NOTES AND QUERIES: 



A MEDIUM OE INTER-COMMUNICATION 

 roR 



LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC. 



"■When found, make a note of." — Captain Cuttle. 



Vol. v.— No. 124.] Saturday, March 13. 1852. 



f Price Fourpence. 



c Stamped Edition, 5rt. 



CONTENTS. 



Notes : — ^^S^ 



Readings in Shakspeare, No. III. - - - 241 



Folk Lore: — Burning Fern brings Rain. - - 242 



Translations, by C. Redding _ _ - • 243 



Ballad of Lord Delamere - - - - - 243 

 Minor Notes : — A Note on Henry III.— Old Books .ind 

 New Titles — Bowdler's Family Shakspeare — The 



French Language — Curious Epitaph - - - 244 



Queries : — 



" Hogs Norton, where Pigs play upon the Organs," by 

 Thos. Lawrence ------ 245 



Minor Queries : — The Judge alluded to by South — 

 English Translation of the Canons— Snuff-boxes and 

 Tobacco-pipes — Cromwell — Meaning of Wallop — 

 The " Mistral " — Deaths from Fasting — Ad Viscum 



— Whipping Graves — John Rogers, Protomartyr — 

 Autograph Music by Handel — The Layard Family — 

 C. L. A. A. P. D. V. — Prianho, De Pratellis and Pri- 

 deaux Family — Joseph Adrien Le Bailly - - 246 



>IiNOR Queries Answered: — The Great Bowyer Bible 

 — Orloff, Derivation of—" A Captain bold of Halifax " 



— Goblin, Gorgeous, Gossip — Mahereinium ; Arc de 

 Arbouin ------- 248 



Replies : — 



Moravian Hymns ------ 249 



Archaic and Provincial Words, by Robert Rawlinton, &c. 250 



Macaronic Poety, by James Cornish - - - 251 



Young's " Narcissa" ----- 252 



Dulcarnon, by S. W. Singer, &c. - - - - 2.^2 



St. George Heraldical MSS. - - . - 253 



Sterne in Paris --_... 254 



Replies to Minor Queries : — Collar of Esses— Quid 

 est Episcopus— Paper-making in England — " Mother 

 Damnable" — Miniature of Cromwell — Etymology 

 of Church— The Konigsmarks — L' Homme de 14C0 

 Ans— Close of the Wady Mokatteb Question — Was 

 Queen Elizabeth dark or fair ? — Meaning of Knarres 



— Cheap Maps— English Free Towns — Sir Alexander 



Gumming and the Cherokees — Junius — Hell-Rake 



Ambassadors addressed as Peers — Red Book of the 

 Irish Exchequer — Yankee, Derivation of — Indian 

 Jugglers ; Ballad of Ashwell Thorp — Meaning of 

 Crabis — " 'Twas whispor'd in Heaven" — " Troilus 



and Cressida," Act I. Sc. 3. — Stone-pillar Worship 



John of Padua — Modern Greek Names of Places 



Beocherie, alias Parva Hibernia — Ruffles, when worn 



Long Meg of Westminster — Family Likenesses "A 



Roaring Meg " — Lyte Family — Nuremberg Token 



— The Old Countess of Desmond— Piralico — " Wise 



above that which is written " — Sir John Cheke 



Richard Earl of Chepstow — Maps of Africa — Lady 



Diana Beauclerk — "Litera Scripta maiiet" " Qui 



vult plene," &c. _ Engraved Portraits - - 255 



Miscellaneous : — 



Notes on Books, &c. - • _ 



Books and Odd Volumes wanted - 

 Notices to Correspondents 

 Advertisements - - - . 



- 261 



- 262 



- 262 



- 263 



Vol. V. — Xo. 124. 



fiatti, 



READINGS IN SHAKSPEARE, NO. III. 



Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 5. 

 " My tables, my tables, — meet it is I set It down." 



This line (which might have suggested to our 

 worthy patron, Captain Cuttle, the posy on our 

 title-page) has, In my opinion, been misapplied 

 and misinterpreted ; and, as I am unable to con- 

 vince myself that the view I take of it, albeit in 

 opposition to all other readers of Shakspeare, is 

 wrong, I venture to remove my light from under 

 the bushel, although in so doing I am sorely in 

 dread of its being rudely puffed upon. 



The more so, because the natural hesitation 

 which must be felt, in any case, when challenging 

 for the first time the correctness of a generally 

 received reading, is, in this instance, greatly aug- 

 mented, by finding that an illustrious commenter 

 upon Shakspeare — himself a great and congenial 

 poet — has conferred a special ajjprobation upon the 

 old reading, by choosing it out as an item in his 

 appreciation of Hamlet's character. 



I allude to Coleridge, whose remark is this : 



" Sliakspeare alone could have produced the vow of 

 Hamlet, to make his memory a blank of all maxims 

 and generalised truths that ' observation had copied 

 there,' followed immediately by the speaker noting 

 down the generalised fact — 



' That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain.' " 

 Now, that this last line is really what Shakspeare 

 intended to be noted down, is precisely the point that 

 goes so much " against the stomach of my sense ! " 



This jotting down by Hamlet, upon a real sub- 

 stantial table, of one of those " generalised truths " 

 which he had just excluded from the table of his 

 memory, would be such a literalising of the meta- 

 phor, that it is a great relief to me to feel con- 

 vinced that Shakspeare never intended it. 



In Hamlet's discourse there may lie observed 

 an under current of thought that is continually- 

 breaking forth in apostrophe. In the present in- 

 stance it is directed to his uncle : 

 " O villain, villain, smiling, damned villain ! 



That one may smile, and smile, and be a villain ! 



At least I'm sure it may be so in Denmark — 



So ! uncle, there you are I" . 



