Notes and Queries, Number 53, November 2, 1850 | Page 9

told that the real title is "arishers," from "arista." I should feel obliged if
any of your correspondents could inform me whether this name is
known in any other county, and what is the derivation of the word.
CLERICUS RUSTICUS.
_Ringelbergius--Drinking to Excess._--Ringelbergius, in the notes to
his treatise _De Ratione Studii_, speaking of great drinkers, has this

passage:
"Eos qui magnos crateras haustu uno siccare possunt, qui sic crassum
illud et porosum corpus vino implent, ut per cutem humor erumpat
(nam tum se satis inquiunt potasse, cùm, positis quinque super mensam
digitis, _quod ipse aliquando vidi_, totidem guttæ excidunt) laudant;
hos viros esse et homines dicunt."
He says that he himself has seen this. Does any reader of the "NOTES
AND QUERIES" know of any other author who says that he has seen
such an exhibition? Or can Ringelbergius's assertion be confirmed from
any source?
J.S.W.
Stockwell, Oct. 15.
_Langue Pandras._--In the Life of Chaucer prefixed to the Aldine
edition of his poetical works, there is published, for the first time, "a
very interesting ballad," "addressed to him by Eustache Deschamps, a
contemporary French poet," of which I beg leave to quote the first
stanza, in order to give me the opportunity of inquiring the meaning of
"_la langue Pandras_," in the ninth line:
"O Socrates, pleins de philosophie, Seneque en moeurs et angles en
pratique, Ovides grans en ta poeterie, Bries en parier, saiges en
rethorique, Aigles tres haulte qui par ta theorique Enlumines le regne
d'Eneas L'isle aux geans, ceulx de Bruth, et qui as Semé les fleurs et
planté le rosier Aux ignorans de _la langue Pandras_; Grant translateur,
noble Geoffroy Chaucier."
May I ask, further, whether any particulars are known of this
contemporary and admirer of Chaucer?
I hope I shall not be deemed presumptuous if I add that I should have
doubted of the genuineness of the poem quoted from, if Sir Harris
Nicolas had not stated that it had been communicated to him by
"Thomas Wright, Esq., who received it from M. Paulin Paris,"
gentlemen in every way qualified to decide on this point, and being
sanctioned by them, I have no wish to appeal from their judgment.
J.M.B.
_The Coptic Language._--I read in The Times of this morning the
following:
"The Coptic is an uncultivated and formal tongue, with monosyllabic
roots and _rude inflexions, totally different_ from the neighbouring

languages of Syria and Arabia, totally opposite to the copious and
polished Sanscrit."
Do you think it worth while to try if some Coptic scholar among your
learned correspondents can give us some clearer account of the real
position of that tongue, historically so interesting? {377} The point is
this, Is it _inflected_, or, does it employ _affixes_, or is it absolutely
without inflections and affixes?
If the first, it cannot be "totally opposite" to the Sanscrit: if the second,
it cannot be "totally different" from Syriac and Arabic: if the third, it
cannot have "rude inflections."
J.E.
Oxford, October 23. 1850.
_Cheshire Cat._--Will some of your correspondents explain the origin
of the phrase, "grinning like a Cheshire cat?" The ingenious theory of
somebody, I forget who, that Cheshire is a county palatine, and that the
cats, when they think of it, are so tickled that they can't help grinning,
is not quite satisfactory to
K.I.P.B.T.
_Mrs. Partington._--Where may I find the original Mrs. Partington,
whose maltreatment of the Queen's English maketh the newspapers so
witty and merry in these dull days?
IGNORANS.
_Cognation of the Jews and Lacedemonians._--In the 12th chapter of
the 1st Book of Maccabees the letter of Jonathan, the High Priest, to the
Lacedemonians is given, in which he claims their amity. This is
followed by a letter of Arcus, the Spartan king, in answer, and which
contains this assertion:
"It is found in writing that the Lacedemonians and Jews are brethren,
and that they are of the stock of Abraham."
Have critics or ethnographers commented on this passage, which, to
say the least, is remarkable?
As I am quoting from the Apocrypha, I may point out the anomaly of
these books being omitted in the great majority of our Bibles, whilst
their instructive lessons are appointed to be read by the Church.
Hundreds of persons who maintain the good custom of reading the
proper lessons for the day, are by this omission deprived, during the
present season, of two chapters out of the four appointed.

MANLEIUS.
* * * * *
REPLIES.
FAIRFAX'S TRANSLATION OF TASSO.
On referring to my memoranda, I find that the copy of Fairfax's
translation of the Gerusalemme Liberata of Tasso, containing the third
variation of the first stanza, noticed in my last, has the two earliest
pages reprinted, in order that the alteration might be more complete,
and that the substitution, by pasting one stanza over