ch as St. Ivo or Evona, canonized on
account of his great rectitude and profound knowledge both of civil and
canon law, was both lawyer and churchman, like the CLERICUS so recently
discussed in our columns; and clearly sought for and obtained his patron
saint in his legal character.]

_Muffins and Crumpets, &c._--Not being quite satisfied with the
etymology of "muffin," in p. 205., though brought by Urquhart from
Phoenicia and the Pillars of Hercules, I am desirous of seeking
additional illustration. Some fancy that "coffee" was known to Athenaeus,
and that he saw it _clearly_ in the "black broth" of the Lacedaemonian
youth. In the same agreeable manner we are referred to that instructive
and entertaining writer for the corresponding luxury of "muffins."
_Maphula_, we are told, was one of those kinds of bread named as such by
Athenaeus; that is to say, "a cake baked on a hearth or griddle." If we
need go so far, why not fetch our muffins from Memphis, which is _Moph_
in Hebrew? (See _Hosea_, ix. 6.) It is, perhaps, _mou-pain_, in old
French, _soft bread_, easily converted into _mouffin_. So "crumpet" may
be a corruption of _crumpate_ a paste made of fine flour, slightly
baked. The only difficulty would then be in the {254} first syllable,
concerning, which the ingenuity of your various correspondents, Mr.
Editor, may be exercised to some effect. Is it connected with the use of
the _crimping_ irons in producing these delicacies?

HYPOMAGIRUS.

Oxford.

_Dulcarnon_.--Dulcarnon is one of those words in Chaucer which Tyrwhitt
professes that he does not understand. It occurs in _Trolius and
Creseide_, book iii. 931.933. Creseide says:--

"I am, til God me better minde sende,
At _Dulcarnon_, right at my witt'is ende.
Quod Pandarus ye nece, wol ye here,
_Dulcarnon_ clepid is fleming[3] of wretches."

This passage of _Trolius and Creseide_ is quoted in the life of Sir
Thomas More, given in Wordsworth's _Ecclesiastical Biography_. More's
daughter said to him, when he was in prison, "Father, I can no further
goe; I am come, as Chaucer said of Cressid Dulcarnon, to my witt's end."

Has this passage been satisfactorily explained since Tyrwhitt's time?
The epithet "Dulcarnon" is mentioned in a note to the translation of
Richard de Bury's _Philobiblon_, London, 1832. I give the note in full.
It is in reference to the word "Ellefuga":--

"This word was a pons asinorum to some good Grecians,--but th