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an ancestor of the poet? The date is March 3, 1381. HERMENTRUde.

from Hogarth, designs for needlework on flower stands, and other similar subjects. These reproductions have been coloured by hand, and in the case of some plates TIGHTEN: BRIM (7th S. ii. 268).—Tightly is used heightened with gold and silver. No fewer than twentyin Essex in the sense mentioned by ALNUS. See Mr. Jacobean, the European, the Gentleman's, the Monthly four magazines, including the Annual Register, the AntiBaring-Gould's powerful little story Golden Fea-Mirror, and the Satirist, with many others the very titles ther' (S.P.C.K., 1886), where "tiffling toightly" is explained as meaning "drizzling, slopping rain." EDWARD H. MARSHALL, M.A.

Hastings.

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Conf. A.-S. tihtan and brym. See Lye's 'Dict.' R. S. CHARNOCK.

JOHN DYER (6th S. xii. 424; 7th S. ii. 107, 198, 238).-In my copy of the poems (1761), under the name of the author, is written: "Whose only Daughter Elizabeth Dr. John Gaunt my relation married. (Signed) M. GAUNT." John Gaunt, M.A., was lecturer at St. Martin's, Birmingham, in 1769 (Watt). It is a mistake to describe the lady as an only daughter.

S. R., F.R.S.

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The Follies and Fashions of our Grandfathers, 1807. Embellished with 37 Whole-Page Plates. By Andrew W. Tuer. (Field & Tuer.)

A

SELDOM has an introduction so modest and yet, in one sense, so disappointing as that of Mr. Tuer ushered in a work with claims upon attention stronger than those of his Fashions and Follies of our Grandfathers.' Two or three pages of pleasant gossip concerning the sources whence the materials have been taken are followed by the statement that as "introductions are not usually read "(!) the "half-forgotten odds and ends relating to the manners and methods of our grandfathers" which Mr. Tuer had collected have been struck out of the work, and with the initials A. W. T. and a device representing a bottle of paste and a pair of scissors the preliminary matter ends. Not easy is it fully to describe a volume of singular interest which is also one of the most richly ornamented works issued from the English press. bibliographical rarity it must necessarily become, and the reader, especially if he be, as he is likely to be, a purchaser also, may fancy during perusal the keen competition which in future days is safe to arrive. So sparing of information is Mr. Tuer we are not quite sure that we grasp his scheme. Beginning with the year, he gives us in twelve monthly parts a species of magazine for 1807, the materials for which are taken wholly from genuine magazines of that period. The product thus obtained he christens The Follies and Fashions of our Grandfathers.' Each number contains three superb reproductions of and improvements upon the old-fashioned plates. Of these three embellishments," one consists of a glorified fashion plate from Le Beau Monde or some other magazine of the kind; a second is not seldom a portrait of some celebrity of the day, Lord Byron, Wordsworth, Lady Hamilton, or King George III.; while the third plate gives coaching or hunting scenes, reproductions

of which are now forgotten, have been laid under contribution. Sufficiently miscellaneous are the contents. Now we find fashionable gossip and scandal such as since in a more diluted form has established the fortunes of "society" papers, now the advertisement of a matrimonial agent, and again a review of Wordsworth's 'Poems in Two Volumes,' in which his poetry is described as drivelling nonsense. A strange piece of information ie that "our young bucks of distinction, not content with their enormous whiskers, have mounted the tory to find that the ladies, who at first affected a dislike Jewish (!) mustachio on the upper lip." It is satisfacto the novelty, become reconciled. Boxing challenges and records of walking matches, obituary notices, fashions and observations on dress make up a number. Among special notices are an account of the dreadful accident which on Monday, Feb. 23, 1807, attended at Newgate the execution of John Holloway, Owen Haggerty, and Elizabeth Godfrey for murder. In this thirty to forty people were crushed to death. In a sale of pictures at Christie's a Rubens sells for 950 guineas. A small tract of eight pages containing a life af Glascoign (sic) was knocked down at auction for "forty guineas." This is not quite exact. The work in question, The Remembravnce of the wel-imployed Life and Godly End of George Gaskoigne, Esquire,' by George Whetstone, sold in December, 1806, for 427. 10s. 6d. It consisted, however, of thirteen pages, not eight, in black letter. In a review of his Ballads and Lyrical Pieces,' Walter Scott is told that his compilation is “discreditable," and that an Italian improvisatore would have been ashamed to speak so unmetrically. Acting in Bath, including the performances of the Infant Roscius, Egerton, Elliston, &c., is described; and an advertisement of lottery tickets and even a piece of music, 'L'Amour Timide,' the words by a Lady of Distinction, the music by P. Corri, are given. The entire contents are very varied and amusing; and the plates, especially the reproduction of pictures by Romney of Lady Hamilton, Cassandra, and Miranda, are of highest interest. Some of the designs are in colour, the introduction is in red ink, and the binding, end papers, and marking string are equally novel and striking.

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A History of Parliamentary Elections and Electioneering in the Old Days. By Joseph Grego. (Chatto & Windus.)

SLOWLY but surely the knowledge has spread that among the most trustworthy sources of historical information must be reckoned political caricatures. So recently as the present volume of N. & Q.' the opinion has been put forward that a collection of Punch will be a peculiar boon to the future historian of modern days. More than one important collection of caricatures has been issued by Mr. Grego, who, exploring again in familiar mines, has chosen to write from lampoon, squib, pictorial satire, and popular caricatures, a history of Parliamentary elections and electioneering. Practic ally the history begins, so far as pictorial illustrations are concerned, with the eighteenth century. Little is known concerning early Parliaments, which are the subject of the first chapter. Public interest in Parliaments and elections had not descended to the complaining classes, and the melancholy burden of medieval literature, in its perpetual wail, takes little cognizance of the proceed

inga at elections or of the influence of Parliament. Skelton, in Renaissance times, translated into English verse a French poem, "En Parlement à Paris,' in which the old burden is renewed. This, as it is foreign to the

Notices to Correspondents.

We must call special attention to the following notices:
ON all communications must be written the name and

subject, Mr. Grego does not quote. It is worth supply address of the sender, not necessarily for publication, but ing, however, and is as follows:

Justice est morte et verité sommeille,

Droit et raison sont allez aux pardons; Les deux premiers, nul ne les resueille, Et les derniers sont corrompus pardons. 6: gone Of the two "pardons" the first obviously means on a pilgrimage," for which the term pardons was once used; but the second is a calembour on par dons, by gift. For the Stuart period, the later portion especially, abundant material is supplied in the satires of Marvell and other writers in that remarkable medley' The State Poems,' and in the collection of ballads now in course of republication under the care of the Rev. J. W. Ebsworth. Liberal use of this material is made. In 1701, however, the first plate is given, and then for the first time the "humours" of elections can be traced. The earliest illustration is from Robin's Progress' (in Dr. Newton's collection), and shows the chairing of Walpole. A second, of later date, from the same collection, shows "The Prevailing Candidate; or, the Election carried by Bribery and the D-1." Others similar in spirit follow, and include a view of the Kentish election, 1734. In following years skits of the kind multiplied. Few of them had, however, any artistic merit until the appearance of Hogarth, several of whose designs are reproduced. In the period of "Wilkes and Liberty" the numerous and more venomous. plates become more Rowlandson's caricatures constitute a class in themselves, and are, of course, largely used. Gillray follows; his bitter satire, "The Pacific Entrance of Earl Wolf [Lord Lonsdale] into Blackhaven [Whitehaven]," being given in a folding plate. G. and R. Cruikshank come next, and the illustrators wind up, allowing for the coloured frontispiece, which is dated 1853, with plates by H. B. and by G. Seymour. To these designs, many of them spirited and all interesting, Mr. Grego has supplied letterpress which combines them into an entertaining whole. The book is likely, accordingly, to be popular as well as useful.

MISS INGLEBY is collecting for publication all her father's short poems, including those he set to music, and will be greatly obliged if those who possess any such will send her copies. Miss Ingleby's address is Valentines, Ilford, Essex.

THE second and third volumes of the Obituary Notices to the Gentleman's Magazine' (1781-1872) is being rapidly prepared for press. The copy is undergoing a most critical revision, to prevent any errors We also understand that Mr. Farrar is creeping in. about to issue shortly by subscription the index to the births and marriages for the whole period (1781-1872).

MR. FRANCIS GRIGSON, who died at his residence, 45, Alma Square, St. John's Wood, N.W., on Sept. 25, aged thirty-four, was a younger son of the late Rev. William Grigson, Rector of Whinbergh and Westfield, Norfolk, who was an indefatigable genealogist. Inheriting his father's tastes, Mr. Grigson relinquished the commercial training which he had commenced at Lloyd's Bank, in Birmingham, in order that he might adopt as a profession that with which he had for several years occupied himself as a pastime. Mr. Grigson worked con amore, and will long be remembered as an accurate and industrious genealogist, whose skill in overcoming the difficulties which form the charm of genealogical pursuits was of a very high order.

as a guarantee of good faith.

WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately.

To secure insertion of communications correspondents must observe the following rule. Let each note, query, or reply be written on a separate slip of paper, with the signature of the writer and such address as he wishes to appear. Correspondents who repeat queries are requested to head the second communication "Duplicate." G. W. SMEDELY ("Heraldic Seal"). The plainquartered coat, with motto "Fidelis esto," on the seal enclosed, is that of Fairfax of Walton, quartering Malbis or Malbys. Malbis is marshalled second, i.e., as the first quartering, in the coat of Sir Nicholas Fairfax of Walton in Constable's Roll, 1558, printed with Tonge's Visitation of Yorkshire,' 1530 (Surtees Soc.), the relative blazon being, "1. Arg., three bars gemelles, II. Arg., a chev. between over all a lion ramp. sa. A pedigree of Sir three hinds' heads erased gu.' Nicholas is entered in Tonge's Vis.,' p. 57. The Malbis coat is marshalled as fourth by Fairfax of Oglethorpe, Dugdale, Vis. Yorkshire,' 1665-6 (Surtees Soc.), p. 8, where the founder of the Oglethorpe line, Henry Fairfax, second son of the first Lord Fairfax of Cameron, is erroneously described by Dugdale as "son of the first Viscount Fairfax of Cameron, 1640," both the rank in the peerage and the date of creation being wrong. Henry, son of Henry of Oglethorpe, succeeded as fourth Lord Fairfax, 1671. On p. 232 of Dugdale's' Visitation,' the Malbis coat is similarly borne by Fairfax of Mersington, descended of Charles, there rightly described as "the first Baron Fairfax of Cameron, the third son of cr. 3 Car. I." The Malbis alliance does not appear in the ordinary printed pedigrees of Fairfax of Walton, or of Lord Fairfax. Its position in the coat of the Walton family would indicate an early date for it. The Malbis coat is given in Burke's 'Gen. Armory,' 1878, s. v. "Malbys," but without any county or date, and no crest is assigned either in Burke or Fairbairn. K. P. D. E.

Rede me, and be not wrothe,

For I speke nothynge but trothe.
These lines are the title of a satire against Cardinal
Wolsey by William Roy, printed in 1526.

CHAS. RAINE ("Breeches Bible, 1560").-Copies of this have sold for sums varying from 71, 17s. 6d. to 291. 10s. Everything depends upon the questions of completeness and condition.

GREVILLE WALPOLE ("Boot and Saddle").-Antici pated. See 6th S. iii. 86.

JAS. MACAULAY ("Johnsoniana").—Already appeared.
See 6th S. xii. 393.

D. VALE ("Le Dreigh and Ledenton Families ").—
Appeared. See 7th S. ii, 27.
F. D. L. ("Jack and Jill ").-These are the names of
measures. See 1st S. vii. 325.
CORRIGENDA.-P. 239, col. 1, 1. 20, for "Button" read
P. 298, col. 2, 1. 13, for "blacking" read

Britton. bleaching.

NOTICE.

Editorial Communications should be addressed to "The Editor of Notes and Queries'"-Advertisements and Business Letters to "The Publisher"-at the Office, 22, Took's Court, Cursitor Street, Chancery Lane, E.C.

We beg leave to state that we decline to return communications which, for any reason, we do not print; and to this rule we can make no exception.

LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1886.

CONTENTS.-N° 43.

NOTES:-The Count's Daughter, 321-Cherubim, 323-Dic-
tionary of National Biography,' 324-Queen Elizabeth-"In
puris naturalibus "-Pickwick-Lord Brougham, 325-Bar-
rack-John Bury-"The Chevalier"-Puritan Soldiers-
Charles II.'s Marriage, 326-Grace-Diderot on Hogarth-
Brambling, 327.

QUERIES:-' Poor Robin's Perambulation' - The Salon-
Adam in Eden-Author of Novel, 327-East Clandon-
Jagger-Simco-"The three Woodthorpes "-Retrospective
Review'-Portuguese Ambassador-Newton-Wordsworth
-Honeysuckle-Massagist, 328-Pomfret T. Gent-Coro-
nation Claims - Caspar Robler-Swordmakers-Fronsac
Baskerville Prayer Book - Alma Mater - Early Jews-
Lamb's Epitaph-Willey-house-Worsted-De Boleyn, 329.
REPLIES:-Burning at the Stake-British Bishops, 330-
Bayona Islands-Livery of Seisin-" Fleas in the ear," 332-

"Wooden Shoes"-Adria-Smoking in Church, 331-The

Lost Picture-Plou-- Llan-, 333-" Crumbled are the walls"

Badges - Clerical Pronunciation Solly's 'Titles,' 336-
Theobald-Soane's Museum-' How they brought the News'

-Raree Show-Dutton-Shovel-Prayers, 337-Scott and

Tennyson-Squarson-St. Aloes-Apsham, 338-Hawthorn
Blossom, 339.

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NOTES ON BOOKS:-Blacker Morgan's Fisher's Catalogue of Tombs '-Symonds's 'Ben Jonson'- Gomme's 'Literature

with no confidence. He asks her to pay him a
visit at his house in the forest, and, to show her
the way, strews ashes to mark the path. On the
following Sunday, according to appointment, she
makes her way to the house, strewing peas and
lentils as she goes, that she may not fail to find
the path back. Arrived at the house, in the
darkest and thickest part of the forest, she finds it
silent and apparently empty; but a bird in a cage
on the wall warns her :-

Turn back, turn back, young maiden dear,
'Tis a murderer's house you enter here.

At last she finds in the cellar an old woman, who tells her that she is in a murderer's den, and she I will be killed and eaten. To save her from this fate the crone hides her behind a great hogshead. From this hiding place she watches the robbers come in with another young girl, whom they put to -Egmont-Blue Devils-Copt, 334- Huguenots-Bogie-death and cut up. As one of them chops off her Snakes, 335"H" Bronze Penny - Henchman - County finger to get a gold ring from it the finger springs up over the cask and falls into the heroine's bosom; but the robber is dissuaded by the old woman from troubling to find it then, and they sit down to eat. The woman drugs their wine, and while they sleep she and the maiden escape. The wind has in the mean time blown away the ashes from their path, but the peas and lentils have taken root and sprung up, and by means of these they are guided home. The wedding day comes, and each guest has to tell a tale. The bride, in her turn, relates what she has seen as if it were a dream. At every pause she turns to the bridegroom and says, My darling, I only dreamt this!" After describing the cutting off of the finger, she suddenly produces it, " And here is the finger with the ring!' The robber, who has become pale as ashes, leaps up and tries to escape, but is caught by the guests and handed over to justice; and he and his crew are executed for their misdeeds.

of Local Institutions.' Notices to Correspondents, &c.

Notes.

THE COUNT'S DAUGHTER.
(See 6th S. x. 23.)

Benedick. Like the old tale, my lord: it is not so, nor 'twas not so; but, indeed, Heaven forbid it should be so. -'Much Ado about Nothing.' I. i.

MR. W. HENRY JONES, in his articles on the 'Magyar Folk-Tales,' narrates a story under the above title from Erdélyi's collection, a German version of which will be found in extenso in Stier's Ungarische Sagen und Märchen' (Berlin, 1850), p. 45; and in a note he avers a distinct recollection of a similar story told him in his childhood by his grandmother, and then said to be a Northumbrian legend. The tale to which MR. JONES thus refers is the same as that alluded to by Benedick in the passage quoted above. It is one of the very few "märchen " distinctly traceable in English folk-lore, and is known as 'Mr. Fox.' It will be found at length in the works noted below. A parallel German story given by Grimm from Lower Hesse is mentioned by MR. JONES in a note. This variant is to the following effect. A miller's daughter is betrothed to a suitor, who appears to be rich but inspires her

Halliwell's Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales,' p. 47; Chambers's Book of Days,' vol. i. p. 291. A translator's note in Miss Hunt's version of Grimm's 'Household Tales,' vol. i. p. 389, Both the latter appear to be derived from Halliwell,

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I have not had an opportunity of comparing the variants to which Grimm refers in his note, except in one case. This I shall mention by-and-by. Meanwhile, let me observe that other variants have since been recorded. Birlinger* gives a Swabian tale, in which a knight's daughter, going daily to a chapel, meets a knight, who makes her acquaintance and is invited to her mother's house. In return he invites her to his own castle on an appointed day. She determines to visit it beforehand alone. It stands empty, and after searching upstairs and downstairs she finds a room wherein is a block with an axe and everything spattered with blood, as if a murder had been freshly committed. Seeing a trap-door, she lifts it and descends to discover below a woman's body with the head and right hand cut off. While there she

* Volksthümliches aus Schwaben,' story No, 594, vol. i. p. 372.

hears another murder committed above, and the body is thrown down the trap. She overhears the knight tell his servant that only one more was wanted, and she was coming to-morrow. While the servants sleep she escapes, taking the ring off the hand of the dead body. After reaching home she invites a party of friends, and the knight among them. She proposes to them that each one should tell his latest dream. When her turn comes, she relates what she saw in the knight's castle. The knight laughs at first, and says, "Dreams are froth; it is quite otherwise at my castle." But she goes on, and at length pulls out the ring. He is confounded. The other guests spring up, and, seizing him, hand him over to the officers who are waiting; and he is beheaded

for his crimes.

In this tale the knight's remark to his servant suggests that the reason of these murders was some magical purpose. There is no hint of the cannibalism of Grimm's story and of that which I am about to cite; and, indeed, the requirement of a certain number of maidens would be inconsistent with such a design. M. Carnoy,* however, obtained from Lorraine a story in which the motive for the murders is frankly imputed to the desire to eat the bodies. It does not differ widely from the variants abstracted above, except that there are three maidens, a peasant's daughters, and three cavaliers to whom they are betrothed. Catherine, the eldest of the sisters, is invited to dine on Sunday at the castle belonging to these lovers. She sets out, accordingly, but an owl on an apple tree by the wayside warns

her

Catherine, Catherine, thou art wrong, Thou 'rt marching swiftly to death along! The owl follows her, flitting from tree to tree and repeating the same words, until she is fairly frightened and turns back. Marie, the second sister, then starts in her place, but is driven back in the same manner. Toinette, the youngest, pursues the adventure to its end, despite the warnings of ten owls. The castle is described as covered with plates of gold and silver, which shone in the sun, and surrounded with unknown trees and extraordinary flowers. Toinette, hidden in the cellar, witnesses the unnatural banquet, hears the ruffians regret that her sister has failed them, picks up a finger which has been cut off and which still bears a ring, and contrives to escape Iwith this evidence. A week after, when the lovers come to see them, Toinette calmly tells them what she has seen. They pretend to laugh, saying, "Your story is very well told; but is it true? Have you any proof? And have you not been dreaming?" "I have only this proof," she replies, pulling out the finger and the ring; "and the three brigands were no other than yourselves."

*Contes Français,' story No. 31, p. 203.

A variant coming from a village near Besançon, in Franche-Comté, differs only in the commencement, where the three maidens meet the cavaliers as they come from mass, and accompany them home, where they are invited to dine. They refuse, save on condition that one of the girls will in return visit them at their castle. The two elder refuse, but the youngest accepts.

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Grimm seems to consider his tale as a variant of the Bluebeard myth; and the only one of the parallels to which he refers and which I have been able to examine is undoubtedly so. It is given by Meier in his 'Deutsche Volksmärchen Schwaben'; and the reader will find its substance in my article on 'The Forbidden Chamber' in the Folk-lore Journal, vol. iii. p. 207. A Dutch story, also, treated by Grimm as a variant of Fitcher's Bird, has some resemblance to the story of 'Mr. Fox.' In it a shoemaker's three daughters are successively stolen by a stranger in a splendid carriage. The third, after examining all the treasures of the castle in his absence, opens the cellar door, where she finds an old woman scraping guts," who threatens to scrape hers tomorrow. In her terror the girl drops the key into a basin of blood. "Now," says the hag, "your death is certain; because my lord will see by that key that you have been in this chamber, which no one is allowed to enter but himself and I." But she takes pity on the girl, and advises her to get into a hay-cart which is just leaving the castle laden with hay. She does so, and takes refuge at a neighbouring castle. On her captor's return the old woman makes him believe she has butchered the heroine, showing him a lock of hair and a heart in proof, and declaring that the dogs have eaten the rest, except the intestines, which she is still scraping. A feast is given at the castle where the heroine has taken refuge, and her captor, among others, is invited. The guests tell tales, and she in her turn relates her own history. Her captor is seized and executed. She succeeds to his wealth, and marries the son of the lord of the castle whither she had fled.

Now, putting aside the mere mention of blood and such-like horrors, the one point of similarity between this tale and that of 'The Count's Daughter,' or Mr. Fox' is the concluding scene of the tale-telling. And on this it must be observed that the solution of the plot of many a folk-tale is brought about by the device of telling tales at a great gathering; nor could any device seem more natural than this to the audience, however farfetched it may appear to us. Moreover, the narration is perpetually interrupted in 'Mr. Fox' and most of its congeners by exclamations on the part of the narrator or of the villain, in a formula in

*Kinder und Hausmärchen' (Göttingen, 1856), vol. iii. p. 75. Miss Hunt's English version, vol. i, p. 396.

chariot and cherubs in Ezekiel i. and x. But why is cherub-nature assigned to contemplation? In Todd's 'Milton' there is much annotation on the place, scarcely touching the matter with a needle. Mr. Masson says frankly that he does not know. The Dionysian book gives a ready answer. It explains the Hebrew word cherub to mean fulness of knowledge (so Philo had explained it), and goes on to say that the cherubim are so called, "from their faculty of seeing God, and of contemplating the beauty of the Supreme Being with immediate power working at first-hand," dià Tò DEOTTIKÒV αὐτῶν, καὶ θεωρητικὸν ἐν πρωτούργῳ δυνάμει Ts Déapɣikîs evπρeπeías.

Given now this power of vision as the attribute of the cherubim, I think it may throw some light upon certain doubtful places in Shakspeare:1. 'Hamlet,' IV. iii.

tended to allay the suspicions of the company up to the moment when the final and damning proof is produced. The Count's Daughter,' indeed, omits this striking detail, though it represents the ruffians as taking part in the conversation; but the incident is assuredly absent from the Dutch story just cited. Much stress need not be laid on this absence, for a claim to any organic connexion | between 'Bluebeard' and 'Mr. Fox' must rest upon a broader ground than this concluding scene in one variant. The case for such a connexion would probably be based on the wooing of an innocent maiden by a murderer and the deeds of blood performed in his den. This, at least, seems to have been what Grimm had in his mind. 'Bluebeard,' however, belongs to a class of stories whose central thought is a taboo; and the utter want of the taboo, either express or implied, in the group now under consideration would put this contention out of court. Yet it may be worthy of inquiry whether 'Mr. Fox' and the rest may not have developed independently from a germ common to them and 'The Forbidden Chamber.' Such a germ might, perhaps, be a story like that of 'The Man possessed with a Na,' told among the Karens, or the Swabian tale of 'The Robber and the Miller's Twelve Daughters' (both of which I have abstracted in the article before referred to), or some of the variants of Lady Isabel and the Elf-Knight,' given by Prof. Child in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads,' pt. i. p. 22. Let me suggest this query to folk-lore students interested in the subject." cherubins." To me it seems very probable that E. SIDNEY HARTLAND.

Swansea.

"CHERUBIM" IN THE CELESTIAL HIERARCHY,' MILTON, AND SHAKSPEARE.

Hamlet. Good.

King. So is it, if thou knew'st our purposes.
Hamlet. I see a Cherube that sees them.

2. Troilus and Cressida,' III. ii.

Fears make devils of Cherubins; they never see truly. 3. Macbeth,' I. vii.

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And Pity, like a naked new-born babe

Striding the blast, or Heaven's Cherubin hors'd
Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind.

In the first two of these the power of vision is cer-
tainly ascribed, as proper attribute, to cherub and

Shakspeare may have been acquainted with the Dionysian book, or at least with the teaching of it, as familiar at the time, and that in agreement with this teaching he has given the special power of sight to his cherubs, though with his own light hand he transfers their vision from the things of God to the hidden things of humanity as God sees them.

Beyond doubt Milton was familiar with the book named above, a work of Christian mysticism bearing the name of Dionysius the Areopagite, but commonly assigned to the fourth century. It sets The passage of "Troilus and Cressida' has, I out nine orders of heavenly beings, arranged in find, given offence to some commentators, who apthree triads: 1, seraphim, cherubim, thrones; 2,parently have asked, How should devils be blind? dominions, virtues, powers; 3, principalities, archangels, angels. And to this scheme Milton more than once makes allusion, most notably at 'Paradise Lost,' vii. 192 :

So sang the Hierarchies: meanwhile the son
On his great expedition now appear'd:

About his Chariot numberless were pour'd
Cherub and Seraph, Potentates and Thrones,
And Virtues, winged Spirits.

Thus mentioning five of the nine orders. From the
same book we gain, as I think, a certain explana-
tion of a place in the Penseroso,' which does
not seem to have been cleared up :-

Him that soars on golden wing,

Guiding the fiery-wheeled Throne,
The Cherub Contemplation.

and have solved the knot with the sword of Alexander by cutting out the word "of," and making the cherubins blind: "Fears make devils cherubins." The retort is obvious, Why should cherubins be blind ?—unless, indeed, it be thought that Shakspeare identifies the winged childcherub with the blind god Cupid: to me, at least, a most unpleasing idea. But I do not think that blindness is the thing spoken of. A perverse and distorted vision which sees nothing truly is a very diabolical attribute, well contrasted therefore with the keen penetrating vision of a cherubin. In the devils, of course, this would come of malice; but fear may be thought to produce the same effect, if not in so malignant degree. The passage in Macbeth bristles with difficulties.

The allusion is, of course, to the vision of the Perhaps this language of vehement passion is in

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