_By the bye_ (Vol. ii., p. 424.).--As no one of your correspondents has
answered the Query of J. R. N., as to the etymology and meaning of _by the
bye_ and _by and by_, I send you the following exposition; which I have
collected from Richardson's _Dictionary_, and the authorities there
referred to.
Spelman informs us, that in Norfolk there were in his time thirteen
villages with names ending in _by:_ this _By_ being a Danish word,
signifying "villa." That a _bye_-law, Dan. _by-lage_, is a law _peculiar_
to a villa. And thus we have the general application of _bye_ to any thing;
peculiar, private, indirect, as distinguished from the direct or main: as,
_bye-ways_, _bye-talk_, &c. &c. In the trial of Sir Walter Raleigh, _State
Trials_, James I., 1603, are these words:--
"You are fools; you are on the _bye_, Raleigh and I are on the _main_.
We mean to take away the king and his cubs."
Here the contradistinction is manifest. Lord Bacon and B. Jonson write,
_on_ the _by_; as if, on the way, in passing, indirectly:--
"'There is, _upon_ the _by_, to be noted.'--'Those who have seluted
poetry _on_ the _by_'--such being a collateral, and not the main object
of pursuit."
This I think is clear and satisfactory.
_By and by_ is quite a different matter. Mr. Tyrwhitt, upon the line in
Chaucer,--
"These were his words _by and by_."--_R. R._ 4581.
interprets "separately, distinctly;" and there are various other instances
in Chaucer admitting the same interpretation:--
"Two yonge knightes ligging, _by and by_."--_Kn. T._, v. 1016.
"His doughter had a bed all _by_ hireselve,
Right in the same chambre _by and by_."--_The Reves T._, v. 4441.
So also in the "Floure and the Leafe," stanzas 9 and 24. The latter I will
quote, as it is much to the purpose:--
"The semes (of the surcote) echon,
As it were a maner garnishing,
Was set with emerauds, _one and one_,
_By and by_."
But there are more ancient usages, e.g. in R. Brunne, bearing also the same
interpretation. "The chartre was read ilk poynt _bi and bi_:" William had
taken the homage of barons "_bi_ and _bi_." He assayed (_i.e._ tried) "tham
(the horses) _bi and bi_."
Richardson's conception is, that there is a _subaudition_ in all these
expressions; and that the meaning is, by point and by point; by baron and
by baron; by horse and by horse: _one and one_, as Chaucer writes; each
_one_ separately, by _him_ or _it_-self. And thus, that _by and by_ may be
explained, _by_ one and _by_ one; distinctly, both in space or time. Our
modern usage is restricted to _time_, as, "I will do so _by and by_:" where
_by and by_ is equivalent to _anon_, _i.e._ in one (moment, instant, &c.).
And so--