May 22. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



485 



similar character, namely, tlie copy of the third 

 folio, with numerous MS. emendations in a coeval 

 hand, mentioned by Lowndes, p. 1646., as having 

 some years since sold for QoL, on account of those 

 MS. emendations. This volume contains several 

 hundred very curious and important corrections, 

 amongst which I may mention an entirely new 

 reading of the difficult passage at the commence- 

 ment oi Measure for Measure, which carries con- 

 viction with it, and shows, what might have been 

 reasonably expected, that that to is a misprint for 

 a verb. There are numerous other corrections of 

 equal importance, but I forbear at present to 

 notice them, under the conviction it Is not safe to 

 adopt MS. corrections, unless we know on what 

 authority they are made. It was on this account 

 I ventured to indicate the extreme danger of 

 adopting any of the MS. readings of Me. Colliek's 

 second folio, without a most rigid examination, or 

 until their authority was unquestionably ascer- 

 tained. Now, in Mr. Collier's first two commu- 

 nications to the Athenceum there was scarcely a 

 single example which indicated it was derived 

 from an authentic source, but many, on the other 

 hand, which could be well believed to be mere 

 guess-work ; and it was rather alarming to see the 

 readiness with which they were received, threaten- 

 ing the loss of Shakspeare's genuine text. 



A ray of light, however, at length appears in the 

 new reading in Coriolanus. This, more than any 

 other, ^ives hopes of important results ; and it does 

 something more than this : it opens a reasonable 

 expectation that the MS. corrector had, in some 

 cases, recollection of the passages as they were 

 delivered in representation. Once establish a 

 probability of this, and although many of the cor- 

 rections must still be looked upon as conjectural, 

 the volume will be of high value. The correction 

 " bisson multitude " seems to me to be clearly one 

 of those alterations that no conjectural ingenuity 

 coidd have suggested. The volume has evidently 

 been used for stage purposes ; and it may be taken 

 as almost beyond a doubt that that particular cor- 

 rection was made on authority. We can scarcely 

 imagine that authority to be a MS. of the play, 

 and are therefore thrown on the supposition the 

 corrector sometimes altered from memory, and 

 sometimes from conjecture, writing as he thought 

 Shakspeare ought to have written, even if he did 

 not. 



_ It is scarcely necessary to say these observa- 

 tions are grounded solely on what is already 

 before the public. The appearance of Mr. Col- 

 lier's volume may modify their effect either one 

 way or the other ; and perhaps I am committing a 

 literary trespass on my friend's manor in thus pre- 

 maturely entering into an argument on the subject. 

 But Mr. Collier, with his usual liberality, has 

 invited rather tiian deprecated discussion ; and 

 having expressed in print opinions grounded on 



his first two communications, it would be uncan- 

 did in me not to acknowledge they are in some 

 degree modified by the very important correction 

 since published. J. O. Halliwell. 



THE GRAVE-STONE OF JOB MILLER. 



In consequence of the disfranchisement of St. 

 Clement's burial-ground, Portugal Street, Clare 

 Market, the last memorial of " honest Jo" is con- 

 demned for removal ; and this being the case, I 

 have forwarded for "IST. & Q." a copy of the in- 

 scription. The epitaph written by Stephen Duck, 

 and the stone itself, were, about the beginning of 

 the present century, in jeopardy of obliteration, 

 but for the compassion, of Mr. Bulgen, the grave- 

 digger ; and being still in a very bad condition, 

 Mr. Buck a few years afterwards repaired it. The 

 following is the inscription : 



" Here Lye the Remains of 

 honest Jo. Miller 



who was 

 a tender Ilusband, 

 a sincere Friend, 

 a facetious Companion, 

 and an excellent Comedian. 

 He departed this Life the 15th day of 

 August 1738, aged 54 years. 

 If humour, wit, and honesty could save 

 The humorous, witty, honest from the grave. 

 The grave had not so soon this tenant found, 

 Whom honesty, and wit, and humour crowned ; 

 Could but esteem and love preserve our breath. 

 And guard us longer from this stroke of death. 

 The stroke of death on him had later fell, 

 Whom all mankind esteemed and loved so well. 

 S. Duck. 

 From respect to social worth, 

 mirthful qualities, and histrionic excellence, 

 commemorated by poetic talent, humble life, 

 the above inscription, which Time 

 had nearly obliterated, has been restored 

 and transferred to this stone by order of 



Mr. Jakvis Buck, Churchwarden. 



A.D. 1816." 



FOLK LORE. 



Unicorn. 



Smearing on a Skull. — In April, 1851, a man 

 was committed to Mayo prison for cutting off" the 

 head of a corpse but a few days interred. His 

 object in severing the head was that of clearino- 

 himself of some imputed crime by swearing on a 

 skull, a superstition said to be very common in 

 that part of Ireland. Philip S. King. 



New Moon. — If, when you look at the new 

 moon for the first time', you think of one parti- 



