"TO SPEAK IN LUTESTRING."
(Vol. iii., p. 188.)
The Query on the meaning of the phrase "to speak in lutestring," used by Philo-Junius, has remained so long without an answer, that to attempt to give one now seems almost to require an apology. I will however do so. In Letter XLVII., dated May 28, 1771, Philo-Junius says:
"I was led to trouble you with these observations by a passage, which, to speak in lutestring, 'I met with this morning in the course of my reading,' and upon which I mean to put a question to the advocates for privilege."
Now we know, that if two lutes, or other stringed instruments, be placed near each other, when a chord of one of them is struck, the corresponding chord of the other will vibrate in unison, and give a similar note; one lutestring will echo the other. The story of the maiden who believed that the spirit of her dead lover was near her, because his harp sounded responsive notes to hers, and who died heart-broken when she was undeceived, is sufficiently well known. "To speak in lutestring" is then to speak as another man's echo; and Philo-Junius here was the echo of the Duke of Grafton, and used this affected phrase derisively, as being a favourite, or at least well-known expression of his. In a letter which is appended as a note to Letter XX., and which is dated six days previous to the one just quoted, viz. May 22, 1771, he says:
"But Junius has a great authority to support him, which, to speak with the Duke of Grafton, 'I accidentally met with this morning in the course of my reading.' It contains an admonition which cannot be repeated too often," &c.
I have not found the phrase "to speak in lutestring" anywhere else; but I think, from a comparison of these two quotations, that it must mean what I have supposed it to mean—to speak as the echo or exact repeater of another man's words. Where can instances be found of the Duke of Grafton's using this expression, which Philo-Junius ridicules?
W. Fraser.
Tor-Mohun.