NOTES AND QUERIES: 



A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION 



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LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, ETC, 



** DtThen found, make a note of." — Captain Cuttle. 



Vol. V. —No. 121.] Saturday, February 21. 1852. 



r Price Fourpence. 



t Stamped Edition, Crf. 



CONTENTS. 



Notes : — Page 



Readings in Shakspeare, No. II. - - - - lfi9 



National Defences - - . - - - 171 



Notes on Homer, No. II., by Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie 171 

 Folk Lore: — Fernseed — Cornish Koik Lore - - 172 



Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words - - 173 



The Last of the Palaeologi - - - . -173 



The last Lay of Petrarch's Cat - - - - 174 



Minor Notes: — Sobriquet — Origin of Paper — Per- 

 sistency of Proper Names — Cheap Maps - - 174 



QcGRiES : — 



Did .St. Paul quote Aristotle ? by Thomas H. Gill - 175 

 Minor Queries: — Silver Koy.il Font — L' Homme de 



1400 Ans — Llandudno, on the (ireat Orme's Head 



Johnson's House, Bolt Court — Bishop Mossom — 

 Orlando Gibbons — Portraits — Barnard's Church 

 Music — The Nelson Family — L-tters to the Clergy 



— Margaret Burr — Northern Ballads — " Blamed be 

 the man," &c.— " Quid est Epist:o|)us"— Henry Isaac 



— German Poet quoted by Camden — American De- 

 grees— Derivation of News — Passage in Troilus and 

 Cressida — Bachelor's Buttons - Princes of Wales and 

 Earls of Chester, eldest Sons of the Kings of England 



— Authenticated Instances of Longevity - - 17.5 

 Minor Queries Answered: — Laud's Letters and Pa- 

 pers—Scot's Philomythie — Robin of Doncaster — 

 Horae Belgicie — Dulcarnoa - . _ . 179 



Replies : — 



Number of the Children of Israel . _ . _ I80 



Serjeants' Rings and Mottoes, by J. B. Colman, &c. - 181 

 Learned Men of the Name of Bacon - - _ I8I 



Collar of SS. -.._-- 182 



The Konigsmarks - - - - - - 183 



Boiling Criminals to De.ith, by J. B. Colman, &c. - 184 

 " Admonition to the Parliament" - - - 184 



" Sir Edward Seaward 's Narrative," by W. H. Lam- 



min, Sic. •.-.-.. 18.5 

 General Wolfe -.-._. 185 

 Replies to Minor Queries : — Co-rmemoration of Bene- 

 factors—King Robert Bruce's Watch — Hornchurch 



Buzz — Melody of the Dying Swan — " From the Sub- 

 lime to the Ridiculous is but a Step" — " Carmen per- 

 petuum," \c. — Sterne at Paris — The Paper of the 

 present Day — Cimmerii, Cimbri— Rents of Assize- 

 Monastic Establishments in Scotland — History of 

 Brittany — Marches of Wales, and Lords Maiche.-s — 

 The Broad Arrow— Miniature of Cromwell — The 

 Sinaitic lU'^criptions— Why cold Pudding settles One's 



Love— Covines — " Arborei foetus alibi," &c Po- 



iiiatowski Gems ---... 186 



MlSCELlANEOCS : — 



Notes on Books, &c. - . - - _ 190 



Books and Odd Volumes wanted - - - - 190 



Ndtices to Correspondents . - - - 191 



Advertisements - . • , . - 191 



Vol. v. — jSro.121. 



READINGS IN SHAKSPEAHE, NO. II. 



Hamlet, Act I. So. 4. 



" The dram of eale 

 Doth all the noble substance of a donbt 

 To his own scandal." — Quarto of 1604. 



" The dram of eafe." 



Quarto of 1603. 

 " The dfam of ill 

 Doth all the noble substance often dout. 

 To his own scandal." — Knight and Collier. 



I cannot look upon this emendation, althougli 

 sanctioned by the two latest editors of Shakspeare. 

 as by any means a happy one. The original word 

 in the second quarto, " ease," so nearly resembles 

 " eale" in the first quarto (especially when printed 

 with the old-fashioned long " f") ; and the sub.se- 

 quent transition from ease to base is so extremely 

 obvious, and at the same time so thoroughly con- 

 sistent with the sense, that it is difficult to imagine 

 any plausible ground for the rejection of base in 

 favour of ill. Drain was formerly used (as grain 

 is at present) to signify an indefinitely small quan- 

 tity ; so that " the dram of base " presents as in- 

 telligible an expression as can be desired. 



But in addition to its easy deduction from the 

 original, base possesses other recommendations, in 

 being the natural antagonist of noble in the line 

 following, and in the capability of being under- 

 stood either in a moral or physical sense. 



If the whole passage be understood as merely 

 assertive, then base may have, in common with ill, 

 a moral signification; but if it be understood as 

 a metaphorical allusion to substantial matter, in 

 illustration of the moral reflections that have gone 

 befi)re, then base must be taken (which ill cannot) 

 in the physical sense, as a base substance, and, as 

 such, in still more direct antagonism to the noble 

 substance opposed to it. 



In a former paper I had occasion to notice the 

 intimate knowledge possessed by Shakspeare in 

 the arcana of the several arts ; and I now recog- 

 nise, in this passage, a metaphorical allusion to the 

 degradation of gold b}' the admixture of baser 

 metal. Gold and lead have always been in poet- 

 ical opposition as types of the noble and the base ; 



