APRIL 23, '98.]
NOTES AND QUEKIES.
333
limini,' and if this fact inspired Keats with
lie thought of writing a tragedy on the
- ame subject, the bit of verse in question may
.have been an intended fragment thereof. '. .f this hypothesis be rejected, there remains 1 he alternative of supposing that he wrote it merely for the occasion, italianizing his sweet- heart's Christian name. F. ADAMS. 106A, Albany Road, Camberwell.
MARIFER (9 th S. i. 267). Like CANON TAYLOR, I once thought it possible that the word Marifer in the Poll Tax Returns of 1379 meant a person charged with the duty of bearing an image of the Blessed Virgin in processions. But there are serious objections to such an explanation, and it is very un- likely, to say the least, that a man would be described, in a legal or public document, by such a designation as "Mary-carrier," as if the man's occupation was to carry an image of the Virgin about.
It is much more likely that the John Lambe who is described as Marifer was either (1) a watchman, or (2) the mace-bearer [or beadle, as he was afterwards called) of the burgery or municipal corporation of Sheffield. In the Wright- Wiilcker 'Vocab.,' 361, 28, the word marra is explained in English as " bill," so that the word may literally mean "bill-bearer" or " billman." For the various meanings of these words the ' H. E. D.' may be consulted.
I may add that the burgery of Sheffield employed one or two watchmen, known as "waits," who combined with their duties the office of pipers or public musicians. On this matter see Mr. Leader's 'Records of the Burgery of Sheffield,' just published.
S. O. ADDY.
R. W. Buss, ARTIST (9 th S. i. 87, 256). Is it the fact that he drew three plates only for ' Pickwick The Review,' 'The Cricket Match,' and ' The Arbour'? At an exhibition in 1896 there were other unused 'Pickwick' designs by R. W. Buss. These included a title-page, 'Winkle at the Rook Shooting,' and 'The Return from the Cricket Match.' According to Mr. Fitzgerald two designs for the review scene were exhibited. These can scarcely be the two alluded to in MR. JAS. B. MORRIS'S note. GEORGE MARSHALL.
MANTEGNA (9 th S. i. 228). The following appears in the 'Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery':
"The 'Triumph of Csesar,' a continuous com- position over eighty feet long, of nearly life-sized ngures, painted in tempera on canvas, is now at
the then reigning Duke of Mantua for King
Charles I., and was exempted from the sale of the
king's effects after his death. For the correspond-
ence relating to its purchase, see ' Original Unpub-
lished State Papers,' &c., edited by W. Noel
Sainsbury, 1859. For a general history of the work
and a detailed description of it, see Ernest Law's
' Historical Catalogue of the Pictures at Hampton
Court,' London, Bell, 1881. Portions of the com-
position were engraved (with differences) by
Mantegna himself. The whole series was repro-
duced oy means of chiaroscuro wood-blocks by A.
Andreani, in 1599, while the original was still in
good condition."
Your correspondent may consult at the South Kensington Museum " C. Julii Csesaris Dictatoris Triumphi de Gallia, ^Egypto, Ponto, Africa, Hispania. 10 plates engraved by Robert von Audenaerde. Fol., Romae, 1692." EVERARD HOME COLEMAN.
71, Brecknock Road.
" FRET " (8 th S. xii. 386, 491). The following passage from a book on the making of cider, written in 1684 by Richard Haines, will give an instance of the early use of this word :
"If by reason of warmth and mildness of the season, the cyder should fret and destroy itself, the best way is to draw it off into another vessel; and do so once in six or ten days, as you see cause, always taking the lee from it as oft as 'tis rackt. Let not your vessel be full by a gallon; nor yet stopt close, untill by drawing it off, it be made to leave huzzing and sputtering, for the fuller and closer it is the more it frets." P. 12.
C. R. HAINES.
Uppingham.
I do not know whether the ' H. E. D.' has the following use of this word : in North- umberland, a damp fog coming off the sea j also a slight or partial giving way of a frost. G. H. THOMPSON.
Alnwick.
[Fret=to thaw is in Wright and Halliwell as in use in Northamptonshire.]
CITY NAMES IN THE FIRST EDITION OF STOW'S 'SURVEY' (8 th S. xii. 161, 201, 255, 276, 309, 391; 9 th S. i. 48\Aldersgate. The assertions that are made by way of explanation of Old English words become ever more and more amazing. It is taken for granted that anything can be asserted, and we are expected thankfully to believe it.
" Alders-gate [was so called] from its being the oldest, or older gate." This requires us to believe that alders could mean indiffer- ently oldest or older. Obviously it never meant either one or the other. The suffix -ers was never used as a superlative or as a comparative suffix at any date, or in any dialect of English. Of course alders is the
Hampton Court. It was purchased in 1628 from | genitive of alder, and alder is the Mid. English
