Q. In the course of study for this year is it obligatory to buy Rolfe’s edition of Hamlet and Julius Cæsar, if one has some other edition?
A. It is not obligatory. Any edition will be acceptable.
Q. What is the origin of the term Huguenots?
A. It is a name of uncertain origin, first applied by the Roman Catholics of France to all partisans of the Reformation, but afterwards restricted to the Calvinists. Some derive it from one of the gates of the city of Tours, called Hugons, at which these Protestants held some of their assemblies; others from the words Huc nos, with which their protest commenced; others from aignos, a confederate. Prof. Mahn, in his Etymologische Untersuchungen, quotes no fewer than fifteen different derivations.
Q. What is Salmagundi, and from what is the name derived?
A. A mixture of minced veal, chicken, pickled herrings and onions all chopped together and served with lemon juice and oil: so called, it is said by some, from Salmagondi, one of the ladies attached to the suite of Mary de Medicis, wife of Henry IV of France, who is reputed to have invented the dish. The word is more probably a corruption of the Latin salgamum (meat and salad chopped together).
Q. Which is the largest library in the world?
A. The National Library, in Paris, containing 2,000,000 volumes, is the largest.
Q. I saw recently an allusion to the “Vinegar Bible,” but have no idea what was meant. Can The Chautauquan tell me?
A. A Bible printed by the Clarendon press in 1717, by mistake gave the heading to Luke xx as “The Parable of the Vinegar,” instead of Vineyard.