To TH1 EDITOR OP TEl "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Two private correspondents from different parts of the North of England, and "W. J. P." in your columns from East London, confirm the usage of " translator " to denote a renovator of old boots.
The widespread survival of the term, and its appearance in Halliwell's Dictionary as "a cobler," afford a strong pre- sumption that it was used as a special term for this trade, besides its more general signification. The only missing link in the evidence to support my suggested interpretation, is some proof that in Shakespeare's time the " translator " was a cobbler who, as a rule, renovated old boots by putting on new tops to old bottoms.
. If, as seems probable, the term were a fairly common one, there is no reason why a carpenter or any one else might not be acquainted with it ; and it is no evidence that Shakespeare does not make a pun in one place because he uses the same word without a pun in another. Such a method of criticism would eliminate most puns from most writers.—I am, Sir, &c.,
• The School House, Birkenhead, April 21st. A. SLOMAN.
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