Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 1.djvu/444

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436


NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. i. MAY 28, MO.


' The King and the Miller/ with Mr. Samuel Johnson as Jock Howieson, the part originally played by Murray, and Miss Pauncefort as Tibbie. There is a supper scene, in \vhich it has always been the custom to provide a real boiled sheep's head, just as in ' No Song, No Supper, 1 theatrical usage exacted a real boiled leg of mutton. WM. DOUGLAS.

125, Helix Road, Brixton Hill.

The author of ' Cramond Brig ' Was William H. Murray of the Theatre Royal, Edinburgh, where it was first performed on 20 Oct., 1828. Mr. Murray was a grand- son of John Murray of Broughton, Secretary to the Young Pretender, and was brother of Mrs. Henry Siddons (daughter-in-law of the more famous Mrs. Sarah Siddons), who long carried on that theatre. He succeeded her in the management of it, and died in the fifties. J. L. ANDEBSON.

Edinburgh.

[MR. W. SCOTT also thanked for reply.]

" ONOCBOTALUS," A BIBD (11 S. i. 309, 392). This bird being frequently mentioned in the Sacrist Rolls of Ely Cathedral, it is only a reasonable assumption that it should be an English bird, such as the bittern, which in those days Would be common enough in the Fen districts, rather than the pelican, which, although rejoicing in the surname of Onocrotalus, is not usually considered to be a native of this country.

There can be no question that the bird referred to is the bittern. In ' A Nominale * of the fifteenth century printed in Wright's ' Vocabularies,* 1857, in vol. i. at pp. 220-21 is printed a list of names of birds, ' Nomina Volatilium incomestilium. 1 This gives clearly enough " Hie onocrotalus, a butture," whilst a pelican is given in the next line as "Hie pelicanus," and above, " a nyght-craw " (pre sumably a corncrake), " Hie nicticorax."

In the ' Pictorial Vocabulary,* also fif- teenth century (which follows the 'Nominale 1 ), the bird is given as "Hie onocratulus, A ce a betore "' ; and the pelican


and cormorant are mentioned thus


Hie


pelicanus A ce a pelycan," and "Hie aspergo A ce a cormeraWnt" (pp. 252-3).

In the ' Nomenclator Latinogermanicus nouus,' which forms the second part of the ' Dictionariolum puerorum Germanicola tinum in gratiam Studiosa iuuentutis con gestum,* Tiguri, Froschover, 1556, by Joannes Frisius, the German equivalents for Onocrotalus are given as ' ' Onuogel, meergansz kropffgansz.'* What the first word means '. do not know, the second may mean


barnacle -goose, which is not likely to have frequented Ely ; and the third is, according to Fliigel's dictionary, still a current term for the bittern. JOHN HODGKIN.

MODEBN NAMES DEBIVED FBOM LATINIZEI> FOBMS : GALFBID (11 S. i. 186, 338). It may interest MB. GALFBID CONGBEVE to know that his unusual baptismal name occurs early in the registers of the parish of Thorn - Lon, near Eye, thus confirming his theory that ' } Was used before the eighteenth century, ut proving that it Was by no means con- fined to his own family. No fewer than hree of the residents in this remote and rural dllage gave this name to their boys. The first instance is found in 1560, where a boy f the -well-known Suffolk house of Cullum was christened Galfrid. In 1573 Edmund VLarrot gave this name to his son ; and amongst the many Puritan names that deck )he register, in 1643 Galfrid Pearle gives his own name to his boy.

It may be noted as a somewhat surprising act that Latinized names found favour with the farmers and villagers of Thorndon, for We ind a Philippus in 1577, an Antonius in 1583, and Petrus in several years ; while Laurentine (1576), Umfridus, Gefferridus, and Christopherus appear more than once amongst boys 1 names before the eighteenth century.

The girls of Thorndon also received names that suggest classic heroines more than English milkmaids and mere "country Wenches." We have Fides in 1583, Pheba in 1575, Jona and Jhona in the sixteenth century ; Whilst Caterina, Sabrina, and Penellope ; Francisca, Finita, and Andria ; Sibella, Sibellina, and Mirablia ; Elena and Elina, and the Shakespearian Mariana, seem to have been handed down from the first pages of the register to the last. Y. T.

MODEBN GEBMAN POETS (11 S. i. 368). Two excellent anthologies of German lyrical poetry, both including a good deal of recent verse, are J. LoeWenberg's * Vom goldnen Ueberfluss ' (Leipzig, R. Voigtlander) and F. Avenarius's ' Hausbuch deutscher Lyrik * (Miinchen, Georg D. W. Callwey). The former, which is chronologically arranged, includes poems from Annette von Droste- Hiilshoff (1797-1848) to Franz Evers (born 1871). The latter is arranged according to subjects, and is a most admirable col- lection. Another anthology, entirely of recent or contemporary verse, is the ' Moderne deutsche Lyrik ' in Reclam's " Universal Bibliothek.'*