Notes and Queries, Number 184, May 7, 1853 | Page 4

with Mistriss Osgood, Goody Wilson, Goody Tyler, and
Hanah Tyler. She said the mark above was on her left legg by her shin.
It is about two yeare agoe since she was baptized. She said that all this
was true; and set her hand to the original as a true confession. Noate,
that before this her confession she was taken dumb, and took Mr. Epps
about the neck and pulled him down, thereby showing him how the
black man bowed her down; and for one houre's tyme could not open
her lips.
I, underwritten, being appointed by authority to take the above
examination, doe testify upon oath taken in court, that this is a true
coppy of the substance of it to the best of my knowledge.
WM. MURRAY.
6th July, 1692/3.

The above Abigail Barker was examined before their Majesties Justices
of the Peace in Salem.
(Atest.) JOHN HIGGINSON, Just. Peace.
Owned before the Grand Jury.
(Atest.) ROBERT PAYNE, Foreman.
6th January, 1692. {448}
* * * * *
SPRING, ETC.
Our ancestors had three verbs and three corresponding substantives to
express the growth of plants, namely, spring, shoot, and sprout,--all
indicative of rapidity of growth; for sprout, (Germ. spriessen) is akin to
spurt, and denotes quickness, suddenness. The only one of these which
remains in general use is shoot: for sprout is now only appropriated to
the young growth from cabbage-stalks; and spring is heard no more
save in sprig, which is evidently a corruption of it, and which now
denotes a small slip or twig as we say, sprigs of laurel, bay, thyme,
mint, rosemary, &c.
Of the original meaning of spring, I have met but one clear instance; it
is, however, an incontrovertible one, namely,
"Whoso spareth the spring (i. e. rod, switch), spilleth his
children."--Visions of Piers Plowman, v. 2554., ed. Wright.
Perhaps this is also the meaning in--
"Shall, Antipholus, Even in the spring of love thy love-springs rot?"
Com. of Errors, Act III. Sc. 2.
and in "Time's Glory"--
"To dry the old oak's sap and cherish springs." Rape of Lucrece.

Spring afterwards came to be used for underwood, &c. Perhaps it
answered to the present coppice, which is composed of the springs or
shoots of the growth which has been cut down:
"The lofty high wood and the lower spring." Drayton's Muses' Elysium,
10.
"The lesser birds that keep the lower spring." Id., note.
It was also used as equivalent to grove:
"Unless it were The nightingale among the thick-leaved spring."
Fletcher's Faith. Shep., v. 1.
where, however, it may be the coppice.
"This hand Sibylla's golden boughs to guard them, Through hell and
horror, to the Elysian springs." Massinger's Bondman, ii. 1.
In the following place Fairfax uses spring to express the "salvatichi
soggiorni," i. e. selva of his original:
"But if his courage any champion move Too try the hazard of this
dreadful spring." Godf. of Bull., xiii. 31.
and in
"For you alone to happy end must bring The strong enchantments of the
charmed spring." Id., xviii. 2.
it answers to selva.
When Milton makes his Eve say--
"While I In yonder spring of roses intermix'd With myrtles find what to
redress till noon." Par. Lost, ix. 217.
he had probably in his mind the cespuglio in the first canto of the
Orlando Furioso; for spring had not been used in the sense of thickets,

clumps, by any previous English poet. I am of opinion that spring
occurs for the last time in our poetry in the following lines of Pope:
"See thy bright altars throng'd with prostrate kings, And heap'd with
products of Sabæan springs." Messiah, 93.
Johnson renders the last line--
"Cinnameos cumulos, Nabathæi munera veris;"
and this is probably the sense in which the place has generally been
understood. But let any one read the preceding quotations, and reflect
on what a diligent student Pope was of the works of his predecessors,
and perhaps he will think with me.
THOMAS KEIGHTLEY.
* * * * *
NOTES AND QUERIES ON BACON'S ESSAYS, NO. III.
(Vol. vii., pp. 6. 80.)
Essay IX. p. 21. (note a). "They used the word 'præfiscini.'" See e. g.,
Plaut. Asin., ii. 4. 84. (Weise):
"Præfiscini hoc nunc dixerim: nemo etiam me adcusavit Merito meo."
(Leonida boasts of his integrity.)
Ditto, p. 22. (note c). "From the Stichus of Plautus," ii. 1. 54.
Ditto, p. 23. "Which has the character of Adrian the Emperor." See Hist.
Aug. Script., i. 149., ut supr. (Spartian. Vit. Hadrian. cap. 15.)
Ditto p. 26. "It was well said." By whom?
Essay X. ditto. "A poor saying of Epicurus." Where recorded?

Ditto, p. 27. "It hath been well said, 'That the arch flatterer,'" &c. By
whom, and where?
Ditto, ditto. "It hath been well said, 'That it is impossible,'" &c. By