 
ing,  seldome  downright  railing '  (Holy  State,  p. 
60,  1648,  4to). 

An  interesting  illustration  of  this  word  is  afforded 
by  the  deaf  and  dumb  sign  for  truth  and  falsehood 


1  In  the  provincial  dialects,  a  person  of  reluctant,  stubborn,  or 
contrary  disposition  is  similarly  described  as  awlc,  awTcert,  *  awk- 
ward,' or  as  tharf,  tharth,  '  thwart.' 


VICE    AND    WICKED.  105 

respectively,  the  former  being  denoted  by  moving 
the  finger  straight  forward  from  the  lips,  while  to 
signify  a  lie  the  finger  is  moved  to  one  side. 

The  word  '  lie  '  itself,  pro  v.  Eng.  lig,  A. -Sax. 
leogan,  Dut.  liegen,  Goth,  Hug  an,  Ger.  lilgen,  has 
its  fundamental  meaning  exhibited  in  the  cognate 
Lettish  word  leeks,  false,  wrong,  originally  crooked, 
from  leekt,  to  bend,1  Esthon.  liig-paiatus,  crooked 
speech,  falsehood,  and  all  may  no  doubt  be 
traced  to  the  Sanskrit  root  ling,  to  bend,  seen 
in  Gk.  lugizo,  Lat.  ligare,  ob-liqu-us.  Compare 
Loxias,  in  Greek,  the  oracular  god  of  indirect  and 
crooked  (loxos)  utterances. 

'  Insidious  sly  Report, 
Sounding  oblique,  like  Loxian  oracles, 
Tells  double-tongued  (and  -with  the  self-same  voice  !) 
To  some  new  gladness,  new  despair  to  some.' 

Owen  Meredith  (Lord  Lytton),  Clytemnestra. 

'  Kam,'  as  in  Shakspere's  '  This  is  clean  kam  ' 
(Cor.  iii.  1),  i.e.,  altogether  wrong  (<  Eebours  ob- 
likely,  awry,  quite  contrary  .  .  .  cleane  kamme  ' — 
Cotgrave)  is  the  Irish  cam,  Welsh  cam,  crooked, 
wry,  wrong. 

A.-Sax.  wok,  a  bend,  twist,  or  turning,  is  also 
used  for  error,  wrong,  wickedness,  depravity,  and 


1  Wedgwood,  Origin  of  Language,  p.  148.  It  is  instructive  to 
compare  with  this  the  parallelism  of  '  lie,'  to  be  recumbent,  0. 
Eng.  to  ligge,  A.-Sax.  Megan,  liggan,  Dut.  liggen,  Ger.  liegen,  Goth. 
ligan,  Ir.  luighim,  Gk.  legtimar,  lechos,  a  bed,  Lat.  lectus,  Goth. 
liuga,  marriage,  all  from  a  root  form  lanfi,  la?).  Vide  Pictet,  Orig. 
Indo-Europ.,  vol.  ii.  p.  270. 


106  VICE    AND    WICKED. 

comes  from  the  Sanskrit  root  va?ik,  to  be  crooked, 
move  tortuously.1 

0.  Eng.  '  wrench/  a  trick  or  deception,  A.-Sax. 
wrence,  is  a  proceeding  wrenched  or  wrung  aside 
from  the  straightforward  course  (traceable  pro- 
bably to  the  Sanskrit  root  vrij,  to  bend). 

1  It  [the  world]  ledes  a  man  with  wrenlces  and  wyles.' 

Prick  of  Conscience,  1.  1360  (about  1340  a.d.) 

(JTn  Hebrew,  dvdJi,  to  bend,  twist,  distort,  also 
signifies  to  act  perversely,  to  s'mT)Pdthal,  to  twist, 
in  one  of  its  moods  means  to  be  crafty,  deceitful, 
to  act  perversely,  and  its  derivative  jjethaltol  (Deut. 
xxxii.  5)  is  perverse,  deceitful,  '  twisty.' 

Latin  scelns,  crime,  wickedness,  is  akin  to  the 
Greek  shelos  or  skellos,  crooked-legged,  s/wlios, 
crooked,  and  also  unrighteous,  wrong,  skalcnos, 
halting,  limping.2  Compare  the  North  of  England 
shelled,  warped,  twisted,  crooked,  skelly?  to  look 
awry  ;  A.-Sax.  sceol-eged,  scul-eaged,  squinting  or 
scowling ;   0.  Norse  skoela,  to  twist  awry ;  all  cog- 


1  '  Wench  '  a  young  woman,  a  word  once  free  from  the  con- 
temptuous implication  now  attaching  to  it,  is  from  the  same  root, 
being  the  A.-Sax.  wencle,  a  maid,  akin  to  wencel,  a  weakling  ; 
Prov.  Eug.  winkle,  feeble  ;  A.-Sax.  wincian,  to  bend  one's  self,  to 
'  wince,'  from  the  Sanskrit  vank,  to  go  crooked,  to  bend.  The 
primitive  idea  seems  to  have  been  that  of  a  weak,  pliant,  and 
buxom  being. 

2  Cockayne,  Spoon,  and  Sparrow,  p.  316. 

3  Compare  Cleveland  shell,  skeel,  to  tilt  or  turn  obliquely  (Atkin- 
son) ;  Cumberland  shelled,  distorted,  awry,  and  shawl,  to  walk 
crookedly,    0.    Eng.   shayle;   all   akin   to   Ger.  schel,  Dut.   scheel, 


VICE    AND    WICKED.  107 

nate  with  the  Sanskrit  skhal,  to  stumble,  fall,  err, 
go  wrong,  skhalana,  a  transgression. 

'  Slim,'  with  the  provincial  meaning  of  distorted, 
worthless,  sly,  crafty,  is  the  Dutch  slim,  slem, 
transverse,  oblique,  distorted,  bad,  cunning ;  Ba- 
varian schlimm,  wry,  Old  Norse  sloemr,  weak,  worth- 
less. Wedgwood  thinks  that  the  original  meaning 
of  the  word  may  be  flagging,  flaccid,  then  hanging 
down,  sloping,  leading  to  the  idea  of  obliquity 
and  depravity. 

We  have  seen  that  vitis,  the  vine,  as  its  name 
imports,  is  the  twisting  or  bending  plant,  being 
cognate  with  the  Anglo-Saxon  wi%ie,  our  '  withy,' 
which  latter  seems  sometimes  to  have  denoted  any 
tree  of  a  crooked  or  twisted  growth,  for  Stow  in 
his  i  Survey '  speaks  of  i  the  fetching  in  of  a  twisted 
tree,  or  with,  as  they  termed  it  .  .  .  into  the 
king's  house,'  in  the  week  before  Easter.  The 
same  root  has  been  traced  in  the  word  vitium  in 
the  sense  of  a  crookedness  or  twist.  It  exists 
also,  it  is  more  than  probable,  in  the  Persian  bid 
and  bit  (?  the  vine),  Hindostani  bed,  the  willow, 
Persian  bide.  A  curious  parallel  to  the  relation 
between  vitis  and  vitium  is  afforded  by  the  kindred 


crooked,  0.  N.  slccela,  to  turn  awry.  So  Cumberland  scafe,  a  wild 
youth,  a  scamp,  is  connected  with  0.  Norse  skeifr,  Dan.  skieve,  (1) 
to  be  askew  or  crooked,  (2)  to  go  wrong  (Ferguson).  Stem,  in  Cleve- 
land, Dan.,  Swed.,  and  Norse,  Ger.  schlimm,  Dut.  slim,  bad,  worth- 
less, are  akin  to  Swed.  slimm,  slemmer,  crooked.  Ir.  fiar,  (1) 
crooked,  (2)  wicked. 


108  VICE    AND    WICKED. 

words  in  Persian.  Bed  not  only  means  the  willow 
or  aspen,  but  also  worthless,  useless ;  bada  is  the 
willow,  and  also  wickedness;  while  bad  is  naughty, 
wicked,  <  bad.'1 

Another  plant  deriving  its  name  from  its  twin- 
ing and  winding  habit  is  the  '  vetch,'  It.  veccia, 
Ger.  ?vicke,  Dan.  vihhe,  Lat.  vicia,  i.e.,  6  the  binder' 
(compare  '  wood-bine,'  i.e., 6  wood-bind,'  and  ' bind- 
weed), from  the  stem  vie,  to  bind,  seen  in  the  Ger. 
Tvickeln,  to  bind  around,  or  wrap;  Dan.  vikle ;  Lat. 
vinca,  pervinca,  '  periwinkle  '  ('  the  binder  ')  ;  0. 
Eng.  pervinkle ;  Dan.  vceger,  a  willow;  vegre,  a 
pliant  rod,  a  withy ;  veg,  pliant ;  our  '  wicker ; ' 
Swed.  wika,  to  plait,  fold,  yield,  give  place  to,  turn 
aside ;  and  probably  the  provincial  English  word 
6  winkle,'  meaning  feeble.  This  stem  vie,  occurring 
in  Indo-European  words,  has  been  traced  up  to  the 
Sanskrit  root  vinch,  and  may  be  discerned  in  the 
Greek  (v)eikein  (retfceiv),  to  yield ;  Lat.  vincere,  to 
cause  to  yield,  to  conquer ;  vincire,  to  bind ;  vic-is, 


1  Some  instances  of  the  employment  of  bad  in  Persian  are  bad- 
nam,  a  bad  name,  infamous;  bad-dil  (weak  heart),  cowardly, 
timid ;  bad-pidar  (bad  father),  a  step-father  ;  jdmasi  bad,  a  torn 
or  worn-out  garment.  The  resemblance  of  the  two  words  in 
Persian  and  English  (far  removed  as  are  those  languages)  is  cer- 
tainly not  a  coincidence,  but  a  real  family  likeness.  Compare 
as  other  instances  Pers.  band  =  Eng.  'band,'  Pers.  bud  =  Eng. 
1  booth.' 

At  all  events,  if  we  repudiate  the  Persian  bad,  our  English  word 
will  stand  perfectly  isolated.  As  an  instance  of  the  unhappy  shifts 
that  etymologists  have  been  driven  to,  Matzner  deduces  '  bad'  from 
the  A. -Sax.  bedling,  an  effeminate  person,  one  who  keeps  his  bed. 
(Ed.  Miiller,  s.v.) 


VICE   AND    WICKED.  109 

a  turn ;  *  0.  H.  Ger.  wichan ;  0.  Norse  vikja,  to 
turn,  give  place;  Swed.  vika ;  Dan.  vige;  Ger. 
weichen ;  A. -Sax.  wican,  to  give  way,  yield,  to  be- 
come soft  or  weak.  With  these  latter  words  are 
immediately  connected  Dan.  veg,  pliant ;  Swed. 
wek,  yielding,  soft,  tender;  Ger.  welch;  A. -Sax. 
wac,  yielding  to  pressure,  '  weak  y  also  c  wicked,' 
which  is  a  collateral  form  of  l  weak/  0.  Eng.  wik, 
wicke,  and  only  in  comparatively  modern  times 
distinguished  from  it  as  an  independent  word.2 

'  Wick,'  originally  signifying  weak,  yielding, 
pliant,  opposed  to  that  which  is  strong,  steadfast, 
and  durable,  came  afterwards  to  be  used  of  any 
thing  worthless,  evil,  or  bad  of  its  kind. 

1  It  [hell]  sal  be  fulle  of  brunstane  and  pyk, 
And  of  other  thyng  J>at  es  wyk' 

Prick  of  Conscience  (ab.  1340)  11.  6693-4. 

'  Grete  stormes  wex  with  weders  wik.' 

MS.  Earl.  4196. 


1  Cleasby  is  of  opinion  that  the  word  '  week/  A. -Sax.  wica,  weoce, 
Icel.  vika,  was  adopted  from  the  Latin  vice.  Compare  the  Gothic 
in  wikon  kunyis  seinis  (Luke  i.  8),  said  of  Zacharias  officiating 
in  his  turn  or  course.  It  might  be  conjectured  that  the  root  vinch, 
mentioned  above,  is  a  collateral  form  of  the  Sanskrit  vank,  to  go 
tortuously,  be  crooked,  bend,  seen  in  the  Latin  vacillare,  vacuus, 
vacare  ;  A. -Sax.  wincian,  wincel,  wince,  waeg,  woy,&c. 

2  Of  kindred  origin,  and  strikingly  similar  in  their  mutual  rela- 
tions, are  the  words  following  : — (1)  Scot,  sioack,  limber,  pliant, 
weak  ;  Ger.  schwa-/' ;  Dut.  sioack,  easily  bent,  weak  ;  Dan.  Swed. 
svag,  weak  ;  pro  v.  Eng.  to  sweg,  sway  ;  0.  Norse  sveigja,  to  incline, 
bend,  give  way  :  cognate  with  (2),  0.  Norse  svigi,  a  twig  :  and 
with  (3),  Dan.  svig,  0.  Norse  svik,  Scot,  swick,  A.-Sax.  swic,  mean- 
ing fraud,  deceit,  treachery  ;  A.-Sax.  swican,  to  weaken,  deceive ; 
Cumberland  swyke,  a  thin,  weak  animal,  a  worthless,  deceitful 
person. 


110  VICE   AND    WICKED. 

'  For  tliilke  grund  that  berith  the  wedis  wyk 
Berith  eke  thes  holsom  herbis.' 

Chaucer,  Troilus  and  Creseide,  Bk.  I.,  1.  947. 

*  Til  god  men  sal  he  [Christ]  be  quern, 
And  to  the  wik  ful  grisli  sem.' 

Eng.  Metrical  Homilies  of  the  \4th  Cent. 
(ed.  Small),  p.  20. 

1  Thou  werm  with  thi  wylys  wyk.'' 

Coventry  Mysteries,  p.  29. 

1  Hire  hadde  lever  a  knif 
Thurghout  hire  brest,  then  ben  a  woman  wikke.'' 

Canterbury  Tales,  1.  5448. 

1  Sire,  I  did  it  in  no  wikke  entente.' 

Id.  1.  15429. 
4  Hit  semeth  that  no  wyght 
Wot  ho  is  worthi  for  wele  other  for  wicke, 
"Whether  he  is  worthi  to  wele  other  to  wickede  pyne.' 
Vision  of  P.  Plowman  (1393),  Pass.  XII. 
1.  272  (Text  C),  E.E.T.S. 

'  Noght  swa  wikked  man,  noght  swa, 
Bot  als  dust  that  wind  the  erthe  tas  fra. 
And  therefor,  wick  in  dome  noght  rise, 
Ne  sinfulle  in  rede  of  right  wise. 
For  Louerd  of  right  wise  wot  the  way 
And  gate  of  wick  forworth  sal  ay.' 

Ancient  Version  of  Ps.  i.  4-6,  quoted  in  Weever's 
Funeral  Monuments  (1631),  p.  154. 

In  c  Havelok  the  Dane  '  we  meet  the  phrases 
<  wikke  clothes  '  and  '  wicke  wede '  (11.  2458  and 
2825)  for  what  in  another  place  is  called  *  feble 
wede '  (1.  323),  i.e.,  bad,  poor,  or  mean  clothing. 


VICE   AND    WICKED.  Ill 

Compare  the  Icelandic  sunde  klasde,  torn  clothes, 
from  sund,  synd'e,  injured,  broken,  '  sundered/ 
near  akin  to  synd,  a  breach  of  law,  guilt ;  Ger. 
sunde,  our  '  sin '  (Wedgwood,  s.v.)1 

'  Wick '  or  '  wik,'  as  used  in  all  these  passages, 
corresponds  to  the  provincial  German  week  (soft, 
mean),  wiken  ;  Ger.  weichen  (e.g.,  Luther's  version 
of  1  Sam.  xii.  20;  Prov.  v.  7);  A. -Sax.  wican,  to 
be  soft,  yielding,  or  'weak7  (A. -Sax.  wcec,  wac, 
Ger.  weick).2 

In  6  wicked,'  therefore,  we  have  an  instance  of  a 
great  moral  truth  being  implicit  and  wrapped  up 
in  a  word,  and  not  so  much,  perhaps,  as  suspected 
till  that  word  be  unfolded  and  laid  bare  to  its  very 
central  meaning.  The  '  wick  '  or  f  wicked  '  man  is 
in  name  as  well  as  in  nature,  etymologically  as 
well  as  essentially,  the  l  weak  J  man,  the  man  who, 
instead  of  resisting  temptations,  has  yielded  to 
them,  who  has  been  vanquished  (vic-tus)  in  the 
spiritual  combat,  and  instead  of  bridling  his  evil 
passions,  follows  and  is  led  by  them,  confessing 
that  they  are  too  strong  for  him.  Overcoming 
and  conquering,  it  will  be  remembered,  is  in  Scrip- 
ture the  usual  figure  for  exercising  continence  and 


1  In  Cleasby's  Icelandic  Dictionary,  however,  synd  'sin,'  is 
connected  with  syyi,  A.-Sax.  syn,  a  negation  or  denial,  as  if  an 
apostasy. 

2  Dr  Morris  compares  '  nasty, '  0.  Eug.  nasky,  which  comes  from 
hnesc,  soft. 


112  VICE  AND    WICKED. 

self-restraint,   and  withstanding  the  natural  im- 
pulses to  evil.1 

For  in  the  words  of  one  of  the  sacred  books  of 
Buddha,  '  he  who  lives  looking  for  pleasures  only, 
his  senses  uncontrolled,  idle,  and  weak, — Mara  (the 
tempter)  will  certainly  overcome  him,  as  the  wind 
throws  down  a  weak  tree.'' 2  He  will  have  no  more 
pith  3  or  strength  of  character  to  stand  against  the 
storm  of  temptation  when  it  comes,  than  has  the 


1  Cf.  '  Vinciam  dicebant  continentem  '  (Festus).  Ger.  weiclding, 
a  voluptuary  or  effeminate  person,  one  who  cannot  govern  his 
passions.  A  '  passionate  '  man,  it  has  been  truly  observed,  '  is  suf- 
fering not  doing,  suffering  his  anger,  or  what  other  evil  temper  it 
may  be,  to  lord  over  him  without  control.  Let  no  one  then  think 
of  "passion"  as  a  sign  of  strength.  As  reasonably  might  one 
assume  that  it  was  a  proof  of  a  man  being  a  strong  man  that  he 
was  often  well  beaten  ;  such  a  fact  would  be  evidence  that  a  strong 
man  was  putting  forth  his  strength  on  him,  but  of  anything  rather 
than  that  he  himself  was  strong.  The  same  sense  of  passion  and 
feebleness  going  together,  of  the  first  being  born  of  the  second, 
lies,  as  I  may  remark  by  the  way,  in  the  twofold  use  of  the  Latin 
word  "  impotens,"  which,  meaning  first  weak,  means  then  violent, 
and  then  often  weak  and  violent  together  '  (Trench,  Study  of 
Words,  Lect.  III.) 

'  Strong  passions  mean  weak  will.'  Coventry  Patmore. 

'  The  union  of  the  highest  conscience  and  the  highest  sympathy,' 
says  Mrs  Jamieson,  '  fulfils  my  notion  of  virtue.  Strength  is  essen- 
tial to  it  ;  weakness  incompatible  with  it. 

'  We  too  often  make  the  vulgar  mistake  that  undisciplined  or 
overgrown  passions  are  a  sigu  of  strength  ;  they  are  the  signs  of 
immaturity,  of  "  enormous  childhood."  '  In  this  respect  it  seemed 
to  her  that  the  Indians  of  a  tribe  of  Chippawas  were  '  less  niched  ' 
than  the  depraved  '  barbarians  of  civilisation '  to  be  met  with  in 
great  towns.  Commonplace- Book,  pp.  8  and  242. 

'  Virtue,'  Lat.  virtus,  properly  denoting  manlin-.-s  or  strength  of 
character,  is  near  akin  to  vir,  a  hero ;  vireo,  to  be  strong. 

2  Vide  Clodd,  Childhood  of  Religions. 

3  Compare  Burns — 

'  Come,  firm  Resolve,  take  thou  the  van, 
Thou  stalk  o'  carl-hemp  in  man  I ' 

To  Dr  Blacklod:,  Globe  ed.  p.  103. 


VICE   AND    WICKED.  113 

woodbine  or  acacia  that  is  driven  to  and  fro  in  the 
autumnal  blast. 

Thus  as  vitis,  the  winding  plant,  the  vine,  and 
Dan.  vidie,  the  willow,  Eng.  '  withy,'  are  related 
to  vitium,  meaning  first  a  bend,  weakness,  or  faulti- 
ness  in  the  limbs,  a  deformity,  and  then  a  moral 
fault,  a  '  vice  ;'  so  are  the  c  vetch/  Ger.  wicke, 
the  twining  plant,  and  our  c  wicker,'  akin  to  the 
Danish  veg,  pliant ;  Swed.  wek,  yielding,  soft ; 
Fin.  wika,  a  bodily  defect,  also  a  moral  fault, 
'  weakness,'  '  wickedness.' 

As  a  result  of  this  relationship  between  vitis  and 
vitium,  it  might  be  demonstrated  that  '  vice  '  the 
mechanical  instrument,  and  '  vice '  the  ethical 
term  expressive  of  moral  turpitude,  are  words  not 
merely  superficially  alike,  but  radically  and  funda- 
mentally connected.  The  latter  is  obviously  the 
French  vice,  Lat.  vitium ;  the  former,  which  was 
originally  and  properly  applicable  only  to  the  screw 
of  the  implement,  is  the  French  vis,  a  screw,  so 
called  from  its  resemblance  to  the  tendril  of  a  vine, 
vitis.  Compare  the  Italian  vite,  a  vine,  also  any 
kind  of  winding  screw  or  vice ;  Fr.  vrille  (for 
verille),  a  gimlet,  also  the  screwlike  tendril  of  a 
vine  (It.  verrina,  a  gimlet,  both,  perhaps,  from 
the  Latin  veru)  ;  Gk.  lugos,  a  willow- twig,  also  a 
screw-press,  a  screw. 

It  follows   that  when   Hood   approximated  the 

H 


114  VICE    AND    WICKED. 

two  terms  in  one  of  his  comic  poems  for  the  sake 
of  a  pun — 

*  As  harden'd  in  vice  as  the  vice  of  a  smith/ — 

he  was  really  bringing  together  words  which,  how- 
ever long  separated  and  widely  divergent  in  point 
of  meaning,  still  contained  the  same  stem  vit,  and 
the  same  latent  signification  of  being  bent,  curved, 
or  deflected. 


(  115  ) 


CHAPTER    V. 

THE  WORDS  '  DUPE  ' — c  DOTTEREL  ' — '  DUNCE  ' — 
1  COWARD  ' — *  POLTROON,'  ETC, 

In  most  languages  the  type  of  a  fool  or  simpleton 
has  been  sought  amongst  the  race  of  what  So- 
phocles calls  '  light-minded  birds.' l  Everybody 
has  observed  the  solemn  stupidity  of  the  owl,  the 
air  of  profoundest  wisdom  and  imperturbable  gra- 
vity with  which  it  blinks  its  unspeculative  eyes — 
the  absurd  pomposity  of  the  strutting  turkey-cock 
as  he  ruffles  to  the  full  extent  of  his  feathers, 
and  inflates  his  gorge  with  that  lofty  air  of  self- 
importance  which  first  suggested  the  word  i  gor- 
geous/ Who  has  not  felt  irritated  at  the  utter 
insensibility  to  danger  that  the  hen  exhibits  till  it 
is  just  upon  her,  and  the  altogether  dispropor- 
tionate amount  of  panic  and  commotion  with 
which  she  then  shrieks  away  from  before  it — at 
the  aggressive  hiss  with  which  the  braggadocio 


1  Kovcpovowv  (pv\ov  opvidwv  (Antig.  342,  Wunder).  '  He  was  far 
from  one  of  the  volatile  or  bird-witted,'  says  Dr  Jebb  in  his  '  Life  of 
Nich.  Ferrar,'p.  272. 


116  FOOLISH   BIRDS. 

goose  strains  out  her  neck  after  a  retreating  foe, 
and  proclaims  her  imbecility  ?  Who  has  not 
smiled  at  the  swelling  vanity  and  ostentation 
wherewith  the  peacock  mantles  and  distends  his 
splendid  train,1 

i  With  all  his  feathers  puft  for  pride  ; ' 

and  who,  as  he  observed  them,  has  not  been  re- 
minded of  their  counterparts  for  silliness  and 
stupidity  that  he  has  sometimes  met  amongst  the 
unfeathered  bipeds  ? 2 

If  a  person  does  anything  particulary  foolish,  we 


1  Compare  the  Portuguese  pavonear-se,  '  to  play  the  fop  or  beau, 
to  strut  and  show  one's  self  about  as  the  peacock  does  his  feathers ' 
(Vieyra). 

2  '  That  unfeathered  two-legged  thing,  a  son.' 

Dryden,  Absalom  and  AchitopheL 

In  the  following  curious  passage  from  Thomas  Adams'  sermon 
entitled  '  Lycanthropy  '  we  have  different  sorts  of  men  likened  to 
fowls  : — '  There  is  the  peacock,  the  proud  man  ;  stretching  out  his 
painted  and  gaudy  wings.  The  desperate  cock,  the  contentious  ; 
that  fights  without  any  quarrel.  The  house-bird,  the  sparrow  ;  the 
emblem  of  an  incontinent  and  hot  adulterer.  The  lapwing,  the 
hypocrite ;  that  cries,  "  Here  it  is,  here  it  is  ;"  here  is  holiness 
when  he  builds  his  nest  on  the  ground,  is  earthly-minded,  and  runs 
away  with  the  shell  on  his  head  ;  as  if  he  were  perfect  when  he  is 
his  once  pipient.  There  is  the  owl,  the  night-bird,  the  Jesuited 
seminary  ;  that  skulks  all  day  in  a  hollow  tree,  in  some  Popish  vault, 
and  at  even  hoots  and  flutters  abroad,  and  shrieks  downfall  and 
ruin  to  king,  church,  and  commonwealth.  There  is  the  bat,  the 
neuter  ;  that  hath  both  wings  and  teeth,  and  is  both  a  bird  and  a 
beast ;  of  any  religion,  of  no  religion.  There  is  the  cormorant,  the 
corn-vorant,  the  mire-drumble,  the  covetous  ;  that  are  ever  rooting 
and  rotting  their  hearts  in  the  mire  of  this  world.  There  is  also 
the  vulture,  that  follows  armies  to  prey  upon  dead  corpses  ;  the 
usurer,  that  waits  on  prodigals  to  devour  their  decaying  fortunes. 
Some  men  have  in  them  the  pernicious  nature  of  all  these  foul 
fowls. ' 


117 

say  he  is  a  c  goose ; '  if  lie  is  awkward,  stupid, 
inexperienced,  and  generally  6  callow,'  we  say  that 
he  is  a  gawk,  an  owl,  an  oaf,  a  booby,  a  pigeon,  a 
daw,  a  gull,  a  dotterel.  Now  i  gawk  '  is  the  A. -Sax. 
geac,  (1)  a  cuckoo,  (2)  a  beardless  boy,  a  simpleton. 

Skeg,  a  name  which  the  Northampton  folk  have 
for  a  fool  or  stupid  fellow,  has  the  same  meaning. 
It  is  only  a  mutilated  form  of  suck-egg,  which  is 
also  applied  to  the  cuckoo.     {Vide  Sternberg,  s.v.) 

'  Oaf,'  1  formerly  spelt  auf,  ouphe  (Shakspere), 
aupk  (Dryden),2  aulf  (Drayton),  is  probably  iden- 
tical with  auf  (an  owl),  0.  H.  Ger.  ufo,  (Lett.) 
ukpis,  (A.-Sax.)  uf  huf,  (Pers.)  kuf.z 

Compare  the  Italian  gofo,  gufo,  guffo,  c  an  owle  ; 
also  a  simple  foole  or  grosse-pated  gull,  a  ninnie 
patch  '  (Florio).  Fr.  goffe,  dull,  sottish  ;  Cumber- 
land goff,  guff,  a  simpleton  ;   0.  Eng.  '  gofish,' 

t  Beware  of  gofisslie  peoples  speck' 

Chaucer,  Troilus  and  Creseide,  III.  1.  585. 

i  Booby '  was  once  the  name  of  some  species  of 
bird  noted  for  its  stupidity.  Thus  we  read  in  the 
'  Travels  of  Sir  Tho.  Herbert'  (1665)— 


1  The  word  is  complicated  by  its  resemblance  to  the  prov.  Encr. 
olf,  olph,  or  alp  (a  bull-finch). — Systema  Agricultures,  1687. 
'  Alpe,  a  bryde  '  (i.e.,  a  bird). — Prompt.  Parv.  It  also  occurs  iu 
Chaucer.     Wedgwood  connects  'oaf  '  with  '  elf.' 

2  '  You  Auph  you,  do  you  not  perceive  it  is  the  Italian  seignior  ? ' 

Limberham,  i.  1,  Plays,  vol.  iv.  p.  302  (1763). 

3  Pictet,  Orig.  Indo-Europ.,  voL  i.  p.  471. 


118  DOTTEREL. 

'  At  which  time  some  Bodbycs  pearcht  upon  the  Yard  Arm  of 
our  Ship,  and  suffered  our  men  to  take  them,  an  Animal  so 
very  simple  as  becomes  a  Proverb  '  (p.  II).1 

The  dodo  also,  it  would  seem,  was  given  its 
name,  probably  by  the  Dutch,  on  account  of  its 
well-known  obtusity.  Cf.  Frisian  dod  (a  simple- 
ton), (Dut.)  duty  (Scot.)  dutty  to  doze,  (Fr.) 
doduy  i  doddypoll,'  a  blockhead.  '  The  Dodo,  a 
Bird  the  Dutch  call  Walgh-vcgel  or  Dod-eersen ' 
(Herbert,  p.  402). 

Of  similar  origin  is  c  dotterel/  a  bird  proverbial 
for  its  doting  stupidity.  It  was  supposed  to  be  so 
intent  in  imitating  the  motions  of  the  fowler  that 
it  allowed  itself  to  be  taken  without  an  effort  to 
escape. 

'  Dotterels,  so  named  (says  Camden)  because  of  their  dotish 
foolishnesse,  which  being  a  kinde  of  birds  as  it  were  of  an  apish 
kinde,  ready  to  imitate  what  they  see  done,  are  caught  by 
candle-light  according  to  fowlers  gesture  :  if  he  put  forth  an 
arme,  they  also  stretch  out  a  wing  :  sets  he  forward  his  legge, 
or  holdeth  up  his  head,  they  likewise  doe  theirs  :  in  brief e, 
what  ever  the  fowler  doth,  the  same  also  doth  this  foolish  bird 
untill  it  bee  hidden  within  the  net.' 

Britain  (Trans.  Holland,  1637),  p.  543. 


1  From  a  like  insensibility  to  danger,  another  bird  is  commonly 
known  as  the  '  foolish  guillemot,'  or  the  him  ;  Scot,  lungie.  Loon 
(dolt  or  booby, '  He  called  the  tailor  lown,'  Othell©,.  ii.  3)  was  an  old 
Eng.  name  for  the  great  crested  grebe  (Podiceps  cristatus),  and  is 
probably  a  corruption  of  the  name  lumme,  which,  also  found  in  the 
form  loom,  loon,  is  in  some  places  given  to  the  diver  (colymbus), 
Dan.  lorn,  Fin.  leomme,  Urn.  Cf.  Dut.  loen,  Ger.  liimmel,  a  booby 
or  clown.  The  name  is  said  to  have  been  applied  to  the  Colymbidse 
on  account  of  their  lame  and  awkward  gait  in  walking. 


GULL.  119 

*  This  is  a  mirthmaking  bird,  so  ridiculously  mimical  that 
he  is  easily  caught  (or  rather  catcheth  himself)  by  his  over 
active  imitation.'  Fuller,  Worthies  (1662),  p.  149. 

'  For  as  you  creep,  or  cowr,  or  lie  or  stoop,  or  go, 
So  marking  you  with  care  the  apish  bird  doth  do, 
And  acting  everything,  doth  never  mark  the  net, 
Till  he  be  in  the  snare,  which  men  for  him  have  set/ 
Drayton,  Polyolbion,  Song  25.1 

In  Latin  it  is  called  morinellus,  from  morio, 
morus  (a  fool).  i  To  dor  the  dotterel '  is  an  old 
phrase  meaning  to  hoax,  cheat,  or  make  a  fool  of. 
And  so  '  dotterel '  came  to  be  used  for  a  greenhorn, 
a  simpleton,  a  dupe,  as,  for  instance,  in  the  old 
play  quoted  by  ISTares — 

E.  Our  dotterel  then  is  caught. 

B.  He  is,  and  just 

As  dotterels  used  to  be  :  the  lady  first 
Advanc'd  toward  him,  stretch'd  forth  her  wing,  and  he 
Met  her  with  all  expressions.  Old  Couple,  x.  483. 

1  Gull,' 2  denotes  any  young  unfledged  bird  while 
covered  with  yellow  down  ('  golden  guls,'  Sylvester ; 
Shakspere's  'golden  couplets  '  of  the  dove),  being 
near  akin  to  the  Swedish  gul  (yellow),  (It.)  giallo, 
(Ft.)  jaune,  i.e.,  jalne,  (0.  H.  Ger.)  gelo,  'yellow,' 
and  Eng.  'gold.'    So  the  French  bejaune,  i.e.,  bec- 


1  Quoted  in  Tooke's  'Diversions  of  Purley,'  p.  464,  ed.  1840. 

2  As  an  inexperienced  person  that  cannot  shift  for  himself  is 
called  a  gull,  i.e.,  callow,  so  a  knowing,  wide-awake  person  in  slang 
terminology  is  said  to  be  'fly,'  '  pretty  fly.'  This  is  the  Old  English 
4  flygge,'  fledged,  mature,  able  to  fly;  pro  v.  Eng.  Jligged,  from 
A.-Sax.  fliogan  (to  fly).  '  Flygge,  as  bryddys,  Maturus,  volatilis" 
(Prompt.  Parv.,  c.  1440). 


120  PIGEON. 

jaune  (}rellow-beak),  1,  a  young  bird ;  2,  c  a  novice, 
ninny,  doult,  noddy '  (Cotgrave).  Cf.  our  '  green- 
horn.' Fr.  niais  (a  nestling,  from  nidus),  i  a 
noddy,  cockney,  dotterell,  peagoose ;  a  simple, 
witless,  and  inexperienced  gull '  (Cotgrave). 

Cf.  '  pigeon  '  (a  soft,  gullible  fellow,  a  dupe), 
the  Italian pigione, pippione  (from pipire,  to  chirp), 
(1)  a  pigeon,  (2)  a  credulous  gull;  pippionare,  to 
gull  or  dupe  a  person ;  dindon,  in  the  Parisian 
argot,  a  fool ;  dindonner,  to  dupe.  '  Daw,'  '  wood- 
cock/ and  i  widgeon '  were  also  proverbial  expres- 
sions for  simplicity  and  foolishness,  e.g. — 

'  In  these  nice  sharp  quillets  of  the  law7, 
Good  faith,  I  am  no  wiser  than  a  daw.' 

Shakspere,  1st  Ft.  Henri/  VI.  iL  4. 

'  0  this  woodcock  !  what  an  ass  it  is ! ' 

Taming  of  Shrew,  i.  2. 

'  The  witless  woodcock.'  Drayton. 

'  Woodcocke  beware  thine  eye.' 

Percy  Folio,  i.  44. 

(Fr.)  beccasse,  a  woodcock,  i  beccassd,  gulled, 
abused  (i.e.,  deceived),  woodcockised'  (Cotgrave). 

'Oh  Clnysostome  thon deservest  to  be  stak'd  ...  for  being 
such  a  goose,  widgeon,  and  niddecock  to  dye  for  love.' 

Gayton's  Festivous  Notes} 


1  Cf.  (Scot.)  'sookin*  turkey,'  a  simpleton  (Jamieson).  (Fr.) 
dindon  and  linotte,  a  blockhead,  (Fr.)  butor,  butorde,  (1)  a  bittern, 
(2)  a  stupid  lout.  (Sp.)  loco,  stupid,  (It.)  locco,  a  fool;  alocco,  (1) 
an  owl,  (2)  a  simple  gull  (Florio),  from  Latin  ulucus,  an  owl ; 
Sp.)  paparo,  a  simpleton,  (It.)  papcro,   a  gosling  ;  (Gk.)   niircpos, 


DUPE.  121 

The  foregoing  remarks  have  been  made  in  order 
to  show  that  the  comparison  of  a  simple  person 
easily  deceived  to  some  one  or  other  of  the  orni- 
thological species  was  customary  and  general.  We 
now  come,  at  length,  to  the  word  '  dupe.'  The 
French  verb  duper  (to  deceive)  does  not  occur  in 
Cotgrave's  6  French  Dictionary '  (1660),  but  we  find 
in  it  '  dupe,  duppe, l  a  whoop,  or  hooper ,  a  bird 
that  hath  on  her  head  a  great  crest  or  tuft  of 
feathers,  and  loves  ordure  so  well,  that  she  ever 
nestles  in  it.'  It  is  another  form  of  c  hupe,  fiuppe, 
the  whoope  or  dunghill  cock/  which  was  supposed 
to  derive  its  name  from  the  crest  or  tuft  of  feathers, 
(hupe),  which  is  its  most  conspicuous  feature.  It 
really  corresponds  to  the  Latin  upupa  (the  hoopoe), 
(Gk.)  epops  (eTTo-v/r),  (Copt.)  kukupka,  (Pers.)  bubu, 
(Syr.)  kikup/ia,  (Heb.)  dukipkatk.2 


(1)  a  seabird,  (2)  a  featherbrained  simpleton,  a  booby,  noddy  (L. 
and  Scott) ;  (Gael.)  dreollan,  (1)  a  wren,  (2)  a  silly  person,  a  ninny. 
The  Arabs  have  a  proverb  '  Stupid  as  an  ostrich.'  When  we  use 
1  buzzard,'  however,  as  an  emblem  of  obtuseness,  the  reference  is 
not  to  the  hawk  so  called,  but  to  a  buzzing  beetle  of  the  same  name. 
Cf.  the  French  proverb,  '  Estourdi  comme  un  haneton '  (Cotgrave), 
(As  dull  or  heedless  as  a  cockchafer).  So  prov.  Eng.  dumbledore,  a 
cockchafer,  also  a  stupid  fellow. 

1  It.  upupa,  Prov.  upa,  Berry  patois  dube.  For  the  prefixed  d  com- 
pare 'daffodil,'  0.  Eng.  affodilly,  affodyle  (Prompt.  Parv.)  (Lat.  Gk.) 
asphodelus ;  'dappled'  =  (Fr.)  pommele,  as  it  were  streaked  like  an 
apple,  cf.  the  Icelandic  apalgrdr,  apple-grey  (and  yet  in  that  lan- 
guage depill  is  a  spot). 

2  All  these  words,  as  well  as  our  '  hoopoe '  are  evidently  intended 
to  imitate  the  cry  of  the  bird,  which  'utters  at  times  (Mr  Yarrell 
tells  us)  a  sound  closely  resembling  the  word  hoop,  hoop,  hoop  ' 
(Penny  Cycl.  vol.  xxvi.  p.  34).    In  Ozell's  translation  of  Rabelais  it  is 


122  DUPE. 

(Heb.)  duktpkath  (the  hoopoe)  according  to  some 
is  compounded  of  duk  and  pkatk,  literally  i  the 
dung-cock.'  At  all  events  the  bird  was  considered 
notoriously  unclean  in  its  feeding  and  way  of  liv- 
ing generally.      Thus   Pliny  says — 

1  The  Houpe  or  Vpupa  ...  is  a  nasty  and  filthy  bird  other- 
wise, both  in  the  manner  of  feeding  and  also  in  nestling  :  but 
a  goodly  faire  crest  or  comb  it  hath,  that  will  easily  fold  and 
be  plaited :  for  one  while  she  will  draw  it  in,  another  while 
set  it  stiffe  upright  along  the  head.' 

Holland's  Trans.,  vol.  i.  p.  287  (1634). 

Compare  these  old  French  verses — 

1  Dedans  un  creux  avec  fange  et  ordure 
La  Huppe  fait  ses  oeufs  et  sa  niaison.' l 

1  La  Hupe.  Manger  ne  veux  sinon  ordure, 
Car  en  punaisie  ie  me  tiens, 
Si  ie  suis  de  belle  figure, 
Beaute  sans  bonte  ne  vaut  rien.' 2 

That  a  bird  of  so  fine  an  appearance  should  live 
in  so  squalid  an  abode,  and  on  such  foul  fare, 
was  the  reason,  no  doubt,  why  it  passed  into 
a    byword   for    simplicity    and    gullibility.       For 


called  whoop.  The  Arabic  name  for  it  hud-hud,  the  French  put-put 
and  prov.  German  wut-wut  have  a  like  onomatopoetic  origin.  The 
Greeks  thought  they  recognised  in  its  cry  the  transformed  Tereus 
exclaiming  irov,  trod  (where,  where).  Cf.  Farrar,  Chapters  on  Lan- 
guage, p.  29. 

1  Portraits  d'Oyseaux,  quoted  in  '  Penny  Cycl.'  vol.  xxvi.  p.  35. 

2  From  '  Le  Grand  Calendrier  et  Compost  des  Bergers '  (1633),  a 
very  curious  old  French  almanack,  of  which  Nisard  gives  an 
account  in  his  '  Histoire  des  Livres  Populaires,'  vol.  i.  p.  84  seq. 


DUPE.  123 

while  the  French  have  a  proverb,  l  Sale  comme 
une  huppe,  there  lies  in  the  background  a  remem- 
brance that  it  is  un  oiseau  Impp6,  i.e.,  crested, 
high-crowned,  and  along  with  this  perhaps  an 
ironical  innuendo  that  it  is  noble,  distinguished, 
intelligent.1  For  kuppe  also  has  this  meaning, 
'  proud,  lofty,  stately,  that  bears  himself  high, 
that  thinks  well  of  himselfe  '  (Cotgrave).  Now  it 
was  most  probably  this  pretentious  air  of  the  hoo- 
poe 2  with  its  lofty  crest,  which  certainly  does  give 
it  an  air  of  grotesque  importance,  contrasted  with 
its  reputedly  low  and  filthy  habits,  that  caused  it 
to  be  selected  as  the  type  of  a  humbug,  a  stupid 
pretender,  who  claims  to  be  considered  fine  and 
clever  when  he  is  really  quite  the  contrary,  a  simple 
person  easily  deceived,  or  in  one  word — a  dupe. 
This  metaphorical  use  of  the  word  is  not,  as  Wedg- 
wood remarks,  without  its  parallels  in  other  lan- 
guages, for  in  Polish  dudek,  a  hoopoe,  is  also  a 
simpleton,  a  fool ;  in  Italian  bubbola  is  a  hoopoe, 
bubbolare,  to  cheat,  or  (to  use  the  old  cant  term) 
'  to  bubble  '  one.     Thus  it  appears  that  to  gull,  to 


1  E.g.  e  Les  plus  huppes  y  sont  pris,'  a  French  proverb  quoted 
by  M.  Littre  in  his  great  dictionary,  s.v.  (The  most  skilful  are 
deceived). 

1  Bien  huppe  qui  pourra  m'attraper  sur  ce  point.' 

Moliere,  £cole  des  Femmes,  i.  1. 

8  '  In  spite  of  the  martial  appearance  of  its  crest,  it  is  said  to  be 
excessively  timid,  and  to  fly  from  an  encounter  with  the  smallest 
bird  that  opposes  it.'       Johns,  British  Birds  in  their  Haunts,  p.  31 1. 


12-4  DUPE. 

pigeon,  to  bubble,  or  to  dupe  a  person  means  lite- 
rally to  delude  and  ensnare  him  like  a  simple  bird. 
'  To  cajole  '  is  of  a  like  signification.  It  is  the 
French  cajoler  (also  enjoler),  to  encage,  or  entice 
into  a  cage,  being  from  the  Old  French  jaiole,  (Sp.) 
gay  old,  (It.)  gabbhiola,  (Lat.)  caveola,  cavea,  (a 
cage). 

I  may  add  as  a  supplement  to  the  previous 
remarks  the  following  curious  legend  about  the 
hoopoes,  which  traces  back  their  traditional  folly 
to  an  ancient  date.  Mr  Curzon,  from  whose  very 
interesting  c  Visits  to  Monasteries  in  the  Levant '  I 
quote  it,  heard  it  from  the  lips  of  a  Mussulman  cob- 
bler. One  day,  when  the  great  King  Solomon  was 
on  a  journey,  he  was  sorely  distressed  by  the  heat  of 
the  sun.  Observing  a  flock  of  hoopoes  flying  past, 
he  begged  them  to  form  a  shelter  between  him  and 
the  fiery  orb.  The  king  of  the  hoopoes  immediately 
gathered  his  whole  nation  together,  and  caused 
them  to  fly  in  a  cloud  above  his  head.  King 
Solomon,  grateful  for  this  service,  offered  to  bestow 
on  his  feathered  friends  whatever  reward  they 
might  ask.  After  a  day's  consultation,  the  king  of 
the  hoopoes  came  with  his  request. 

1  Then  Solomon  said,  "  Hast  thou  considered  well  what  it  is 
that  thou  desirest  ? "  And  the  hoopoe  said,  "  I  have  considered 
well,  and  we  desire  to  have  golden  crowns  upon  our  heads." 
So  Solomon  replied,  "  Crowns  of  gold  shall  ye  have  :  but, 
behold,  thou  art  a  foolish  bird ;  and  when  the  evil  days  shall 
come  upon  thee,  and  thou  seest  the  folly  of  thy  heart,  return 


DUPE.  125 

here  to  me,  and  I  will  give  thee  help."  So  the  king  of  the 
hoopoes  left  the  presence  of  King  Solomon,  with  a  golden 
crown  upon  his  head.  And  all  the  hoopoes  had  golden  crowns ; 
and  they  were  exceeding  proud  and  haughty.  Moreover,  they 
went  down  by  the  lakes  and  the  pools,  and  walked  by  the 
margin  of  the  water,  that  they  might  admire  themselves  as  it 
were  in  a  glass.  And  the  queen  of  the  hoopoes  gave  herself 
airs,  and  sat  upon  a  twig  ;  and  she  refused  to  speak  to  the 
merops  her  cousin,  and  the  other  birds  who  had  been  her 
friends,  because  they  were  but  vulgar  birds,  and  she  wore  a 
crown  of  gold  upon  her  head. 

1  Now  there  was  a  certain  fowler  who  set  traps  for  birds  ; 
and  he  put  a  piece  of  a  broken  mirror  into  his  trap,  and  a 
hoopoe  that  went  in  to  admire  itself  was  caught.  And  the 
fowler  looked  at  it,  and  saw  the  shining  crown  upon  its  head ; 
so  he  wrung  off  its  head,  and  took  the  crown  to  Issachar,  the 
son  of  Jacob,  the  worker  in  metal,  and  he  asked  him  what  it 
was.  So  Issachar,  the  son  of  Jacob,  said,  "  It  is  a  crown  of 
brass."  And  he  gave  the  fowler  a  quarter  of  a  shekel  for  it, 
and  desired  him,  if  he  found  any  more,  to  bring  them  to  him, 
and  to  tell  no  man  thereof.  So  the  fowler  caught  some  more 
hoopoes,  and  sold  their  crowns  to  Issachar,  the  son  of  Jacob  ; 
until  one  day  he  met  another  man  who  was  a  jeweller,  and  he 
showed  him  several  of  the  hoopoes'  crowns.  Whereupon  the 
jeweller  told  him  that  they  were  of  pure  gold  ;  and  he  gave 
the  fowler  a  talent  of  gold  for  four  of  them. 

'  Now  when  the  value  of  these  crowns  was  known,  the  fame 
of  them  got  abroad,  and  in  all  the  land  of  Israel  was  heard  the 
twang  of  bows  and  the  whirling  of  slings  ;  bird-lime  was  made 
in  every  town  ;  and  the  price  of  traps  rose  in  the  market,  so 
that  the  fortunes  of  the  trap-makers  increased.  Not  a  hoopoe 
could  show  its  head  but  it  was  slain  or  taken  captive,  and  the 
days  of  the  hoopoes  were  numbered.  Then  their  minds  were 
filled  with  sorrow  and  dismay,  and  before  long  few  were  left 
to  bewail  their  cruel  destiny.  At  last,  flying  by  stealth  through 
the  most  unfrequented  places,  the  unhappy  king  of  the  hoopoes 
went  to  the  court  of  King  Solomon,  and  stood  again  before  the 
steps  of  the  golden  throne,  and  -with  tears  and  groans  related 
the  misfortunes  which  had  happened  to  his  race. 


126  DOTTEREL. 

'  So  King  Solomon  looked  kindly  upon  the  king  of  the 
hoopoes,  and  said  unto  him,  "  Behold,  did  I  not  warn  thee  of 
thy  folly  in  desiring  to  have  crowns  of  gold?  Vanity  and 
pride  have  been  thy  ruin.  But  now,  that  a  memorial  may 
remain  of  the  service  which  thou  didst  render  unto  me,  your 
crowns  of  gold  shall  be  changed  into  crowns  of  feathers,  that 
ye  may  walk  unharmed  upon  the  earth."  Now  when  the 
fowlers  saw  that  the  hoopoes  no  longer  wore  crowns  of  gold 
upon  their  heads,  they  ceased  from  the  persecution  of  their 
race  ;  and  from  that  time  forth  the  family  of  the  hoopoes  have 
flourished  and  increased,  and  have  continued  in  peace  even  to 
the  present  day '  (p.  152).1 

Their  namesakes,  the  (  dupes,'  likewise  continue 
a  numerous  family  unto  this  day.  That  they 
flourish  and  walk  unharmed  upon  the  earth  because 
they  are  merely  feather-headed,  unfortunately  can- 
not be  asserted  with  equal  truth.  So  long  as  they 
can  afford  a  golden  spoil  they  are  sure  to  be 
marked  down,  entrapped,  and  plucked  by  Mr 
Affable  Hawk,  his  relation  Sir  Mulberry,  and 
other  professional  fowlers.  Dupes  with  crowns  of 
gold  have  indeed  much  to  contend  with.  They, 
too,  however,  lose  their  attractiveness,  and  cease  to 
be  persecuted  when  relieved  of  their  perilous  pos- 
sessions. 

When  the  '  dotterel '  was  adduced  above  as  an 
instance  of  a  bird  proverbial  for  its  foolishness,  it 
was  implied  that  it  derived  its  name  from  its 
doting  obtuseness.     This  was  Camden's   opinion, 

1  One  name  for  the  bird  in  Persian  is  murghi  Sulaymdn,  *  Solo- 
mon's bird.' 


DUNCE.  127 

and  has  been  adopted  by  Mr  Wedgwood.  There 
is  some  reason  to  believe,  however,  that  the  term 
6  dotterel '  was  originally  applicable  to  a  person 
conspicuously  foolish  and  silly,  and  only  in  a  secon- 
dary sense  to  the  bird  of  a  similar  character.1 

It  was  borrowed  apparently  from  the  Italian, 
where  dottorello  is  '  a  silly  clarke,  a  sir  John  lacke 
Latine '  (Florio),  and  this  is  a  contemptuous 
diminutive  of  dottore,  a  doctor,  a  learned  man. 
Compare  dottoruzzo,  c  a  sillie  or  dunzicall  Doctor ' 
(Florio). 

That  there  is  no  greater  fool  than  the  learned 
fool,  and  that  the  bookish  pedant  in  the  affairs  of 
practical  life  is  no  better  than  a  solemn  idiot,  has 
often  been  remarked ;  and  that  opinion  has  found 
utterance  in  the  word  <  dotterel,'  a  doctorling. 

6  A  fool  unless  he  knows  Latin  is  never  a  great 
fool,'  is  the  witness  of  a  Spanish  proverb.2 

We  are  reminded  here  how  the  name  of  '  the 
Subtle  Doctor,'  which  was  once  suggestive  of 
nothing  but  intellectual  acuteness  and  philosophic 
discrimination,  has  in  later  times  become  a  by- 
word for  crass  ignorance  and  stupidity ;  how  Duns 


1  So  early  as  1440  the  *  Promptorium  Parvulorum'  has  the 
word  with  both  meanings,  a  '  byrde,'  and  also  the  same  as 
•  dotarde. ' 

2  Cf.  Trench,  Proverbs  and  their  Lessons,  Lect.  IV.;  "Warter, 
Parochial  Fragments,  p.  69  ;  Overbury,  Characteristics  (Lib. 
Old  Authors),  p.  269  ;  H.  Tooke,  Diversions  of  Purley,  p.  li.  (ed. 
Taylor). 


128  DUNCE. 

Scotus,  the  glory  of  the  Fransciscan  order,  the 
oracle  of  the  Realists,  now  lives  only  in  the 
mouths  of  men  as  the  opprobrious  epithet 
t  dunce.' 

The  reaction  that  took  place  at  the  time  of  the 
Reformation  against  the  elaborate  quibbling  and 
hair-splitting  of  mediaeval  theology  aroused  a  feeling 
of  scornful  impatience  against  the  Schoolmen,  and 
chiefly  against  him  who  was  their  most  conspicuous 
representative. 

Accordingly,  when  Dr  Layton,  with  others,  was 
sent  down  to  the  University  of  Oxford  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  VIII.  to  introduce  sundry  improve- 
ments into  that  seat  of  learning,  we  find  him 
reporting  to  Cromwell  us  one  result  of  his  visita- 
tion— 

'  We  have  sett  Dunce  in  Bocardo,  and  have  utterly  banisshede 
hym  Oxforde  for  ever,  with  all  his  blinde  glosses,  and  is  nowe 
made  a  comon  servant  to  evere  man,  faste  nailede  up  upon 
postes  in  all  comon  bowses  of  easment  :  id  quod  oculis  meis 
vidi.  And  the  seconde  tyme  we  came  to  New  Colege,  affter 
we  hade  declarede  your  injunctions,  we  fownde  all  the  gret 
quadrant  court  full  of  the  leiffes  of  Dunce,  the  wynde  blowyng 
them  into  evere  corner.' 1 

Dr  Colet,  the  famous  Dean  of  St  Paul's,  held 
him  and  his  followers  in  no  higher  estimation. 

'  The  Scotists,  to  whom  of  all  men  the  vulgar  attribute 
peculiar  acumen,  he  used  to  say  appeared  to  him  slow  and 


1  Letter3  relating  to  the  Suppression  of  Monasteries  (Camcleu 
Society),  p.  71. 


DUNCE.  129 

dull,  and  anything  but  clever  ;  for  to  argue  about  the  ex- 
pressions and  words  of  others,  to  object  first  to  this  and  then 
to  that,  and  to  divide  everything  into  a  thousand  niceties,  was 
the  part  only  of  barren  and  poor  talents/  l 

Richard  Stanihurst  remarks  that  in  his  time 
Duns  had  become  so  trivial  and  common  a  term 
in  schools,  that s  whoso  surpasseth  others  either  in 
cavilling,  sophistry,  or  subtle  philosophy,  is  forth- 
with nicknamed  a  Duns.'2 

1  JScotista,  a  follower  of  Scotus,  as  we  say  a  Dunce/ 

Florio  (1611). 

The  allusion,  doubtless,  is  the  same  in  a  phrase 

given  by  Cotgrave  (s.v.  Joannes) — 

1  C'est  un  Joannes,  He  is  a  Pedant,  or  poor  Schoolmaster/ 

A  phrase  of  similar  import  in  the  English  of  a 
former  day  was  6  a  sir  John.'  Thus  Latimer,  in 
the  dedication  of  one  of  his  sermons,  speaks  of 
'  a  Sir  John  who  had  better  skill  in  playing  at 
tables,  or  in  keeping  a  garden,  than  in  God's 
word.' 

6  Come  nere  thou  preest/  said  the  host,  in  the 

Prologue  to  *  Nonnes  Preestes  Tale  ' — 

;  Come  hither,  thou  Sire  John, 
Telle  us  swiche  thing  as  may  our  hertes  glade/ 

6 1  praye  thee,'  demands  Palinode  of  his  fellow 
in  the  (  Shepheards  Calender ' — 


1  Erasmus,  Pilgrimage  to  St  Mary  of  Walsingham,  &c.  (ed.  J.  G. 
Nichols),  p.  143. 
s  Description  of  Ireland,  p.  2. 

I 


130  DUNCE. 

c  Lette  me  thy  tale  borrowe 
For  our  Sir  John  to  say  to-morrowe 
At  the  Kerke,  when  it  is  holliday  ; 
For  well  he  meanes,  but  little  can  say.' 

E.  K.  remarks  in  his  note  that  this   is  spoken 

6  to  taunte  unlearned  Priestes.' 

*  Blind  and  ignorant  consciences  .  .  .  love  to  live  under 
blind  Sir  Johns,  seek  dark  corners,  say  they  are  not  book- 
learned.'  Sam.  Ward,  Balm  from  Oilead. 

This  term  '  Sir '  was  once  applied  generally  to 
every  parish  priest,  especially  to  one  who  had 
graduated  at  one  of  the  universities,  and  translates 
the  Latin  title  of  dominus  given  to  those  who  had 
obtained  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts — e.g..  Sir 
Hugh  Evans,  the  curate  in  Shakspere.  Sir  Brown 
or  Sir  Smith  may  still  be  heard  used  in  this  sense 
in  the  University  of  Dublin,  and  Sira  Fritzner  in 
Iceland.  Compare  the  Scotch  dominie,  a  contemptu- 
ous name  for  a  minister  or  pedagogue.  Italian  don, 
'  a  word  abridged  of  JDonno,  it  was  a  title  wont  to 
be  given  to  country  priests  or  Munkes '  (Florio). 
In  early  English  this  latter  word  took  the  form  of 
dan,  and  thus  it  comes  to  pass  that  we  read  in 
Chaucer  of  dan  Piers,  dan  Arcite,  dan  John,  and 
even  of  dan  Salomon,  dan  Caton. 

It  is  curious  to  find  the  same  term  turning  up 
in  the  far  North  with  something  of  the  sense  of 
6  dunce '  attached  to  it.  For  in  Icelandic  doni  is 
the  name  by  which  the  students  of  the  old  colleges 


COWARD.  131 

call  outsiders,  as  opposed  to  collegians,  like  the 
Philister  of  German  universities.1  This  use  of  the 
word  '  don,'  dominus,  is  evidentally  ironical,  some- 
what like  that  of  the  name  '  literates  '  among  our- 
selves. Thus,  by  a  whimsical  fate,  the  same 
identical  word  which  denotes  for  us  the  incarna- 
tion of  collegiate  discipline  and  the  pedantry  of 
the  l  gown,'  denotes  to  the  Icelander  the  despised 
ignoramus  of  the  'town.' 

<  Coward.'— With  but  slight  difference  of  form 
this  word  is  to  be  found  in  more  than  one  lan- 
guage of  modern  Europe,  and  in  each  the  dif- 
ference of  forms  seem  to  have  arisen  from  an 
attempt  to  trace  a  connection  and  educe  a  meaning 
which  did  not  really  belong  to  it.  For  instance, 
the  French  couard,  0.  French  coard,  was  regarded 
as  cognate  with  the  0.  Spanish  and  Prove  DQal  coa 
(Fr.  queue)  a  tail,  as  if  the  original  signification 
was  a  tailer,  one  who  flies  to  the  rear  or  tail  of 
the  army.      Thus  Cotgrave  translates  the  phrase, 


1  In  the  very  valuable  '  Icelandic  Dictionary '  by  Cleasby  and 
Vigfusson,  doni  is  identified  with  a  (supposed)  early  Eng.  word 
done,  and  there  is  adduced  in  confirmation  these  lines  from  the 
'  Boke  of  Curtesy  '  (c.  1500)— 

'  In  thi  dysch  sette  not  thi  spone, 
Nother  on  the  brynke,  as  unlernyd  done.' 

These  latter  words  are  interpreted  as  an  illiterate  clown  /  The  true 
meaning  of  course  is  *  do  not  as  the  unlearned  do,'  done  or  doen 
being  the  old  plural  of  do.  There  is  no  evidence  of  such  a  word  as 
done  for  a  clown  having  ever  existed  in  English,  and  the  sentence 
corresponds  to  this  of  Wiclif's — '  Thei  snokiden  not  fro  hous  to 
hous,  and  beggiden  mete,  as  freris  doon.' 


132  COWARD. 

'/aire  la  queue]  ( to  play  the  coward,  come  or  drag 
behind,  march  in  the  rere.' 

The  Italian  codardo  in  like  manner  was  brought 
into  connection  with  the  verbs  '  codare,  to  tail, 
codiare,  to  follow  one  at  the  taile '  (coda) 
(Florio). 

The  Portuguese  form  is  cobarde,  also  covarde 
(=  couard),  which  seems  to  have  resulted  from  an 
imagined  relationship  with  cova,  It.  covo,  sil-cova, 
Sp.  alcoba,  Arab,  al-qobbah  (the  recess  of  a  room, 
'  alcove  ').  A  coward  was  so  called,  says  Yieyra, 
*  from  cova,  a  cave,  because  he  hides  himself.' 
Identically  the  same  account  is  given  of  the  Spanish 
cobarde  in  Stevens'  Diet.  (1706),  s.v. 

According  to  this  explanation,  when  Benhadad, 
after  being  defeated  at  Aphek,  '  fled,  and  came 
into  the  city  into  an  inner  chamber'  (Heb.  a 
chamber  within  a  chamber,  1  Kings  xx.  30),  he 
might  with  strict  etymological  accuracy  be  described 
as  cobarde,  a  coward ;  Zedekiah  likewise,  if  ever  he 
fulfilled  Micaiah's  prediction  in  the  day  of  invasion 
by  betaking  himself  i  into  an  inner  chamber  to 
hide  himself   (1   Kings  xxii.  25).1      As   to  our 


1  Compare  Macbeth's  address  to  the  ghost  of  Banquo — 

'  Be  alive  again, 
And  dare  me  to  the  desert  with  thy  sword  ; 
If  trembling  I  inhabit  then,  protest  me 
The  baby  of  a  girl. '  Act  iii.  sc.  4. 

I.e.,  if  I  skulk  within  the  house  when  challenged  to  the  combat, 
call  me  a  coward. 


COWARD.  133 

English  word,  some  persons,  I  would  venture  to 
assert,  have  looked  upon  the  coward  as  one  who 
has  ignominiously  cowered  beneath  the  onslaught 
of  an  enemy,  comparing  the  Italian  covone,  c  a 
squatting  or  cowring  fellow/  c  from  covare,  to 
squat  or  coure '  (Florio)  ;  just  as  the  i  craven '  was 
supposed  to  be  one  who  acknowledged  himself 
beaten,  and  craved  for  mercy.  Both  deriva- 
tions, however,  are  equally  incorrect.  Another 
origin,  more  improbable  still,  was  once  pretty 
generally  accepted,  and  the  form  of  the  word  was 
twisted  so  as  to  correspond.  The  coward,  it 
was  thought,  must  surely  be  a  cow-heart,  one 
who  has  no  more  spirit  or  courage  than  the 
meek  and  mild-eyed  favourite  of  the  dairy-maid. 
c  Cowheart,'  indeed,  is  still  the  word  used  in 
Dorsetshire,  and  ( cow-hearted '  occurs  in  Lu- 
dolph's  Ethiopia,  p.  83  (1682).  Compare  also 
'  corto  de  cor  aeon,  cow-hearted,'  (Stevens'  Sp. 
Diet.,  1706).  l  Couard,  a  coward,  a  dastard,  a 
cow '  (Cotgrave).  '  The  veriest  cow  in  a  com- 
pany brags  most'  (Ibid.,  s.v.  Crier),  6  Craven, 
a  cow  '  (Bailey). 

'  It  is  the  cowish  terror  of  his  spirit 
That  dares  not  undertake.'         King  Lear,  iv.  2. 

The  French  and  Italians,  though  they  erred  in 
their  explanations,  were  certainly  right  in  recog- 
nising queue  and  coda  respectively  (Lat.  cauda)  as 


134  COWARD. 

the  source  of  couard  and  coclardo.1  It  is  not, 
however,  because  he  tails  off  to  the  rear  that  the 
dastard  was  so  called,  nor  yet — for  this  reason 
also  has  been  assigned — because  he  resembles  a 
terror-stricken  cur  who  runs  away  with  his  tail 
between  his  legs.  It  is  true  that  c  in  heraldry  a 
lion  borne  in  an  escutcheon,  with  his  tail  doubled 
or  turned  in  between  his  legs,  is  called  a  lion 
coward,' 2  still  it  was  not  the  heraldic  lion,  nor 
the  fugacious  dog,  nor  even  the  peaceful  cow,  but 
a  much  more  timid  and  un warlike  animal,  which 
was  selected  as  the  emblem  of  a  person  deficient 
in  courage.  It  was  the  hare — '  the  trembler,'  as 
the  Greeks  used  to  call  her  ;3  '  timorous  of  heart/ 
as  Thomson  characterises  her  in  the  \  Seasons  ' 
(Winter);  '  the  heartless  hare,'  as  she  is  styled  in 
the  '  Mirror  for  Magistrates,'  ii.  p.  74  (ed.  Hasle- 
wood). 


1  As  with  us  '  skinned/  '  boned/  mean  bereft  of  skin  and  bone, 
bo  caudatus,  *  tailed/  in  medieval  Latin  meant  deprived  of  a  tail. 
1  Caudatos  autem  dicebant  quibus  ablata  erat  cauda/  says  Du 
Cange.  He  quotes  from  Matthew  of  Paris  the  expression,  '  0 
timidorum  caudatorum  formidilositas  !  ' 

8  Bailey,  s.v.  Cf.  '  Couard — se  dit  d'un  lion  qui  porte  sa  queue 
retrousse'e  en  dessona  entre  les  jambes'  (Armorial  Universal,  Paris, 
1844.     N.  &  Q.,  2d  S.  V.  126,  p.  442). 

Cf.  Icelandic  draga  halann  (to  drag  the  tail),  to  sneak  away,  play 
the  coward. 

'  Oft  have  I  seen  a  hot  o'erweening  cur 
Run  back  and  bite  because  he  was  withheld ; 
Who,  being  suffer'd  with  the  bear's  full  paw, 
Hath  clapp'd  his  tail  between  his  legs  and  cried.' 

x2d  Pt.  Henry  VI^  t.  1. 

3  PtCx,  from  ptossd,  to  crouch  or  cower  from  fear. 


COWARD.  135 

As  the  rabbit  got  its  name  of  i  bunny '  from  its 
short  tail  being  its  conspicuous  feature  ('  bun/ 
Gael,  bun),  and  the  word  (  rabbit'  itself  seems  akin 
to  the  Spanish  rabo  (a  tail),  rabadilla  (the  scut), 
rabon  (a  curtal),  so  the  hare  appears  to  have  been 
familiarly  known  in  days  of  yore  by  the  nickname 
of  '  coward,'  i.e.,  scutty  or  short-tail,  and  this  is 
her  distinctive  appellation  in  the  popular  (  Roman 
de  Renart.'  1  Compare  i  Kuwaerd,  lepus,  vulgo 
cuardus  .  .  .  timidus '  (Kilian).2 

That  the  hare,  being  proverbially  timid  and 
easily  scared,3  became  an  apt  byword  for  a  spirit- 
less faint-hearted  man,  the  following  quotations 
will  suffice  to  show:  — 


1  Similarly  the  '  coot '  or  water-rail,  Welsh  cwt-iar,  owes  her 
name  to  the  shortness  of  her  tail ;  cf.  Welsh  cwtyn,  anything  short  or 
bob-tailed,  a  plover  ;  cwta,  bob-tailed  ;  cwt,  a  short  tail  or  '  s-cut.' 
1  Cutty '  is  a  provincial  name  for  the  wren.  Other  animals, 
again,  derived  their  names  from  their  appendages  being  conspicu- 
ously long  and  bushy,  e.g.,  Hungarian  farkas,  a  wolf,  from  farJc,  a 
tail ;  Cymric  llostawg,  a  fox,  from  Host,  a  tail.'  '  Fox '  itself, 
O.  H.  Ger.  foha  fuhs,  Pictet  connects  with  Sanskrit  pu6c7ia,  tail, 
comparing  its  Scandinavian  name  dratthali,  i.e.,  'draw-tail.'  So 
'  squirrel,'  from  the  Lat.  sciurulus,  dim.  of  sciurus,  Greek  sciouros, 
i.e.,  'shadow-tail,'  from  its  large  bushy  tail  serving  it  as  a 
parasol ! 

2  In  Wedgwood,  s.v.  Other  forms  of  the  name  are  coars,  coart, 
cuwaert.     See  Grimm,  Reinhart  Fuchs,  pp.  ccxxiii-ccxxvii. 

3  Compare  '  If  fearefull  immagination  oppresse  them,  as  they 
oftentimes  are  very  sad  and  melancholy,  supposing  to  heare  the 
noise  of  dogges  when  there  are  none  such  sturring,  then  doe  they 
runne  too  and  fro,  fearing  and  trembling,  as  if  they  were  fallen 
mad.' 

Topsell,  Of  the  Rare,  Four-footed  Beasts,  fol.  p.  269. 


136  COWARD. 

*  Thone  ungemetlice  cargan  thu  miht  hatan  hara.' 1  The 
immoderately  timid  thou  mayest  call  hare. 

1  The  black  and  white  monks  are  really  brutes ;  that  is,  lions 
in  pride,  foxes  in  cunning,  hogs  in  gluttony,  goats  in  luxury, 
asses  in  sloth,  and  hares  in  cowardice.* 

Fables  by  Odo  de  Ceriton  (12th  cent.) 2 

*  Lievres  morionnez  [hares  in  armour],  silly  artificers  or 
cowardly  tradesmen  turned  watchmen.' 

Cotgrave,  French  Diet.,  s.v.  Morionne. 

1  This  too,  a  covert  shall  insure 

To  shield  thee  from  the  storm; 
And  coward  maukin  sleep  secure        (hare) 
Low  in  her  grassy  form.' 

Burns,  Humble  Petition  of  Bruar  Water. 

1  If  some  such  desp'rate  hackster  shall  devise 
To  rouse  thine  hare's-heart  from  her  cowardice, 
As  idle  children  striving  to  excell 
In  blowing  bubbles  from  an  empty  shell .' 

Hall's  Satires,  iv.  4  (1597). 

'  His  base  son,  .  .  .  called  from  his  swiftness  Harold 
Harefoot — belike  another  Asahel  in  nimbleness,  2  Sam.  ii.  18, 
but  hare's-heart  had  better  befitted  his  nature,  so  cowardly  his 
disposition.'  3      Fuller,  Church  Hist.,  i.  p.  216  (ed.  Nichols). 

1  The  Saxons  were  no  hare-hearted  folk,  their  arms  were  as 
stalwart  and  their  thews  as  strong  as  those  of  the  men  whom 
they  met  at  Hastings.' 

Dasent,  Intro,  to  Burnt  JVjal,  i.  p.  clxxx. 


1  Quoted  in  Rask's  Anglo-Saxon  Grammar. 

2  Vide  Douce,  Illustrations  of  Shakspere,  p.  526. 

The  Latin  original  of  Odo's  fable,  'De  Ysingryno,'  is  given  in  Jacob 
Grimm's  'Reinkart  Fuchs,'  p.  447  (Berlin,  1834),  as  follows  : — In 
magno  conventu  sunt  bestie  multe,  videlicet,  leones  per  superbiam, 
vulpes  per  fraudulenciam,  ursi  per  voracitatem,  hirci  fetentes  per 
luxuriam,  asini  per  segniciem,  hericii  per  asperitatem,  lejoores  per 
metum,  quia  trepidaverunt  timore,  ubi  non  erat  timer. 

a  Uase  and  Hasenherz  in  German  are  used  in  a  similar  sense. 


COWARD.  137 

*  How  do  Ahitophel  and  Judas  die  the  death,  of  cowardly 
harts  and  hares,  pursued  with  the  full  cry  of  their  sins,  that 
makes  them  dead  in  their  nest  before  they  die.5 

Sam.  Ward,  Balm  of  Gilead. 
i  Plus  coiiard  qu'un  lievre,  More  heartlesse  than  a  hare! 

Cotgrave. 

(  Manhood  and  honour 
Should  have  but  hare-hearts  would  they  but  fat  their  thoughts 
With  this  cramm'd  reason/ 

Shakspere,  Tro.  and  Ores.,  ii.  2. 

'  He  that  trusts  to  you, 
When  he  should  find  you  lions,  finds  you  hares  ; 
When  foxes,  geese.'  Coriol,  i.  1. 

1  You  are  the  hare  of  whom  the  proverb  goes, 
Whose  valour  plucks  dead  lions  by  the  beard.' 

King  John,  ii.  1. 

*  Edward  and  Richard,  like  a  brace  of  greyhounds 
Having  the  fearful  flying  hare  in  sight.' 

2d  Ft.  Henry  VI.,  ii.  5.1 

When  a  distinguished  Polish  patriot,  who  re- 
cognised the  uselessness  and  mischief  of  a  projected 
revolution  in  the  year  1863,  ventured  to  raise  his 
voice  against  it  in  warning,  his  indignant  fellow- 
countrywomen,  who  have  always  been  the  soul  of 
the  national  movement  in  Poland,  sent  him  a  pre- 
sent of  hare-skins  as  an  emblem  of  cowardice. 

Professor  Pictet,  comparing  the  Greek  logos,  a 
hare,  with  the  synonymous  Persian  word  lagkun, 


1  '  The  Mourning  of  the  Hare,'  a  poem  describing  the  manifold 
dangers  that  threaten  this  pretty  animal,  and  her  constitutional 
timidity  in  consequence,  is  printed  in  Hartshorne's  Ancient 
Metrical  Romances,  p.  165. 


138  POLTROON. 

observes  that  the  latter  is  i  allie  sans  doute  a  Idgh, 
poltronnerie,  legerete  a  fuir.'1 

The  word  l  hare '  itself,  A.-Sax.  Kara,  Ger.  hase, 
Fr.  hase,  0.  H.  Ger.  haso,  means  literally  '  the 
to-tener,'  ' the  jumper,'  being  the  Sanskrit  sasa, 
from  sas,  to  leap,  a  root  which  is  also  found  in  our 
'  haste,'  Fr.  haster,  Ger.  hasten. 

So  in  the  medieval  beast  epics  the  hare  was 
surnamed  Galopins,  the  swift  leaper,  and  Sauterez, 
the  jumper.2  Its  Latin  name,  lepus,  seems  to 
correspond  to  the  German  laufer,  Eng.  'leaper,' 
and  to  be  connected  with  the  Greek  elaphros, 
Sans,  lahgh,  to  jump.3 

i  Poltroon,'  which  is  generally  given  as  a 
synonym  of  *  coward,'  when  submitted  to  the 
philological  crucible,  is  found  to  yield  a  residuum 
essentially  different.  If  '  coward '  is  significant  of  a 
person  who  is  prone  to  take  to  flight  at  the  first  sus- 
picion of  danger,  like  the  timorous  hare, i  poltroon,' 
on  the  other  hand,  describes  originally  and  properly 
a  lazy  heavy-heeled  rascal  that  can  with  difficulty 
be  aroused  to  any  exertion,  like  the  lethargic  sloth. 
For  the  French  poltron,  It.  poltrone,  is  defined 
to  mean,  not  only  '  a  dastard  or  base  coward '  in 
the   older  dictionaries,   but  also   6  a   sluggard,    a 


1  Orig.  Indo-Europ.,  vol.  i.  p.  446. 

2  Grimm,  Reinhart  Fuchs,  pp.  ccxsxv.  ccxxxvi. 

3  Benfey.     Cf.  Philological  Soc.  Trans.,  1862,  p.  30. 


POLTROON.  139 

lazie-back,  an  idle  fellow ;  '  and  that  this  is  the 
radical  meaning  we  may  see  when  we  compare 
these  words  with  the  Italian  verbs  poltrare,  pol- 
trire,  poltroneggiare,  '  to  loll  and  wallow  in  sloth 
and  idleness,  to  lye  lazilie  in  bed  as  a  sluggard ' 
(Florio).  All  are  derivatives  of  the  Italian  poltra, 
a  couch  or  bed,  a  word  which  is  akin  to  the  Ger- 
man polster,  A. -Sax.  bolster,  0.  H.  Ger.  polstar, 
bolstar,  Milanese  poller}  The  correlative  word 
spoltrare,  to  spring  from  the  bed,  meant  also  '  to 
shake  off  sloth  or  cowardize,  and  become  valiant ' 
(Florio). 

6  Poltroon,'  therefore,  according  to  its  funda- 
mental notion,  denotes  one  who  is  too  fond  of  his 
pillow  or  bolster,  a  lazy  day-dreamer,  zfaindant,  a 
useless  lounger  ;  a  lown  or  lungis,  as  such  a  person 
was  called  in  early  English  ;  a  'bed-presser,'2  or  l  a 
slug-a-bed,' 3  as  he  is  still  called  in  the  provincial 
dialects. 


1  'Bolster,'  &c,  are  connected  by  Herbert  Coleridge  with  Dut. 
hoi,  0.  Eng.  poll  and  hall,  the  head,  as  if,  like  the  Gk.  proskepka- 
laidn,  it  denoted  the  place  of  the  head.  Wedgwood  sees  its  origin 
in  the  Dut.  hult,  Sp.  bulto.  It  can  scarcely  be  doubted,  however, 
since  poltro,  poltra,  signify  a  colt  or  filly,  as  well  as  a  bed,  that  the 
real  etymon  is  pullus,  Gk.  polos,  the  common  idea  being  'that 
which  bears  one.'  See  other  instances  under  the  word  'Hearse,' 
infra.    Compare 

'  Omai  convien  che  tu  cosi  ti  spoltre, 
Disse  '1  maestro  ;  che  seggendo  in  piuma 
In  fama  non  si  vien,  ne  sotto  coltre. ' 

Dante,  Inferno,  xxiv. 

2  "Wright,  Provincial  and  Obsolete  Dictionary. 

3  Sternberg,  Northampton  Glossary. 


140  POLTROON. 

Compare  the  A. -Saxon  bedling,  an  effeminate 
person,  from  which  Maetzner  very  improbably  de- 
duces the  word  'bad.' 

Portuguese  madraco,  a  sluggard,  an  idle  rascal, 
cognate  with  Fr.  materas,  It.  materasso,  Port,  and 
Sp.  almadraque,  a  bed  or  mattress,  Arab,  al-mdtrdk 
(Diez). 

French  loudier,  c  a  leacherous  knave  '  (Cot- 
grave),  meant  originally  one  who  lies  abed,  be- 
ing only  another  use  of  loudier,  lodier,  6  a  quilt 
or  counterpoint  for  a  bed '  (Lat.  lodix,  A. -Sax. 
lo%a,  a  blanket).  Loudiere,  sl  woman  of  the  same 
class  as  Shakspere's  Doll  Tearskeet. 

So  in  Italian  pagliardo,  6  a  filthie  letchard ' 
(Florio),  is  from  paglia,  straw,  pagliato,  a  straw 
bed,  a  c  pallet.' 

The  corresponding  word  in  French,  paillard, 
1  a  knave,  rascall,  varlet,  scoundrell,  filthy  fel- 
low '  (Cotgrave),  is  from  paille,  straw,  paillasse, 
a  straw  bed ;  and  paillarde,  a  drab,  is  own 
cousin  to  Mistress  Margery  Daw  of  sluttish 
memory. 

The  older  theory,  which  is  now  generally  given  up, 
was  that  as  i  cagot,1  the  pariah  of  Southern  France, 
was  compounded  of  the  two  words  cards  Gothicus, 
a  dog  of  a  Goth,  similarly  i  pol-tron '  was  made 
up  of  the  two  first  halves  of  pol-lice  trun-catus, 
maimed  in  the  thumb,  a  term  applied  to  a  con- 
script who  wilfully  lopped  off  that  essential  part  of 


POLTROON.  141 

the  hand  *  in  order  that  he  might  be  exempted  as 
unfit  for  service,  and  so  has  shirked  the  war  and 
proclaimed  himself  a  coward.2 

The  French  expression  faucon  poltron,  denoting 
a  bird  which  has  had  its  talons  clipped,  might  seem 
to  lend  some  probability  to  this  opinion.  The 
likelihood  is,  however,  as  M.  Littre  remarks,  that 
this  name  was  given  to  it  on  account  of  the 
cowardice  which  it  was  observed  subsequently  to 
manifest  as  the  result  of  that  mutilation. 


1  On  the  all  importance  of  the  thumb  to  man,  see  Kidd,  Bridge- 
water  Treatise,  Adaptation  of  External  Nature  to  the  Physical  Con- 
dition of  Man,  p.  17  (ed.  Bohn). 

2  Farrar,  Chapters  on  Language,  1865,  p.  238.  Sullivan,  Dic- 
tionary of  Derivations,  s.v. 


(  142  ) 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE  PHRASE  '  HE  HAS  A  BEE  IN  HIS  BONNET? 
THE  WORDS  *  FRET* — 'CHAGRIN  ' — '  TO  NAG  ' — 
'  NIGGARD  ' — '  TEASE ' — 'BRUSQUE ' — 'CAPRICE ' 
— '  TO  LARK' — 'MERRY  AS  A  GRIG' — '  ETRE 
GRIS,'  ETC. 

A  common  symptom  of  insanity  well  known  to 
medical  men  is  the  flitting  of  phantasms  or 
spectres  before  the  eyes  of  the  unhappy  patient. 
Dr  Winslow,  amongst  other  cases  of  persons 
afflicted  by  these  spectral  illusions  that  came 
under  his  notice,  mentions  that  of  a  lady  who 
was  constantly  tormented  by  a  number  of  singular 
grotesque  figures  dressed  in  most  fantastic  cos- 
tumes, which  danced  around  her  during  the  day, 
and  at  night  appeared  about  and  in  her  bed.  So 
plain  and  distinct,  indeed,  were  these  ghostly 
visitors,  that  sometimes  she  was  able  to  make 
sketches  of  them  and  show  them  to  the  doctor.1 
So  intense  was  the  illusion  of  vision,  in  another 
instance  referred  to  by  the  same  authority,  that 

1  Obscure  Diseases  of  the  Mind  and  Brain,  p.  238. 


A    BEE    IN    HIS    BONNET.  143 

although  the  patient  closed  his  eyelids,  he  could 
not  even  then  dispel  the  lively  images  of  demons 
that  haunted  his  bed.1  Now,  the  Latin  word  for 
a  ghost  is  larva,  and  the  victim  of  such  a  dis- 
eased imagination  was  termed  larvatus,  i  ghost- 
haunted/  and  sometimes  lymphatics,  i.e.,  nym- 
phatus,  '  nymph-seized,'  Gk.  nympkoleptos.2 

Just  as  *  bug/  the  name  of  the  noxious  insect 
the  cimex,  meant  originally  and  properly  a  bogie, 
hobgoblin,  or  phantom  to  scare  children ; 3  as  coco 
in  Spanish,  a  '  bugbeare,'  meant  also  a  c  wevill ' 
(Minsheu) ;  as  baco  in  Italian,  a  i  boe-peepe  or 
vainefeare,'  is  also  a  i  silkworme '  (Florio) ;  so 
larva,  originally  expressive  of  the  fantastic  crea- 
tion of  the  imagination,  became  subsequently 
applicable  to  certain  material  objects  of  a  hideous 
and  repulsive  aspect,  such  as  the  ugly  masks  of 
pantomime,  and  the  grubs  of  insects.  The  A. -Sax. 
grima  (from  grim,  horrible)  corresponds  to  larva 
in  all  these  significations,  denoting  a  ghost,  a 
mask,  and  also  a  chrysalis  or  caterpillar.4     Some- 


i  Id.,  p.  578,  cf.  pp.  309,  589,  607.  Phantasmata,  Dr  R.  R. 
Madden,  vol.  ii.  pp.  282,  357. 

2  0.  Eng.  '  taken.'  Compare  Fr.  fee,  taken,  bewitched  (Cot- 
grave).  0.  Fr.  faee,  *  taken  as  chyldernes  lymmes  be  by  the  fayriea ' 
(Palsgrave). 

3  '  All  that  here  on  earth  we  dreadfull  hold, 
Ee  but  as  bugs  to  fearen  babes  withall.' 

Spenser,  F.  Q.,  II.  sii.  25. 
4  Fear  boys  with  bugs.'  Shakspere. 

4  With  '  bug '  compare  Russ.  buTcashha,  a  bugbear,  a  bug,  maggot, 


144  A    BEE    IN    HIS    BONNET. 

what  similarly  a  certain  insect,  from  having  some- 
thing gruesome  and  reverend  in  its  appearance, 
has  been  named  '  the  praying  mantis ' — mantis 
meaning  a  prophet — and  Santa  Caterina  in  Italian.1 
Larvatus,  i  ghostified/  and  larvarum  plenus, 
c  full  of  ghosts/  being  terms  applied  to  the  insane 
from  their  being  commonly  haunted  by  phan- 
toms ; 2  and  these  expressions,  in  consequence  of 
the  ambiguity  of  the  word  larva  just  noted,  being 
capable  of  a  twofold  construction — as  either  '  in- 
fested by  grubs/  or  6  infested  by  imps ' — it  is 
possible  that  we  may  find  here  the  explanation  of 
sundry  curious  phrases  in  which  a  crazy  person  is 
popularly  said  to  have  his  head  full  of  maggots, 
of  flies,  bees,  crickets,  or  grasshoppers.  Phrases 
of  this  kind  are  observable  in  many  modern  lan- 
guages, and  it  is  suggested  that  they  may  be  the 
result  of  a  mistaken  or  too  literal  rendering  of 
the  words  larvarum  plenus,  as  if  they  meant  c  full 
of  grubs.'  For  instance,  'maggot*  was  the  term 
very  frequently  employed  by  a  bygone  generation  for 


or  beetle,  from  buka,  a  bugbear ;  Welsh  bwcai,  something  dreadful, 
also  a  maggot ;  Limousin  bobaou,  bobal,  a  bugbear  and  an  insect, 
and  the  Albanian  boube  having  like  meanings  ;  Hung,  bubus,  a  bug- 
bear ;  Serv.  buba,  vermin  ;  Lap.  rabme,  a  ghost,  bugbear,  also  an 
insect,  a  worm  (Wedgwood). 

1  Vide  History  of  Christian  Names,  by  Miss  Yonge,  vol.  i.  p. 
270. 

2  Compare  Maury,  La  Magie  et  l'Astrologie,  pp.  263,  288.  He 
holds  mania  to  be  properly  the  condition  of  being  haunted  by  the 
ghosts  of  the  dead,  manes.  Mana,  mania,  was  the  ruler  of  the 
under-world  (Taylor,  Etruscan  ^Researches,  pp.  116-124). 


A    BEE    IN   HIS    BONNET.  145 

a  whim,  or  some  crotchety  notion  that  has  got  into 
a  person's  head ;  and  a  whimsical  person  that  be- 
trayed such  a  weakness  was  said  to  be  '  maggoty,' 
or  '  maggot-headed.'  A  fantastic  man  is  described 
in  an  old  volume  as  c  wholly  bent  to  fool  his  estate 
and  time  away  ...  in  maggot-pated  whimsies.'1 
A  musical  composition,  such  as  we  might  nowa- 
days call  a  fantasia,  or  capriccio,  was  then  known 
as  a  ' maggot/2  Similarly  in  French,  according 
to  Cotgrave,  verreux,  wormy,  worm-eaten,  is  also 
6  hot,  cholerick,  hasty,  light-headed,  odd-humoured, 
haire-brain'd/  and  verue  is  an  c  odd  humour  in  a 
man,  a  worm  in  the  head.'  '  II  lug  a  pris  une 
verue,  he  is  grown  very  fantasticall,  humorous, 
giddy-brain'd,  the  worm  pricks  him,  the  toy  hath 
taken  him  in  the  head/ 

Avoir  des  moucherons  en  teste,  to  have  flies  in 
the  head,  we  are  informed  on  the  same  authority, 
means  '  to  be  humorous,  moody,  giddie-headed  ; 
or  to  have  many  proclamations  or  crotchets  in  the 
head.'3     <  Giddy'  itself  is  provincially  applied  to 


1  Bishop's  Marrow  of  Astrology,  p.  60,  in  Nares,  s.v. "Maggot- 
pated.  Cf.  l  There  's  a  strange  Maggot  hath  got  into  their  Brains, 
which  possesseth  them  with  a  kind  of  Vertigo.  .  .  .  Our  Preach- 
men  are  grown  Dog-mad,  there 's  a  worm  got  into  their  Tongues,  as 
well  as  their  Heads '  (Howell,  Fam.  Letters,  1645,  Bk.  II.  33). 
In  the  Cleveland  dialect,  mav:h=(l)  a  maggot,  larva  of  a  flesh-fly  ; 
(2)  a  whim  or  foolish  fancy  :  mauiky,  (1)  maggoty  j  (2)  given  to 
fancies  or  absurd  whims. 

2  Brewer,  Diet,  of  Phrase  and  Fable,  s.v. 

3  Conrad,  one  of  the  medieval  princes  of  Ravenna,  was  nicknamed 
Musca  in  Cerebro,  '  Fly-brained,'  because  he  was  generally  con- 
sidered mad.     Vide  Wedgwood,  s.v.  Muse. 

K 


146  A    BEE    IN    HIS    BONNET. 

a  dizziness  in  the  head  to  which  sheep  are  liable, 
the  result,  it  is  said,  of  having  hydatides  on  the 
brain.  Perhaps  it  is  these  latter  that  are  alluded 
to  in  Heywood's  '  Spider  and  Flie,'  where  he 
says — 

■  As  gidds  cum  and  go,  so  flies  cum  and  are  gone.' ! 

When  we  say  that  a  person  out  of  spirits  has 
the  blues  or  the  dumps,  the  French  say  that  he 
has  the  black  butterflies,  les  papillons  noirs.  In 
Italian,  grillo,  a  cricket,  is  also  '  a  fond  hum- 
our or  fantasticall  conceit. '  '  Grilli,  crickets, 
also  toyes,  crikets  or  bees-neasts  in  one's  head  ' 
(Florio).  Gabbia  da  grilli,  sorgii,  6  a  cage  for 
crickets  or  for  mice,  a  self-conceited  gull/ 2  An 
equally  curious  expression  is  found  in  Dutch. 
A  musard,  or  moody  person,  is  said  in  that  lan- 
guage to  be  like  '  a  pot  full  of  mice,'  een  pott  vull 
milse,  or  to  have  c  mouse-nests  in  his  head,'  milse- 
nester  in  koppe  kebben.  Mr  Wedgwood  points  out 
that  the  verb  muizen,  to  muse,  was  erroneously 
supposed  to  be  derived  from  muize,  muse,  a  mouse, 
and  then  muizenis,  musing,  was  converted  into 
muizenest,  mouse-nest.  Compare  the  French  '  avoir 
des  rats,  to  be  maggoty,  to  be  a  humorist '  (Boyer). 
In  the  argot  of  Paris,  avoir  une  dcrevisse  dans  le 


1  Wright,  Provincial  Diet.,  s.v.  Gid. 

3  Another  leaping  insect  is  substituted  for  the  cricket  in  the 
Scotch  phrase  '  He  has  a  flea  in  his  lug,'  meaning  he  is  a  restless, 
giddy  fellow  (Jamieson). 


A    BEE    IN    HIS    BONNET.  147 

vol-au-vent  (i.e.,  dans  latete)  means  to  be  deranged 
or  crazy. 

A  Scotch  expression  for  one  who  is  confused, 
stupefied,  or  light-headed,  is  '  His  head  is  in  the 
beis,'  or  bees ;  and  i  bee-headit '  means  hair- 
brained,  unsettled.  c  Wyll,  my  maister,  hath  bees 
in  his  head,'  occurs  in  the  old  play  of  6  Damon 
and  Pithias  ;'  and  i  He  has  a  head  full  of  bees,'  in 
Ben  Jonson's  '  Bartholomew  Fair,'  i.  4.  Compare 
the  Polish  roj,  a  swarm,  and  rojanie,  musing, 
reverie,  dreaming. 

With  a  slight  variation  of  the  phrase,  the  cover- 
ing of  the  head  was  substituted  for  the  head  itself ; 
and  a  person  that  was  considered  crotchety,  crazy, 
or  obfuscated  by  drink,  was  said  to  '  have  a  bee 
in  his  bonnet '  or  cap.1 

Spenser,  in  his  allegorical  description  of  the 
body  as  the  Castle  of  Alma  (i.e.,  the  soul),  speaking 
of  the  head,  says — 

( All  the  chamber  filled  was  with  flyes 
Which  buzzed  all  about,  and  made  such  sound, 
That  they  encombred  all  men's  eares  and  eyes  ; 


1  The  word  martel  in  the  French  phrase,  avoir  martcl  en  tete,  to 
have  a  bee  in  one's  bonnet,  to  be  crotchety,  is  asserted  by  Dr 
Brewer  (Diet,  of  Phrase  and  Fable)  to  be  a  corruption  of  martin, 
an  ass  !  It  can  hardly  be  doubted,  however,  that  it  is  identical  with 
martel,  a  hammering,  and  then  a  throbbing  or  beating  of  the  pulse 
under  excitation  of  feeling.  Cf.  '  Martel,  Jealousie,  suspition, 
throbbing  or  panting  upon  passion  ;  a  buzze  in  the  head,  a  flie 
in  the  ear  '  (Cotgrave).  It.  martello,  '  a  hammer,  also  jealousie  in 
loue,  panting  or  throbbing  of  the  heart '  (Florio). 


148  A    BEE    IN    HIS    BONNET. 

Like  many  swarmes  of  Bees  assembled  round, 
After  their  hives  with  honny  do  abound. 
All  those  were  idle  thoughtes  and  fantasies, 
Devices,  dreames,  opinions  unsound, 
Shewes,  visions,  sooth-sayes,  and  prophesies, 
And  all  that  famed  is,  as  leasings,  tales,  and  lies/ 

Faerie  Queene,  Bk.  II.  canto  ix.  51. 

The  rise  and  diffusion  of  the  curious  notion  that 
the  disordered  brain  is  so  strangely  haunted  may 
have  been  favoured,  perhaps,  by  that  vague  sensa- 
tion, which  is  sometimes  experienced,  of  there 
being  something  whirring  or  moving  inside  the 
head,  and  which,  in  an  old  French  phrase,  was 
likened  to  the  shifting  and  running  of  sand  in  an 
hour-glass — 

1 II  a  la  teste  pleine  de  sablon  mouvant.  His  head  is  full  of 
crotchets,  his  braine  fraught  with  odde  conceits ;  he  hath  a 
running,  or  a  giddy  pate  of  his  own.'  Cot  grave. 

The  original  idea,  however,  may  have  been  that 
the  brain  was  infested  and  preyed  upon  by  some 
hidden  insect,  and  that  the  sudden  accesses  of 
eccentricity  or  insanity  were  due  to  causes  not 
greatly  different  from  the  gnawing  of  a  worm 1  or 
the  stinging  of  a  gadfly.2  Such  beliefs  were  once 
widely  prevalent  at  a  time  when  little  or  nothing 
was  known  of  diseases  and  their  exciting  causes, 


1  Some  have  supposed  that  by  the  scriptural  expression  of  the 
undying  worm  (Isa.  lxvi.  24;  Mark  ix.  44)  are  to  be  understood  the 
pangs  of  remorse  and  a  guilty  conscience. 

2  The  Greek  word  oUtros  denotes  the  gadfly,  and  also  madness, 
frenzy. 


A  BEE    IN    HIS    BONNET.  149 

and  similar  superstitions  linger  even  still  among 
the  ignorant.  Thus,  in  Manx,  beiskteig  being  a 
worm  or  maggot,  beisktyn,  the  plural  of  beiskt 
(literally  i  a  little  beast,'  Lat.  bestia)  is  a  word  for 
the  toothache,  from  an  opinion  that  the  pain  is 
produced  by  a  worm  in  the  tooth.  According  to 
a  Rabbinical  tradition,  Titus,  after  the  siege  of 
Jerusalem,  was  punished  by  an  insect  named 
yattush,  a  fly  or  gnat,  which  entered  through  his 
nostrils,  and  preyed  upon  his  brain.1 

Somewhat  similar  is  the  meaning  underlying 
the  French  verb  four  miller,  to  tingle  with  pain,  to 
have  a  pricking  or  creeping  sensation,  its  original 
import  being  to  swarm  with  ants,  Lat.  formiculare, 
formicare,  from  formica,  an  ant.  '  Formication  ' 
still  means  a  tingling  sensation,  and  '  formica '  is 
an  old  medical  term  for  a  species  of  wart  and  a 
certain  disease  in  a  hawk's  bill.2  Compare  the 
Greek  murmekia,  warts,  murmekizo,  to  itch,  from 
miirmex,  an  ant;  the  Esthonian  kiddisema,  to 
swarm,  to  creep,  tickle,  or  itch. 

Indeed  it  may  be  noted  that  not  unfrequently 
the  inroads  of  certain  diseases  which  seem  to  gnaw 
and  fret  the  flesh  are  likened  to  the  ravening  of 
beasts  of  prey,  and  the  very  names  of  these  latter 
are  given  to  those  diseases.  For  example,  '  the 
wolf  (it  occurs  in  the  sermons  of  Jeremy  Taylor, 

1  Vide  Cornhill  Magazine,  *  The  Talmud,'  Aug.  1875,  p.  209. 
s  Bailey,  Diet.,  s.v. 


150  FRET. 

and  in  other  old  writers)  is  a  common  word  for  a 

sort  of  eating  ulcer,  which  in  Italian  is  also  named 

lupo. 

'They  [the  sacrilegious]  lie  in  the  bosom  of  the  church,  as 
that  disease  in  the  breast  called  the  cancer,  vulgarly  the  wolf; 
devouring  our  very  flesh,  if  we  will  not  pacify  and  satisfy  them 
with  our  substance.' 

Adams,  Sermons,  Lycanthropy. 

1  Hunger  is  like  the  sickness  called  a  wolf,  which,  if  thou 
dost  not  feed,  will  devour  thee  and  eat  thee  up.' 

Lewis  Bailey,  Practice  of  Piety  (1743),  p.  201. 

In  German,  wolf  is  a  wen,  and  wolf  am  finger,  a 
whitlow.  In  French,  loup  is  '  a  malignant  and 
remedilesse  ulcer,  a  canker  in  the  legs  which  in  the 
end  it  wholly  consumes '  (Cotgrave).  '  Canker  ' 
itself,  as  well  as  '  cancer,'  Fr.  chancre,  is  the  Latin 
cancer,  a  crab,  and  similar  is  the  twofold  meaning 
of  the  German  krebs.  '  Scrofula '  being  a  Latin 
word  derived  from  scrofa,  a  sow,  and  akin  to  scrobs, 
a  trench,  and  scribo  (originally  to  scratch),  seems 
to  denote  the  disease  which  grubs  up,  tears,  and 
devours  the  flesh  of  its  victim,1  even  as 

*  The  sow  freting  the  child  right  in  the  cradel.' 2 


1  So  the  Spanish  comer,  to  itch,  is  from  the  Latin  comedere,  to  de- 
vour, the  French  rogne,  the  mange,  is  from  rogner,  to  gnaw  or  fret, 
and  our  '  mange,'  from  the  French  manger,  to  eat. 

Demangeaison,  the  itch,  a  derivative  of  the  latter,  is  used  figura- 
tively of  mental  irritation,  as  in  Boursault's  little  play  of  '  Le 
Pluriel  des  Mots  en  Al,'  '  Tax  des  dimangeaisons  de  te  cesser  la 
gueule,' — I  am  itching  (i.e.,  have  a  stroDg  desire)  to  break  your 
neck. 

2  Chaucer,  The  Knight's  Tale,  1.  2021. 


FRET.  151 

The  occurrence  of  the  word  i  fret '  in  this  line 
from  Chaucer,  and  in  another  passage  shortly 
afterwards  which  tells  of  Acteeon — 

'  How  that  his  houndes  have  him  caught 
And  freten  him,  for  that  they  knew  him  naught ' — 

reminds  us  that  mental  disease,  as  well  as  bodily, 
is  frequently  compared,  in  respect  of  its  wasting 
and  ravaging  power,  to  the  action  of  gnawing  and 
devouring.  When  a  person  under  the  influence  of 
grief  is  said  to  be  c  fretted,' 1  the  expression  pro- 
perly implies  that  his  substance  is  being  eaten 
away  by  corroding  care 2  just  as  a  garment  (in  the 
language  of  our  Authorised  Version)  is  fretted  by  a 
moth.  i  Tristitia  enim/  says  Yan  Helmont,  (  non 
secus  atque  tinea  vestem  vitam  roditS  Compare  the 
following  passages  : — 

1  And  ever  against  eating  cares 
Lap  me  in  soft  Lydian  airs.' 

Milton,  L1  Allegro. 


1 '  Fret,'  notwithstanding  its  simple  appearance,  is  really  a  com- 
pound word,  to  for-eat,  (Goth. )fra-itan,  (Ger.)  ver-essen,  to  eat  up 
(Garnett,  Philological  Essays,  p.  108).  In  connection  with  fretting, 
and  its  ordinary  accompaniment,  tears,  it  may  be  observed  that  the 
latter  word  (A.-Sax.)  taer,  (0.  H.  Ger.)  zahar,  (Goth.)  tagr,  is  near 
akin  to  the  Swedish  tdra,  to  consume,  corrode,  eat,  wear  away, 
tara  sig  sjelf,  to  fret  one's  self,  (0.  H.  Ger.)  zeran,  (Ger.)  zehren,  (Eng.) 
'  to  tear.'  Precisely  similar  is  the  relation  of  its  congeners  the  Greek 
ddkru,  to  the  verbal  root  dak-  (ddknd),  to  bite,  (Sans. )  damg,  and 
of  the  Latin  lacryma,  to  the  verb  lacero,  to  tear. 

2  The  Greek  meled&ne,  care,  sorrow  (cf.  melein,  to  be  anxious),  ac- 
cording to  Max  Muller,  means  a  consuming,  a  melting  away,  or 
grinding  to  dust,  being  from  the  root  mar,  to  grind  or  pound,  and 
so  cognate  with  the  Latin  mordeo,  to  bite. 


152  FRET. 

'  Gnarling  sorrow  hath  less  power  to  bite 
The  man  that  mocks  at  it  and  sets  it  light.' 

Shakspere,  Richard  II.,  i.  3. 

'  I  can  feel  my  forehead  crost 
By  the  wrinkle's  fretful  tooth. 

Lord  Lytton,  Spring  and  Winter, 

And  so  the  afflicted  Lear  found — 

'  How  sharper  than  a  serpent's  tooth  it  is 
To  have  a  thankless  child.'  Lear,  i.  4. 

When,  on  the  other  hand,  we  say  of  a  person 
that  he  '  frets  himself '  about  anything,  we  use  a 
phrase  almost  equivalent  to  the  Homeric  one, i  He 
devoureth  his  own  heart '  (6v/jl6v  16V),  and  similar 
to  that  employed  by  the  Royal  Preacher,  '  The  fool 
foldeth  his  hands  together,  and  eatethhis  own  flesh'' 
(Eccles.  iv.  5),  i.e.,  wasting  his  energies,  vexes  and 
disquiets  himself  in  vain.  Compare  the  Danish 
gnave,  to  gnaw,  also  to  fret,  to  be  peevish.  So  in 
old  English  writers,  <  corsive  '  and  '  corsey,'  a  con- 
tracted form  of  a  '  corrosive,'  is  found  repeatedly 
with  the  meaning  of  a  gnawing  care,  anxiety,  or, 
as  Burns  calls  it,  '  heart-corroding  care  and  grief. ' 1 
The  Russians  have  a  like  saying — '  Rust  eats  away 
iron,  and  care  the  heart.' 

1  And  that  same  bitter  corsive  which  did  eat 
Her  tender  heart  and  made  refraine  from  meat.' 

Spenser,  Fairie  Queene,  IV.  ix.  14. 


Epistle  to  Davie,  Globe  ed.,  p.  58. 


CHAGRIN.  153 

'  For  eVry  cordiall  that  my  thoughts  apply 
Turns  to  a  corsive,  and  doth  eat  it  farder/ 

B.  Jonson,  Every  Man  out  of  Rumour. 

'He  feels  a  corzie  cold  his  heart  to  knaw.' 

Harrington,  Ariosto,  xx.  97.1 

'  Chagrin/  French  chagrin,  cark,  care,  vexation, 
is  that  which  gnaws  and  frets  the  mind,  just  as 
e shagreen '  (Fr.  chagrin),  the  shark-skin,  wears 
away  the  wood  or  other  material  which  it  is  used 
as  a  rasp  to  polish,  It.  zigrino.  i  Shagreen,  out  of 
humour,  vexed  '  (Bailey).  The  Genoese  sagrind  is 
to  gnaw,  and  sagrindse,  to  fret,  consume  with 
anger.2 

Very  similar  is  the  use  of  the  Italian  verb 
limare,  to  fret,  to  gnaw,  originally  to  file,  from  the 
Latin  lima,  a  file,  while  the  same  word  lima  is  the 
Italian  name  for  the  plaice  or  bret,  French  limande, 
on  account  of  its  rough  skin  when  dried  being  em- 
ployed for  wood  polishing.  So  '  attrition  '  and 
c  contrition/  theological  terms  for  sorrow  for  sin, 


1  Vide  Nares,  who  gives  the  above  quotations  s.v. 

2  Diez.  The  spelling  '  chagrin  '  would  seem  to  countenance  the 
derivation  of  the  word  from  carcharus,  a  shark,  Gk.  Jcdrcharos,  sharp, 
jagged,  through  a  form  carcharinus ;  and  so  Haldeman,  Affixes,  p. 
114.  Compare  the  Greek  rhlne,  which  denotes  both  a  file  or  rasp, 
and  a  shark  whose  rough  skin  is  used  for  the  same  purpose.  It  is 
really,  however,  the  Persian  saghri,  a  kind  of  leather  made  from 
the  ass's  skin.  Tavernier,  in  his  Travels  in  Persia,  says — 'Cespeaux 
de  chagrin  se  font  du  cuir  de  cheval,  d'asne,  ou  de  mule,  et  seule- 
ment  du  derriere  de  la  beste,  et  celuy  qui  se  fait  de  la  peau  de 
l'asne  a  le  plus  beau  grain. '  Cf.  '  Cufsh  sagri  I  have  translated  sha- 
green slippers.  Sagri  is  the  skin  of  a  wild  ass's  back  '  (Hajji  Baba  in 
England,  vol.  ii.  p.  125  ;  Southey,  C.-P.  Book,  vol.  ii.  p.  464). 


154  BACKBITE. 

the  one  denoting  a  lower,  the  other  a  higher  and 
more  perfect,  degree  of  repentance,  meant  origin- 
ally a  rubbing  or  wearing  away,  and  then  figu- 
ratively a  fretting  of  the  heart  and  mind,  being 
derivatives  of  the  Latin  verb  tero,  to  rub  or  bray 
to  pieces.  '  Remorse,'  from  the  Latin  remordeo, 
to  bite  again,  0.  Eng.  '  again-bite/  reminds  us 
that  conscience,  when  awakened,  has  sharp  teeth 
that  do  not  remain  idle.1 

By  an  analogous  figure  of  speech  the  idea  of 
vexing  and  harassing  another  with  reproaches, 
taunts,  or  accusations  is  often  conveyed  by  words 
expressive  of  tearing,  gnawing,  and  biting.  Thus 
'  back-biting,'  the  graphic  term  by  which  we 
characterise  slanderous  charges  brought  against  a 
person  in  his  absence,2  has  its  exact  parallel  in  the 
Latin  phrases,  ?nordere,  rodere,  dente  carpere,  to 
bite,  gnaw,  or  tear  one  with  the  teeth.  The  ex- 
cellent maxim  in  which  St  Augustine  employs  one 
of  these  latter  words  in  this  sense  might  appropri- 
ately be  written  over  the  portals  of  every  dining- 
room — 

*  Quisquis  amat  dictis  absentem  rodere  amicnm, 
Hanc  mensam  vetitam.  noverit  esse  sibi.' 
Who  loves  to  bite  with  words  an  absent  friend 
No  welcome  findeth  here. 


1  Samuel  Ward,  in  his  sermon  '  Balm  from  Gilead,'  speaks  of  the 
reproofs  of  conscience  '  gnawing  more  than  any  chestworm  '  {i.e., 
coffin- worm). 

2  '  And  oft  in  vain  his  name  they  eloselv  bite.' 

P.  Fletcher,  Purple  Island,  c.  10. 


SARCASM.  155 

In  Hebrew  a  synonymous  expression  is  c  to  eat 
one  piece-meal'  (akal  kartze),  that  is,  to  calumniate 
him,  and  fritter  away  his  character  by  groundless 
accusations,  and  that  is  the  phrase  used  in  Daniel 
(iii.  8),  where  it  is  recorded  that  the  Chaldeans 
'  came  near  and  accused  the  Jews.'  So  in  the  35th 
Psalm  David  complains  that  his  enemies  '  did  tear 
him,  and  ceased  not'  (v.  15),  i.e.,  they  '  spoke 
daggers,'  even  cutting  words,  or  as  Gesenius  in- 
terprets it,  they  rebuked  and  cursed  him,  the  word 
here  employed  being  kdratz,  to  rend  or  tear 
asunder.  Nakabh,  to  pierce  or  cut  through,  is 
similarly  used  for  to  curse  in  Job  iii.  8  ;  Prov.  xi. 
26,  &c.  Compare  the  following  usages,  i  To  pique 
a  person,'  Fr.  piquer,  to  vex,  urge,  exasperate  with 
sharp  or  biting  words,  meant  originally  to  prick  or 
pierce  (Cotgrave) ;  Eng. i  to  give  one  a  cutting  up.' 

6  To  exasperate  '  is  to  make  one  rough,  as  by  the 
application  of  a  rasp  or  grater. 

'  To  harass,'  Fr.  karasser,  is  apparently  6  to 
harrow '  and  hurt  his  feelings,  as  the  harrow  with 
its  jagged  projections  hurts  the  earth,  being  akin 
to  harcer,  fiercer,  to  harrow. 

'  A  sarcasm,'  in  contrast  with  what  Dr  South 
has  termed  i  the  toothless  generalities  of  a  common- 
place,' is  i  a  biting  taunt,  a  cutting  quip,  a  nip- 
ping scoff'  of  a  bitter  and  personal  nature,  which, 
as  it  were,  draws  blood,  and  leaves  a  scar  behind. 
It  is  the  Greek  sarkasmos,  from  sarkdzd,  to  tear 


156  NAG. 

the  Jtesk  (sdrx).  i  Cynics  '  (from  the  Greek  kudn, 
kunos,  a  dog),  as  might  be  expected  from  persons 
with  sharp  teeth  and  a  currish,  snarling  disposition, 
are  much  given  to  this  cruel  amusement. 

6  Nag/  to  keep  up  a  continual  course  of  railing 
and  irritating  remarks,  '  nagging,'  worry,  is  the 
same  word  as  *  gnaw,'  Norse  nagga,  to  gnaw,  irri- 
tate, or  plague,  Ger.  nagen,  prov.  Eng.  nag,  to  eat, 
naggle,  to  gnaw,  Dut.  knagen.  So  Dan.  gnaven,  a 
gnawing,  is  likewise  a  scolding  or  chiding.  Of 
similar  origin  is  the  word  '  niggard,'  for  a  parsi- 
monious, cheese-paring  fellow — a  skinflint,  as  he  is 
sometimes  termed — who  gnaws  and  scrapes  his 
bones  till  the  dogs  despise  the  reversion  of  them, 
being  a  derivative  from  the  Icelandic  ngggja,  to 
rub,  scrape,  or  gnaw.1  The  Old  English  word 
was  nygun;  and  Pers  the  usurer  is  described  in 
Mannyng's  '  Handlyng  Synne '  as  '  a  nygun  and 
auarous '  (1.  5578). 

The  following  passage,   which   also  illustrates 

what  has  been  said  above  about  '  fret,'  is  put  in 

the  mouth  of  Anamnestes  in  the  old  comedy  of 

Lingua  (1632) — 

'A  company  of  studious  paper-worms,  &  leane  schollers, 
and  niggardly  scraping  Vsurers,  and  a  troupe  of  heart-eating 


1  With  this  we  may  compare  the  provincial  English  'near' 
(Sternberg,  Northampton  Glossary,  s.v.),  exactly  equivalent  to  the 
Danish  gnicr,  'a  griping,  stingy,  penurious  fellow'  (Wolff),  gnidsk, 
niggardly,  which  is  a  derivative  of  gnider,  to  scrape  ;  (Cumberland) 
$croby,  niggardly,  akin  to  Dut.  schrobben,  Gael,  sgriob,  to  scrape. 


TEASE.  157 

enuious  persons,  and  those  canker-stomackt  spiteful  creatures, 
that  furnish  vp,  common  place-books  with  other  men's  faults  " 

(Act  iii.  sc.  2). 

Another  instance  of  the  same  figure  is  afforded 
by  the  verb  '  to  tease/  which  in  everyday  language 
is  used  more  commonly  in  its  metaphorical  sense 
of  annoying  or  vexing  a  person,  ruffling  his  temper 
by  a  series  of  petty  and  repeated  provocations, 
than  in  its  original  one  of  pulling  out  matted  wool 
or  hair,  and  loosening  it  by  plucking  and  tearing, 
A. -Sax.  tcesan,  Dut.  teesen,  Ger.  zausen.  The 
plant  which  was  frequently  used  for  the  purpose  of 
raising  the  nap  of  cloth,  and  teasing  it  to  a  proper 
degree  of  roughness,  was  called  the  c  teasel '  (A.- 
Sax.  tcesal).  This  was  a  species  of  thistle,  in  Latin 
carduus,  as  we  are  reminded  by  our  word  i  card ' 
for  dressing  wool.  Hence,  too,  comes  the  Portuguese 
cardo,  the  fuller's  thistle,  which  c  is  also  a  symboli- 
cal word  for  torment,  pain,  affliction,  &c.'  (Vieyra). 
Compare  the  Spanish  escolimoso,  hard,  obstinate,1 
from  the  Latin  scoli/mus,  a  thistle,  Greek  skol- 
umos,  the  original  conception  being  that  of  a  person 
whose  manner,  rough  as  a  burr,  and  bristling,  is 
suggestive  of  the  motto  Nemo  me  impune  lacessit. 
Similarly,  when  a  rude  and  abrupt  manner  is  de- 
scribed as  being  brusque,  it  is  implied  that,  so  far 
from  being  soft  and  polished,  it  is  sharp-pointed 
andrepellent,like  the  prickly  shrub  called  butcher's- 

1  Pineda,  Span.  Diet.,  s.v. 


158  BRUSQUE. 

broom.  For  the  French  brusque  (formerly  brusc), 
Spanish  and  Italian  brusco,  uncivil  and  sharp,  also 
denote  that  plant,  and  are  derived  from  its  Latin 
name  ruscum.  The  first  '  brushes '  were  besoms 
made  of  this  material  (Ger.  brusc/i).  Compare  the 
two  meanings  of  c  broom.' 

We  have  seen  above  that  the  name  of  the  cricket 
or  grasshopper  has  sometimes  been  used  as  synony- 
mous with  a  whim,  caprice,  or  eccentric  humour, 
and  obviously  it  was  the  fitful  movements  of  those 
insects  by  sudden  and  unexpected  bounds  which 
afforded  the  point  of  comparison.  Grillo  is  thus 
employed  in  Spanish  and  Italian,  and  grillon  in 
French.  '  II  a  beaucoup  de  grillons  en  la  teste,  he 
is  in  his  dumps  ;  his  head  is  much  troubled,  full 
of  crotchets,  or  of  Proclamations  '  (Cotgrave). 

In  German  die  grille  is  a  whim  or  vagary,  grillen 
fangen,  to  catch  crickets,  is  to  indulge  in  useless 
thoughts,  and  grillenf anger,  a  capricious  person. 
All  these  are  from  the  Latin  grgllus,  a  cricket. 
Now  this  word  was  also  used  as  an  art  term  to 
signify  a  caricature  or  grotesque  composite  figure.1 
Grilli,  or  crickets,  are  frequently  found  depicted  on 
ancient  gems  engaged  in  various  human  occupations, 


1  Antiphilus  jocosis  (tabulis)  nomine  Gryllum  deridiculi  habitus 
pinxit,  unde  id  genus  picturse  grylli  vocantur'  (Pliny  xxv.  37). 
See  '  Handbook  of  Engraved  Gems,'  C.  W.  King,  p.  96.  It  is  curious 
to  find  the  Icelandic  gryla  meaning  an  ogre  or  bugbear,  but  gryl, 
grille  is  an  0.  Eng.  word  for  grim,  terrible. 


CAPRICE.  159 

as   porters,   gladiators,  and  so  forth  ;   and  it  was 

probably  this  fantastic  use  of  the  insect,  as  well  as 

its  irregular  movement,  which  helped  to  make  it 

a  synonym  for  a  capriccio,  or  curious  fancy. 

Similarly   '  caprice/   Fr.    caprice,    It.  capriccio, 

signified  originally  the  sudden  spring  of  the  goat, 

so  that  Chapman  uses  the  word,  in   his  time  not 

yet  fully  naturalised,  with  perfect  propriety  when 

in  his  translation  of  the  c  Hymn  to  Pan  '  he  depicts 

the  motions  of  the  goat-footed  god  as  follows  : — 

*  Sometimes 
(In  quite  opposed  capriccios)  he  climbs 
The  hardest  rocks  and  highest,  every  way 
Running  their  ridges.'  x  LI.  15-18. 

The  word  is  a  derivative  of  the  Latin  caper,2  a 
goat,  as  is  also  our  verb  6  to  caper,'  to  skip  about 
like  that  playful  animal.  Compare  Horace's  simi- 
lem  ludere  caprece  ;  W.  gafrio,  to  caper,  from  gafr, 
a  goat. 

That  Shakspere  was  familiar  with  this  derivation 
is  evident  from  the  words  which  he  makes  Touch- 
stone address  to  Audrey — 


1  Homeric  Hymns,  &c,  translated  by  Geo.  Chapman,  Library  of 
Old  Authors,  p.  107.  Cf.  Genin,  Recreations  Philologiques,  vol.  i. 
p.  272. 

*  Caper,  Etruscan  capra,  corresponds  to  A.-Sax.  hcefer,  'heifer,' 
Scand.  hafr,  Irish  qabhar,  Welsh  gafr,  Corn,  gavar,  Alban.  skap, 
and  is  akin  to  the  Persian  dapish,  6apush,  Sans,  kampra,  agile.  It 
comes  from  the  root  cap,  camp,  to  move  (?  bound),  and  probably 
originally  meant  '  the  skipper.'  In  Lapp,  habra  is  a  goat,  kapa, 
Finn,  kipa,  to  skip,  Turkish  6apuk,  swiftly,  Pers.  cabHk  (Pictet, 
Orig.  Indo-Europ.,  vol.  i.  p.  368  ;  I.  Taylor,  Etruscan  Kesearches, 
p.  317).     Cf.  Egypt,  abr. 


160  CAPRICE. 

1 1  am  here  with  thee  and  thy  goats,  as  the  most  capricious 
poet,  honest  Ovid,  was  among  the  Goths.' 

As  You  Like  It,  iii.  3. 

Owen  Meredith  (Lord  Lytton)  describes  the  fit- 
ful disposition  of  the  animal  just  as  it  must  have 
struck  our  ancestral  word-makers — 

1  Every  goat  objects  to  sameness, 
And  peaceful  plenty  cloys  at  last  ; 
Without  adventure  ease  is  tameness  : 
Away  the  wild  thing  scampers  fast. 

He  scrambles  up  the  pebbly  passes  : 
He  leaps  the  wild  ravines  :  in  vain 

To  woo  him  wave  the  choicest  grasses — 
He  nibbles,  and  is  off  again. 

The  good   St  Peter,  to  whose  keeping  it   has 

been   committed,  puffs  after  it  till    he   is   fairly 

exhausted,  and  resigns  his  capricious  charge  with 

the  words — 

'  Take  back,  0  Lord,  this  wilful  creature, 
And  from  its  whimsies  set  me  free.' 

Cynips  Terminalis. 

'  Goats,'  observes  Fuller,  <  are  when  young  most 
nimble  and  frisking,  whence  our  English  word  to 
caper. .'  When  Boyle  therefore  speaks  of  one 
'  dancing  and  capering  like  a  kid,'  the  expression, 
though  accurate,  is  almost  pleonastic. 

The  French  forms  of  the  word  are  cabrer,  c  to 
reare,  or  stand  upright  on  the  hinder  feet,  as  a  goat 
or  kid  thatbrouzes  on  a  tree  '  (Cotgrave)  ;  cabrioter, 
to  caper.  From  the  same  source,  through  the 
diminutival  form  capreolus,  a  kid,  comes  the  verb 


CAPRICE.  161 

'  to  capriole.'  It.  capriola,  '  a  kid,  a  caper  in 
dancing,  also  a  sault,  a  goates  leape  that  cunning 
riders  teach  their  horses '  (Florio). 

The  French  word  was  cabriole,  and  hence  a  light, 
two- wheeled  vehicle,  which,  as  it  were,  bounds  along, 
was  called  a  cabriolet,  which  we  now  have  shortened 
into  '  cab/  1  The  same  conveyance  in  slang  phrase- 
ology is  styled  a  '  bounder,' 2  which  is  suggestive 
of  a  kindred  expression  in  the  authorised  version 
of  Nahum  iii.  2,  '  the  jumping  chariots.' 

With  6  caprice  '  we  may  compare  the  provincial 
English  word  gaiting,  signifying  frolicsome,  from 
gait,  a  goat.  So  in  the  Comasque  dialect  of  the 
Italian  mice  is  a  caprice,  and  nucia  a  kid ;  ticc/do, 
the  Italian  word  for  a  freak  or  whim,  is  from  the 
0.  H.  Ger.  ziki,  a  kid  (Diez) ;  and  the  French 
verve,  spirit,  fancy,  comes  probably  from  a  Latin 
word  verva,  a  ram's  head,  vervex,  a  wether.3 


1  Cabriolets  were  introduced  into  England  in  1755.  Horace 
"Walpole  speaks  of  '  la  f  ureur  des  cabriolets,  Anglice  one  horse 
chairs,  a  mode  introduced  by  Mr  Child '  (Wright,  Caricature 
History  of  the  Georges,  p.  253). 

2  Hotten,  Slang  Dictionary,  s.v. 

3  Another  word  expressive  of  a  mental  conception  derived  from 
the  goat  is  'chimera,'  a  monstrous  fancy  or  groundless  imagination, 
that  word  being  the  Greek  chimaira,  (1)  a  goat ;  (2)  a  composite  goat- 
shaped  monster;  (3)  something  unreal  or  non-existent.  Chimaira, 
chimaros,  is  properly  a  winterling  goat,  and  connected  with  ckeimdn, 
winter,  just  as  the  provincial  Eng.  term,  a  '  quinter,'  is  a  sheep 
of  two  winters,  corresponding  to  the  Erisian  twinter,  a  two- 
year-old  horse,  enter,  a  one-year-old,  cf,  Latin  bimus,  two  years 
old,  trimus,  three  years  old,  i.e.,  li-himus,  tri-himus,  akin  to  litems, 
winter. 


162  LARK. 

Similar  is  the  Italian  vitellare,  l  to  skip  and 
leape  for  joy  as  a  yonge  calfe '  (Florio),  the  Latin 
vitulari,  to  make  merry,  originally  to  skip  like  a 
calf  (vitulus).  An  interesting  parallel  is  afforded 
by  the  ancient  Egyptian,  for  in  that  language  a 
bounding  calf  .is  said  to  be  the  ideograph,  or  little 
picture,  determinative  of  the  verb  ab,  which  signifies 
to  rejoice  as  well  as  to  thirst ;  and  in  the  list  of 
hieroglyphical  signs  given  by  Baron  Bunsen  in  his 
great  work,1  the  head  of  a  calf  is  the  determinative 
of  the  word  for  joy  (rck).  Compare  also  the  Ger- 
man kdlbern,  to  be  wanton,  to  romp,  to  frisk  about 
in  a  calf-like  manner,  from  kalb,  a  calf;  the  Greek 
arneuo,  to  frisk,  from  arnos,  a  lamb;  ortalizo,  to 
frolic  like  a  young  animal,  ortalis ;  and  paizo,  to 
dance  or  play,  originally  to  sport  like  a  child, 
pais,  (compare  the  French  gar  Conner,  to  be  wanton); 
the  provincial  and  Old  English  verb,  to  colt, 
meaning  to  frisk  about  and  kick  up  one's  heels,  to 
wanton,  a  word  employed  by  Spenser  in  his  '  View 
of  the  State  of  Ireland,'  which  in  Devonshire 
takes  the  shape  coltee,  to  be  skittish. 

It  might  perhaps  be  supposed,  at  the  first  view, 
that  the  vulvar  English  word  i  to  lark '  was 
another  instance  in  point,  and  that  in  its  primary 
significance  it  meant  to  disport  one's  self  with  the 
abandon  of  that  bird  which  has  often  been  regarded 

1  Egypt's  Place  in  Universal  History,  vol.  i.  p.  543. 


LARK.  163 

as  the  very  type  of  light-heartedness  and  joyous 

freedom.1      If   the  frisking  columbine,    with  her 

pirouettes    and    glissades,   bears    an    appellation 

shared    in    common  with    the    tumbling    pigeon 

columbus,  columbinus  (Greek  kolumbdn,  to  tumble) 

and  if  the  public  figurant  or  pantomimic  dancer 

arneuter,  introduced  by   Homer    (II.    xvi.    742) 

owns  a  kinship  with  the  skipping  lamb,  arnos 

then  why  should  not  a  frolic,  accompanied  as  it 

often  is  by  dance  and  jest  and  song,  and  enacted 

though  it  be  for  the  most  part  during  the  hours 

when  gambling  is  rife  but  gambolling  is  still,  by 

revellers — 

1  Awake  when  the  lark  is  sleeping, 

Ere  Flora  fills  her  dewy  cup  ; 
When  the  festive  beetle's  homeward  creeping, 
Before  the  early  worm  is  up,' — 

why  should  it  not,  by  an  analogous  process, 
derive  its  name  from  the  merry  bird  of  morning  ? 
This,  however,  would  be  quite  a  groundless  assump- 
tion, as  the  word  is  only  a  modern  corruption  of 
the  verb  to  laik,  which  is  common  in  Old  English, 
and  still  current  in  the  provincial  dialects. 

<  Thai  mett 
With  men  that  sone  thaire  laykes  lett ' — 

Minot,  Political  Songs,  1352. 


One  of  the  aspirations  of  the  cheerful  man  in  '  L'Allegro,'  as  he 
invokes  Sport  and  Laughter  and  Mirth  to  be  his  companions,  is — 

1  To  hear  the  lark  begin  his  flight, 
And  singing  startle  the  dull  night, 
From  his  watchtower  in  the  skies 
Till  the  dappled  dawn  doth  rise.'  LI.  41-44. 


164  MERRY   AS   A   GRIG. 

i.e.,  hindered    their    larks.       Of    the    giants   be- 
fore the  flood  we  are  told 

'  That  for  her  lodlych  layke^  alosed  tliay  were ' — 

Alliterative  Poems  (ed.  Morris) 

they  were  destroyed  for  their  loathsome  larks. 

So  Hampole  says  that  proud  man  takes  no  heed 

to  himself 

'"When  he  es  yhung  and  luffes  layking.' 

Priche  of  Conscience,  1.  593. 

<  Lark,'  therefore,  is  the  Old  English  laih,  A. -Sax. 
Mc,  play,  sport,  lacan,  to  play,  Goth,  laiks,  sport, 
dancing,  laikan,  to  skip  or  leap  for  joy,  Swed.  leka, 
Dan.  lege,  0.  Norse  leika,  from  the  Sanskrit  root  lahgh, 
to  jump,  which  is  also  seen  in  A. -Sax.  leax,  the  sal- 
mon, i.e.,  c  the  leaper,'  locusta,  and  lepus,  the  hare. 
It  is  with  these  creatures,  if  any,  that  the  frolic- 
some '  lark'  is  allied,  and  not  with  the  bird  which 
is  its  homophone — the  '  laverock,'  '  la'rick,'  or  lark. 

Amongst  the  animals  which  by  reason  of  their 
liveliness  of  disposition  and  quickness  of  motion 
have  been  made  types  of  hilarity  and  cheerfulness, 
and  become  proverbial  in  popular  phraseology,  is 
the  c  grig.' 

Cotgrave,  for  example,  explains  gouinfre,  '  a 
madcap,  merry  grig,  pleasant  knave,'  gringalet,  '  a 
merry  grig,  pleasant  rogue,  sportfull  knave.'  We 
still  say  '  as  merry  as  a  grig,'  and  the  word  has 
been  generally  understood  to  mean  a  small,  wriggling 
eel,  so    called  perhaps  from   its  colour,    A. -Sax. 


MERRY   AS   A   GRIG.  165 

grceg,  gray,  just  as  another  fish  has  been  named  a 
i  grayling/    As  c  grig,'  however,  is  a  provincial  term 
also  for  the  cricket,1  as  it  were  the  gray  insect ,  in  Ice- 
landic grd-magi,  '  gray-maw  '  (compare  the  c  gray- 
fly  '  of  Milton's  <  Lycidas  '),  it  is  more  natural  to 
suppose  that  the  phrase  is  synonymous  with  another 
equally   common,    c  as   merry   as   a  cricket ; '  the 
cheerful  note  of  the  cricket,  even  more  than  its 
lively  movements,  causing  it  to  be  adopted  as  an  ex- 
emplification of  merriment.     But  c  grig  '  may  have 
had  still  another  meaning.     Grec,  gregeois,  griescke, 
gregue,  are  various  French   spellings  of  the  word 
Greek  (compare  'gregues,  foreign  hose  [i.e.,  Greek], 
wide  slops,  gregs,'  Cotgrave),  and  the  word  grin- 
galet,  a  merry  grig,  may  be  only  another  form  of 
grigalet  or  gregalet,  a  diminutive  of  grec,  i.e.,  a  greek- 
ling,  grcsculus,  n  being  inserted  as  in  the  old  French 
term  for  holy  water,  gringoriane,  a  corrupted  form 
of  gregoriane,  c  so  termed,'  says  Cotgrave,  '  because 
first  invented  by  a  Pope  Gregory.' 

From  the  effeminacy  and  luxurious  living  into 
which  the  later  Greeks  degenerated  after  their 
conquest  by  the  Romans,  their  name  became  a  by- 


l  '  The  high-shoulder'd  grig, 
Whose  great  heart  is  too  big 
For  his  body  this  blue  May  morn.' 

Lord  Lytton. 
So  '  the  grygynge  of  the  daye '  is  an  Old  English  expression  for 
the  dawn,  i.e. ,  the  graying  or  gray  of  the  morning.  Frisian  gr&vding, 
the  twilight.     Scot,  gryking,  greking,  the  peep  of  day. 


166  MERRY   AS   A   GRIG. 

word  for  bon-vivants,  good  fellows,  or  convivial 
companions ;  just  as  the  Teuton  or  German  has 
supplied  a  sobriquet  for  a  toper,  It.  tedesco,  Neap. 
todisco,  among  the  people  of  Southern  Europe. 

'  The  boonest  companions  for  drinking  are  the  Greeks  and 
Germans;  but  the  Greek  is  the  merrier  of  the  two,  for  he  will 
$dng,  and  dance,  and  kiss  his  next  companion  ;  but  the  other 
will  drink  as  deep  as  he." 

Howell,  Fam.  Letters  (1634),  Bk.  II.  54. 

6  No  people  in  the  world,'  it  has  been  said,  '  are 
so  jovial  and  merry,  so  given  to  singing  and 
dancing,  as  the  Greeks/  1  So  Bishop  Hall,  in  his 
1  Triumphs  of  Koine,'  having  spoken  of  the  wakes, 
May  games,  Christmas  triumphs,  and  other  con- 
vivial festivities  kept  up  by  those  under  the  Roman 
dition,  adds  these  words — '  In  all  which  put  together, 
you  may  well  say  no  Greek  can  be  merrier  than 
they.'  In  Latin,  grcecari,  to  play  the  Greek,  meant 
to  wanton,  to  eat,  drink,  and  be  merry.  Shakspere 
says  of  Helen,  i  Then  she's  a  merry  Greek  indeed  ' 
(Troilus  and  Cressida,  i.  2),  and  the  phrase  occurs 
repeatedly  in  other  writers  of  the  same  period. 
Cotgrave  defines  averlan  to  be  (a  good  fellow,  a 
mad  companion,  merry  Greek,  sound  drunkard ; ' 
while  Miege  gives  '  a  merry  grig,  un  plaisant  com- 
pagnonf 2  and  i  They  drank  till  they  all  were  as 


1  Patrick'Gordon,  quoted  in  Brewer's  '  Dictionary  of  Phrase  and 
Fable,'  s.v.  Grig,  where  it  is  also  stated  that  'grig '  is  a  slang  term 
for  a  class  of  vagabond  dancers  and  tumblers. 

a  Cited  in  Wright's  '  Provincial  Dictionary,'  s.v.  Grig. 


£tre  gris.  16? 

merry  as  grigs  '  occurs  in  '  Poor  Robin's  Almanac/ 
1764.  We  can  easily  perceive  that  the  latter 
phrase,  both  in  sound  and  signification,  arose 
out  of,  or  was  at  least  fused  with,  the  older  one 
6  as  merry  as  a  Greek.'  That  the  connection  be- 
tween the  two  was  remembered  and  recognised  so 
late  as  1820  is  proved  by  the  following  quotation, 
which  I  take  from  Nares — 

'  A  true  Trojan  and  a  mad  merry  grig,  though  no  Greek'' 

Barn.  Journ.  vol.  i.  p.  54. 

The  French  have  a  phrase  etre  gris,  to  be  drunk, 
which  is  of  the  same  origin,  if  Genin  be  correct 
in  his  assertion  that  gris  is  an  old  French  form  of 
grcecus,1  and  that  the  verb  se  griser  exactly  repro- 
duces Horace's  grcecari,  meaning  properly  '  to  be 
Greekish,'  just  as  they  say  ivre,  or  boire,  comme  un 
Polonais,  or  as  we  might  say,  '  to  be  drunk  as  a 
Dutchman.'  Synonymous  with  this,  and  likewise 
derived  from  the  language  of  the  learned,  is  the 
jocular  expression  II  savait  f  Hebrew.  This  is  a 
mere  calembour  on  the  resemblance  between  the  two 
Latin  words  ebrius,  drunken,  and  Ebrceus,  Hebrew. 
'  II  entend  VHebrieu,  he  is  drunk,  or  (as  we  say) 
learned :  (from  the  Analogy  of  the  Latine  word 
Ebrius).'' — Cotgrave.  In  an  old  French  song 
occur  the  words — 

1  Recreations  Philologiques,  vol.  i.  p.  137.  Gris,  it  seems,  was 
also  written  griu,  and  thence  came  grive,  the  thrush,  because  it  is 
wont  se  griser  among  the  vines.  Cf.  '  saoul  comme  une  grive,'  and 
grivois,  a  term  for  a  tipsy  soldier. 


168  BELLARMINE. 

1  Je  suis  le  docteur  toujours  Ivre, 

Notus  inter  Sorboxiicos  ; 
Je  n'ai  jamais  lu  d'autre  livre 

Qu'Epistolam  ad  Ebrios.' 1 

Phrases  like  these  evidently  owe  their  origin  to 
the  scholastic  slang  of  the  university  or  monastic 
common-roorn,and  to  the  same  source  may  be  attri- 
buted the  facetious  name  that  used  formerly  to  be 
given  to  an  earthen  jug  or  tankard,  a  '  Bellarmine,' 
— the  works  of  that  great  doctor  being  the  handbook, 
or  vade-mecum,  into  which  the  student  should  con- 
tinually be  dipping,  whose  contents  he  should  be 
constantly  imbibing.  Rabelais  tells  us  that  the 
monks  had  flagons  actually  made  in  the  shapes 
of  books;  these  they  called  their  breviaries, 
and  in  these,  we  need  not  doubt,  they  were  deeply 
versed. 

Many  can  remember  a  kind  of  jug  that  was  for- 
merly in  use  constructed  in  the  shape  of  a  squat- 
ting or  dwarf-like  figure  graced  with  a  long  beard 
— Toby  Philpots,  I  think  they  were  called — speci- 
mens of  which  may  still  be  seen  in  out-of-the-way 
nooks  and  corners.  The  ancient  '  Bellarmine/ 
we  may  suppose,  resembled  these  bearded  jugs, 
which  the  Scotch  called  '  greybeards. ' 2     'Ye  may 


1  Notes  and  Queries,  4th  S.  vol.  ii.  No.  28,  p.  42  ;  No.  29,  p.  71. 

2  Vide  Halliwell,  Popular  Rhymes,  p.  143 ;  Chambers,  Book  of 
Days,  i.  371.  For  some  whimsical  reason  vessels  of  large  capacity 
have  received  names  from  two  kings  of  Israel,  and  are  termed  in 
some  parts  of  England  Jorams  and  Jeroboams. 


169 

keep  [for  the  pilgrims]  the  grands  of  the  last 
greybeard,  says  Peter  Bridge- Ward  to  his  wife  in 
6  The  Monastery,'  ch.  ix.  Similarly,  in  Icelandic 
skcgg-karl  is  a  i  bearded  carl,'  and  skegg-brusi  is  an 
earthen  jug,  while  brusi,  an  earthen  jar,  meant 
originally  a  bearded  he-goat. 

But  the  merriness  of  the  Greek  was  not  his  only 
proverbial  characteristic.  He  was  also  regarded  as 
a  personification  of  artfulness  and  cunning,  qualities 
faithfully  delineated  in  the  typical  character  of 
Virgil's  Sinon ;  and  still,  in  modern  times,  he  is 
said  to  be  '  most  of  all  remarkable  for  his  shrewd- 
ness and  sharpness  in  business.1  In  French 
il  est  Grec  is,  according  to  Cotgrave,  another 
way  of  saying,  i  He  is  a  most  crafty  or  subtill 
Courtier. ' 

There  are  many  other  instances  of  this  use  of 
words  by  which  the  name  of  various  nationalities 
are  used  as  common  nouns  descriptive  of  persons 
of  a  certain  disposition,  or  of  certain  occupations 
which  were  considered  specially  characteristic  of 
those  nationalities.  For  example,  a  Sybarite,  or 
native  of  Sybaris,  has  become  another  name  for  an 
effeminate  voluptuary.  A  Cyprian  is  a  votary  of 
Venus — Cyprus  being  one  stronghold  of  her  wor- 
ship— a  woman  of  light  character  :  and  Corinthian 
is   almost  the  same,  a  person   in  old  time  being 

1  C.  L.  Brace,  Races  of  the  Old  World,  p.  272. 


170  EPHESIAN,   ETC. 

said  to  Corinthianise  when  he  led  a  life  of  loose 
debauchery ;  while  Bougre,  a  Bulgarian,  has  fallen 
to  a  still  more  degraded  meaning.  A  Gypsy,  i.e., 
a  Gyptian1  or  Egyptian,  is  now  the  vernacular 
name  for  the  nomad  Zingaro ;  but  Bohemian,  the 
term  once  applied  to  the  same  race,  now  denotes 
a  social  nonconformist,  one  that  claims  the  right 
to  order  his  mode  of  living  at  his  own  pleasure, 
and  refuses  to  submit  to  the  trammels  of  an 
established  code  of  etiquette;  and  a  homeless 
wanderer  of  the  city  we  call  a  street  Arab.  The 
word  Ephesians,  as  used  in' Shakspere,  is  a  cant 
term  for  topers  or  boon  companions,  men  that 
were  certainly  no  devout  worshippers  of  that 
chaste  goddess  whom  their  city  delighted  to 
honour.  '  It  is  thine  host,  thine  Ephesian,  calls,' 
says  the  host  to  FalstafF  (Merry  Wives  of  Windsor, 
iv.  5).  Welcher,  a  swindler  who  absconds  from 
the  ring  when  he  has  lost  his  bet,  seems  to  be 
an  invidious  allusion  to  the  land  of  Taffies,  who 
in  nursery  tradition  have  long  lain  under  the  im- 
putation of  being  thievish.  Similarly,  a  Switzer 
was,  till  comparatively  lately,  a  common  name  for 
any  mercenary  soldier  (vide  Pope,  The  Dunciad, 
Bk.  II.  1.  358),  while  Srcisse  in  French  is  now 
only  a  house-porter  or  a  beadle.  Coolie,  the 
Anglo-Indian  name  for  a  porter  or  water-carrier, 


* '  Like  a  Gipsen  or  a  Juggeler.' 

Spenser,  Mother  Hubberds  Tale. 


LOMBARD.  171 

was  originally  one  of  the  Koles  or  Kola,1  a  tribe 
of  the  Vindhya  race  of  India  employed  in  that 
capacity.  Conversely,  in  Fiji  all  black  men  are 
called  kuke,  cooks,  from  the  profession  which  they 
commonly  follow  on  board  ship. 

In  Greek,  Indos,  an  Indian,  was  given  as  an 
appellation  to  every  elephant-driver,  and  Carian 
was  synonymous  in  the  same  language  with  a 
mercenary,  a  venal  slave.  So  Geta  and  Davus, 
the  ordinary  names  for  slaves  in  the  Roman 
comedy,  are  said  to  have  denoted  respectively  a 
Goth  and  a  Dacian,  and  the  word  '  slave '  itself 
meant  originally  a  member  of  the  great  Slavonic 
people,  or  race  of  Slaves,  whose  very  name  was 
significant  of  glory  (slava).2 

A  Lombard,  owing  to  the  financial  skill  and  re- 
putation of  that  people,  was  once  another  term  for 
a  banker,  and  their  name  still  clings  to  the  great 
banking  street  in  London  which  they  once  fre- 
quented, as  well  as  to  every  lumber-room  where  a 
pawnbroker  stores  his  pledges,  in  German  called 
ein  lombard. 

1  By  their  Profession  they  [the  Jews]  are  for  the  most  part 
Brokers  and  Lombardeers? 

Howell,  Fam.  Letters  (1633),  Bk.  I.,  vi.  14. 

Among  the  Romans,  a  person  engaged  in  banking 


1  C.  L.  Brace,  Paces  of  the  Old  World,  p.  103. 
2Pictet,  Orig.  Iudo-Europ.,  vol.  ii.  p.  204. 


172  CANAANITE. 

was  styled  a  Babylonian  ('  BabyloJ  Terence, 
Adelphi,  v.  7),  just  as  among  ourselves  a  Jew 
is  another  name  for  a  money-lender  or  usurer, 
and  as  in  the  French  argot,  anglois  is  synonymous 
with  creancier.  In  Cotgrave's  time  anglois  was 
used  for  '  a  creditor  that  pretends  he  hath  much 
money  owing,  which  is  never  like  to  be  paid 
him.' 

The  name  of  the  Canaanite  is  repeatedly  used 
for  a  trader  in  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  and  it  is 
this  word  which  is  translated  l  merchant '  in  Job 
xli.  6;  Prov.  xxxi.  24;  Hosea  xii.  7;  and 
'  trafficker '  in  Isa.  xxiii.  8.  In  the  passage  of 
Zechariah  (xiv.  21),  where  he  predicts  that  in  the 
day  of  the  Lord  '  there  shall  be  no  more  the 
Canaanite  in  the.  house  of  the  Lord,'  this  in  the 
Targum  of  Jonathan  is  interpreted  '  trader,' 1  the 
allusion  apparently  having  reference  to  the  sym- 
bolical action  performed  by  the  Saviour  when  He 
came  to  the  Temple,  and  drove  out  the  money- 
changers, and  them  that  sold  and  bought  therein 
(John  ii.  15).  It  is  noteworthy,  indeed,  that 
Canaanites  were  a  party  to  the  earliest  transaction 
on  record  in  the  way  of  buying  and  selling,  that, 
namely,  which  took  place  between  Abraham  and 
'  the  people  of  the  land,  even  the  children  of 
Heth,'  about  the  purchase  of  the  field  of  Machpelah 

1  Farrar,  Life  of  Christ,  vol.  i.  p.  189. 


173 

(Gen.  xxiii.  16).  The  commercial  activity  of  this 
people  was  proverbial  in  antiquity,  whether  they 
were  known  as  Canaanites  or  Phoenicians;  and 
there  is  evidence  that  the  latter  name,  Phoinix, 
had  acquired  in  Greek  the  meaning  of  one  who 
barters  or  exchanges,  6  giving  with  one  hand  and 
taking  with  the  other.' 1  c  Assassin/  as  is  well 
known,  was  originally  the  name  given  to  a  fana- 
tical sect  of  Ismaslians,  a  people  of  Persia, 
whose  daggers  were  ever  at  the  service  of  their 
leader,  and  who  were  so  called  probably  from  their 
intoxicating  themselves  with  the  drug  hashish? 
Similarly,  in  Horace's  time  Chaldean  was  al- 
most another  name  for  a  magician,  and  the  words 
Boeotian,  Abderite,  Goth,  Yandal,  are  synonymous 
with  stupidity  and  barbarism. 


1  Kenrick,  Phoenicia,  p.  191. 

2  See    Spelman,  Glossary,    s.v.;   Walker's   Selections  from  the 
Gentleman's  Magazine,  vol.  ii.  p.  145. 


(174) 


CHAPTER  VII. 

WORDS  FOR  THE  '  PUPIL*  OF  THE  EYE, — THE 
HUMAN  TREE, —  THE  WORDS  '  TOE,' — l  DOTE,' 
ETC, 

Any  one  who  bestows  a  thought  at  all  on  the  value 
and  meaning  of  the  words  he  uses  must  some  time 
or  other,  I  should  think,  have  paused  to  wonder 
how  it  comes  to  pass  that  one  and  the  same  word, 
'  pupil/  is  applied  indifferently  to  objects  so  unlike 
as  the  aperture  of  the  eye  *  and  a  person  under 
instruction ;  for  saving  that  analogy  ingeniously 
suggested  by  some  humorist,  that  they  are  both 
perpetually  under  the  lash,  there  seems  little  in 
common  between  them.  The  point  of  connection 
certainly  is  curious,  and  not  immediately  obvious. 
<  Pupil '  (one  under  tutors  or  guardians,  a  ward) 
is  the  Latin pupillus,  pupulus  (a  little  hoy),pupilla, 
papula  (a  little  girl),  diminutives  of  pupus  2  (boy), 
pupa   (girl).     These   words   were  also  commonly 


1  Cf.  Heb.  '  gate  of  the  eye  '  =  pupil,  Zech.  ii.  8  (Gesenius). 

2  Pupus  connected  with  puer,  pusus,  pullus,  ttujXos,  (Goth.) 
fula(n),  'foal,'  (Pers.)  ptisr  (boy),  (Sans.)  putra  (a  child). — Monier 
Williams,  Sanskrit  Diet.  s.v. 


pupil.  175 

used  for  any  small  figure,  such  as  a  6  puppet,'  doll, 
or  baby — *  doll '  itself,  it  may  be  remarked  in 
passing,  being  only  a  modern  substitute  for  <  baby,' 
which  had  once  the  same  meaning.  Shakspere 
tells  us  that 

*  The  beauty  that  is  borne  here  in  the  face 
The  bearer  knows  not,  but  commends  itself 
To  others'  eyes  ;  nor  doth  the  eye  itself, 
That  most  pure  spirit  of  sense,  behold  itself, 
Not  going  from  itself ;  but  eye  to  eye  opposed 
Salutes  each  other  with  each  other's  form/  l 

Now,  when  two  parties  are  thus  tete-a-tete — or, 
as  the  Italians  express  it,  more  appropriately  for 
our  purpose,  c  at  four  eyes '  together,  a  quattro 
occhi — the  diminutive  reflection  which  each  observer 
beholds  in  the  convex  mirror  of  the  other's  eye  as 
he  gazes  into  it  was  called  pupilla  or  papula  (a 
little  puppet),  and  eventually  the  dark  centre  of 
the  iris  which  forms  that  miniature  image  was 
designated  the  'pupil.'  The  Persian  dubu,  the 
pupil  of  the  eye,  may  perbaps  be  compared.  The 
common  meaning,  therefore,  to  which  both  uses 
of  the  word  converge  is  that  of  a  person  of  dimi- 
nutive size — in  the  one  case,  a  person  young  and 
immature,  and  so  requiring  instruction  and  guar- 
dianship— in  the  other,  a  person  dwarfed  in  appear- 
ance by  the  medium  through  which  he  is  viewed. 

We  would  scarcely   have   expected  beforehand 

1  Troilus  and  Cressida,  iii.  3. 


176  pupil. 

that  this  characteristic  of  the  eye  being  a  little 
natural  mirror  would  have  so  powerfully  arrested 
the  attention  of  mankind  as  to  give  a  name  to  the 
organ,  or  a  part  of  it,  amongst  races  and  peoples 
the  most  different.  And  yet  so  it  undoubtedly 
did.  For  instance,  in  Hebrew  the  words  which 
we  translate  '  the  apple  of  the  eye  '  1  (Deut.  xxxii. 
10  ;  Prov.  vii.  2)  in  the  original  are  ishon  ayin, 
6  the  little  man  of  the  eye,'  i.e.  pupil  (diminutive 
of  ish,  a  man).2  In  the  ancient  Egyptian  iri 
denotes  a  child  as  well  as  the  pupil  of  the  eye. 
Compare  '  iris  '  (Greek  Ipt?).3  The  Coptic  lilou, 
a  child,  and  allou,  pupil  of  the  eye,  are  akin  to 
each  other  and  to  the  Egyptian  rr,  a  child.4  The 
Arabic  kak  is  a  man  or  boy,  also  the  pupil  of  the 
eye. 

So  in   Greek,  kore   (fcopr))   —  (1)  a  girl,  (2)  a 


1  What  we  call  the  '  apple  '  the  French  call  the  '  plum  '  of  the 
eye  {prunclle). 

2  Gesenius  tells  us  that  a  similar  expression  is  found  in  the 
Arabic,  Persian,  Syriac,  Coptic,  and  Ethiopic.  He  also  gives  as  an 
alternative  explanation  of  bdbliah  (pupil),  Zech.  ii.  8,  '  little  boy '  of 
the  eye.  I  have  an  impression  on  my  mind  that  the  A. -Sax.  man- 
lica  (man's  image)  is  applied  to  the  pupil,  but  I  cannot  find  that 
signification  in  Bosworth. 

The  Macusi  Indians  of  Guiana  have  a  strange  idea  that  although 
the  body  will  decay,  '  the  man  in  our  eyes '  will  not  die,  but  wander 
about.  The  disappearance  of  this  image  from  the  dim  eyeballs  'f 
a  sick  man  was  considered  a  sign  of  approaching  death,  Grimm 
observes,  even  in  European  folk-lore  (Tylor,  Prim.  Culture,  vol.  i. 
p.  389). 

3  Vide  Bunsen,  Egypt's  Place  in  History,  vol.  i.  p.  561.  Alu  is 
a  boy,  allu  the  eye  (Ibid.,  vol.  v.  p.  748). 

4  Ibid.,  vol.  i.  p.  475. 


pupil.  177 

doll,  (3)  the  pupil  of  the  eye.  Glene  (yXrjvrj) ,l 
(1)  a  little  girl,  (2)  the  pupil  of  the  eye. 

In  Spanish,  nina,  (1)  a  child  or  infant,  (2)  the 
pupil,  '  the  sight  of  the  eye,  so  called  because  it 
represents  the  person  looking  on  it  in  so  little  a 
figure'  (Stevens,  Diet.,  1706). 

I  believe  that  the  Portuguese  mejtina,1  Venetian 
putina,  Bomagnol  bamben,  Sicilian  vavareda,  Picar- 
dian  papare,  all  mean,  (1)  a  baby,  (2)  the  pupil 
or  apple  of  the  eye  (Diez).  Compare  Prov. 
anha,  (1)  a  little  lamb,  (2)  the  pupil. 

Our  word  i  baby '  was  formerly  applied  in  a 
similar  manner  to  the  image  in  the  eye,  as  will 
appear  from  the  annexed  passages — 

'  But  wee  cannot  so  passe  the  centre  of  the  Eye,  which  wee 
call  Pupilla,  quasi  Puppa,  the  babie  in  the  eye,  the  Sight.'' 
Purchas,  Microcosmus,  p.  90  (1619). 

'  She  clung  about  his  neck,  gave  him  ten  kisses, 
Toy'd  with  his  locks,  look'd  babies  in  his  eyes.' 

Heywood,  Love's  Mistress,  p.  8  (1636). 

'  Can  ye  look  babies,  sister, 
In  the  young  gallant's  eyes  ? ' 

Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  Loyal  Subject,  ui.  2. 

'  When  I  look  babies  in  thine  eyes, 
Here  Venus,  there  Adonis  lies.' 

Cleveland,  On,  a  Hermaphrodite,  p.  19. 


1  Liddell  and  Scott  (Lexicon)  are  certainly  wrong  in  giving  a  re- 
versed order  of  meaning.  Pictet  suggests  a  connection  between 
yXrjvri  and  7aXcbs,  glos,  &c.  (Orig.  Indo-Europ.,  vol.  ii.  p.  375). 

2  A  little  girl,  also  the  sight  of  the  eye  (Vieyra,  s.v.) 

M 


1 78  pupil. 

As  might  be  expected,  the  expression  occurs  fre- 
quently in  Herrick's  Anacreontic  lyrics,  e.g. — 

'  You  blame  me  too,  because  I  cann't  devise 
Some  sport,  to  please  those  babies  in  your  eyes.' 

Hesperides  (ed.  Hazlitt),  vol.  i.  p.  12. 

1  It  is  an  active  flame,  that  flies 
First  to  the  babies  of  the  eyes.' 

Ibid.,]).  138. 

v .  '  Cleere  are  her  eyes, 

Like  purest  skies. 
Discovering  from  thence 

A  babie  there 

That  turns  each  sphere 
Like  an  intelligence.'  Ibid.,  p.  207. 

Pope  has  it  also  in  his  imitation  of  Cowley — 

1  The  Baby  in  that  sunny  Sphere 
So  like  a  Phaethon  appears, 
That  Heav'n,  the  threaten'd  World  to  spare, 
Thought  fit  to  drown  him  in  her  tears,' — 

the  sphere,  it  must  be  understood,  being  Celia's  eye. 
In  order  to  '  see  babies  '  thus  in  each  other's 
eyes,  the  two  faces  must  be  in  such  close  proximity 
that  the  phrase  virtually  came  to  mean  kissing 
and  embracing. 

'  No  more  fool, 
To  look  gay  babies  in  your  eyes,  young  Koland, 
And  hang  about  your  pretty  neck.' 

Beaumont  and  Fletcher,  The  Woman's  Prize,  v.  1. 

'They  may  then  kiss  and  coll,  lye   and  look  babies  in 
one  another's  eys.' 

Burton,  Anatomy  of  Melancholy,  Part  III.,  sec.  2, 
mem.  6,  subs.  v. 


pupil.  179 

1  We  will  ga  to  the  Dawnes  and  slubber  up  a  sillibub,  and  I 
will  looke  babies  in  your  eyes.' 1 

Braithwaite,  Two  Lancashire  Lovers  (1640),  p.  19. 

'  He  that  daily  spies 
Twin  babies  in  his  Mistress'  Gemini's.' 

Quarles,  Emblems,  Bk.  II.  4. 

Drayton  further  improves  the  idea  and  makes 
the  '  babies  '  Cupids — 

1  While  in  their  chrystal  eyes  he  doth  for  Cupids  look.' 

Polyolbion,  song  xi. 

In  an  ancient  Irish  Glossary  edited  by  Whitley 
Stokes  for  the  Irish  Archaeological  Society  (p.  45), 
we  meet  the  curious  term,  mac  imresan  (apparently 
6  son  of  exceeding  brightness,'  '  son  of  the  eye  '  ?) 
to  denote  the  '  pupil.' 

A  form  of  expression  strikingly  similar  occurs 
in  the  Hebrew  of  Psalm  xvii.  8,  where  the  t  apple 
of  the  eye  '  is  styled  in  the  original  <  the  pupil, 
daughter  of  the  eye  '  {Bath  ay  in)?  A  very  bold 
figure  of  speech,  though  it  does  not  appear  in  our 


1  Quoted  in  Brand's  Popular  Antiquities,  vol.  iii.  p.  47. 

2  Generally,  in  the  languages  of  the  East,  as  is  well  known,  what- 
ever springs  from,  or  is  intimately  connected  with,  anything  else  is 
called  its  son  or  daughter,  e.g.,  '  the  daughters  of  a  tree  '  (Gen.  xlix. 
22)  are  its  branches;  '  sons  of  the  quiver'  (Lam.  iii.  13),  i.e.,  arrows, 
cf.  '  sons  of  the  bow '  (Job  xli.  28) ;  '  sons  of  lightning  '  (Job  v.  7), 
sparks,  or  more  probably  '  swift  birds  ; '  '  the  firstborn  of  death  ' 
(Job  xviii.  13),  i.e.,  a  most  deadly  malady ;  (Arab.)  'daughter  of 
death,'  i.e.,  a  fatal  fever;  (Arab.)  'daughters  of  howling,'  i.e.,  jackals; 
so  'Boanerges,''  'sons  of  thunder,'  i.e.,  men  of  fiery  zeal;  'sons 
of  Belial'  or  'of  worthlessness  '  (1  Sam.  ii.  12),  i.e.,  worthless 
fellows;  'son  of  perdition'  (John  xvii.  12),  i.e.,  one  utterly  lost ; 
cf.  '  mother  of  the  way  '  (Ezek.  xxi.  21),  i.e.,  a  road  whence  others 
spring,  the  parting  of  the .  way ;  niatres  lectionis  (mothers  of  the 


ISO  PUPIL. 

English  version,  results  from  trie  use  of  this 
Hebrew  term  for  pupil  (iskon)  in  Proverbs  vii.  9, 
where  a  young  man  is  represented  as  passing 
through  the  street  '  in  the  pupil  of  the  night,'  i.e., 
in  the  central  darkness  of  it,  in  the  midnight  hour, 
when  the  gloom  is  deepest — '  the  dead  waste  and 
middle  of  the  night.'  In  like  manner  we  speak 
of  the  '  eye  of  the  wind,'  the  6  eye  of  the  furnace,' 
meaning  the  most  central  and  intensest  part  of  it. 
This  expression  in  Proverbs  may  remind  us  of  the 
very  poetical  phrase  for  daybreak  employed  by  Job 
(iii.  9,  and  xli.  18),  6  the  eyelids  of  the  morning,1 
the  Dawn  being  conceived  to  raise  her  eyelids  after 


reading),  i.e.,  the  vowel  letters,  which  serve  as  guides  in  reading. 
Exactly  similar  is  the  Irish  idiom,  e.g.,  mac  alia  (the  son  of  the  rock), 
is  the  highly  poetical  term  for  an  echo,  as  it  were  the  sound  springing 
from  the  rock ;  cf.  the  Jewish  Bath-kol,  'daughter  of  a  voice,'  i.e., 
an  echo,  '  the  original  sound  being  viewed  as  the  mother,  and  the 
reverberation,  or  secondary  sound,  as  the  daughter  '  (De  Quincey). 
So  Milton  calls  Echo  the  'daughter  of  the  sphere'  (Comus,  241). 
'Born  of  a  great  cry'  (Tennyson,  Holy  Grail,  p.  157,  ed.  1870). 
Mac-leabhair,  'son  of  a  book,'  i.e.,  a  copy  of  it;  macratha,  'son 
of  prosperity,'  i.e.,  a  prosperous  man;  macstroigh,  'son  of  prodigality,' 
i.e.,  a  spendthrift.  Hence  it  would  appear  that  the  slang  phrases 
'  the  father  of  a  beating,'  '  the  mother  of  a  shower,'  '  son  of  a 
gun,'  in  form  at  least,  are  Hebraisms.  Vide  Harmer,  Observations, 
iv.  207. 

1  This  figure  was  adopted  by  the  old  dramatist  Middleton  in  his 
*  Game  of  Chess,'  and  by  Milton  iu  his  '  Lycidas  ' — 

'  Together  both,  ere  the  high  lawns  appear'd 
Under  the  opening  eyelids  of  the  morn, 
We  drove  afield.'  25-27. 

With  c  pupil  of  the  night '  we  may  compare  the  similar  Shaks- 
perian  phrases  '  dark-eyed  night '  (Lear,  ii.  1),  '  black-browed  night ' 
(Midsummer-Night's  Dream,  iii.  2). 

'  Why  here  walk  I  in  the  Hack  brow  of  night 
To  find  you  out.'  King  John,  v.  6. 


TOE.  181 

the  slumber  of  the  night,  and  to  dart  forth  her 
beaming  glances  in  the  first  rays  of  the  rising  sun. 

*  Pupil '  was  still  imperfectly  naturalised  in  1658, 
when  Sir  Thomas  Browne  writes  the  word  '  pu- 
pilla  '  (Garden  of  Cyrus).  The  older  words  were 
'  eye-ring '  (A.-Sax.  edg-ring),  and  '  eye-apple ' 
(A.-Sax.  edg-aeppel) ;  '  pupilla,  happulle  '  (Gloss. 
14th  cent.) 

6  Toe.' — If  we  set  down  side  by  side  the  words 
for  c  toe  '  and  for  '  twig  '  respectively  in  the  Teu- 
tonic languages,  we  are  at  once  struck  by  the 
family  likeness  they  bear  to  each  other — 

Toe.  Twig  or  Branch. 

A.-Sax.     ta  (pi.  tan).  tdn. 

Dut.  teen.  teen. 

L.  Dut.     taan  (Goth.)  tains,  (0.  Eng.)  tein. 
0.  Norse  ta.  teinn. 

Now  there  is  no  doubt  whatever  that  the  -toe  in 
mistle-toe  means  twig,  (A.-Sax.)  mistel-tan,  (0. 
Norse)  mistil-teinn  {i.e.,  mistle-twig)  ;  and  it 
would  appear  that  our  Teutonic  ancestors,  being 
endowed  with  a  lively  imagination,  saw  some  re- 
semblance to  twigs  or  offshoots  in  the  branching 
termination  of  the  hand  and  foot,  and  called  both 
by  the  same  name,  tan  or  toes.  In  Icelandic,  il  is 
the  sole  of  the  foot,  and  il-kvister,  c  sole-twigs/  il- 
thorn, l  sole-thorns,'  are  poetical  terms  for  the  toes. 
We  may  compare  the  Sanskrit  word  pani-pallava, 
<  a  finger,'  literally  <  a  hand-twig.'      Similarly,  the 


182  TOE. 

Greek  poet  Hesiod  calls  the  hand  c  a  five-brancher,' 
or  '  five-twigged '  (7reWo£b9),  and  so  our  own 
Shakspere,  reversing  the  figure,  speaks  of  '  the 
Larky  fingers  of  the  elm  '  (  Midsummer-Night's 
Dream,  iv.  I).1  The  Romans  had  the  one  word, 
planta,  for  a  shoot  or  twig  and  the  foot,  in  later 
times  especially  the  sole  of  it. 

Palets,  the  word  for  finger  in  Russian,  has  been 
regarded,  and  no  doubt  correctly,  as  another  form 
of  palka,  a  stick,  palitsa,  a  club,  and  so  descrip- 
tive of  a  finger  or  toe,  '  as  one  of  the  twigs  into 
which  the  hand  or  foot  branches.'2  We  may  per- 
haps compare  the  Latin  palus,  a  stake  or  pale, 
and  pollex,  the  thumb,  toe,  or  finger,  a  word  which 
was  also  used  for  a  twig.  Malchik-s-palchik,  l  the 
finger-long  mannikin,'  or  Tom  Thumb  of  Slavonic 
folk-lore,  received  his  name  from  having  sprung 
from  his  mother's  little  finger  (palckik,  a  diminu- 
tive of  palets),  which  she  chopped  off  in  slicing 
cabbages. 

When  Herrick  sustained  the  loss  of  a  finger, 
he  moralised  over  his  misfortune  in  language  as 


1  Sans,  -pancha^dhha,  *  the  five-branched,'  is  a  name  for  the  hand. 
So  the  Persian  penjth  (the  hand),  connected  with  the  Sans,  pancha 
(five),  is  equivalent  to  the  slang  English  expression,  a  man's  '  fives,' 
or  '  bunch  of  fives.'  The  game  of  '  fives  '  is  so  called  because  the  ball 
is  struck  with  the  open  hand  (Tylor,  Prim.  Culture,  vol.  i.  p.  235). 

2  Saturday  Review,  vol.  xxxix.  p.  632.  Pictet  observes  that 
palka,  palitsa,  Welsh palis,  Lat.  palus,  all  had  the  primitive  meaning 
of  '  branch.'  He  suggests  a  Sanskrit  form pallaTca,  synonymous  with 
paliava,  a  branch  (Orig.  Indo-Europ.,  vol.  i.  p.  li>9). 


THE    HUMAN    TREE.  183 

quaintly  characteristic  as  usual,  adopting  the  same 
mode  of  expression — 

1  One  of  the  five  straight  branches  of  my  hand 
Is  lopt  already  ;  and  the  rest  but  stand 
Expecting  when  to  fall :  which  soon  will  be  ; 
First  dyes  the  leafe,  the  bough  next,  next  the  tree.' 

Hesperides  (ed.  Hazlitt),  vol.  i.  p.  218. 

To  us  unimaginative  moderns,  the  comparison 
of  the  body  with  its  members  to  a  tree  and  its 
branches  may  seem  a  fanciful  and  farfetched 
conceit.1  We  may  feel  inclined  to  smile  with  won- 
der at  the  ocular  hallucination  of  those  word- 
makers  who,  like  the  newly-healed  of  Bethsaida, 
could  see  6  men  as  trees,  walking ; '  or  at  most,  it  is 
only  in  ( the  idle  moods '  of  conscious  poetry  that 

1  We  seem  to  see 
A  human  touch  about  a  tree,7 

yet  it  is    certain   that  bygone  generations   were 

strongly  impressed  by  that  resemblance. 

f  In  the  construction  of  each/  says  Jones  of  Nayland,  '  there 
are  some  general  principles  which  very  obviously  connect 
them.  It  is  literally,  as  well  as  metaphorically,  true  that 
trees  have  limbs,  and  an  animal  body  branches.  A  vascular 
system  is  also  common  to  both,  in  the  channels  of  which 
life  is  maintained  and  circulated.  When  the  trachea,  with 
its  branches  in  the  lungs,  or  the  veins  and  arteries,  or  the 
nerves,  are  separately  represented,  we  have  the  figure  of  a  tree. 
The  leaves  of  trees  have  a  fibrous  and  fleshy  part ;  their  bark 
is  a  covering  which  answers  to  the  skin  in  animals.' 2 


1  '  For  who  ever  saw 
A  man  of  leaves,  a  reasonable  tree  ?'  Giles  Fletcher. 

2  Quoted  in  Southey's  'Doctor,'  p.  581.     Cf.  Milton's  'corporal 
rind' (=  skin).     Comus. 


184  THE   HUMAN  TREE. 

And  so  says  that  quaint  divine  who  has  been 
styled  the  Shakspere  of  the  Puritans,  in  his  ser- 
mon entitled  '  Mystical  Bedlam ' — 

*  The  heart  in  man  is  like  the  root  in  a  tree  ;  the  organ  or 
lung-pipe  that  comes  of  the  left  cell  of  the  heart  is  like  the 
stock  of  the  tree,  which  divides  itself  into  two  parts,  and  thence 
spreads  abroad  as  it  were  sprays  and  boughs  into  all  the 
body,  even  to  the  arteries  of  the  head.' 

Thos.  Adams,  Works,  vol.  i.  p.  258. 

If  all  that  the  old  traveller  Evlia  asserts  be  true, 
it  is  nothing  surprising  that  the  arboreal  frame 
should,  in  certain  respects,  resemble  ours,  inasmuch 
as  we  spring  from  a  common  origin,  and  must  own 
their  kinship.  The  palm-tree,  it  appears,  was 
created  from  the  remainder  of  the  clay  out  of 
which  Adam  was  made.  {  This  is  said  to  be  the 
cause  why  the  palm-trees  are  straight  and  upright 
like  the  stature  of  man.  If  you  cut  its  branches, 
it  not  only  does  no  harm  to  it,  but  grows  even 
more,  like  the  hair  and  beard  of  men :  but  if  you 
cut  off  the  head  of  the  palm-tree,  it  gives  a  red- 
dish juice  like  blood,  and  the  tree  perishes  like  a 
man  whose  head  is  cut  off.  The  palm-trees  are  also 
male  and  female,'  and  have  certain  peculiarities 
of  constitution,  which  he  mentions,  quite  human 
in  their  character — 

*  From  the  same  clay  God  created  also  the  tree  Wakwak, 
found  in  India,  the  fruit  of  which  resembles  the  head  of 
man,  which,  shaken  by  the  wind,  admits  the  sound  of  Wak- 
wak' (vol.  iv.)    Quoted  in  Southey,  G.-P.  Book,  vol.  ii.p.  434. 


THE   HUMAN  TREE.  185 

Accordingly,  Alfieri  styles  man c  lapianta  umana.' 
There  is  a  very  curious  and  interesting  passage 
in  the  religious  poem  called  '  The  Pricke  of  Con- 
science/ written  by  Eichard  Kolle,  a  monk  of 
Hampole,  near  Doncaster,  about  1340,  in  which  he 
works  out  in  detail  the  various  points  of  likeness 
between  man  and  a  tree.  Quoting  from  'the 
grete  clerk  Innocent,'  he  says — 

1  What  es  man  in  shap  bot  a  tre 
Turned  up  that  es  doun,  als  men  may  se, 
Of  whilk  (which)  the  rotes  (roots)  that  of  it  springes, 
Er  (are)  the  hares  (hairs)  that  on  the  heved  (head)  hynges 

(hangs) ; 
The  stok  nest  (next)  the  rot  (root)  growand  (growing) 
Es  (is)  the  heved  (head)  with  neck  followand  (following) ; 
The  body  of  that  tre  thar-by 
Es  the  brest  with  the  bely ; 

The  bughes  (boughs)  er  the  armes  with  the  handes 
And  the  legges  with  the  fete  (feet)  that  standes  : 
The  braunches  men  may  by  skille  call 
The  tas  (toes)  and  the  fyngers  alle.'  LI.  672-683. 

with  a  good  deal  more  to  the  same  purpose. 
In  the  last  lines,  it  will  be  observed,  we  have  ex- 
actly what  we  want — the  toes  identified  with  the 
branches.  Andrew  Marvell  must  have  had  the 
same  idea  in  his  mind  when  he  wrote,  in  his  poem 
'  On  Appleton  House  ' — 

1  Turn  me  but,  and  yon  shall  see 
I  was  but  an  inverted  tree!  x 


1  Compare  chesne  fourchu  (Rabelais),  the  attitude  of  standing  on 
the  head,  and  Varbre  fourchu,  infra,  p.  189. 

The  Persian  punishment  of  burying  criminals  alive  up  to  the 


186  THE    HUMAN   TREE. 

But  indeed  this  grotesque  notion  of  man  being 
only  a  tree  turned  upside  down,  with  the  fibres 
of  the  roots  on  his  head  for  hair,  his  body  being 
the  trunk,  his  arms  and  legs  the  branches,  and 
his  fingers  and  toes  the  twigs,  is  one  of  the 
highest  antiquity.  It  appears  first  in  the  Vedas, 
which  date  back  at  least  1000  years  B.C. 

' Man  is  indeed  like  a  lofty  tree  :  his  hairs  are  the  leaves, 
and  his  skin  the  cuticle.  From  his  skin  flows  blood,  like 
juice  from  bark  ;  it  issues  from  his  wounded  person,  as  juice 
from  a  stricken  tree.  His  flesh  is  the  inner  bark  ;  and  the 
membrane  near  the  bones  is  the  white  substance  of  the  wood.1 
The  bones  within  are  the  wood  itself,  and  marrow  and  pith 
are  alike.  If,  then,  a  felled  tree  spring  anew  from  the  root, 
from  what  root  does  mortal  man  grow  again  when  hewn 
down  by  death  ?  Do  not  say  from  prolific  seed  ;  for  that 
is  produced  from  the  living  person.  Thus  a  tree,  indeed, 
also  springs  from  seed  ;  and  likewise  sprouts  afresh  [from 
the  root]  after  [seemingly]  dying  ;  but  if  the  tree  be  torn 
up  by  the  root,  it  does  not  grow  again.  From  what  root 
then  does  mortal  man  rise  afresh  when  hewn  down  by 
death?'2 

The  Vedas,  or  the  Sacred  Writing  of  the  Hindus. 
Colebrooke,  Essays,  vol.  i.  p.  63. 

The  comparison  is  to  be  found  also  in  Plato,  in 
Eabelais,    in    Novalis,   Antonio    Perez,   Letrado 


neck  goes  by  the  name  of  'tree-planting.'  Herodotus  mentions 
that  Cambyses  inflicted  it  upon  twelve  of  the  noblest  Persians  (Bk. 
III.  ch.  xxxv.) 

'  I  must  decidedly  plant  a  tree  in  my  garden,'  was  the  significant 
hint  given  by  another  monarch  to  a  courtier  who  had  offended  him 
(Rawlinson,  in  loc.) 

1  Snava  and  hindta,  answering  to  the  'periosteum  and  alburnum. 

2  Cf.  Jobxiv.  7-i0. 


THE    HUMAN   TREE.  187 

del    Cielo,    and    Olivia    Sabuco    (vide    Southey's 
<  Doctor,'  pp.  581-583). 

'  L'homme  est  un  arbre  renverse'/  says  an  old 
French  adage,  quoted  by  Genin  (Recreations 
Philologiques,  vol.  ii.  p.  243).  And  so  Taylor, 
the  Water  Poet — 

'  I  a  wise  man's  sayings  must  approve 
Man  is  a  tree,  whose  root  doth  grow  above.' 

The  last  quotation  I  will  make  is  this  from  Pur- 

chas's  '  Microcosmus,  or  'Historie  of  Man'  (1619) — 

'Thus  wee  are  Trees  (not  onelyin  that  naturall  unlike  like- 
nesse,  whereby  Man  is  said  to  be  Arbor  inversa,  a  Tree  with 
Root  upwards,  because  Sense  and  Motion  are  from  the  head), 
nor  Trees  good  for  meat,  but  Trees  which  bring  not  forth  good 
fruit,  like  the  fruitlesse  accursed  Figge-tree ;  yea,  evill  Trees, 
which  bring  forth  evill  Fruit '  (p.  340). 

Other  instances  of  the  body  and  its  members 
being  called  by  names  derived  from  the  corres- 
ponding parts  of  a  plant  or  tree  are  the  following : — 

'  Corpse,'  formerly  used  of  a  living  body  quite 
as  much  as  of  a  dead,  Lat.  corpus,  is  ultimately 
traceable  to  korpos,  the  iEolic  form  of  kormos,  the 
Greek  word  for  the  trunk  of  a  tree.  The  Coptic 
kaf,  6  body  '  (Egyptian  hieroglyphics  kef),  likewise 
denotes  the  '  trunk  of  a  tree.' 1 

6  Belly  '  is  the  Welsh  bol,  holy,  Icel.  bolr,  ori- 
ginally the  bole  or  round  part  of  a  tree. 

6  Buck,'  a  provincial  English  word  for  the  breast 

1  Osburn,  Monumental  History  of  Egypt,  vol.  i.  p.  288. 


188  THE  HUMAN    TREE. 

or  belly,  0.  Eng.  bouhe,  Ger.  bauch,  is  the  A.-Sax. 
buce,  Icel.  biikr,  the  trunk  or  body  of  an  animal, 
said  to  be  another  form  of  butr,  a  log  or  trunk  of 
a  tree.  '  Bulk,'  which  seems  formerly  to  have 
denoted  the  chest,  may  be  the  same  word.  Florio, 
in  his  'New  World  of  Words'  (1611),  defines 
Epigastric*  to  be  i  all  the  outward  part  of  the  belly 
from  the  bulke '  downwards. 

'  Leg '  is  the  Old  Norse  leggr,  a  stalk  or  stem. 
So  in  Irish  lorga  denotes  the  stalk  of  a  plant  as 
well  as  the  leg  ;  in  Manx  lurgey  is  the  shin  or 
shank,  and  lorg  a  stick  or  staff.  Ger.  bein,  Dut. 
been j  Icel.  bein,  the  leg,  our  '  bone,'  A.-Sax.  ban,  is 
connected  with  the  Welsh  bon,  a  stem,  stock,  or 
trunk,  A.-Sax.  bune,  a  reed  or  pipe.  Similarly,  the 
Sanskrit  nala  is  a  reed,  nalaka  a  bone  ;  Hebrew 
kane/i,  a  reed  or  stalk,  also  the  arm-bone.  The 
Italian  cannella  has  an  exactly  similar  bifurcation 
of  meaning.     Compare  the  German  roJirbein, 

The  Arabic  sdk  signifies  the  leg  as  well  as  the 
stem,  stalk,  or  stock  of  a  tree.  The  Persian  term  is 
shack,  a  branch,  Sanskrit  cdkhd,  a  branch,  an  arm. 

The  Polish  reka,  the  hand,  Slav,  rdka,  Lith. 
ranka,  the  arm  and  hand,  is  connected  by  Pictet 
with  the  German  ranke,  a  twig  or  vine-branch, 
Sans,  lanka,  a  branch,  and  more  remotely  with 
the  Latin  lancea,  Irish  lang} 

1  Orig.  Indo-Europ.,  vol.  i.  p.  198. 


THE   HUMAN   TREE.  189 

The  '  groin/  or,  as  it  was  sometimes  spelt  for- 
merly, the  \  grine,'  denotes  that  part  of  the  body 
where  it  bifurcates  or  branches  off  into  the  legs, 
Fr.  fourchure,  and  is  identical  with  the  north- 
country  word  grain,  the  branch  of  a  tree,  0.  Norse 
grein,  Swed.  gren,  Dan.  green,  a  bough,  literally 
'  that  which  separates  from  the  tree '  (0.  Norse 
greina,  to  separate).  In  the  Cleveland  dialect, 
graining  is  the  fork  or  division  of  a  tree  into 
branches  ;  in  the  Swedish  dialects,  gren,  grajn,  is 
the  fork  made  by  two  shoots  of  a  tree,  or  by  the 
thighs,  greinar,  the  two  thighs  with  the  angle 
between  them  (Atkinson).  What  '  a  poor,  bare, 
forked  animal,'  exclaimed  Lear,  is  <  unaccommo- 
dated man,'  i.e.,  man  without  his  clothes  (act  iii. 
sc.  4).  Compare  '  Varbre  fourchu,  a  standing  on 
the  hands  with  out-stretcht  legs  '  (Cotgrave),  and 
chesne  fourchu  in  Kabelais,  the  attitude  of  stand- 
ing on  the  head.  M.  Michel  informs  us  that  it 
was  once  customary  in  the  slang  phraseology  of 
the  Continent  to  call  a  man's  body  a  tree — 6  Dans 
l'ancienne  Germania  arbol,  qui  signifie  arbre  en 
castillan,  avait  le  sens  de  cuerpo  (corps).' — i£tude 
sur  1' Argot,  s.v.  Chene. 

Synonymous  with  <  groin '  is  the  old  term 
'  twist,'  and  this  also  denoted  a  bough,  originally 
the  fork  in  a  branch.     Cf — 

1 He  slepit  as  foul  on  twist.' 

Barbour's  Bruce,  Bk.  VII.  1.  188. 


190  THE    HUMAN   TREE. 

By  the  converse  process  the  different  parts  of  a 
tree  were  often  compared  to  human  limbs.  We 
have  seen  already  how  Shakspere  calls  the  twigs 
of  the  elm  its  *  barky  fingers.'1  *  Branch,'  origin- 
ally '  an  arm,'  is  connected  with  '  brace,''  Lat. 
brachium,  an  arm  (Wedgwood).  Thus  the  French 
name  Male-branche  is  explained  to  be  of  like  signi- 
fication with  Malemeyn,  '  Badhand  '  or  ■  Mainied- 
hand.' 2  Cf.  '  limb,'  A.-S.  lim,  0.  N.  Urn,  a  branch. 

<  Bough/  (A.-Sax.)  bog,  boh,  meant  originally 
1  an  arm  ;'  cf.  elbow,  (A.-Sax.)  elboga. 

In  Sanskrit  tola  not  only  denotes  the  palm- 
tree,  but  the  open  hand  with  fingers  extended,  the 
palm,  while  talangule  is  the  toe. 

(Heb.)  kapk,  a  palm-branch,  was  originally  the 
palm  or  hollow  of  the  hand.      Similarly,  the 

'  Palm'- (tree)  was  so  called  *  because  the  leaves 
are  like  a  hand  opened  wide,'  (Lat).  jpalma,  (Gk.) 
TraXdjirj,  and  its  fruit  in  like  manner  was  called 

<  Date/  (Fr.)  clatte,  (0.  Fr.)  dacte,  (Sp.)  datil, 
from  its  resemblance  to  a  finger,  (Lat.)  dactylus,3 
(Gk.)  SdfcrvXos.    Cotgrave  gives  also  '  Bactyle,  the 


1  Sir  John  Sinclair  mentions  a  disease  that  carrots  are  subject  to, 
called  '  Fingers  and  Toes.'  I  do  not  know  the  nature  of  it,  but 
suppose  it  is  a  tendency  to  degenerate  into  dactyloid  excrescences 
(Correspondence,  vol.  ii.  p.  301  j.  '  Deadman's  fingers  '  is  the  popular 
name  of  the  orchis  mascula,  from  the  handlike  shape  of  its  pale- 
coloured  tubers. 

s  Bardsley,  English  Surnames,  p.  386. 

3  The  Dutch  tak,  a  twig,  perhaps  represents  the  dak  of  the  Greek 
ddk-tulos,  (Lat.)  dig-itus,  a  finger  or  toe. 


THE    HUMAN  TREE..  191 

Date-grape  or  Finger- grape.''  And  to  conclude 
with  an  instance  from  the  Latin,  coma  (the  hair) 
is  often  used  poetically  for  the  leaves  or  foliage  of 
trees. 

So  Spenser,  in  the  i  Shepheards  Calender ' 
(Februarie),  speaks  of  a  goodly  oak 

*  With  amies  full  strong  and  largely  display  d,' 
'  The  bodie  bigge,  and  mightely  pight  ; ' 

and  describes  it  in  its  age  as  one  that 

'  Oft  his  hoarie  lochs  down  doth  cast.' 

I  may  remark  that  in  the  ancient  proverbial 
saying  which  I  have  given  above,  '  L'homme  est 
un  arbre  renverse,'  the  meaning  seems  to  have 
been  c  the  mouth,  which  in  man  is  in  the  head,  in 
the  tree  is  in  the  foot,'  i.e.,  its  roots  ('  Porque 
las  raices  en  el  arbol  son  la  boca  en  el  hombre,' 
Hernan  Nunez,  1555,  from  whom  Genin  quotes 
it).  Aristotle  has  the  same  idea  (al  Se  pit,ai  t&> 
(tto/jlcltl  avaXoyov  k.  t.  X.)  And  in  Sanskrit  we 
meet  the  word  anghri-pa  for  a  tree,  literally  l  drink- 
ing with  the  foot.'  The  poet  Carew,  on  the  other 
hand,  speaking  metaphorically  of  his  mistress, 
calls  her  foot 

1  The  precious  root 
On  which  the  goodly  cedar  grows.' 

I  might  add  that  in  Isaiah  lxvi.  14,  6  Your 
bones  shall  nourish  (sprout,  or  branch  forth)  like 
an  herb,'  if  we  accept   Hitzig's  interpretation  of 


192  THE    HUMAN    TREE. 

the  passage,  the  human  frame  is  likened  to  a  tree, 

of  which    the  bones   are   the  branches,   and   the 

muscles,  flesh,  and  skin,  the  leaves.1 

The  above   use  of  words  whereby  the  frame  of 

man  is  structurally  assimilated  to  that  of  a  tree 

must  not  be  confounded  with  another  use,  which  i3 

equally  common,  whereby  he  is  merely  figuratively 

compared   in  respect  of  his   growth   and  natural 

descent  to  a  shoot  or  branch  springing  from  the  main 

trunk.     In  the   Scriptures  offspring  is  frequently 

styled  a  rod,  a  stem,  a  branch ;  and  we  still  use 

such  phrases  as  a  '  sprig  of  fashion,'  *  the  scion  of 

a  noble  house.' 

1  Thy  father,  had  he  lived  this  day, 
To  see  the  brauncke  of  his  bodie  displaie, 
How  would  he  have  joyed  at  this  sweete  sight !  " — 

says  the  Goat  to  her  Son  in  the  '  Shepheards  Calen- 
der '  (Maye). 


1  From  the  resemblance  of  the  double  root  of  the  mandrake,  or 
mandragora,  to  the  shape  of  the  '  poor,  bare,  forked  animal '  man, 
it  was  called  anthropomorphon  by  Pythagoras,  and  semikomo  by 
Columella.  The  Chinese  name  for  it  is  jin-seng,  *  resemblance  of 
man,'  and  the  Iroquois  dbesoutchenza,  'a  child.'  Hence,  according 
to  the  doctrine  of  signatures,  arose  the  widely-spread  superstitious 
notion  that  the  mandrake  was  efficacious  in  promoting  the  procrea- 
tion of  children,  which  prevails  among  the  Oriental  nations,  the 
Chinese,  and  the  North  American  Indians,  and  led  Rachel  of  old  to 
long  for  this  plant  when  as  yet  she  had  no  child  (Gen.  xxx.  14).  So 
striking  is  the  form,  that  '  fraudulent  dealers  usually  replaced  its 
roots  with  those  of  the  white  bryony  cut  to  the  shape  of  men  and 
women,  and  dried  in  a  hot  sand-bath '  (Prior,  Popular  Names  of 
Plants,  p.  143).  Vide  also  Browne's  ■  Popular  Errors, 'Bk.  II.  ch.  6; 
Smith,  B.  Diet.  s.v. ;  Tylor,  Early  History  of  Mankind,  p.  123  ; 
Gerard's  Herbal,  p.  281  (1597). 


193 

Other  instances  of  this  use  of  words  are  the 
following : — 

6  Imp,'  formerly  applied  to  a  child  or  offspring 
generally,  is  the  Welsh  imp,  impyn,  a  scion, 
shoot,  Ger.  impfen,  A. -Sax.  impan,  to  graft.  Com- 
pare Fr.  c peton,  the  slender  stalk  of  a  leaf  or 
fruit ;  mon  peton,  my  pretty  springall,  my  gentle 
imp  '  (Cotgrave). 

'  An  angel's  trumpe  from  heauen  proclaimed  his  name 
Iesus,  who  came  lost  Adam's  impes  to  saue.' 

England's  Welcome  to  James  (1603). 

Spanish  chaborra,  a  young  maiden,  chahasca,  a 
twig  or  rod,  both  from  Lat.  clava,  a  graft  (Diez). 

A  '  gallant/  Scot,  callan,  callant,  a  youth,  Irish 
gallan,  a  youth,  meant  originally  a  branch,  Port. 
galho,  a  shoot  or  sprig. 

Irish  ogdn,  a  branch  or  twig,  is  also  a  young 
man.  Pictet  identifies  this  word  with  the  Sanskrit 
uhani,  a  broom.1    Irish  geug,  a  branch,  also  a  girl. 

Irish  gas,  gasan,  a  stalk  or  bough,  is  commonly 
used  for  a  boy,  the  Anglo-Irish  c  gossoon.'  In 
Welsh  grcas,  gwassan  is  a  youth,  a  servant,  and 
thence  comes  the  Middle  Lat.  vassus,  a  retainer, 
our  '  vassal,'  0.  Fr.  vaslet  and  varlet,  a  boy,  our 
;  varlet '  and  '  valet.' 

Fr.  gargon,  0.  Fr.  gars,  a  boy,  garce,  a  girl,  Sp. 
garzon,  It.  garzone,  Diez  has  shown  to  be  from 


1  Langues  Celtiques,  p.  66. 

N 


194  CHIT,    LACKEY,    LAD. 

the  Lat.  cardials  (a  thistle),  used  in  the  general 
sense  of  a  bud  or  stalk.  Compare  the  Milanese 
garzon,  a  thistle,  also  a  boy,  garzoeu,  the  bud  of  a 
vine  [It.  garzatore  =  cardatore,  a  wool-carder]. 

The  Greek  moschos  and  koros  denote  both  a 
branch  and  a  boy,  and  the  Italian  toso,  a  boy,  0. 
Fr.  tosel,  is  a  corrupted  form  of  torso,  a  bud  or 
stem.  Compare  Fr.  petit  trognon,  a  term  of  en- 
dearment for  a  child. 

'  Chit,'  a  contemptuous  term  for  the  same, 
originally  signified  a  shoot  or  sprig.  Compare 
chit,  a  provincial  term  for  a  sprout,  chat}  a  twig, 
A. -Sax.  ci%,  a  shoot  or  sprig.  It.  cita  is  a  girl, 
cito  a  little  boy.  These  words  may  perhaps  be 
connected  with  It.  cica,  Sp.  chico,  anything  small, 
Fr.  ckicot,  a  sprig  or  stump. 

6  Lackey/  Fr.  laqicais,  Sp.  and  Port,  lacayo, 
Prov.  laccai,  which  also  means  a  branch  (Diez). 

Gaelic  clann,  children,  our  'clan,'  corresponds 
to  the  Welsh  plant,  offspring,  children.  Compare 
planu,  to  shoot,  to  plant,  Lat.  planta,  a  plant. 

6  Lad,'  Welsh  llarcd,  what  shoots  out,  a  lad,  Goth. 
-lauths  is  from  liudan,  to  grow  (deduced  by  Benfey 
from  the  Sanskrit  ruh,  to  grow),  and  so  probably  is 
akin  to  Ger.  lode,  a  sprig  or  shoot,  lath,  a  rod  or 
young  tree,  Welsh  Hath,  a  rod  or  yard,  our  i  lath,' 
Sans,  lata,  a  branch.      Compare  the  Old  English 

1  Cumberland  chats,  small  branches,  metaphorically  applied  to 
Btripling  youtbs  (Ferguson). 


195 

word  springald  for  a  youth,  the  original  meaning  of 
which  was  probably  a  shoot  or  branch  (Wedgwood). 

The  Latin  pellex,  Gk.  pdllax,  a  youth,  pallake, 
a  girl,  according  to  Pictet,  meant  originally  a 
branch  or  shoot,  from  a  Sanskrit  form,  pallaka, 
the  same  as  pallava,  a  branch.1 

The  Welsh  llanc,  a  youth,  llances,  a  girl,  are 
akin  to  the  Sanskrit  lanka,  a  branch,  Lat.  lancea. 

The  Icelandic  grdr,  a  poetical  word  for  a  man, 
seems  to  have  signified  primarily  a  twig,  from 
groa,  to  grow  (Cleasby,  Icelandic  Dictionary,  s.v.) 

Yet  one  other  point  remains  to  be  noticed  in 
which  man  has  sometimes  been  regarded  as  the 
fantastic  counterpart  of  a  tree.  When  he  is  dry 
and  shrivelled  with  age,  and  stiffened  in  his 
joints,  he  becomes  suggestive  of  the  gnarled  and 
sapless  trunk  of  i  the  gouty  oak,'  '  with  scir- 
rhous root  and  tendons.'  And  so  a  person  well 
stricken  in  years  is  called  by  Greek  and  Roman 
authors  '  an  oak'  ('  drusj  i  arida  quercus'),  'an 
aged  oak '  (gerdndryori) ;  by  the  French,  tayon, 
which  denotes,  as  Cotgrave  informs  us,  '  a  grand- 
father, also  an  oak  of  60  years'  growth.'  A 
female  of  advanced  age  is  disrespectfully  styled  by 
the  Scotch  '  an  auld  runt,'  this  being  also  the 
term  for  the  trunk  of  a  tree,  or  any  hardened  stalk 
or  stem.2    In  vulgar  parlance,  6  an  old  rampike  '  is 

1  Orig.  Indo-Europ.,  vol.  i.  p.  199. 

2  '  Hunt,'  being  also  applied  to  an  old  cow  (cf.  Ger.  rinde),  it  must 
be  admitted  that  the  above  identification  is  open  to  some  doubt. 


190  DOTARD. 

an  expression  that  may  frequently  be  heard  with  a 
similarly  opprobrious  significance.  It  seems  to  have 
been  originally  and  properly  applied  to  a  tree 
which  has  begun  to  decay  at  the  top  from  age, 
being  so  used  frequently  by  Drayton  in  the  form 
6  ranpike '  and  '  ranpick  tree/  and  then  in  a 
secondary  sense  to  a  crazy  hag. 

Similarly,  c  dotard,'  which  in  standard  Eng- 
lish means  only  a  stupid  or  imbecile  old  man,  in 
provincial  English  is  used  of  an  aged  tree  that 
has  begun  to  show  symptoms  of  decadence,  and  a 
tree  of  this  sort  is  said  to  be  '  doatecV  This 
word  is  either  from  the  Scotch  dottar,  to  become 
stupid,  doited,  stupid,  dutt,  to  doze,  be  sleepy  (just 
as  I  have  heard  the  word  '  sleepy '  itself  applied 
to  an  over-ripe  pear  verging  towards  decay),  and 
so  a  doddered  oak  is  a  lifeless  oak,  while  doddi- 
poll  is  a  blockhead,  and  the  Frisian  dodd  is  a 
simpleton;  or  else,  as  Mr  Wedgwood  is  inclined 
to  think,  it  is  akin  to  the  Icelandic  daud/ir,  Dan. 
dod}  dead,  dull,  Goth,  daut/is,  '  dead.' 

i  In  vain  doth  any  man  in  forrests  poak,  that 
takes  a  dotard  for  a  timber  oake,'  says  Cotgrave 
under  the  word  marrein.  The  following  quota- 
tions are  from  that  excellent  old  divine  Thomas 
Adams — 

'  Oaks  and  cedars  are  good  for  building,  poplars  for  pales, 
very  bushes  for  hedging,  doted  wood  for  firing  ;  but  the  fruit- 
less vine  is  good  for  nothing.'    Vol.  ii.  p.  184  (NiclioPs  ed.) 


DOTARD.  197 

1  Go  into  your  grounds  in  the  dead  of  winter,  and  of  two 
naked  and  destitute  trees  you  know  not  which  is  the  sound, 
which  the  doted.'  Ibid.,  p.  239. 

And  this  from  Howell — 

'With  the  Bark  they  make  Tents,  and  the  dotard  Trees 
serve  for  firing.'  Fam.  Letters,  Bk.  II.  p.  54  (1634). 

When  a  man  or  a  tree  begins  to  dote,  in  both 
alike  the  first  symptoms  of  failing  of  the  vital 
powers  will  frequently  be  observed  to  manifest 
themselves  in  the  head.  Everybody  will  remember, 
as  an  interesting  parallel,  the  pathetic  observation 
of  Dean  Swift,  when  under  a  presentiment  of  his 
own  melancholy  fate  he  pointed  out  a  blasted  elm 
to  a  friend — c  I  shall  be  like  that  tree,  and  die  first 
at  the  top.'  The  tree  was  a  c  dotard,'  and  the 
great  wit's  foreboding  fears  were  but  too  truly 
fulfilled ;  he  was  such  himself  before  he  died. 

A  similar  comparison  is  suggested  in  the  second 
eclogue  of  the  '  Shepheards  Calender,'  already  re- 
ferred to.  Cuddie,  the  herdsman's  boy,  pours 
contempt  on  the  aged  Shepherd  Thenot  for  his 
feebleness  and  unlustiness — 

'  I  deeme  thy  braine  emperished  bee 
Through  rusty  elde,  that  hath  rotted  thee.' 

Thereupon  the  wise  old  shepherd  reproves  the 
forward  youngster  by  the  apologue  of  the  Oak  and 
the  Briar,  in  the  course  of  which,  however,  he 
tacitly  admits  that  the  proper  resemblance  to  him- 
self is  to  be  found  in  the  aged  tree,  whose 

'  Toppe  was  bald,  and  wasted  with  wormes, 
His  honor  decayed,  his  braunches  sere.' 


(  198  ) 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE  WORDS  '  CHIGNON  '  —  '  NODDLE  '  —  'PATE' — 
1  SKULL  ' —  '  COCO-NUT '  —  '  FOOL  '  — '  BOAST ' — 
1  BUFFOON ' — '  FA TUOUS,'  ETC, 

6  Chignon.' — This,  like  most  other  of  our  c  out- 
landish' fashions  (I  use  the  term  in  its  good  old 
English  sense  of  foreign,  without,  at  the  same 
time,  discarding  its  modern  innuendo),  came  to  us 
from  the  land  of  milliners,  and  brought  its  native 
name  along  with  it.  Everybody  knows  what  a 
chignon  is,  at  least  outwardly,  an  abnormal  pro- 
tuberance, sometimes  of  monstrous  proportions, 
composed  of  hair  and  other  materials  unknown, 
and  erected  by  ladies  for  the  adornment  of  their 
polls, — but  everybody  perhaps  does  not  know  why 
it  is  called  so. 

Chignon  in  French  is  defined  to  be  c  les  cheveux 
que  les  femmes  frisent  sur  la  derriere  de  la  tete,' 
but  originally  it  was  '  la  derriere  de  la  tete '  itself. 
Just  as  the  word  '  head/  in  the  Georgian  era, 
meant  the  elaborate  and  cumbrous  structure  of 
the  coiffeur?  which  was,  in  his  estimation,  the  head 

1  Some  idea  of  the  heavy  burdens  which  the  tyranny  of  the  hair- 


CHIGNON.  199 

par  excellence^  the  raison  d'etre,  and  final  cause 
that  skulls  were  made  at  all;  so  the  French  chignon, 
the  poll,  came  to  mean  the  hair  that  grew  thereon, 
especially  when  dressed  d  la  mode.  Now  chignon, 
in  Old  French  ckaignon,  chaignon,  means  the  nape 
of  the  neck,  but  it  also  meant  the  link  or  ring  of 
a  chain,  and  comes  from  chaine,  which  again  comes 
from  the  Latin  catena,  a  chain.  So  chainon  du  col, 
(Languedoc)  cadena  daou  col,  is  the  vertebra,  or, 
to  use  a  pure  English  word,  the  6  whirl-bone  ' 2  of 
the  neck,  the  pivot  on  which  the  head  turns,  being 
the  last  link,  as  it  were,  of  the  knotted  chain  of 
bones  which  forms  the  spine.  We  find  in  Cotgrave 
(1660), '  Chainon,  a  linke  of  a  chaine ;  chainon  du  col, 
the  naupe,  or  (more  properly)  the  chine  bone,  of 
the  neck ;  chignon,  the  chine,  or  chinepiece  of  the 
neck.' 

Curiously  similar  is  the  derivation  of  the 
word  '  noddle,'  Old  English  <  nodyle.'  It  is  now 
used  ludicrously  for  the  entire  head,  but  pro- 
perly and  originally  it  meant  the  projecting  part 
at  the  back  of  the  head  (occiput),  the  nape  of 
the  neck,  and  corresponds  to  the  Italian  nodello, 


dresser  imposed  on  our  great  grandmothers  may  be  obtained  from 
the  illustrations  in  Wright's  Caricature  History  of  the  Georges,  p. 
255  seq. 

1  Similarly,  the  toupee  of  1775,  a  high  detached  tuft  of  hair,  like 
a  cockatoo's  crest,  Horace  Walpole  mentions  in  his  Letters,  was 
called  la  physiognomic 

2  '  Whyrlebone,  or  hole  of  a  joynt,  vertebra'  (Prompt.  Parvulorum). 
'  fatelle,  the  whirle-bone  of  the  knee  '  (Cotgrave). 


200  NODDLE. 

from  nodo,  a  knot,  also  l  the  turning  joynt  in  the 
chine  or  backe-bone '  (Florio)  ;  nodo  del  collo,  the 
nape  of  the  neck,  (Dut.)  knod,  (0.  Norse)  /mod, 
(Lat.)  nodus,  a  knot,  also  a  vertebra  or  back-bone,1 
{e.g.,  in  Pliny, i  cervix  articulorum  nodis  jungitur). 
The  word  cer-vix,  the  neck,  which  we  have  here 
lighted  on  incidentally,  is  itself  illustrative, 
meaning,  as  it  does,  c  the  head-binder,'  what  ties 
on  the  head;  cer-  corresponding  to  cava,  (Gk.) 
Kcipa,  (Zend.)  cava,  (Sans.)  ciras,  the  head,  and 
-vix  (vies),  being  the  root  of  vincire,  to  bind. 
Another  Sanskrit  word  for  neck  is  cirodhard, 
literally  <  the  head-bearer,'  from  ciras,  the  head, 
and  dkri,  to  bear,  which  reminds  us  of  the  poeti- 
cal term  which  the  Latin  anatomists  devised  for 
the  first  and  topmost  vertebra  of  the  neck,  '  atten- 
tion,' the  Atlas  bone,  because  like  that  Titan  of 
old  it  supported  the  globe.  '  This  joint  (of  the 
ridge-bone)  or  knot  abouesaid  they  call  Atlantion, 
and  it  is  the  very  first  spondyle  of  them  all ' 
(Pliny  xxviii.  8,  Holland  Trans,  ii.  310,  1634). 
Hamlet,  it  may  be  remembered,  calls  the  head 
the  globe — 

'  Kemember  thee ! 
Ay,  thou  poor  ghost,  while  memory  holds  a  seat 
In  this  distracted  globe.  Act  i.  sc.  5. 

If  we  examine  some   of  the   different  names 


1  Perhaps  '  nott-pated,'  (Shakspere)  *  nott-headed,'  A.-Sax.  Jinot, 
are  connected. 


PATE,    MAZZARD.  201 

which  have  been  given  to  the  head,  it  will  be 
found  that  most  of  them,  e.g.,  '  pate/  'mazzard/ 
6  skull,'  '  sconce/  i  nut/  *  fc?te/  &c,  have  been  de- 
rived from  various  common  articles  which  are 
round  and  hollow,  such  as  a  cup,  a  bowl,  a  shell, 
a  gourd,  or  a  coco-nut,  which  the  skull  was 
thought  to  resemble. 

'  Pate/  for  instance,  means  the  hmm-pan,  and  is 
akin  to  the  French  pate  (a  plate),  (Lat.)  patina  (a 
plate  or  pan),  cf.  (Ger.)  platte  (a  plate,  and  pate), 
(Irish)  plaitin  (a  little  plate,  a  skull).1  This  word, 
like  noddle,  and  most  of  the  others  I  have  men- 
tioned, has  now  acquired  a  ludicrous  or  burlesque 
signification  which  it  had  not  formerly,  witness 
the  use  of  it  in  the  Prayer-Book  version  of  the 
Psalms  (vii.  17).  In  Old  English,  i  pan/  i  panne/ 
means  the  skull,  and  is  equivalent  to  the  word 
'  brain-pan/  which  occurs  in  Shakspere — 

'  Many  a  time,  but  for  a  sallet,  my  brain-pan  had  been  cleft 
with  a  brown  bill.'  2d  Pt.  Henry  VI.,  iv.  10. 

(Friesic)  breinpanne,  (prov.  Eng.)  ham-pan  (from 
A. -Sax.  hcernes  —  brain).  Compare  the  Italian 
bacinetto,  'a  little  bason,  also  a  skull'  (Florio), 
and  'poll/  (Old  Eng.)  'boll'  and  'ball/  (Dut.) 
pol  and  bol,  the  head,  which  is  another  form  of 
(Icel.)  bolli,  (Fr.)  boule,  a  c  bowl.' 

6  Mazzard/  another  Shaksperian  word — 

1  Wedgwood,  s.v. 


202  NAPE,    TESTY. 

'  Let  me  go,  sir, 
Or  I'll  knock  you  o'er  the  mazzard,' 

Othello  ii.  3. 

anciently  '  mazer,'  has  been  identified 1  with  the  Old 
English  word  *  mazer,'  which  means  a  cup,  bowl,  or 
goblet.  So  the  German  kopf  (the  head)  in  Old 
German  means  a  cup  ;  2  '  nape  '  (originally  the 
back  of  the  head),  (A. -Sax.)  cncep,  answers  to  the 
Welsh  cnap,  a  knob,  boss,  (Ger.)  knop/  and  nap/, 
(Lang.)  nap,  a  bowl  or  porringer. 

Compare  also  the  Greek  skuphion  (aKvcjylov), 
a  cup,  also  a  skull.  Lith.  kiausza,  the  skull, 
from  kauszas,  cup,  goblet,  Sans,  koska,  cup, 
vessel.  Sp.  colodrillo,  c  the  noddle  or  hinder 
part  of  the  head '  (Minsheu),  from  colodra,  a 
pail,  vessel.  It.  coppa,  '  any  cup,  bowle,  mazer  or 
goblet — also  the  nape  of  the  head  '  (Florio). 

The  French  tete,  anciently  teste,  testa  in  Italian, 
Spanish,  Portuguese,  and  Provencal,  is  the  Latin 
testa,  an  earthen  pot,  also  the  skull.  Compare  the 
French  tet,  a  potsherd,  It.,  Sp.,  Port,  testo,  from 
Lat.  testum. 

Hence  our  words  c  testy,'  Fr.  testu,  heady,  head- 
strong, irascible;  '  a  tester,'  i.e.,  a  sixpenny-piece, 
anciently  testerne,  teston,  so  called  from  the  mon- 


1  Fares,  Glossary,  s.v. 

1  Cf.  Gk.  kube  {kv{3t)),  the  head,  kum.be,  a  cup,  (Ger.  humpe),  kum- 
bachos  (KVfi^axos),  headforemost.  Heb.  gulgoleth,  a  skull  (compare 
Golgotha),  gvJMh,  a  bowl  (compare  Eccles.  xii.  6,  where  this  word 
seems  to  be  used  figuratively  for  the  skull),  Gk.  gaMos,  from  the 
root  gulal,  to  roll.  Gk.  kotta,  head  (It.  cottula),  Tcotulc,  a  cup,  Lat. 
Cvlula. 


SKULL.  203 

arch's   head   stamped   upon   it,  just   as   <  penny,' 

according  to  some,  is  from  the  Celtic  pen,  a  head ; 

6  tester,'   Fr.   tetiere,  the   head  of  a  bed,  a  word 

which   Sylvester  absurdly  enough   applies  to  the 

canopy  of  heaven — 

'  He  th'  Azure  Tester  trinim'd  with  golden  marks 
And  richly  spangled  with  bright  glistering  sparks.' 

Du  Bartas,  Div.  Weekes,  p.  74. 

The  French  and  Italians,  on  the  other  hand,  call 
the  canopy  or  tester  of  a  bedstead  its  sh/,  del, 
cielo.      (  Himmel '  in  German  has  both  meanings. 

<  Skull'  is  Scotch  'skull'  (a bowl  ordrinking-cup),1 
0.  Eng.  sc/ialj  0.  Norse  skal,  Swed.  skull,  skoll  (a 
bowl),  skalle  (a  skull),  and  skal  (a  shell),  Dan. 
skal  (a  shell),  Irish  sgala,  a  bowl  or  goblet,  Sans. 
caluka,  a  vessel.2  So  the  Sanskrit  gankka,  a  shell  or 
conch,  means  also  the  temporal  bone,  Lat.  concha, 
Gk.  kongche  (kojxv)  &n&  kongckos  (/coy^o?),  a  shell, 
also  the  upper  part  of  the  skull,  the  i  sconce. '(?). 


1  The  once  generally  received  notion  that  our  northern  ancestors 
used  to  drink  at  their  banquets  out  of  the  skulls  of  their  enemies, 
appears  to  have  arisen  from  not  understanding  that  sJcidl  was  a 
genuine  old  Teutonic  word  for  a  cup.  The  belief  that  the  heroes  of 
Valhalla  drank  their  ale  out  of  literal  skulls,  or  as  Southey  puts  it — 

■  Thought 
One  day  from  Ella's  skull  to  quaff  the  mead 
Their  labour's  guerdon  ' — 

is  equally  erroneous.  In  the  death-song  of  King  Ragnar  Lodbrok, 
he  consoles  himself  with  the  prospect  of  drinking  beer  in  Odin's 
palace  '  out  of  curved  horns.'  This  Professor  Rask  has  shown  to  be 
the  true  rendering,  and  not  c  out  of  the  skulls  of  our  enemies,'  as  it 
used  formerly  to  be  translated.  Mallet,  N".  Antiq.,  p.  105;  D'Israeli, 
Amenities  of  Literature,  i.  36. 

2  Pictet,  Langues  Celtiques,  p.  43. 


204  coco. 

From  the  Lat.  concha  (a  shell)  just  mentioned 
comes  the  Sardinian  conca,  the  head,  0.  Sp.  coca, 
Sp.  cogotc,  Prov.  cogot  (back  of  the  head);1  and 
through  the  adjectival  form  concheus,  the  It.  coccio 
(potsherd) ,coccia  (the  head),  Sp.  cuezo,  whence  with 
j)0st  prefixed  comes  Sp.  pescuezo,  Port,  pescoco,  the 
nape  of  the  neck,  literally  '  hind-cask.' 2 

At  a  first  glance  it  might  be  supposed  that  the  Old 
Spanish  word  coca,  for  the  head,  was  derived  from 
the  coco-nut,  just  as  the  French  nnque,  in  the  other 
Romance  languages  nuca,  the  nape  of  the  neck,  is 
probably  identical  with  the  Latin  nux  (nuc-s)  a  nut, 
just  as  in  English  slang  '  nut '  is  used  for  the  head.3 
But  the  reverse  is  really  the  case.  It  is  the  coco- 
nut that  derives  its  name  from  coca  ;  c  Children  call 
the  head  by  this  name — so  in  Old  Spanish,'  says 
Stevens  in  his  Dictionary  (1706),  and  cocar,  he  tells 
us,  is  '  to  make  mouths  or  gestures  like  a  monkey.' 
When  the  Portuguese  made  settlements  in  the 
Indies,  they  were  struck  by  the  resemblance  which 
the  brown  nuts  of  the  palm-tree,  with  their  hairy 
covering  and  three  black  marks  not  unlike  to 
features,  bore  to  the  head  and  wizzened  face  of 
the  monkeys  which  they  saw  gambolling  around 


1  Also  Fr.   coque  (egg-shell),  cocon,  e  cocoon,'  It.  cocca,  Sp.  coca, 
0.  Fr.  coque,  Eng.  '  cock  '-(boat). 

2  So  Sp.  casco,  (1)  an  earthen  pot,  cup,  or  cask;  (2)  a  head,  a 
pate,  a  sconce  (Minsheu). 

3  The  Greek  Mruon  (icdipvov),  a  nut,  seems  to  contain  the  root  of 
kiira  (icdpa),  the  head,  Sans,  ciras. 


COCO-NUT.  205 

them,  and  so  they  styled  them  *  monkey-heads/ 
coca  or  coco,  the  original  meaning  of  that  word 
being  an  ugly  face  or  mash,  a  bugbear.1  This 
comparison  seems  to  have  been  made  in  the  very 
earliest  times,  for  in  Sanskrit  munda-pkala, '  skull- 
producer  '  (from  tminda,  a  bald  pate),  is  a  name 
for  the  coco-nut  tree,  the  fruit  being  regarded  as 
one  step  towards  the  human  head  made  by  Visva- 
mitra  when  he  proposed  attempting  a  creation  in 
opposition  to  that  of  Brahma  (M.  Williams). 

According  to  a  Polynesian  legend,  the  coco-nut 
was  created  from  a  man's  head,2  the  chestnuts  from 
his  kidneys,  and  the  yams  from  his  legs  (Tylor, 
Prim.  Culture,  i.  367). 

The  old  traveller  Evlia  affirms  that  the  cocoa- 
tree,  or  kullserr,  as  he  calls  it,  was  formed  by 
the  Creator,  according  to  the  opinion  of  the  old 
historians  and  the  commentators  of  the  Koran, 
from  the  remainder  of  the  clay  of  which  Adam 
was  made.  It  produces,  he  says,  a  round  black 
nut,  on  which  [for  this  reason,  apparently]  c  all 
the  parts  of  a  man's  head  may  be  seen,  mouth, 
nose,  eyebrows,  eyes,  hair,  and  whiskers.  A 
wonderful  sight ! '  (Sou they,  C.-P.  Book,  vol.  ii. 
p.  434). 


1  Philolog.  Soc.  Trans.,  1862-63,  p.  162.  Marsh,  Lectures  on 
English  (ed.  Smith),  p.  100. 

2  In  Parisian  slang  coco  is  still  a  popular  term  for  the  head, 
and  a  contemptuous  one  for  an  inconsiderable  and  mean  person, 
while  its  diminutive,  coccdes,  denotes  a  ridiculous  young  dandy. 


200       PUMPKIN  HEADS,  SUMPH. 

c  Honour  your  paternal  aunt,  the  date-palm,'  says 
Mohammed,  '  for  she  was  created  in  Paradise  of 
the  same  earth  from  which  Adam  was  made.' 

Other  vegetable  products,  generally  those  of  a 
round  form,  and  filled  with  soft  pulp  of  a  watery 
and  insipid  nature,  have  furnished  ludicrous  and 
uncomplimentary  names  for  the  human  skull,  es- 
pecially those  skulls  of  overgrown  dimensions 
which  are  considered  to  contain  brains  more  re- 
markable for  their  quantity  than  quality.  For 
instance,  in  Italian,  '  zucca,  any  kind  of  Gourd  or 
Pumpion,  used  also  metaphorically  for  a  mans 
head,  sconce,  nob,  pate,  or  scull '  (Florio) ; * 
cocuzza,  a  gourd,  cocuzzolo,  the  crown  of  the 
head.2  Cucozzone  (gourd-head)  was  the  nickname 
by  which  Cardinal  Patrizi  was  popularly  known 
in  Rome  some  years  ago ;  cf.  Latin,  ( cucurbitce 
caput.'' 

Sumpk,  a  Scotch  term  for  a  dull  and  stupid 
fellow  (it  may  be  met  in  Black's  '  Daughter  of 
Heth,'  vol.  i.),  denotes  originally  a  blockhead, 
whose   brain    is   as  soft   and  spongy  as    a    toacl- 

1  The  French  gourd  (numb,  senseless,  dull,  heavy)  has  no  con- 
nection, however,  with  gourde  (a  gourd).  It  is  from  the  Latin 
gurdus,  stupid,  (Sp.)  gordo,  while  gourde,  gouhourde,  gougourde  is 
from  cucurbita,  (It.)  cucuzza. 

2  Genin  (Re'creations  Philolos:.  vol.  i.  p.  295) remarks  that  the  words 
melon,  concombre,  cornichon,  citronille,  coloquinte,  are  similarly  used 
in  French.  He  also  quotes  the  popular  saying  Bete  comme  un  chou. 
Cf.  Latin  bliteus,  insipid,  foolish,  from  blitum  (p\irov),  a  pot-herb, 
orache,  and  the  Italian  too,  bizzocco,  bizzoccone,  a  blockhead,  which 
appears  to  be  the  modern  representative  of  bliteus. 


TARTUFE,    COSTARD.  207 

stool.  Cf.  Cumberland  sap-head,  a  simpleton. 
It  is  the  same  word  as  the  Danish  and  Swedish 
svamp,  (Goth.)  swamms,  (Ger.)  schwamm,  (Dut.) 
zwam,  (A. -Sax.)  swamm,  (Icel.)  svampr,  all  of 
which  mean  a  sponge  or  fungus,  and  so  is  near 
akin  to  the  German  sump/,  soft  plashy  ground, 
a  bog,  our  6  swamp,'  Greek  somphos,  spongy,  loose, 
porous.  In  a  similar  manner  the  Italian  tartufo, 
a  fungus  or  truffle,  is  used  to  designate  a  base  and 
worthless  fellow.  Genin  remarks  that  it  was  from 
that  language  that  Moliere  adopted  the  name  of 
Tartufe  for  the  hypocrite  in  his  celebrated  comedy, 
citing  in  confirmation  Plautus'  use  of  fungus  for  a 
dolt  or  idiot — 

'  Adeem'  me  fuisse  fungum  ut  qui  illi  crederem.' 

Bacchid.  II.  3,  49. 

Those  fungi,  which,  like  puff-balls,  are  round  in 
shape,  and  filled  with  dust  or  corruption,  would 
afford  an  apt  comparison  for  the  empty-headed, 
addle-pated  fool — '  The  mouldy  chambers  of  the 
dull  idiot's  brain.'  Cf  Milan.,  tartuffol,  (1)  a 
truffle,  (2)  a  dotard;  Neapol.  taratufolo,  a  simple- 
ton. See  also  Spelman,  Glossary,  s.v.  Arga, 
where  he  attempts  to  identify  '  cuckold '  with  Fr. 
coucourd. 

6  Costard,'  a  species  of  large  apple,1  is  frequently 
employed    by    the    Elizabethan   dramatists   for  a 

1  Hence  :  costermonger, '  originally  an  apple-seller. 


208 

man's  head,  and  it  is  one  of  Shakspere's  jests  that 
the  character  who  bears  that  name  in  '  Love's 
Labour's  Lost'  (v.  2),  when  enacting  the  part  of 
Pompey  in  the  interlude  of  the  Nine  Worthies, 
imagines  that  he  is  standing  for  '  Pompion  the 
Great,'  i.e.,  the  Great  Pumpkin.  Our  word 
'  bumpkin,'  for  a  stupid  country  lout,  seems  to  be 
only  another  form  of  this  pompion,  pumpion,  or 
pumpkin.1  In  the  '  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,' 
Mistress  Ford  styles  FalstafT,  '  This  gross  watery 
pumpion,'  though  the  special  reference  there  is  to 
the  phlegmatic  corpulence  of  the  unwieldy  knight. 
It  is  the  French  pompon,  (It.)  popo?ie,  pepone, 
(Lat.)  pepo(n),  (Gk.)  pepon  (Tre-ircov),  a  gourd.  In 
later  Latin  pepo(?i)  came  to  denote  a  foolish  or 
stupid  person,2  and  in  Greek,  likewise,  it  was  a 
term  of  reproach  and  contempt. 

The  sounding  hollowness  of  the  gourd  when 
dry  was  also  a  point  of  comparison  in  this  con- 
nection. i  Cascos  de  Calabaga  (calabash- skull),  that 
is,  rattle-headed  or  empty  skull '  (Stevens,  Sp. 
Diet.,   1706),    It.  zucca    at    vento    (gourd  full  of 


1  Cf.  The  form  'tainkin,'  from  'tampion.' 

2  E.g.,  '  Cur  non  magis  et  pepo  tarn  insulsus,  et  chamaeleon  tam 
inflatus?'(Tertullian,  De  Anima,  xxxii.,  ed.Semler,  vo  .  iv.  p.  240). 
Etrc  un  melon,  is  to  be  as  soft-headed  as  a  squash,  to  be  'green  '  or 
stupid.  Dr  Brewer  remarks  that  melon  in  the  school-slaug  of  St 
Cyr  denotes  a  new-comer  fresh  from  home,  a  '  molly-coddle  '  (Diet. 
Phrase  and  Fable,  s.v.),  while  cocons  is  the  corresponding  term  for 
the  first-year  students  at  L'ficole  Polytechnique.  The  Persian 
hdlak  denotes  a  fool  as  well  as  an  unripe  melon. 


FOOL.  209 

air),   c  a  witlesse-scull,  an  addle-head,  or  shallow- 
braine '  (Florio). 

It  was  an  appropriate  title,  therefore,  that  was 
conferred  on  the  foolish  braggart  Oliver  Proudfute 
in  the  '  Fair  Maid  of  Perth,'  when  he  fell  in  with 
the  band  of  mummers  on  Fastern's  E'en,  and  was 
dubbed  a  Knight  of  the  Calabash,  with  the  salu- 
tation, '  Eise  up,  sweet  Sir  Oliver  Thatchpate, 
Knight  of  the  Honourable  Order  of  the  Pumpkin 
— rise  up,  in  the  name  of  Nonsense '  (ch.  xvi.) 

Almost  identical  is  the  conception  which  lies  at 
the  bottom  of  the  word  '  fool.'  Let  us  examine  it 
at  length,  and  we  shall  find  that  Jacques  was  not 
so  far  wrong  in  affirming  that  such  <  strange  beasts' 
as  Touchstone  and  Audrey — the  professional  jester 
and  the  mere  simplician  — c  in  all  tongues  are 
called  fools  '  (As  You  Like  It,  v.  4) ;  and  that 
the  learned  Southey  was  clearly  mistaken  when 
he  said  that  6  the  name  for  fool  seems  to  be 
original  in  every  language'  (Common- Place 
Book,  vol.  iv.  p.  577). 

'Fool'  is  the  French  fou,  folle;  Corn.  fol9 
Welsh  ffol,  Armor,  foil,  It.  folle,  Prov.  and  0. 
Sp.  fol,  Mid.  Lat.  follus.1  All  these  words 
are  cognate  with  the  Latin  follis  (=  Gk.  6v\- 
\t?),  '  an  inflated  bladder,  a  bellows'  —  which, 
in     later     times,    from     the    notion     of    tumid 


1  Hence,  also,  (Fr.)  affoler,  to  make  a  fool  of,  (Eng. )  '  to  foil. 

0 


210  FOOL. 

inflation  inseparable  from  the  term,  came  to 
be  applied  in  a  reproachful  sense  to  persons 
6  purled  up,  light  and  empty-headed,  foolish.'1 
Thus  the  primary  meaning  of  i  fool '  would  be 
'  blown  up  with  self-conceit,  vacant,  witless  ; '  or 
to  define  it  exactly  by  a  provincial  word,  still 
used,  I  believe,  in  some  parts  of  England,  '  blad- 
der-headed.' We  find  similar  forms  of  expression 
in  other  languages  ;  in  Italian,  sacco  di  vento,  l  a 
bag  of  winde,  also  an  idle  boaster,  a  vaunting 
gull '  (Florio)  ;  in  German,  windbeutel  (a  braggart 
or  idle  talker),  which  Carlyle  imitates  in  his  '  pru- 
rient windbag '  (Heroes,  Lect.  VI);  in  Hebrew, 
Rabat,  meaning  a  fool  ('  Nabal  is  his  name,  and 
folly  is  with  him,'  1  Sam.  xxv.  25),  near  akin  to 
the  word  nebel,  a  bottle  of  skin  (LXX.  aa/cos). 

Compare  the  Manx  bleb,  a  fool,  an  idiot,  origi- 
nally a  pustule,  a  blister;  (Scot.)  bleib,  blob,  any- 
thing tumid  and  circular,  like  a  bubble;  (Eng.) 
<  bubble,  a  bladder  in  water,  also  a  silly  fellow, 
a  cully '  (Bailey)  ;  the  Italian  '  nocchio,  any  bosse, 
bladder,  puffe — also  a  gull,  a  ninnie,  a  foole  ' 
(Florio),  and  the  following  quotations: — 

1  'Folic  decet  pueros  ludere  '  (Martial,  14,  74) — Boys  may  play 
at  foot-ball.  The  post-classical  use  of  the  word  is  illustrated  by  Du 
Cange—  '  Infollare  proprie  est  buccam  inflare;  et  quia  folles  inflan- 
tur  quasi  quadum  re  inani,  inde  est  quod  Follis  dicitur  stultus, 
superbus,  vanus,  inflatus.'  He  quotes  from  a  MS.  of  the  ninth 
century,  '  Hie  more  gallico  sanctum  senem  increpitans  follem,'  and 
from  the  interpreter  of  Joannes  de  Garlandia,  '  Non  opus  est 
Folio  suspendere  tympana  collo.'  So  in  the  '  Promptorium  Parvu- 
loruin,'  ¥ollet,follus. 


FOOL.  211 

1  If  there  be  here  any  of  these  empty  bladders,  that  are  puft  up 

with  the  wind  of  conceit,  give  me  leave  to  pricke  them  a  little.' 

The  Righteous  Mammon,  Bp.  Hall,  Works  (fol.  1634),  p.  670. 

'  I  would  embowell  a  number  of  those  wind-puft  bladders 
[i.e.,  authors'  patrons],  and  disfurnish  their  bald  pates  of  the 
perriwigs  poets  haue  lent  them.' 

Nash,  Pierce  Penniless1  s  Supplication  to  the  Devil  (1592, 
Shaks.  Soc),  p.  91. 

Similarly  in   Phineas    Fletcher's    poem   of  i  The 

Purple   Island,'  Chaunus,   the    arrogant    fool,   is 

described  as  being 

'  With  his  own  praise  like  windy  bladder  blown.' 

C.  viii.,  st.  xxxvi. 

And  so  in  French,  a  foolish  story,  nonsense,  used 

to  be   called  billevesdes — i.e.,   belle   and  vessie,   a 

bladder  full   of  wind,1   '  a  tale  told  by  an  idiot, 

full  of  sound  and  fury,  signifying — nothing.' 

1  C'est  lui  qui  dans  des  vers  vous  a  tympanisees'; 
Tous  les  propos  qu'il  tient  sont  des  billevesees.> 

Moliere,  Les  Femmes  Savants,  ii.  7. 

Intimately  related  to  i  fool '  is  the  Old  Spanish 
follon,  a  braggart,  from  the  Latin  follis,  and  follere, 
to  swell  like  a  bellows.  Just  as  Spenser,  develop- 
ing the  same  idea,  describes  a  '  losell '  i  puffed  up 
with  smoke  of  vanity ' — 

1  Trompart,  fitt  man  for  Braggadochio,' 

who  did 


1  Cf.'A  widemouthed  poet  that  speakea  nothing  but  bladders 
an  d  burabast.' 

Sir  Thos.  Overbury,  Characters  (Library  of  Old  Authoi-s,  p.  98). 


212  BOAST. 

<  With  fine  flattery, 
Blow  the  bellows  to  his  swelling  vanity.' 

Faerie  Queen,  Bk.  II.  iii.  4  and  9. 

We  would  be  tempted,  in  like  manner,  to  bring 
the  Bohemian  blazen,  a  fool,  (Dut.)  blasoen,  a 
braggart,  into  connection  with  the  Anglo-Saxon 
and  German  blcesan,  and  Dutch  blcesen,  to  blow, 
our  <  blast ; '  0.  Ger.  bids,  blowing,  blatara,  a 
bladder,  bloz,  proud  ;  Ger.  blase,  a  bladder,  and  bla- 
sen,  to  blow. 

Similarly,  the  Old  Norse  gdli,  a  fool,  Dan. 
gal,  mad,  Norse  galen,  angry,  mad,  according  to 
Wedgwood,  may  be  traced  in  the  provincial  Danish 
galm,  our  6  gale,'  a  raging  wind. 

Compare  '  vain,'  Lat.  vanus,  from  the  root  va, 
to  blow,  its  congeners  being  the  Gaelic  faoin, 
0.  Eng.  fon,  c  fond  '  originally  meaning  foolish, 
Gaelic  faoincheann,  empty-head. 

Bishop  Hall,  in  his  '  Characterismes  of  Vices,' 
speaking  of  the  vain-glorious,  portrays  him  as 

1  A  bladder  full  of  wind,  a  skin  full  of  words,  a  fooles  won- 
der, and  a  wisemans  foole.'  Works,  p.  176  (ed.  1634.) 

For  this,  indeed,  is  one  sure  trait  of  the  bladder- 
headed  fool — he  is  puffed  up  and  boastful.  And 
so  the  word  '  boast '  itself,  it  is  instructive  to 
find,  is  near  akin  to  the  Old  German  bdsi,  foolish, 
originally  empty,  inflated,  and  bosan,  a  bag  or 
pouch;  Irish  and  Cym.,  bosd,  boasting;  0. 
Eng.,    boistoas,    bostwys,    now    '  boisterous,'    an 


BUFFOON.  213 

epithet  of  the  wind — all  connected  with  the  Ger- 
man bausen,  to  puff,  inflate  the  cheeks ;  Gk. 
pkusdo  (<j)vcrd(o),  to  blow.1 

Compare  also  the  Gaelic  borrackas,  boasting, 
bravado,  which  is  identical  with  borracha,  a  blad- 
der ;  Sp.  borracka,  a  wine-skin.  '  To  bag,'  in 
Chaucer,  is  to  swell  with  pride,  arrogance,  and 
self-conceit  (Richardson,  Diet.) ;  and  finally, 
*  buffoon,'  Fr.  bouffon,  the  professional  fool,  who 
has  had  an  inflated  bladder  (Prov.  bouffigd)  appro- 
priately assigned  to  him  as  his  badge  of  office 
from  time  immemorial,  derives  his  name  from  the 
French  bouffer.  It.  buffare,  to  puff  or  blow. 

Something  of  the  etymological  force  of  'fool/ 
as  empty,  and  therefore  worthless,  appears  to  sur- 
vive in  such  phrases  as  avoinefolle,  wild  or  barren 
oats,  avena  fatua,)  and  c  fool-parsley,'2  where  the 
word  is  applied  to  things  which  are  inefficient 
after  their  kind,  and  destitute  of  that  virtue  or 
quality  which  their  appearance  would  lead  us  to 
suppose  they  possessed  ;  and  so  probably  feufo llet, 
ignis,  fatuus,  denotes  what  Shakspere  calls  an 
6  ineffectual  fire ' — one  that  seems  to  burn,  but  does 
not.     A.-Sax.  fon-fyre,  Dut.  dwaal-lickt. 

Similar  is  the  use  of  the  word  dol  (foolish, 
'dull')  in  Dutch — e.g.)  dolle-bezien,  berries  whose 

1  Pictet,  Orig.   Indo-Europ.,  vol.   ii.    p.  143.     Cf.  Dut.   blaas- 
TcaTcerig,  boasting,  rodomontade  ;    winderig,  windy,  boasting,  brag- 

ging- 

2  Wedgwood.     Cf.  W.  ffiol,  fool,  ffwlach,  light  corn. 


214  BUFFOON. 

poisonous  quality  belies  their  fair  appearance,  dolle- 
kervel,  hemlock.  Eng.  '  dwale,'  Dan.  dvale-bcvr, 
deadly  nightshade ;  akin  to  Goth,  drcals,  foolish, 
A. -Sax.  dol. 

Compare  the  word  '  deaf,'  when  applied  to  nuts, 
corn,  &c,  meaning  empty,  worthless,  tasteless, 
having  lost  its  virtue;  in  Dutch  doove-netel,  a 
nettle  which  does  not  sting,  doove  kool,  a  dead  or 
burnt-out  coal  ;*  and  so  our  word  '  coke,'  as  it 
were  the  empty  cinder,  has  been  identified  with 
the  Gaelic  caoch,  blind,  empty,  hollow  ;  caochag,  a 
deaf  nut,  without  a  kernel,  the  '  coke '  of  a  nut 
(cf.  ccecus),  and  so  we  speak  of  a  *  blind'  nut  or 
nettle,  A.-Sax.  blind-netele. 

The  sentence  which  in  the  authorised  version  of 
the  Bible  we  translate,  '  If  the  salt  have  lost  his 
savour'  (Matt.  v.  13  ;  Luke  xiv.  34),  is  literally 
in  the  original,  i  If  the  salt  have  become  foolish,' 2 
i.e.  insipid,  it  being  the  very  same  word  that 
occurs  in  Romans  i.  22,  '  Professing  themselves  to 
be  wise,  they  became  fools.''  The  Gothic  version  is 
salt  baud  wair])ip,  i.e.,  salt  becomes  deaf,  Goth. 
bautks,  deaf  {cf.  6  bothered ').  A  literal  rendering 
is  also  found  in  '  The  Apology  for  the  Lollards,' 
ascribed  to  WiclifTe — '  Fonnid  salt  is  not  wor}),  but 

1  Cf.  Cleveland,  deaf,  barren,  empty,  tasteless,  stingless,  a  deaf- 
nettle,  A.-Sax.  deafcorn,  barren  corn,  Sw.  dofvidr,  unproductive 
tree,  dauf-jord,  barren  soil  (Atkingon).  Ger.  taub  is  applied  to  an 
exhausted  mine.  So  toad-flax  is  from  the  Ger.  todt,  dead — i.  e., 
useless  flax ;  toad-stone,  a  rock  yielding  no  ore. 

3  ^Iwpavdxi. 


FATUOUS.  215 

J>at  it  "be  cast  for]},  and  soilid  of  suynne.'  'Fond 
salt,'  i.e.,  foolish,  here  tasteless,  is  the  Old  English 
fort,  Gael,  faoin,  Lat.  vanus.  Dr  Todd,  in  his  edi- 
tion of  this  work  for  the  Camden  Society,  printed 
the  word  sonnid,  which  of  course  is  nonsense.  The 
Latin  of  St  Jerome,  which  WiclifTe  is  here  trans- 
lating— Infatuatum  sal  ad  nikilum  prodest — renders 
the  mistake  the  more  inexcusable. 

In  like  manner,  the  French  fade,  insipid,  is  the 
Latin  fatuus,  foolish  ; 2  '  insipid  '  itself,  as  well  as 
1  unsavoury,'  contains  the  same  root  as  i  sapient,' 
'  sage,'  i  savant/  all  being  from  the  Latin  sapere, 
to  have  taste ;  and  insulsus,  meaning  foolish  in 
Latin,  was  originally  in-salsus,  without  salt,  taste- 
less. 

A  parallel  idiom  occurs  in  the  Hebrew  of  Job 
v.  6,  '  Is  there  any  taste  in  the  white  of  an  egg  ? ' 
This,  according  to  Gesenius,  would  be  more  cor- 
rectly rendered,  '  Is  there  any  taste  in  herb  broth 
(kohl-brahe)  ?  lit.  the  slime  of  purslain,'  which  the 
Arabians  call  '  the  foolish  plant,'  i.e.,  insipid. 
'  More  foolish  than  purslain '  is  one  of  their  pro- 
verbial comparisons.  The  corresponding  Hebrew 
word  in  the  passage  cited  is  halldmuth,  denoting 
(1)  fatuity,  (2)  insipidity. 

The  Latin  word  fatuus,  foolish,  which  I  had  but 

1  '  Thou  art  a  fori  of  thy  love  to  boste '  (Spenser,  Shepheards 
Calender,  Februarie). 

2  Fatuus  is  applied  to  the  beet  by  Martial,  in  the  sense  of  tasteless. 


216  FATUOUS. 

just  now  occasion  to  refer  to,  and  which  still  lives 
for  us  in  our  '  fatuous  '  and  <  infatuated,'  is  one 
that  hitherto,  so  far  as  I  am  aware,  has  eluded 
analysis.  Perhaps  I  am  too  sanguine  in  thinking 
it  has  yielded  to  my  efforts.  At  all  events,  if  we 
take  note  of  the  similar  names  which  have  been 
given  to  the  fool  in  other  languages,  we  will  see 
reason  to  believe  it  probable  beforehand  that  the 
Latin  might  fairly  have  signified  c  open-mouthed.' 
The  hanging  of  the  lower  jaw  imparts  such  an 
idiotic  expression  to  the  countenance,  and  an  air 
of  vacant  wonderment,  that  gaping  has  been  uni- 
versally regarded  as  a  mark  of  imbecility  and 
stupidity ;  a  closed  mouth  and  compressed  lips,  on 
the  other  hand,  are  the  natural  expression  of  firm- 
ness and  self-control.  For  instance,  in  French, 
badaud,  badault,  i  a  fool,  dolt,  sot,  fop,  asse,  gap- 
ing hoy  don  '  (Cotgrave),  Prov.  badau,  is  from  the 
Provencal  and  Italian  badare,  to  gape.1 

6  Naque  ??iouc7ie,  a  Flycatcher,  a  gaping  hoydon, 
an  idle  gull '  (Cotgrave).      Cf.  gobe-mouches. 

Bdgueule^  a  fool,  originally  '  gaping  with  an 
open  mouth '  (Cotgrave). 

In  English,  '  gaby '  is  one  that  gapes  with  a 
vacant  stare  ;  0.  Norse  gapa,  to  gape,  gap,  a 
simpleton  (Wedgwood),  prov.  Eng.  gaups,  a  sim- 
pleton,  from  gaup,   to   gape.      Compare  gawk-a- 


1  Hence  also  Ft.  badin,  a  jester,  badiner,  '  badinage  ; '  0.  Fr.  baer, 
bayer,  '  to  bay. ' 


FATUOUS.  217 

mouth,  a  gaping  fool  (Devonshire).  Thus  '  Poor 
Robin'  (1735),  speaks  of  fools  who  *  stand  with 
their  eyes  and  their  mouths  open,  to  take  in  a 
cargo  of  gape-seed^  while  some  a  little  too  nimble 
for  them  pick  their  pockets.' 

6  Booby,'  It.  babbeo,  is  generally  understood  to 
be  a  gaping  imbecile,  from  the  sound  ba  naturally 
made  in  opening  the  mouth.1 

Gawney,  a  provincial  term  for  a  fool  or  simple- 
ton, which  in  Lincolnshire  appears  a,sya?vney,  comes 
from  the  Anglo-Saxon  ganian,  to  yawn  or  gape, 
and  with  the  most  curious  exactness  corresponds 
to  the  Greek  ckaunos,  gaping,  also  silly,  foolish, 
whence  chaunopolites,  an  open-mouthed,  gaping 
cit,  a  cockney.  Compare,  kecMnaioi,  gapers,  Aris- 
tophanes' burlesque  name  for  the  Athenians,  also 
the  Greek  chdskax  (a  gaper,  gaby),  from  ckasko,  to 
gape  or  yawn  ;  chin,  Dor.  chan,  the  gaping  '  gan- 
der.' 

The  same  root  has  been  traced  by  some  in  the 
Latin  fat-isco,  to  yawn,  gape,  or  open  in  chinks. 
It  is  with  this  word,  whatever  may  be  the  root, 
that  I  would  place  in  close  connection  fatuus,  the 
open-mouthed,  gaping  fool.  Thus  fat-uus  would 
stand  in  the  same  relation  to  fat-isco  that  gaby 
does    to   gape    and   gap    (Sans.  jabk).      Fat-eor 

1  Farrar,  Chapters  on  Language,  p.  159;  Wedgwood,  s.v.  Com- 
pare, however,  the  0.  Fr.  baube,  a  babbler,  ebaubi,  astounded,  Sp. 
bobo,  simpleton,  which  Diez  connects  with  It.  balbo,  Lat.  balbus, 
a  stammerer. 


218  FATUOUS. 

(whence  conjitcor,  confessus),  to  confess,  may  not 
improbably  contain  the  same  root,  with  the  sig- 
nification of  opening  or  disclosing  a  matter,  in 
opposition  to  keeping  it  close  and  hidden.1  Com- 
pare our  English  expression  '  to  split '  (  =  to 
inform),  and  the  Latin  rhnosus  (full  of  chinks  or 
splits,  leaky),  applied  to  one  who  cannot  keep  a 
secret. 

The  stem  of  fat-igo  may  perhaps  be  identified 
with  that  of  j)at-eo  (to  be  open),  and  traced  to  the 
Sanskrit  root  pat,  to  split  or  open.  As  the  day 
has  now  gone  by  when  an  etymologist  could  not 
timidly  suggest  a  relationship  between  an  Aryan 
root  and  a  Sheniitic  without  fear  of  being  branded 
with  that  most  damaging  of  epithets,  i  pre-scien- 
tific,'  I  may  venture  to  point  out  the  resemblance 
of  the  Hebrew  pdthdh  and  pdthach,  to  open.  This 
may,  or  may  not,  be  only  a  coincidence,  still  the 
corresponding  uses  of  the  word  are  sufficiently  re- 
markable to  deserve  being  noted.  From  pdthdh, 
to  be  open  {—fat-igo),  comes  the  participial  form 
potkeh,  c  one  who  opens '  (his  lips,  Prov.  xx.  19), 
also  '  a  foolish  or  silly  person'  (=fatuus,  Job  v. 
2),  and  the  derivative  pethi  is  the  common  word  for 
a  simple  or  silly  person  in  the  book  of  Proverbs 
e.g.,  vii.  7). 


1  The  dictionaries  deduce  the  word  from  fdtus,  the  past  participle 
of  fari,  to  speak ;  but  in  that  case  we  would  expect  fateor,  with  a 
long  vowel. 


FATUOUS.  219 

From  fatuus  comes  the  verb  fatuor,1  to  talk 
foolishly,  which  afterwards  acquired  the  very  dif- 
ferent meaning  of  being  inspired,  or  filled  with 
the  divine  influence.  Such  a  transition  is  com- 
mon in  other  languages,  and  can  easily  be  ex- 
plained as  follows  : — 

No  one,  unaccustomed  to  such  trying  scenes,  can 
listen  to  the  ceaseless  raving  of  a  patient  oppressed 
with  fever,  or  the  unconnected  rhapsodies  poured 
forth  by  the  insane,  without  experiencing  some- 
what of  an  almost  superstitious  fear,  which  invests 
even  commonplace  and  unmeaning  expressions 
with  a  strange  significance.  The  words  given  vent 
to  in  such  cases  are  known  to  come  from  the  lips 
quite  apart  from  the  consciousness  of  the  speaker. 
They  seem,  therefore,  like  the  utterances  of  some 
unknown  power,  which  has  taken  possession  of  the 
patient,  and  uses  him  for  its  mouthpiece.  This 
feeling,  which  perhaps  in  some  degree  may  help  us 
to  understand  why  it  is  that  the  wayward  and 
fragmentary  interlocutions  of  the  fool  add  a  new 
element  of  grandeur  and  sublimity  to  the  wondrous 
scenes  of  Lear,  that  the  snatches  of  song  and 
proverb  introduced  by  the  poor  distraught  Ophelia 
are  so  inexpressively  pathetic,  that  the  soliloquies 
delivered  by  Lady  Macbeth  when  walking  in  her 


1  Dr  Smith  does  not  seem  to  have  any  authority  for  making  two 
distinct  words  out  of  this,  and  marking  the  initial  syllable  short 
in  the  one  case  and  long  in  the  other  (Lat.  Diet.) 


220  NATURAL. 

troubled  sleep  are  so  potent  in  inspiring  awe  and  a 
sense  of  terrible  mystery — the  same  feeling  has  led 
men  in  all  ages  to  regard  the  idiot  and  the  lunatic 
with  reverence,  as  beings  endued  with  a  portion  of 
the  divine  afflatus.  Thus  in  Latin  there  is  the  one 
V70x<\. furor  for  madness  and  inspiration.  In  Greek, 
mantis ,  a  prophet,  is  near  akin  to  mania,  madness  : 
and  in  old  English  writers  c  fury '  is  used  of 
spiritual  influences,  however  gentle,  as  in  this 
invocation  to  the  Deity — 

'  Breathe  thou  a  heavenly  fury  in  my  breast, 
I  sing  the  sabbath  of  eternal!  rest.' 

William,  Earl  of  Stirling  (d.  1640). 

Amongst  many  savage  races  madmen  are  vene- 
rated as  being  the  special  abode  of  some  deity,1  and 
idiots  are  treated  with  kindness  and  forbearance, 
from  a  belief  that  they  possess  superhuman  inspir- 
ation.    The  Eskimo,  for  instance,  regard  an  insane 

1  Compare  the  Greek  enihousiastikds,  entheos,  dwelt  in  by  a  god, 
inspired.  Vide  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  vol.  ii.  p.  117;  Lubbock, 
Origin  of  Civilisation,  p.  132. 

Mania  is  used  both  for  madness  and  the  prophetic  spirit,  so  that 
Plato  says,  '  The  greatest  blessings  we  have  spring  from  madness 
when  granted  by  the  divine  bounty.'  Fide  The  Prophetic  Spirit  in 
its  Relation  to  Wisdom  and  Madness,  by  Rev.  A.  Clissold. 

'  The  fool  alone,  in  "  All's  Well  that  Ends  Well  "  has  somewhat  of 
the  "  prophetic  "  vein  in  him,  which  he  ascribes  to  himself,  ac- 
cording to  the  general  notion  of  the  age,  that  fools,  in  virtue  of 
their  capacity  for  speaking  "  the  truth  the  next  way,"  possessed 
something  of  a  divine  and  foretelling  character  '  (Gervinus,  Shaks- 
pere  Commentaries,  p.  402).  On  the  superstition  that  the  insane 
were  possessed  or  inspired  by  a  deity,  see  Maury,  La  Magie  et 
l'Astrologie,  pp.  261-263,  269,  272,  285.  The  old  Countess  of 
Strathmore  is  reported  to  have  consulted  an  idiot  when  she  desired 
an  oracular  pronouncement  as  to  the  prolongation  of  her  husband's 
life  (Southey,  C.-P.  Book,  vol.  iv.  p.  514). 


NATURAL.  221 

person,  whom  they  call  a  pivdlerortok,  as  possessed 
of  the  highest  perfection  in  divining,  and  capable 
of  seeing  things  when  absent  or  still  future.  The 
6  natural '  or  fool,  pivdlingayak,  as  being  a  clair- 
voyant, is  esteemed  by  them  a  useful  person  to 
be  maintained  in  every  hamlet.1  It  must  have 
been  a  somewhat  similar  notion  that  gave  rise  to 
the  French  word  benet  or  benest,  i  a  simple,  plaine, 
doltish  fellow,  a  noddy-peake,  ...  a  silly  com- 
panion '  (Cotgrave),  which  is  only  another  form  of 
benist,  benoist,  benedict,  blessed,  holy,  happy.  We 
might  be  reminded  here  of  the  English  slang 
phrase  i  an  anointed  scamp,'  meaning  an  arch 
villain,  Yorkshire,  c  a  nointed  youth ; '  but  this 
without  doubt  is  a  corruption  of  the  French 
andanti,  brought  to  nothing,  worthless,  good  for 
nought — anoienter  being  actually  found  as  another 
form  of  aneantir.2  A  truer  comparison  would  be 
'  silly,'  originally  innocent,  blessed,  happy,  A.-Sax. 
scelig,  Ger.  selig.  So  the  German  albern,  foolish, 
simple,  Mid.  Ger.  alewaere,  Swiss  alb,  A.-Sax. 
ylfige,  and  perhaps  our  alf,  6  oaf,'  represents  the 
Middle  German  alwdr,  0.  H.  Ger.  alawdr,  all-true, 
alawdri,  kind.3  Compare  the  expressions  '  an  in- 
nocent,' i  a  natural,'  i  simple,'  '  buon  huomo^    6  bon 


1  Dr  H.  Rink,  Tales  and  Traditions  of  the  Eskimo,  p.  57. 
5  Roquefort,  Glossaire  de  la  Langue  Romane. 
3  The  Icelandic  dlfr,  an  elf,  denotes  also  a  silly,  vacant,  person,  one 
bewitched  by  the  elves  (Cleasby).   Vide  also  Diefenbach,  Orig.  Europ. 


222  NATURAL. 

enfant]  Gk.  eucthes,  <  daffte  '  (= humble  in  the 
Ormultm).1  Cretin,  the  name  given  to  the  deformed 
idiots  of  Switzerland,  is  said  by  some  to  be  the 
same  as  chrUien,  the  Christian  par  excellence,  the 
most  chastened,  because  the  most  loved.2 

While  on  the  subject  of  fools,  I  ma}'  note  that 
the  A. -Irish  omadhaun  is  the  Irish  amadan,  an  idiot 
or  simpleton,  also  amad,  which  corresponds  exactly 
to  the  Sanskrit  a-mati,  folly,  stupidity  {a  negative, 
and  mati,  mind,  Lat.  a-mensy  out  of  one's  mind). 
The  idiot,  as  it  were,  is  contrasted  with  the  rational 
'  man,'  Sans.  ?nanu,  '  the  thinker,'  from  the  root 
man,  to  think.3  Goddis  ajns  is  an  old  Scotch 
expression  of  similar  import  for  '  dull,  blockish 
animals,  that  have  no  more  of  men,  the  chief  of 
God's  creatures,  but  the  shape,  as  apes  have.' 

1  Zour  sory  joyis  "bene  bot  janglyng  and  japis, 
And  zour  trew^seruandis  silly  goddis  apis.' 

Gaivin  Douglas,  Prologue  to  Bk.  IV.  1.  27. 

'  Thus  we  say  in  Scotland,  "  a  good  God's  body," 
or  "  God's  goss,"  for  a  silly,  but  good-natured 
man  ;  '4  in  Ireland  '  one  of  God's  innocents.' 


1  See  also  De  Quincey,  vol.  iii.  p.  306  ;  Lane,  Egyptians,  vol.  ii. 
pp.  43,  44. 

3  Cf.  Gattel,  s.v.;  Genin,  Recreations  Philologiques, vol.  ii.  p.  164. 
Somewhat  similar  to  those  mentioned  above  is  the  transition  of 
meaning  of  Ger.  schlecht,  (1)  right,  good,  (2)  simple,  (3)  foolish, 
worthless.  An  '  upryght  man  '  is  one  of  the  '  rainging  rabblement 
of  rascals,' in  Harman's  Caveat  for  Cursetors,  p.  13  (Repr.  1814). 

3  Pictet,  Orig.  Indo-Europ.,  vol.  ii.  p.  543;  Stokes,  Irish  Glosses, 
p.  66. 

4  Glossary  to  G.  Douglas,  1710. 


(  223  ) 


CHAPTER  IX. 

*  hearse '  — '  hoe  '  — '  furro  w '  —  names  of  ma- 
chines  derived  from  animals — '  pulley  ' 
etc. — '  ha  tchment  ' — '  lozenge  ' — '  blazon ' 
— '  timbre' — 'halo' — '  aureole! 

In  tracing  the  word  '  hearse  '  through  its  manifold 
windings  up  to  its  distant  source,  the  transitions  of 
meaning  presented  to  us  are  not  a  little  curious. 
Applied  at  the  present  day  to  the  large  ornamen- 
tal carriage  for  the  conveyance  of  the  dead,  which 
forms  so  conspicuous  a  feature  in  the  long-drawn 
6  pomp  of  woe  '  that  characterises  a  i  respectable 
funeral/  c  hearse/  once  on  a  time,  denoted  not 
this,  but  a  temporary  canopy,  or  light  frame  of 
woodwork  supporting  a  pall,  erected  in  the 
church,  under  which  frame  the  body  used  to 
be  placed  while  the  service  for  the  dead  was 
being  performed.1  Sometimes  it  was  a  ceno- 
taph, or  monument  of  a  more  permanent 
character,  set  up  as  a  memorial  of  the  deceased 


1  See  a  good  note  in  Peacocke's  'Church  Furniture,' p.  127, 
where  he  gives  a  representation  of  a  hearse,  but  quite  mistakes  its 
etymology.      Vide  also  p.  26. 


224  HEARSE. 

— e.g.,    c  cenotaphium,    a    herse,    a    sepulchre    of 
honour.'1 

'  A  cenotaph '  (says  Weever  in  his  '  Funeral  Monuments,' 
1631) '  is  an  emptie  Funerall  Monument  or  Tombe  erected  for 
the  honour  of  the  dead,  wherein  neither  the  corps  nor  reliques 
of  any  defunct  are  deposited,  in  imitation  of  which  our  Hearses 
here  in  England  are  set  vp  in  Churches,  during  the  continuance 
of  a  Yeare,  or  for  the  space  of  certaine  moneths '  (p.  32,  fol.) 

'  The  solemnitie  of  Polydores  obit  at  his  emptie  hearse  is 
described  in  the  said  booke  [iEn.  3]  much  what  after  the  same 
manner. 

"  Anon  therefore  to  Polydore  an  Hearse  we  gan  prepare." ' 

Ibid.,  p.  35. 

Compare  also  the  following  from  the  poems  of 

Bishop  Henry  King  (1657)  : — 

'  The  beating  of  thy  pulse  (when  thou  art  well) 
Is  just  the  tolling  of  thy  Passing  Bell : 
Night  is  thy  Hearse,  whose  sable  Canopie 
Covers  alike  deceased  day  and  thee. 

And  all  those  weeping  dewes  which  nightly  fall, 
Are  but  the  tears  shed  for  thy  funerall/ 

Ed.  Hannah,  p.  19. 

And  these  from  Spenser — 

'  Leave  these  relicks  of  his  living  might 
To  decke  his  herce,  and  trap  his  tomb-blacke  steed.' 

Faerie  Queene,  II.  viii.  16. 

'  Beene  they  all  dead,  and  laid  in  dolefull  herse, 
Or  doen  they  onely  sleepe,  and  shall  againe  reverse  '? ' 

Ibid.,  III.  iv.  1 

At  the  funeral  of  Sir  John  Dudley  i  at  Westmyns- 
ter,  the  xxj  of  Septemher/  1553, 

1  Old  Glossary,  quoted  by  Way,  in  •  Promptorium  Parvulorum.' 


HEARSE.  225 

'  In  the  qwer  was  a  hersse  mad  of  tymbur  and  covered  with 
blake,  and  armes  upon  the  blake.' 

Diary  of  Henry  Machyn,  1550-1563  (Camden  Soc.)  p.  44. 

Bailey  defines  the  word  t  Hearse,  a  Monument 
liung  with  the  Atchievements  of  an  honourable 
Person  deceased ;  also  a  covered  or  close  Waggon 
to  carry  a  dead  Corpse  in '  (Diet,  s.v.) 

Though  these  meanings  of  a  decorated  bier,  a 
pall,  or  canopy,  are  ancient,  we  must  go  back 
further  still.  In  wills  and  other  documents  of  the 
twelfth  and  three  following  centuries  we  find  fre- 
quent mention  made  of  the  hersia,  /iercia,  or  her- 
cium,  as  a  well-known  article  of  church  furniture, 
employed  at  the  most  solemn  services,  and  especially 
at  funerals,  when  the  corpse  was  lying  in  state.1 
The  i  Promptorium  Parvulorum  '  (c.  1440)  explains 
the  '  Heerce  on  a  dede  corce  '  to  be  a  c pirama  '  or 
1  piramis. '  It  was,  in  fact,  a  sort  of  pyramidal  candle- 
stick, or  iron  frame  of  triangular  form,  designed 
to  hold  the  multitude  of  wax  tapers  usually  lighted 
on  such  occasions,  tier  above  tier. 

Another  name,  or  rather  another  form  of  the 
name,  of  this  structure  in  medieval  Latin  was 
kerpica,  and  this  points  us  to  its  true  origin.2  The 
hersia  or  hercia  was  so  called  on  account  of  its  re- 

1  I  draw  this  information  from  Mr  Way's  excellent  note  in  the 
'Promptorium  Parvulorum.'  Vide  also  Diary  of  Henry  Machyn 
(Camden  Soc),  p.  xxix.  ;  Skeat  in  Notes  and  Queries.  4th  Ser.  vol. 
iv.  p.  51. 

2  The  identification  of  '  hearse '  with  the  Lat.  (ac-)cerso,  Sans. 
harsh,  to  draw,  by  some  philologists,  shows  how  dangerous  it  is  to 
theorise  about  a  word  without  tracing  its  historical  relationship. 

P 


226  REHEARSE. 

semblance  in  shape  to  the  French  /terse,  0.  Fr.  herce, 
It.  crpicc,  a  harrow,  and  those  words  themselves 
come  from  the  Lat.  hirpex  (kirjiic-is),  also  irpex, 
a  large  iron-toothed  rake,  a  harrow.  So  the  sar- 
rasi?w,  a  kind  of  portcullice,  Bailey  mentions 
(Dictionary,  s.v,),  was  otherwise  called  a  hearse, 
evidently  from  its  harrow-like  shape.  From  the 
Low  Latin  Jierciare l  arose  the  French  /terser,  c  to 
harrow,'  '  also  to  vexe,  turmoile,  disquiet,  hurry, 
torment'  (Cotgrave),  just  as  we  speak  of  c  harrow- 
ing one's  feelings,'  or  'a  harrowing  tale.'  From 
/terser,  through  the  form  harser,  came  apparently 
harasser  with  the  same  meaning,  our  '  harass.' 

We  now  can  see  the  point  of  connection  also 
between  *  hearse  '  and  the  verb  to  f  re-hearse.'  The 
latter  means  literally  6  to  harrow  over  again,'  to  go 
over  the  same  ground  and  turn  it  up  anew :  figu- 
ratively, to  repeat  what  has  been  already  said.  A 
similar  expression  is  '  to  rip  up '  an  old  grievance, 
&c.      Compare  the  following — 

'What  direful  greeting  will  there  then  be  .  .  .  remem- 
bering and  ripping  up  all  their  lewdness,  to  the  aggravation 
of  their  torment.'  Baxter,  Saints'  Best,  Pt.  iii.  eh.  3. 

1  Being  as  a  cursed  goat  separated  to  stand  beneath  on  earth, 
as  on  the  Left-hand  of  the  Judge,  Christ  shall  rip  up  all  the 
benefits  He  bestow'd  on  thee.' 

The  Practice  of  Piety,  L.  Bailey,  p.  56  (1743). 

In  Gaelic  rdc  signifies  to  repeat  as  well  as  to  rake. 
So  far,  I  trust,  all  is  plain.      Our  i  hearse  '  is 

1  Spelman,  Gloss,  s.v.  Arabant. 


hoe.  227 

traceable  to  the  Latin  Ziirpex,  a  harrow.  If  we 
inquire,  however,  what  is  the  origin  of  the  word 
hirpex  itself,  the  answer  is  by  no  means  equally 
easy.  It  has  been  imagined  by  some  to  have  been 
borrowed  from  the  Greek  hdrpax  (apiraf?) ;  but,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  difficulty  that  the  two  words  agree 
neither  in  form  nor  in  meaning,  it  is  highly  im- 
probable that  the  Latin  husbandman  should  have 
been  indebted  to  foreigners  for  the  name  of  so 
common  an  implement. 

Before  suggesting  a  derivation  of  my  own,  I 
would  premise  that  in  many  languages  instruments 
which  are  used  in  cleaving  or  grubbing  up  the 
earth  have  been  likened  to  animals  which  rend 
and  tear  their  victims — the  teeth  of  the  hoe,  the 
harrow,  and  the  plough,  as  they  wounded  and 
scarified  the  ground,  not  unnaturally  suggested 
the  fangs  of  a  beast  of  prey,  the  tusks  of  the  boar, 
the  sharp  incisors  of  the  ravening  wolf — and  those 
tools  received  names  accordingly.  For  instance, 
our  '  hoe  '  is  the  Goth,  koka,  a  plough  (<  the  tearer  '), 
and  exactly  represents  in  a  modern  shape  the  Sans. 
koka,  a  wolf  ('  the  tearer  '),  Kuhn.  So  the  San- 
skrit word  vrika  designates  alike  the  wolf  and  the 
plough,  and  in  Icel.  vargr  hqfs,  '  the  sea- wolf,'  is 
a  poetical  name  for  a  ship,  no  doubt  from  its  cleav- 
ing and  ploughing  up  the  waves.  The  Sanskrit 
krntatra,  Kourde  kotan,  Lat.  culter,  i  coulter '  (the 
instrument  that  cleaves  the  earth),  the  plough,  are 


228  porcus. 

near  akin  to  the  Russ.  krotu,  Pol.  hret  (the  animal 
that  cleaves  the  earth),  the  mole,  Lith.  kertus  (the 
shrew-mouse),  all  coming  from  the  same  root  krt, 
to  cut  or  cleave.1 

Similarly  the  German  scker,  sckermaus,  0.  Ger. 
scero,  the  mole,  with  which  Pictet 2  compares  our 
shrew-mouse,  A. -Sax.  screawa,  owns  kinship  with 
scaro,  the  plough-share,  both  coming  from  seer  an, 
to  cleave  or  tear. 

In  Greek  6  the  digger  '  (skalops)  is  a  name  for 
the  mole.3  The  Sans,  potra  signifies  at  once  a 
pig's  snout  and  a  ploughshare,  from  the  idea  of 
grubbing  up  the  earth  being  common  to  both ; 
and  so  Pictet  explains  the  Greek  hunnis  (vvvis),  a 
ploughshare,  to  have  originally  been  i  swine's- 
snout,'  from  Ms  (£?),  a  pig. 

The  Latin  porcus,  a  pig,  seems  to  have  meant 
originally  the  beast  that  roots  up  and  scatters  the 
earth,  and  to  have  come  from  the  Sanskrit  root 
pre,  to  scatter.4    Porca,  on  the   other   hand,  was 


1  Pictet,  Orig.  Indo-Europ.  vol.  i.  p.  452. 

The  Sanskrit  kira,  a  boar,  and  the  Persian  Iciraz,  a  harrow,  are 
traced  to  the  root  Jcf,  har,  to  scatter,  from  their  both  scattering 
about  the  earth  (Ibid.,  vol.  ii.  p.  9Q). 

2  Ibid.,  vol.  i.  p.  41. 

3  It  may  be  doubted  whether  '  mole  '  is  for  mold-warp  (mould- 
caster),  as  all  the  dictionaries  give  it.  It  is  rather  the  German 
maul-xverf,  i.e.,  mouth-caster,  from  its  habit  of  burrowing  with  its 
snout.  Our  'coney,'  Wei.  owning,  Irish  coinin,  Lat.  cuniculus  (1,  a 
rabbit ;  2,  a  burrow,  mine),  is  cognate  with  Lat.  cuneus  (what  cleaves, 
a  wedge),  and  comes  from  the  Sanskrit  root  khan,  to  dig.  Hence 
also  Sans,  Jchanaka,  '  the  miner,'  a  name  for  the  rat. 

4  Compare  Egyptian  ferk,forlc,  to  tear,  Heb.  prk,  Arab,  phrq,  to 


FURROW.  229 

the  name  given  to  the  ridge  of  earth  thrown  up  by 
the  iron  snout  of  the  ploughshare,  and  is  the  same 
word  as  appears  in  German  asfurcke,  A.Sax.  fur/i, 
our  i  furrow,'  0.  Eng.  furg}  i  Farrow,'  to  bring 
forth  a  litter  of  pigs,  being  a  derivative  from 
A.-Sax.  fearh,  0.  H.  Ger.farA,  Dut.  varken,  a  pig, 
words  which  are  immediately  akin  to  porcus,  we  can 
see  that  '  furrow  '  and  '  farrow '  are  not  connected 
together  by  a  mere  superficial  resemblance,  but  by 
a  radical  and  fundamental  identity. 

The  north  of  England  soc,  Fr.  soc,  L.  Lat.  soccus, 
the  ploughshare,  is  the  Irish  soc,  Cymric  swch, 
which  mean  a  snout  and  a  ploughshare.2  On  the 
other  hand,  the  projecting  bone  of  the  nose,  by  a 
play  of  fancy,  has  been  termed  the  vomer  by  anato- 
mists, on  account  of  its  resemblance  to  the  share. 

Now,  as  the  transition  of  meaning  from  a  rend- 
ing or  grubbing  animal  to  a  rending  or  grubbing 
instrument  of  tillage  is  not  unusual,  I  do  not  think 
I  will  be  risking  too  fanciful  a  suggestion  if  I 
venture  to  bring  hirpex,  irpex,  the  harrow,  with 
its  grim  array  of  iron  teeth,  into  connection  with 
the  old  Sabine  word  hirpus,2  or  irpus,  a  wolf,  just 

divide.  Birch,  Bunsen's  Egypt,  vol.  v.  Similar  is  the  radical 
meaning  of  Sans,  hira,  ddraha,  bhuddra,  as  names  for  the  pig, 
viz.,  the  tearer  or  grubber  (Pictet,  vol.  i.  p.  371). 

1  0.  E.  Miscell.,  p.  13.  Compare  Fr.  veau,  a  calf,  also  used  to 
denote  '  a  baulk  untilled  between  two  lands  or  furrows '  (Cotgrave). 

2  Surely  we  may  compare  the  A.-Sax.  eorp,  Icel.  erpr,  Scand. 
irpa,  a  wolf,  though  Pictet  denies  this. 

Hirpus  (i.e.,  virpus,  vripus),  represents  the  Sans,  vrihas,  Lith. 
vilkas,    Gk.  (v)lukos,  Lat.   {v)lupus  (vulpus),  Goth,    vulfs,   'wolf.' 


230  MACHINES   AND   ANIMALS. 

as  the  synonymous  word  lupus  was  applied  to 
sundry  things  furnished  with  many  sharp  points 
and  indentations,  e.g.,  a  handsaw,  and  a  jagged 
bit  for  hard-mouthed  horses. 

<  Wolf,'  according  to  Wright's  Provincial  Dic- 
tionary, has  the  latter  meaning  in  English;  and 
xirgull  in  Icelandic,  a  halter,  is  akin  to  vargr,  a 
wolf,   and  German  wiirgen,  to  throttle,  '  worry.' 

It  may  be  remarked  in  general,  that  engines  and 
machines  which  served  for  carrying,  supporting, 
and  lifting,  or  for  purposes  of  attack  in  war,  were 
often  designated  by  the  names  of  animals  which 
seemed  to  have  similar  powers  and  functions,  and 
were  called  '  ram,'  '  horse,'  '  ass,'  '  sow,'  '  cat,'  &c, 
according  as  some  fanciful  analogy  might  occur  to 
the  parties  using  them.  For  example,  when  the 
rebels  besieged  Corfe  Castle,  Mercurius  Rusticus  1 
states  that  '  to  make  their  approaches  to  the  wall 
with  more  safety,  they  make  two  engines,  one 
they  call  the  sow,  and  the  other  the  boar.' 

1  K.  Edward  the  first  with  an  engine  named  the  warwolfe, 
pierced  with  one  stone  .  .  .  two  vauntmures.    As  the  ancient 

Yrika  is  a  plough.  Hirpus  :  vrikas  :  :  hirpex  :  vrika.  All  come 
from  the  Sans,  root  vrask',  to  tear.  This  root  also  may  be  traced  in 
the  name  of  another  agricultural  implement  for  tearing  the  earth,  if 
Mommsen  (vol.  i.  p.  21)  and  Pictet  be  correct  (vol.  ii.  p.  90)  in  iden- 
tifying ligo,  a  hoe,  Gk.  lach-aino  (XaxeuVw),  to  dig,  with  our  'rake,' 
A..-Sax.  racian,  Ger.  rechen,  Gael.  rac.  For  these  words  can  scarcely 
be  separated  from  lac-er,  Gk.  lak-os,  rak-os,  'rag,'  which  contain  the 
root  vrask'.  Hence  also  ulcus,  Gk.  helkos  (?Xkos),  a  wound,  holkos 
(oXkos),  sulcus,  a  furrow.  Cf.  Ferrar,  Comparative  Grammar,  p. 
174. 

1  Southey,  C.  -P.  Book,  vol.  i.  p.  527. 


MACHINES   AND  ANIMALS.  231 

Komans  had  their  Crates,  Vinece,  Plutei  ...  so  had  the  Eng- 
lish in  this  age  their  Cathouse  and  Sow  for  the  same  purpose. 
The  Cathouse,  answerable  to  the  Cattus,  mentioned  by  Vegetius. 
.  .  .  The  sow  is  yet  usual  in  Ireland.' 

Camden,  Remaines  (1637),  p.  201. 

'  This  Mouse  or  Mantelet  was  defended  by  our  men  out  of 
the  brick  tower'  (Lat.  musculus). 
Edmonds,  Casar's  Commentaries  of  the  Civ.  Wars,  p.  54(1655). 

I  subjoin  a  list  of  animals  whose  names  I  have 
met  thus  employed: — 

It.  asinone,  a  great  ass.  Also  '  an  engine  to 
mount  a  piece  of  ordinance  '  (Florio). 

It.  caualetto,  6  any  little  nagge  or  horse.  Also 
any  tressel,1  or  saddlers  or  Armorers  woodden 
horse '  (Florio).  Fr.  ckevalet,  Eng.  '  horse,'  a 
stand  for  towels,  clothes,  &c. 

6  Easel,'  a  painter's  tressel,  Ger.  esel,  Lat. 
asellusy  a  little  ass.  Gk.  killibas  (iaX\lj3a<;) ,  of  the 
same  meaning,  is  from  killos  (/aXXo?),  an  ass.  Gk. 
onos  (ovo<s),  an  ass,  also  a  windlass. 

Sp.  and  Port,  muleta,  a  crutch,  from  mulus,  a 
mule.  It.  bordone,  Fr.  bourdon,  a  pilgrim's  staff, 
from  burdo,  a  mule. 

Sp.  potro,  a  wooden  stand,  Fr.  poutre,  a 
cross-beam,  same  as  Sp.  potro,  It.  poledro,  L. 
Lat.  poledrus,  pulletrus,  a  colt,  Gk.  polos. 
Hence  also  Ger.folter,  a  rack  (Diez). 

Of  the  same  origin  is  'pulley,'  0.  Eng. 
<  poleyn,'   Fr.  poulie,   Sp.  poleay  polin,   identical 

1  With  '  tressel, '  Prov.  Eng.  dressel,  may  perhaps  be  compared 
Icel.  drosuU,  a  horse. 


232  MACHINES   AND   ANIMALS. 

with  Fr.  poulain,  a  colt  or  foal,  also  a  pulley- 
rope  (Cot grave),  Prov.  poll. 

'Gauntree,'  a  frame  to  set  casks  upon,  Fr. 
chantier,  is  the  Latin  cantherius,  a  pack-horse,  also 
a  prop,  a  rafter. 

Lat.  equuleus,  a  young  horse,  also  a  wooden  rack. 

Fr.  bourriquet,  a  handbarrow,  is  from  bourrique, 
Sp.  and  Port,  burro,  an  ass,  L.  Lat.  buricus,  a  nag. 

0.  Eng.  somer,1  a  bedstead,  is  the  French  somier, 
sommier,  a  sumpter-horse,  also  a  piece  of  timber 
called  a  summer  ;  Prov.  sauma,  a  she-ass,  from  the 
Lat.  sagmarius,  a  pack-horse.  The  Persian  bahrak 
denotes  a  cow,  and  also  a  clothes-horse ;  bakarah, 
a  pulley. 

Ger.  bock,  a  buck  or  he-goat,  also  a  trestle  or 
support ;  the  c  box '  of  a  coach.  So  Pol.  koziel,  a 
buck,  kozly,  a  trestle  (Wedgwood). 

Sp.  cabra,  Fr.  chevre,  (1)  a  goat  (Lat.  capra), 
(2)  a  machine  for  raising  weights,  &c,  a  '  crab.' 

'  Chevron]  Fr.  chevron,  Sp.  cabrio,  a  rafter,  from 
chevre,  &c,  a  goat.  '  Calibre,'  0.  Eng.  caliver,  Fr. 
calabre,  a  machine  for  casting  stones,  0.  Sp.  cabra, 
all  from  cabre,  a  goat  (Wedgwood).  Compare 
aries,  a  battering-raw. 

*  Capstan '  is  the  Spanish  cabrestante,  a  wind- 
lass ;  literally  a  standing  goat. 


1  Vide  the  poem  of  'Body  and  Soul,'  Appendix  to  Mapes'  Poems 
(Camden  Soc),  p.  334, 1.  18  j  <  K.  Alys,'  1.  827. 


MACHINES  AND   ANIMALS.  233 

c  Cat,'  on  board  ship,  is  a  ( tackle  for  drawing 
up  the  anchor.' 1 

It.  gatto,  l  a  hee-cat,  Also  an  engine  of  warre  to 
batter  walles  '  (Florio).  Gattus,  i  machina  belli ' 
(Spelman  Glossary),  c  a  werrely  holde  that  men 
call  a  barbed  catte  '  (Caxton's  Vegecius).2 

In  Irish  jid/ichat, l  wooden-cat,'  is  the  ingenuously 
constructed  term  for  a  mouse-trap,  a  quaintness 
exactly  reproduced  in  the  Icelandic  trd-kottr,  of  the 
same  meaning  :  and  in  French,  a  copying-machine, 
from  its  imitative  powers,  is  styled  an  cape,'ww  singe. 

Lat.  sucula,  a  little  sow,  figuratively  a  winch 
or  windlass. 

Sp.  ciguena,  a  crane  for  raising  water,  &c,  is 
from  the  Latin  ciconia,  a  stork.. 

Fr.  crone j  is  the  machine  which  we  call  a 
c  crane,'  Gk.  geranos,  &c. 

Gk.  korax  {K6pa^)  —  {\)  a  raven,  (2)  a  grappling 
iron.      Compare  our  6  crow.' 

By  a  similar  sort  of  personification  many  uten- 
sils and  mechanical  contrivances  are  familiarly 
called  by  the  same  appellations  as  those  human 


1  Falconer,  Marine  Dictionary. 

2  Quoted  in  Wright's  Prov.  Diet.,  s.v.  Similar  is  the  use  of 
*  camels'  (hydraulic  machines),  fire  -dogs,  Lat.  testudo,  Gk.  chelone 
(tortoise),  Fr.  levrault  (Cotgrave),  &c. 

Camden  remarks  that  most  fire-arms  have  their  names  '  from  ser- 
pents or  ravenous  birds.'  Instances  of  the  former  are  the  ancient 
basilici,  dracones,  drakes,  culverins  ;  while  among  those  named  after 
birds  are  the  falcones,  luscinice,  musquets,  sakers,  esmerillons,  ter- 
zeruolos,  0.  Fr.  cranequin,  moineau,  &c.  (Remaines  Concerning 
Britaine,  p.  203,  1637  ;  Spelman,  Glossary,  s.v.  Bombarda). 


234  MACHINES   AND   ANIMALS. 

agents  whose  labours  they  economise,  or  whose 
functions  they  discharge.  Thus  a  small  movable 
rack  or  bracket  affixed  to  the  bars  of  a  grate,  for 
the  purpose  of  holding  toast,  a  tea-pot,  or  any- 
thing of  that  nature,  is  styled  a  c  footman.'  An 
old-fashioned  piece  of  furniture,  once  much  in 
vogue  in  the  dining-room,  which  kept  plates,  &c, 
in  readiness  for  the  different  courses,  was  termed 
a  i  dumb  waiter.'  A  weight  which,  suspended  be- 
hind a  door,  serves  to  shut  it  after  one,  and  a  hold- 
fast or  cramp,  are  alike  in  French  called  un  valet. 
An  arrangement  of  tapes  for  holding  up  a  lady's 
dress  when  walking,  in  the  language  of  milliners  is 
a  c  page ; '  while  a  pocket-book  that  always  has  a 
needle  and  thread  in  readiness  is  a  '  huzzif '  or 
'  housewife.'  A  bureau  adapted  to  keep  one's 
papers  and  accounts  in  orderly  arrangement  is 
known  as  a  '  secretary '  {tin  secretaire). 

1  Mr  Boffin  always  believed  a  Secretary  to  be  a  piece  of  fur- 
niture, mostly  of  mahogany,  lined  with  green  baize  or  leather, 
with  a  lot  of  little  drawers  in  it.' 

Dickens,  Our  Mutual  Friend,  vol.  i.  p.  135. 

A  contrivance  for  turning  the  spit  before  the 
fire,  and  so  relieving  the  cook  of  that  part  of  her 
duties,  is  a  '  jack ;'  while  an  implement  that 
helps  one  off  with  his  boots  is  a  '  boot-jack.'  The 
Germans  call  it  a  c boot-boy'  (stiefel-knecht). 

In  the  dialect  of  the  peasantry,  a  washing- 
beetle  or  churn-dash  is  a  '  Dolly ; '  an  instrument 
affixed  to  a  tub  in  washing,  in  order  to  let  the 


HATCHMENT.  235 

clothes  drain  through,  is  a  '  Betty '  (Northamp- 
ton) ;  a  species  of  mop,  used  to  sweep  a  baker's 
oven,  is  'a  maukin,'  i.e.,  Mollikin,  or  little  Molly. 
Perhaps  the  housebreaker's  '  Jemmy,'  and  the  busy 
*  spinning- Jenny,'  should  have  a  place  here  too. 

With  a  satirical  allusion,  and  indeed  bigoted 
innuendo,  a  vessel  of  hot  water  employed  as  a  bed- 
warmer  was  sometimes  called  a  '  nun,'  sometimes 
a  c  damsel,' 1  being  supposed  to  discharge  the  same 
good  office  that  the  fair  Shunammite  did  for  the 
aged  King  of  Israel,  when  '  they  covered  him  with 
clothes,  but  he  gat  no  heat,'  and  she  consented  to 
cherish  him  (1  King  i.  1-4).  Southey,  by  a  play- 
ful turn  of  the  phrase,  suggested  that  the  same 
comfortable  adjunct  of  the  bedchamber,  when  em- 
ployed by  a  lady-friend,  should  be  nominated  the 
1  friar.'  With  these  we  may  compare  the  grim  and 
ghastly  humour  of  such  expressions  for  instru- 
ments of  torture  or  execution  which  receive  their 
guests  into  a  deadly  embrace,  as  the  '  maiden,' 
the  c  scavenger's  daughter,'  the  'widow'  (la  veuve). 

Among  other  ceremonious  marks  of  respect  to 
the  dead,  formerly  much  more  freely  paid  than  now, 
which  were  sometimes  combined  with  the  hearse 
in  its  primitive  form  of  a  catafalc  or  cenotaph, 
was  the  '  hatchment.'  This  was  an  escutcheon 
erected,  over  the  door  generally,  when  a  person  of 
distinction  had  died.     Its  name  is  a  corruption  of 

1  Southey,  C.-P.  Book,  vol.  iv.  p.  434. 


236  HATCHMENT. 

'  achievement,'  or,  as  it  used  to  be  spelt,  c  atchieve- 
ment,'  which  was  an  heraldic  term,  Bailey  informs 
us,  for  i  the  coat  of  arms  of  any  gentleman,  set  out 
fully  with  all  that  belongs  to  it ; '  and  the  hearse, 
according  to  the  same  authority,  used  once  to  be 
hung  with  these  i  atchievements.'  It  may  be  sup- 
posed that  the  coat-of-arms  was  originally  so  called 
from  its  commemorating  some  remarkable  exploit 
or  achievement 1  performed  by  the  person  to  whom 
it  was  first  assigned — crescents,  for  instance,  re- 
calling the  part  he  had  borne  in  the  crusades 
against  the  Saracens,  or  cockleshells  his  pilgrim- 
age over  sea  to  the  shrine  of  St  Jago  of  Compos- 
tella.  At  all  events,  '  hatchments '  are  nothing 
else  but  '  achievements  '  slightly  in  disguise. 

Very  similar  is  the  history  of  another  word.  The 
Spanish  losa,  Prov.  lauza,  Port,  lousa,  0.  Fr.  lauze, 
originally  signifying  praise  (Lat.  laus),  was  applied 
afterwards  in  a  specific  sense  to  an  epitaph  on  the 
dead,  owing  to  the  proverbially  laudatory  style  of 
such  inscriptions  ;  then,  by  a  natural  transition  of 
meaning,  it  came  to  denote,  not  merely  the  epitaph, 
but  the  tombstone  itself;  and  finally,  losing  all 
remembrance  of  its  origin,  any  square  flag-stone. 
Compare  the  Spanish  lauda,  a  tomb-stone." 

Remarkably  parallel,   too,  is   the   course  which 

1  'Achievement,'  from  Fr.  achever  (q.d.,  a-chef-ment)  is  something 
brought  to  a  head,  or  consummated,  a  success,  the  opposite  of  Fr. 
mechef,  meschef,  Eng.  '  mischief,'  a  headless  and  unfinished  under- 
taking, or  one  that  comes  to  an  unhappy  end,  a  misfortune. 

8  M.  Scheler,  Diez. 


LOZENGE.  237 

has  been  run  by  another  word,  nearly  related  to 
this  last.  The  Old  French  losenge,  lozenge,  It. 
lusinga,  Pro  v.  lauzenga  (from  lauzar,  to  praise, 
Lat.  laudare),  denoted  first  of  all  flattery,  com- 
mendation; then  the  praises,  devices,  or  arms  of 
a  family  depicted  and  emblazoned  on  a  shield; 
then  the  shape  of  a  shield  abstracted  from  all 
consideration  of  its  contents,  a  quadrilateral  or 
diamond-shaped  figure  <^>.  '  Lozange  or  spancle 
(spangyl)  lorale'  (Prompt.  Parvulorum).  'Lozenge, 
a  little  square  cake  of  preserved  herbs,  flowers,  &c. ; 
also  a  quarrel  of  a  glasse  window ;  anything  of 
that  form.'  How  little  conscious  we  are,  as  we 
suck  the  neat,  little,  sugary  tablet  of  the  confec- 
tioner— the  only  meaning  that  '  lozenge  '  has  now 
for  most  men — that  its  name  was  once  a  word  of 
dignity  that  called  up  images  of  heraldic  splendour 
and  sepulchral  pomp.1 

We  may  compare  with  this  the  word  6  blazon,' 
the   shield  on  which  a  coat-of-arms  is  displayed 

1  The  confusion  we  here  see  arising,  and  transition  of  meaning 
from  the  honour  due  to  the  dead  to  the  mere  figure  or  outward 
material  form  which  that  honour  at  times  has  assumed,  may  per- 
haps help  us  to  explain  Spenser's  use  of  '  herse  '  in  the  sense  of 
ceremonial  generally  in  those  verses  of  the  Faerie  Queene  where, 
during  the  solemn  service  of  the  church — 

'  The  faire  Damzel  from  the  holy  herse, 
Her  loyesicke  hart  to  other  thoughts  did  steale'  (III.  ii.  48)  ; 

unless,  indeed,  the  poet  in  his  own  mind  connected  that  word  with 
another,  which  he  also  employs,  'hersall,'  for  rehearsal,  or  with  the 
verb  hery,  to  honour  or  worship.  '  0  heavie  herse,'  in  the  Shep- 
heards  Calender  (November,  1.  61),  is  explained  in  the  contemporary 
annotations  of  his  friend  Edward  Kirke,  to  be  '  the  solemne  obsequie 
in  f  uneralles.' 


238  TIMBRE. 

(Fr.  blason,  Prov.  blezo).  It  formerly  meant  the 
armorial  bearings  themselves,  as  the  means  by 
which  the  honour  and  rank  of  the  family  are 
blazed  or  blazoned  forth,  their  praise  or  commen- 
dation, with  an  oblique  allusion,  perhaps,  to  the 
warm  and  glowing  tints  in  which  the  arms  were 
limned  or  illuminated.  Cotgrave  defines  blasonner 
1  to  blaze  Armes  ;  also,  to  praise,  extoll,  commend  ; 
or,  to  publish  the  praises,  divulge  the  perfections, 
proclaime  the  vertues  of.' 

And  not  unlike  is  the  history  of  the  French  word 
timbre,  a  postage  label.  It  formerly  denoted  a 
shield  impressed  with  a  device  or  coat-of-arms ; 
earlier  still,  it  signified  a  coat-of-arms,  and  espe- 
cially a  helmet,  Sp.  timbre ;  and  the  helmet  itself 
was  so  termed  from  its  resemblance  to  a  brass 
bell  or  kettledrum,  utensils  which  would  serve 
that  turn  at  a  pinch,  as  well  as  Mambrino's  famous 
helmet.  Timbre,  in  the  sense  of  a  bell,  is  akin  to 
timbon,  l  a  kind  of  brasen  drum ; '  tympan,  a  '  tim- 
brel'  or  '  tabour '  (see  Cotgrave,  s.vv.);  Lat.  tym- 
panum, Gk.  tumpanon,  a  drum. 

'  Halo.' — This  name  for  the  misty  circle  which 
sometimes  forms  around  the  moon  and  the  sun  has 
come  to  us,  as  is  well  known,  from  the  Greek.  In 
that  language  holds  (a\a>s),  or  aloe  (aXcorj),  was  used 
to  denote  any  enclosed  plot  of  ground,  especially  one 
enclosed  for  a  thrashing-floor.  This  holds,  or  floor, 
from  the  constant  revolving  motion  of  the  oxen 


HALO.  239 

employed  in  thrashing  out  the  grain,  naturally  as- 
sumed a  circular  shape ;  so  the  word,  from  the  as- 
sociated idea  of  rotundity,  came  to  be  transferred 
to  the  discs  of  the  sun  and  moon,  and  finally,  in  a 
specific  sense,  to  the  bright  encircling  ring  which 
we  still  call  a  '  halo.'  I  mention  this  now  in 
order  to  direct  attention  to  the  curiously  similar 
way  in  which  synonymous  terms  have  arisen  in 
other  languages.  In  German,  hof,  which  is  the 
ordinary  word  for  an  enclosure,  plot,  or  courtyard, 
is  used  also  for  a  halo,  and  for  a  dark  circle  round 
the  eyes.  A  common  north-country  word  for  a 
halo  is  burr,  which  is  also  found  under  the  forms 
brugh,  brough,  bruff}  Proverbial  sayings  are — '  Far 
burr  near  rain  ;  ' 

'  About  the  moon  there  is  a  brugh, 
The  weather  will  be  cauld  and  rough.' 2 

This,  however,  is  only  a  derived  sense  of  the 
word  brugh,  which  is  applied  to  circular  forts  or  bar- 
rows. It  is  the  Anglo-Saxon  burh,  beorh,  or  burgh,3 
a  court,  fortress,  or  castle.  Brother  Geoffry  the 
Grammarian,  in  his  ancient  i  English-Latin  Dic- 
tionary'  (about  1440),  gives  '  burwhe,  sercle  (bur- 

1  Fide'Ferguson,  Dialect  of  Cumberland,p.  16;  Jamieson,  Forby,  &c. 

2  Swainson,  Weather  Folk-Lore,  p.  186. 

3  The  change  of  pronunciation  from  brugh,  burgh,  to  bruff,  is  not 
uncommon  —  e.  g.,  '  bethoft '  is  an  old  spelling  of  bethought, 
'thof'  of  though,  'faff  of  fought.  'Furlough'  is  the  Dutch 
verlof.  Ancient  forms  are  trow  =  trough,  cowe  —  cough,  rowe 
=  rough.  In  provincial  dialects  buff  =  bough,  plufF  =  plough, 
bawft  =  bought,  thoft  =  thought.  In  old  writers  we  find  taught 
rhyming  with  aloft,  and  daughter  with  after. 


240  AUREOLE. 

rowe),  orbiculus,' 1  as  well  as  '  burrche,  towne 
(burwth,  burwe,  burrowe),  burgus.'  In  Arabic, 
ddrat,  meaning  a  bouse,  dwelling,  circular  place, 
or  round  beap  of  sand,  is  used  also  for  a  balo 
round  tbe  moon.  This  brigbt  pbenomenon  was 
called  by  tbe  Romans  area — a  word  wbicb  runs 
exactly  parallel  witb  tbe  Greek  holds,  meaning, 
(1)  a  plot  of  ground,  (2)  a  thrashing-floor, 
(3)  a  balo  round  one  of  tbe  beavenly  bodies.  A 
similar  luminous  appearance  encompassing  tbe 
bead  of  a  saint  in  Cbristian  art  is  termed  an 
i  aureole,'  mediasval  Lat.  aureola.  Tins  is  gene- 
rally imagined  to  represent  tbe  classical  Latin 
aureola  (sc.  corona),  a  diminutive  of  aurea,  and  to 
mean  '  a  golden  circlet,'  as  indeed  it  is  generally 
depicted.  It  is  bigbly  probable,  bowever,  tbat, 
not  aureola,  but  areola  (a  little  balo),2  a  diminutive 
of  area,  is  tbe  true  and  original  form,  and  tbat  tbe 
usual  orthography  is  due  to  a  mistaken  connec- 
tion with  aurum,  gold,  just  as  for  the  same  reason 
urina  became,  in  Italian,  auri?ia;3  It.  arancio  be- 
came Fr.  orange,  L.  Lat.  2ooma  cairantia ;  Gk. 
oreichalcos  became  Lat.  aurichalcum.  This  is  cer- 
tainly more  likely  than  that  it  is  a  diminutive  of 

1  Promptorium  Parvulorum.  The  burr  of  a  lanc\  a  projecting  ring 
to  protect  the  hand,  is  no  doubt  the  same  word  (vide  Way's  note  s.v.) 
The  0.  Eug.  term  was  '  trendel.'  '  Wunderlic  trendel  weaiS  ate- 
owed  abutanpare  sunnan.'  A.-Sax.  trendel,  a  circle,  Dorset  trendel, 
a  round  tub. 

2  Areola  [in  anatomy]  is  the  circle  of  the  Pap  or  Teat '  (Bailey). 

3  '  From  its  yellow  colour '  (Florio),  q.d.  aurea  aqua. 


AUREOLE.  241 

aura,  a  luminous  breath  or  exhalation,  which  is 
the  view  put  forward  by  Didron  in  his  '  Christian 
Iconography'  (p.  107).  He  quotes  a  passage  from 
an  apocryphal  treatise,  '  De  Transitu  B.  Marias 
Virginis,'  which  states  that  '  a  brilliant  cloud  ap- 
peared in  the  air,  and  placed  itself  before  the 
Virgin,  forming  on  her  brow  a  transparent  crown, 
resembling  the  aureole  or  halo  which  surrounds 
the  rising  moon  '  (p.  137).  Here,  obviously,  areola 
would  have  been  the  more  correct  word  to  have 
employed,  and  it  is  the  one  which  recommended 
itself  to  De  Quincey.     He  writes — 

1  In  some  legends  of  saints  we  find  that  they  were  born  with 
a  lambent  circle  or  golden  areola  about  their  heads.' 

Works,  vol.  xv.  p.  39. 

So  correct  a  writer  would  not  have  applied  the 
superfluous  epithet  of  '  golden '  to  this  i  superna- 
tural halo,'  as  he  subsequently  terms  it,  if  the 
word  were  to  him  only  another  form  of  aureola. 

The  aureole  and  nimbus  must  not  be  considered 
peculiar  to  Christian  symbolism,  as  they  existed, 
not  only  amongst  the  Greeks  and  Romans,1  but  even 
amongst  the  Hindus  and  Egyptians.2  Mr  Paley,  in 
his  commentary  on  iEschylus  (Suppl.  637),  sug- 
gests a  curious  origin  for  the  nimbus  which 
surrounds  the  heads  of  the  saints.  He  maintains 
that  it  is  identical  with  the  metallic  plate  called 


1  Didron,  Christian  Iconography,  p.  132. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  146  seq. 


242  AUREOLE. 

meniscus,  which  was  placed  over   Grecian  statues, 

originally  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  them  from 

the   defilements  of  birds,1  afterwards  as   a  mere 

customary  adornment.       Clement  of  Alexandria, 

when  arguing  with  the  heathens,  taunts  them  with 

this  fact,  that  the  swallows  were  in  the  habit  of 

perching  most  unceremoniously  on  the  statues  of 

their  gods,  paying  no  respect  either  to  Olympian 

Zeus,  or  Epidaurian  Asclepius,  or  even  to  Athene 

Polias,  or  the  Egyptian  Serapis,  and  he  marvels 

that  this  had  not  taught  them  the  senselessness  of 

images.2     In   the   apocryphal  Epistle  of  Jeremy 

the  same  argument  is  directed  against  the  idols  of 

Babylon — 

'  Upon  their  bodies  and  heads  sit  bats,  swallows,  and  birds, 
and  the  cats  also.  By  this  ye  may  know  that  they  are  no 
gods  :  therefore  fear  them  not.' 3 


1  Mt)vI<tkos  (Aristoph.,  Aves,  1114). 

From  his  use  of  the  word  in  'Queen  Mary'  (act  v.  sc.  2),  it 
might  be  supposed  that  Tennyson  connected  '  aureole '  with 
aurum — 

'Our  Clarence  there 
Sees  ever  such  an  aureole  round  the  Queen, 
It  gilds  the  greatest  wronger  of  her  peace, 
Who  stands  the  nearest  to  her.' 

2  Exhortation  to  Heathen,  ch.  iv. 

3  Baruch  vi.  22,  23. 


( 243 ) 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE    WORD    i  CLE  VER.' 

There  are  few  words  in  the  language  more  puz- 
zling than  the  word  e  clever,'  when  we  attempt  to 
trace  it  to  its  origin.  Three  derivations  present 
themselves.  Each,  if  it  stood  alone,  and  could  be 
considered  apart  from  the  others,  has  much  to 
recommend  it ;  but  their  conflicting  claims  give  rise 
to  no  little  perplexity  in  the  mind  of  a  candid  in- 
quirer, and  render  a  judicial  decision  between 
them  a  matter  of  considerable  difficulty. 

First  of  all,  there  is  the  Anglo-Saxon  gleav,1 
skilful,  wise,  and  gleav-ferhdh,  wise-minded,  saga- 
cious. The  meaning  seems  to  suit  admirably. 
But  unfortunately,  it  is  just  this  close  approxima- 
tion to  the  present  signification  of  '  clever '  that 
invalidates  its  claim.  In  the  earlier  stages  of  its 
use,  that  word  was  applicable,  not  to  the  mind,  but 
to  the  body — not  to  mental,  but  manual  dexterity 
— not  to  intellectual,  but  always  bodily  activity. 


1  Goth,  glaggvus,  0.  Norse  gloggr,  N.  H.  Ger.  Mug,  have  been 
compared  (Diefenbach),  and  Irish  glica,  0.  Irish  gliccu  (W.  Stokes, 
Irish  Glosses,  p.  130).     W.  glew,  North  Eng.  glegg,  quick,  smart. 


244  CLEVER. 

The  reader  will  no  doubt  be  surprised  to  learn 
that  a  word  so  useful,  and  so  commonly  employed 
in  daily  conversation,  is  comparatively  of  recent 
introduction,  and  only  crept  in  (to  the  written  lan- 
guage, at  least)  about  two  centuries  ago.  It  is 
dangerous,  I  know,  to  speak  dogmatically  as  to 
the  first  appearance  of  any  word ;  but  I  believe  it 
will  be  found  that i  clever '  has  not  been  traced  in 
our  literature  further  back  than  to  the  time  of 
the  Kestoration,  or  thereabouts.  It  may  be  met, 
indeed,  in  the  works  of  Swift,  of  Burnet,  of  South, 
and  of  Samuel  Butler ;  but  it  does  not  once  occur 
in  Milton's  poems,  nor  in  our  English  Bible.  It 
will  be  looked  for  in  vain  in  the  poems  of  Pope, 
though  it  does  occur  in  one  of  Swift's  '  Imitations 
of  Horace,'  which  is  usually  printed  amongst 
Pope's  works,  on  account  of  some  additional 
verses  he  appended  to  it.  It  does  not  appear  in 
Shakspere — nor  in  any  of  his  contemporaries,  so 
far  as  I  am  aware.  The  adjective  that  seems 
generally  to  have  done  duty  in  its  stead  is  the 
term  '  ingenious/  So  late  as  1684  Sir  Thomas 
Browne,  in  his  tract  on  the  Saxon  tongue,  includes 
'  clever'  among  the  c  words  of  no  general  reception 
in  England,  but  of  common  use  in  Norfolk,  or 
peculiar  to  the  East  Angle  counties.'  Hickes,  in 
his  '  Anglo-Saxon  Grammar,'  referring  to  these 
words  of  Browne,  is  content  to  leave  '  clever, 
cultus,  eleganSj   with  a  few  others,  unelucidated, 


CLEVER.  245 

as  being  altogether  beyond  his  ken.1  Some 
twenty  years  earlier,  Skinner  has  c  clever,  cleverly,' 
in  his  '  Etymologicon '  (1667),  and  defines  them 
'Dextrd,  Agiliter'  It  is  not  to  be  found,  however, 
in  Sherwood's  '  English-French  Dictionary'  (1660), 
nor  in  Minsheu's  l  Guide  into  the  Tongues '  (1627). 2 
Mr  Oliphant3  supposes  that  he  has  discovered 
the  word  in  use  at  a  date  very  much  earlier 
indeed — no  later,  in  fact,  than  about  the  middle 
of  the  thirteenth  century.  Undoubtedly,  a  word 
'  cliuer '  does  appear  in  a  poem  of  that  period, 
printed  by  Dr  Morris  for  the  Early  English  Text 
Society,  in  his  '  Old  English  Miscellany  '  (p.  3), 
but  the  question  is,  whether  there  is  anything 
more  than  its  resemblance  in  form  to  connect  it 
with  the  one  we  are  considering?  The  writer 
is  impressing  on  his  reader  the  necessity  of  divest- 
ing himself  of  his  sins  by  shrift  and  amendment 
of  life,  because  then  the  devil  will  flee  from  him, 
as  the  adder  (neddre)  always  does  from  a  naked 
man.      But,  he  adds — 

1  On  the  clothede  the  neddre  is  cof  (bold), 
And  the  deuel  cliuer  on  sinnes' —  LI.  220,  221. 

i.e.,  the  adder  does  not  fear  to  attack  the  clothed, 
and  so  upon  sins  the  devil  is  '  ready-to-take-hold,'  4 

1  'Utpote  nos  prorsus  latentia.' 

2  Minsheu  only  gives  clever  or  diver,  an  herb,  or  a  chopping-knif  e. 

3  Standard  English,  p.  126. 

4  So  Stratmann,  '  cliver,  from  cliven  (?),  clever,  tenax(?). — Diet, 
of  0.  Eng.  Language. 


246  CLEVER. 

or,  if  we  might  forge  a  term  for  the  occasion,  is 
'  clutchy.'  Accordingly,  <  clever  '  would  mean 
primarily  'apt  to  lay  hold  on  with  the  cleyes, 
claws,  clivers,  or  clutches,'  <  quick  in  grasping,' 
and  would  be  near  akin  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  clavu, 
clea,  a  claw  (which  is  from  clifan,  to  adhere  or 
cleave  to),  just  as  the  Scotch  clench  (agile,  clever) 
is  from  cleuck  (a  claw  or  clutch),  and  gleg  (clever) 
from  glac  (to  seize). 

This,  the  second  derivation  referred  to  above,  is 
the  theory  propounded  by  Mr  Wedgwood,  and  the 
one  now  generally  approved  of.  There  is  yet 
another  origin,  which,  though  set  aside  by  him  in 
favour  of  the  foregoing,  admits  of  a  great  deal 
being  said  in  its  favour.  I  propose  to  examine  it 
now  at  some  length.  It  is  that  '  clever '  is 
merely  a  modern  corruption  of  the  very  common 
Old  English  adjective  '  deliver,'  which  meant 
active  and  nimble.1  The  primary  signification  of 
'  clever '  was  quite  the  same  ;  for  it  should  be 
remembered  throughout  that  the  notion  of  mental 
quickness  and  capacity,  or  keenness  and  versatility 
of  the  intellectual  powers,  which  we  now  attach 
to  the  word,  is  but  a  secondary  one,  and  that  it 
formerly  imported  personal  agility,  nimbleness,  or 
dexterity — the  very  sense  which  '  deliver '  always 
bears  in  old  authors.      It  will  be  convenient   to 

So  Professor  Craik,  English  of  Shakspere. 


CLEVEK.  247 

consider — (1)  the  word  c  deliver/  (2)  the  possible 
transmutation  of  '  deliver '  into  c  clever/  (3)  the 
word  '  clever.' 

1.  *  Delyvere  (or  quycke  in  beynesse)  '  is  de- 
fined to  be  vivax  in  the  '  Promptorium  Parvu- 
lorum,'  an  English-Latin  dictionary  compiled 
about  1440.  In  a  note  on  this,  the  editor,  Mr 
Way,  quotes  from  Palsgrave,  '  delyver  of  ones 
lymmes,  as  they  that  prove  mastryes,  souple,  agile,' 
and  from  Thomas,  '  snello,  quicke,  deliver.' 

'  Delivre  de  sa  personne,'  says  Cotgrave  (1660), 
is  6  an  active,  nimble  wight,  whose  joynts  are  not 
tied  with  points ;  one  that  can  weild  his  limbs  at 
pleasure.' 

Skinner  (1667)  mentions  <  deliver'  as  not  yet 
quite  obsolete  in  his  time,  and  defines  it  as  6  agile,' 
free  and  ready  for  action,  almost  exactly  the  same 
definition  as  he  gives  elsewhere  for  '  clever, 
cleverly '  (viz.,  Dextrd,  Agiliter). 

It    is    from    the  verb  delivrer,   Lat.  deliberare, 

to  free  or  loose  ;  and  so  a  deliver  man  was  one 

unfettered  in  his  motions  and  actions,  or  nimble, 

like  Chaucer's  squire,  who  in  stature 

'  Was  of  even  lengthe 
And  wonderly  deliver  and  grete  of  strengthe.' 

Prologue,  Canterbury  Tales. 

The  same  writer  says — 

4  Certes,  the  goodes  of  the  body  ben  hele  of  body,  strengthe, 
deliverjiess,  beautee,  gentrie,  franchise.'  Persones  Tale. 

'  Quicke  and  deliver '  is   the  explanatory  gloss 


248  CLEVER. 

that  Kirke  appended  to  these  words  of  his  friend 

Spenser — 

'  He  Vaa  so  wimble  and  so  wight 
From  bough  to  bough  he  lepped  light.' 

Shepheards  Calender  (March). 

I  add   some  other   instances,  to  show   how  the 
word  was  used — 

'  Wyte,  or  delyvyr,  or  swyfte  (wyghte),  Agilis.' 

Promptorium  Parvulorum  (1440). 

Compare  with  this — 

'  Wicht,  stout,  valiant,  clever,  active,  or  swift.' 
'  Deliverly,  claverly,  nimbly.' 

Glossary  to  Gawin  Douglas  (1710). 

'  Cried  was,  that  thei  shulde  come 
Unto  the  game  all  and  some 
Of  hem  that  ben  deliver  and  wight, 
To  do  such  maistrie  as  thei  might.' 

Gower,  Conf.  Am.,  Bk.  VIII. 

'Papyonns  .  .  .  taken    more    scharpely    the    Bestes    and 
more  delyverly  than  don  houndes.' 

Mandeville  (ed.  Halliwell),  p.  29. 
'  Thre  small  shyppes  escaped  by  theyr  delyver  saylynge.' 

Fabyan  (sub.  an.  1338). 

1  Swim  with  your  bodies 
And  carry  it  sweetly  and  deliverly.' 

Two  Noble  Kinsmen,  iii.  5. 
'  Hereto  he  is  one  the  lightest,  delyuerest,  best-spoken,  fairest 
archer.'  Paston  Letters,  XLVI.  vol.  ii.  p.  93. 

'  Deliuerly  on  fute  gat  he, 
And  drew  his  suerd  owt,  and  thaim  mete.' 

Barbour,  The  Bruce,  Bk.  V.  1.  506. 
1  Bot  the  gud  steid,  that  wald  nocht  stand 
Lansyt  furth  deliuerly.'  Ibid.,  Bk.  VI.  1.  84 

The  shorter  form  liver  (Fr.  livre,  Lat.  liber)  was 
also  in  use  in  the  sense  of  quick,  active,  e.g. — 


CLEVER.  249 

1  But  Eobin  he  lope  &  Eobin  he  threw, 
he  lope  over  stocke  and  stone  ; 
hut  those  that  saw  Eobin  Hood  run 
said  he  was  a  liver  old  man/ 

Percy  Folio  MS.,  vol.  i.  p.  17. 

2.  The  process  of  change.  If  c  deliver '  be 
spoken  quickly,  and  the  first  syllable  slurred  in 
the  pronunciation,  the  resultant  form  '  d'liver,'  or 
6  d'lever,'  would  inevitably  tend  to  become  '  clever,' 
the  combination  dl  being  to  most  ears  hardly  dis- 
tinguishable from  gl  or  cL  Nor  is  the  extrusion 
of  a  short  vowel  from  the  beginning  of  a  word  at 
all  uncommon.  Thus  our  '  plush  '  is  the  French 
peluche ;  i  platoon  '  is  the  French  and  Spanish  pelo- 
ton;  1  i  clock/  a  black-beetle,  is  for 6  gellock  '  (Bav. 
kieleck,  0.  Ger.  ckuleich)  ;  '  sloop  '  is  another  form 
of  '  shallop,'  Fr.  chaloupe ;  i  sprite  '  is  otherwise 
'  spirite,'  or  f  spirit ; '  the  Italian  bricco,  an  ass,  is 
the  Portuguese  burrico,  Sp.  borrico,  Lat.  buricus ; 
Holsteinjp/?Y,sc/$  (clever)  is  for  politisch,  and  klur  for 
couleur.  So  ' remnant'  is  for  ' remanent,' ' fortnight' 
for  '  fortenight,' '  surplice'  for  £sur-pellice,'  and  such 
pronunciations  as  b'lieve,  med'cine,  may  often  be  ob- 
served. Compare  Fr.  vrai  beside  verus,  '  very,'  0. 
Fr.  verai;  vrille  beside  the  Italian  verrina,  verricello. 
In  his  directions  for  pronunciation  prefixed  to  his 


1  Compare  glades  for  gelacies ;  Fr.  Jlon,  in  Cotgrave  an  old 
form  of  felon;  lourd,  a  jest,  in  0.  Fr.  hehourd,  bohnrd.  So  '  crown  ' 
is  for  corone  ;  '  crowner '  (Shaks.)  for  coroner ;  '  clown '  for  colone  ; 
1  jilt '  for  jillet.  In  Dutch,  krent  =  Ger.  Tcorinthc,  a  currant ;  Tcronie 
(jcaronie)  =  Fr.  charogne,  It.  carogna;  pruih  (Helig.  priig)  =  Ger. 
perriicke,  a  periwig. 


250  CLEVER. 

Dictionary,  Webster  lays  down  a  principle  which, 
however  questionable,  is  very  apposite  to  the  point 
in   hand — 

1  The  letters  cl  answering  to  hi  are  pronounced  as  if  written 
tl;  clear,  clean,  are  pronounced  ^ear,  tlean.  Gl  is  pronounced 
dl,  glory  is  pronounced  dlory.'  Rule  XXIII. 

In  Irish,  Mr  Joyce  informs  us,  the  letters  d  and  g 
when  aspirated  (dh  and  gh)  are  sounded  exactly 
alike,  so  that  it  is  impossible  to  distinguish  them  in 
speaking.  Consequently,  in  names  of  places  gh  is 
now  very  generally  substituted  for  the  older  dh* 
Thus  Gargrim  should  be  Gardrim,  being  the  Irish 
Gearrdhruim  (short  ridge),  and  Fargrim  should  be 
Fardrim,  Irish  Fardhruim  (outer  ridge).1 

In  illustration  of  this  principle,  by  which  tl,  tr, 
become  cl,  cr,  or  hi,  kr,  and  dl,  dr,  become  gl,  gr, 
I  append  the  following  instances  : — 

In  Cotgrave  (s.v.  Niquet)  tlick  stands  for  what 
we  now  write  (  click.'  Trane  is  the  Danish  for 
our  l  crane,'  just  as  I  have  heard  a  child  say  trown, 
when  it  meant  4  crown.'     K  Eng.  twill  for  '  quill.' 

Ankelers  (for  anklers)  is  an  archaic  way  of 
writing  '  antlers.' 2 

Ascla,  a  splinter,  in  Provencal,  is  for  astla, 
from  L.  Lat.  astula  (Diez). 

Buskle  is  found  as  a  collateral  form  of  'bustle.' 


1  Irish  Names  of  Places,  p.  54. 

2  Vide  quotation  in  Soane's  New  Curiosities  of  Literature,  vol. 
ii.  p.  138. 


(JLEVER.  251 

-do,  -cro,  -cla,  &c.,  a  Latin  suffix,  is  said  to  be 
for  -tlo,  -tro,  -tla,  &cl 

Craindre,  0.  Fr.  crembre  (to  fear),  is  from  the 
Latin  tremere  (Diez). 

6  Huckleberry,'  also  '  hurtle-berry.' 

*  Scrub,'  Dan.  skrub,  is  the  Dutch  strobbe. 

Schioppo  (It.),  a  blow,  is  from  the  Latin  stlop- 
pus,  through  a  form  scloppus  (Diez). 

Snickle  (prov.  Eng.),  a  noose  or  snare,  is  some- 
times spelt  i  snitle.' 

Ruckle  is  another  form  of  '  ruttle.' 2 

Skinkle   (Scot.),  a  spark,  is  the   Latin  scintilla. 

Sparkelen  (Dut.)  also  presents   the  form  spar- 
telen.3    Cleveland  tattling  =  tackling,  twilt  =  quilt. 

'  Trickle  ;  corresponds  to  the  Old  Norse  tritill. 

Tranckle  is  also  found  as  trantel} 

Turckle  is  an  old  way  of  writing  '  turtle.' 5 
Vecckio,  veglio  (It.),  is  from  the  L.  Lat.  veclus, 
i.e.  vetlus  for  vetulus,  old  (Diez). 

Similarly,    Suckling  the   poet  figures    as   '  Sir 

John  Sutlin  '  in    '  Strafford's  Letters  '  (vol.  ii.  p. 

150)  ;    Ballinclay,  a    townland    in    Wexford,    is 

otherwise  Ballintlea ;    and  Twit'nam  was  Pope's 

favourite  spelling  of  Twickenham — 

'  All  fly  to  Twit'nam,  and  in  humble  strain 
Apply  to  me,  to  keep  them  mad  or  vain,' 

Ep.  to  Arbuthnot,  1.  21. 

1  Vide  the  Academy,  No.  30,  p.  408. 

2  Philological  Soc.  Trans.,  1857,  p.  127. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  108. 

4  Percy  Folio  MS.,  vol.  i.  p.  62. 

6  Chester  Mysteries  (Shakspere  Soc),  vol.  i.  p.  193. 


252  CLEVER. 

Instances  of  the  d  and  g  sounds  interchanging 
are  the  following : — 

'Brangle'  (for  brandle),  (Fr.)  brandiller,  to 
brandish. 

Glukus{(ak.  y\vKvs)  compared  with  Lat.  (dlucis) 
dulcis.1 

Gragea  (Port.)  =  Sp.  dragea,  Fr.  dragte  (sweet- 
meat). 

'  Grisly,'  A. -Sax.  grislic,  also  dryslic. 

Gnopkos  (Gk.  yvofos),  also  (W$o?)  dnophos. 

*  Grains,  brewer's/ — a  corruption  of  '  brewer's 
drains '  (Wedgwood). 

6  Mangle  '  is  the  German  mandel 

i  Shingle'  is  the  German  sckindel,  Lat.  scindula. 

6  Tingle,'  0.  Eng.  dindle,  Dut.  tintelen. 

Ruscum  (Lat.),  sometimes  spelt  rustum. 

Just,  then,  as  '  brickie '  is  another  form  of 
<  brittle,' 2  as  e  tickle '  (for  tittle)  answers   to  the 


1  Philological  Soc.  Trans.,  1860,  p.  152. 

2  'Brickie,'  that  may  be  easily  broken,  from  A. -Sax.  brecan,  to 
break,  is  a  secondary  form  of  •  brittle.' 

'Brickie,  fragilis  '  (Levin's  Manipulus,  1570). 
'Freyl,  and  brokulle,  or  brytylle    ...    or  brekyll'  (Prompt. 
Parv.) 

'  Th'  Altare  on  the  which  this  image  staid, 
Was,  0  great  pitie  !  built  of  brickie  clay.' 

Spenser,  Raines  of  Time,  1.  49S. 

In  the  early  copies  of  the  Authorised  Version  the  expression 
'brickie  vessels'  occurs  (Wisdom  of  Solomon  xv.  13),  but  the 
more  recent  editions  have  changed  it  to  '  brittle.' 

Vide  also  Camden's  Britaunia  (fol.),  p.   515  ;  Percy  Household 
Book,  p.  xiv.  ;  Spoon  and  Sparrow,  p.  147. 
'  Lett  the  warld  pas 
It  is  ever  in  drede  and  brekylle  as  glas. 

Towneley  Mysteries,  Pastures. 


CLEVER.  253 

Latin  titillare,  and  the  Latin  verb  anclare  comes 
from  the  Greek  antlein  (avrXeiv),  so,  by  analogy, 
i  clever  '  would  naturally  arise  from  '  d'lever ' 
(deliver),  though  it  must  be  admitted  we  would 
have  expected  the  form  gliver.  A  doubtful  word 
in  one  of  the  6  Paston  Letters,'  which  the  original 
editor,  Sir  John  Fenn,  confessed  himself  unable 
to  explain,  seems  to  have  preserved  for  us  the 
transitional  form.1 

1  If  it  be  soo  y*  all  tliynge  go  olyver  currant  vft  mor  to 
remembre  that  ther  is  owt  of  that  Contre  ....  that  woll 
and  schall  do  my  lorde  sr  uyse.' 

Letter  of  John  Paston,  Knt,  I  5  Nov.  1470. 

'  Olyver  current,' — '  This  appears  to  be  the  word 
in  the  original,'  says  Fenn.  I  would  confidently 
suggest  that  the  o  in  i  olyver '  is  an  incorrect 
transcription  of  a  d,  either  imperfectly  formed  or 
partially  obliterated,  and  so  the  passage  would 
give  an  easy  reading.  '  If  it  be  so  that  all  things 
go  dlyver  current ' — that  is,  go  freely,  unimpededly 
current,  run  smooth.  '  Clever-through '  in  the  sense 
of  straight- through,  clean-  or  slick-through  is  still 

As  examples  of  the  t  and  k  sounds  interchanging,  compare  the 
following  : — Bat,  0.  Eng.  bak  (Prompt.  Parv.)  ;  nut  =Lat.  nuc-s 
(nux) ;  Gk.  tis  (tis)  =Lat.  quis;  moitie,  metier,  pronounced  moikie, 
mekier  in  French  Canada ;  flicker  =  flitter  ;  damasco  in  Italian, 
also  damasto ;  smackering  =  smattering  (Ward,  Sermons);  Ger. 
kartoffel,  prov.  G-r.  tartoffel  =  It.  tartvfola  ;  cider  =  Lat.  siccra, 
Gk.  sikera  (aiKepa),  Heb.  shicdr  ;  Chietins,  an  Old  French  form  of 
Theatins  (Cotgrave)  ;  Tearlach,  the  Gaelic  form  of  Charles  ;  Sp. 
totovia  =  Port,  cotovia,  Fr.  cochevis,  the  tufted  lark.  Vide  also  Philo- 
logical Soc.  Trans.,  1856,  p.  230;  Spoon  and  Sparrow,  p.  142; 
Joyce,  Irish  Names  of  Places,  p.  55. 
1  CIX.  vol.  iv.  p.  451. 


254  CLEVER. 

in  provincial  use,  and  such  phrases  as  '  He  escaped 
clean  and  clever '  may  be  adduced  for  comparison. 
3.  It  remains  that  we  should  consider  the 
modern  term  c  clever.'  As  being  a  vulgar  or 
slipshod  pronunciation,  it  appears  at  first  to  have 
been  used  only  in  familiar  discourse  or  less  digni- 
fied prose,  like  other  contracted  forms,  as  i  don't,' 
'  can't,'  &c.  Even  in  Johnson's  time  it  was,  at 
least  in  part  of  its  usage,  '  a  low  term,  scarcely 
ever  used  but  in  burlesque  or  conversation.'  He 
defines  it  as  meaning  (1)  well-shaped,  handsome 
— e.g.,  i  a  tight  clever  wench'  (Arbuthnot) ;  (2) 
fit,  proper  ;  (3)  dexterous.  In  the  provincial 
English  of  the  eastern  shires,  '  clever '  still  signifies 
6  good-looking,'  according  to  Halliwell,  and  also 
'  nimble,  neat,  dextrous,  lusty,'  according  to  Ken- 
net.  The  latter  is  the  meaning  in  the  following 
passage  from  Allan  Eamsay  : — 

1  Auld  Steen  led  out  Maggie  Forsyth — 

He  was  her  am  guid-brither  ; 
And  ilka  ane  was  unco  blythe, 
To  see  auld  fouk  sae  clever.' 

Christ's  Kirk  on  the  Green,  canto  ii. 

Mr  Wilkin,  in  a  note  on  Sir  Thomas  Browne's 
mention  of  '  clever,'  states  that  '  claver,  as  it  is 
commonly  pronounced,  is  used  by  the  peasantry  of 
Norfolk  in  speaking  of  any  one  who  is  kind  and 
liberal — e.g.,  He  always  behave  very  claver  to 
the  poor.'  Swift  uses  the  word  in  this  significa- 
tion— 


CLEVER.  255 

'  But  here  a  Grievance  seems  to  lie, 
All  this  is  mine  but  till  I  die  ; 
I  can't  but  think  'twould  sound  more  clever, 
To  me  and  to  my  Heirs  for  ever.' 

Imit.  of  Horace,  Bk.  II.  satire  6. 

This  meaning,  it  will  be  observed,  flows  very 
naturally  from  '  deliver/  free-handed,  liberal ;  but 
it  is  not  easy  to  see  how  it  could  arise  from  an 
original  significant  of  clutching  and  seizing. 
Moore  mentions  that  it  is  a  term  applied  to  any- 
thing handsome  or  good-looking,  as  l  a  clever  horse' 
— indeed,  '  a  clever  roadster,'  and  i  a  clever 
hunter '  are  still  current  phrases  in  the  language 
of  the  horse-mart. 

In  the  following  it  is  used  of  dogs  : — 

'  But  if  my  puppies  ance  were  ready, 
Which  I  gat  on  a  bonny  lady  : 
They'll  be  baith  diver,  keen,  and  beddy.' 

The  Last  Dying  Words  of  Bonny  Heck. 

In   some  parts  of  America  the    word  takes   a 

wider  range  of  meaning,  and   expresses   courtesy 

and  affability,  while  in  New  England  it  connotes 

honesty  and  respectabilitv.      An  English  lady  in 

New    York,   Mr   Bartlett    informs  us,   was   once 

recommended  to  take  a  girl   into  her  service  as 

being    i  clever,   but    not   smart.'     On    trial,    she 

found  her,  in  accordance  with  this   character,  to 

be  merely  dull  and  inoffensive.1 


1  In  America  '  clever '  is  generally  used  in  the  sense  of  amiable. 
'  He  is  clever  certainly,  but  I  should  say  he  was  decidedly  silly.' 
Some  purists  maintain  the  ordinary  English  meaning  of  the  word, 


256  CLEVER. 

To  assist  us  in  appreciating  the  force  and  ac- 
ceptation of  i  clever'  in  standard  English,  I  select 
the  following  passages  from  writers  who  speak 
with  authority : — 

'Cleverness  is  a  certain  knack  or  aptitude  at  doing  certain 
things  which  depend  more  on  a  particular  adroitness  and  off- 
hand readiness  than  on  force  or  perseverance,  such  as  making 
puns,  making  epigrams,  making  extempore  verses,  mimicking 
the  company,  mimicking  a  style,  &c. 

'  Cleverness  is  either  liveliness  and  smartness,  or  something 
answering  to  sleight  of  hand.' 

Hazlitt,  Table-  Talk,  On  the  Indian  Jugglers. 

Very  similar,  both  in  thought  and  diction,  are  the 
remarks  which  De  Quincey  makes  in  endeavour- 
ing to  depreciate  the  popular  reputation  of  the  ad- 
mirable Crichton.  Though  not  defining,  or  even 
introducing  the  word  in  question,  they  serve  to 
illustrate  and  finally  lead  up  to  it. 

'  To  have  a  quickness  in  copying  or  mimicking  other  men, 
and  in  learning  to  do  dexterously  what  they  did  clumsily,  os- 
tentatiously to  keep  glittering  before  men's  eyes  a  thauma- 
turgic  versatility,  such  as  that  of  a  rope-dancer,  or  of  an  Indian 
juggler,  in  petty  accomplishments,  was  a  mode  of  the  very 
vulgarest  ambition.' 

This    hero,    in    fact,   he    holds,   was   l  admirable ' 

rather  for  his  2westige  in  the  primary  sense  of  that 

word  (Lat.  prcestigice)  than  for  any  originality  or 

true  productive  power.     An  observation  altogether 

suitable  for  our  purpose  is  added  a  few  lines  later — 

which  often  leads  to  ambiguity,  so  that  it  is  not  uncommon  to  hear 
the  question  asked,  '  You  say  he  is  clever ;  do  you  mean  English 
clever  or  American  clever  ?'  (C.  A.  Bristed,  Cambridge  Essays 
1855,  p.  65). 


CLEVER.  257 

1  The  pretentions  actually  put  forward  on  his  behalf  simply 
instal  him.  as  a  cleverish  or  dexterous  ape.' 

Works,  vol.  xiv.  p.  423. 

'  By  cleverness,'  says  Coleridge,  '  which  I  dare  not  with  Dr 
Johnson  call  a  low  word,  while  there  is  a  sense  to  be  expressed 
which  it  alone  expresses,  I  mean  a  comparative  readiness  in  the 
invention  and  use  of  means  for  the  realising  of  objects  and 
ideas — often  of  such  ideas  which  the  man  of  genius  only 
could  have  originated,  and  which  the  clever  man  perhaps 
neither  fully  comprehends  nor  adequately  appreciates,  even  at 
the  moment  that  he  is  prompting  or  executing  the  machinery 
of  their  accomplishment.  In  short,  cleverness  is  a  sort  of 
genius  for  instrumentality.  It  is  the  brain  in  the  hand.  In 
literature  cleverness  is  more  frequently  accompanied  by  wit, 
genius  and  sense  by  humour.' 

He  assigns  cleverness  as  a  characteristic  quality  to 
the  French,  genius  to  the  Germans  and  English 
(The  Friend,  vol.  ii.  pp.  133,  134,  ed.  Moxon). 

To  sum  up  in  a  few  words.  '  Clever/  in  all  its 
original  significations,  as  (1)  nimble,  active,  dex- 
terous ;  (2)  handsome ;  (3)  generous,  closely  cor- 
responds to  the  ancient  6  deliver,'  and  in  the 
latter  two  to  the  kindred  Latin  liberalise  while 
the  change  of  form  is  by  means  incapable  of  ex- 
planation. A  well-established  word  in  our  early 
literature,  i  deliver  '  seems  to  have  grown  obsolete 
in  the  Elizabethan  age,  though,  like  many  another 
good  old  term,  it  still  lived  on  in  the  northern  and 
other  provincial  dialects.  Scott,  for  instance,  puts 
the  word  into  the  mouth  of  Evan  Dhu,  when  he 
describes  young  Waverley  as  '  clean-made  and  de- 
liver.'   The  two  forms  of  the  word  appear  never  to 


258  CLEVER. 

have  overlapped  one  another,  or  to  have  co-existed 
in  the  written  language.  During  the  period  of 
transformation  both  seem  to  have  dropped  out  of 
use.  '  Deliver '  for  a  while  is  lost  to  sight,  and 
next  turns  up  in  the  shape  of  (  clever,'  clipped  and 
defaced  during  its  currency  among  the  populace, 
but  still  of  sterling  metal,  and  having  the  ring  of 
the  ancient  coin.  From  being  so  long  relegated  to 
the  commonalty,  this  old  friend  in  disguise  was 
regarded  with  suspicion  at  first  when  it  began  to 
appear  in  respectable  society ;  it  met  but  a  tardy 
recognition,  and  with  difficulty,  by  slow  degrees, 
gained  an  admittance  as  a  denizen  in  the  republic 
of  letters. 

It  is  only  quite  recently  that  6  cleverness '  has 
been  permitted  to  recover  the  position  which  '  de- 
liverness'  once  occupied. 


(  259  ) 


CHAPTER  XI. 

THE     WORD    'NIGHT? 

The  words  for  '  night '  are  identical,  I  believe,  in 
every  language  belonging  to  the  Indo- Germanic 
family.  (Eng.)  night,  (Icel.,  Dan.,  and  Swed.) 
natty  (Ger.  and  Dut.)  nacht,  (Goth.)  nahts,  (Welsh 
and  Bret.)  nos,  (Slav.)  noc,  (Russ.)  nocyi,  (Irish) 
nochd,  (Fr.)  nuit,  (It.)  notte,  (Sp.)  noche,  (Wal- 
lach.)  nogte,  (Lett.)  nakts,  (Lith.)  naktis,  (Lat.) 
noct-s  (nox),  (Gk.)  nukt-s  (vug),  (Sans.)  nakta, 
nakti,  from  the  root  nag  (or  nak),  to  perish,  accord- 
ing to  Pictet,  because  the  night  in  some  sort  is 
regarded  as  being  the  death  of  the  day. 1  i  As 
the  name  of  "  day,"  from  the  root  div  (bright- 
ness), is  associated  with  the  ideas  of  heaven  and 
God,  so  the   name  of  "  night "  is  with  those  of 

1  Orig.  Indo-Europ.,  vol.  ii.  p.  587. 

Benfey  conjectures  that  the  primary  meaning  of  the  root  naq 
was  to  hasten,  then  to  hasten  away,  vanish,  'perire.'  Some  have 
traced  a  connection  with  the  Shemitic,  comparing  (Arab.)  nalcay, 
kill,  injure,  (Heb.)  nakah  (n^),  to  slay  (Davies  in  Philolog.  Soc. 
Trans.,  1854,  p.  261).  We  may  doubtless  compare  the  Anglo-Saxon 
hnaeccan,  to  kill,  (Dut.)  nekken,  (L.  Dut.)  nikker,  the  hangman,  (0. 
Norse)  nikr,  (Swed.)  neck,  (Norweg.)  nok,  a  bloodthirsty  water- 
sprite  {cf.  j  Old  Nick '),  knacker,  and  perhaps  knock  (Thorpe, 
Northern  Mythology,  vol.  ii.  p.  22),  Icel.  ndri  Goth,  naus,  corpse. 


SCO  NIGHT. 

destruction  and  misfortune.'  It  has  the  same  root 
which  appears  in  the  Greek  nik-ros  (ve/cpos,  dead), 
nSk-us  (ve/cvs,  a  corpse),  Lat  noc-ere  (to  hurt), 
nec-are  (to  kill),  nec-s  (nex,  death),  per-nic-ies 
(destruction),  and  perhaps  ve-ne(c)-num  (poison). 
Thus  the  season  of  darkness  carries  involved  in  its 
name  the  associated  ideas  of  hurtfulness  and  un- 
wholesomeness,  as  it  were  noct-s  quod  nocet ;  nuit 
parcequ *elle  nuit ;  i  night '  because  it  noieth  (to  use 
an  Old  English  verb),  or,  as  Spenser  words  it,  is 
the  '  mother  of  anoyance.'  *  Nearly  related  to  it, 
therefore,  in  English  are  the  words  nox-ious, 
noisome,  per-me-ious,  and  venomous  ;  so  that  Mr 
Coventry  Patmore  is  etymologic  ally  correct  in 
speaking  of  i  the  midnight's  noxious  mystery,' 
'  night's  evil  sanctity.'  We  may  compare  the  Sans- 
krit vasati,  vdsura  (night,  lit.  c  the  dead  season '), 
from  the  root  vas  or  vast  (to  kill),  whence  also  come 
vasra  (death),  vasu  (barren,  'waste'). — Pictet. 

Now  it  certainly  seems  an  impressive  and 
solemn  discovery,  in  more  respects  than  one,  that 
'  night,'  when  traced  to  its  ultimate  origin,  im- 
ports '  the  season  of  death.' 2  One  reason,  no 
doubt,  and  the  simplest,  why  it  was  called  so,  is 


1  Thus  it  seems  that  nox  a  noccndo  is  one  of  the  few  etymologies 
advanced  by  the  old  Latin  philologers  which  has  a  substratum  of 
truth  (Servius,  Isidore,  Papias,  &c.)  Catullus,  according  to  Varro, 
had  made  the  statement,  '  Quod  omnia  nisi  interveniat  sol  prima 
obriguerint,  quod  nocet  nox  '  (Vossius,  Etymologicon,  s.v.) 

2  Horace  sometimes  uses  nox  in  the  sense  of  death,  e.g.,  '  Omnes 
una  manet  nox'  (Odes,  I.  xxviii.  15). 


NIGHT.  261 

"because  it  is  the  time  when  *  daylight  dies ' 1 — 
when  the  setting  sun,  like  a  giant  returned  from 
his  course,  but  vanquished,  sinks  down  amid  blood 
and  fire  upon  his  funeral  pile  in  the  west,  till  he 
altogether  perishes  from  view.  The  chill  and 
gloom  and  stillness  which  rapidly  succeed,  con- 
trasted with  the  cheerful  bustle  and  warmth  and 
splendours  of  the  day,  were  felt  by  the  saddened 
spirit  to  be  a  very  death  of  nature. 

The  approach  of  darkness  presented  itself  to  the 
imagination  of  the  ancient  Greeks  as  of  an  implac- 
able enemy  following  the  footsteps  of  the  sun  in 
swift  pursuit,  as  of  a  warrior  pressing  on  inces- 
santly and  irresistibly,  and  seizing  immediately 
upon  everything  as  the  sun  abandoned  it.2  To 
the  modern  Greeks  basileuei,  'he  is  kingly,'  ex- 
presses the  pomp  and  state  of  the  sinking  luminary. 
What  is  with  us  a  sunset,  was  to  men  in  the 
myth-making  ages  the  sun  growing  old,  decaying, 
or  dying.  When  he  touched  the  horizon,  he  was 
conceived  to  cross  the  threshold  of  death,  and  to 
end  his  solitary  life,  struck  by  the  powers  of  dark- 


1  The  Basque  ilhun,  *  twilight,'  is  from  hill,  dead,  and  egun,  day 
(Morris,  English  Accidence,  p.  2). 

Compare  these  words  of  Bishop  Pearson's — '  The  day  dies  into 
night,  and  is  buried  in  silence  and  in  darkness  ;  in  the  next  morn- 
ing it  appeareth  again  and  reviveth,  opening  the  grave  of  darkness, 
rising  from  the  dead  of  night  :  this  is  a  diurnal  resurrection.' — 
'  God  has  appointed  the  continual  returns  of  night  in  order  that  He 
may  so  recall,  and  admonish  us,  every  night,  of  the  solitude  and  still- 
ness and  darkness  of  the  grave'  (Williams,  On  the  Passion,  p.  437). 

2  Buttmann,  Lexilogus,  s.v.  6oos. 


2G2  NIGHT. 

ness ;   l  and    it   is    this    tragedy '   (remarks   Max 
Muller),  '  the  tragedy  of  nature,  which  is  the  life- 
spring  of  all  the  tragedies  of  the  ancient  world.' 1 
So  Shakspere  speaks  of  night — 

1  Whose  black  contagious  breath 
Already  smokes  around  the  burning  crest 
Of  the  old,  feeble,  and  day-wearied  sun.'  2 

This,  then,  is  one  ohvious  reason  why  *  night ' 
was  called  the  '  dead '  or  c  deadly  season,'  because 
it  was  the  destroyer  of  the  brilliant  sun-god,  and 
seemed  to  send  forth  a  chilling  breath  over  the 
whole  realm  of  nature,  which  stilled  all  life  and 
quenched  all  joy.8  The  prophet  Amos  very  sub- 
limely describes  c  night '  as  being  '  the  shadow  of 
death,'  and  our  own  poets  in  their  night-pieces 
have  not  failed  to  dwell  upon  this  aspect  of  it. 

'  All  things  are  hush'd,  as  nature's  self  lay  dead.' 4 

'  Now  o'er  the  one  half  world 
Nature  seems  dead,  and  wicked  dreams  abuse 
The  curtain'd  sleep.' 5 

1  M.  Muller,  Oxford  Essays,  1856,  pp.  40,  65,  QQ.  Vide  also 
Lectures  on  Science  of  Language,  2d  Series. 

2  King  John,  v.  4. 

3  Tertullian,  in  his  treatise  '  On  the  Resurrection/  has  an  eloquent 
passage  on  the  interchange  of  darkness  and  light,  of  which  the 
following  is  a  part : — Dies  moritur  in  noctem,  et  tenebris  usque- 
quaque  sepelitur.  Funestatur  mundi  honor ;  omnis  substantia 
denigratur.  Sordent,  silent,  stupent  cuncta  ;  ubique  justititium 
est,  quies  rerum.  Ita  lux  amissa  lugetur  :  et  tamen  rursus  .  .  . 
reviviscit  ;  interficiens  mortem  suam,  noctem ;  rescindens  sepul- 
turam  suam,  tenebras'  (De  Eesur.  Carnis,  cap.  xii.)  Cf.  Thomson, 
Seasons  (Autumn),  11.  1136-1145. 

4  Dryden,  Conquest  of  Mexico. 

5  Macbeth,  ii.  1. 


NIGHT.  263 

1  Darkness  does  the  face  of  earth  entomb 
When  living  light  should  kiss  it.' x 

'  Night,  sable  goddess,  from  her  ebon  throne, 
In  ray  less  majesty  now  stretches  forth 
Her  leaden  sceptre  o'er  a  slumbering  world. 
Silence  how  dead  !  and  darkness  how  profound  ! 
Nor  eye  nor  listening  ear  an  object  finds  ; 
Creation  sleeps  : — 'tis  as  the  general  pulse 
Of  life  stood  still,  and  nature  made  a  pause, 
An  awful  pause  !  prophetic  of  her  end.' 2 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  the  epithet  of 
c  dead  '  is  frequently  also  applied  to  '  night '  itself 
when  its  primitive  meaning  had  been  long  forgot- 
ten.    Thus  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  sing  of 

'  The  dead  night  from  underground, 
At  whose  rising  mists  unsound, 
Damps  and  vapours  fly  apace, 
Hovering  o'er  the  wanton  face 
Of  these  pastures,  where  they  come 
Striking  dead  both  bud  and  bloom.' 3 

Compare  also  the  following  : — 

'  'Tis  yet  dead  night  :  yet  all  the  earth  is  cloutcht 
In  the  dull,  leaden  hand  of  snoring  sleep. 
No  breath  disturbs  the  quiet  of  the  air, 
No  spirit  moves  upon  the  breast  of  earth, 
Save  howling  dogs,  night-crows,  and  screeching  owls  ; 
Save  meagre  ghosts,  Piero,  and  black  thoughts.' 

Marston,  Antonio's  Revenge,  i.  1. 


1  Macbeth,  ii.  4. 

2  Young,  Night  Thoughts.  The  same  thought  is  found  in  Victor 
Hugo's  Toilers  of  the  Deep — '  It  was  that  solemn  and  peaceful 
moment  when  the  slumber  of  external  things  mingles  with  the 
sleep  of  living  creatures,  and  night  seems  to  listen  to  the  beating 
of  Nature's  heart.' 

3  Faithful  Shepherdess,  ii.  1. 


2C4  NIGHT. 

'  'Tis  night,  dead  night,  and  weary  nature  lies 
So  fast,  as  if  she  never  were  to  rise  ; 
No  breath  of  wind  now  whispers  thro'  the  trees, 
No  noise  at  land,  nor  murmur  in  the  seas  : 
Lean  wolves  forget  to  howl  at  night's  pale  noon, 
No  wakeful  dogs  bark  at  the  silent  moon, 
Nor  bay  the  ghosts  that  glide  with  horror  by, 
To  view  the  caverns  where  their  bodies  lie.' 

Zee,  Theodosius. 

*  Those  damp,  black,  dead 
Nights  in  the  Tower  ;  dead — with  the  fear  of  death — 
Too  dead  ev'n  for  a  death-watch  ! ' 

Tennyson,  Queen  Mary,  iii.  5. 

Shakspere  speaks  of  i  the  dead  vast  and  middle 
of  the  night,  '  elsewhere  styling  it  '  the  tragic 
melancholy  night.' 1  But  not  only  is  the  season 
of  darkness  death-like,  it  is  really  deadly,  and 
tends  towards  death.  Accordingly  Night  (JSTux) 
is  personified  by  the  Greek  poet  Hesiod  to  be  the 
mother  of  a  direful  brood,  of  Fate  (Moros),  of 
dark  Destruction  (Ker),  Woe  (Oizus),  and  Death 
(Tkanatos)  ;  and  Spenser  credits  her  with  an  off- 
spring not  less  horrible. 

Everywhere  we  can  trace  a  widespread  feeling 
that  night  is  an  unfriendly  and  hostile  power  to 
man.  *  The  night  is  no  man's  friend,'  says  an 
ancient  German  proverb.2  The  poetical  name  for 
it  in  Icelandic  is    Grima,  apparently  '  the  grim  ' 

1  2d  Pt.  Henry  VI.,  iv.  1. 

2  Die  Nacht  ist  keines  Menschen  Freund  (Archbishop  Trench, 
Proverbs  and  their  Lessons,  p.  54,  6th  ed.).  In  Sanskrit  druh,  mis- 
chief, is  used  as  a  name  of  darkness,  or  the  night  (M.  Muller,  vol. 
ii.  p.  454). 


NIGHT.  265 

and  terrible  one.1  Its  constant  epithets  in  Homer 
are  '  the  evil/  'the  destructive,'  'the  fearful;'2 
and  the  greatest  of  our  own  poets  has  not  hesi- 
tated to  style  it — 

'  Horrid  night,  the  child  of  Hell.'  3 

It  is  an  unwholesome  time,  that  seems  to  hold 
antipathy  with  all  the  powers  of  life  and  health. 
Then  '  planets  strike  and  fairy  takes  ' — then  blast- 
ing, blight,  and  mildew  do  their  mysterious  and 
deadly  work.4     Under  the  depressing  effect  of  its 

1  Unless,  indeed,  the  word  Grlma  may  be  connected,  not  immedi- 
ately with  grimmr,  'grim,'  but  with  grom,  'grime,'  Dan.  grim, 
soot,  in  which  case  the  name  would  signify  'the  grimy  one,'  like 
Shakspere's  '  collied  night '  (Midsummer  Night's  Dream,  i.  1),  i.e., 
the  sooty,  coal-black  night. 

2  NiJ£  Kauri,  6\oi],  6ot],  diejdhe  Nacht  (Buttmann).  A  common 
euphemistic  phrase  in  the  Greek  poets  is  '  the  kindly  or  cheerful 
season  '  (evcppovn). 

3  Shakespere,  Henry  V.     Cf. — 

'Darkness,  which  ever  was 
The  dam  of  Horror,  who  does  stand  accursed 
Of  many  mortal  millions.'  Two  Noble  Kinsmen,  v.  5. 

Spenser,  in  his  fine  description  of  'griesly  Night  with  visage 
deadly  sad,'  depicts  her  as  '  in  a  foule  blacke  pitchy  mantle  clad,' 
and  drawn  by  '  cole  blacke  steedes  yborne  of  hellish  brood  '  (Faerie 
Queene,  Bk.  I.  c.  v.  20). 

In  the  curious  old  comedy  of  '  Lingua,  or  the  Combate  of  the 
Tongue  and  the  Five  Sences  for  Superiorities  (my  copy  is  the  quarto 
of  1632),  there  is  a  very  pretty  and  poetical  passage  descriptive  of 
the  morning  light,  which 

1  At  his  first  appearance  puts  to  flight 
The  ut-most  Reliques  of  the  hel-bome  night.'  Sig.  F,  recto. 

4  It  is  well  known  that  microscopic  forms  of  fungoid  vegetation 
are  intimately  connected  with  the  ravages  of  decay  and  death.  Not 
only  the  destruction  of  timber  by  dry-rot,  and  of  plants  by  blight 
and  mould,  but  even  many  forms  of  cutaneous  eruptions  and  zymo- 
tic diseases  in  the  human  subject,  are  attributable  to  the  same 
morbid  growth.  Now  '  light,  indispensable  to  the  well-being  of  all 
other  plants,  is  hostile  to  the  growth  of  fungi.  Wherever  the  sun 
shines  brightly,  mould  will  not  appear,  or,  at  all  events,  flourish. 
It  is  essentially  one  of  the  unfruitful  works  of  darkness  '  (Macmillan, 
Ministry  cf  Nature,  p.  63), 


2G6  NIGHT. 

vast  overhanging  pall  the  sick  man  tosses  on 
his  feverish  bed,  and  longs  for  the  dawning  of 
the  day.  Many  diseases  first  make  themselves 
felt  in  the  '  dead  of  night ;  ' *  pains  and  aches  grow 
worse  at  the  midnight  hour ;  and  dying  men,  who 
have  maintained  the  unequal  struggle  for  breath 
during  the  cheerful  hours  of  light,  now  sink  and 
pass  (Job  xxvii.  20 ;  xxxvi.  20). 2  We  feel  our- 
selves in  a  measure  paralysed,  our  powers  fettered, 
and  our  joys  diminished,  as  the  darkness  gathers 
round  us.     We  dread 

'  Night's  sepulchre,  the  universal  home, 
"Where  weakness,  strength,  vice,  virtue,  sunk  supine, 
Alike  in  naked  helplessness  recline.'  Byron. 

Jewish  traditions  tell  with  what  intense  dismay 
our  first  parents  beheld  the  sun  withdraw  itself, 
and  the  shades  of  evening  steal  over  the  fallen 
earth.  In  Paradise,  it  was  believed,  they  had 
never  known  the  gloom  of  night.  It  was  only  on 
the  day  that  they  were  driven  forth  into  exile  that 
they  for  the  first  time  experienced  the  loss  of 
the  light  and  the  curse  of  darkness.  The  guilty 
pair,   utterly  disconsolate,  lay  on  the  ground   all 

1  The  Greek  word  for  'disease,'  nostis  (pocros),  comes  from  the 
same  root  as  '  night,'  viz.,  nag .  The  Zend  daosha  =  night,  and  evil, 
mischievous  (Pictet,  vol.  i.  p.  468). 

8  Sir  Thomas  Browne,  in  a  letter  on  the  death  of  a  friend,  1690, 
remarks  : — '  He  died  in  the  dead  and  deep  part  of  the  night,  when 
Nox  might  be  most  apprehensibly  said  to  be  the  daughter  of  Chaos, 
the  mother  of  sleep  and  death,  according  to  old  genealogy  ;  and  so 
went  out  of  this  world  about  that  hour  when  our  blessed  Saviour 
entered  it,  and  about  what  time  many  conceive  he  will  return  again 
into  it'  (Works,  vol.  iii.  p.  68,  ed.  Wilkin). 


NIGHT.  267 

night  long  in  an  agony  of  grief  and  fear,  till  the 
beams  of  returning  day  began  to  quiver  in  the 
east,  and  in  a  measure  reassured  them  (Avoda 
Sara,  ed.  Edzardus,  1705,  p.  56). 

For  my  own  part,  I  know  of  nothing  in  nature 
more  ineffably  sad  than  the  calmness  of  a  summer 
sunset,  partly  from  what  it  recalls,  still  more,  per- 
haps, from  what  it  portends;1  and  every  one,  I  think, 
realises  in  a  greater  or  lesser  degree  that  l  horror 
of  great  darkness  '2  which  fell  upon  the  patriarch, 
'  when  the  sun  was  going  down  '  (Gen.  xv.  12). 
Accordingly  there  is  felt  a  dislike  to  the  uncon- 
genial gloom  of  night — a  natural  shrinking  from 
it  as  from  a  chilling  and  repulsive  presence. 

1  It  seems  to  add  new  pathos  to  a  scene  almost  too  pathetic 
already,  that  the  wise  and  excellent  Socrates,  when  he  had  spent 
the  last  day  of  his  life  in  prison  in  holding  that  wondrous  discourse 
with  his  friends  upon  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  and  had  bidden  his 
children  farewell,  is  recorded  to  have  taken  the  fatal  cup,  and 
calmly  drunk  it  off  just  at  the  moment  'when  the  sun  was  on  the 
mountains,  and  on  the  point  of  setting '  (Phsedo,  ch.  lxv.)  He 
averred  that  all  time  to  come  appeared  to  him  no  longer  than  a 
single  night — that  death  could  be  at  worst  but  a  profound  and 
dreamless  sleep,  and,  if  so,  a  wondrous  gain  (Apology,  xxxii.) 
Thus,  in  perfect  harmony  with  his  philosophical  views,  the  gentle 
Socrates  closed  his  eyes  in  darkness  as  the  sun  went  down. 

'  As  the  light  grew  more  aerial  on  the  mountain-tops,  and  the  shadows  fell 
longer  over  the  valley,  some  faint  tone  of  sadness  may  have  breathed  through 
the  heart  ;  and  in  whispers,  more  or  less  audible,  reminded  every  one  that  as 
this  bright  day  was  drawing  towards  its  close,  so  likewise  must  the  Day  of  Man's 
Existence  decline  into  dust  and  darkness  ;  and  with  all  its  sick  toilings,  and 
joyful  and  mournful  noises,  sink  in  the  still  Eternity.' 

Carlyle,  Sartor  Eesartus,  Bk.  II.  ch.  v. 
'  It  is  near  the  closing  of  the  day, 
Near  the  night.     Life  and  light 

Eor  ever,  ever  fled  away.'  Wm.  Allingham. 

Compare  also  the  beautiful  Scotch  proverb,  '  The  e'ening  brings 
hame.' 
2Cf.— 

•  Sotto  il  silentio  de'  secreti  horrori.'  Tasso. 

Simul  ipsa  silentia  terrent.'  ,  Virgil, 


2C8  NIGHT. 

There  is  something  indefinably  mysterious — 
almost  oppressive,  I  might  say — in  its  brooding 
stillness.  Its  weight  lies  heavy  on  the  soul,  like 
a  thing  of  awe  and  dread.  '  An  abysmal  depth, 
an  enigma  at  once  showing  and  concealing  its 
face,  the  Infinite  in  its  mask  of  darkness — these 
are  the  synonyms  of  night.  In  the  presence  of 
night  man  feels  his  own  incompleteness.  He 
perceives  the  dark  void,  and  is  sensible  of  infirmity. 
It  is  like  the  vacancy  of  blindness.  Almost 
always  he  shrinks  from  that  vague  presence  of  the 
Infinite  Unknown.'1  This,  moreover,  is  the 
season  that  the  superstitions  of  mankind,  with 
one  consent,  have  peopled  with  the  fantastic 
creations  of  their  own  fears  and  their  own  con- 
sciences, with  monstrous  shapes  of  spectres, 
ghosts,  and  apparitions, 

1  Gorgons  and  hydras  and  chimseras  dire  ; ' 2 

1  Victor  Hugo. 
2Cf.— 

'  'Tis  now  the  very  witching  time  of  night 
When  churchyards  yawn,  and  hell  itself  breathes  out 
Contagion  to  this  world.'  Hamlet,  iii.  2. 

1  Now  it  is  the  time  of  night 

That  the  graves,  all  gaping  wide, 
Every  one  lets  forth  his  sprite, 
In  the  church-way  paths  to  glide.' 

Midsummer  Night's  Bream,  v.  1. 

Lilith,  the  nocturnal  hobgoblin,  with  which  the  Jews  used  to  scare 
their  children,  like  the  Mormo  and  Einpusa  which  served  the  same 
purpose  among  the  Greeks,  and  the  Lamia  and  Strix  among 
the  Romans,  seems  to  have  been  a  personification  of  the  horrors 
of  the  night,  the  terror  which  darkness  almost  always  excites  in 
the  mind  of  infancy,  being  derived  from  the  Hebrew  word  layil, 
night  (™V'.  from  '.-).  Lilith  is  the  word  translated  screech-owl ' 
in  the  authorised  version  of  Isa.  xxxiv.  14,  marg.  'night-monster.' 
The  hideous  three-headed    Cerberus   is,  according   to   M.  Miiller 


NIGHT.  269 

and  even  the  inspired  Psalmist  speaks  of  <  the 
terror  by  night,' 1  as  well  as  of  l  the  pestilence  that 
walketh  in  darkness ' 2  (Ps.  xci.  5,  6).  Then  it  is 
that  the  creatures  most  loathsome,  as  well  as  most 
terrible  to  man,  come  forth  boldly  from  their  secret 
places — ravening  wolves,  bats  and  owls,  beetles 
and  foul  creeping  things,  the  whole  slimy  and  rep- 
tile brood,  and  all  that  nature  shelters  of  hideous 
and  unclean  (Ps.  civ.  20). 3 

And  then  it  is,  in  like  manner,  that  every  form 
of  vice  lifts  its  head,  and  comes  forth  from  its 
dens  and  lurking-places :  then  red-handed  Murder 
stalks  abroad  unchallenged,  and  i  they  that  are 
drunken  are  drunken  in  the  night.'  And  so  it  is 
(as  Job  remarked)  with  the  thief,  the  house- 
breaker, and  the  adulterer,  who  'waiteth  for  the 
twilight,  saying,  no  man  shall  see  me,'  '  they  know 
not  the  light.  For  the  morning  is  to  them  even 
as  the  shadow  of  death.'  4     Indeed,  throughout  the 

(vol  ii.  p.  478),  the  darkness  of  night.  Similarly,  the  French  lutin 
(cf.  Belg.  nuiton),  0.  Fr.  luiton,  seems  properly  to  be  a  goblin  of 
night  (nuit). 

1  For  a  striking  description  of  the  terrors  of  darkness,  see  the 
Book  of  Wisdom,  ch.  xvii. 

2  It  is  noticeable  that  two  of  the  most  destructive  pestilences 
recorded  in  Scripture,  the  death  of  the  first-born  in  Egypt,  and  of 
the  Assyrians  before  Jerusalem  (Isa.  xxxvii.  36),  occurred  at  night. 

3  Cf. —  '  Now  the  hungry  lion  roars 

And  the  wolf  behowls  the  moon  ; 


Whilst  the  screech-owl,  screeching  loud, 
Puts  the  wretch  that  lies  in  woe 
In  remembrance  of  a  shrowd.'  M.  Night's  Dream,  v.  2. 
Thomson,  Seasons  (Winter),  191-194. 

4  Ch.  xxiv.  14-17.    Cf.  '  KXeirrQu  yap  y\  w5£,  rr\(jZ  a\-r]deias  to  (pus ' 
(Eurip.  Iphig.  in  Taur.,  1226).     '  Pernicious  Night'  was  the  mother 


270  NIGHT. 

Scriptures  darkness  is  employed  as  the  common 
emblem  of  evil — of  impurity,  suffering,  and  misery 
— just  as  light  is  synonymous  with  holiness  and 
happiness  and  health.  And  this  connection  be- 
tween sin  and  darkness  is  not  a  merely  notional 
one,  it  is  real  and  essential.  Wicked  doers  instinc- 
tively shun  the  accusing  light  of  day.  It  is  true, 
literally,  as  well  as  spiritually,  that  such  '  men 
love  darkness  rather  than  light,  because  their 
deeds  are  evil.  For  every  one  that  doeth  evil 
hateth  the  light,  neither  cometh  to  the  light,  lest 
his  deeds  should  be  reproved.' 1  i  They  are  of  those 
that  rebel  against  the  light ;  they  know  not  the 
ways  thereof,  nor  abide  in  the  paths  thereof.' 2 

Bearing  in  mind  this  mystical  use  of  the  word, 
there  appears  to  be  something  unspeakably  solemn 
and  awful  in  those  few  little  words  which  the 
evangelist  has  introduced  parenthetically  in  his  ac- 
count of  the  Last  Supper,  that  when  Judas  left  the 
upper  chamber  and  went  forth  on  his  terrible 
mission,  to  consummate  the  darkest  crime  ever 
committed  upon  earth,  c  it  was  nightS  '  This  is 
your  hour,  and  the  power  of  darkness,''  exclaimed 

of  Fraud  according  to  Theognis,  and  of  Falsehood  according  to 
Spenser  (Faerie  Queene,  Bk.  I.  v.  27). 

'  0  thievish  night, 
Why  shouldst  thou,  but  for  some  felonious  end, 
In  thy  dark  lantern  thus  close  up  the  stars.' 

Milton,  Comus,  11.  195-197. 

'  Guilt  concealing  night.' 

TJiomson,  Au'.umn,  1.  1172. 

1  John  iii.  19,  20.  2  Job  xxiv.  13. 


NIGHT.  271 

the  Son  of  Man  when  He  saw  that  He  was  betrayed 
into  the  hands  of  sinners  (Lnke  xxii.  52).  And  so 
it  is  recorded  of  Judas,  '  He  then,  having  received 
the  sop,  went  immediately  out — and  it  was 
night '  (John  xiii.  30).  With  that  impressive  sen- 
tence, so  fearful  in  all  that  it  implies,  the  wretched 
traitor  is  dismissed  from  the  presence  of  Christ 
and  the  cheerful  lights  of  the  Paschal  feast, 
out  into  the  chill  gloom  of  night,  out  also 
into  the  deeper  and  more  dreadful  night  of  de- 
spair, into  '  the  blackness  of  darkness  for  ever,' 
1  that  he  might  go  to  his  own  place.'  '  He  went 
out — and  it  was  night '  / 

Two  other  passages  of  Scripture  there  are  which 
seem  to  have  something  of  the  same  subtle  power 
not  easily  analysed:  the  sublime  dreadfulness  of  the 
still  dead  time  being  conveyed  in  the  most  touch- 
ing of  the  parables,  that  of  the  Ten  Virgins — 
1  They  all  slumbered  and  slept,  and  at  midnight 
there  was  a  cry  made  '  (Matt.  xxv.  6),  even  as  the 
indescribable  pathos  and  tenderness  of  eventide  is 
suggested  by  the  scene  at  Ernmaus,  where  the 
disciples  entreat  the  unknown  wayfaring  Man  to  be 
their  guest — '  Abide  with  us ;  for  it  is  toward  even- 
ing, and  the  day  is  far  spent '  (Luke  xxiv.  29). 
When  we  bethink  ourselves  of  all  these  things,  as 

<  Awful  Night, 
Ancestral  mystery  of  mysteries,  comes  down 
Past  all  the  generations  of  the  stars/ 

we  feel  the  power  of  its  name,  we  recognise  the 


272  NIGHT. 

sufficiency  of  the  reasons  why  it  was  given.  For 
inasmuch  as  night  is  the  time  when  day  lies 
dead,  when  all  creation  is  hushed  in  deatk-Mke 
repose,  when  Sleep,  t  the  brother  of  Death,'  reigns 
supreme,  and  Death  himself  is  busiest  at  his  cease- 
less task,  when  deadly  deeds  are  being  enacted, 
and  dead  men  walk  (or  are  fabled  to  walk)  amid 
their  earthly  haunts — our  earliest  progenitors 
summed  up  all  these  conceptions  (not  all  of  them, 
perhaps,  consciously,  but  some  of  them  certainly) 
when  they  called  the  darkness  '  night,'  meaning, 
as  it  does,  the  nox-ious,  the  per-mc-ious,  or  the 
deadly  season,  recognising  therein  a  presage  of 
that  one  great  undiscovered  mystery  into  which  all 
men  must  one  day  be  initiated,  the  type  or  fore- 
shadowing of  a  silence  yet  more  awful,  and  an 
outer  darkness  yet  more  fearful. 

The  following  fine   apostrophe^   full    of  tragic 
power,  is  from  Lord  Lytton's  i  Clytemnestra — 

1  Come,  venerable,  ancient  Night  ! 
From  sources  of  the  western  stars, 
In  darkest  shade  that  fits  this  woe, 
Consoler  of  a  thousand  griefs, 
And  likest  death,  unalterably  calm. 


Our  days  thou  leadest  home 
To  the  great  Whither  which  has  no  Again  ! 
Impartially  to  pleasure  and  to  pain 
Thou  sett'st  the  bourne.     To  thee  shall  all  things 
come.' 

Few  persons,  I  imagine,  can  have  listened  to 
the  Third  Collect  for  evening  prayer  in  our  churches, 


NIGHT.  273 

so  touching  and  comprehensive  in  its  simplicity, 
without  feeling  conscious  how  eerie  and  solemn  a 
thing  the  night  is.  Its  words  are,  '  Lighten  our 
darkness,  we  beseech  thee,  0  Lord,  and  by  thy 
great  mercy  defend  us  from  all  perils  and  dangers 
of  this  night,'  and  many  will  recollect  how  power- 
fully De  Quincey  was  affected  by  it.  He  says — 
'  The  decaying  light  of  the  dying  day  suggests  a 
mood  of  pensive  and  sympathetic  sadness,'  and 

'  There  was  something  that  oftentimes  had  profoundly  impressed 
me  in  this  evening  liturgy,  and  itsspecialprayer  against  the  perils 
of  darkness,  .  .  .  that  darkness, which  our  English  liturgy  calls 
into  such  symbolic  grandeur,  as  hiding  beneath  its  shadowy 
mantle  all  perils  that  besiege  our  human  infirmity.  ...  In 
this  prayer  were  the  darkness  and  the  great  shadows  of  night 
made  symbolically  significant :  these  great  powers,  Night  and 
Darkness,  that  belong  to  aboriginal  Chaos,  were  made  repre- 
sentative of  the  perils  that  continually  menace  poor  afflicted 
human  nature.  With  deepest  sympathy  I  accompanied  the 
prayer  against  the  perils  of  darkness — perils  that  I  seemed  to 
see,  in  the  ambush  of  midnight  solitude,  brooding  around  the 
beds  of  sleeping  nations  ;  perils  from  even  worse  forms  of 
darkness  shrouded  within  the  recesses  of  blind  human  hearts; 
perils  from  temptations  weaving  unseen  snares  for  our  footing; 
perils  from  the  limitations  of  our  own  misleading  knowledge.' * 

Although   therefore,  we  cannot  go  so  far  as   to 
affirm  2  that  darkness  is  one  of  the  consequences 

1  De  Quincey,  Works,  vol.  i.  pp.  83-87. 

2  As  Dr  Maitland  does,  Eruvin,  pp.  120-123,  and,  to  some  ex- 
tent, Milton — 

'  Thus  Adam  to  himself  lamented  loud, 
Through  the  still  night ;  not  now,  as  ere  man  fell, 
Wholesome,  and  cool,  and  mild,  but  with  black  air 
Accompanied  ;  with  damps  and  dreadful  gloom  ; 
Which  to  his  evil  conscience  represented 
All  things  with  double  terrour.' 

Paradise  Lost,  Bk.  x.  11.  845-350. 

S 


2d  NIGHT. 

of  the  fall,  and  a  part  of  the  curse ;  yet  when  we 
*  reflect  on  the  dangers  and  evils  that  arise  from 
it,  and  on  the  facilities  which  it  affords  for  crimes, 
emphatically  called  "  works  of  darkness,"  '  it  ap- 
pears a  great  and  positive  evil,  and  we  gladly  and 
thankfully  hail  the  assurance  of  St  John  the 
divine  respecting  the  New  Jerusalem,  prepared 
for  and  promised  to  the  faithful,  that  l  there  shall 
be  no  night  there.' x 

In  the  third  book  of  Spenser's  Faerie  Queene, 
canto  iv.,  there  is  a  fine  apostrophe  to  Night,  in 
which  he  breaks  into  a  fervid  invective  against 
her  dreaded  and  detested  power,  and  minutely 
catalogues  most  of  the  evils  and  mischiefs  attendant 
in  her  train  : — 

lv. 

'  Night !  thou  foule  mother  of  annoyaunce  sad, 
Sister  of  heavie  death,  and  nourse  of  woe, 
Which  wast  begot  in  heaven,  but  for  thy  bad 
And  brutish  shape  thrust  downe  to  hell  below, 
Where,  by  the  grim  floud  of  Cocytus  slow, 
Thy  dwelling  is  in  Herebus'  black  hous, 
(Black  Herebus,  thy  husband,  is  the  foe 
Of  all  the  gods),  where  thou  ungratious 
Halfe  of  thy  dayes  doest  lead  in  horrour  hideous. 

LVI. 

What  had  th'  eternall  Maker  need  of  thee 
The  world  in  his  continuall  course  to  keepe, 
That  doest  all  things  deface,  ne  lettest  see 
The  beautie  of  his  worke  1     Indeed,  in  sleepe 
The  slouthfull  body  that  doth  love  to  steepe 

1  Revelation  xxii.  5. 


NIGHT.  275 

His  lustlesse  limbes,  and  drowne  his  baser  mind, 
Doth  praise  thee  oft,  and  oft  from  Stygian  deepe 
Calles  thee  his  goddesse,  in  his  errour  blind, 
And  great  Dame  Natures  handmaide  chearing  every  kind. 

LVII. 

But  well  I  wote,  that  to  an  heavy  hart 
Thou  art  the  roote  and  nourse  of  bitter  cares, 
Breeder  of  new,  renewer  of  old  smarts  : 
Instead  of  rest  thou  lendest  rayling  teares  ; 
Instead  of  sleepe  thou  sendest  troublous  feares 
And  dreadfull  visions,  in  the  which  alive 
The  dreary  image  of  sad  death  appeares  : 
So  from  the  wearie  spirit  thou  doest  drive 
Desired  rest,  and  men  of  happinesse  deprive. 

LVIII. 

Under  thy  mantle  black  there  hidden  lye 

Light-shonning  thefte,  and  traiterous  intent, 

Abhorred  bloodshed,  and  vile  felony, 

Shamefull  deceipt,  and  daunger  imminent, 

Fowle  horror,  and  eke  hellish  dreriment : 

All  these,  I  wote,  in  thy  protection  bee, 

And  light  doe  shonne  for  feare  of  being  shent  ; 

For  light  ylike  is  loth'd  of  them  and  thee  : 

And  all  that  lewdnesse  love  doe  hate  the  light  to  see. 

LIX. 

For  day  discovers  all  dishonest  wayes, 
And  sheweth  each  thing  as  it  is  in  deed  : 
The  prayses  of  high  God  he  faire  displayes, 
And  his  large  bountie  rightly  doth  areed : 
Dayes  dearest  children  be  the  blessed  seed 
Which  darknesse  shall  subdue  and  heaven  win  ; 
Truth  is  her  daughter  ;  he  her  first  did  breed 
Most  sacred  virgin  without  spot  of  sinne. 
Our  life  is  day,  but  death  with  darknesse  doth  begin.' l 

1   Compare  George  Chapman — 

'  Type  and  nurse  of  death, 
Who,  breathless,  feeds  on  nothing  but  our  breath.' 

Uymnus  in  Nod  em,  1.  5. 


( 276  ) 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  WORDS 'WEST' — lEAST* — 'AURORA?  SUPER- 
STITIONS CONNECTED  WITH  THE  WEST  AND 
NORTH  AS  REGIONS  OF  DARKNESS — THE  WEST 
THE  LAND  OF  THE  DEAD — THE  NORTH  THE 
devil's  QUARTER. 

The  west,  as  being  the  quarter  of  the  heavens 
where  daylight  dies,  was  constantly  associated 
with  night,  the  deathlike,  and  received  a  name  of 
similar  meaning. 

'West,'  (A.-Sax.)  west,  (Ger.)  westen,  (Mid.  H. 
Ger.)  wester,  (0.  H.  Ger.)  westar,  (Scand.)  vestr, 
has  been  traced  to  the  Sanskrit  root  vas  or  vast, 
to  kill.  The  same  root  is  found  in  the  Sanskrit 
vasra  (death),  vasu  (barren),  vasati  (night — i.e., 
6  the  dead  season'),  (Lat.)  vastus,  our  i  waste.' 
Thus  i  west '  is  connected  with  the  (A.-Sax.)  weste 
(desert),  westan  (to  lay  waste),  westnes  (desola- 
tion),1 and  denotes  the   waste  or  barren  quarter, 

1  Connected  also  is  (0.  H.  G.)  wosti,  (Scand.)  vast,  ivoest  (the  sea, 
lit.,  'the  waste'  of  waters).  Cf.  (Lat.)  mare  (lit.  the  dead  and 
barren,  Sans,  mtra),  tt6i>tos  drpvyeros  (Homer),  vastitm  mare.  (Pictet, 
Orig.  Indo-Europ.  vol.  i.  p.  110  seq).  With  'west'  compare  (Heb.) 
ereb  evening,  (Assyr. )  ereb,  the  west,  darkness,  akin  to  ardbdh  (the 
desert),  ardb,  Arabia.     It  may  be  noted  in  passing  that  the  second 


west.  277 

the  point  at  which  the  god  of  light  and  life  sinks 

below  the  verge,  at  which  the  reign  of  desolation 

and  darkness  begins — the  region  of  death.1 

Compare  these  lines  of  Lord  Lytton's — 

1  But  oft  in  the  low  west,  the  day- 
Smouldering,  sent  up  a  sullen  flame 
Along  the  dreary  waste  of  gray.' 

The  EarVs  Return. 

So  the  Sanskrit  asta  means  (1)  the  end,  death; 
(2)  the  western  mountain,  sunset  (M.  Williams). 
Comparative  mythologists  have  placed  it  beyond 
doubt  that  in  the  infancy  of  our  race  our  Aryan 
forefathers  watched  with  intense  interest  the 
splendid  drama  that  is  being  daily  enacted  in  the 
skies.  The  varying  fortunes  of  the  sun,  the  sun- 
set and  the  dawn,  '  the  morning's  war,  when 
dying  clouds  contend  with  growing  light '  (Shaks- 
pere),    that  glorious  pageantry    of    the    shifting 

or  '  raven's  twilight '  of  the  Jewish  Rabbins,  mentioned  by  De 
Quincey,  vol.  i.  p.  87,  seems  to  be  a  play  upon  the  resemblance  of 
the  words  ereb  and  oreb  (the  dark  and  ravening  bird).  The  words 
for  evening  and  west  are  identical  in  most  languages — e.g.,  (Ger.) 
abend,  '  even-ing,'  also  the  west ;  (Irish)  siar,  (1)  evening,  (2)  west  ; 
(Lat.)  vesper,  evening  and  west  ;  zep7iyrtts,  £e'0u/>os  (west  wind), 
from  £6(pos,  (1)  darkness,  (2)  west;  occidens  (1)  sunset,  (2)  west. 
Cf.  the  use  of  oriens,  ortus,  Ger.  morgen,  Levant,  Anatolia,  &c. 

1  Pictet,  while  deducing  the  word  as  above,  gives  a  different 
account  of  it — '  Si  Ton  souvient  que  les  Ario-Germains  ont  du 
occuper  precisement  les  portions  occidentales  de  lAriane  primitive, 
un  peu  au  nord  des  Celtes,  et  qu'ils  touchaient,  par  consequent,  au 
grand  desert,  on  comprendra  comment  ce  mot  de  west,  qui  se  rattache 
a  la  fois  aux  sens  divers  de  desert,  de  nuit,  de  mer,  et  d'occident, 
a  pu  rester  plus  specialement  dans  leur  langues  comme  un  souvenir 
incompris  des  circonstances  qui  lui  ont  donne  naissance'  (Orig. 
Indo-Europ.  vol.  i.  p.  113).  Ed.  Miiller  connects  '  west '  with  vespera, 
euirepa  (Etym.  Worterbuch),  and  so  Garnett,  Philolog.  Soc.  Proceed- 
ings, vol.  ii.  p.  235. 


278       THE  SADNESS  OF  SUNSET. 

clouds,  which  Mr  Ruskin  alone  of  the  moderns 
seems  duly  to  have  appreciated,  was  to  them  a 
never-failing  source  of  wonder  and  speculation. 
Nay,  it  was  the  original  inspiration  (as  Max 
Miiller  has  pointed  out)  of  all  ancient  poetry  and 
religious  feeling. 

1  If  sunrise  inspired  the  first  prayers,  called  forth  the  first 
sacrificial  flames,  sunset  was  the  other  time  when  again  the 
whole  frame  of  man  would  tremble.  The  shadows  of  night 
approach,  the  irresistible  power  of  sleep  grasps  man  in  the 
midst  of  his  pleasures,  his  friends  depart,  and  in  his  loneliness 
his  thoughts  turn  again  to  higher  powers.  "When  the  day 
departs,  the  poet  bewails  the  untimely  death  of  his  bright 
friend — nay,  he  sees  in  his  short  career  the  likeness  of  his  own 
life.  Perhaps,  when  he  has  fallen  asleep,  his  sun  may  never 
rise  again,  and  thus  the  place  to  -which  the  setting  sun  with- 
draws in  the  far  west  rises  before  his  mind  as  the  abode  where 
he  himself  would  go  after  death,  where  "  his  fathers  went 
before  him." '  x 

1  And  when,  at  the  end  of  a  dreary  day,  the  Sun  seemed  to 
die  away  in  the  far  West,  still  looking  for  his  Eastern  bride, 
and  suddenly  the  heavens  opened,  and  the  image  of  the  Dawn 
rose  again  [i.e.,  in  the  evening  twilight],  her  beauty  deepened 
by  a  gloaming  sadness — would  not  the  poet  gaze  till  the  last 
ray  had  vanished,  and  would  not  the  last  vanishing  ray  linger 
in  his  heart,  and  kindle  there  a  hope  of  another  life,  where  he 
would  find  asrain  what  he  had  loved  and  lost  ] ' 2 


The  Irish  bard  Moore  felt  something  of  these 
primeval  aspirations  appropriate  to  eventide  when 
he  composed  these  lines — 


1 M.  Miiller,  Oxford  Essays,  1856,  p.  60.  The  Assyrians 
named  the  region  where  the  sun  took  his  farewell,  and  sank  to  his 
peaceful  rest,  shalamu,  a  word  near  akin  to  the  Hebrew  shdldm, 
peace. 

2  Ibid.,  p.  65.     Cf.  Christian  Year,  16th  S.  after  Trinity,  v.  10. 


THE    POETRY    OF    SUNSET.  279 

*  How  dear  to  me  the  hour  when  daylight  dies, 
And  sunbeams  melt  along  the  silent  sea, 
For  then  sweet  dreams  of  other  days  arise, 
And  memory  breathes  her  vesper  sigh  to  thee. 

And  as  I  watch  the  line  of  light  that  plays 

Along  the  smooth  wave  tow'rd  the  burning  west, 

I  long  to  tread  that  golden  path  of  rays, 
And  think  'twould  lead  to  some  bright  isle  of  rest ! ' 

One  of  Faber's  beautiful  hymns  has  consecrated 
the  same  idea  to  Christian  uses — 

1  The  Land  beyond  the  Sea  ! 
How  close  it  often  seems, 

When  flushed  with  evening's  peaceful  gleams  ; 

And  the  wistful  heart  looks  o'er  the  strait  and  dreams  ! 
It  longs  to  fly  to  thee, 
Calm  Land  beyond  the  Sea  !  .  .  . 

The  Land  beyond  the  Sea  ! 

Sometimes  across  the  strait, 
Like  a  drawbridge  to  a  castle  gate, 
The  slanting  sunbeams  lie,  and  seem  to  wait 

For  us  to  pass  to  thee, 

Calm  Land  beyond  the  Sea  !  .  .  . 

The  Land  beyond  the  Sea  ! 

When  will  our  toil  be  done  1 
Slow-footed  years  !  more  swiftly  run 
Into  the  gold  of  that  unsetting  sun  ! 

Home-sick  we  are  for  thee, 

Calm  Land  beyond  the  Sea  ! 

The  Land  beyond  the  Sea  ! 

Why  fadest  thou  in  light  1 
Why  art  thou  better  seen  towards  night  ? 
Dear  Land  !  look  always  plain,  look  always  bright, 

That  we  may  gaze  on  thee, 

Calm  Land  beyond  the  Sea  ! ' 


280  SADNESS    OF    THE    WEST. 

But  that  rich  glow  of  warmth  and  beauty  bathes 
the  earth  and  sea  with  only  a  transitory  glory. 
The  sunny  smile  vanishes  away,  all  too  soon,  and 
sobers  into  the  cold  bleakness  of  the  dusky  twi- 
light. '  The  bridal  of  the  earth  and  sky '  is  past. 
The  landscape  seems  desolate.  The  greyness  of 
old  age  and  the  sables  of  mourning  widowhood 
succeed  to  the  rosy  bloom  of  the  day's  maiden 
prime.  Its  (  tender  grace  '  will  come  back  no 
more  for  ever.1  The  region  of  waning  brightness 
has  become  a  westnes,  a  waste,  a  desolation — the 
whole  creation  is  veiled  in  a  muffled  stillness,  and 
'  night's  black  blank  mystery  ' 2  reigns  supreme. 

We  can  thus  easily  understand  how  thoughts  of 
pensive  sadness  came  to  be  associated  with  the 
west.  All  its  splendours,  glorious  as  they  may 
be  for  a  while,  inevitably  tend  towards  the  gloom 
and  darkness  of  death.  It  came  to  be  regarded, 
therefore,  as  the  natural  contrast  to  the  joyous 
east,  where  the  light  shineth  ever  '  more  and  more 
into  the  perfect  day ' — the  east,  '  the  bright  and 
warm'    (0.    Norse    austur,    Sans,    vastar)?    from 

1  Compare  a  stanza  in  Tennyson's  Dream  of  Fair  Women,  where 
the  form  of  expression  is  not  altogether  free  from  obscurity — 
•  The  dim  red  morn  had  died,  her  journey  done, 

And  with  dead  lips  smiled  at  the  twilight  plain, 
Half-fall'n  across  the  threshold  of  the  sun, 
Never  to  rise  again.'  Poems  (7th  ed.),  p.  150. 

G.  Eliot,  The  Spanish  Gypsy,  p.  312. 
*  From  the  root  ush  (vas),  to  burn,  '  uro.'     Cf.  (Lat.)  duster,  the 
warm   Bouth  wind.      Austria,    (Ger.)   Ocsterreich,   is  said  to  have 
been  so  called  from  its  being  the  eastern  part  of  Charlemagne's 
dominions.     Cf.  Australia  (the  southern  regions). 


AURORA.  281 

whose  golden  portals  the  beauteous  Aurora  comes 
dancing  forth — Aurora,  the  6  golden-throned,'  <  saf- 
fron-robed,' 6  fair-haired,'  i  white-winged,'  '  rosy- 
fingered  ' 1  goddess,  beloved  of  all,  who  brings  to 
mortals  light,  activity,  and  joy. 

Her  name,2  which  is  connected  with  the  Latin 
aurum,  gold,  suggests  the  brightness  of  her  ad- 
vent, the  golden  lustre  that  fringes  the  clouds 
when  she  rises  over  the  eastern  hills,  just  as  in 
Irish  oir,  the  east,  is  also  the  word  for  golden ; 
and  so  Shakspere,  who  lets  no  phase  of  Nature's 
beauty  pass  unnoticed,  speaks  in  one  place  of 
c  the  golden  window  of  the  east'  (Romeo  and 
Juliet,  i.  1),  and  in  another  says — 

'  See  how  the  morning  opes  her  golden  gates, 
And  takes  her  farewell  of  the  glorious  sun.' 

3d  PL  Henry  VI.,  ii.  1. 

An  ancient  Yedic  hymn  in  honour  of  the  Dawn 
has  these  words  3 — 


1  These  are  the  epithets  given  to  her  in  the  Greek  poets,  espe- 
cially Homer — XPV(T^P0V0S)  KpoKoireirXos,  evTrXoKa/xos,  XevKdirrepos, 
pododa.KTv'Xos. 

2  Aurora,  originally  Ausosa,  the  bright  and  golden  one,  (Lith.) 
Auszra,  (Sans.)  Usrd,  from  the  root  aur  =  ur  =  ush,  to  burn,  whence 
(Lat.)  uro,  burn,  aura,  the  bright  morning  air,  aurum,  (Gk.)  atpa, 
atipiov,  Tjws,  fjpi,  '  ear-ly.'  The  Dawn  was  also  called  in  Sanskrit 
Arj-una,  '  the  silvern  one,'  connected  with  6.pyevvbs,  dpyvpos,  apyos, 
argentum,  silver.  Hence  also  'Apyvwis,  a  name  of  the  sea-born 
Aphrodite,  i.e.,  the  Dawn.  So  Aevitodea,  '  the  white  goddess,'  cor- 
responds to  the  Tuscan  Mater  matuta,  '  mother  of  the  morning,' 
designating  the  pale  silvery  light  of  the  early  dawn  (Donaldson). 
Cf.  the  Sanskrit  sveta,  silver,  and  svett,  the  dawn. 

"  3  Quoted  by  Miiller,  Chips,  vol.  i.  p.  36. 


282  THE    RICHES    OF    THE    WEST. 

'  She  rose  up,  .spreading  far  and  wide,  and  moving  every- 
where. She  grew  in  brightness,  wearing  her  brilliant  gar- 
ment. .  .  .  The  leader  of  the  days,  she  shone  gold-coloured, 
lovely  to  behold.  She,  the  fortunate,  who  brings  the  eye  of 
the  gods,  who  leads  the  white  and  lovely  steed  (of  the  sun) — 
the  Dawn  was  seen  revealed  by  her  rays,  with  brilliant  trea- 
sures following  everyone/ 

This  rosy  goddess,  Aurora,  was  lost  to  view  during 
the  day,  but  was  supposed  to  return  when  the  sun 
1  Towards  heaven's  descent  had  sloped  his  westering  wheel,' l 

and  men  recognised  her  again  in  the  peaceful 
splendours  of  the  evening  sky.  When  they  ob- 
served the  whole  heavens  i  from  the  zenith 
to  the  horizon  become  one  molten  mantling  sea  of 
colour  and  fire,  every  black  bar  turn  into  massy 
gold,  every  ripple  and  wave  into  unsullied  shadow- 
less crimson  and  purple  and  scarlet,  and  colours 
for  which  there  are  no  words  in  language,' 2  they 
recognised  a  counterpart  of  that  spectacle  which 
they  had  witnessed  in  the  early  morning,  and  they 
grieved  as  they  saw  those  countless  treasures  of 
topaz  and  ruby,  of  amethyst  and  glittering  gold, 
which  had  been  scattered  so  lavishly  over  the  path 
of  the  sinking  sun,3  gradually  drawn  down  after 


1  Milton,  Lycidas. 

2  Ruskin,  Modern  Painters,  vol.  i.  Pt.  II.,  sec.  2,  ch.  ii. 

3  This,  as  Mr  Cox  points  out,  is  the  dazzling  vision  of  golden  cups 
and  gleaming  coffers  and  many-coloured  gems  upon  which  Beowulf 
feasts  his  eyes  before  they  are  closed  in  death.  '  It  may  seem  but 
a  barbaric  vision,  yet/  the  splendour  which  soothes  the  eye  of  the 
dying  hero  is  but  the  brilliance  of  the  golden  doors  and  brazen 
stringcourses,  the  youths  of  gold  holding  up  everlasting  torches, 


THE    RECOVERY    IN    THE    EAST.  2S3 

him,  one  by  one,  till  the  last  faint  trace  of  their 
fading  beauty  died  out  in  the  north-west.  The  re- 
splendent treasures  thus  robbed  from  their  gaze  they 
conceived  to  be  buried  beneath  the  dark  horizon. 
And  when,  after  hours  of  weary  watching,  they 
descried  a  flush  of  glowing  red  arising  in  the 
north-east,  and  saw  first  one  bar  of  gold  and  then 
another  cast  up  from  the  under-world,  they 
thought  that  the  entire  wealth  of  the  previous 
evening,  which  had  been  hidden  for  the  night  in 
the  caverns  of  the  gloomy  north,  was  being  re- 
stored, and  they  hailed  the  '  golden  goddess '  who 
brought  it  back  to  them.  Accordingly,  in  the 
Rigveda 1  Aurora  is  represented  as  the  Saviour  of 
mortals,  awaking  to  life  and  activity  all  sleepers, 
with  her  pure  and  purifying  light  discomfiting 
her  enemies  the  shades  of  night,  opening  the  gates 
of  the  cavernous  gloom,  and  exposing  to  view  the 
treasures  hidden  by  the  darkness.  Compare  these 
lines  of  Milton — 

1  Now  morn,  her  rosy  steps  in  the  eastern  clime 
Advancing,  sow'd  the  earth  with  orient  pearl/ 

Paradise  Zost}  Bk.  v.  I.  1. 

'  So  sinks  the  day-star  in  the  ocean  bed, 
And  yet  anon  repairs  his  drooping  head, 


which  shed  their  dazzling  lustre  on  the  palace  of  Alkinoos.  So  far 
as  the  conception  differs,  the  contrast  is  but  the  result  of  impres- 
sions made  by  the  phenomena  of  sunset  on  the  mind  of  the  Teuton 
beneath  his  harsher  sky,  and  of  the  Greek  in  his  more  genial  home  ' 
(Popular  Romauces  of  the  Middle  Ages,  p.  79). 
1  De  Gubernatis,  Mythical  Zoology,  vol.  i.  p.  35. 


2S4  BURIED  TREASURE  OF  THE  NORTH. 

And  tricks  his  beams,  and  with  new-spangled  ore 
Flames  in  the  forehead  of  the  morning  sky.' 1 

Zycidas. 

We  find  another  interesting  illustration  in  the  book 
of  Job  (ch.  xxxvii.  22),  where  it  is  said,  'Gold2 
cometh  out  of  the  north,'  a  figurative  expression 
for  that  golden  light  which  is  seen  in  the  west,  is 
hidden  in  the  north,  and  emerges  thence,  as  a 
herald  of  the  dawn,  in  the  east.  It  is  observable, 
also,  that  tzepkunim,  the  Hebrew  word  for  riches, 
treasures,  is  near  akin  to  tzdpkon9the  north  (literally 
'  the  hidden  or  obscure  quarter  '),  both  being  from 
tz&pkan  (to  hide,  conceal,  store  up).  The  father 
of  history,  who  is  a  great  retailer  of  myths,  tells  us 
that  a  very  great  quantity  of  gold  lay  in  the  north, 


1  It  is  curious  to  observe  how  exactly  the  conception  of  Milton 
coincides  with  that  of  the  Sanskrit  Rdmdyanam.  *  With  a  mountain 
metal  of  a  colour  similar  to  that  of  the  young  sun,  the  sun  Hamas  im- 
prints a  dazzling  mark  on  the  forehead  of  the  dawn  Sita,  as  if  to  be 
able  to  recognise  her — that  is  to  say,  he  places  himself  upon  the 
forehead  of  the  Aurora  or  Dawn  '  (Quoted  by  De  Gubernatis,  Myth- 
ical Zoology,  vol.  i.  p.  55). 

2  LXX.  v€(pT]  xPvcravy°^"Ta  (clouds  gold-gleaming),  Authorised 
Version  '  fair  weather.'     Compare — 

'  Yonder  comes  the  powerful  king  of  day- 
Rejoicing  in  the  east.     The  lessening  cloud, 
The  kindling  azure,  and  the  mountain's  brow, 
Illumined  with  fluid  gold  his  near  approach 
Betoken  glad.'  Thomson,  Seasons. 

So  Ossian's  Address  to  the  Sun,  '  Thy  yellow-golden  locks  are 
spread  on  the  face  of  the  clouds  in  the  east;'  which  recalls 
Peacham's  pretty  couplet — 

'  Clouds  were  fled  that  overcast  the  ayre, 
And  Phoebus  threw  about  his  golden  hayre  ; ' 

and  Sylvester's 

'  Pure  goldy-locks,  Sol,  States-friend,  ITonour  giuer, 
Light-bringer,  Laureat,  Leach-man,  all  Reyiuer.' 

Divine  Weekes,  p.  80. 


pluto.  285 

guarded  by  the  Griffins,  from  whom  a  one-eyed 
race  of  people  named  the  Arimaspians  used  to  steal 
it  (Herodotus,  vol.  iii.  p.  115),  all  which  put  into 
plain  prose  seems  to  mean,  that  the  sun  steals  the 
golden  light  from  the  churlish  powers  of  darkness, 
and  brings  it  out  of  the  north.  iEschylus  (Prom. 
Vinct.  11.  805,  806),  informs  us  that  these  Griffins 
and  Arimaspians  were  to  be  found  in  the  far  west 
(which  mythologically  is  the  same  thing  as  the 
north,  both  being  unexplored  regions  of  darkness), 
and  that  they  dwelt  beside  a  stream  that  flowed 
with  gold,  at  Pluto's  ford,  i.e.,  where  was  the  pas- 
sage to  the  infernal  world. 

We  are  now  in  a  position  to  understand  why  it 
is  that  Sanskrit  kuvera,  the  god  of  riches,  was  con- 
sidered to  preside  over  the  north,  as  Agni,  the 
fire-god,  does  over  the  east ;  why,  in  Greek,  Pluto 
(IIXovtcov),  the  god  of  the  dark  nether-world,  was 
identified  with  Plutus,  the  god  of  riches  (IIXovtos)  ; 
and  why  the  same  deity  in  Latin  had  the  name  of 
Dis,  which  is  only  another  form  of  Dives,  rich.1 
The  infernal  regions  being  fabled  to  lie  in  the 
gloomy  quarter  of  the  west,  where  the  sun  goes 


1  '  The  poets  feign  Pluto  to  be  the  god  of  hell  and  the  god  of 
riches,  as  if  riches  and  hell  had  both  one  master  '  (Adams'  Sermons, 
The  Temple).  In  the  Scandinavian  mythology  the  god  Njord,  a 
name  which  is  probably  connected  with  nor¥»\  north,  is  so  wealthy 
that  he  can  give  possessions  and  treasures  to  those  who  call  on  him 
for  them  (Prose  Edda).  The  Sanskrit  vas-u,  wealth,  vas-ara,  day, 
vi-vas-vat,  the  sun,  are  kindred  words,  and  contain  the  same  root, 
vas,  to  be  bright. 


28G  AMENTI.        EIIEBUS. 

down,  or  of  the  north,  where  he  never  shines,  the 
ruler  of  it  was  naturally  conceived  to  be  the  lord 
of  its  sunken  treasure.1 

The  ancient  Egyptians  considered  that  Amenti,  the 
world  beyond  the  grave,  lay  in  the  west  (ement),  and 
were  in  the  habit,  therefore,  of  interring  their  dead 
on  the  western  bank  of  the  Nile,  where  the  evening 
sun  seemed  to  descend  into  the  iDfernal  night. 
The  west  was  to  them  the  symbol  of  futurity,  and 
the  abode  of  Osiris.2  Erebus  C'Epe/3o?),  near  akin 
to  the  Hebrew  ereb  (evening),  is  in  Homer  the 
place  of  nether  darkness  which  must  be  passed  in 
£oin£  to  Hades,  and  is  situated  in  the  west.3 
Zophos  (&o$os)  is  in  Greek  the  west,  the  realm  of 


1  Cf.  Spenser,  Faerie  Queeue,Bk.  II.  7,  xxi,  xxi.  The  ancient  Irish 
believed  there  was  a  sunken  land  lying  to  the  north  or  north-west  of 
Ireland  which  contained  a  city  called  Tir-Hudi,  or  city  of  Hud,  that 
once  possessed  all  the  riches  of  the  world.  The  Assyrian  Anu,  corre- 
sponding to  Hades  or  Pluto,  bears  such  titles  as  '  king  of  the  lower 
world,'  '  lord  of  darkness  '  or  '  death,'  '  ruler  of  the  far-off  city,'  and 
is  also  c  the  layer  up  of  treasures,'  '  the  lord  of  the  earth '  or 
'mountains,'  from  whence  the  precious  metals  are  extracted  (Raw- 
linson,  Herodotus,  vol.  i.  p.  591).  It  is  significant  to  find  that  the 
god  Anu,  apparently  known  to  the  Greeks  as  Erebus  (i.e.,  Assyrian 
ereb,  'setting,'  '  the  west,'  'darkness'),  was  considered  the  father 
of  Martu,  '  the  west,'  gave  his  name  to  one  of  the  principal  metals, 
had  the  western  gate  of  the  city  Dur-sargina  dedicated  to  him,  was 
also  known  by  the  name  Dis,  and  especially  presided  over  Urea  or 
Orech,  which  wras  emphatically  'the  city  of  the  dead,'  the  great 
necropolis  of  Babylonia.  The  resemblance  of  the  Latin  urcus  is 
curious  (Rawlinson,  Herodotus,  vol.  i.  pp.  592  scq.) 

2  The  series  of  Egyptian  kiugs  at  Abydos  is  depicted  as  present- 
ing offerings  to  Osiris,  in  the  character  of  Lord  of  the  West  and 
Pluto  of  their  Hades  (Bunsen,  Egypt,  vol.  i.  p.  46).  Atum,  who 
held  the  office  of  judge  in  the  lower  world,  was  the  god  of  the  set- 
ting sun,  the  west  (Ibid.,  p.  398). 

3  Odyssey,  xii.  81. 


THE  WEST  THE  LAND  OF  THE  DEAD.  287 

darkness,  and  also  the  netlier-world ;  and  in 
Sophocles  1  Hesperos  Thdos  (^Earepos  @eo?)  is  the 
western  god,  the  god  of  darkness,  and  designates 
Hades  or  Pluto. 

'  By  the  simplest  poetic  adaptation  of  the  sun's  daily  life ' 
(says  Mr  Tylor  in  his  most  interesting  work  on  '  Primitive 
Culture  ' 2) '  typifing  man's  life  in  dawning  beauty,  in  midday 
glory,  in  evening  death,  mythic  fancy  even  fixed  the  belief  in 
the  religions  of  the  world,  that  the  land  of  Departed  Souls  lies 
in  the  Far  "West,  or  the  World  below.' 

*  Man  is  a  summer  day,  whose  youth  and  fire 
Cool  to  a  glorious  evening,  and  expire.' 3 

To  the  same  learned  anthropologist  I  am  in- 
debted for  the  following  illustrations  of  this  world- 
wide superstition.  Most  savage  peoples4  place  the 
world  of  departed  souls  in  the  west,  whither  the 
sun  descends  at  evening  to  his  daily  death. 

1  The  Chilians  say  that  the  soul  goes  westward  over  the  sea 
to  Gulclieman,  the  dwelling-place  of  the  dead  beyond  the 
mountains.  The  Haitians  describe  the  paradise  of  the  dead  as 
lying  in  the  lovely  western  valleys  of  their  island.  The 
Australians  think  that  the  spirit  of  the  dead  hovers  awhile  on 
earth,  and  goes  at  last  towards  the  setting  sun,  or  westward 
over  the  sea  to  the  island  of  souls,  the  home  of  his  fathers. 
The  classic  paradise  lay  in  the  Fortunate  Islands  of  the  far 
western  ocean.'  5 

1  CEdip.  Tyran.,  1.  178. 

2  Vol.  ii.  p.  44.  Harpocrates,  the  Egyptian  Aurora,  or  god  of  the 
sunrise,  not  only  represented  the  beginning  of  day,  but  was  the 
emblem  of  childhood.  He  was  portrayed  as  an  infant,  rising  out 
of  the  lotus,  the  flower  of  Hades  (Rawlinsoo,  Herodotus,  vol.  ii. 
p.  149). 

3  Vaughan,  Siiex  Scintillans,  Pt.  I.  p.  57  (ed.  1655). 

4  E.g.,  the  Brazilians,  Samoan  Islanders,  Indians,  &c.  (Tylor, 
Primitive  Culture,  vol.  ii.  pp.  60-62,  70,  85,  309). 

5  Ibid.,  vol.  ii.  pp.  55  seq. 


288  THE  WEST  THE  LAND  OF  THE  DEAD. 

Reigna,  the  New  Zealander's  world  of  departed 
souls,  lies  in  the  west.1  Hine-nui-te-po,  '-Great- 
woman-night,'  who  dwells  on  the  horizon,  is  their 
Hades,  the  goddess  both  of  night  and  death.  They 
hold  that  the  sun  descends  at  night  into  his  cavern, 
bathes  in  the  rcai  ora  tane,  i  the  water  of  life/  and 
returns  at  dawn  from  the  under-world ;  hence 
they  think  that  if  man  could  likewise  descend  into 
Hades,  and  return,  his  race  would  be  immortal. 2 

In  the  North  American  mythology,  Ning-gah-be- 
ar-nong  Manito,  the  spirit  of  the  west,  is  god  of 
the  country  of  the  dead,  in  the  region  of  the  set- 
ting sun.3 

Far  away  in  that  same  quarter  are  the  delight- 
ful hunting-grounds,  whither  the  Choctaws  believe 
the  spirit  travels  after  death  by  a  rugged  path  full 
of  difficulties  and  dangers.4  In  the  doctrine  of 
Buddhism,  the  paradise  of  Fo,  where  the  saints 
enjoy  eternal  felicity,  is  also  called  the  paradise  of 
the  west. 

It  is  at  the  western  Land's  End  that  Maori 
souls  are  conceived  by  the  New  Zealander  to 
descend  into  the  subterranean  region  of  the  dead, 
because  there  the  sun  is  seen  to  descend  to  the 
western  Hades,  the  under-world  of  night  and  death, 
which  is  incidentally  identified  with  the  region  of 
subterranean  fire   and   earthquake.      Among   the 

1  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  vol.  ii.  p.  2S1. 

2  Ibid.,  vol.  L  p.  302  seq.  3  Ibid.,  vol.  i.  p.  304. 
4  Tylor,  Early  History  of  Mankind;  Catliu,  vol.  ii.  p.  127. 


ENGLAND  THE  LAND  OF  THE  DEAD.    289 

Tongans,  also,   the  land  of  the  dead,  which  they 
call  Bulotu,  is  situated  in  the  west.1 

*  At  the  extreme  western  cape  of  Vanua  Levu,  the  souls 
of  the  Fijian  dead  embark  for  the  judgment-seat  of  JVdengei, 
and  thither  the  living  come  in  pilgrimage,  thinking  to  see 
there  ghosts  and  gods.'  2 

But  this  superstition  conies  nearer  home  to  our- 
selves. Great  Britain  itself,  for  the  same  reason, 
apparently,  as  lying  to  the  extreme  west  of  Europe,3 
towards  the  setting  sun,  was  anciently  regarded 
by  the  Galli  and  Germans  4  as  '  the  island  of  the 
dead/  because  souls  were  ferried  over  thither  in 
the  depth  of  night  from  the  opposite  coast  of 
Gaul ;  and  it  is  said  to  be  still  a  popular  belief 
in  Armorica  and  Bretagne  that  the  shades  of  the 
departed  are  escorted  over  to  England,  because  it 
is  the  nether-world,  or  land  of  the  dead.5  The 
very  point  of  this  weird  ferry  is  pointed  out  near 
Eaz,  in  Bretagne,  where  the  promontory  stretches 
westward  into  the  ocean,  and  the  bay  is  called 
Bod  ann  anavo,  c  the  bay  of  souls.' 6    The  English, 

1  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  vol.  i.  pp.  310,  311. 

2  Ibid.,  vol.  ii.  p.  41. 

3  Europa,  as  a  geographical  name,  appears  to  denote  '  the  western 
or  dark  land,'  *  and  must  have  been  given  by  Asiatic  Greeks,  just 
as  the  Chinese  call  the  great  island  to  the  east  of  them  Je-pun, 
i.e.,  *  the  source  of  day,'  properly  Nipon,  now  Japan.  Asia  itself 
signifies  'rising,'  or  'the  east'  (Rawlinson,  Herodotus,  vol.  i.  p.  594). 

4  Procopius,  Goth.  Bell.,  vol.  iv.  p.  20. 

5  Kuhn.  Vide  Kelly's  Indo-European  Tradition,  p.  121 ;  Sir  G. 
C.  Lewis,  Astronomy  of  Ancients,  pp.  494  seg. 

6  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  vol.  ii.  p.  59. 

*  'Evpojirrj,  x^Pa  T^s  dvcrew,  rj  (TKOTeivq  (Heysch.)  : — Kenrick, 
Phoenicia,  p.  85. 


290  ISLES    OF   THE    BLESSED. 

in  their  turn,  not  accepting  the  equivocal  compli- 
ment, and  looking  away  from  themselves  to  their 
more  western  neighbour,  located  the  descent  to  the 
Land  of  Shades  in  the  sacred  isle  of  Erin;  and 
this  Irish  Avernus — St  Patrick's  Purgatory,  as  it 
was  called — was  visited  by  many  a  wandering  pil- 
grim. The  Irish,  again,  did  not  fail  to  remove  this 
region  still  further  west.  They  supposed  that  the 
spirits  of  the  departed  went  to  join  the  company  of 
the  heroes  in  the  island  called  Tir-na-nog,  or  land  of 
perpetual  youth,  which  lay  far  out  in  the  Atlantic, 
and  traditions  of  this  lovely  region,  'the  bright 
confines  of  another  world,'  are  yet  current,  I  be- 
lieve, along  the  west  coast  of  Ireland.1 

According  to  the  Keltic  myth  of  Macpherson, 
departed  heroes  were  transported  to  Flath-Innis, 
the  noble  island,  a  verdant  paradise  that  lies  un- 
vexed  by  storms  amid  the  great  western  main.2 

According  to  the  Greek  idea,  also,  the  Isles  of 
the  Blessed,  where  the  heroes  rest  at  ease,  were 
conceived  to  lie  in  the  ocean  towards  the  extreme 
west.  The  Phaiakian  land  of  the  Odyssey,  says  a 
recent  writer,  is  l  that  ideal  land  far  away  in  the 
west,  over  which  is  spread  the  soft  beauty  of  an 
everlasting  twilight,  .  .   .  where  the  radiant  pro- 

1  Old  Folk-Lore  of  Ireland,  p.  290  seq.  See  also  an  article  on  the 
Sacred  Isles  of  the  West, Notes  and  Queries,  2d  Ser.  No.  cxxvi.  p.  429. 
Representations  have  been  found  on  antique  gems  of  departed  souls 
being  conveyed  to  the  abodes  of  bliss,  imagined  as  some  happy 
island  in  the  far  west  (King's  Gnostics  and  their  Remains,  p.  158). 

2  Tyior,  loc.  cit. 


ISLES    OF    THE    BLESSED.  291 

cessions  which  gladden  the  eyes  of  mortal  men 
only  when  the  heavens  are  clear,  are  ever  passing 
through  the  streets  and  along  the  flower-clad  hills.' 
It  is,  in  fact,  cloudland  ;  and  there  is  situated  the 
palace  and  gardens  of  Alkinoos,  with  their  price- 
less treasures  and  unfading  glory '  (vide  Cox;  Aryan 
Mythology,  vol.  ii.  p.  275).     So  also — 

'  The  Elysian  Plain  is  far  away  in  the  west,  where  the  sun 
goes  down  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  earth.  .  .  .  The  abodes 
of  the  blessed  are  golden  islands  sailing  in  a  sea  of  blue,  the 
burnished  clouds  floating  in  the  pure  ether.  Grief  and  sorrow 
cannot  approach  them;  plague  and  sickness  cannot  touch  them. 
The  barks  of  the  Phaiakians  dread  no  disaster  ;  and  thus  the 
blissful  company  gathered  together  in  that  far  western  land 
inherits  a  tearless  eternity.' l  Ibid.,  p.  321. 

The  sun   in  his  daily  course  was   conceived  to 

1  '  The  idea  of  a  sacred  island,  rising  amidst  the  waves,  removed 
from  all  contentions  and  wars,  the  abode  of  quiet  and  purity,  the 
secure  refuge  of  men  buffeted  by  the  storms  of  the  world,  seems 
naturally  to  suggest  itself  to  the  human  mind.  By  an  easy  transi- 
tion, this  residence  of  a  pious  and  holy  race  becomes  an  Elysian 
Field  ;  it  is  endowed  with  perpetual  spring  ;  the  ground  produces 
its  fruits  without  labour  ;  there  are  no  serpents  or  wild  beasts 
within  its  hallowed  precinct  ;  its  inhabitants  are  no  longer  a  sacred 
colony  of  living  men,  but  the  souls  of  the  departed  trauslated  to  a 
region  of  bliss.  The  notion  of  holy  islands  first  occurs  in  Hesiod. 
He  describes  the  race  of  heroes  who  form  the  fourth  age  of  man- 
kind as  residing  after  death  apart  from  the  world,  in  the  Islands 
of  the  Blest,  near  the  ocean,  free  from  care,  and  enjoying  three 
harvests  in  the  year.  Pindar,  in  like  manner,  conceives  the  Islands 
of  the  Blest  as  the  abodes  of  the  just  and  virtuous  after  death.' 
'As  the  horizon  of  their  geographical  knowledge  extended,  the 
province  of  fable  receded,  and  the  marvels  of  fancy  were  banished 
into  the  more  distant  regions  of  the  earth.'  And  so  the  seat  of 
happiness  was  shifted  from  the  islands  of  the  Mediterranean  to  the 
Canary  Islands  of  the  Atlantic,  to  Hibernia,  the  sacred  isle  of  the 
far  west,  or  even  to  the  Hyperboreans  of  the  extreme  north  (Sir  G. 
C.  Lewis,  Astronomy  of  the  Ancients,  pp.  489  seq. ) 

Homer  describes  the  land  of  the  Cimmerians,  where  Ulysses  evoked 
the  souls  of  the  dead,  as  being  on  the  furthest  extremity  of  the 


292  THE    WEST    THE    WAY    TO    HADES. 

tread  the  path  of  life  from  east  to  west.  When 
he  rose,  he  entered  into  the  land  of  the  living ; 
when  he  set,  he  sank  into  the  land  of  the  dead, 
and  thus  he  was  the  first  who  discovered  the  way 
to  the  other  world.  To  that  world  men  too  must 
surely  go,  and  by  the  same  way,  when  their  course 
is  run.  Our  life-powers  wane,  and  inevitably  de- 
cline into  the  west.     When  our 

1  Youthful  morn 
Hath  travell'd  on  to  age's  steepy  night.' l 

Then— 

i  The  bright  day  is  done, 
And  we  are  for  the  dark.' 2 

It  is  due,  therefore,  to  a  natural  conception  that 
the  Mexican  says,  i  The  sun  goes  at  evening  to 
lighten  the  dead,'  or  that  the  New  Zealander  ex- 
claims, i  See  !  the  sun  has  returned  to  Hades,' 
meaning  it  has  set.  And  this  is  why  the  sun 
looks  so  red  as  it  approaches  the  horizon,  accord- 
ing to  the  belief  of  our  Anglo-Saxon  forefathers, 
because  then  '  she  looketh  upon  hell.' 3 

ocean.  When  the  localities  of  fiction  receded,  this  scene  was  fixed 
by  Claudian  at  the  extremity  of  Gaul.  While,  later  still,  Procopius 
found  the  soul-land  removed  to  Great  Britain. 

1  Shakspere,  Sonnet  LXIII. 

2  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  v.  2.     Cf. — 

'  At  night  when  I  betake  to  rest, 
Next  morn  I  rise  neer'er  my  West 
Of  life,  almost  by  eight  houres  saile 
Then  when  sleep  breath'd  his  drowsie  gale.' 

Bp.  Henry  King,  Poems,  p.  37  (1657,'ed.  Hannah). 

« And  though  You  travel  down  into  the  West, 
May  Your  life's  Sun  stand  fixed  in  the  East, 
Far  from  the  weeping  set.'  Ibid.,  p.  50. 

3  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  vol.  ii.  pp.  60  seq.     The  Karens,  an 


293 

1  C.  Wherefore  is  the  son  rede  at  even  \     M.  For  he  gothe 
toward  hell.' 
The  Master  of  Oxford's  Catechism,  (Reliq.  Antiq.,  i.  p.  232). 

Similarly,  the  classical  myths  of  Orpheus,  of 
Odysseus,  and  other  heroes,  visiting  the  infernal 
regions,  or  dark  under-world  below,  are  only  poeti- 
cal representations  of  the  sun-god  descending 
beneath  the  verge,  passing  along  deep  down  below 
the  northern  horizon,  and  bringing  up  with  him 
'  the  wide-shining  Eurydike,'  the  golden  treasures 
of  the  dawn.1  The  researches  of  Max  Miiller,  Cox, 
and  De  Gubernatis  have  placed  this  beyond  ques- 
tion, and  the  most  widely-dispersed  savage  legends, 
Mr  Tylor  assures  us,  from  Polynesia  and  America, 
give  new'confirmation  to  the  theory.2 

The  Icelandic  myth  of  the  Prose  Edda  should 
also  be  compared.  When  Baldr,  the  bright  day- 
god,  is  slain,  Hermodr  is  sent  to  seek  and  ransom 
him.3  He  repairs  towards  the  north,  for  there,  he 
is  told,  lies  the  way  to  the  abodes  of  death,  and 
after  a  long  and  dangerous  ride,  passes  over  the 
bridge  of  glittering  gold,  and  finds  him  at  length 
in  the  realm  of  Hel  (the  goddess  of  death),  which 


Asiatic  tribe,  hold  the  same  belief,  that  when  the  sun  sets  on  earth 
it  rises  in  Hades,  and  when  it  sets  in  Hades  it  rises  in  this  world 
(Joe.  cit.)  As  the  earth  thus  becomes  the  land  of  shades  during 
the  hours  of  darkness,  we  can  understand  the  reason  of  ghosts  walk- 
ing here  only  by  night,  but  returning  below  at  daybreak. 

1  Vide  De  Gubernatis,  Mythical  Zoology,  vol.  i.  pp.  25,  149. 

2  Primitive  Culture,  vol.  i.  p.  313. 

3  Cf.  Carlyle  on  Heroes,  Lect.  I.     Oxford  Essays,  1858,  p.  196. 


294  THE    UN  DEE-WORLD. 

is  also  called  Nijllieimr,  the  shadowy  land,  or  home 
of  mists.1  De  Gubernatis,  in  his  work  on  Mythi- 
cal Zoology,  sums  up  much  of  what  has  been  said 
in  these  words  : — 

1  The  city  of  Bhogavatt  (i.e.,  furnished  "with  riches)  is  full 
of  treasures,  like  the  hell  of  Western  tradition.  This  infernal 
world  went  definitively  underground  when  the  gods,  having 
fallen,  took  humbler  forms  upon  the  earth.  .  .  .  The  riches  of 
heaven,  concealed  by  the  cloudy  or  gloomy  monster  of  night 
or  winter,  passed  into  the  earth  ;  the  observation  of  heavenly 
phenomena  helped  this  conception.  The  true  mythical  trea- 
sures are  the  sun  and  the  moon  in  their  splendour  ;  when  they 
go  down,  they  seem  to  hide  themselves  underground  ;  the  solar 
hero  goes  underground,  he  goes  to  hell,  after  having  lost  all 
his  treasures  and  all  his  riches  ;  he  undertakes  in  poverty  his 
infernal  journey.  When  the  sun  rises  from  the  mountain,  it 
seems  to  come  out  from  underground  :  the  solar  hero  returns 
from  his  journey  through  hell,  he  returns  resplendent  and 
wealthy  ;  the  infernal  demon  gives  back  to  him  part  of  the 
treasures  which  he  possesses,  having  carried  them  off  from 
him,  or  else  the  young  hero  recovers  them  by  his  valour.' 2 

In   ancient  Egyptian  fable  it  was  taught   that 
the  souls  of  dead  persons,  whose  bodies  had  been 

1  In  Phoenicia,  Adonis,  whose  name  signifies  Lord,  i.e.,  the  sun 
as  supreme  god,  the  king  of  heaven,  was  fabled  to  have  been  slain 
bv  the  boar,  the  emblem  of  the  rude,  ungenial  winter.  Being  the 
source  of  life  to  the  physical  world,  his  departure  from  the  upper 
hemisphere  in  winter  was  mourned  as  a  temporary  death  with  a 
display  of  the  most  frantic  grief  ;  his  return  to  it,  being  a  new 
birth,  was  the  occasion  of  commensurate  rejoicing  ( Kenrick, 
Phoenicia,  p.  309  ;  Milton,  Paradise  Lost,  vol.  i.  p.  455  ;  B. -Gould, 
Curious  Myths,  p.  2S5).  It  wras  at  the  northern  gate  of  the  Temple 
that  the  Jewish  women  used  to  sit  when  weeping  for  Tarnrouz,  who 
is  identical  with  Adonis,  i.e.,  bewailing  the  descent  of  the  sun 
among  the  wintry  signs  (Ezek.  viii.  14).  Rawlinson  asserts  that 
the  name  Tammuz  means  the  '  hidden  '  or  c  concealed  '  one,  which 
would  be  a  suitable  designation  for  '  Sol  Inferus,'  the  Atrnoo  of 
Egypt  (Herodotus,  vol.  ii.  p.  104). 

2  De  Gubernatis,  Mythical  Zoology,  vol.  ii.  p.  403. 


THE    INFERNAL    WEST.  295 

properly  embalmed,  descended  into  the  invisible 
world  in  the  boat  of  the  setting  sun  ;  and  that 
after  some  long  period,  during  which  they  had 
many  trials  to  undergo,  they  would  rise  again 
perfectly  pure,  to  reunite  with  the  body,  in  the 
boat  of  the  rising  sun.1  On  the  mummy  being 
committed  to  the  tomb,  the  soul  is  directed  "in  the 
'  Book  of  the  Dead  '  to  pay  acts  of  adoration  to  Ra, 
or  Phra,  the  rising  sun,  and  to  Athom,  the  setting 
sun,  this  last  being  implored  to  open  6  the  gates  in 
the  solar  mountains  that  close  the  cave  of  the 
west.'  We  learn  from  the  same  source  that  the 
disembodied  spirit  had  a  journey  to  make  when  it 
arrived  in  Hades,  that  the  path  it  had  to  follow 
was  the  nocturnal  course  of  the  sun,  that  it  had 
many  ablutions  to  perform  and  changes  to  undergo 
preparatory  to  its  purification,  and  that  over  these 
presided  Osiris,  '  the  lord  of  the  cave  of  the  west.' 2 
What  makes  this  superstition  of  the  west  being 
the  land  of  shades  and  of  the  infernal  powers  the 
more  interesting,  is  the  fact  that  it  has  lived  on 
into  Christian  times,3  and  has  actually  been  recog- 
nised in  the  most  important  of  Christian  ceremonies. 
At  baptism,    according  to  the  rite  of  the   Greek 


1  Osburn,  Monumental  History  of  Egypt,  vol.  i.  p.  332  ;  Bunsen, 
Egypt,  vol.  v.  pass. 

2  Osburn,  Monumental  History  of  Egypt,  vol.  i.  pp.  423,  429. 

3  E.g.,  when  the  Botathen  ghost  was  duly  exorcised  (under  Epis- 
copal license)  by  the  Parson  of  Launceston  in  1665,  '  she  peacefully 
withdrew,  gliding  towards  the  west '  (Hawker,  Footprints  of  Former 
Men  in  Far  Cornwall,  p.  122). 


296       THE   WEST   THE   REGION   OF   DARKNESS. 

Church,  the  sponsors,  when  renouncing  the  devil, 
turn  with  the  child  towards  the  setting  sun,  and 
answer,  '  I  have  renounced  him.'  They  then  spit,  to 
show  their  utter  rejection  and  abhorrence  of  him.1 
After  the  confession  of  faith  candles  are  lighted, 
and  a  taper  put  into  each  sponsor's  hand,  in  token 
of  the  child  being'spiritually  illuminated,  and  made 
one  of  the  '  children  of  light.'  This  custom  of 
turning  to  the  west  at  the  renunciation  of  Satan 
in  baptism,  is  a  symbolical  rite  of  very  great  anti- 
quity. So  far  back  as  the  fourth  century  Cyril  of 
Jerusalem,  speaking  to  those  who  had  been  re- 
cently baptized,  said — '  Standing  towards  the  west, 
you  have  been  commanded  to  stretch  forth  your 
hand  and  renounce  Satan  as  if  he  were  pre- 
sent/ 2 

Just  as  Nirriti,  the  western  land,  to  which  Yama 
had  first  crossed  the  rapid  waters,  became  first  the 
land  of  death,  and  afterwards  a  personification  of 
evil,3  so  to  the  primitive  Christians  c  the  west  is 
the  place  of  darkness,  and  Satan  is  darkness,  and 
his  strength  is  in  darkness.'     For  this  reason,  we 

1  Dixon,  Free  Russia,  vol.  ii.  p.  219. 

2  Palmer,  Antiquities  of  the  English  Ritual,  vol.  ii.  p.  177. 

3  Cox,  Mythology  of  the  Aryan  Nations,  vol.  i.  p.  344.  Nirriti, 
i.e.,  the  exodus,  the  land  of  the  deceased  who  are  here  no  more 
seen.  Chaeremon  states  that  in  the  Egyptian  hieroglyphics,  as  a 
serpent  creeping  out  of  a  hole  represents  the  east,  so  a  serpent 
entering  a  hole  signifies  the  west,  probably,  i.e.,  the  urseus  serpent 
appropriate  to  Ra  the  sun-god  plunging  into  darkness.  In  the  ideo- 
graphic symbols,  however,  as  deciphered,  the  west  is  '  the  land  of 
truths'  (BunseD,  Egypt,  vol.  i.  pp.  497,  517). 


SATAN    IN    THE    WEST.  297 

are  told,  they  symbolically  looked  towards  the 
west  in  renouncing  him.1  This  ceremony,  together 
with  that  of  insufflations,  and  other  external  signs 
of  enmity  to  the  devil,  are  still  very  generally  re- 
tained in  the  Eastern  Church.  "When  the  sponsors 
had  renounced  the  *  works  of  darkness '  and  the 
'  Prince  of  darkness,'  turned  towards  that  region 
of  darkness  where  he  was  supposed  to  dwell,  they 
then  wheeled  completely  round  to  the  opposite 
point  of  the  compass,  the  region  of  brightness, 
where  '  the  day-spring  from  on  high  hath  visited 
us'2  (Luke  i.  78),  and  professed  their  faith  in 
Christ  the  6  true  Light,  which  lighteth  every  man 
that  cometh  into  the  world  '  (John  i.  9). 

1  In  our  mysteries '  (saith  Jerome)  l  we  first  renounce  him 
that  is  in  the  west,  who  dies  to  us  with  our  sin  ;  and  then 
turning  about  to  the  east,  we  make  a  covenant  with  the  sun 
of  righteousness,  and  promise  to  be  his  servants.'  3 

Turning  towards  the  east  being  thus  a  symbol 

of  aversion  from  Satan  and  conversion  to  Christ, 

1  Bingham,  Christian  Antiquities,  vol.  i.  p.  517  (ed.  Bohn). 

2  The  word  for  '  day-spring  '  in  this  passage  {hvarokr})  had  come 
to  be  used  as  a  name  of  the  Messiah.  '  Behold  the  man,  his  name 
is  the  East '  (or  '  the  Sunrise,'  avaroKri)  is  the  Septuagint  rendering 
of  the  words  '  Behold  the  man  whose  name  is  the  Branch '  in  our 
version  (Zech.  vi.  12).  Referring  to  that  prophecy,  Philo  Judseus 
gayS — <  I  have  also  heard  of  one  of  the  companions  of  Moses  having 
uttered  such  a  speech  as  this,  "Behold,  a  man  whose  name  is  the 
East."  A  very  novel  appellation  indeed,  if  you  consider  it  as  spoken 
of  a  man  who  is  compounded  of  body  and  soul ;  but  if  you  look 
upon  it  as  applied  to  that  incorporeal  being  who  in  no  respect  differs 
from  the  divine  image,  you  will  then  agree  that  the  name  'of  the 
East  has  been  given  to  him  with  great  felicity  '  (Trans.  Yonge,  vol. 
ii.  p.  14.     Cf.  Bishop  Reynold's  Works,  vol.  v.  p.  258). 

3  Bingham,  loc.  cit. 


298  the  east  Christ's  region. 

from  darkness  to  light,  from  serving  idols  to  serve 
Him  who  is  the  Fountain  of  Light,1  the  profession 
of  allegiance  to  Christ  was  always  made  with  faces 
turned  eastwards.  Such  confession  of  faith  was 
made  by  the  sponsors  either  repeating  the  Creed 
after  the  priest,  as  in  the  Eastern  churches,  or 
giving  their  assent  thereto,  as  in  the  "Western,  and 
this  is  the  origin  of  the  custom  still  retained  in 
cathedrals  and  many  churches  of  the  congregation 
and  choir  turning  towards  the  east  while  the  Creed 
is  being  recited.2 

It  is  for  a  similar  reason,  no  doubt,  that  from 
time  immemorial  the  dead  have  always  been  in- 
terred with  their  feet  towards  the  east,  so  that 
when  they  rise  from  their  sleep  in  the  dust  they 
may  stand  with  their  backs  turned  on  the  kingdom 
of  darkness  and  Satan,  ready  to  greet  the  dawn  of 
a  better  day,  and  to  meet  their  Judge  when  He 
cometh  out  of  the  east. 

'  In  Wales  the  east  wind  is  called  "  the  wind  of  the  dead 
men's   feet,"  because  the    dead  are  buried  with  their  feet 
towards  the  east,  to  meet  their  Lord  at  His  second  coming.' 
Swainson,  Weather  Folk-Lore,  p.  226. 

1  Bingham,  loc.  cit. ;  Palmer's  Antiquities  of  English  Ritual, 
vol.  ii.  p.  179.  Jones  of  Nayland,  Figurative  Language  of  Scripture, 
Lect.  II. 

2  Compare  the  following  from  Lactantius — '  The  east  was  more 
peculiarly  ascribed  to  God  because  He  was  the  fountain  of  ligbt 
and  illuminator  of  all  things,  and  because  He  makes  us  rise  to 
eternal  life.  But  the  west  was  ascribed  to  that  wicked  and  depraved 
spirit  the  devil,  because  he  hides  the  light,  and  induces  darkness 
always  upon  men,  and  makes  them  fall  and  perish  in  their  sins  ' 
(Bingham,  vol.  i.  p.  654). 


BURIAL    TOWARD    THE   EAST.  299 

Indeed,  there  is  an  ancient  tradition  in  Bede  and 
Gregory1  that  the  Lord  Himself  was  thus  buried 
with  His  face  and  feet  towards  the  east.  Shaks- 
pere  has  an  allusion  to  the  observance  in  6  Cymbe- 
line '  (iv.  2),  when  Guiderius  says — 

'  Nay,  Cadwal,  we  must  lay  his  head  to  the  east ; 
My  father  hath  a  reason  forV 

And  assuredly  it  is  a  strange  thought,  a  thought 
of  overpowering  majesty  and  solemnity,  that  the 
mighty  army  of  the  dead,  the  countless  millions 
who  have  received  Christian  burial  for  many  suc- 
ceeding ages,  are  now  all  lying  in  parallel  order, 
stretched  in  their  narrow  beds  in  the  one  direction, 
— in  even  files,  ready  at  the  trumpet-call  to  start 
each  to  his  feet,  and  find  himself  in  the  ranks  of 
a  marshalled  host  stretching  away  to  the  world's 
ends,  but  all  fronting  eastwards,  and  all  face  to 
face  with  the  Son  of  Man  as  He  returns  out  of  the 
resplendent  orient.2 

1  Vide  Brand,  Pop.  Antiquities,  vol.  ii.'p.  318.  The  sepulchral  effigy 
of  Dr  Donne  in  St  Paul's  Cathedral  was  purposely  turned  towards 
the  east,  Walton  tells  us,  '  from  whence  he  expected  the  second 
coming  of  his  and  our  Saviour  Jesus,'  according  to  the  beautiful 
words  with  which  his  epitaph  is  concluded — '  Hie  Licet  In  Occiduo 
Cinere,  Aspicit  Eum  Cujus  Nomen  Est  Oriens.' 

2  The  Saviour,  according  to  the  Patristic  interpretation  of  Psalm 
lxvii.  5,  was  conceived  as  having  gone  down  into  the  west  when  He 
submitted  Himself  to  the  power  of  darkness  '  by  His  cross  and 
passion,  by  His  death  and  burial,'  and  descended  into  the  lower 
parts  of  the  earth.  The  Vulgate  rendering  of  the  passage  is — 
'Cantate  Deo,  psalmum  dicite  nomini  ejus;  iter  facite  ei  qui 
ascendit  super  occasum.'  In  the  Douay  version,  '  Sing  ye  to  God, 
sing  a  psalm  to  His  name ;  make  a  way  for  Him  who  ascendeth 
upon  the  west.'  Being  loosed  from  the  pains  of  death  at  His 
'glorious  resurrection  and  ascension,'  He  arose  above  the  west,  like 
a  supernatural  sunrise,  and  triumphed  over  the  region  and  the 
Prince  of  darkness. 


300  BURIAL    TOWARD    THE    WEST. 

This  custom  of  uniformity  in  sepulture,  however, 
is  not  peculiar  to  Christians.  Even  amongst  rude 
and  barbarous  tribes  the  region  of  the  rising  sun 
is  commonly  regarded  as  the  eastern  home  of 
deity  and  the  renewal  of  life.  Therefore  the 
custom  of  burying  the  dead  with  face  to  the  east 
is  observed  by  the  Australians,  Yumanas,  Gua- 
rayos,  Ainos,  and  others.1 

The  Samoans  and  Fijians,  on  the  other  hand, 
from  the  consideration  that  the  land  of  the 
departed  lies  in  the  far  west,  bury  the  corpse 
lying  with  head  east  and  feet  west,  in  order  that 
the  body  may  have  but  to  rise  and  walk  straight 
onward  to  follow  its  soul  home.  So  the  Winne- 
bagos  of  North  America,  Peruvians,  Athenians, 
&c.  But  in  either  case  the  rule  of  burying  in  the 
line  of  east  and  west  is  widely  observed. 

What  has  been  said  above  of  the  superstitions 
connected  with  the  west,  the  region  of  incipient 
darkness,  holds  true  of  the  north,  the  region  of 
total  gloom.2  It  also  has  acquired  an  evil  charac- 
ter in  many  lands.  It  is  either  the  appointed 
dwelling  of  the  dead,  or  the  chosen  home  of 
malicious    spirits.3      According    to    the    Iranian 

1  Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  vol.  ii.  pp.  382,  383. 

2  So  the  Irish  niardha  (the  west)  seems  cognate  with  0.  Norse 
nordr,  '  north,'  which  Ed.  Miiller  connects  with  0.  H.  Ger.  neran 
(wet),  Gk.  vdpos,  vrjpos,  Sans,  ndra  nira  (water),  as  if  *  the  rainy- 
quarter.' 

3  Vide  De  l'Hayne  de  Sathan  et  Malins  Esprits  contre  l'Homme, 
et  de  l'Homme  contre  Eux,  par  F.  P.  Crespet  (Paris,  1590),  p.  32. 


THE  NORTH  THE  HOME  OF  DEMONS.    301 

tradition  the  happy  abodes  which  the  good  spirit 
Ormuzd  (Ahura  Mazda)  created  for  his  people 
were  after  a  time  smitten  with  calamity  by  the 
wicked  Ahriman  (Aiihro  Mainyu).  The  first  abode 
created  was  called  Airyana  Vaega,  the  original 
home  of  the  Aryans,  or  primitive  paradise ;  but 
Ahriman  brought  in  death  and  the  great  serpent, 
and  produced  winter,  which  was  before  unknown, 
by  means  of  his  Daevas  or  demons.  This  region 
lay  towards  the  north.  When  the  Persians  at  a 
later  time  abandoned  this  cold  and  inhospitable 
country  for  the  happier  climes  of  the  south,  they 
looked  back  with  horror  on  their  earlier  home  as  a 
dreary  land,  where  the  demon  Zemaka,  the  lord  of 
winter,  had  his  dwelling,  the  cruel,  murderous 
winter,  which  was  created  by  the  Spirit  of  Evil, 
and  is  'full  of  snow  and  evil  thoughts.'  Eventu- 
ally they  came  to  consider  the  north  as  the  habi- 
tation of  demons  and  devils.1 

Universally,  indeed,  and  from  the  earliest  times, 
there  appears  to  have  been  a  legendary  belief  that 
the  enemies  of  religion   and  civilisation  lived  in 

1  Pictet,  Orig.  Indo-Europ.  vol.  i.  pp.  36,  37;  Renan,  Origine  du 
Langage,  225.  The  horrible  vampire-demon  Drukhs  Nacus,Vho  was 
believed  by  the  ancient  Iranians  to  prey  upon  the  dead,  when 
driven  away  from  the  corpse  by  ablutions  of  pure  water,  was  seen 
to  fly  away  to  the  region  of  the  north  under  the  form  of  a  fly  (Pictet, 
vol.  ii.  p.  516).  A  mysterious  old  hag,  who  took  up  her  abode  in 
the  charnel-house  of  Kilcrea  Abbey,  Co.  Cork,  towards  the  end  of 
the  last  century,  and  used  to  amuse  her  leisure  hours  in  building 
walls  of  human  bones,  was  generally  believed  by  the  country-people 
to  have  come  from  the  weird  north,  and  to  have  returned  thither 
when  she  disappeared  (Notes  and  Queries,  4th  Ser.  No.  lxii.  p.  211). 


302    THE  NORTH  AN  UNLUCKY  QUARTER. 

that  quarter.  Thus  Gog  and  Magog,  which,  in 
one  place  (Rev.  xx.  8),  are  identified  with  the 
powers  of  Antichrist,  are  localised  in  the  north  by 
the  Koran,  and  Ezekiel  expressly  states  that  they 
would  come  upon  Israel  '  from  the  sides  of  the 
nortli '  (ch.  xxxix.  2). 

The  priests  in  primeval  times,  when  offering 
prayers  or  taking  auguries,  naturally  turned  them- 
selves towards  the  rising  sun,  the  source  of  light.1 
In  this  position  the  north  lay  to  their  left  hand, 
the  south  to  the  right,  and  the  west  behind  them. 
Accordingly  in  most  languages2  the  word  for  north 
is  identical  with  that  for  left  hand,  south  with 
right  hand ;  east  means  the  region  in  front,  and 
west  that  behind.      In  taking  the  auspices,  every 

1  The  Brahmans  perform  their  chief  religious  rite  of  consecrating 
the  fire  and  the  sacrificial  implements  turning  towards  the  east. 
The  Jews,  when  they  kill  any  creature,  turn  his  face  to  the  east, 
saying,  'Be  it  sanctified  in  the  great  name  of  God'  (Howell, 
Letters,  I.  vi.  14). 

The  Thugs,  worshippers  of  Kali,  the  death-goddess,  used  to  per- 
form the  consecration  of  their  implements  of  murder  turned  to- 
wards the  west,  the  home  of  death  (Tylor,  Primitive  Culture,  vol.  ii. 
385).  In  digging  up  that  magical  root,  the  mandrake,  one  of  the 
ceremonies  necessary  to  be  observed  in  order  to  avert  the  fatal  effects 
of  its  groans  was  to  turn  the  face  toward  the  west  (Pliny  xxv.  I'd). 

2  E.g.,  Hebrew  shmol  =  left  hand  and  north  ;  yamin,  right  and 
south;  kcdem,  before  and  east  (cf.  Job  xxiii.  8,  9).  Sans,  savya 
=  left  and  north;  dahshina,  right  and  south;  pura,  before  and  east; 
apara,  behind  and  west.  Irish  tuaidh,  tuath  =  left  and  north  ; 
deas,  right  and  south  ;  iar,  behind  and  west — whence  Erin,  '  the  ivest- 
em  isle ; '  airthir,  the  front  and  east.  Scy  thic  martu,  behind  and 
west.  So  completely  do  these  meanings  merge  into  one  another  in 
Irish,  that  a  Kerry  man  may  be  heard  speaking  of  the  wesht  side  of 
his  jaw,  meaning  the  back  part,  or  the  easht  of  his  head,  meaning 
the  front  (airthir  a  chinn). — Stokes,  Irish  Glosses,  p.  63.  A  similar 
mode  of  speaking  prevailed  in  Scotland  (vide  Dean  Ramsay's  lie- 
miniscences,  p.  93,  10th  ed.) 


THE    NORTH    THE    DEVIL'S    ABODE.  303 

sign  which  was  observed  towards  the  infernal  north 
was  looked  upon  as  disastrous,1  all  towards  the 
south  as  favourable  ;  and  hence  it  comes  that  the 
word  for  left  hand  commonly  means  also  unlucky, 
of  evil  augury  {e.g.,  sinister,  dpio-repos),  and  that 
for  the  right  hand,  lucky,  prosperous  {e.g.,  dexter, 
Sefjo?).2  The  Scandinavians,  who  originally  prayed 
and  sacrificed  towards  the  north,  when  converted  to 
Christianity,  placed  the  devil  there  as  in  his  ap- 
propriate quarter,  just  as  the  ancient  Iranians  had 
done  their  demons.3 

But  the  same  notion  has  crept  into  Christian 
traditions  from  another  source,  from  an  old,  but 
mistaken,  interpretation  of  a  very  sublime  passage 
in  the  prophecy  of  Isaiah  (ch.  xiv.  12,  13) — c  How 
art  thou  fallen  from  heaven,  0  Lucifer,  son  of  the 
morning;  ...  for  thou  hast  said  in  thine  heart,  I 
will  ascend  into  heaven,  I  will  exalt  my  throne 
above  the  stars  of  God :  I  will  sit  also  upon  the 
mount  of  the  congregation,  in  the  sides  of  the 
north.''  The  personage  really  referred  to  here  is  the 
King  of  Babylon,  who,  after  having  advanced  the 
most   extravagant  pretensions,    is    represented  as 

1  In  Sweden,  if  the  cuckoo's  voice  on  its  first  arrival  is  heard 
from  the  north,  the  unlucky  side,  it  portends  a  year  of  sorrow  to 
the  hearer;  heard  from  the  east  or  west  it  betokens  luck,  and  from 
the  south  it  gives  promise  of  a  good  butter  year  (Grimm).  So 
Arabia  Felix,  i.e.,  Arabia  the  Happy,  is  probably  a  translation  of 
its  Arabic  name  Yemen,  which,  though  meaning  primarily  the  right 
hand,  or  sowhem  land,  may  also  mean  '  happy,  prosperous.' 

2  Pictet,  vol.  i.  p.  114,  vol.  ii.  p.  491 ;  Philolog.  See.  Proceedings, 
vol.  ii.  p.  279.  3  Pictet,  vol.  ii.  p.  497. 


304         THE    NORTH    THE    DEVIl/s    QUARTER. 

being  brought  down  from  his  high  estate,  and 
quenched  in  darkness  like  a  falling  star.  He  is 
accused  of  arrogating  to  himself  divine  honours, 
and  boasting  that  he  would  take  his  seat  in  the 
assembly  of  the  gods,  which,  according  to  the  wide- 
spread heathen  notion  in  which  he  had  been 
brought  up,  were  supposed  to  reside  upon  a  very 
high  mountain  in  the  extreme  north.1 

At  an  early  period  this  passage  was  brought 
into  connection  with  that  other  in  St  Luke  (ch.  x. 
18),  which  speaks  of  Satan  being  seen  like  light- 
ning to  fall  from  heaven ;  and  from  this  identifica- 
tion has  arisen  the  popular  perversion  of  the 
beautiful  name  Lucifer  ('  the  morning  star,'  a 
name  which  is  given  to  the  Son  of  God  Himself, 
Kev.  xxii.  16)  to  signify  the  devil,  and  the  com- 
mon belief  that  his  dwelling  is  in  the  north. 
This  latter  idea  was  favoured  by  such  expressions 
as  these,  which  occur  frequently  in  the  Book  of 
Jeremiah — '  Out  of  the  north  an  evil  shall  break 
forth  '  (ch.  i.  14)  ;  6  Evil  appeareth  out  of  the  north, 

1  In  the  Hindu  mythology  the  abode  of  the  gods  was  placed  on 
the  mountain  Meru,  at  the  North  Pole  (Renan,  Origine  du  Langage, 
p.  224).  By  the  Babylonians  and  Medo-Persians  it  was  called 
Albordj,  a  mountain  also  'in  the  sides  of  the  north,'  and  the  oldest 
Greek  traditions  point  to  the  same  quarter  as  the  birth-place  of  gods 
and  men.  The  Romans  also,  according  to  Varro,  regarded  the  north 
as  the  dwelling  of  their  gods. 

To  the  mountain  of  demons  Arezura,  or  Demavend,  where  the 
sun  goes  down,'  and  where  is  the  gate  of  hell,  is  opposed  in  Persian 
tradition  the  glorious  mountain  out  of  which  are  born  the  heroes 
and  the  kings,  i.e.,  the  sun  and  moon  rise  there  (De  Gubernatis, 
Mythical  Zoology,  vol.  i.  p.  96). 


THE    NORTH    THE    DEVIL'S    QUARTER.        305 

and  great  destruction'  (ch.  vi.  I).1  'There  hath 
beene  an  old  saying,  that  all  evils  rise  out  of  the 
north,'  saith  that  good  knight  Sir  E.  Barckley,  in 
his  '  Felicitie  of  Man'  (1631),  p.  339,  and  Gaffarel 
gives  us  the  reason  why — 

'  I  conceive  it  would  stand  with  sound  philosophy  to  an- 
swer, by  reason  of  the  darkness  and  gloominess  of  the  air 
of  those  parts,  caused  by  the  great  distance  of  the  sun, 
and  also  by  reason  of  the  evil  spirits  which  inhabit  dark 
places.2 

In  the  '  Cursor  Mundi,'  an  old  English  poem  of 
the  fourteenth  century,  the  'caytif  Lucifer  gives 
utterance -to  his  rebellious  pride  in  these  terms — 

'  Sett  mi  sete  i  sail 
Gaynis  him  J>at  es  best  of  all, 
In  pe  north  side  sal  it  be  sett, 
Seruise  of  me  sal  he  non  gett. 
Qui  suld  i  him  seruise  3eilde  ? ' 

LI.  457-461  (E.E.T.S.  ed.) 

The  '  Story  of  Genesis  and  Exodus,'  an  early 
English  song  written  about  1250,-  assigns  a  reason 
for  the   fiend,   here  termed   Ligber,   i.e.,    Light- 


1  Compare  also  chs.  iv.  6 ;  xlvi.  20  ;  xlvii.  2  ;  li.  48.  The  evil  and 
destruction  alluded  to  in  these  passages  is  generally  understood  to 
be  the  Chaldean  and  Assyrian  invasions.  Keil  (Minor  Prophets,  vol. 
ii.  p.  294),  commenting  on  the  words  '  north  country  '  (Zech.  vi.  8), 
observes  that  it  is  representative  of  the  heathen-world  power,  the  in- 
veterate foes  of  God's  people,  especially  the  Assyrio- Babylonian 
Empire.  Appropriately  enough  it  is  the  black  horses  of  God'3 
judgments  that  are  sent  thither  (Zech.  vi.  6). 

2  Southey's  Doctor,  p.  215.  '  He  would  not  be  laid  east  and 
west  (for  he  ever  went  against  the  haire),  but  north  and  soutli  ; 
I  think  because  "  Ab  aquilone  omne  malum."  '  (Martin's  Month's 
Mind,  1589 ;  quoted  in  Brand,  Pop.  Antiquities,  vol.  ii.  p.  292). 

U 


COO    THE  NORTH  THE  DEVIL  S  QUARTER. 

"bearer  (=  Lucifer),  making  choice  of  that  posi-i 

tion — 

1  Min  fligt,'  he  seide,  '  ic  wile  up- taken, 
Min  sete  north  on  heuene  maken, 
And  thor  ic  wile  sitten  and  sen 
Al  the  thinges  the  in  werlde  ben, 
Twen  heuone  hil  and  helle  dik, 
And  ben  -min  louerd  geuelic' 

LI.  277-282  (ed.  Morris,  E.E.T.S.) 

Milton,  it  will  be  remembered,  has  countenanced 

the  idea  in  the  fifth  book  of  his  great  epic,  where 

Satan  is  introduced  saying — 

'  I  am  to  haste, 
And  all  who  under  me  their  banners  wave, 
Homeward,  with  flying  march,  where  we  possess 
The  quarters  of  the  north;'' 1  Paradise  Lost,  v.  686-689. 


1  Newton,  in  his  comment  on  these  lines,  epiotes  a  confirmatory 
passage,  locating  the  devil  and  his  angels  in  the  north,  out  of  a 
Latin  poem  by  Ordoricus  Valmerana,  1627,  and  Jortin,  one  out  of 
Saunazarius,  '  De  Partu  Virginis,'  vol.  iii.  p.  40. 

I  may  add  as  an  illustration  Olympiodorus's  exposition  of  the 
verse,  '  if  the  tree  fall  toward  the  south,  or  toward  the  north,  in  the 
place  where  the  tree  falleth,  there  it  shall  be  '  (Eccles.  xi.  3).  'In 
whatsoever  place,  therefore,  whether  of  light  or  of  darkness,  -whether 
in  the  work  of  wickedness  or  of  virtue,  a  man  is  taken  at  his  death, 
in  that  degree  and  rank  doth  he  remain ;  either  in  light  with  the 
just,  and  Christ  the  King  of  all,  or  in  darkness,  with  the  wicked  and 
the  prince  of  this  world '  (Quoted  in  Usher's  Answer  to  a  Jesuit, 
1624,  Cambridge  ed.,  p.  161). 

'  Pero  che  lui  [Sathan]  volse  melior  stato  Che  Dio  non  li  haveva 
datto,  pero  volea  ponere  la  sua  sedia  ad  aquilone  ch'e  contro  al  meza 
di,  a  esser  pari  a  altissimo,  e  voleva  comandare  alii  altri  per  tyran- 
neria '  (Libro  del  Maestro  e  del  Discepolo,  intitulato  Lucidario, 
cap.  5.     Vineggia,  1534). 

'  Many  of  the  ancients  have  concluded  hell  to  be  in  the  north, 
which  is  signified  by  the  left  hand  ;  unto  which  side  our  Saviour 
tells  us  that  the  goats  shall  be  divided.  .  .  .  And  in  this  sense  also 
do  some  expound  that  of  Zechariah  (xiv.  4),  where  it  is  said  that 
the  Mount  of  Olives  shall  cleave  in  the  midst :  half  of  it  shall  re- 
move towards  the  north,  and  half  towrards  the  south.'     By  which  it 


THE   NORTH   THE   DEVIL'S   QUARTER.        307 

and  it   is   there  he  is  represented  as   having  Lis 

royal  seat  and  palace.      So   Shakspere  introduces 

the  sorceress  La  Pucelle,  exclaiming — 

'  You  speedy  helpers,  that  are  substitutes 
Under  the  lordly  monarch  of  the  north, 
Appear,  and  aid  me  in  this  enterprise/ 

1st  Pt.  Henry  VI.,  v.  3.1 

Compare  also  the  following — 

'  Proud  Asmenoth,  ruler  of  the  north, 
And  Demogorgon,  master  of  the  fates, 
Grudge  that  a  mortal  man  should  work  so  much.' 

Greene,  Friar  Bacon  (1594,  ed.  Dyce,  p.  173). 
*  He  is  busie  with  Mammon  and  the  Prince  of  the  North, 
howe  to  build  up  his  kingdome,  or  sending  his  sprites  abroad 
to  undermine  the  maligners  of  his  government.' 

Nash,  Pierce  Pennilesse  (1592,  Shaks.  Soc.  ed.),  p.  11. 

'  Thieves,  bandits,  leavings  of  confusion,  whom 
The  wholesome  realm  is  purged  of  otherwhere, 
Make  their  last  head,  like  Satan,  in  the  North.' 

Tennyson,  Last  Tournament. 
'  Lord,  why  wolde  he  tho  *  thulke  wrechede  Lucifer 
Lepen  on  a  lofte  ■  in  the  northe  syde  ? ' 
Zangland,  Vision  of  Piers  Plowman  (1362,  "Whitaker's  ed.), 
p.  18. 

Death,  also,  was  considered  to  have  its  dwelling 


is  intimated  that  amongst  those  Gentiles  who  shall  take  upon  them 
the  profession  of  Christ  there  are  two  sorts  :  some  that  go  to  the 
north,  that  is  to  hell ;  and  others  to  the  south,  that  is  to  heaven  ' 
(Bp.   Wilkins,    Discourse    Concerning   a   New    Planet,    1640,    pp. 

1  Douce,  quoting  an  eminent  authority  in  these  matters  (Weir, 
De  prsestigiis  Daemonurn),  informs  us  that  this  '  monarch  of  the 
north  '  was  named  Zimimar,  and  was  one  of  the  four  principal  devils 
invoked  by  witches  (Illustrations  of  Shakspere,  p.  315).  Baal 
Zephon,  mentioned  in  Scripture,  is,  according  to  Bunsen,  equiva- 
lent to  Bal  Typhon,  the  lord  of  the  north  '  (Egypt,  vol.  iii.  p.  201). 


308  THE  NORTH  THE  QUARTER  OF  THE  DEAD. 

in  the   north.     In  the  very  curious  old  poem  of 

'  Death   &   LifTe,'  printed  lately  for  the  first  time 

in  the  '  Percy  Folio/  we  read  (vol.  iii.  p.  62) — 

'  Once  again  into  the  north  •  mine  eye  then  I  cast. 
I  there  saw  a  sight  '  was  sorrowfull  to  behold. 
One  of  the  vglyest  ghosts  ■  that  on  the  earth  gone. 
There  was  no  man  of  this  sight  ■  but  hee  was  affrayd, 
Soe  grislye  &  great  *  &  grim  to  behold.5        LI.  150-154. 

This  '  ugly  ghost '  is  Death,  followed  by  her  suite, 

Envy,  Wrath,  Mischief,  Sorrow,  and  Sickness. 

So  in  the   '  Edda,'  the  place   where  men  are 

punished  after  death  is  depicted  as 

'  A  hall  standing 
far  from  the  Sun 
on  the  Dead-land's  shore, 
its  doors  are  northwards  turned." 

In  eHakluyts  Voiages'  ( 1 598), x  speaking  of  the 

Tatars,  he  says — 

'  Then  goeth  a  servant  out  of  the  house  with  a  cuppe  full 
of  drinke  sprinckling  it  thrise  towards  the  South,  and  bowing 
his  knee  at  every  time  ;  and  this  is  done  for  the  honour  of 
the  fire.  Then  perfourmeth  he  the  like  superstitious  idolatrie 
towards  the  East,  for  the  honour  of  the  ayre ;  and  then  to  the 
West  for  the  honour  of  the  water  :  and  lastly  to  the  North  in 
the  behalf e  of  the  dead.' 

With  the  Chinese,  likewise,  aud  for  a  sufficient 
reason,  the  north  was  held  in  had  repute.  As 
northerly  winds  blow  in  China  throughout  the 
entire  winter,  the  natives  not  unnatural!}'  associate 


1  Vol.  i.  p.  93.  '  Journal  of  frier  William  de  Rubruquis  a 
French  man  of  the  order  of  the  Minorite  friers,  vnto  the  East  parts 
of  the  worlde.     An.  Doin.  1253.' 


EVIL  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  NORTH.    309 

with  them  the  death  of  Nature,  and  look  upon  that 
quarter  of  the  compass  as  the  one  from  which  all 
evil  influences  emanate.  To  ward  off  those  adverse 
influences  they  have  a  peculiar  art  of  divination 
called  fung  skw/,1  the  professors  of  which  are 
called  in  whenever  a  house  is  to  be  built,  and 
above  all,  when  a  site  is  to  be  chosen  for  a  grave. 
'-A  thoroughly  good  situation,'  it  is  said,  i  must  be 
one  open  to  the  south,  with  nothing  abruptly  to 
check  the  flow  of  the  southerly  blessing ;  and  to 
the  north  there  must  be  some  hill  or  rising  ground, 
some  tree  or  other  object,  to  check  the  tide  of  evil 
from  that  withering  region.  If  the  position  be 
bad,  the  dead,  irritated  and  annoyed  by  the  un- 
pleasant influence  from  the  north,  make  known 
their  resentment  by  causing  sickness  and  other 
calamities  to  assail  the  family  ;  and  finally,  if  the 
mischief  is  not  repaired,  they  make  it  wither  away. 
Each  village  has  its  Jung  shuy,  its  luck;  and  the 
hand  of  the  man  who  would  cut  down  a  lucky  tree, 
thus  letting  in  a  stream  of  curses  from  the  north, 
is  said  to  be  paralysed  and  withered  on  the  spot.' 
A  similar  superstition  about  interments,  as  we 
shall  see  presently,  prevailed  in  our  own  country 
till  comparatively  recently. 

It  was  remarked  above  that  in  consequence  of 
the  universal  belief  that  the  devil  had  his  dwelling 

1  Davis,  The  Chinese,  p.  241.     See  also  Dr  Ernest  Eitel's  pam- 
phlet 'Feng-Shui'  (Triibner),  1873. 


310  NORTH    SIDE    OF    THE    CHURCH. 

in  the  darkening  direction  of  the  west,  it  was 
customary  at  baptism  to  turn  thitherward,  and 
withstand  him  to  the  face  in  his  own  very  quarter. 
But  the  sunless  north,  with  still  stronger  reason, 
was  deemed  an  infernal  region.  Accordingly,  a 
door  is  still  to  be  seen  in  the  northern  side  of  the 
old  church  at  Wellcombe,  in  Cornwall,1  called  the 
'  Devil's  Door,'  which  used  formerly  to  be  set 
open  whenever  a  child  was  being  baptized,  in 
order  that  the  fiend,  when  exorcised  and  renounced, 
might  take  his  departure,  and  have  a  free  passage 
to  his  own  region  by  the  shortest  possible  route. 
On  the  same  grounds  it  was  long  customary  in 
many  places  to  leave  the  north  side  of  the  church- 
yard totally  unoccupied,  even  though  other  parts 
of  it  were  crowded.2  There  are  no  graves  to  be 
found,  Mr  Hawker  tells  us,  to  the  north  of  Mor- 
wenstow  Church,  and  it  is  only  within  the  last 
few  years  that  any  interments  have  been  made  on 
the  north  side  of  the  old  churchyard  of  Powers - 
court,  in  the  County  Wicklow.  The  following  notice 
of  the  custom  occurs  in  Archbishop  Hamiltoune's 
Catechisme  (1551)  :3 — '  Siclyke  supersticion  is 
amang  theme,  that  they  will  nocht  berisch  or  erde 
the  bodis   of  thar  friendis  on  the  north  part  of  the 

1  Footprints  of  Former  Men  in  Far  Cornwall,  by  Rev.  R.  S. 
Hawker,  p.  24. 

2  Hunt,  Drolls  of  the  West  of  England,  2d  Ser.  p.  164  ;  Brand's 
Pop.  Antiquities,  vol.  ii.  p.  292 ;  White,  Antiquities  of  Seiborne, 
Let.  IV. 

3  Quoted  in  Jamieson,  Scot.  Diet.  s.v.  Bcry. 


NORTH  SIDE  OF  CHURCHYARDS.     311 

kirk-yard,  trowand  that  tliair  is  mair  halynes  or 
verteu  on  the  south  syde  than  on  the  north.'  So 
one  Mr  Benjamin  Rhodes,  in  1657,  '  requested  to 
be  interred  in  the  open  churchyard,  on  the  north 
side  (to  crosse  the  received  superstition,  as  he 
thought,  of  the  constant  choice  of  the  south  side), 
near  the  new  chappel ' 1  (of  Maiden,  Bedfordshire). 
The  cause  of  this  prejudice  is  said  to  have  been 
the  idea  that  the  northern  part,  or  '  the  wrong 
side  of  the  church,'  as  it  was  called,  was  that 
appropriated  for  the  burial  of  unbaptized  infants, 
suicides,  excommunicated  persons,  and  those  that 
had  been  executed.2  But  the  fact  is,  it  was 
appropriated  to  these  precisely  for  the  reason  that 
it  was  Satan's  quarter  by  prescriptive  right.  A 
similar  remark  applies  to  Mr  Erredge's  account, 
in  his  *  History  of  Brighthelmston  ' — 

'  In  primitive  times,  the  south  side  of  every  churchyard 
contained  a  column  placed  on  a  pedestal,  having  on  its  sum- 
mit a  cross  ;  and  the  nearer  to  this  a  corpse  was  interred,  so 
much  the  sooner,  it  was  believed,  would  the  soul  be  released 
from  purgatory.  Hence  the  reason  why  the  south  side  of  a 
churchyard  most  frequently  contains  the  greater  number  of 
interments,  individuals  having  a  solemn  dread  of  being 
buried  in  the  north  where  there  was  no  cross '  (p.  116). 

And  why  no  cross  there,  but  for  the  reason  that  it 
was  Satan's  region  of  old  ?     Finally,  it  appears  to 


1  The  Wise  and  Faithful  Steward,  by  P.  Samwaies  (1657),  p.  27  ; 
in  Brand,  vol.  ii.  p.  293. 

2  Burns,   Parish  Registers,   p.   107;    Old  Folk-Lore  of  Ireland, 
p.  87. 


1312  KORTH    SIDE    OF    CATHEDRALS. 

have  been  the  same  old  traditional  belief  which 
has  caused  the  northern  side  of  the  cathedrals  at 
Cologne,  at  Freiburg,  at  Amiens,  and  doubtless 
at  other  places,  to  be  left  quite  plain  and  un- 
adorned, while  the  southern  side  is  richly  decorated 
with  all  the  exuberance  of  architectural  detail. 

In  conclusion,  we  can  scarcely  fail  in  the  course 
of  our  inquiry  to  have  been  struck  by  the  strange 
unanimity  with  which  mankind  have  conspired  to 
regard  night  upon  the  one  hand,  the  west  and  the 
north  upon  the  other,  the  season  of  darkness,  and 
the  regions  of  darkness,  as  having  been  submitted 
to  the  more  immediate  and  deadly  influence  of  the 
Prince  of  the  power  of  the  air ;  and  without  in- 
dulging in  any  flights  of  transcendental  mysticism, 
we  may  fairly  hold  it  probable  that  an  element  of 
truth  must  lie  at  the  bottom  of  a  belief  which  is 
almost  universal. 


(  313  ) 


INDEX. 


n.  refers  to  the  Notes. 


Achievement,  236,  n. 
Adaw,  71 
Adonis,  294,  n. 
Adulation,  67 
Alcove,  20,  n.,  132 
Alp,  117,  n. 
Ambassador,  41 
Amen,  91 
Anglois,  172 
Anointed,  221 
Area,  240 
Areola,  240 
Argentum,  2S1,  n. 
Asia,  289,  n. 
Aspen,  83 
Assassin,  173 
Assuage,  69 
Atlas-bone,  200 
Auph,  117 
Aureole,  240 
Aurora,  281 
Aurum,  281,  n. 
Av.ster,  280,  n. 
Austria,  280,  n. 

'Baby  of  the  eye,' 
177 

Backbite,  154 
Bad,  108 
Badinage,  216,  n. 
Bedling,  140 
'  Bee  in  bonnet,'  147 
Begueule,  216 
Bejaune,  119 
Bellarmine,  a,  168 
Belly,  187 


Benct,  221 
Betty,  a,  235 
Billevesee,  211 
Bimus,  161 
Bladder,  212 
Blandus,  65 
Blast,  212 
Blather,  65 
Blazon,  237 
Blether,  65 
Boast,  212 
Body,  3 
Bohemian,  170 
Boisterous,  212 
Bolster,  139 
Bone,  188 
Booby,  117,  217 
Booth,  5 
Bothy,  5^ 
Bo-tree,  79 
Bough,  190 
Bougre,  170 
Bow,  99,  n. 
Branch,  190 
Breast,  4 
Bribe,  72 
Brickie,  252 
Brusque,  157 
Bubble,  to,  123 
Bubble  (=  fool),  210 
Buck  {-  breast),  187 
Buffoon,  213 
Bug,  143 
Bulk,  187 
Bumpkin,  208 
Bunny,  135 


Burr  {-  halo),  239 
Busk,  4 

Cab,  161 
Cabin,  25 
Cabriolet,  161 
Cajole,  124 
Calibre,  232 
Calvor,  63,  n. 
Canaanite,  172 
Cancer,  150 
Canvass,  to,  59 
Cap,  26 
Cape,  26 
Caper,  159 
Caprice,  159 
Capriole,  161 
Capstan,  232 
Carcanet,  13,  n. 
Carcass,  13 
Career,  13 
Casa,  26 
Cassock,  26 
Cervix,  200 
Chagrin,  153 
Chastise,  53 
Chasuble,  26 
Chats,  194 
Chatouiller,  64 
Chemise,  23,  n. 
Chest,  4 
Chevron,  232 
Chignon,  198 
Chimera,  161,  n. 
Chit,  194 
Cider,  253,  n. 


314 


INDEX. 


Clan,  194 

Claw,  to,  63 
Claw-back,  G3 
Clever,  243 
Clock  (  =  beetle).  249 
Coast,  42 
Coat,  24 
Coco,  204 
Coco-nut,  205 
Coke,  214 
Colt,  to,  162 
Concha,  203 
Coney,  228,  n. 
Con  tern  no,  45 
Contrition,  153 
Coolie,  170 
Coot,  135,  n. 
Corinthian,  a,  1G9 
Corpse,  187 
Corsey,  152 
Corsive,  152 
Costereauls,  42 
Cot,  24 
Cote,  to,  42 
Coulter,  227 
Coward,  131 
Cow-heart,  133 
Craindre,  251 
Cretin,  222 
Cullion,  7,  n. 
Cuneus,  228 
Curry  favour,  G3 
Cutty,  135,  n. 
Cyprian,  a,  169 

Daffodil,  121,  n. 
Daft,  222 
Dan,  130 
Dappled,  121,  n. 
Date  (fruit),  190 
Dead,  196 
Deaf,  214 
Deliver  (adj.),  246 
Depravity,  102 
Ms,  285 
Discern,  56 
Discretion,  56 
Discuss,  58 
Distinguisb,  59 
Dod,  45 
Doddered,  196 
Doddipoll,  45,  196 
Dodo,  118 
Dolce,  71 


Dolly,  a,  234 
Doni,  130 
Dotard,  196 
Dotterel,  118,  127 
Douceur,  71 
Dragon-tree,  79 
Dunce,  128 
Dupe,  121 
Dwale,  214 

Early,  281,  n. 
Easel,  231 
East,  280 
Elbow,  190 
Ephesian,  an,  170 
Erebus,  286 
Eschew,  99,  n. 
Escolimoso,  157 
Europe,  289,  n. 

Fade,  215 
Farrow,  229 
Fateor,  217 
Fatisco,  217 
Fatuor,  219 
Fat uus,  215 
Feek,  36 
Fickle,  36 
Fire,  53 
Flat,  60 
Flatch,  60,  n. 
Flatter,  60 
Fleech,  60,  n. 
Flicker,  35,  n. 
Flirt,  32 
Flunkey,  40 
Flurt-silk,  39 
Fly  (=  knowing),  119, 

Foal,  174,  n. 
FolUs,  209 
Fond,  212,  215 
Fool,  209 
Fourmiller,  149 
Fox,  135,  n. 
Fret,  150 
Fro  ward,  104 
Fugio,  99,  n. 
Fur,  7 
Furor,  220 
Furrow,  229 
Fury,  220 

Gabardine,  25 


Gaby,  216 
Gaiting,  161 
Gale,  212 
Gallant,  a,  193 
Gape,  216 
Garble,  56.  ». 
Garcon,  193 
Gauntree.  232 
Gawk,  117 
Gawney,  217 
Gldber,  03 
Glaver,  63 
Glegg,  243,  n. 
Glib,  63 

'  God's  apes,'  222 
Goff,  117 
Gofish,  117 
Gold,  119 
Gorgeous,  115 
Gossoon,  193 
Grozcari,  166 
Grain  ( —  branch),  189 
Grec,  169 
Greybeard,  a,  1G8 
Grig,  164 
Grillo,  146,  158 
Grim,  265,  n. 
Grime,  265,  /?. 
Gringoriane,  165 
Gris  {-  drunk),  167 
Groin,  189 
Grygynge,  165.  n. 
Guipure,  99 
Gull,  119 
Gypsy,  170 

Halo,  238 
Hamp,  23,  n. 
Harass,  155,  226 
Hare,  138 
Harrow,  226 
Haste,  138 
Hatcbmeut,  205 
Hearse,  223 
Hehrku,  167 
Heifer,  159,  n. 
Hencb,  to,  41 
Henchman.  41 
Hirpex,  226 
Hirpus,  229 
Hoe,  227 
Honey,  to,  71 
Hood,  26 
Hoopoe,  121 


INDEX. 


315 


Hose,  26 
Housing,  26 
Hummel,  to,  43,  n. 
Huppe,  123 
Hut,  26 

Imp,  193 
Indulge,  71 
Intelligence,  57 
Iris  (of  the  eye),  176 

Jack,  a,  234 
Japan,  289,  n. 
Jattne,  119 
Jeroboam,  a,  168,  n. 
Joram,  a,  168,  n. 

Kalbern,  162 
Kara,  105 
Kedge-belly,  3 
Kedgy,  3 
Keg,  3 
Knacker,  259,  n. 

Lackey,  194 

Lad,  194 

Laik,  164 

Lancea,  188,  195 

Lark,  to,  162 

Larvatus,  143 

Lath,  194 

Lauda,  236 

Leg,  1S8 

Lepus,  138 

Licam,  23 

Lich,  5,  n. 

Lie  (=  mentiri),  105 

Lie       (=  vecumhtrc). 

105,  n. 
Li'tare,  105 
Lilith,  268,  n. 
Limb,  190 
Lisciare,  64 
Locusta,  164 
Lombard,  171 
Loon,  118,  n. 
Loudier,  140 
Lozenge,  237 
Lumber,  171 
Lumme,  118,  n. 
Luxury,  102 

Maggot,  144 
Malebranche,  190 


Man,  222 

Mandrake,  names  for, 

192,  n. 
Mange,  150,  n. 
Mania,  144,  n.,  220 
Maol,  45 
Martel,  147,  n. 
Maukin,  235 
Mawk,  145,  n. 
Mawky,  145,  a. 
Mazer,  202 
Mazzard,  201 
Mel,  71 

'  Merry  Greek,'  166 
'  Merry  grig,'  164 
Mild,  71 
Milk,  65 
Mischief,  236,  n. 
Mistle-toe,  181 
Mole,  228,  n. 
Mulcere,  65 
Malgere,  65 

Nag,  to,  156 
Nagging,  156 
Nape,  202 
Nasty,  111,  n. 
Near(  =  stingy  ),1 56,  n. 
Necare,  260 
Niais,  120 
Nick,  Old,  259,  it. 
Niggard,  156 
Night,  259 
Nocere,  260 
Noddle,  199 
North,  300,  n. 
Nox,  259 
Noxious,  260 
Noy,  to,  260 
Nygun,  156 

Oaf,  117 
Obliquus,  105 
Omadhaun,  222 

Paillard,  140 
Pain,  53 
Pallet,  140 
Palm,  190 
Palper,  64 
Palus,  182 
Pan  (=  skull),  201 
Pate,  201 
Pellex,  195 


Penal,  53 
Periwinkle,  10S 
Pernicious,  260 
Persuade,  68 
Pervinkle,  108 
Pigeon,  120 
Pique,  155 
P/acare,  60,  n. 
Plank,  60,  a. 
Ptanta,  182,  194 
Planus,  60,  n. 
Platoon,  249 
Plush,  249 
Pluto,  285 
Poll,  201 
Poltroon,  138 
Porous,  228 
Pulley,  231 
Punish,  53 
Pumpkin,  208 
Pupil,  174 
Pupus,  174,  //. 
Pure,  53 
Purgatory,  53 
Putare,  59 

Queer,  104 
Quinter,  161,  n. 

Rabbit,  135 
Rake,  230,  ,i. 
Rampike,  195 
Pecamcr,  28 
Rehearse,  226 
Remark,  60 
Remorse,  154 
Reprobate,  51 
Reveelie,  104 
Rip  up,  226 
Putrobo,  104 
Robur,  75 
Runt,  195 

Sap-head,  207 
Sarcasm,  155 
Sawder,  soft,  69 
Hcelus,  106 
Schlecht,  222,  n. 
Science,  57 
Scorn,  42 
Scowl.  106 
Scroby,  156 
Scrofula,  150 
Scut  (=  tail),  135,  n. 


316 


INDEX, 


Scut  (term  of  abuse), 

7,  n. 
Searce,  55 
Search,  55 
Shagreen,  153 
Share,  228 
Shingle,  252 
Shrew-mouse,  228 
Sidesmen,  41 
Silly,  221 
Sin,  111 

Sir  John,  a,  129 
Skeel,  106,  n. 
Skeg,  117 
Skell,  10G,  n. 
Skill,  57 
Skull,  203 
Slant,  104 
Slave,  171 
Sleek,  G4 
Slent,  104 
Slem,  107,  n. 
Slim,  65 
Sloop,  249  _ 
Smicker,  65 
Smuckle,  05 
Soc,  229 
Somer,  232 
Sooth  ( —  sweetness), 

68 
Sooth  (=  truth),  8S, 

n. 
Soothe,  68 
Soother,  68 
Souple-Jack,  100 
Springald,  195 
Squirrel,  135,  n. 
Stake,  59,  n. 
Statute,  88,  n. 
Stigma,  59,  n. 
Stimulate,  59,  n. 
Sting,  59,  n. 
Stroke,  61 
Suadcrc,  68 
Suavis,  69 
Sulcus,  230,  rt. 
Sumph,  206 
Surplice,  249 
Swag,  109,  n. 
Swamp,  207 


Sweet,  68 
Sweeten,  68 
Sweg,  109,  ii. 
Swick,  109,  n. 
Switzer,  170 
Swyke,  109,  n. 
Sybarite,  169 

TammOz,  294,  n. 
Tartufe,  207 
Tayon,  195 
Tear,  151,  n. 
Tease,  157 
Tcdcsco,  166 
Test,  50 
Tester,  202 
Testy,  202 
Tete,  202 
Thwart,  104.  n. 
Tickle,  252  ' 
Timbre,  238 
Toad-flax,  214,  n. 
Toad-stone,  214,  n. 
Toe,  181 
Tort,  103 
Toupee,  199,  n. 
Tree,  84 
Tressel,  231,  n. 
Trim,  87,  n. 
Trow,  93 
True,  84 
Try,  a,  49 
Try,  to,  47 
Twist  (=  groin),  189 
Twisty,  104 

Ulcus,  230,  n. 
Uro,  281,  n. 

Vac Mar e,  109,  n. 
Vain,  212 
Valet,  193 
Vanus,  212 
Varlet,  193 
Vassal,  193 
Vastus,  276 
Venenum,  200 
Verve,  161 
Very,  249 
Vetch,  108 


Vice,  101 

Vice  (=  screw),  113 
Vicia,  103 
Vicis,  108 
Vico,  99 
Vimen,  99 
Vinca,  108 
Vinccre,  108 
Vincire,  103 
Virtue,  112,  n. 
V  it  arc,  99,  n. 
Vilellus,  97,  v. 
Vitis,  97 
Vitium,  97 
Vitulari,  162 

Waste,  260,  270 
Wattled,  98 
Wayward,  104 
Weak,  109,  111 
Weave,  99 
Weeds,  99 
Week,  109,  n. 
Welcher,  170 
Wench,  106,  n. 
West,  276 
Wholly,  64 
Whane,  64 
Whanter,  64 
Wheedle,  67,  n. 
Whirlbone,  199,  n. 
Wick,  109 

Wicked,  109,  111,  113 
Wicker,  108 
Wince,  106,  n. 
Winkle,  106,  n.,  10S 
Wit,  58 
Withe,  98, 107 
Woh,  105 
Wolf,  150,  229,  n. 
Wood-cock,  120 
Worry,  230 
Worse,  103 
Wrench,  106 
Wrong,  103 

Yawn,  217 
Yawney,  217 
Yellow,  119 
Yellow-hammer,  23,  n. 


1'IUNTED  BY  BALI.ANTVNE,  HANSON  AND  CO. 
EDINBURGH  AND  LONDON 


uk 


WESsmimutJ 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

Thi,  book  is  due  od  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 


i 


1  PAN  deft: 

MAY10J96L52- 
BEC.CIR.WW  22  78 


OCT  2 1  W8t 


1989 


LD  2lA-60m-10,'65 
(F7763sl0)476B 


General  Library     , 
University  of  California 
Berkeley 


U.C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 

I 


CDElQbk^Sl 


t  v  tex  «   mt 


bmmm 


■.■•■■'•• 

WnSgSHBjSHHBx 


BaSBBST 


nS^OSM