90
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. x. AUG. i,
Hrplus.
DICKENS ON "HALF-BAPTIZED."
(10 S. x. 29.)
I HAVE met with this expression on several occasions in family Bibles. The definition of " half -baptize " in the 'N.E.D.' is : "To baptize privately or without full rites, as a child in danger of death." The earliest quotation given is : "1836, Dickens,
- Sk. Boz,' ii., ' He got out of bed to half-
baptize a washerwoman's child in a slop- basin.' '
From the entries in the family Bible of the late Admiral Sir John Marshall, of Elstree in Hertfordshire, it appears that all his children were in the first place half- baptized. I give one instance :
" Frances Orris Marshall, born June 24, 1817, was half-baptized by the Rev. Caleb Lomax, Vicar of Aldenham, County of Herts, on the 14th day of February, 1818, which is registered in the Church Books of the said Parish."
From a subsequent entry in the Bible it appears that Frances Orris Marshall and one of her sisters were christened in 1820.
I remember seeing an entry in another family Bible, but unfortunately I have no note of it, where a child was described as being half-baptized and subsequently re- ceived into the Church.
From the above it will be seen that, although the earliest quotation in the 'N.E.D.' is 1836, the expression was in vogue before that date.
HELLIEB GOSSELIN-GBIMSHAWE.
Errwood Hall, Buxton.
In J. L. Chester's ' Westminster Abbey Registers,' p. 89, is the entry :
" 1778, June 27, Rebecca, daughter of Anselm and Rebecca Bayly : born June 23rd, and half-baptized June 27th. Fully baptized April 29th, 1779."
u. v. w.
" Half -baptized " was one of Dickens' s many stock phrases. It occurs not only in ' The Old Curiosity Shop,' chap, xlvii., but also in ' Sketches by Boz,' chap, ii., in ' Pickwick,' chap, xiii., in ' Oliver Twist,' chap, ii., and in ' Bleak House,' chap, xi., where the " half -baptizing of Alexander James Piper " was " on accounts of not being expected to live." It was a name for the private baptism of children who seemed unlikely to survive their birth many hours, and as no sponsors were then required, the single gentleman could still promise to be a godfather. The Book of Common
Prayer anticipated the mistrust betrayed
by the term " half -baptized " in declaring :
Let them not doubt but that the child so baptized is lawfully and sufficiently baptized, and ought not to be baptized again."
In some places " christened " and " bap- tized " are wrongly used with the same distinction. W. C. B.
Meaning privately baptized, this expres- sion also occurs in * Oliver Twist,' chap, ii., and, with a different connotation, in ' Pick- wick,' chap. xiii. See Davies's ' Supple- mentary English Glossary,' s.v. For the ' Pickwick 'instance, compare ' Half -Baked ' and ' Half-Saved ' in Halliwell's Dictionary.
H. P. L.
I was a little chap of five when I went through the rite of baptism, being told that I had only been " half-done " previously ; that is, I had only been registered in the ordinary way. There was a batch of us
THOS. RATCLIFFE.
from different families.
Worksop.
[MB. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL also thanked for reply.]
THE BONASSUS (10 S. ix. 365, 451). A short time ago I read in an English news- paper of a curious animal on show in London at one of the big exhibitions there. I cannot lay my hand on the paper now, but, if my memory serves, its name was a compound of a word I now forget and " lupus." Per- haps one of your readers can give the full title, with other particulars, of an animal of 1908 as fully entitled to fame as the Bonassus. W. COBFIELD.
Calcutta.
WILKES'S 'ESSAY ON WOMAN' (10 S. ix. 442, 492 ; x. 33). MB. PICKFOBD'S refer- ences are not quite complete : they should be 2 S. iv. 1, 21, 41 ; v. 77 (not 72). The articles were written by Mr. C. W. Dilke, and were reprinted in ' Papers of a Critic,' ii. 264-79. And while on the subject of that invaluable book, which is indispensable to the student of the literature of the eigh- teenth century, may I mention a grave defect, which to a considerable extent mars its usefulness ? It possesses an index only to the persons named in Sir Charles Dilke' s memoir of his grandfather. Being packed full of accurate, if recondite information, it is a work that peculiarly needs a general index. If Sir Charles Dilke would consent to the work being done by subscription,
