Chapter I: Front Matter

Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they are listed at the end of the text.

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NOTES AND QUERIES:

A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC.

"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.

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No. 195.] SATURDAY, JULY 23. 1853.. [Price Fourpence. Stamped Edition 5d.

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CONTENTS.

NOTES:-- Page
William Blake 69
A Poem by Shelley, not in his Works 71
The Impossibilities of History 72
"Quem Deus vult perdere prius dementat," by T. J.
Buckton 73
Shakspeare Correspondence, by J. Payne Collier,
George Blink, &c. 73
"The Dance of Death," by Weld Taylor 76

MINOR NOTES:--Old Lines newly revived--Inscription
near Cirencester--Wordsworth--"Magna est Veritas et
praevalebit"--"Putting your foot into it" 76

QUERIES:--
Fragments of MSS., by Philip Hale 77
The Electric Telegraph, by W. Matthews 78

MINOR QUERIES:--Sir Walter Raleigh--Ancient
Fortifications: Hertstone, Pale, Brecost--Newton and
Somers--Daventry, Duel at--Passage in Burial Service--
"They shot him on the nine-stane rig"--Wardhouse, and
Fishermen's Custom there--"Adrian turn'd the bull"--
Cary's "Palaeologia Chronica"--The Southwark Pudding
Wonder--Roman Catholics confined in Fens of Ely--White
Bell Heather transplanted--Green's "Secret Plot"--
"The full Moon brings fine Weather"--Nash the Artist--
Woodwork of St. Andrew's Priory Church, Barnwell--
"The Mitre and the Crown"--Military Music 78

MINOR QUERIES WITH ANSWERS:--Stoven Church--The
Statute of Kilkenny--Kenne of Kenne--Rents of Assize,
&c.--Edifices of Ancient and Modern Times--Gorram--
"Rock of Ages" 80

REPLIES:--
Remuneration of Authors 81
On the Use of the Hour-glass in Pulpits 82
Ladies' Arms borne in a Lozenge 83

PHOTOGRAPHIC CORRESPONDENCE:--Multiplication of
Photographs--Yellow Bottles for Photographic
Chemicals 85

REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES:--Donnybrook Fair--Abigail--
Honorary Degrees--Red Hair--Historical Engraving--
Proverbs quoted by Suetonius--"Sat cito, si sat bene"--
Council of Laodicea, Canon 35.--Anna Lightfoot--Jack
and Gill--Simile of the Soul and the Magnetic Needle--
Gibbon's Library--St. Paul's Epistles to Seneca--
"Hip, Hip, Hurrah!"--Emblemata--Campvere, Privileges of--
Slang Expressions: "Just the cheese"--The Honorable Miss
E. St. Leger--Queries from the Navorscher--"Pity
is akin to Love" 86

MISCELLANEOUS:--
Notes on Books, &c. 89
Books and Odd Volumes wanted 90
Notices to Correspondents 90
Advertisements 90

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Notes.

WILLIAM BLAKE.

My antiquarian tendencies bring me acquainted with many neglected and obscure individuals connected with our earlier English literature, who, after "fretting their hour" upon life's stage, have passed away; leaving their names entombed upon the title-page of some unappreciated or crotchetty book, only to be found upon the shelves of the curious.

To look for these in Kippis, Chalmers, Gorton, or Rose would be a waste of time; and although agreeing to some extent with the _Utilitarians_, that we have all that was worth preserving of the _Antediluvians_, there is, I think, here and there a name worth resuscitating, possessing claims to a _niche_ in our "Antiquary's Newspaper;" and for that distinction, I would now put in a plea on behalf of my present subject, William Blake.

Although our author belongs to the _eccentric category_, he is a character not only deserving of notice, but a model for imitation: the "_bee_ in his bonnet" having set his sympathies in the healthy direction of a large _philanthropy_ for the spiritual and temporal interests of his fellow men.

The congenial reader has already, I doubt not, anticipated that I am about to introduce that nondescript book bearing the running title--and it never had any other--of _Silver Drops, or Serious Things;_ purporting, in a kind of colophon, to be "written by William Blake, housekeeper to the Ladies' Charity School."[1] The curious in old books knows too, that, apart from its subject, the _Silver Drops_ of W. B. has usually an attractive exterior; most of the _exemplaires_ which have come under my notice being sumptuously bound in old morocco, profusely tooled; with the name of the party to whom it had apparently been presented, stamped in a compartment upon the cover. Its value is farther enhanced by its pictorial and emblematical accompaniments. These are four in number: the first representing a heart, whereon {70} a fanciful picture of Charity supported by angels; second, a view of Highgate Charity Schools (Dorchester House); third, Time with his scythe and hour-glass[2]; and the fourth, in three compartments, the centre containing butterflies; the smaller at top and bottom, sententious allusions to the value of time--"Time drops pearles from his golden wings," &c. These are respectable engravings, but by whom executed I know not. After these, and before coming to the _Silver Drops_, which are perhaps something akin to Master Brooks' _Apples of Gold_, the book begins abruptly: "The Ladies' Charity School-house Roll of Highgate, or a subscription of many noble well-disposed ladies for the easie carrying of it on." "Being well informed," runs the Prospectus, "that there is a pious, good, commendable work for maintaining near forty poor or fatherless children, born all at or near Highgate, Hornsey, or Hamsted: we, whose names are subscribed, do engage or promise, that if the said boys are decently cloathed in blew, lined with yellow; constantly fed all alike with good and wholsom diet; taught to read, write, and cast accompts, and so put out to trades, in order to live another day; then we will give for one year, two or three (if we well like the design, and prudent management of it,) once a year, the sum below mentioned," &c. The projector of this good work was the subject of my present note; and after thus introducing it, the worthy "woollen-draper, at the sign of the Golden Boy, Maiden Lane, Covent Garden," for such he was, goes on to recommend and enforce its importance in a variety of cajolling addresses, or, as he calls them, "charity-school sticks," to the great and wealthy; ostensibly the production of the boys, but in reality the concoctions of Mr. Blake, and in which he pleads earnestly for his _hobby_. In _An Essay, or Humble Guess, how the Noble Ladies may be inclined to give to and encourage their Charity-school at Highgate_, Mr. Blake farther humorously shows up the various dispositions of his fair friends:--"And first," says he, "my lady such-a-one cryed, Come, we will make one purse out of our family;" and "my lady such-an-one said she would give for the fancy of the Roll and charity stick. My lady such-an-one cryed by her troth she would give nothing at all, for she had waies enough for her money; while another would give five or six stone of beef every week." Again, in trying to come at the great citizen-ladies, he magnifies, in the following characteristic style, the city of London; and, by implication, their noble husbands and themselves:--"There is," says Mr. Blake, "the Tower and the Monument; the old Change, Guild-Hall, and Blackwall-Hall, _which some would fain burn again_; there is Bow steeple, the _Holy Bible_, _the Silver Bells of Aaron_, _the godly-outed ministers_; the melodious musick of the Gospels; Smithfield martyrs yet alive; and the best society, the very best in all the world for civility, loyalty, men, and manners; with the greatest cash, bulk, mass, and stock of all sorts of silks, cinnamon, spices, wine, gold, pearls, Spanish wooll and cloaths; with the river _Nilus_, and the stately ships of _Tarshish_ to carry in and out the great merchandizes of the world." In this the city dames are attacked collectively. Individually, he would wheedle them thus into his charitable plans:--"Now pray, dear madam, speak or write to my lady out of hand, and tell her how it is with us; and if she will subscribe a good _gob_, and get the young ladies to do so too; and then put in altogether with your lordship's and Sir James's also: for it is necessary he or you in his stead should do something, _now the great ship is come safe in, and by giving some of the first-fruits of your great bay, or new plantation, to our school, the rest will be blessed the better_." The scheme seems to have offered attractions to the Highgate gentry:--"The great ladies do allow their house-keeper," he continues, "one bottle of wine, three of ale, half a dozen of rolls, and two dishes of meat a-day; who is to see the wilderness, orchard, great prospects, walks, and gardens, all well kept and rolled for their honours' families; and to give them small treats according to discretion when they please to take the air, which is undoubtedly the best round London." Notwithstanding the eloquent pleadings of Mr. Blake for their assistance and support, it is to be feared that the _noble ladies_ allowed the predictions of his friends to be verified, and _did_ "suffer such an inferiour meane and little person (to use his own phraseology) to sink under the burden of so good and great a work:" for we find that Gough, in allusion thereto, says (_Topographical Anecdotes_, vol. i. p. 644.):--

"This Hospital at Highgate, called the Ladies' Charity School, was
erected by one W. Blake, a woollen-draper in Covent Garden; who having
purchased Dorchester House, and having fooled away his estate in
building, was thrown into prison."

Even here, and under such circumstances, our subject was nothing daunted; for the same authority informs us, that, still full of his philanthropic projects, he took the opportunity his leisure there admitted to write another work upon his favourite topic of educating and caring for the {71} poor; its title is, _The State and Case of a Design for the better Education of Thousands of Parish Children successively in the vast Northern Suburbs of London vindicated, &c._ Besides the above, there is another remarkable little piece which I have seen, beginning abruptly, "Here followeth a briefe exhortation which I gave in my owne house at my wife's funerall to our friends then present," by Blake, with the MS. date, 1650; and exhibits this original character in another not less amiable light:--"I was brought up," says he, "by my parents to learne _Hail Mary_, paternoster, the Beliefe, and learne to reade; and where I served my apprenticeship little more was to be found." He attributes it to God's grace that he fell a reading the _Practice of Piety_, by which means he got a little persuading of God's love to his soul:--"Well, my time being out, I set up for myselfe; and seeking out for a wife, which, with long waiting and difficulty, much expence and charge, at last I got. Four children God gave me by her; but he hath taken them and her all again too, who was a woman of a thousand." Mr. B. then naturally indulges in a panegyric upon this pattern of wives, and reproaches himself for his former insensibility to her surpassing merits: relating with great _naivete_ some domestic passages, with examples of her piety and trials, in one of which latter the _enemy_ would tempt her to suicide:--"There lie your garters," said he; "but she threw them aside, and so escaped this will of the Devil."

In conclusion, let me inquire if your Highgate correspondents are cognisant of any existing institution raised upon the foundation of William Blake's Charity School at Dorchester House?

J. O.

[Our correspondent's interesting communication suggests a Query: Is
there any biographical notice of William Blake; and was he the author
of the following piece, preserved among the Kings' pamphlets in the
British Museum? "The Condemned Man's Reprieve, or God's Love-Tokens,
flowing in upon the heart of William Blake, a penitent sinner, giving
him assurance of the pardon of his sins, and the enjoyment of eternal
happiness through the merits of Christ his Saviour. Recommended by him
(being a condemned prisoner for manslaughter within the statute) unto
his sister, and bequeathed unto her as a legacy." It is dated from
"Exon Jayle," June 25, 1653, and was published July 14, 1653."--ED.]

[Footnote 1: "Mr. Henry Cornish, merchant," was a coadjutor of Blake's in this charitable undertaking; and as that Alderman was not executed until 1635, this publication may be assigned to about that date.]

[Footnote 2: [It appears, from the following advertisement at the end of _Silver Drops_, that the plates of Time and Charity were used as receipts:--"It is humbly desired, that what you or any of you, most noble Ladies, Gentlewomen, or others, are pleased to bestow or give towards this good or great design, that you would be pleased to take a receipt on the backside of Time or Charity, sealed with three seales, namely, the Treasurer's, Housekeeper's, and Register's; and it shall be fairly recorded, and hung up in the school-house, to be read of all from Time to Time, to the world's end, we hope."--ED.]]

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A POEM BY SHELLEY, NOT IN HIS WORKS.

The following poem was published in a South Carolina newspaper in the year 1839. The person who communicates it states that it was among the papers of a deceased friend, in a small packet, endorsed "A letter and two poems written by Shelley the poet, and lent to me by Mr. Trelawney in 1823. I was prevented from returning them to him, for which I am sorry, since this is the only copy of them--they have never been published." Upon this poem was written, "Given to me by Shelley, who composed it as we were sailing one evening together."

UNEDA.

Philadelphia.

"_The Calm._

"Hush! hark! the Triton calls
From his hollow shell,
And the sea is as smooth as a well;
For the winds and the waves
In wild order form,
To rush to the halls
And the crystal-roof'd caves
Of the deep, deep ocean,
To hold consultation
About the next storm.

"The moon sits on the sky
Like a swan sleeping
On the stilly lake:
No wild breath to break
Her smooth _massy_ light
And _ruffle_ it into _beams:_

"The downy clouds droop
Like moss upon a tree;
And in the earth's bosom grope
Dim vapours and streams.
The darkness is weeping,
Oh, most silently!
Without audible sigh,
All is noiseless and bright.

"Still 'tis living silence here,
Such as fills not with fear.
Ah, do you not hear
A humming and purring
All about and about?
'Tis from souls let out,
From their day-prisons freed,
And joying in release,
For no slumber they need.

"Shining through this _veil of peace,_
Love now pours her omnipresence,
And various nature
Feels through every feature
The joy intense,
Yet so _passionless,_
Passionless and pure;
The human mind restless
Long could not endure.

"But hush while I tell,
As the _shrill whispers flutter_
Through the pores of the sea,--
Whatever they utter
I'll interpret to thee.
King Neptune now craves
Of his turbulent vassals
Their workings to quell;
And the billows are quiet,
_Though thinking on riot._
On the left and the right
In ranks they are coil'd up,
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Like snakes on the plain;
And each one has roll'd up
A bright flashing streak
Of the white moonlight
On his glassy green neck:
On every one's forehead
There glitters a star,
With a hairy train
Of light _floating from afar_,
And pale or fiery red.
Now old Eolus goes
To each muttering blast,
Scattering blows;
And some he binds fast
In hollow rocks vast,
And others he gags
With thick heavy foam.
'Twing them round
The sharp rugged crags
That are sticking out near,'
Growls he, 'for fear
They all should rebel,
And so play hell.'
Those that he bound,
Their prison-walls grasp,
And through the dark gloom
Scream fierce and yell:
While all the rest gasp,
In rage fruitless and vain.
Their shepherd now leaves them
To howl and to roar--
Of his presence bereaves them,
To feed some young breeze
On the violet odour,
And to teach it on shore
To rock the green trees.
But no more can be said
Of what was transacted
And what was enacted
In the heaving abodes
Of the great sea-gods."

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THE IMPOSSIBILITIES OF HISTORY.

In _The Tablet_ of June 18 is a leading article on the proposed erection of Baron Marochetti's statue of Richard Coeur de Lion. Theology and history are mixed: of course I shall carefully exclude the former. I have tried to trace the statements to their sources; and where I have failed, perhaps some of your readers may be able to help me.

"When the physicians told him that they could do nothing more for him,
and when his confessor had done his duty faithfully and with all
honesty, the stern old soldier commanded his attendants to take him off
the bed, and lay him naked on the bare floor. When this was done, he
then bade them take a discipline and scourge him with all their might.
This was the last command of their royal master; and in this he was
obeyed with more zeal than he found displayed when at the head of his
troops in Palestine."

I find no record that "the stern old soldier," who was then forty-two years of age, and whom the writer oddly calls Richard II., had any reason to complain of want of zeal in his troops. They fought well, and flogged well--if they flogged at all. Richard died of gangrene in the shoulder; and I have the authority of an eminent physician for saying, that gangrene, so near the vital parts, would produce such mental and bodily prostration, that it is highly improbable that the patient, unless in delirium, should give such an order, and impossible that he should live through its execution.

Hume and Lingard do not allude to the "discipline;" and the silence of the latter is important. Henry says:

"Having expressed great penitence for his vices, and having undergone a
very severe discipline from the hands of the clergy, who attended him
in his last moments," &c.--Vol. iii. p. 161. ed. 1777.

He cites Brompton, and there I find the penance given much stronger than in _The Tablet_:

"Praecepitque pedes sibi ligari, et in altum suspendi nudumque corpus
flagellis caedi et lacerari, donec ipse praeciperat ut silerent. Cumque
diu caederetur, ex praecepto, ad modicum siluerunt. Et spiritu iterum
reassumpto, hoc idem secundo ac tertio in abundantia sanguinis
compleverunt. Tamdiu in se revertens, afferri viaticum sibi jussit et
se velut proditorem et hostem, contra dominum suum ligatis pedibus fune
trahi."

This is taken from Brompton's Chronicle in _Decem Scriptores Historiae Anglicanae_, 1652, p. 1279., edited by Selden. As Brompton lived in the reign of Edward III., he is not a high authority upon any matter in that of Richard I. I cannot find any other. Hoveden and Knyghton are silent. Is the fact stated elsewhere? Hoveden states, and the modern historians follow him, that after the king's death, Marchader seized the archer, flayed him alive, and then hanged him. My medical authority says, that no man could be flayed _alive_: and that the most skilful operator could not remove the skin of one arm from the elbow to the wrist, before the patient would die from the shock to his system.

Mr. Riley, in a note on the passage in Hoveden, cites from the _Winchester Chronicle_ a possible account of Gurdum being tortured to death. The historian of _The Tablet_, in the same article, says:

"We are far from attributing absolute perfection to the son of Henry
II., one of that awful race popularly believed to be descended from the
devil. When Henry, as a boy, practising Whiggery by revolting against
his father, was presented to St. Bernard at the Court of the King of
France, the saint looked at him with a sort of terror, and said, 'From
the Devil you came, and to the Devil you will go.'"

The fact that Henry II. rebelled against his father is not given in any history which I have {73} read; and the popular belief in the remarkable descent of Henry, and consequently of our present royal family, is quite new to me, and to all of whom I have inquired. Still, finding that the writer had an authority for the "discipline," he may have one for the Devil. If so, I should like to know it; for I contemplate something after the example of Lucian's _Quomodo Historia sit conscribenda_.

H. B. C.

U. U. Club.

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"QUEM DEUS VULT PERDERE PRIUS DEMENTAT."

Having disposed of the allegation that the Greek Iambic,

"[Greek: hon theos thelei apolesai prot' apophrenai],"

was from Euripides, by denying the assertion, I am also, on farther investigation, compelled to deny to him also the authorship of the cited passage,--

"[Greek: hotan de Daimon andri porsunei kaka, ton noun eblapse
proton]."

Its first appearance is in Barnes, who quotes it from Athenagoras "sine auctoris nomine." Carmeli includes it with others, to which he prefixes the observation,--

"A me piacque come al Barnesio di porle per disteso, ed a canto
mettervi la traduzione in nostra favella, _senza entrare tratto tratto
in quistioni_ inutili, _se alcuni versi appartengano a Tragedia di
Euripide, o no_."

There is, then, no positive evidence of this passage having ever been attributed, by any competent scholar, to Euripides. Indirect proof that it could not have been written by him is thus shown:--In the Antigone of Sophocles (v. 620.) the chorus sings, according to Brunck,--

"[Greek: Sophiai gar ek tou]
[Greek: kleinon epos pephantai;]
[Greek: To kakon dokein pot' esthlon]
[Greek: toid' emmen, hotoi phrenas]
[Greek: theos agei pros atan;]
[Greek: prassein d' oligoston chronon ektos atas]."

"For a splendid saying has been revealed by the wisdom of _some one_:
That evil appears to be good to him whose mind God leads to
destruction; _but that he (God) practises this a short time without
destroying such a one_."

Now, had Barnes referred to the scholiast on the Antigone, or remembered at the time the above-cited passage, he would either not have omitted the conclusion of his distich, or he would at once have seen that a passage quoted as "[Greek: ek tou], _of some one_," by Sophocles, seventeen years the senior of Euripides, could not have been the original composition of his junior competitor. The conclusion of the distich is thus given by the old scholiast:

"[Greek: hotan d' ho Daimon andri porsunei kaka,]
[Greek: ton noun eblapse proton hoi BOULEUETAI]."

The words "when he wills it" being left out by Barnes and Carmeli, but which correspond with the last line of the quotation from Sophocles. The old scholiast introduces the exact quotation referred to by Sophocles as "a celebrated (notorious, [Greek: aoidimon]) and splendid saying, revealed by the wisdom of _some one_, [Greek: meta sophias gar hupo tinos]."

Indeed, the sentiment must have been as old as Paganism, wherein, whilst all _voluntary_ acts are attributed to the individual, all _involuntary_ ones are ascribed to the Deity. Even _sneezing_ was so considered: hence the phrase common in the lower circles in England, "Bless us," and in a higher grade in Germany, "Gott segne euch," which form the usual chorus to a sneeze.

The other scholiast, Triclinius, explains the passage of Sophocles by saying, "The gods lead to error ([Greek: blaben]) him whom they intend to make miserable ([Greek: dustuchein]): hence the application to Antigone, who considers death as sweet."

T. J. BUCKTON.

Lichfield.

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SHAKSPEARE CORRESPONDENCE.

_A Passage in "The Taming of the Shrew."_--Perhaps I mistake it, but MR. C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY seems to me to write in a tone as if he fancied I should be unwilling to answer his questions, whether public or private. Although I am not personally acquainted with him, we have had some correspondence, and I must always feel that a man so zealous and intelligent is entitled to the best reply I can afford. I can have no hesitation in informing him that, in preparing what he terms my "monovolume Shakspeare," I pursued this plan throughout; I adopted, as my foundation, the edition in eight volumes octavo, which I completed in 1844; that was "formed from an entirely new collation of the old editions," and my object there was to give the most accurate representation of the text of the folios and quartos. Upon that stock I engrafted the manuscript alterations in my folio 1632, in every case in which it seemed to me possible that the old corrector might be right--in short, wherever two opinions could be entertained as to the reading: in this way my text in the "monovolume Shakspeare" was "regulated by the old copies, and by the recently discovered folio of 1632."

MR. INGLEBY will see that in the brief preface to the "monovolume Shakspeare," I expressly say that "while a general similarity (to the folio 1632) has been preserved, care has been taken _to rectify the admitted mistakes of the early impression_, and to introduce such alterations of a corrupt and imperfect text, as were warranted by better authorities. Thus, while the new readings of the old corrector of the folio 1632, considerably exceeding a thousand, are duly inserted in the places {74} to which they belong, the old readings, which, during the last century and a half, have recommended themselves for adoption, and have been derived from a comparison of ancient printed editions, have also been incorporated." I do not know how I could have expressed myself with greater clearness; and it was merely for the sake of distinctness that I referred to the result of my own labours in 1842, 1843, and 1844, during which years my eight volumes octavo were proceeding through the press. Those labours, it will be seen, essentially contributed to lighten my task in preparing the "monovolume Shakspeare."

My answer respecting the passage in _The Taming of the Shrew_, referred to by MR. INGLEBY, will, I trust, be equally satisfactory; it shall be equally plain.

I inserted _ambler_, because it is the word substituted in manuscript in the margin of my folio 1632. I adopted _mercatante_, as proposed by Steevens, not only because it is the true Italian word, but because it exactly fits the place in the verse, _mercatant_ (the word in the folios) being a syllable short of the required number. In the very copy of Florio's _Italian Dictionary_, which I bought of Rodd at the time when I purchased my folio 1632, I find _mercatante_ translated by the word "marchant," "marter," and "trader," exactly the sense required. Then, as to "surely" instead of _surly_, I venture to think that "surely" is the true reading:

"In gait and countenance surely like a father."

"Surely like a father" is certainly like a father; and although a man may be _surly_ in his "countenance," I do not well see how he could be _surly_ in his "gait;" besides, what had occurred to make the pedant _surly_? This appears to me the best reason for rejecting _surly_ in favour of "surely;" but I have another, which can hardly be refused to an editor who professes to follow the old copies, where they are not contradicted. I allude to the folio 1628, where the line stands precisely thus:

"In gate and countenance surely like a Father."

The folio 1632 misprinted "surely" _surly_, as, in _Julius Caesar_, Act I. Sc. 3., it committed the opposite blunder, by misprinting "surly" _surely_. Another piece of evidence, to prove that "surely" was the poet's word in _The Taming of the Shrew_, has comparatively recently fallen in my way; I did not know of its existence in 1844, or it would have been of considerable use to me. It is a _unique_ quarto of the play, which came out some years before the folio 1623, and is not to be confounded with the quarto of _The Taming of the Shrew_, with the date of 1631 on the title-page. This new authority has the line exactly as it is given in the folio 1623, which, in truth, was printed from it. It is now before me.

J. PAYNE COLLIER.

July 10.

_Critical Digest of various Readings in the Works of Shakspeare._--There is much activity in the literary world just now about the text of Shakspeare: but one most essential work, in reference to that text, still remains to be performed,--I mean, the publication of a complete digest of _all_ the various readings, in a concise shape, such as those which we possess in relation to the MSS. and other editions of nearly every classical author.

At present, all editions of Shakspeare which claim to be considered critical, contain much loose information on readings, mixed up with notes (frequently very diffuse) on miscellaneous topics. This is not in the least what we require: we need a regular _digest_ of readings, wholly distinct from long debates about their value.

What I mean will be plain to any one who is familiar with any good critical edition of the Greek New Testament, or with such books as Gaisford's _Herodotus_, the Berlin _Aristotle_, the Zurich _Plato_, and the like. We ought to have, first, a good text of Shakspeare: such as may represent, as fairly as possible, the real results of the labours of the soundest critics; and, secondly, page by page, at the foot of that text, the following particulars:

I. All the readings of the folios, which should be cited as A, B, C, and D.

II. All the readings of the quartos, which might be cited separately in each play that possesses them, either as a, b, c, d; or as 1, 2, 3, and 4.

III. A succinct summary of all the respectable criticisms, in the way of conjecture, on the text. This is especially needed. The recent volumes of Messrs. Collier, Singer, and Dyce, show that even editors of Shakspeare scarcely know the history of all the emendations. Let their precise _pedigree_ be in the last case recorded with the most absolute brevity; simply the _suggestion_, and the names of its proposers and adopters.

IV. To simplify this last point, a new siglation might be introduced to denote the various critical editions.

Such a publication should be kept distinct from any commentary; especially from one laid out in the broad flat style of modern editors. Mr. Collier's volume of _Emendations_, &c., for instance, need not have occupied half its present space, if he had first denoted his MS. corrector by some short symbol, instead of by a lengthy phrase; and, secondly, introduced his suggestions by some such formularies as those employed in classical criticisms, instead of toiling laboriously after variations in his style of expression, till we are wearied by the real iteration which lies under the seeming diversity.

There should be none of this _phrasework_ in the digest which I recommend. If indeed it were found absolutely necessary to connect it with a commentary, then arrange the two portions of the {75} apparatus as in Arnold's edition of _Thucydides_: the _variae lectiones_ in the middle of the page, and the comment in a different type below it. But I repeat, it would be better still to give us the digest _without_ the comment. All would go into one large volume. And it cannot be doubted that such a volume, if thoroughly well done, would furnish at once a sort of _textus receptus_, and a critical basis, from which future editors might commence their labours. It would also be an indispensable book of reference to all who treat of, or are interested in, the poet's text. Such, I say, would be its certain prospects if the editor were at once an accurate, painstaking scholar, and a man of true poetical feeling. The labour would be great, but so would be the reward. It is only what the ablest scholars have proudly undertaken for the classics, even in the face of toils far more severe. Would that Mr. Dyce could be roused to attempt it!

B.

[Some such edition as that alluded to by our correspondent has been
long desired and contemplated. A proposal in connexion with it has been
afloat for some time past, and we had hoped would have been publicly
made in our pages before now. There are difficulties in the way which
do not exist in the parallel instances from classical literature, and
which do not seem to have occurred to our correspondent; but the
project is in good hands, and we hope will soon be brought to
bear.--ED.]

_Emendations of Shakspeare._--I am sadly afraid, what with one annotator and another, that we, in a very little time, shall have Shakspeare so modernised and weeded of his peculiarities, that he will become a very second-rate sort of a person indeed; for I now see with no little alarm, that one of his most delightful quaintnesses is to give way to the march of refinement, and be altogether ruined. Hazlitt, one the most original and talented of critics, has somewhere said, that there was not in any passage of Shakspeare any single word that could be changed to one more appropriate, and as an instance he gives a passage from _Macbeth_, which certainly is one of the most perfect and beautiful to be found in the whole of his works:

"This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
Unto our gentle senses.
This guest of summer,
The temple-haunting martlet, does approve
By his loved mansionry, that the heaven's breath
Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze, buttress,
Nor coin of vantage, but this bird hath made
His pendent bed, and procreant cradle: where they
Most breed and haunt, I have observed, the air
Is delicate."

There are some who differ from Hazlitt in the present day, and assert that there is an error in the press in Dogberry's reproof of Borachio for calling him an "ass." The passage as it stands is as follows:

"I am a wise fellow; and which is more, an officer, and which is more,
a _householder_, and which is more, as pretty a piece of flesh as any
is in Messina, and one that knows the law, go to; and a rich fellow
enough, go to; and a fellow that hath had _losses_, and one that hath
two gowns, and everything handsome about him."

His having had losses evidently meaning, though he was then poor, that his circumstances were at one time so prosperous, that he could afford to _bear_ losses; and he, even then, had a superfluity of wardrobe in "two gowns, and everything handsome about him." But this little word _losses_, the perfect Shakspearian quaintness of which is universally acknowledged, is to be changed into _leases_; if it should be _leases_, how is it that it does not follow upon "householder," instead of being introduced so many words after? as, if _leases_ were the proper word, it would assuredly have suggested itself immediately as an additional item to his respectability as a householder: for a moment only fancy similar corrections to be introduced in others of Shakspeare's plays, and Falstaff be made to exclaim at the robbery at Gad's Hill, "Down with them, they dislike us old men," instead of "they hate us youth;" for Falstaff was no boy at the time, and this might be advanced as an authority for the emendation. But seriously, if this alteration is sent forth as a specimen of the improvements about to be effected in Shakspeare, from an edition of his plays lately discovered, I shall, for one, deeply regret that it was ever rescued front its oblivion; for with my prejudices and prepossessions against interpolations, and in favour of old readings, I shall find it no easy matter to reconcile my mind to the new. Strip history of its romance, and you deprive it of its principal charm; the scenery of a play-house imposes upon us an illusion, and though we know it to be so, it is not essential that the impression should be removed. I remember once travelling at night in Norfolk, and a part of my way was through a wood, at the end of which I came upon a lake lit up by a magnificent moon. I subsequently went the same road by day: the wood, I then found, was a mere belt of trees, and the lake had dwindled to a duck-pond. I have ever since wished that the first impression had remained unchanged; but this is a digression. There is no author so universal as Shakspeare, and would that be the case if he was not thoroughly understood? He is appreciated alike in the closet and on the stage, quoted by saints and sages, in the pulpit and the senate, and your nostrum-monger advertises his wares with a quotation from his pages; does he then require interpreting who is his own interpreter? Johnson says of him that--

"Panting Time toil'd after him in vain."

{76} And that he--

"Exhausted worlds and then imagined new."

There is no passion that he has not pourtrayed, and laid bare in its beauty or deformity; no feeling or affection to which his genius has not given the stamp of immortality: and does he want an interpreter? It is treading on dangerous ground to attempt to improve him. Even MR. KNIGHT, enthusiast as he is in his veneration for Shakspeare, and who, by his noble editions of the poet's works, has won the admiration and secured the gratitude of every lover of the poet, has gone too far in his emendations when he changes a line in _Romeo and Juliet_ from

"Hence will I to my ghostly father's cell."

to

"Hence will I to my ghostly friar's close cell."

As in the latter case the line will not scan unless the word "friar" be reduced to a monosyllable, which, on reflection, I think MR. KNIGHT will be inclined to admit. But my paper is, I fear, extending to a limit beyond which you have occasionally warned your correspondents not to go, and I must therefore draw my remarks to a close, with a hope that not any offence will be taken where none is intended by those to whom any of my observations may apply.

GEORGE BLINK.

Canonbury.

* * * * *

"THE DANCE OF DEATH."

Amongst the numerous emblematic works, it has often appeared to me that the above work should be republished entire; to give any part of it would be spoiling a most admirable series. I should desire to see it executed not as a fac-simile, but improved by good modern artists. The history of "The Dance of Death" is too long and too obscure to enter upon here; but from the general tenor of the accounts and criticisms of the work, it does not appear to have originated at all with Hans Holbein, or even his father, who also really painted it at Basil, in Switzerland, but to have had its origin in more remote times, as quoted in several authors, that anciently monasteries usually had a painted representation of a Death's Dance upon the walls. It is a subject, therefore, open to any artist, nor could it be said he had pirated anything if he treated the subject after his own fashion. "The Dance of Death" begins of course with king, the queen, the bishop, the lawyer, the lovers, &c., and ends with the child, whom Death is leading away from the weeping mother. The original plates of Hollar, from Holbein's drawings, are possibly still extant, but they are by no means perfect, although admirable in expression. The deaths or skeletons are very ill-drawn as to the anatomical structure, and were they better the work would be excellent. The Death lugging off the fat abbot is inimitable; and the gallant way he escorts the lady abbess out the convent door is very good. I have the engravings by Hollar, and have made some of the designs afresh, intending to lithograph them at some future day; but there being thirty subjects in all, the work would be a difficult task. Mr. J. B. Yates might, indeed, with his excellent collection of Emblemata, revive this old and beautiful taste now in abeyance: it is now rarely practised by our painters. There is, however, a very fine picture in the Royal Academy Exhibition, by Mr. Goodall, which is, strictly speaking, an emblem, though the artist calls it an historical episode. Now it appears to me an episode cannot be reduced into a representation; it might embrace a complete picture in writing, but as I read the picture it is an emblem, and would have been still more perfect had the painter treated it accordingly. The old man at the helm of the barge might well represent Strafford, because, though he holds the tiller, he is not engaged in steering right, his eyes are not directed to his port. Charles himself, rightly enough, has his back to the port, and is truly not engaged in manly affairs, nor attending to his duty; but the sentiment of frivolity here painted cannot, I should say, attach itself to him, for he is not to be reproached with idling away his time with women and children, as this more strictly must be laid to his son. But the port where some grim-looking men are seriously waiting for him, completes a very happy and poetical idea, but incomplete as an emblem, which it really is; and were the emblematic rules more cultivated, it would have told its story much better.

At present, the taste of the day lies in more direct caricature, and our volatile friend _Punch_ does the needful in his wicked sallies of wit, and his fertile pencil. His sharp rubs are perhaps more effective to John Bull's temper, who can take a blow with Punch's truncheon and bear no malice after it,--the heavy lectures of the ancients are not so well suited to his constitution.

WELD TAYLOR.

Bayswater.

* * * * *

Minor Notes.

_Old Lines newly revived._--The old lines of spondees and dactyls are just now applicable:--

C[=o]nt[=u]rb[=a]b[=a]nt[=u]r C[=o]nst[=a]nt[=i]n[=o]p[)o]l[)i]t[=a]n[=i]
Inn[)u]m[)e]r[=a]b[)i]l[)i]b[=u]s s[=o]l[)i]c[)i]t[=u]d[)i]n[)i]b[=u]s."

W. COLLYNS.

Harlow.

_Inscription near Cirencester._--In Earl Bathurst's park, near Cirencester, stands a building--the resort in the summer months of occasional pic-nic parties. During one of these visits, at which I {77} was present, I copied an inscription, painted in old characters on a board, and nailed to one of the walls, and as the whole thing had not the appearance of belonging to modern times, and, as far as I could decipher it, it referred to some agreement between Alfred and some of his neighbouring brother kings, concerning boundaries of territory, I send it to you for insertion.

A. SMITH.

[cross] "FOEDVS . QUOD . AELFREDVS . ET . LVTHRVNVS . REGES . OMNES .
ANGLIAM . INTOLEBANT . ORIENTALEM . FERIERVNT . ET . NON . SOLVM . DE .
SEIPSIS . VERVM . ETIAM . DE . NATIS . SVIS . AC . NONDVM . IN . LVCEM
. EDITIS . QVOTQVOT . MISERICORDIAE . DIVINAE . AVT . REGIAE . VELVNT .
ESSE . PARTICIPES . JVREJVRANDO . SANXERVNT." [cross]

[cross] "PRIMO . DITIONIS . NOSTRAE . FINES . TAMESIN . EVEHVNTOR .
INDE . LEAM . VSQVE . FONTEM . EJVS . TAM . RECTA . AD . BEDFORDIAM .
AC . DENIQVE . PER . VSAM . AD . VIAM . VETE . LINTIANAM."

_Wordsworth._--In Wordsworth's touching "Lament of Mary Queen of Scots," one of the stanzas opens with:

"_Born all too high; by wedlock rais'd_
_Still higher_, to be brought thus low!"

Is it straining a point to suppose that the author has here translated the opening words of the well-known epitaph on the Empress Matilda, mother of our Henry II.?

"_Ortu magna; viro major_; sed maxima prole;
Hic jacet Henrici filia, sponsa, parens."

A. W.

Sunningdale.

"_Magna est Veritas et praevalebit._"--I was asked the other day whence came this hackneyed quotation. It is taken from the uncanonical Scriptures, 3 Esdras iv. 41.:

"Et desiit loquendo: Et omnes populi clamaverunt, et dixerunt: Magna
est veritas, et _praevalet_."

T. H. DE H.

"_Putting your Foot into it._"--The legitimate origin of this term I have seen thus explained. Perhaps it may pass as correct until a better be found. According to the _Asiatic Researches_, a very curious mode of trying the title to land is practised in Hindostan. Two holes are dug in the disputed spot, in each of which the lawyers on either side put one of their legs, and remain there until one of them is tired, or complains of being stung by insects, in which case his client is defeated. An American writer has remarked that in the United States it is generally the _client_, and not the _lawyer_, "who puts his foot in it."

W. W.

Malta.

* * * * *

Queries.

FRAGMENTS OF MSS.

Dr. Maitland, in his valuable volume on the "Dark Ages," has the following remarks on a subject which I think has not met with the attention it deserves:

"Those who are in the habit of looking at such things, know how
commonly early printed books, whose binding has undergone the
analytical operation of damp, or mere old age, disclose the under end
pieces of beautiful and ancient manuscript. They know how freely
parchment was used for backs and bands, and fly-leaves, and even for
covers. The thing is so common, that those who are accustomed to see
old books _have ceased to notice it_."

In order to come within the design of your pages, I must put this in the shape of a Query, and ask, if it is not a pity that this fact has _ceased to be noticed_? We do not know what treasures may be contained in the shabby covers which we contemplate getting rid of. "There are thousands" (of MSS.), says the same writer, "equally destroyed,--thousands of murdered wretches not so completely annihilated: their ghosts do walk the earth; they glide unseen into our libraries, our studies, our very hands; they are all about and around us. We even take them up and lay them down, without knowing of their existence; unless time and damp (as if to punish and mock us for robbing them of their prey) have loosed their bonds, and set them to confront us."

Archbishop Tenison had not "ceased to notice it." He very diligently rescued these "fragments" from the hands of his bookbinder and it is to be regretted that he did not take equal precaution in preserving them. Recently, all that I could collect have been cleaned, inlaid, and arranged chronologically, making two interesting and valuable volumes.

How far would it be desirable to unite for the purpose of collecting MS. fragments, and early printed leaves?

Might not a Society, which should have for its especial object the _discovery_, cataloguing, and circulating information about these stray bits, be of great service? _E. g._ I have before me five volumes of Justinian's _Codices_ and _Digesta_, Paris, 1526; the covers of which are made of MS. Thirteen leaves go to make one board. They are written on both sides and thus an easy multiplication gives us 260 pages of MS., or early printing, in the covers of one work!

It is not unlikely that, if the results of research in this direction were carefully registered, many perfect pieces might be recovered.

PHILIP HALE.

Archbishop Tenison's Library, St. Martin-in-the-Fields.

* * * * *

{78}

THE ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH.

I have just met with a passage in the _Pseudodoxia Epidemica_ of Sir Thomas Browne, wherein this invention is foreshadowed in terms more remarkable and significant, if less imaginative and beautiful, than that from _The Spectator_, to which public attention has already been directed, and which, I conceive, must unquestionably have been written, with this particular example of the "received tenets and commonly presumed truths" of the learned physician's day, distinctly present to the mind of Addison. The passage referred to is as follows:

"There is another conceit of better notice, and _whispered thorow the
world_ with some attention; credulous and vulgar auditors readily
believing it, and more judicious and distinctive heads not altogether
rejecting it. The conceit is excellent, and, if the effect would
follow, somewhat divine: whereby we might communicate like spirits, and
confer on earth with Menippus in the moon. And this is pretended from
the sympathy of two needles touched with the same loadstone, and placed
in the centre of two abecedary circles, or rings with letters described
round about them, one friend keeping one, and another the other, and
agreeing upon the hour wherein they will communicate. For then, _saith
tradition_, at what distance of place soever, when one needle shall be
removed unto any letter, the other, by a wonderful sympathy, will move
unto the same."--Book II. chap. ii, 4to., 1669, p. 77.

Thus it is that "coming events cast their shadows before:" and, in the present case, one is curious to learn how far back the _shadow_ may be traced. By whom has this _conceit_ been _whispered thorow the world_? and in what musty tomes is that _tradition_ concealed, which speaks concerning it? Kircher's _Catena Magnetica_ might haply tell us something in reply to these inquiries.

In conformity with an often repeated suggestion to the correspondents of "N. & Q.," to the simple signature of my _habitat_, alone hitherto adopted by me, I now subjoin my name.

WM. MATTHEWS.

Cowgill.

* * * * *

Minor Queries.

_Sir Walter Raleigh._--In the discussions on the copyright question some years ago, Sir Walter Raleigh was mentioned as one of the authors whose posterity is totally extinct; but in his Life, as given in _Lodge's Portraits_, his descendants are given as far down as his great-grandchildren, of whom many were still living in 1699, at which period, says Mr. Lodge, my information ceases. It seems unlikely that a family then so numerous should have utterly perished since, both in its male and female branches; and perhaps some of your correspondents may be able to trace their subsequent history: the _name_ is certainly not extinct, whether its bearers be his descendants or not.

Is the gallant Sir Walter Raleigh Gilbert descended from one of Sir Walter's half-brothers?

J. S. WARDEN.

_Ancient Fortifications: Hertstone, Pale, Brecost._--In the Clause Rolls, 16 John, M. 6. (_Public Records_, vol. i. p. 192.) is a warrant of King John's, addressed to the bailiffs of Peter de Maulay of Doncaster, as follows:

"Mandam' vob' q[=d] villa de Danecast[=r] claudi faciatis heritone et
palo sc[=d]m q[=d] fossatu f[=cm] exigit, et una leve bretasca fi
faciatis su[p=] ponte ad villa defendenda."

Which, in Miller's History of that town (p. 40.), is thus translated:

"We command ye, cause the town of Doncaster to be inclosed with
_hertstone_ and _pale_, according as the ditch that is made doth
require; and that ye make a light _brecost_ or barbican upon the
bridge, to defend the town."

I shall be obliged by being informed if _hertstone_ is the correct translation of the word "heritone," and, if so, what species of fortification it was. _Pale_ is probably a defence composed of high wooden stakes. _Brecost_ is questionable, I imagine, and should most likely be spelt _bretesk_ or _bretex_. I shall be glad, however, of explanations of the words.

C. J.

_Newton and Somers._--It has been said that there is a complimentary allusion to Somers in Newton's writings. Where?

M.

_Daventry, Duel at._--

"Veni Daintreo cum puella,
Procerum celebre duello."

"Thence to Daintree with my jewel,
Famous for a noble duel."--_Drunken Barnaby's Journal._

Can any Northamptonshire reader of "N. & Q." say between whom, and when, this duel took place?

J. H. L.

_Passage in Burial Service._--Whence comes the expression in the Burial Service, "In the midst of life we are in death." I have observed that Mr. Palmer, in his _Origines Liturgicae_, refers for a parallel passage to ancient liturgies, but, if I mistake not, to none but those used in England. The passage is very scriptural: but I do not believe it exists in the Bible.

J. G. T.

"_They shot him on the nine-stane rig._"--Where is the ballad beginning with the words--

"They shot him on the nine-stane rig,
Beside the headless cross."

to be found? Who is the author?

BORDERER.

_Wardhouse, and Fishermen's Custom there._--In a MS. local history, written in 1619, there is this {79} passage: "They bought herrings during the season, and then departed, _as those fishermen which kill fish at Wardhouse do use to do at present_."

Where was Wardhouse, and what was the custom there?