Item 12 - Postcard from W. W. Skeat to W. Aldis Wright

(Cambridge.)—Discusses the word ‘Cipres’.

(Undated. Postmarked at Cambridge on 3 June 1885.)

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Transcript

Cipres {1}: I read a few notes on it lately, & tried to make it = crespe. On the whole, I failed. I now conclude, with you, that it means “stuff of Cyprus”. The best is, it is far older than you (or I) have said. For it is in P. Plowman all the while! see the glossary: where Tartarina = stuff of Tartary. The line in P. Pl. is not in Wright’s edition.

N.B. I do not think I have brought you an extra copy of last part of P. Pl. yet. But I will do so {2}.

Yrs
W W Skeat

[Direction:] W. Aldis Wright Esq: | Trinity College | Cambridge

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Postmarked at Cambridge on 3 July 1885.

{1} Cf. Twelfth Night, III. i. 123.

{2} This may be Trinity College Library, 208.c.88.123, vol. 2.