Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

press the necessity of making speed with preparations for the reception of "the noble duke his master." I may mistake MR. SINGER'S notion, and I should, of course, be most unwilling to misrepresent him. My opinion is, and was when I printed the passage in question, that "dispatch," with a period after it, related to what was to be done with Edgar, if he were captured - that if caught and found he should be executed; for what otherwise can be the meaning of the line in a subsequent part of Gloster's speech, about

"Bringing the murderous coward to the stake." I cannot at all concur in MR. SINGER'S proposal to read "And found" unfound; for, as I humbly conceive, what Gloster intends to say is, that Edgar should not remain uncaught; and that when found he should be dispatched. If "Dispatch" applied to preparations for the reception of the Duke of Cornwall, how happens it that we hear no more of them, and that he and Regan Bewalk in just afterwards without ceremony? sides, we may easily imagine that Gloster, at the moment he hears of Edgar's parricidal purpose, would be in no mood to think of preparations.

It will be observed that, according to my interpretation of Gloster's language, the word "dispatch" ought rather to be dispatch'd:

"Let him fly far;

Not in this land shall he remain uncaught;
And found, dispatch'd."

If I am right, I have no merit in this suggestion, because the preceding quotation is given precisely in that form, and with that punctuation, in my manuscript-corrected folio of 1632; and it is one of the emendations in King Lear, which tends to clear away difficulties, and to render our great dramatist's meaning indisputable.

I have the highest respect for MR. SINGER's judgment on such questions, and I hope he will coincide with me in the above reading, as well as in many others to be contained in the volume I am at this moment busily engaged in preparing. I may be allowed to add, that my corrected folio confirms the change he has proposed in the first line of Act IV. of King Lear :

"Yet better thus unknown to be contemn'd,

Than still contemn'd and flatter'd. To be worst," &c. My folio, however, makes a further emendation, by substituting yes for "yet:" as if Edgar entered continuing a soliloquy he had commenced before he made his appearance:

"Yes; better thus unknown to be contemu'd," &c.

Such appears to me to be the true text; but if I am in error, I shall at any time be happy to be set right, especially by MR. SINGER. J. PAYNE COLLIER.

Replies to Minor Queries.

The Chevalier St. George (Vol. v., p. 610.). — J. W. H. does not mention among the printed works which he has consulted, The Decline of the Last Stuarts, Extracts from the Despatches of British Envoys to he Secretary of State, printed for the Roxburghe Club, London, 1843. volume is edited by Lord Mahon from the ori SPES. ginals at the State Paper Office.

"Like a fair Lily," &c. (Vol. v., p. 539.). — "Like a lily on a river floating,

The

She floats upon the river of his thoughts." This quotation is from Longfellow's Spanish Student, Act II. Sc. 3. In a note the author says this expression is from Dante :

"Si che chiaro

[blocks in formation]

"Roses all that's fair adorn" (Vol. v., p. 611.). Permit me to inform W. S. where he may find

"Roses all that's fair adorn,
Rosy-finger'd is the morn;

Rosy-arm'd the nymphs are seen,

Rosy-skinn'd is Beauty's queen," &c.

I have it in Newberry's small volume of the Art of Poetry; it is an almost literal translation of an ode of Anacreon by Charles Wesley, of which I possess two copies; one of which is at W.'s service, a line from whom will be immediately attended to.

28. Chepstow Place, Bayswater.

ROBT. BROWNING.

Frebord (Vol. v., pp. 595. 620.). There are several estates in this county which were formerly parks; they have for many years been broken up, and cultivated: the proprietors of these old parks claim a space extending eight feet six inches in width on the outside of the boundary fences, which space is locally called a deer-leap. Whether the explanation of this term given by your correspondent Kr. is the correct one, I am unable to say; but here it is generally understood to be a space left on the outside of the boundary, to enable the proprietor to repair his fences without trespassing on his neighbour's lands.

Lewes.

WILLIAM FEGG.

Ireland's Freedom from Reptiles (Vol. iii., p. 490.). A pamphlet of Dean Swift's, Considerations about maintaining the Poor, without date, but assigned to 1726, amongst other grievances complains of the practice of insuring houses in English offices:

A third [abuse] is the Insurance Office against fire, by which several thousand pounds are yearly remitted to England (a trifle it seems we can easily

[blocks in formation]

"About the beginning of the eighteenth century Dr. Gwythers, a Physician and Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin, brought over with him a parcel of frogs from England to Ireland, in order to propagate the species in that kingdom, and threw them into the ditches of the University Park, but they all perished. Whereupon he sent to England for some bottles of the frogspawn, which he threw into those ditches, by which he succeeded in his design. However, their number was so small in the year 1720 that a frog was nowhere to be seen, except in the neighbourhood of the University Park. But within six or seven years after, they spread thirty, forty, or fifty miles over the country, and so at last over the whole nation."

This seems to be the true origin of the introduction of frogs, though some have ascribed it to the troops which the Prince of Orange brought to Ireland with him. Losgán and Cnadán are the Irish words for this animal. Mr. Cleland was the gentleman whom I alluded to as having introduced the six snakes. Mr. Bell (Hist. of Brit. Rept., Lond. 1839), asserts that the Lacerta agilis is to be found in Ireland. EIRIONNACH.

Portrait of George Fox (Vol. v., p. 464.).—I possess an engraving of George Fox's portrait, inserted in his Journal, with the following inscription:

"George Fox, ætat. 30, founder of the sect of people called Quakers, from the original painting by Honthorst, done in the year 1654, now in the possession of Thomas Clio Rickman."

He has a broad-brimmed felt hat and a cloak. His eyes and hands are turned upwards.

BONSALL.

[blocks in formation]

"Hostages to Fortune" (Vol. v., p. 607.).—"The Cambridge D.D." who, according to your correspondent, "attributed to Paley the following passage of Lord Bacon's (Essay, viii.), 'He that hath a wife and children hath given hostages to fortune,'" would have had his mistake rectified, had he during the present year attended at the Lyceum Theatre, to witness the performance of The Game of Speculation. Supposing the Cambridge D.D. to have left for a while "the theatre of the Greeks" for that of the moderns, he would have heard Mr. Charles Mathews in his matchless delineation of

[blocks in formation]

The Game of Speculation has been admirably adapted to the English stage by Mr. Slingsby Lawrence, from the French of De Balzac. It was performed at the Lyceum Theatre, together with the spectacular burlesque of The Prince of Happy Land, every night from Christmas 1851 to Easter 1852; the play-bill during that period requiring no change. This circumstance has been stated, in one of our leading monthly magazines, to be unparalleled in theatrical annals; and on this account is perhaps worthy of a note. CUTHBERT BEDE, B. A,

Docking Horses (Vol. v., p. 611.).-Youatt, in his history of the Horse, describes the way in which the operation of docking is performed, but gives no clue whatever as to the time when the practice was first introduced. It is, however, believed that it came into vogue in the early part of the last century, as its strangeness provoked the observation of Voltaire, when he was in England about 1725, and produced the following epigram from his satirical pen:

"Vous, fiers Anglois, et barbares que vous êtes,

Coupent les têtes à vos rois, et les queues à vos bêtes; Mais les François plus polis, et aimant les loix, Laissent les queues à leurs bêtes, et les têtes à leurs rois."

The fifth edition of Bailey's Dictionary (1731), which is the earliest to which I have access, mentions the practice; but if your Querist TAIL would consult the earliest editions, and should find it omitted, he may fairly conclude that he has made some approximation to the period when it was first introduced.

The reason for the operation was probably only the convenience of the rider, and to save him from the mud and dirt which a long tail, in the then state of the public roads, would necessarily pick up and plentifully distribute. Geoffrey Gambado gives another reason, for which see his Academy for

Grown Horsemen.

F. B-W.

How the Ancient Irish crowned their Kings (Vol. v., p. 582.). In these days, when most antiquities are judgmatically examined into, it is a pity that such silly and impossible tales should be sent to you in order to their reproduction in type. In this particular instance, the fable, before confined to the "Kings of Tyrconnell," ritory of Ulster, is extended to the whole of "the ancient Irish," and "their king." Not having by me O'Donovan's Annals of the Four Masters,

an ancient ter

notes to which, whether they deign to notice the absurd fable or not, no doubt amply refute it by descriptions of the ancient inauguration-ceremonies of Tyrconnell and other territories from authentic Irish MSS., I send you the remarks made upon it in the "insigne sed insanum opus" of Dr. Keating, as translated by Halliday; the author's long preface to the history, from which the following extract is taken, deserving the former but not the latter qualification:

"This," says Keating, when he has repeated the bathing-in-broth story, "is evidently an impudent fiction of CAMBRENSIS, for the annals of Ireland expressly mention, that the ceremony of inaugurating the kings of Tirconnell was this; the king being seated on an eminence (the Rock of Kilmacrennan) surrounded by the nobility and gentry (i ineasc uasal agus oireachta) of his own country, one of the chiefs of his nobles stood before him with a straight white wand in his hand, and on presenting it to the king of Tirconnell, used to desire him to receive the sovereignty of his country, and to preserve equal and impartial justice in every part of his dominions; the reason that the wand was straight and white, was to put him in mind that he should be unbiassed in his judgment, and pure and upright in all his actions.". - Halliday's Keating, Preface, p. xxxiii.

66

MAC AN BHAIRD.

value of the admonition, "Put not your trust in
princes."
T. WESTCOTT.

Philadelphia, U.S. A., June 5, 1852.

Spanish Vessels wrecked on the Coast of Ireland (Vol. v., pp. 491. 598.).-On the magnificent ironbound coast of Miltown Malbay, in the west of Ireland, is a point running out into the sea called "Spanish Point," on which one at least, if not more, of the ships belonging to the Spanish armada was wrecked. Some of the peasantry also had ancient carved coffers and chests in their houses, which had been handed down from father to son, and which had been saved from the wreck; and there were traditions that many objects of value might have been found which had been derived from the same source; but as more than twenty years have elapsed since I was in that country, I cannot say whether any now remain to reward the inquiries of antiquaries. PEREDUR.

Suicides buried in Cross Roads (Vol. iv., p. 116.). In Plato's Laws (Burges' transl., book ix. c. 12.) the murderer of any of his near kin, after being put to death, is to be "cast out of the city, naked, in an appointed place where three roads meet; and let all the magistrates, in behalf of the whole state, carry each a stone, and hurl it at the head of the dead body," &c. J.P.

Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell (Vol. v., p. 394.).. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell formerly resided in this

Hoax on Sir Walter Scott (Vol. v., p. 438.). — A ballad, written in 1824 by the present Vicar of Morwenstow, adapted to the legendary chorus of Twenty thousand Cornish men will know the reason why," was hailed by Sir Walter (see Lock-city; she now lives in the city of New York. She determined to study medicine some years since, hart's Life) as a "spirited ballad of the seventeenth in order to fit herself for practice. She had concentury!"" R. S. H. siderable difficulty in obtaining admission as a American Loyalists (Vol. iv., p. 165.).-A. C. medical student, but was finally entered at Geneva will find the best information in regard to the his- Medical College, New York, where she graduated tory of the American loyalists, after the American in 1849. She afterwards went to London and Revolution, in "The American Loyalists, or Bio- Paris. These are about all the particulars in graphical Sketches of Adherents to the British reference to this lady which have been made Crown in the War of the Revolution. By Lorenzo public in this country. In consequence of her Sabine. Boston, Mass. Charles C. Little and example, the subject of educating females as James Brown, Publishers, 1847. 738 pp." In this doctors was much discussed in the United States. work Mr. Sabine has recorded the names of about The propriety of employing them in obstetrical six hundred loyalists (called in this country Tories), cases, and many complaints to which females are with such circumstances connected with their lives, subject, has in its favour common sense and deafter their declared adherence to the British cause, ceney, and against it nought but professional as he was able to glean. A. C. is very much mis- prejudice. In this state a college for the instructaken in supposing that the loyalists "prospered in tion of females was chartered in 1849; it is called the world after the confiscation of their property." "The Female Medical College of Pennsylvania." Their estates in this country were very generally At the last commencement eight young ladies forfeited, and the remunerations they received from received their diplomas. There are fifty-two the Crown were mere pittances in comparison to students entered for the next course, commencing the amounts of their real sacrifices. Their letters in September of this year. There are eight proto this country, after their flight to England, are fessorships in this institution, which are at present filled with complaints of the coldness with which filled by men, but which will be awarded to their attachment to the king was repaid by the female professors as soon as experience will fit ministry. Many of them died in want, and others, the graduates for them. The demonstrator of accepting the small donations accorded to them anatomy, Hannah E. Longshore, is a graduate. after weary years of waiting, learned bitterly the The prospects of the institution are favourable,

and the graduates are winning for themselves con- beautiful, and its trunk enormous, which, coupled

fidence.

Philadelphia, U. S. A., June 5, 1852.

T. WESTCOTT.

American Degrees (Vol. v., p. 177.).—Collegiate honours in the United States are generally conferred by the trustees of the institutions, with the advice and consent of the professors. If J. W. had stated what college conferred the " cargo of diplomas" he speaks of, some estimate might be made of the value of the honours. This is acknowledged (by ourselves) to be "a great country," comprising in its area 2,280,000 square miles. We have colleges and seminaries of learning authorised to confer the degrees in nearly all the states. Some of them will compare with the best European colleges in the reputation, and skill, and learning of the professors; and some are but little better than large-sized boarding-schools. The oldest institutions, and the best among us, are Harvard University in Massachusetts, Yale College in Connecticut, Princeton College in New Jersey, the University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia, an Virginia University at Charlottesburg. There are others of equal reputation, and many of second, third, and even fourth-rate importance. It is very probable that the "cargo" sent to the Brougham Institute of Liverpool emanated from an inferior institution, as our firstclass universities do not usually confer many honorary degrees. T. WESTCOTT.

Philadelphia, U. S. A., Feb. 5, 1852.

[blocks in formation]

It is described as of white earthenware, with a blue inscription. These jugs were used in the (now obsolete) Whitsun, or church-ale festivals.

J. B. COLMAN. “Possession is nine points of the law" (Vol. iv., p. 23.).—In Swift's Works, vol. xvii. p. 270., I find "Possession, they say, is eleven points of the law." J. P.

Age of Trees (Vol. iv., pp. 401. 488.). Allow me, in addition to my former communication on this subject, to give the following instances of trees proved to have existed many years. Near Mont Blanc there is a fir-tree called by the inhabitants of that district the Chamois Stable, on account of its affording shelter to the wild goats during the winter. Its vegetation is extremely

with the fact that it has been ascertained by M. Berthelet to be more than 1200 years old, make it a very interesting object. At a short distance from this venerable fir exists, in the forest of Ferré, a tree called the Meleye, whose age cannot be less than 800 years. The forest of Parey, Saint Ouen, canton de Bulgneville, in the department of the Vosges, is celebrated for a tree called The Oak of the Partizans. Its branches extend over a space of 100 feet, and its height is 107. It has lived during a period of 650 years, and was known at the time when the Cothereaux, the Carriers, and Routiers devastated France in the days of Philip Augustus. A chesnut tree, near the village of Vernet, of ordinary size and height, is supposed to have been planted in the time of Calvin, at the dawn of the great religious struggle in Switzerland.

Thus these wondrous natural monuments of

antiquity speak forcibly to the mind; and the erections built by man, which we term ancient, dwindle into insignificancy when compared with the stupendous and veteran trees of the forest.

UNICORN.

Market Crosses (Vol. v., p. 594.).—The market cross at Bury, rebuilt after the Great Fire of 1608, was converted into a playhouse in 1734, and in 1774 gave place to the present town hall, which was built for a theatre from the designs of Robert Adams. Views of the market cross have been several times engraved. There was no religious edifice at or near the cross in 1655. The marriage referred to took place agreeably to the Act of 14th August, 1653, which required marriages to be published "three several Lord's Days, or three several weeks," and then to be celebrated in the presence of a justice: The registers of the parish of St. Mary, Bury, contain entries of marriages so solemnized; whence it appears that some were published at the market cross on three several market days in three several weeks." BURIENSIS.

Miscellaneous.

NOTES ON BOOKS, ETC.

[ocr errors]

The second volume of Messrs. Rivington's handsome library edition of The Works and Correspondence of the Right Honorable Edmund Burke, which had been kept back for the purpose of enabling the editors to insert in the correspondence some new letters of Mr. Burke The corfrom original MSS., has now been issued. respondence in this volume commences in the year 1791, and proceeds to the death of the distinguished writer; and it contains in addition Burke's Vindication of Natural Society, and his world-renowned Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful.

Although, as a general rule, we abstain from noticing all theological works which can be considered as of a

controversial nature, we have been so interested in a little volume which has recently come before us that we cannot refrain from bringing it under the notice of our readers; it is entitled Sympathies of the Continent, or Proposals for a New Reformation, by John Baptist von Hirscher, D.D., Dean of the Metropolitan Church of Freiburg, Breisgau, and Professor of Theology in the Roman Catholic University in that city; Translated and Edited with Notes and Introduction by the Rev. Arthur Cleveland Coxe. The great interest of this work, which might more properly have been called The Working of the Roman Catholic Church in Germany, is to be found in the fact that it is written by a learned and eminent dignitary of that Church, and advocates those practical reforms in her system which our own Church introduced three centuries since.

[ocr errors]

The

BOOKS RECEIVED." Some people," said Dr. Johnson, "have a foolish way of not minding, or pretending not to mind, what they eat.' This foolish way is not ours, and therefore we have enjoyed to the full the pleasant humour and anecdotical learning enshrined in the last number of Murray's Railway Library. Art of Dining, or Gastronomy and Gastronomers, with its hints and directions as to ensuring a successful dinner party, is so full of its subjects that it would go far to create an appetite under the ribs of death.-A Descriptive Account of the Antiquities in the Grounds and the Museum of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society. By the Curator of the Antiquities. Undertaken by the venerable author (the Rev. C. Wellbeloved) when he was somewhat more than an octogenarian. This very excellent Guide to the York Museum is as creditable to its compiler as it will be found of service to the visitors of the interesting collection which it describes. The Golden Bird and other Stories, the third part of the translation of Grimm's Household Stories, publishing by Messrs. Addey, is a fresh instalment of amusement for juvenile readers.

[blocks in formation]

Vol. VI. 1784.

THE NEW UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE.
GENTLEMAN'S AND LADY'S POLITE INSTRUCTOR.
London: Printed for Hodges, by Crowder and Woodgate..
MAHON'S ENGLAND, 4 Vols.

The original 4to. editions in boards.

FLANAGAN ON THE ROUND TOWERS OF IRELAND. 4to. 1843.
A NARRATIVE OF THE PROCEEDINGS IN THE DOUGLAS CAUSE.
Loudon, Griffin, 8vo. 1767.

CLARE'S POEMS. Feap. 8vo. Last Edition.

MAGNA CHARTA; a Sermon at the Funeral of Lady Farewell, by George Newton. London, 1661.

BIOGRAPHIA AMERICANA, by a Gentleman of Philadelphia.

THE COMEDIES OF SHADWELL may be had on application to the Publisher of "* N. & Q."

Letters, stating particulars and lowest price, carriage free, to be sent to MR. BELL, Publisher of "NOTES AND QUERIES," 186. Fleet Street.

Notices to Correspondents.

REPLIES RECEIVED.-Royal Arms in Churches - Inscription at Persepolis Anima Magis- Oid Countess of Desmond Authorship of Monody on Sir John Moore - Charms - Mummy WheatCelebrated Fly- Wyle Cop - Emaciated Monumental EffigiesSeth's Pillars-Hogs Norton - Algernon Sydney" La Garde meurt"-Devil as a Proper Name - Rhymes on Places - Exterior Stoup- Bronze Medals - Etymology of Mushroom Charms- Spanish Pierre Bours - The Diphthong "ai"-Book of Jasher Text of Shakspeare -St. Christopher.

Coral

SHAKSPEARE. We are aware that the large space occasionally occupied in our columns by Shakspearian criticism lays us open to complaints on the part of some of our Readers, who do not share the anxiety of our Correspondents for an immaculate text of the writings of the Great Dramatist. But if proof were required how wide-spread an interest is still abroad upon the subjeci, and how much attention is still paying to the Illustration of the Life and Writings of Shakspeare, we would point to the announcement in our advertising columns of Mr Halliwell's projected edition in Twenty Folio Volumes. We have by us several communications by Mr. Hickson, A. E. B., and others, which shall appear as opportunities present themselves.

M. will find that the insertion of the letter E will give him the following couplet: "Persevere, re perfect men, Ever keep these precepts ten." DRYDEN. No. A. H. W.

ETCER. The assertion that "Luther was married in London," was a misprint for what Lord Campbell really did say, viz. "Luther married a nun."

A. SPG.'s Query respecting the Bean Feast has been overlooked. It shall be attended to very shortly.

G. C. Mrs. Mary Mackey's poetry. The same remark applies to this Query.

H. B. C. is thanked for his kind and very considerate Note.
E. S. JACKSON.
The promised Letters of John Wesley will be

most welcome.

The Index and Title-page to Volume the Fifth will be ready with our next Number.

THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGA

7.

JULY, (being the First Number of a New Volume) contains: 1. Thorpe's Northern Mythology, 2. Pope's Imitations of the Letters of Eloisa. 3. Godfrey William Leibnitz. 4. The Ironmongers of London (with Two Plates). 5. The Ungracious Rood of Grace. 6. Oxford and the Royal Commission. Rugge's Notes on English History, temp. Charles II. 8. Sonnet on Coleridge, by the Rev. C. V. Le Grice. 9. Correspondence, on the Abbotsford Library, Architectural Nomenclature, Quakers' Burial Grounds, Anchorages in Churches, &c. &c. 10. Notes of the Month. With Historical Reviews, Reports of ArcheoJogical Societies, and OBITUARY: including Memoirs of Capt. Allen Gardner (of the Patagonian Mission), Hon. Mr. Talbot, Q. C.. Mr. Humfrey, Q. C., Rev. John Jones (Tezid), Rev. T. Theyre Smith, George Dolland, Esq. F.R.S., General Arthur O'Connor, &c. &c. Price 2s. 6d. (A Specimen Number sent by Post.)

NICHOLS & SON, 25. Parliament Street.

MOUR

OURNING.-COURT, FAMILY, and COMPLIMENTARY. The Proprietor of THE LONDON GENERAL MOURNING WAREHOUSE begs respectfully to remind families whose bereavements compel them to adopt Mourning Attire, that every article of the very best description, requisite for a complete outfit of Mourning, may be had at this Establishment at a moment's notice.

ESTIMATES FOR SERVANTS' MOURNING, affording a great saving to families, are furnished; whilst the habitual attendance of experienced assistants (including dressmakers and milliners, enables them to suggest or supply every necessary for the occasion, and suited to any grade or condition of the community. Wrpows AND FAMILY MOURNING is always kept made up, and a note, descriptive of the Mourning required, will insure its being sent forthwith, either in Town or into the Country, and on the most Reasonable Terms.

W. C. JAY, 247-249. Regent Street,

[blocks in formation]
« PreviousContinue »