*

"These thynges also on right side and on lefte have me so envolved with care, that wANHOPE of helpe is throughout me ronne truelie."-CHAUcer.

"Never the later (quoth she) I saie not these thynges for no + WANTRUSTE that I have, in supposyng of The otherwise than I should."-IDEM.

"But onis n'ilt thou, for thy cowarde herte
And for thine ire, and folish wilfulnesse,
For WANTRUST ‡ tellin of thy sorowe's smerte,
Ne to thine own helpe do besinesse,

As muche as speke a worde, ye more or lesse,
But lieth as he that of life nothing retche,

What woman living could love suche a wretche ?"
IDEM.

"For all thing in my cure is

Undir the mone,

that may or § wANE or wase."-IDEM.

HE SHOT AT A CROW AND KILL'D A PIGEON.

Missed his aim; did what he did not intend to do; went beside the mark in view. Hie sehie hott haet erg rouw, end killdt erbied je aen; q. e. in this case ill-judged roughness of demeanour turns the feeling of those towards whom it is used into hatred, and chills the ardour of good-will and respect for him who so conducts himself; ill-timed austerity quickly begets hatred, and cools the warmth of regard for him who assumes such conduct. The affected or assumed harshness here referred to, seems to imply its having been put on by the one in question to answer some undue purpose, for which it not only failed, but incurred odium and loss of respect and esteem from him towards whom it was used. Hotten, to curdle, to turn into, to generate, to collect together. Erg, arg, arch, sly, cunning, fraudulent. Rouw, the ferocious one, the austere one, the cruel one, the rough [repulsive, forbidding, severe] one. Erbied, observance [respect] due

* Despair.

↑ Mistrust, diffidence, suspicion. Disappear or grow up; die off or come into existence.

from man to man in society; social regard; b and p

intermutate. Je, ever.
sounds near to a crow.
bas p, sounds a pigeon.
Killen, to chill, to cool, to repress, to freeze.

Aen, upon. Erg rouw,
Erbied j' aen, pronounce
Schie hott, sounds shot.

OTHER FISH TO FRY.

Said of one who neglects that which is useful and important, for concerns and designs which to others appear not only useless, but injurious, and so better left alone. We say, he has other fish to fry, of some one who will not attend to that which we may think best for him, but whose attention is drawn aside by pursuits which are either trifling or else derogatory, Haet er, vies, t'u veurree; q.e. ill-conditioned man, do persevere, and procure for yourself the hatred of every one; instead of employing yourself, you vile-tempered man, in trying to amend [controul] your failing, go on, do, and give loose to it, and make yourself detestable to every one who sees you. Haet, haat, ill-will, hate, odium, grudge; and haet er, dropping the aspirate, sounds other, there being no other representative in the Dutch for th, than t or dt. there. Vies, morose, savage, cross, fastidious, whimsical, over-dainty, and sounds fish. Veurree, as the contracted form of the imperative of veurreeden, veur-reyden, to prepare before-hand, and sounds fry, the utterance of the vowels being lost in the preceding and succeeding aspirate and consonant; but the true proof will be found in the trying to pronounce the word itself, and if it can be pronounced according to Dutch prosody so as to make it sound otherwise than as we do fry.

IT SMELLS OF THE SHOP.

Er,

We may know where it came from by its quality [appearance of it]; we can see what it belongs to by the look of it; it bespeaks its origin by what we se

'Et smuile's af de schoppe; q. e.. the smiling is according to the joking (if the joke is good, the smile extends to a laugh, if bad, contracts to a sneer); according to the joke so is the smile; the character of the joke is evident from the smile [effect] which succeeds it among the audience; and thus implying an import analogous to the one intended when its travestied form is used. 'Et, het, it. Smuile, participle present of smuilen, to smile; and thus a smiling [smile], as the sign of satisfaction [being pleased]. Af, from out of, consequent upon.-Schoppe, as participle present of schoppen, in the sense of spotten, to joke, to ridicule, to play with, to banter, to make fun of, and thus as a making fun of, or fun itself. Shop, in its unsophisticated import with us is probably the same word with the Dutch schap, schep [a safe, a place to put things bye in, a depository [depôt], a receiving place, a hold], whence ship, in Dutch schip, as that in which wares are deposited—a hold for merchandize; in the closer or primary sense a trough, as a container of things; grounded in scheppen (to take up, to take into, to receive in, to draw in,) from the preterite form of which [ick schoppe] we have our term scoop.

A MOUNTEBANK.

In the well-known meaning of a stage orator; one who boasts his nostrums from the platform to the populace; but now always used in a derogatory import. Er monde te banck; q. e. there is talking for the platform [stool, bench]; there's a mouth to the stage; and is as spoken by one, when he points out the actor of this display to his neighbour. The original form does not appear to convey any degrading import beyond that of a circulating, interested, and ostentatious parader of his oratory; one distinguished for a sort of impudence or assumption of speaking above or over

the heads of his fellows. And the expression might apply with propriety to either a speech from the throne, or a sermon from the pulpit; for what else are these desultory displays, but to recommend the speaker's specifics for our constitutional wants in the one case, and our spiritual ones in the other. There is nothing in the original form of the term to carry any degrading sense, beyond that of an upstarting, ostentatious, assuming, and consequently humbug display of talk, unless we take monde in the sense of mouthing, grimacing, nor to denote the subject of the oratory it may refer to. The import has been evidently extended to its present understood meaning by use and time. The Latin terms circulator and circumforaneus, and the Italian ciurmatore, seem the nearest substitutes in import; for the Dutch kwakzalver [quack-doctor], the Spanish saltimbanco [saltabancos], whence the French saltimbanque, and the Italian ciarlatano. whence the French charlatan, appear to have a more direct or special import in regard to the character of the personage. Still chattering [prating] seems the usual adjective feature of him to whom the name is given; and ciarlatano is evidently connected with ciarlare, to prate, to chatter, and its equivalent cantimbaneo has a same direction of sense. The Spaniards designate him as rhetorico saltabanco; q. e. orator mountebank. Shakspeare styles him prating mountebank.

"Los rhetoricos saltabancos que vendian quintas essencias, y acreditaban con gran copia de palebras algunos secretos medicinales."--La Vida di Guzman de Alfarache.

"As nimble jugglers, that deceive the eye,
Disguised cheaters, prating mountebanks,
And many
such like libertines of sin."

SHAKSPEARE.

And when the term is used metaphorically with us, it is always in relation to some humbug, showy

character, some everlasting gabbler. A mere mountebank is one who is talk, and nothing else,one whose speeches are empty sound. As for the Italianized term montambanco, I strongly suspect the original had been imported by some of the English adventurers, who joined the various parties of that nation as soldiers or leaders during its eternal civil broils, and who were in great request for their skill and fidelity. One of these makes a considerable figure in Guicciardini's history of these civil wars, under the name of Giovanni Acuto, an Italianized travesty of John Hackwood.

I have never met with montambanco in any other Italian work than the Malmantile, Lippi, professedly intended to accumulate all the out-of-the-way and unusual terms in that language; nor had the authors of the great national dictionary, "Il Vocabolario della Crusca," another instance of the use of the word than in the same passage of the same author; nor has the ablest annotator of the Malmantile of Minucci, adduced another instance, but adds ciarlatano for its synonym. Montambanco has not, to me, the air of a genuine Italian word, although the language has the verb montare, to ascend, and banco for a counter or raised place.

"L'infegna di costoro è un MONTAMBANCO,
Che ha di già dato alli suoi vasi il prezzo;
E detto, che son buoni al mal di fianco :
E strologato e * chiaccherato un pezzo."

Malem. rueq. cant. I. st. 56.

The mere getting upon a stool or bench does not necessarily imply talking when one is there; but by the form of our own term, as above given, talking is necessarily implied. Mond [mouth] springs from the thema mo-en, in the sense of to cut, [whence our to mow, as well as moth, as