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So, after an interval of thirty-six years, I was told the same story that I had been told in 1851.

Another tradition concerning the funeral of Mary, Queen of Scots, has now received its finishing stroke; and that is, the exact position of her first grave in Peterborough Cathedral. The vergers for the last 150 years, and probably for a still longer period, have always pointed out the slab in the south aisle of the choir, on to which a person stepped on leaving the choir, as being the stone that covered the vault in which for five-and-twenty years the coffin of Mary, Queen of Scots, had been laid. But the Dean of Peterborough (Dr. Perowne) very recently ordered the grave to be opened, which was done under the direction of Mr. J. T. Irvine, the clerk of the works, who found that a solid stone wall ran the length of the choir, and that no vault could have been possible under that particular slab. Another excavation was then made under the adjoining slabs of the aisle without discovering any vault. The dean then directed an excavation to be made within the choir, at a spot about two yards north of the supposed vault, and here the real vault was discovered, in the position assigned to it by Brown Willis in his plan of the cathedral. Not the least interesting event in this most interesting day was the description, by Mr. Irvine, of this discovery of the real vault; and the | address to the visitors by the dean, as we all stood near him by the side of the newly-opened vault of Mary, Queen of Scots, the tercentenary of whose execution and funeral is now being celebrated at Peterborough by such a collection of loans of relics, from Her Majesty and others, as has never before this been gathered together. The collection will be closed on August 9, having been opened by the Marchioness Dowager of Huntly on July 19. CUTHBERT BEDE.

CARNIVAL.

I am glad to see that Prof. Skeat now (Trans. Phil. Soc., 1885-1886, p. 288) considers that carnivalia (a plural form of carnival) is formed from carnilevaria by the dropping of the le and the change of r into l, because I have long held* a similar opinion, viz., that carnevale is a shortened form of carnelevale (Duc.) and that this latter is a corruption of an old Ital. (or possibly Low Latin) subst. carnelevaret in the way indicated by Prof.

I sent a very long note on this word to N. & Q.' quite three years ago, in which this view was advocated, but it was never inserted, no doubt on account of its length. The change of r into l is supported by the form carnasciale carnelasciale carnelasciare (Diez) carnem-laxare, given by Ducange, and apparently used only as a substantive, after the manner of Italian infinitives.

=

=

† This carnelevare no longer exists, but there can be little doubt but that it once did exist, as we still find in the Sicilian dialect carni-livari (Trains, Diez), and in

Skeat. But I differ from him altogether with regard to the meaning of carni(or carne-)levarium, for he thinks it "means precisely the same as carnelevamen" (and so far I agree with him), but interprets this "a solace of the flesh," whereas I believe with Littré that carnelevamen (and consequently carnelevarium) means "a taking away of flesh." Even in classical Latin levare-of which the original meaning seems to have been "to make light," "to lift up" (Riddle)—does not always "to solace, please, comfort," as Prof. Skeat would have us believe; even in such writers as Virgil and Ovid it sometimes="auferre, adimere" (Facc.), much more in later writers. Levator, too, is used by Petronius (Riddle)= thief, so that we cannot be surprised to find that among the ten meanings given to the Low Latin levare by Ducange there is not one which accords with Prof. Skeat's three verbs given above, and only one in which anything akin to them can be found.§ No; the Low Latin levare agrees very much more nearly with the Ital. levare, which always means "to lift up,' ," "to raise," or "to take away," and most commonly "to take away." In the Italian dialects also it has the same meaning, and therefore the Sicilian carni-livari and the Milanese car-levè must mean "the taking away of flesh," and as they= carnelevare=carnem levare (as I have shown in note t), and carnelevarium is only another and more Latinized form of this, it seems to me indubitable that carnelevarium must also mean "the taking away of flesh." Prof. Skeat declares levarium to be levamen, and to mean "mitigation, consolation," but there is not the very slightest tittle of evidence in support of this. Besides this, when Prof. Skeat assigns to levamen and levarium the meaning of "solace," he is obliged to give caro the unusual meaning of "flesh-body," a meaning

=

the Milanese dialect car-levè (Sant' Albino, Diez), both meaning carnival; and in the Sicilian and Milanese

dialects livari and levè represent the Ital. inf. levare. Milanese word, and car-leve-carnelevare still remains in Charpentier (in Duc.) tells us that carnelevale was a Milanese. Carnelevare (or carnem-levare) would be a word formed on the same plan as carnem-laxare, mentioned in note *.

Prof. Skeat says (second edition) that he "can find levamen." He evidently has not consulted Diefenbach's no warrant for any such extraordinary interpretation of Glossarium,' for there I find as one of the meanings given to levamen "uffhebung," of which the Mod. H.G. equivalent Aufhebung lifting up, and also removal, suppression. As levare in Low Latin had come chiefly to mean "to lift up and take away" it was to be ex pected that levamen also would sometimes participate in this change of meaning.

§ This is No. 10, where it is explained "debit liberare "=" to free or release (a classical usage). But even here there is the notion of taking away, removing. Indeed, the verb levare seems to obtain its meaning of "alleviate, relieve, ease" chiefly from the notion of lifting up, and so taking away (a burden or a load). See Riddle.

which it cannot have in any of the other words in Low Latin, Italian, or Spanish denoting carnival and compounded with caro or its equivalents. These words are: (1) carni(s)privium, privicarnium, carnem-laxare, the Ital. carnasciale (see note*), and the Span. carnes tolendas. And we may also add, I think, the late and modern Greek απόκρεως (or απόκρεας or ἀπόκρια). And (2) carni(s)capium, carnisprenium (or carniprinium), and carnivora. In all these words caro and its equivalents are indubitably used in the meaning of "flesh meat," and so it was also, I contend, in carnelevarium and carnelevale. In carnelevamen it may possibly have both meanings, but this is the only case. As Prof. Skeat has now abandoned the derivation of carnival from this word I need not contest the meaning of the carne, though I myself believe it to have been generally understood to mean meat."

66

In conclusion, Prof. Skeat seems to be unaware that the days of fasting in some cases began (or even now begin) earlier than Ash Wednesday, and so he accuses Littré and others of misunderstanding carnelevarium, and taking it to be a day of fasting when it was really a day of feasting.** In the 'Dict. of Christian Antiquities,' s. v. "Carnisprivium," we are told, on the authority of Macer, that the word was especially applied to Quinquagesima Sunday, not because this was itself a fast day,tt but because it was "the last day on which

It will be noticed that I have here divided the terms which have been used to denote the Carnival season into two classes, of which the first (to which I myself would add carnelevamen, carnelevarium, carnelevale, and carnival) includes those which signify the taking away or abandonment of meat; whilst the second contains such as signify the taking or even the devouring of meat. Of this second class the words carni(s) capium and carnivora seem to have been more especially, or perhaps exclusively, devoted to Shrove Tuesday, the last day before the fast, and this seems to have been the case with carnasciale in the first class also. Carnisprenium seems to be carnisprivium, and to denote, like it, the three days immediately preceding Ash Wednesday.

it was permitted to eat flesh, the Lent fast anciently cemmencing on the following day" (i. e., on the Monday preceding Ash Wednesday). And Ducange tells us precisely the same thing on different authority, though he evidently also includes in it the following Monday and Tuesday, whilst Charpentier is blamed by Prof. Skeat for defining carnelevarium, which he says = carniprivium, in very much the same way. And so again in the Dicc. Enciclop. de la leng. Esp.,' Madrid, 1872, I find carnes tolendas defined "los tres dias que preceden al miercoles de ceniza," so that here again Quinquagesima Sunday is included. In the Greek church the abstention from meat began, and still, I believe, begins, much further back, viz., from Sexagesima Sunday. See the 'Dict. of Chr. Ant.,' s. v. Apocreos." And even at the present time in the Roman Catholic Church, which has never encouraged the riotous living and the revelry of the Carnival, I have been informed by Roman Catholics that the priests recommend their hearers to prepare themselves for Lent by abstinence from pleasures as early as Septuagesima Sunday; and this is more or less borne out by what I find (s. v. "Carnival") in Addis and Arnold's 'Catholic Dict.' (third edit., London, 1885), where we are told that "the church from Septuagesima onwards assumes the garb of penance and prepares her children, by the saddened tone of her office, for the Lenten season."

66

We see, therefore, that the Carnival, while it meant feasting and revelry to the great majority probably, meant fasting or abstinence and reclusion to many members (and those the more influential ones) of the Roman Catholic Church; and we can consequently understand how it was that two sets of words, opposite in signification, were invented (see note) to mark the two opposite ways in which the Carnival season was passed. The victory would seem to have remained with the partisans of the abstinence from flesh, for the majority of of the terms-and according to my view the great majority, including the word carnival itself‡‡-de

** I cannot see that Charpentier limits carnelevarium to the one day, Quinquagesima Sunday, as Prof. Skeat seems to think. He no doubt included under it the following Monday and Tuesday, for he gives carniprivium as its equivalent, which commonly included those two daya. And the equivalent plural form carnilevaria also points to this.

tt In the Roman Catholic Church no Sunday is ever a fast day. Formerly, however, abstinence from flesh meat was enjoined on the Sundays in Lent, but "the faithful now receive an annual dispensation from the abstinence" (Cath. Dict.,' quoted above, s.v. "Abstinence"). The reason that Sunday is not a fast day is obviously because it was on that day that Christ rose from the dead. Quinquagesima Sunday, therefore, though nominally included among the three fast-days called carnele

The terms included in the first class in note || were probably invented by the partisans of abstinence, whilst those of class 2 must certainly have originated with, and have been chiefly confined to, the partisans of feasting and riot. It is far from unlikely, however, that among these latter there were some at least who, whilst enjoying the present, contrasted it regretfully with the gloom so close at hand, and these would think the words of the first class aptly chosen. And that this was so is shown by the fact that the latest corruption, and the one that has (in its different forms) superseded the rest and has met with general approval and acceptance-the Italian carnevale-means to every Italian "flesh, farewell!" (Diez. says, "Abschied des Fleisches "), for vale is not only Latin but Italian. Prof. Skeat says that our spelling with 2 is a mistake, that it should be e or o; but surely if carnival is, as he maintains, carnis levarium, the i'is strictly correct, and carnilevarium and carnile.

note this; and this is as it should be, so it appears to me, though I am very far from being the advocate of fasting or of the strict observance of Lent; for surely no religious observance should be ushered in by those who believe in it, and intend to keep it, by scenes of degrading dissipation! F. CHANCE.

SOME NOTES AND ADDENDA TO PROF. SKEAT'S

ETYMOLOGICAL DICTIONARY.'

Gradually, as more Anglo-Saxon texts are published, new words are added to our dictionaries and quotations are found for those until now known only from vocabularies or glosses. In a few cases where Prof. Skeat, in his 'Etym. Dict.,' says "the Anglo-Saxon" word is not found, we are able to indicate it, thus rendering his etymologies more certain or proving the trustworthiness of his sources. It is worth mentioning-on the maxim of honour to whom honour is due-how frequently the publication of a hitherto unpublished text proves the carefulness and trustworthiness of Somner's work, which, experience shows it more and more, has been undeservedly doubted.

In the following I give a few notes which I hope Prof. Skeat will allow a place among the fresh evidence which he says is constantly being adduced, and perhaps also, here and there among the additions or corrections which are needed, but have as yet escaped his notice. I aim at supplementing the information given by Prof. Skeat. Three parts of the great Dictionary of the Philological Society having now been published, I shall, for completeness sake, insert in their proper places the words where this large work gives matter of importance for the etymology, but this by reference only, to avoid unnecessary extension. This work I indicate with the letters Dict.).

M(urray).

Abstract. First in use as p. prt. and adj. since 1387; as subst, since 1528; as verb since 1542. Cf. D.M., iv. (D.M., .v.) adopts, seemingly without any doubt, the Absurd. This is a troublesome word. Dr. Murray derivation "ab, off, here intensive, and surdus, deaf, inaudible, insufferable to the ear. "" Prof. Skeat admits that ab may possibly have an intensive force before surdus harsh-sounding; but prefers to take it as derived from ab, away, and surdus, "indistinct, harshsounding; also deaf." It seems scarcely possible to doubt that surdus is a derivative from the root swar, to sound, whence Sanscrit svara, a tone, a sound, accent, vowel. If so, the first meaning would more likely be that of sounding, whence, through noisy, we come to disagreeably sounding on the one hand, and to indistinctly sounding, difficult to be distinguished, on the other. This latter color-dim colour), sordes dirt, &c., from the same meaning allows of deriving surdus dark, dim (surdus root, without imposing the necessity of adopting a root svar to be dirty (cf. Skeat, in v."Swart"), or a separate stem svarda (cf. Vaniçek, p. 348). Is this combination correct-then we must, with Van., hold deaf to be a comparatively late and metaphorical meaning, developed dictionaries justly put first, as being the most commonout of the notion dim, indistinct, and-though in Latin for etymological purposes it should stand last. As to the force it has in our word here, I would suggest that it It is then a perfect parallel to absonus, which is used in stands sounding, with the prefix ab-mis, as in abuse. combination with it and has the same meaning of sounding disagreably. If we want to accept Prof. Skeat's notion that it has the force of harsh sounding, we shall have to admit that ab has here intensive force. Prof. Skeat's explanation away is to me unintelligible-away-indistinct? away harsh-sounding? Ab in Latin with intensive force is not unknown; abamita, abavia, absocer, abhiemare are instances. WILLEM S. LOGEMAN.

Newton School, Rock Ferry.

(To be continued.)

A. Add. explanation of a in "go a-begging," &c., cf. D.M., 2, col. 3.

Abase. Regular mod, repres. of O.Tr. would be abease,

Abate (2). Leg, term to intrude forcibly. Cf. D.M.,

9, 3.

Abdomen. Known since 1541. Cf. D.M., i.v. Abduct. D.M., i.v.

Abet. Known as verb since 1380. Cf. D. M., i.v.

at large.

Abroad. D.M., i.v., compares as to idiom a-long and Absent. "Ens is short for sens." Ens is rather a (philologically speaking) modern formation direct from esse, under influence of the other pres. part. in ens. I do not know in Latin any other instances of initials before vowels being dropped. Greek ŵv (=¿wv=kowv)

is of course no parall. for ens.

vamen would be more accurate (cf. carniprivium, carnicapium, and carniprinium) than the ordinary spelling

carnelevarium and carnelevamen.