Notes and Queries | Page 3

Not Available
1679: built by ... Turkish merchants."
Of this James Farr, Edward Hatton, in his New View of London, 1708, (vol. i. p. 30) says:--
"I find it recorded that one James Farr, a barber, who kept the coffee-house which is now the Rainbow, by the Inner Temple Gate, (one of the first in England), was in the year 1657, prosecuted by the inquest of St. Dunstan's in the West, for making and selling a sort of liquor called coffee, as a great nuisance and prejudice to the neighbourhood, &c., and who would then have thought London would ever have had near three thousand such nuisances, and that coffee would have been, as now, so much drank by the best of quality and physicians." {315}
Howel, in noticing Sir Henry Blount's Organon Salutis, 1659, observes that--
"This coffe-drink hath caused a great sobriety among all nations: formerly apprentices, clerks, &c., used to take their morning draughts in ale, beer, or wine, which often made them unfit for business. Now they play the good-fellows in this wakeful and civil drink. The worthy gentleman, Sir James Muddiford, who introduced the practice hereof first in London, deserves much respect of the whole nation."
From these extracts it appears that the use of this berry was introduced by other Turkey merchants besides Edwards and his servant Pasqua.
Anthony Wood in his Diary, records, under the year 1654, that--
"Coffey, which had been drank by some persons in Oxon. 1650, was this yeare publickly sold at or neare the Angel, within the Easte Gate of Oxon., as also chocolate, by an outlander or Jew."
And in another place he says--
"This yeere Jacob a Jew opened a Coffey-house at the Angel, in the parish of St. Peter in the East, Oxon., and there it was by some, who delighted in noveltie, drank. When he left Oxon. he sold it in Old Southampton Buildings in Holborne, near London, and was living there 1671."
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
* * * * *
TRUE TRAGEDY OF RICHARD III.
In The True Tragedy of Richard the Third, the following passage--
"His treacherous father hath neglect his word, And done imparshall past by dint of sword."
is considered by Mr. Baron Field as unintelligible. It seems to me that the correction of it is obvious, and the explanation probable, though not exactly fitting what had been said before, which is merely that Lord Stanley had refused to come to Richard, not that he had actually joined Richmond, much less fought for him. I read--
"And dome imparshall;"
_i.e._ and doom impartial, and interpret, "pass'd upon himself impartial judgment," or rather on his son, as is said just before:--
"The father's fact condemns the son to die."
It is possible that doom by dint of sword may mean, to be executed by dint of sword; that is, on the son. The doom in the Scotch court, in the Heart of Mid Lothian, is not the verdict, but the punishment.
Immediately before, we have this passage, also described as unintelligible:--
"_King._ Did not your selves, in presence, see the bondes sealde and assignde?
"_Lo._ What tho my lord, the vardits own, the titles doth resign.
"_King._ The bond is broke, and I will sue the fine."
I see no emendation for this but the vardits own to mean, "the party who has the verdict in his favour," and the speech to be a question. The King tries to persuade himself that there is, ipso facto, no room for forgiveness. Lovel answers, upon the principle of the rule of law, "Qui vis potest renunciare juri pro se introducto."
C.B.
* * * * *
FOLK LORE.
_Merry-Lwyd._--My attention has been called to an inquiry in No. 11. p. 173., as to the origin and etymology of the Merry-Lwyd, still kept up in Wales.
I believe that all these mummings may be traced to the disguisings which formed so popular an amusement in the Middle Ages, and that the name applied in Wales to this remnant of our ancient pastimes is nothing more than a compound of our English adjective "merry" and a corruption of the Latin word "Ludi," which these masquings were formerly termed.
Strutt, in his Sports and Pastimes, Book iii. chap. 13., speaks of Christmas Spectacles in the time of Edward III., as known by the name of Ludi; and in Warton's History of English Poetry, it is said of these representations that "by the ridiculous and exaggerated oddity of the Vizors, and by the singularity and splendour of the dresses, every thing was out of nature and propriety." In Strutt's 16th Plate, specimens will be found of the whimsical habit and attire in which the mummers were wont to appear.
My impression that the Merry-Lwyd was by no means a diversion exclusively Welsh is corroborated by the fact noticed in your Number of the 23rd of Feb., of its being found to exist in Cheshire. And we know that many ancient customs
Continue reading on your phone by scaning this QR Code

 / 21
Tip: The current page has been bookmarked automatically. If you wish to continue reading later, just open the Dertz Homepage, and click on the 'continue reading' link at the bottom of the page.