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

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 Sem�� les fleurs et plant�� 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.
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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 another (as the book is usually met with) might not be detected. A copy with the reprinted leaf is, I apprehend, still in the library of the late William Wordsworth; and during the last twenty years I have never been able to procure, or even to see, another with the same peculiarity.
The course with the translator was, no doubt, this: he first printed his book as the stanza appears under the pasted slip; this version he saw reason to dislike, and then he had the slip printed with the variation, and pasted over some copies not yet issued. Again he was dissatisfied, and thinking he could improve, not only upon the first stanza, but upon "The Argument" by which it was preceded, he procured the two pages to be reprinted. It is, however, by no means clear to me that, after all, Fairfax liked his third experiment better than his two others: had he liked it better, we should, most probably, have found it in more copies than the single one I have pointed out.
As your readers and contributors may wish to see "The Argument" and first stanza as they are given in Mr. Wordsworth's exemplar, I transcribe them from