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says, "propria notio posita est in vi, et impetu quo aliquid aliorsum moveatur, et admoveatur alteri :" it is perhaps pro-movere, to move for-ward, to push or press forward.

A.S. Er-ian. Eng. to ear, or ere; whence Earth, that which we ere. Sans. Dhar-a. Lat. Ter-ra. Pers. Ardh. Arab. Ard. Heb. Er-ets. Gr. Epa. Goth. Air-th. A.S. Eor-the. Dan. and Sw. Jozd.

Eng. Or, ere. Goth. œir. A.S. ere; are used adverbially, equivalent to fo-re, before, ante, prius.

Or, is also used to denote-the beginning, the point of separation; and thus bas attained the force of separation, division, difference, disjunction.

R. enounced.

Sans. Ri-ch'h (says Dr. Prichard) is a verbal root, whence the verb. Ri-ch'. hati, he moves towards, reacheth. Richch'hami; and this in

Goth. Ra-c-jan. A. S. Ra-c-an, hree-c-an, protendere. Eng. to re-ach. Gr. o-pe-y-ew, por-rigere.

Gr. Pe-ew, fluere, to flow; to speak fluently. Pnua, quod ore effluit (Scheide). Goth. Re-djan. A.S. ræ-d-an. Eng. to re-ad.

Gr. Pe--ew. Lat. re-ri, re-s.

Goth. Ra-g-inon. A.S. Ri-csian. Lat. Re-gere, Re-x. Heb. Ra-bbi (her-us).

A.S. Re-san. Hhre-osan, pro-ruere, to rush.

A.S. Re-stan, pro-cumbere, quiescere, to rest.

A.S. Khra-the. Eng. Ra-the, ear-ly.13
S and Z cognates.

The power of S is the natural sound of hissing. Its organic sound is produced, by an appulse of the tongue towards the upper teeth or gums, and then forcing out the breath from between the tongue and upper teeth, (Z,

18 See Rathe, Ra-ther, in the New Eng. Dictionary.

ON THE DERIVATION OF Mr. URBAN, Leipzig, 10th Oct. IN every language which is elaborated from its own individual resources, new words are naturally significant, and consequently intelligible to the mass of the people. In no language is such a process more beautifully de

with a vocal sound, which makes a more dense kind of hissing, mixing with some kind of murmur.) The announced and enounced sounds of S are heard in esse.

The A.S. article As. Ger. Es. Lat. Is, os, us. Gr. os.

The Sans. article Sa-s or Sah. Goth. Sa. A.S. and old English. Se, equivalent to the or that, it, which. The Sans. As (says Dr. Prichard) is a verbal root, whence the verb substantive, As-mi, as-i, as-ti, su-m, es, es-t. Pers. Res-ten, es-se, to be.

A.S. Is or ys; Dutch and Ger. Is-t. Eng. variously written Es, is, ys.

Ger. Se-yn, es-se, fieri; and in various persons of the A.S. and Gothic verb. W-is-an, w.es-an, this literal root is found; e. g. sy, se-t, si-n, si-nd.

Goth. Sai-hwan. A.S. Se-on. Ger. Se-hen. Dutch, Zi-en. Dan. Se-er, to see.

A.S. As-cian, As-ec-an, se-can; to as-k, to se-ek.

A.S. As-ec-gan, se-c-gan, to say. Se) and that, mean take, taken;1⁄44 and The (which has supplanted the A.S.

to take, to se-ize (to cheese or choose 15) is probably the meaning of this literal root S. And it may be thus explained:

1. To take; capere, pre-hend-ere, percipere; to receive (met) by the eye or ear; by the mind, to apprehend, to se-em, to feel, to be.

2. To take, to teach, i. e. to convey our thoughts by speech, to say.

And here again, Mr. Urban, I shall conclude. I expect the thanks of your readers for having persisted so steadily and undeviatingly, in the completion of the first portion of my task; to present words, and not from one language only, corresponding to the simple organic sounds of every consonant letter. Yours, &c. C. R.

14 See Tooke and the New Eng. Dict. 15 See Ceosan, p. 44, ante.

THE WORD ISINGLASS. veloped than in the German; whilst, on the other hand, there is none, perhaps, in which the contrary is so remarkable as in the English.

This defect in the English language arises from the peculiar nature of that tongue. Its Teutonic basis, the Anglo

Saxon, although it is that which gives our language its distinctive character, has become, as it were, dead, since it no longer admits of change or innovation; whilst the Norman French, which became incorporated with it through the connexion of our country with Normandy, and yet more the Latin, and even the Greek, which have since been introduced, form, in reality, our living language, namely, that in which alone variations and improvements are permitted to be made. And not merely so, for from the circumstance that our original native tongue has been discarded in the formation of new words to express new ideas, it is, consequently, not employed (as is the case with the German) for the translation of the foreign expressions that daily become familiar to us, which we prefer introducing into our language direct and without any material change. Hence, the English language, although it may certainly have been enriched, has become a strange heterogeneous compound, which, to a considerable extent, is unintelligible (except empirically) to the mere English scholar.

It is, however, a desire natural to all persons, the rude not less than the educated, to trace the signification, i. e. the derivation, of words in their native tongue; in other words, they like to understand, or, at least, to think they understand, the expressions which they are compelled to employ. From this cause we meet in the English language with many curious instances of the spelling of words having been altered, for the purpose of bringing them nearer to some supposed native original.

Thus lantern (laterna, lanterne) has been spelled lanthorn, from a confused idea that the horn of which that utensil was generally constructed, was in some way connected with the formation of the name itself. So causeway (chausée) has actually superseded the older form causey, evidently from its bearing an apparent reference to the commonly received meaning of the term, namely, a caused (artificial) way. In like manner the word forefather was easily compounded of fore and father, and in its present form it, unquestionably, makes a very good English word; although there can be no doubt of its being in reality nothing more than a

corruption of the German vorfahr (from vor, before, and fahren, to go), foregoer, or predecessor.

a

But not to multiply instances of the endeavours of the English people to render their language significant in itself, I shall confine myself to one other, which is very remarkable, and, at the same time not so plainly manifest.

It is with respect to the word isinglas, or isinglass, which even our lexicographers have imagined to be composed of two native words, ice and glass; the article bearing such traces of resemblance to these substances as might not unfairly warrant a mere English etymologist in supposing its name to be a true English compound. It is, however, the German hausenblase, in the first instance (as was natural) corrupted in its pronunciation, and afterwards varied in the spelling, to meet the notion of its English derivation. This word (which is, at the same time, an instance of the advantage which the German has over the English in its power of forming compound words) is composed of hausen, a species of sturgeon, the beluga (acipenser huso), and blase, a bladder isinglass being the airbladders of the hausen and other fish of a similar character.

;

Before quitting this subject, it may be remarked that there is an inferior kind of isinglass, which is known by the name of simovia. In the good old times (when, in like manner as the common people endeavoured to find for words a meaning in the vernacular tongue, the learned wished to trace their derivation up to the Latin,-witness parson, paroissien, the parish priest, supposed by our old lawyers to be derived from persona, quia personam seu vicem ecclesiæ gerit!) the word simovia would, from its Latin appearance, undoubtedly have received some very recondite explication, as far removed, however, as possible from the Russian simovoi klei, of which it is nothing more than a vitiated contraction. This expression means literally sheath-fish lime, simovia being composed of the bladder of the sheath-fish (silurus glanis), and, like the hausen-bladder, or isinglas, employed as a lime or glue. Yours, &c. CHAS. T. BEKE.

"JOHN STOWE, THE ANTIQUARY OF ENGLAND."
(With a Portrait.)

IT is a subject of congratulation for
the City of London, that, amidst the
general destruction attendant on the
Great Fire of 1666, she did not lose
the monumental figure of one of her
worthiest sons, the indefatigable JOHN
STOWE, the historian of her annals,
and the minute depicter of her actual
state during the interesting æra of
Elizabeth. In the church of St. An-
drew Undershaft, in Leadenhall-street,
the aged chronicler may still be seen
poring over his books, and, as it
were, faithfully extracting and con-
densing the substance of the earlier
annalists. The effigy itself is remark-
able as a specimen of terra cotta, of
which it is said that many others ex-
isted in the city before the Fire (as
some, though undistinguished, proba-
bly still remain elsewhere). There
are several prints of it, and the only
portraits we have possessed of Stowe
have been derived from this source.
The existence of a contemporary en-
graving of his portrait has been hi-
therto unknown, until the recent dis-
covery of
an impression (perhaps
unique) which was found pasted to
the back of the title of a copy of the
"Survay," edit. 1603. The volume is
now in the possession of Mr. T. Rodd,
the bookseller, of Great Newport-street,
by whom we have obligingly been per-
mitted to copy it, a task which has
been executed with great fidelity by
Mr. Swaine. Stowe is styled in the
circumference "Antiquarius Angliæ,"
a character in which of all his con-
temporaries Camden alone can be
ranked before him. The portrait re-
presents him, as does the effigy, quite
in his old age; yet his features scarce-
ly appear to bear the weight of seven-
ty-seven years. His temperate and
cheerful disposition, which are both
on record, appear, notwithstanding
his misfortunes and poverty, to have
maintained a hale constitution to an
advanced period of life.

The memoirs which have been written of Stowe, are not perfectly accurate in their view of the events of his life; whilst in the account they give of his works there is considerable confusion. Strype, in his edition of the Survay, (or rather his own Survey, formed on the basis of Stowe's,) has, it is

true, shown much industry in the collection of materials, and has dwelt upon them even too diffusely: but there is nothing to please or gratify in the style of Strype, and where he has translated the writers of the Elizabethan age into a language of his own, it must be felt that the freshness and pleasing quaintness of the original is lost in a garb which is looser, but not more elegant, and which, in point of fact, has itself in turn now become obsolete. So much is this the case throughout Strype's work, that we announce with much pleasure that Mr. J. G. Nichols has undertaken to edit Stowe's description of Elizabethan London as it issued from the pen of the writer.

The memoir of Stowe in the Biographia Britannica is better arranged, but derived entirely from that by Strype.

The leading facts of Stowe's biography may be drawn up in a brief compass. He was born in the year 1525, in the parish of St. Michael's, Cornhill; where his progenitors have been traced for three generations. He was bred to his father's trade of a tailor, which naturally gave way to his absorbing historical studies. The biographers have affirmed that he quitted his trade; but there is nothing to authorise that assertion in what he says himself on the subject, and it is probable that he rather neglected than at once abandoned it.*

Like Dr. Dee, and Selden, and Cotton, and other learned men of that and the subsequent age, Stowe occasionally fell under the jealousy of those in power, and his study was invaded, and the safety of his valuable collections endangered. Stowe in his earlier years was suspected of a partiality to the Church of Rome, though many passages of his writings attest that he was subsequently a fervent Protestant. His attachment was evi

*In consequence of a passage connected with this point in Mr. D'Israeli's "Curiosities of Literature," it will undergo some discussion in a volume preparing for publication by Bolton Corney, esq. whose very kind and obliging assistance in the preparation of the present article is thankfully acknowledged."

dently to ancient forms and things rather than to the Romish doctrines; such an attachment as few antiquaries do not in some degree imbibe.

In his latter days Stowe had to encounter the more constant and depressing afflictions of poverty. Though his works were more popular in proportion to other classes of literature than, amid the varied reading of the present day, will readily be imagined, still their profits were insufficient to form the sole support of one, who had sacrificed to his "delectable studies" (that is his own term,) all other means of worldly gain, and had probably exchanged all other accumulation of property for that of books and manuscripts. He obtained from the City of London the appointment of Chronicler, with what salary (if any) is not known; and is said to have had a pension assigned him by his Company (the Merchant-Taylors); but finally, shortly before the close of his career, he was glad to accept the chances of a general public subscription, promoted by the royal authority, which was granted by letters patent.

Still, from first to last, Stowe was most assiduous. He was ever transcribing, translating, abstracting, and compiling; and, moreover, ever printing. Indeed, the different forms which his historical labours assumed seem quite to have puzzled his biographers, who all make some confusion in their accounts of them. Without entering at present into lengthened bibliographical details, it may be stated that his historical works were, 1. A Summary of the Chronicles, which was frequently reprinted, in a manual form; 2. Annales, a quarto volume; 3. A Collection of Chronicles in extenso, for which he never obtained a printer; and 4. Several of the elder Chronicles, published in the words of their writers.

1. There is a long series of editions of the Summary, perhaps one for almost every year* of Stowe's labours; yet they are all now scarce, and without a comparison of them (which on

* Probably one for every year; for they were preceded by an Almanack, and were in fact the Annuals or Pocket-books of the Elizabethan age.

GENT. MAG. VOL. VII.

that account it would be difficult to accomplish), it is impossible to say which were actually new impressions, and which adaptations by the reprinting of titles and addenda. It is stated by Lowndes, in the Bibliographer's Manual, that the first edition appeared in 1561, and that a copy of that edition, supposed to be unique, is in the collection of the Right Hon. Thomas Grenville. This seems to be contrary to Stowe's own statement, Annales 1601, p. 818; yet the preface to Grafton's "Abridgement of the Chronicles," 1563, appears to allude to Stowe having then appeared in the field. The rivalry between these competitors continued for ten years after, Grafton's work being also frequently reprinted : and, as literary controversies were in those days conducted in no modified language, the bibliographer is now amused to trace in their prefaces and dedications, the sarcastic attacks and quibbling rejoinders which were then the approved weapons of literary controversy. The history of the quarrel between Stowe and Grafton will be found in Ames's Typographical Antiquities, by Dibdin, vol. iii. pp. 422427. Subsequently to Stowe's death, Edmond Howes published three editions of this work, in 1607, 1611, and 1618, but he used the title of "Abridgement."

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2. Of the "Annales Stowe published four editions, in 1580, 1592, 1601, and 1605. The last is usually, and properly, called the best, as being Stowe's latest and fullest edition; but it is not generally known that it is the same as that of 1601, having only the sheet Qqqq reprinted, and the rest added. It is an interesting fact that it is

continued down to the 26th of March 1605, only ten days before the author's death; thus proving the perseverance of his labours, even in the midst of poverty and extreme old age. The "Annales" are now generally known by the name of Stowe's Chronicle, having been re-edited under that title

Grafton sneered at "the memories of supersticious foundacions, fables, and lyes, foolishly STOWED together;" and Stowe spoke of "the rattling of empty TUNNES, and fruitless GRAFFES of Mo mus' offspring."

H

by Edmond Howes, in folio, 1615, and again in 1631.

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3. His unpublished Chronicle is mentioned by him in his Annales, edit. 1592, p. 1295, where he says he had a larger volume and historie of this Iland.. readie to the presse." Again, his concluding we may almost say his dying-words in 1615 are:

"Thus, good reader, I desire thee to take these and other my labours past in good part, like as I have painfully (to my great costs and charges) out of old hidden histories, and records of antiquitie, brought the same to light, and for thy great commoditie bestowed them upon thee: so shalt thou incourage me (if God permit me life) to publish or leave to posteritie, a farre larger Volume, long since by me laboured, at the request and commandement of the reverend Father Mathew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury; but he then deceasing, my Worke was prevented, by printing and reprinting (without warrant, or well liking) of Raigne Wolfes collection, and other late commers, by the name of Raphaell Hollinshed his Chronicles."●

Howes, also, in the notice he has given of Stowe among the eminent men of Elizabeth's time, mentions this work, which he states that Stowe "purposed, if hee had lived but one yeare longer, to have put in print,but being prevented by death, left the same in his studie orderly written, readie for the presse, but it came to nothing." +

The plan of this great work,-"Corpus Historicum," in which the remains of all the annalists should be brought under one view, and which was "laboured" by Stowe at the instigation of the great promoter of historical antiquities, Archbishop Parker,-appears to have resembled that which has been undertaken in our own day by Mr. Petrie, with the exception that Stowe had proceeded, with wonderful indus

try, to clothe the whole in a uniform English dress.

Probably the book entitled "The Successions of the History of England," by John Stowe, printed in folio, 1638, and of which an account will be found in Lowndes's Bibliographer's Manual, p. 1749, was a portion of this work.

4. At the beginning of his Annales, 1601, Stowe has placed a list of no less than 339 "Authors out of whom these Annales are collected." To three of these, Flores Historiarum, Matthæus Paris, and Thomas Walsingham, he has added this note: "I have caused to be printed." The thew of Westminster, was printed in Flores Historiarum, compiled by Mat1567, Matthew Paris in 1571, and Walsingham in 1574. The praise of these works, on the score of liberal patronage, must be shared by Archbishop Parker.

But, on the part of Stowe, it should also be mentioned that not only was Holinshed greatly indebted to Stowe's "Summaries," in the edition of his Chronicles 1576; but that Stowe himself, notwithstanding his remarks above quoted, was a material contributor to the edition of Holinshed of 1586, as is proved by several references in his Annales 1601, and as is fully shown in his Life by Strype.

Such were Stowe's historical labours; worthy of all respect, and richly deserving of the gratitude of posterity. Yet, as his Chronicle is only one of the channels through which the stream of history descends; and as perhaps, for much of his earlier narrative, higher and more original sources of information have since been opened, we may congratulate ourselves still more in the possession of his very interesting and minute " Survay" of his native City; a work the

Rayne Wolfe, a grave and learned citizen, hired Raphe Holinshed to translate for him." Side note. Reynold Wolfe was one of the royal printers: see Ames's Typographical Antiquities.

This statement of Howes seems to have been derived rather from what Stowe had before mentioned, than from having seen the manuscripts: indeed, he gives what must be regarded as an incorrect description of the work, as it differs from Stowe's own. He calls it "Reyne Wolfe's Chronicle, which Chronicle he began and finished at the request of Doct. Whitgyft, late L. Archbishop of Canterbu." But Stowe himself had directly distinguished it from the Chronicle of Reyne Wolfe or Holinshed; and had as plainly stated that it was begun at the request of Archbishop Parker, Whitgift's predecessor.

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