116
NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. m. FEB. n, 1911.
Chandos Herald thus records the death
of Sir John :
Et puis gaires ne demora Que Chaundos auxi trespassa Au pont de Lussac, bien savez.
Line 3944.
Without correction according to the errata, the reference is line 3974.
According to the ' Dictionary of National Biography,' Sir John Chandos, wounded at the bridge of Lussac 31 December, 1369, died at Mortemar on the day following.
ROBERT PIERPOINT.
THE BLACK PRINCE'S LANGUAGE (11 S. iii. 7). There can surely be little doubt that the Black Prince spoke the language of Provence the language of Froissart and the troubadours. The French territory over which he ruled lay within the Provengal district, to the south of the Loire. Langue- doc, another name for the Provencal speech, la langue d'oc, was employed to distinguish it from la langue d'oil, or the dialect of Northern France. According to Prof. Saint sbury, Provencal was the language not oaly of Southern France, but also of Savoy beyond the Alps and Catalonia beyond the Pyrenees. " It altered less from the Latin [than the northern tongue], and was on the whole more like Spanish or Italian than French."
I do not pretend to say what particular dialect is represented by the sentences quoted by MB. ALBAN DORAN, but would venture to submit that too much importance ought not to be attached to words which a modern writer of history puts into the mouth of his characters. SCOTTJS.
SYBIL, QUEEN OF SCOTLAND : HER PARENTAGE (11 S. iii. 44). The new ' Scots Peerage,' which ought to be an authority on such matters, calls her Sybille Corbet. Are there any charters in Scotland which authorize this name ? SHERBORNE.
Sherborne House, Northleach.
In Table XVIII., headed ' Genealogy of the Kings of Great Britain surnamed Stuart,' in that curious work ' A Companion and Key to the History of England,' by George Fisher (London, 1832), the wife of Alexander I. of Scotland is given as " Sibylla, granddaughter of William the Conqueror " ; but in the body of the work (p. 232) it is stated that Alexander I., " surnamed the Fierce," died 1124, " leaving no issue by his wife Elizabeth, natural daughter of Henry I ^ EngJand " RONALD DIXON.
46, Maryborough Avenue, Hull.
"WOODYER" (11 S. ii. 529). This word
is not wholly obsolete in Sussex. I have
heard it pronounced " woody -er." It i&
equivalent to " woodman," and, as I know
it, designates the man who looks after the
undergrowth in a copse or wood mainly
used for the cultivation of it. When the
undergrowth is sold " standing," he sees that
the woodcutters sent by the purchaser keep
to their lot, do not infringe on the other less
mature lots, do no damage to trees, &c. I
am sorry it never occurred to me to send the
word to Prof. Wright for the ' E.D.D.,' but it
will now be rescued from oblivion.
E. E. STREET.
Chichester.
I have heard men who worked regularly in the wood, " loppin', choppin', an' trim- min'," called both " wodyers " and " wood- yers," just as other workers with the saw in wood or saw-pit are sawyers. A man I knew who was a noted " thak-peg " maker was often called " a pegyer." There are folk in country places who naturally turn the terminal " er " into ** yer."
THOS. RATCLIFFE.
Woodyer is a family name, a form, says Bardsley, of the old " le Woodere," one who lives under the shade of a wood.
C. C. B. [ScoTUS also thanked for reply.]
" TERSE " CLARET (US. iii. 7). Does not this mean "neat," unadulterated claret from the imported wine-tun ? Many were the instances, at the time alluded to and long before, of the adulteration and mixing of wine, in which water played an important part. Cowel in his ' Interpreter ' (s.v. not "terse," but " terre tenant") says that " terse is a certain Measure of liquid things, as Wine, Oyl, &c., containing the sixth part of a Tun, 32 H. 8. 14, or the third part of a Pipe." And a tierce or terce is described by N. Bailey in his * Dictionary,' 1740, as a liquid measure containing 24 gallons. When we refer to Prof. Skeat (' Etym. Diet.,' 1901), we are informed that the word is from the Latin tersus, meaning " clean, neat, pure* nice, terse." J. HOLDEN MACMICHAEL.
In Thomas Shadwell's comedy of ' The Humourists,' Act I. sc. i., Crazy says : " We that drink Burgundy, like Bay-trees, are green, and nourish all the year." In III. i. Friske says : " Drink a bottle of Rhenish and Sugar." But in IV. i., where Bricke requests Raymund to " stay a little and
