2nd s. VII. Jai4. 15. '59.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



55 



Cross-week (2°* S. vi. 487. 534.) — One hesitates 

 long before questioning any point of church-lore 

 to which the initials F. C. H. are appended ; but 

 for once his statement, though doubtless correct in 

 itself, does not exactly meet the case to which it 

 is applied. In 1571 Easter-day fell on the 15th of 

 April, leaving only nineteen days, outside reckon- 

 ing, between Easter and the " Invention of the 

 Cross," whereas in the Query which he is answer- 

 ing there are said to be twenty-seven days be- 

 tween some day in Easter-week of that year and 

 some day in the week before Cross-week in the 

 same year ; which there would be not only in that 

 year, but in every year, if Cross- week meant, as it 

 constantly did mean, the fifth week after Easter, 

 i. e. Rogation-week, the week in which Ascension- 

 day occurs, and which was called Cross-week, as 

 may be seen in numerous old passages in which it 

 is alluded to, from the number of crosses, banners, 

 &c. which were carried in the perambulations 

 usually made in that week. J. Eastwood. 



Without hesitation or warrant, F. C. H. says : 

 " The week thus designated was the week in which 

 the feast occurred of the finding of the Holy Cross. 

 He is quite mistaken : Cross-week was the same 

 as Rogation-weekj see Rock's Church of Our 

 Fathers^ t. iii. p. 359. Litukgicds. 



Tyburn Tickets (2"^ S. vi. 529.)— In the autumn 

 of 1856 I was on the jury at Newgate. On that 

 occasion Mr. Pratt, armourer, of Bond Street, 

 claimed and obtained exemption from serving on 

 the jury by reason of his possession of a Tyburn 

 Ticket. I suppose the judge did not remember 

 the Act of 58 Geo. III. c. 70. 



Septimus Piesse. 



Quotation Wanted : " Ac veluti melitce voces" 

 Sfc. (2°o S. vi. 527.)— The lines quoted in the 

 Edinburgh Review are from Robert Smith's Tri- 

 pos Verses on Platonis Principia. They were first 

 published in the Cambridge Museum Criticum, 

 with the Cartesii Principia and Newtoni Systema 

 Mundanum. The lines quoted are not the only 

 lines in those three remarkable poems which well 

 deserve the reviewer's eulogy. E. C. H. 



Passage in Marston's " Satires " (N. & Q. 2°*^ 

 S. vi. 436.) — Among Me. Keightlby's critical 

 emendations he has with considerable confidence 

 proposed one for this passage : — 



" Now Sorbo swels with self-conceited sence. 

 Thinking that men do j'eeld this reverence 

 Unto his vertues : fond credulity ! 

 Asses, take of Isis, no man honours thee," 



In this very corrupt passage Mr. Keightley 

 proposes to read Ass, take off Esses, suggesting 

 that the allusion is to the collar of Esses worn by 

 the Lord Mayor. But what probability is there 

 for assuming that such portion of the municipal 

 insignia was ever termed " Esses," or even " the 



Esses," or anything more curt than the Collar of 

 Esses, or Collar of the King's Livery ? I think 

 Mr. Keightley's conjecture is wide of the mark. 

 An emendator who was very careful of the very 

 letters of the text, might propose more plausibly, 



" Asses take oflSce :" 

 but, considering how gross the typographical 

 blunder evidently is, I would rather read, 



" Ass, it's the office : no man honours thee ;" 

 i, e. no man honours you personally, but merely 

 the office you occupy. These seem to be the 

 only words which, within the given space of the 

 metre, contain the poet's evident meaning. 



JoHK GoBGH Nichols. 



Surely Mr. Keightley has mistaken the mean- 

 ing of Marston's satirical apostrophe to Sorbo ! — 



" Now Sorbo swels with selfe-conceited seuce, 

 Thinking that men do yeeld this reverence 

 Unto his vertues : fond" credulity ! 

 Asses, take of Isis, no man honours Thee." 



Both sense and rhythm require a correction ; 

 but not that proposed by Mb. Keightley. A 

 much more simple alteration restores the poet's 

 allusion to the old fable of the ass in the proces- 

 sion, carrying the image of the goddess Isis, and 

 fancying that the adoring crowds were doing re- 

 verence to him. Read the last line, 



" Ass ! take off Isis, no man honours thee," 



and it becomes a biting suggestion to Sorbo, that 



if the cause of reverence, external to himself, 



were removed, he would find men yield him none. 



Shakspeare's Winter^s Tale, Act III. Sc. 2., 



" What studied torments," &c., 



seems to me not mended by Mr. Keightley's in- 

 tei'polations. Without " worshipping the old prin- 

 ters," I find no reason to be dissatisfied with the 

 first line, as they have given it, nor any improve- 

 ment in making it hendecasyllabic, as proposed. 



The needed change of the second line seems to 

 me more simple than that suggested by Mb. 

 Keightley. Read the passage thus : 

 " What studied torments, tyrant, hast for me ? 



What wheels ? racks ? fires ? What flaying ? or what 

 boiling 



la leads or oils ? " 

 And as pronounced by a good reader, the rhythm 

 will satisfy the ear. 



Thus far had been written, on the assumption 

 that Mr. Keightley had quoted the text of Shak- 

 speare accurately. On looking at Collier's edi- 

 tion, I find the passage given : 

 " What wheels ? racks ? fires .' what flaying ? burning, 

 boiling 



In leads or oils ? " 



without note of various reading. Sense and 

 rhythm are both perfect. "Burning" refers to 

 " leads" [qu. as to the plural in that and " oils"] 

 and "boiling" to " oils." Together they make up 



