Oásis.—Brande's Dictionary of Science, &c.
Oāsis.—Butler's Classical Atlas. Index.
Who is right? I have searched all the Indices to the Delphin edition of the Latin poets, without finding the word at all. A Cambridge friend quoted at once "sacramque Ammonis oasim;" but, on being pressed, admitted, that if it were not the fag-end of some prize-poem line lurking in his memory, he did not know whence it came. I cannot get anybody to produce me an instance of the use of the word in English poetry. One says, "I am sure it's in Moore," and another, "You're sure to find it in Milton;" but our English poets lack verbal indices. Some such line as "Some green oasis in the desert's waste," haunts my own memory, but I cannot give it a "local habitation." Of course, two or three instances from English poets would not absolutely determine the question one way or the other, as we pronounce many words derived from Greek and Latin sources in defiance of their original quantity. Still they would not be without their value. Can any wise man of the East help?
HARRY LEROY TEMPLE.
Ballad on Shakspeare.
—About fifty years ago there was an old ballad in praise of Shakspeare which used to be very popular in Warwickshire. All I remember is the following stanza, which, I remember, was the concluding one:—
"The pride of all nature is sweet Willy, O;
The pride of our land was sweet Willy, O;
And when Willy died, it was Nature that sighed
At the loss of her all—her sweet Willy, O."