9* s. in. MAE. 25,
NOTES AND QUERIES.
231
Assistance against the Great Cham of the
Tartars, who with 60,000 Men beats the
Chinese in every Engagement, tho' their
Irmy consists of no less than 400,000 Men."
On October 18th his Majesty settled 6,000/. j)er annum on the Duke of Cumberland for i he support of his equipage, &c.
On December 3rd Mr. Richard Franklin ^as tried at the King's Bench Bar, West- minster, before the Lord Chief Justice Raymond, for printing and publishing the Craftsman of the 2nd of January, wherein was the Hague letter. After a hearing of about seven hours the jury found him guilty. In December it is also recorded that the Princess of Monaco, daughter of the Prince Antonio Grimaldi, lately deceased, set out from Paris, together with her spouse, jointly to take possession of that Principality : but on pretence of going before to prepare things for his reception, she got herself recognized as the onlv rightful sovereign.
Mr. Andrew Chatto, of the firm of Messrs. Chatto & Windus, the present publishers of the magazine, informs me that, on reference to his office set, he finds that the second title was "Traders' Monthly Intelligencer." The number for September, 1731, first bears the woodcut view of St. John's Gate, and in this month the word " Traders' " was omitted. In later editions of the first number the word " Traders' " was omitted, and the woodblock of St. John's Gate was inserted. The title was again altered in vol. vi., 1736, to that of the Gentleman's Magazine and Historical \ Chronicle, and so continued until 1834, when i vol. i. of a "new series," called the Gentle- i man's Magazine, without further sub-title, I was published, although it still retained its i characteristics of being a " Chronicle." When i Messrs. Bradbury & Evans became the pub- lishers a second title was added, that of "Historical Review." In June, 1868, the I character of the magazine was changed, when it became more like the modern magazine. JOHN C. FRANCIS.
EARLY ITALIAN (9 th S. iii. 7). From 1333
till the end of the quattrocento, or fourteenth
century, one counts 510 known MSS. of
Dante's divine poem. No earlier MS. has
)een discovered. The three most critical
printed editions, based upon the earliest and
nost genuine MSS., are those of Witte,
ratioelli, and Scartazzini. The critical text
f the ' Oxford Dante,' which we owe to Dr.
toore, follows chiefly these three predecessors,
Hit offers also various emendations obtained
y the collation of the principal MSS. One
f the most recent Italian editions is that of
Passerini (small 12mo., Firenze, 1898, published
by Sansoni at the moderate price of about
two lire), which contains a commentary on
the opposite side of every page.
For a book of Italian extracts correspond- ing to Morris and Skeat's 'Specimens of Early English,' consult Monad's 'Crestomazia Italiana dei Primi Secoli,' the first and second fascicoli of which have appeared since 1889 (at Citta di Castello, Lapi editore). The approximate date of the * Cantico di S. Francesco d'Assisi' (or poetical paraphrase of Psalm cxlviii.), as quoted by M. Sabatier's ' Speculum Perfections,' is c. 1224 (s. Monaci, I.e., p. 29). H. KREBS.
Oxford.
A reasonably cheap edition of ' La Diyina Commedia,' " per cura di Eugenic Camerini," may be procured, price one lira, from E. Zon- zongo [?J, 14,ViaPasquirolo, Milan. Another, price two lire, "col Comento di Raffaele Andredi ," is published by G. Barbera, of Florence. W. J. G.
ROUNDS OR RUNGS (9 th S. ii. 386, 430, 492, 530; iii. 75, 116, 158). That PROF. SKEAT is right in regarding "rung" as the correct form and " round " as a corruption or substi- tution, which is amply proved on philological grounds, may be seen if we consider the pri- mitive form of ladder, the form depicted in early illuminations, which is still in use in the country. In this the rungs are flat strips of wood nailed on the upper side of the uprights of the ladder. There is nothing round about them or the ladder. To me "rung" seems much less "vulgar" than the incorrect "round," the outcome of "elegant" ignor- ance of the English language.
W. H. STEVENSON.
The late Prof. E. A. Freeman has said that " the polite and literary speech of England is the speech, if not exclusively of North- amptonshire, at least of a region of which Northamptonshire is part." I cite this as my reason for stating that I have never once heard in this locality the word " rung " applied to a ladder. The " rounds " of a ladder are always spoken of as such both by the educated and labouring classes. I am glad that J. S. M. T. has instanced George Eliot as an authority. She invariably re- produces with great exactitude the local speech of Warwickshire, which in nearly every respect coincides with that of this county. JOHN T. PAGE.
West Haddon, Northamptonshire.
In his first note on this subject J. S. M. T. complained that nowadays nineteen novelists
