"_Dhoul_ (or _Dhu_) _carnun_, _with the two horns_, is the surname of _Alexander_, that is, of an ancient and fabulous Alexander of the first dynasty of the Persians. 795. Article Sedd, Tagioug and Magioug. 993. Article Khedher. 395. b. 335. b. Fael.
"But 317. Escander, he says, Alexander the Great has the same title secondarily. The truth probably is the reverse, that the fabulous personage was taken from the real conqueror.
"_Hofmann_, in Seleucus, says that the area of Seleucus is called Terik Dhylkarnain, i.e. Epocha Alexandri Cornigen. Tarik means probably the date of an event."
There can be no doubt that the word in Chaucer is this Arabic word; nor, I think, that Speght's story is really taught by the Arabs, our teachers in mathematics. Whether the application is from Alexander, (they would know nothing of his date with regard to Pythagoras), or merely from two-horned, is doubtful. The latter might possibly mean the ox.
Mr. Halliwell gives a quotation from Stanyhurst, in which it means "dull persons"--an obvious misuse of it for Englishmen, and which Skene fortifies by an A.-S. derivation, but which is clearly not Cressida's meaning, or she would have said, "I _am_ Dulcarnon," not "I _am at_ Dulcarnon;" and so Mrs. Roper.
It may seem difficult what Pandarus can mean:
"Dulcarnon clepid is fleming of wretches, It semith hard, for wretchis wol nought lere For very slouthe, or othir wilfull tetches, This said is by them that ben't worth two fetches, But ye ben wise."
Whether he means that wretches call it _fleming_ or not, his argument is, "You are not a wretch." Speght's derivation seems to mean, "Quod stultos vertit." _Fleamas_, A.-S. (Lye), is _fuga_, _fugacio_, from _flean_, to flee. Pandarus, I think, does not mean to give the derivation of the word, but its application of fools, a stumbling-block, or puzzle.
[Footnote 5: Speght gives it in English letters, but Selden in Arabic.]
[Footnote 6: Christman, _Comment. in Alfragan_, cap. ii. _Lysimachi_ Cornuum apud Cael. Rhodigin. _Antiq. lect._ 10. cap. xii., hic genuina interpretatio.]
_Dr. Maginn._--The best account of this most talented but unfortunate man, is given in the _Dublin University Mag._, vol. xxiii. p. 72. A reprint of this article, with such additional particulars of his numerous and dispersed productions as might be supplied, would form a most acceptable volume.