462 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 133. 



revision of this work he (Goldsmith) received 201. : 

 but is there any proof of this? Mr, Prior, as I 

 understand him (see Life, \ol.\. p. 416.), merely 

 supposes that he might receive that sum, from the 

 prices paid for the other works of a similar kind. 



James Ckosslet. 



rOLK LORE. 



Eagles' Feathers. — Will any of the correspon- 

 dents of " N. & Q." favour me with an explana- 

 tion of the allusion in the following passage? 



" You must cast away the workes of darknes, and 

 then put on the armour of light : first you must put off, 

 and then put on. As the eagle s feathers will not lie with 

 any other feathers, hut consume them which lie with them: 

 so the wedding garment will not bee worne with filthie 

 garments," &c. 



The passage is from a sermon on Rom. xiil. 14., 

 entitled " The Wedding Garment." It is con- 

 tained in a volume in small 4to. (Lond. 1614), the 

 earlier portion of which contains six sermons by 

 Maister Henry Smith ; and the latter, in which the 

 above occurs, though it has no distinct title-page, 

 yet appeal's, from style and general appearance, to 

 be by the same author. Arncliffe. 



Fast Wind on Candlemas Day. — The following 

 couplet embodies a little bit of folk lore which, 

 from the long prevalence of easterly winds from 

 which we are suffering, may interest some of your 

 readers. 



" When the wind's in the east on Candlemas day. 

 There it will stick till the second of May," 



G.B. 



Placing Snuff on a Corpse. — " The custom of 

 placing a plate of salt on the body of the dead " 

 has already been noticed in " N. & Q." I am in- 

 formed that a custom obtains in some parts of 

 Ireland, of placing a plate of snuff in the same 

 situation ; and that it is etiquette for all those who 

 are invited to the funeral to take a pinch on ar- 

 riving at the house of mourning. Hence has 

 arisen the not very delicate threat, "I'll get a 

 pinch of snuff off your belly yet ! " by which Paddy 

 would intimate to his riv.al his intention to survive 

 him, and to crow over his remains. This must, 

 indeed, be a pinch of " rale Irish." 



Alfred Gattt, 



ON A PASSAGE IN KING IIENRT IV,, PART I. ACT V. 



sc. 2. 



Pursuant to my conviction that most of the 

 obscure passages in our great poet's dramas arise 

 from typographical errors in the early editions, I 

 submit the following suggested correction of an 

 error in a noble passage, which has hitherto passed 

 unnoticed, to the candid consideration of those who 

 can enter into the spirit of the poet, and are not 



pertinaciously wedded to the lapses of a very care- 

 less printer ; to whom, in my opinion, the editors 

 of the first folio confided its correction. Other- 

 wise, we must presume they were unaccustomed to 

 such labour, and in the hurry of active life did 

 their best, however imperfectly. 



I must be indulged with rather a long extract, 

 that the reader may be enabled at once to judge 

 whether the words I impugn are in harmony with 

 the tone and spirit of Hotspur's speech. 

 " Enter a Messenger. 



Mess. My lord, here are letters for you. 



Hot. I cannot read them now. • 



O gentlemen, the time of life is short; 

 To spend that shortness basely, were too long, 

 If life did ride upon a dial's point. 

 Still ending at the arrival of an hour. 

 An if we live, we live to tread on kings ; 

 If die, brave death, when princes die with us ! 

 Now for our consciences, — the arms are fair, 

 When the intent of bearing them is just. 

 Enter another Messenger. 



Mess. My lord, prepare ; the king comes on apace* 



Hot. I thank him, that he cuts me from my tale, 

 For I profess not talking : only this — 

 Let each man do his best : and here draw I ^ 

 A sword, whose temper I intend to stain 

 With the best blood that I can draw withal 

 In the adventure of this perilous day. 

 Now, — Esperance ! — Percy ! — and set on,— 

 Sound all the lofty instruments of war. 

 And ])y that musick let us all embrace : 

 For, heaven to earth, some of us never shall 

 A second time do sucli a courtesy." 



What are we to understand by the words " For 

 heaven to earth," in the last line but one? Can 

 they be tortured, by any ingenuity, to signify, a* 

 Warburton paraphrases them, " One might wager 

 heaven to earth" ? To say nothing of such an 

 extraordinary and unwonted ellipsis, would it not 

 be a strange wager, and stranger thought, to enter 

 Hotspur's mind at such a moment ? I feel assured 

 that Shakspeare wrote, and that we should read : 

 " Sound all the lofty instruments of war. 

 And by that musick let us all embrace:'. 

 For here on earth, some of us never shall 

 A second time do such a courtesy." 



If it should be thought that here on could not 

 well be mistaken, even in MS., for heaven to, X 

 reply that stranger misreadings of the compositor 

 could be easily adduced ; and that even in the pre- 

 ceding page we have one at any rate more wide of 

 the mark, where supposition is printed in both the 

 folios for suspicion. 



How this extraordinary reading should have 

 hitherto escaped suspicion, I am at a loss to 

 imagine, and feel assured that no one who is com- 

 petent to enter into the spirit of this exquisitely 

 conceived passage, which breathes the true ex- 

 pression of heroic pathos, will attempt a vindication 

 of the old readinjr. S, W. Singer. 



