214
NOTES AND QUERIES. [10* s. ii. SEPT. 10, ion.
as quite removed from a mere coincidence.
- Is it Shakespeare?' has been out several
months now, and no answer or explanation of this singular and far-reaching discovery has appeared, so far as 1 know. Devout Shakespearian^ naturally want their great leaders and critics to explain away such an atrocious revelation ; but MR. DOUSE'S answer does not touch this head and front of the offending at all. Possibly he did not know the book referred to in the query.
NE QUID NIMIS.
Too much stress is laid by MR. DOUSE on Mr. W. H., not yet absolutely identified : whereas the dedications of 'Venus ana Adonis,' more especially of 'Lucrece,' identify Lord Southampton as patron, and convey the sense of obligation under which the poet lay in the promise given and "duty" owing : " What I have to do is yours." A. HALL.
WAGGONER'S WELLS (10 th S. ii. 129). I have always understood these Wakener's Wells preserved the name of Walkelin, one of the architects of Winchester Cathedral. I do not think they perpetuate the "wakeman" or " hornblower " in any way.
CHAS. F. FORSHAW, LL.D.
Baltimore House, Bradford.
A well-dressing such as that observed at Tissington was, like other village festivals, such as a "rush-bearing," called a "wake," and it seems probable that this was originally " Wakener's Well," so called not from any horn-blowing, but from the wake or festival held there in connexion with the well-dress- ing. J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.
"KABOOSE" (10 th S. ii. 106). This is also, I believe, the name of the cab, or shelter, on the locomotive engine in America. It is, besides, the name of a game of patience with oards usually played by four people. The word is often spelt with a c. L. L. K.
In Northern Germany die Kabuse is in common familiar use, by which a poky hole of a room, a narrow closet (especially one badly lighted), an alcove, is designated. It is the Dutch kombiise, the galley of a ship, and I find "caboose" with that sense in the English dictionaries ; for etymology see Prof. Skeat's 'Etym. Diet.' The contemptuous- ness of the term may be the connecting link between the meaning in our language and that in Yiddish ; but this is a mere supposi- tion. G. KRUEGER.
Berlin.
Caboose is nautical, put for the cook's galley": Dutch kabuis, Danish kabys,
Swedish kabysa. The synonym "galley' 7
points to galleon, for a sailing vessel ; and
cf. cabin. A. H.
" CRY YOU MERCY, I TOOK YOU FOR A JOINT- STOOL " (10 th S. ii. 66). There is a similar proverbial saying, " Cry you mercy killed my cat," spoken as a retort to one who has done another an ill turn and would then crave pardon, pity, or compassion, and it seems probable that the selection of such a quasi- haphazard object as a cat, a common adjunct of the home, is on a par with a joint-stool, also a common article of domestic furniture, being requisitioned facetiously for like illus- trative purposes. Prince Henry says to Falstaff, " Thy state (throne) is taken for a joint-stool" ('1 Henry IV.,' II. iv.). The humorously sarcastic import of the proverb is seen in John Lilly's ' Mother Bombie,' 1594. There one of the characters, Accius by name, in a "huff," says to Silena, "You neede not bee so lustye, you are not so honest," and the latter replies, "I crie you mercy, I took you for a joynd stoole." In Act IV. sc. ii. a similar proverb seems to be employed when Silena says, "I cry you mercy, I have held your cushion." "Cry you mercy" it is perhaps hardly necessary to mention is the equiva- lent of "I beg your pardon," and it seems that the fool, in his privileged way, was addressing, not Goneril, but his lord and master King Lear, affecting humorously to regard the king's observation, "She cannot deny it," as of as much importance as if it had proceeded from such a senseless thing as a joint-stool, or pretending to be ignorant of the king's presence. But the king heeds not the remark, as, of course, he would have been constrained to do if it had emanated from any other quarter.
Nares says the phrase was perhaps in- tended as a ridiculous instance of making an offence worse by a foolish and improbable apology ; or perhaps merely as a pert reply when a person was setting forth himself, or saying who or what he was.
J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.
161, Hammersmith Road.
FITZGERALD BIBLIOGRAPHY (10 th S. ii. 141). I took part in the correspondence in the Athenceum, referred to by COL. PRIDE AUX, on the erroneous attribution of a poem called 'The Cousins,' written by E. M.Fitzgerald, to Edward FitzGerald, by stating, on the late Mr. Robert Browning's authority, that the verses were by the former. In support of what COL. PRIDEAUX calls Mr. Thomas Wright's " hard language " about this author's career, I now add that Mr. Browning told
