588 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 138. 



Imogen's allusion to the jai/ of Italy. In that case, 

 also, the moral sense may be nnderstood as imply- 

 ing the absence of all principle other than that 

 derived from her own gaudy vanity. 



Were I disposed to cavil, I might, in my turn, 

 question Mb. Hicksoh's estimate of Phebe's beauty. 

 Surely Rosalind's depreciation of it is not real, 

 but only assumed, for the purpose of humbling 

 Phebe ! Inky brows, black silh hair, bugle eye-balls, 

 cheek of cream — these are not items in a catalogue 

 of ugliness ! 



Me. Hickson's second objection (p. 573.) is to 

 my explanation of the demonstrative that in the 

 Duke's opening speech in Measure for Measure. 

 He thinks that, according to " the language we in 

 England use," the Duke would have used the word 

 this instead of that. 



Does Mr. Hickson seriously mean to say that 

 Shakspeare's language is to be scanned by our 

 present ideas of correctness ? Is the bold sweep 

 of the Master's hand to be measured by the gradu- 

 ation of modern convention? Are there no 

 instances in Shakspeare of the indiscriminate sub- 

 stitution of personal and impersonal pronouns — 

 of active and passive participles — of words and 

 phrases waiting upon the magician's wind, like 

 familiar spirits, to be moulded to his will, and 

 acknowledging no rule but of his creation ? 



But, in the present case, I will not admit that 

 •any such licence is necessary. To Mr. Hickson's 

 question, " Is this the language we in England 

 use ?" I answer. It is ! 



We do, even at the present day, say to a mes- 

 senger, " Take that to," &c., even befoi-e we have 

 transferred the missive from our hand to his. I 

 can even fancy an individual, less anxious perhaps 

 about grammar than benevolence, stretching forth 

 tii some unfortunate, and exclaiming, while yet his 

 intended gif; was in his own keeping, " There 

 needs but that to your relief — there it is!" 



It does not seem to have occurred to Mr. HrcK- 

 SON that the same " fotal objection" which he 

 brings forward against that, might also be pleaded 

 against there. AVhen the Duke says, " There is 

 our commission:" why not, '■'■ Here is our com- 

 mission " ? There stands precisely in the same 

 relation to that, as here does to this ! A. E. B. 



Leeds. 



THE TERM " MILESIAN. 



(Vol. v., p. 453.) 



In reference to the communication of Mr. 

 Richards, but I have not seen Mr. Eraser's 

 Query, I beg to observe, for the honour of " Old 

 Ireland," that upwards of thirty years since, the 

 Royal Irish Academy awarded to me a prize of 

 80^., with the Cunningham gold medal, for an 

 Mssay on the Ancient History, Sfc. of Ireland. It 



was published in the sixteentli volume of their 

 Transactions to an extent of 380 pages quarto ; 

 and Mr. Moore has done me the honour to write 

 to nie, that it was his guide throughout the first 

 two volumes of his history of this country. In 

 that Essay, I have written very fully of the " Mile- 

 sian " colonisation ; so called, not directly from 

 Milesius himself, but from his two sons, Heber 

 and Heremon, who led the expedition. The native 

 annalists represent the course of the emigrants 

 through the Mediterranean by such progressive 

 stages as indicate the state and progress of the 

 Phoenicians after their exodus under the conduct 

 of Cadmus; though the ingenuity of the Bards 

 occasionally introduced that colouring of romance, 

 which perhaps can alone make very remote objects 

 distinguishable. External testimonies of these 

 oriental wanderers are traceable through Hero- 

 dotus, lib. iv. c. 42. ; Pliny, c. 86. ; Nennius, Hist. 

 Britt., c. 9. ; Thomas Walsingham, Ypodigma 

 Neustrice ad ann. 1185. The venerable Wintoun 

 adopts all the traditions of the Irish Chronicles on 

 the subject (Cronyk. of Scotl., lib. ii. c. 9.) ; and 

 ]\Iacpherson declares (^Dissertation, p. 15.) that 

 such of the ancient records of Scotland as escaped 

 the barbarous policy of Edward I. support this 

 account. The writers on Spanish history, the 

 Hispania Illustrata, De Bellegarde's Hist. Gen. 

 d'Espagne, vol. i. c. i. p. 4., Emanuel de Faria y 

 Sousa, &c., carry the links through Spain; and 

 such indeed has been the long and general faith in 

 the tradition, that it has been actually embodied, 

 even to the names of those alleged leaders Heber 

 and Heremon, in an act of parliament (of Ireland 

 I must admit) in the eleventh year of the reign 

 of Queen Elizabeth, and through an occurrence 

 therein engrafted upon it is expressly derived one 

 of Her Majesty's — 



" Auntient and sundrie strong authentique tytles for 

 the Kings of England to this land of Ireland." 



John D' Alton. 



48. Summer Hill, Dublin. 



BEN. JONSOn's adopted SONS. 



(Vol. v., p. 537.) 

 I doubt if AlexaTider Brome was one of Ben.. 

 Jonson's adopted sons. It is not improbable, 

 however, that Richard Brome (author of the 

 comedies of The Northern Lass and the Antipodes) 

 was one. In Ben. .lonson's Underwoods is a poem 

 to Richard Brome " on his comedy of The Northern 

 Lass," whicli commences thus : 



" I had you for a servant once, Dick Brome, 



And you perform'd a servant's faithful parts, j 

 Now you are got into a nearer room 

 Of fellowship, professing my old arts." 



Thomas Randolph was certainly one of Jonson's 

 sons. See in his Poems (4 th edit. p. 17.) : "A 



