represents it as possessing (the meaning of inherit at the time) only the limited and tottering dominion which the empire of the west had at the time of its fall. By "higher Italy," by the way, I would understand not Upper Italy, but Tuscany, as more remote from France; for when the war is ended, the French envoy says:

"What will Count Rousillon do then? Will he travel higher, or return again into France?"—Act IV. Sc. 3.

The meaning is plainly: Will he go farther on? to Naples, for example.

I must take this opportunity of retracting what I have said about—

Mr. Singer (Vol. vi., p. 584.) by directing attention to the circumstance of cub being a young fox, has proved, at least to me, that case is the proper word,—a proof, among many, of the hazard of tampering with the text when not palpably wrong.

Cub is the young fox, and fox, vixen, cub are like dog, bitch, whelp,—ram, ewe, lamb, &c. The word is peculiar to the English language, nothing at all resembling it being to be found in the Anglo-Saxon, or any of the kindred dialects. Holland, in his Plutarch (quoted by Richardson), when telling the story of the Spartan boy, says "a little cub, or young fox;" and then uses only cub. It was by analogy that the word was used of the young of bears, lions, and whales: and if Shakspeare in one place (Merchant of Venice, Act II. Sc. 1.) says "cubs of the she-bear," he elsewhere (Titus Andronicus, Act IV. Sc. 1.) has "bear-whelps." I further very much doubt if cub was used of boys in our poet's time. The earliest employment of it that I have seen is in Congreve, who uses "unlicked cubs," evidently alluding to young bears: and that is the sense in which cub is still used,—a sense that would not in any case apply to Viola.

Thos. Keightley.

IMPRECATORY EPITAPHS.

There is a class of epitaphs, or, we should rather say, there are certain instances of monumental indecorum which have not as yet been noticed by the many contributors on these subjects to your pages. I refer to those inscriptions embodying threats, or expressing resentful feelings against the murderers, or supposed murderers, of the deceased individual. Of such epitaphs we have fortunately but few examples in Great Britain; but in Norway, among the Runic monuments of an early and rude age, they are by no means uncommon.

Near the door of the church of Knaresdale, in Northumberland, is the following on a tombstone:

Robert Baxter is still remembered by persons yet living, and the general belief in the country is, that he was poisoned by a neighbour with whom he had had a violent quarrel. Baxter was well known to be a man of voracious appetite; and it seems that, one morning on going out to the fell (or hill), he found a piece of bread and butter wrapped in white paper. This he incautiously devoured, and died a few hours after in great agony. The suspected individual was, it is said, alive in 1813.

We know not how much of the old Norse blood ran in the veins of Robert Baxter's friend, who composed this epitaph; but this summer, among a people of avowedly Scandinavian descent, I copied the following from a large and handsome tomb in the burying-ground of the famous Cross Kirk, in Northmavine parish, in Shetland:

"M.S.
Donald Robertson,
Born 1st of January, 1785; died 4th of June, 1848,
aged 63 years.

He was a peaceable quiet man, and to all appearance a sincere Christian. His death was very much regretted, which was caused by the stupidity of Laurence Tulloch, of Clotherten, who sold him nitre instead of Epsom salts, by which he was killed in the space of three hours after taking a dose of it."

Among the Norwegian and Swedish Runic inscriptions figured by Gösannson and Sjöborg, we meet with two or three breathing a still more revengeful spirit, but one eminently in accordance with the rude character of the age to which they belong (A.D. 900 ad 1300).

An epitaph on a stone figured by Sjöborg runs as follows:

"Rodvisl and Rodalf they caused this stone to be raised after their three sons, and after [to] Rodfos. Him the Blackmen slew in foreign lands. God help the soul of Rodfos: God destroy them that killed him."

Another stone figured by Gösannson has engraved on it the same revengeful aspiration.

We all remember the Shakspearian inscription, "Cursed be he that moves my bones;" but if Finn Magnussen's interpretation be correct, there is an epitaph in Runic characters at Greniadarstad church, in Iceland, which concludes thus:

"If you willingly remove this monument, may you sink into the ground."

It would be curious to collect examples of these menaces on tombstones, and I hope that other contributors will help to rescue any that exist in this or in other countries from oblivion.

Edward Charlton, M.D.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

DERIVATION OF "LAD" AND "LASS."

The derivation of the word lad has not yet been given, so far as I am aware; and the word lass is in the same predicament. Lad is undoubtedly of old usage in England, and in its archaic sense it has reference, not to age, as now, but to service or dependence; being applied, not to signify a youth or a boy, but a servant or inferior.

In Pinkerton's Poems from the Maitland MSS. is one, purporting to be the composition of Thomas of Ercildoune, which begins thus:

After this line follow others of the same bearing, until we come to these:

The prophet is not, in these words, inveighing against ill-assorted alliances between young men and old women; but is alluding to a general bouleversement of society, when mésalliances of noble women to ignoble men will take place.

This sense of the word gives us, I think, some help towards tracing its derivation, and I have no doubt that its real parent is the Anglo-Saxon hlafæta,—a word to be found in one instance only, in a corner of Æthelbyrt's Domas: "Gif man ceorles hlafætan of-slæth vi scyllingum gebete."

By the same softening of sound which made lord and lady out of hlaford and hlæfdige, hlafæta became lad, and hlafætstre became lass. As the lord supplied to his