“Ci gît Margot, la gentille demoiselle,
Qui a deux maris et encore est pucelle.”
But Gogo is not an improvement. Marcharit is the Breton form.
In Germany Grethel figures in various ‘Mahrchen,’ but Gretchen is now most common, and is rendered classical by Goethe. Mete in the time of Klopstock’s sway over the lovers of religious poetry was very fashionable; and Meta almost took up her abode in England, though the taste for simplicity has routed her of late.
Denmark, where the Semiramis of the North has domesticated the name, calls it Mette and Maret, and places it in many a popular tale and ballad as Metelill, or little Margaret.
Even the modern German Jews use it and call it Marialit; and the Vernacular Gaelic contraction used in Ireland is Vread, though Mairgreg is the proper form.[[48]]
| English. | Scotch. | French. | Italian. |
| Margaret | Margaret | Marguérite | Margherita |
| Margaretta | Marjorie | Margot | Malgherita |
| Margery | Maisie | Margoton | Ghita |
| Maggy | Maidie | Goton | Rita |
| Meggy | Maggie | Gogo | |
| Madge | Meg | ||
| Marget | May | ||
| Peggy | |||
| Gritty | |||
| Meta | |||
| Spanish. | German. | Swiss. | Danish. |
| Margarita | Margarethe | Margarete | Margarete |
| Portuguese. | Grete | Gretli | Mette |
| Margarida | Gretchen | Maret | |
| Grethe | Melletel | ||
| Grethel | |||
| Grel | |||
| Marghet | |||
| Mete | |||
| Polish. | Bohemian. | Slavonic. | Finland. |
| Margareta | Markota | Marjarita | Reta |
| Malgorzata | Marjeta | ||
| Malgosia | |||
| Lett. | Esthonian. | Lithuanian. | Hungarian. |
| Margrete | Maret | Magryta | Margarta |
| Greta | Kret | Gryta | Margit |
| Maije | Krot | Greta | |
| Madsche |
[48]. Reeves, Conchology; Liddell and Scott; Butler; Michaelis; Grimm; Weber, Northern Romance.
Section XIV.—Katharine.
The maiden martyr, whose name was chosen as the centre of the allegory of intellectual religion, was Καθαρινή (Kathariné), Catharina in Latin, from a virgin martyr of Alexandria, whose history being unknown, became another recipient of a half-allegorical legend. It is not found recorded earlier than the eighth century, and, indeed, the complete ignorance of the state of the Roman empire, shown by making her the daughter of a king of Egypt, argues its development at a very late period. Her exceeding wisdom, her heavenly espousals, her rejection of the suit of Maximus, the destruction of the wheels that were to have torn her in pieces, her martyrdom by the sword, and the translation of her body by angels to Mount Sinai, are all familiar through the numerous artistic works that have celebrated her. The legend is thought to have grown up to its full height among the monks of the convent that bears her name at the foot of Mount Sinai. And the many pilgrims thither had the zest of a new and miraculous legend, such as seems always to have been more popular than the awful truth beside which it grew up; but it never obtained credit enough in the East to make Katharina come into use as a name in the Greek Church, and it was only when the Crusaders brought home the story that it spread in ballad and mystery throughout the West. Indeed, the name did not prevail till it had been borne by the Italian devotee, Santa Caterina of Sienna, who tried to imagine the original Katharina’s history renewed in herself, and whose influence is one of the marvels of the middle ages. Before this, however, the fair Katharine, Countess of Salisbury, had been the heroine of the Garter, and John of Gaunt had named the daughter, who, as Queen of Castille, made Catalina a Spanish name, whence it returned to us again with Katharine of Aragon; but in the mean time Catherine de Valois, the Queen of Henry V., had brought it again from France.