400 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd S. VII. May 14. '59. 



and again — 



" Singed are his brows." 



To get back to the point from which I started, I 

 will conclude by observing that the error of Sir 

 Toby and Sir Andrew, in supposing that Taurus 

 influenced the sides and heart, or the legs and 

 thighs, of those born under him, instead of the 

 neck and throat, is a more venial fault than that 

 of so distinguished a scholar as Pope, who bestows 

 a couple, at least, of eyes and eyebrows on the 

 monocular chief, at whose 



"... direful yell 

 From all their dens the one-eyed race repair." 



J. DOBAN. 



" Sir Andrew Ague- Cheek. Shall we set about some 

 revels ? Sir Toby Belch. What shall we do else ? Were 

 we not born under Taurus ? Sir And. Taurus ? That's 

 sides and heart. Sir To. No, sir ; it is legs and thighs. 

 Let me see thee caper. Ha! higher. Ha! ha! excel- 

 lent!"— 7Ve//ifA-iV?>A(!, Act I. Sc. 3. 



It is now near a century since Samuel Johnson 

 gave a note in illustration of the above passage, 

 and it has been graciously accepted by Malone, 

 Steevens, Reed, and other editors of the plays of 

 Shakspere. It shall appear once more — perhaps 

 for the last time : — 



" Taurus ? That's sides and heart. Alluding to the 

 medical astrology still preserved in Almanacks, which 

 refers the affections of particular parts of the body to- the 

 predominance of particular constellations." 



Now, what was the reputed influence of Taurus? 

 The nature of the allusion is very obvious — but 

 something more precise might have been given 

 without much research. I have consulted Arthur 

 Hopton, the " miracle of his age for learning." 

 In his Concordancy ofyeares^ printed in 1615, he 

 supplies the required information both in the 

 graphic and typographic modes. 



1. We have an Adonis^like figure, surrounded 

 by the twelve signs of the zodiac. Taurus claps 

 his hoof on the neck of the said figure to denote 

 his government of that part. Sagittarius, Capri- 

 cornus, Aquarius, and Pisces intimate, by various 

 pictorial devices, their influence over the lower 

 limbs. 



2. In the calendar which precedes the aforesaid 

 figure, we are assured that Taurus " gouerneth 

 the 7iecke, throat, and voyce;'^ and, moreover, that 

 it is a " fortunate signe in most things." 



The above facts, or reputed facts, serve to illus- 

 trate the characters of the two renowned knights. 



Sir Toby, who is a merciless wit, artfully draws 

 in sir Andrew to betray his ignorance, and then 

 misleads him by a confident " No, sie : it is legs 

 and thighs" — in order to make him give proof 

 of his boastful pretension, "Faith, I can cut a 

 caper ! " Bolton Corney. 



Blagrave (1682) and Sibley (1794, or earlier?) 

 confirm the lines in the State Paper OflSce ; and 



Zadkiel the Seer, in his Grammar of Astrology 

 (1833) ! dedicated to Sir John Herschel ! ! makes 

 no different statement. 



In all such works only one plan is followed, and 

 Taurus does signify " the throat and neck" in an 

 astrological or Pickwickian sense. » 



But this has but little to do with Sir Toby's 

 original remark — "were we not horn under Tau- 

 rus ? " — as a reason for setting about revels. This 

 must have been a jest upon Sir Andrew Ague- 

 cheek's ignorance, who ought to have known, but 

 Sir Toby guessed he could not know, that those 

 "born under Taurus" were a black-browed me- 

 lancholy race, not much affecting mirth : the very 

 " diseases incident to this sign" being " cold and 

 dry melancholic'habits." 



Not taking the joke. Sir Andrew connects the 

 name of the sign only with what he too probably 

 found in the almanacs, viz. that it was considered 

 as significant of some particular part of the human 

 body. 



Unable to recollect which, however, but pre- 

 possessed by the idea of being in love, he guessed 

 at '•'■sides and heart," and hoped Sir Toby had 

 meant him to understand that. 



Sir Toby thereupon, whose first joke had missed 

 fire as it rose, has nothing left for it but to make 

 a complete fool of his friend ; and following his 

 lead of the sign as signifying a part of the body — 

 and impressed by the oddity of the " flame-co- 

 loured sock", — he suggests, at once, that Taurus 

 signifies " legs and thighs," and that Sir Andrew 

 must "caper." 



This explanation is offered as a solution of what 

 the dialogue may have meant. Being borri under 

 a sign, implies that at the time of birth it was 

 ascending, — was in fact the sign of the first house, 

 or House of Nativity. 



This for the benefit of those who are unac- 

 quainted with the mysteries of the yet existent 

 science of astrology ! Maegaeet Gatty. 



In the old almanac of 1386, from which I have 

 before quoted, we are told that : — 



" Taurus is a syne cold and drie raalencoly, &c. It es 

 il to do medcyn to the nek, or to ye throte. Beware of 

 seythyng iu y« nek or in y® throte, nor kit ye vayne in yo 

 places." 



J. C. J. 



CABRY FAMILY. 



(2"'» S. vi. 70. 396.) 



The Halcros are in Orkney a family that go far- 

 ther back than the time when Orkney was severed 

 from Norway and annexed to Scotland. They 

 had large properties scattered throughout the 

 islands. Now their possessions have passed to 

 other names through females by marriage, or 

 otherwise, in the course of time. One remainder 



