Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/363

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9< S. XL MAY 2, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


355


Albion, a name preserved in the Gaelic Albainn, certainly native. For Britain we cannot get beyond the Breton term breiz Welsh brech, Gaelic breac ; so our "freckled. The spurious Aristotle calls Englanc Albion, reserving the term Bretannic Isles for the group which, in his rough way, may well include La Manche and the Scilly Isles.

LYSART.

The Duchy of Brittany was not finally incorporated into the realm of France unti the marriage of Anne, only child and heiress of Duke Francis II., with Charles VIII. King of France, in 1491. Charles died child less in 1498, and early in the following year Anne married his successor Louis XII. The statement in the 'Diet. Nat. Biog.' to which MR. LYNN takes exception, and which implies that in 1471 Brittany was not a part o France, must therefore be considered literally correct. BEN. WALKER.

Gravelly Hill, Erdington.

" EMB ARRAS DBS RICHESSES " (9 th S. x. 367 475). The following particulars may be in- teresting (copied from the edition publishec in London in 1735, with French and English on opposite pages) :

" L'embaras [sic] des Richesses, | Come"die. | The Plague of Riches, | a Comedy, | in French and English. | As it is acted in French, both at London and Paris, to crouded [sic] Audiences. | Price One Shilling."*

On the next leaf occurs the following additional information :

" The English translation by Mr. Ozell. | Ibi divitise ubi pax et hilaritudo, ubi divitise, si non adest pax et hilaritudo, ibi paupertas. | London. | Printed for C. Marsh, in Angel Court, near Story's Passage, Westminster. | MDCCXXXV."

I find that in Leroux's ' Dictionnaire Comique,' &c. (1752), both noun and verb are spelt with one r (enibaras, embarasser) \ Menage's * Dictionnaire Etymologique ' (1750) has embarasser; and the 'Dictionnaire de Trevoux ' (1771) spells the word and its deri- vatives with two r's, so that at about that period probably the change in spelling took place. EDWARD LATHAM.

61, Friends' Road, E. Croydon.

[' L'Embaras des Richesses' was played at the Haymarket, "by authority," by the French Com- pany of Comedians, on 9 Oct., 1738. For an account of the riot that ensued see Genest, iii. 568-9, and Gent. Mag., Oct., 1738. A reference to Victor we fail to trace, though we have his account of the theatre, with MS. additions, apparently from his pen.1

  • This and the imprint would almost point to

the play having been performed in London in 1735, at all events. Is October, 1738, the correct date of the first London performance ?


HOYARSABAL OP (JUBIBURU (9 th S. XL 287).

MR. HUTCHINSON has done good service to Bascology by calling attention to this, appa- rently, hitherto unknown edition of the book of Hoyarsabal, whose name signifies broad- wood. One finds some account of other editions of it, and of the Heuskarian trans- lation thereof, on pp. 129-32 of the k Bib- liographie de la Langue Basque,' published by M. Julien Vinson at Paris in 1891. The only known copy of the translation by Pierre Detcheverry ( = De Maisonneuve) is that which bears the cote or shelf -mark Inventaire, V. 2309, in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Rue de Richelieu, Paris. Accord- ing to M. Vinson, the first edition of the French original was published at "Rouen" in 1632, so that MR. HUTCHINSON has made an important addition to bibliographical lore by announcing the discovery of an earlier one, published in 1594 at Bordeaux. Of course Cubiburu is a misprint for Qubiburu. It is the name of the village which stands on the western bank of the mouth of the river Nivelle, in the De"partement des Basses Pyrenees, right opposite St. Jean de Luz, which the Editor of *N. & Q.' knows well. The name signifies bridge-end or bridge-head, and describes the position of the place, for it is connected with St. Jean de Luz by a bridge. The modern Basks pronounce the name Siburu by contraction, and the French call it Ciboure. It has been the birthplace of " a good few " Bask authors.

E. S. DODGSON. [MB. HUTCHINSON gave the date as 1579.]

I cannot reply exact)- to the query, Where is Cubiburu 1 but it must be in one of the Basque-speaking provinces of France or Spain. Cubiburu more correctly with the cedilla Cubiburu, and often written Zubiburu means .n Basque "head of the bridge." I have litherto met with it only as a family name, Dut it undoubtedly originated, like most Basque surnames, from the name of a place. JAS. PLATT, Jun.

" CUP-TURNING " IN FORTUNE-TELLING (9 th d. xi. 226). This is an old tea-table pastime, done in this wise : The last cup of tea holds the fortune in a tea-cup. There must be dregs in the cup, and not more than a tea-

jpoonful of liquid as well. The person wishing to know the future takes the cup

n the right hand, and, giving it several twirls

rom right to left to set the contents in motion, inverts the cup in the saucer, and allows it to stand a minute to drain. She

hen takes the cup, looks into it, and should wish for good fortune before handing it to