76 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 117. 



abandoned as soon as formed, and avowedly 

 prompted by very different considerations from 

 those that have actuated me. That he should 

 have been on the very brink, as it were, of the 

 true reading, and yet fail to discover it, is only to 

 be accounted for by his subjection to that be- 

 setting sin of the day which denied to Shakspeare 

 all philological knowledge except what he might 

 derive through his own language. 



In order to give Malone strict justice, I shall 

 transcribe his suggestion, together with the com- 

 ment by which Steevens appears to have stifled it 

 in the birth : — 



" The disagreeable recurrence of the word stars in 

 the second line induces me to believe that As stars, in 

 that which precedes, is a corruption. Perhaps Shak- 

 speare wrote — 



yis^rcs with trains of fire — 



and dews of blood 



Disasterous diram'd the sun. 



The word astre is used in an old collection of poems 

 entitled Diana, addressed to the Earl of Oxenforde, a 

 book of which I know not the date, but believe it was 

 printed about 1580. In Othello we have anfres, a word 

 of exactly a similar formation." — Malone. 



" The word astre (which is nowhere else to be found) 

 was affectedly taken from the French by John Southern, 

 author of the poems cited by Mr. Malone. This 

 wretched plagiarist stands indebted both for his ver- 

 biage and his iihagery to Ronsard." — Steevens. 

 Hence, according to Malone's own account, the 

 consideration by which he was led to the suggestion 

 of "astres" was "the disagreeable recurrence of 

 stars in the second line." 



He did not perceive the analogy between aster 

 and disaster, which renders a verbal antithesis of 

 these two words so extremely probable with Shak- 

 speare ! — he did not apparently think of " asters " 

 at all, although that word is so close to the text 

 that it may be almost said to be identical with it ; 

 and, notwithstanding that " aster" had been so 

 long familiarised in every English garden as to 

 be literally under his nose, he must search out 

 " astre " in obscure and contemptible ballads, in 

 order that Shakspeare might be sanctioned in the 

 use of it. 



But it is absolutely incredible that any person 

 to whom astre suggested itself should not also be 

 reminded of aster. The conclusion therefore is 

 almost unavoidable, that Malone and Steevens 

 considered the latter word as too learned for poor 

 Shakspeare's small acquirements. They would 

 not trust him, even for a synonyme to star, unless 

 under the patronage of John Southern ! 



At least such was the spirit in which too many 

 of the commentators of that day presumed to treat 

 Shakspeare, — him to whom, if to any mortal, his 

 own beautiful language is applicable — 



" How noble in reason ! how infinite in faculty ! 

 In apprehension how like a god !" 



Let us be thankful we have fallen to better 

 times. 



It is only by the occurrence of such difSculties 

 as the present, which, after remaining so long 

 obscure, are at last only resolvable by presup- 

 posing in Shakspeare a depth of knowledge far 

 exceeding that of his triflers, that his wonderful 

 and almost mysterious attainments are beginning 

 to be appreciated. 



In the present case he must not only have 

 known that the fundamental meaning of aster is a 

 spot of light*, but he must also have taken into 

 consideration the power of dis in producing an 

 absolute reversal in the meaning of the word to 

 which it may be prefixed. Thus, service is a 

 benefit, disservice is an injury, while unservice 

 (did such a word exist) would be a negative mean 

 between the two extremes. Similarly, if aster 

 signify a spot of light, a name singularly ap- 

 propriate to a comet, disaster f must, by reversal, 

 be a spot of darkness, and " disasters in the sun " 

 no other than what we should call spots or maculaB 

 upon his disk. 



Can there remain a doubt, therefore, that Shak- 

 speare intended the passage to read as follows, 

 which, requiring neither addition nor alteration of 

 the text as transmitted to us — saving one slight 

 change of " as stars " into " asters," — must be 

 perfectly intelligible to every reader, especially if 

 accompanied by the simple note of explanation 

 which I subjoin to it : — 



" In the most high and palmy state of Rome, 

 A little ere the mightiest Julius fell. 

 The graves stood tenantless, and the sheeted dead 

 Did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets ; 

 Asters with trains of fire and dews of blood, 

 Disasters in the sun*; and the moist star, 

 Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands, 

 Was sick almost to dooms-day with eclipse." 



' Spots or blotches. 



A.E.R 



Leeds. 



FOLK liORE. 



Salting a New-born Infant. — In Ezekiel xvi. 4, 

 we read, " In the day thou wast born thy navel 

 was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water tO' 

 supple thee ; thou wast not salted at all, nor swad- 

 dled at all." Salting seems to be spoken of as a 

 regular part of the process which a new-born 

 child underwent amongst the Jews in the days of 

 Ezekiel. Can any one give me information on this 

 point? Can the salt in baptism alluded to by 

 Seleucus (Vol. iv., p. 163.) have any connexion 

 with this passage ? Alfked Gatty. 



* ^Aa-TTjp, ab &w, luceo. j 'AvdffTepos, obscurus. 



