2nd s. X. Dec. 8. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



453 



I have divided, requires a little humouring, but 

 even that has " the five accents," which the laws 

 of metre require : — 



. . . . . "I should hope. 

 That no unprejudiced mind will fail 

 To recognise the presence of metre in 

 The extracts which I have given. I have gone 

 Through be | tween seven | and eight | hundred | prose 



pages 1 

 Of Shakspeare, and marked out the verse without 

 A single failure ; I have done the same 

 With several pla3-3 of other dramatists 

 With the like success ; and I therefore think myself 

 EntitIM to claim the merit of 

 Discovery. It will be long, however, 

 I apprehend before my claim will be 

 Gene'rally recognized, for great is the strength 

 Of prejudice." 



W. L. iJ^icnoLS. 



Grasmere. 



It appears to me that by Mr. Keightlet's 

 " five metric accents " you may make blank verse 

 out of anything. Take Mr. Keightley's own 



article : — 



" This, it will be seen, is, if not exactly. 

 Very nearly the same verse as that of Chaucer, 

 And the question is, did Lyly borrow it 

 From him, or invent it independently ? — 

 A question which cannot be answered." 



Again : — 



" I should hope that no unprejudiced mind 

 Will fail to recognise the presence of metre 

 In the extracts which I have given. I have gone 



through 

 Between seven and eight hundred prose pages 

 Of Shakspere, and marked out the verse 

 Without a single failure ; I have done 

 The same with several plays of other dramatists," 

 &c. &c. 



And I have done the same with Mb. Keight- 



UET. 



The truth probably is, that the old dramatists, 

 writing blank verse by the mile, often fell uncon- 

 sciously into the rhythm of it when writing prose, 

 just as Mrs. Siddons used to talk unintentional 

 blank verse. Mortimer Colijns. 



Nottingham. 



.« THE CAUSIDICADE." 

 (2"'' S. X. 412.) 



It so happens that by the somewhat equivocal 

 kindness of a humorous friend, who has no great 

 partiality to the profession, this poem, which is a 

 satire upon the lawyers of above a century ago, has 

 been sent to me to read and digest. The vehicle 

 used for the fun is the resignation of the Solicitor- 

 Generalship by Sir John Strange in November, 

 1742, and the claims of the various supposed can- 

 didates for the place, their several peculiarities of 

 character and manner being amusingly depicted. 

 It can be of little present interest, because the 



names even of most of the claimants are wholly 

 unknown to the public, and will be recognised with 

 very little traditional remembrance in the courts 

 of Westminster Hall, the modern frequenters of 

 which might easily employ their vacant minutes by 

 adapting the different pictures to the oddities of 

 their professional colleagues. Some well-known 

 men, however, are mentioned, and among them a 

 few who afterwards became judges ; the sly hits 

 at whose individual characteristics * will be so 

 likely to give useful hints to Mr. Foss for his next 

 volumes, that I shall recommend my friend to 

 lend it to him. The best of the joke is that the 

 President of the pretended arena, the Lord Chan- 

 cellor Hardwicke, after refusing two claimants, 

 Campbell and Hamilton, because they were Scotch- 

 men, is compelled, by the dictation of the new 

 ministry, which succeeded Sir Robert Walpole, to 

 give the appointment to another Scotchman, Wil- 

 liam Murray (subsequently the renowned Chief 

 Justice Lord Mansfield), against whom the author 

 does not venture a shaft of his wit, except what 

 may be implied in these lines : — 



" Then M y prepar'd with a fine Panegyrick 



In praise of himself, would have spoke it like Garrick." 



The then existing and future judges who come 

 under the author's lash, besides the Lord Chancel- 

 lor and Sir John Strange, are William Noel, For- 

 tescue, Abney, Parker, Lloyd, Gundrey, Willes, 

 and Thomas Clarke. 



Your printer has misread the name of the nomi- 

 nal author, which is " Porcupinus Pelagius," and 

 substituted " Strange Promotion " for " Sti'anger 

 Promotion," in opposition to " Strange Resigna- 

 tion." A Templar. 



ALE AND BEER : ORIGIN OF PORTER. 



(2°'i S. X. 229. 334.) 



The question of the relative value of ale and 

 beer in the present day receives some illustration 

 from a comparison of the terms in use for the 

 same articles by our forefathers, as shown in our 

 municipal records 400 hundred years since ; for 

 in the corporation accounts for -this town, temp. 

 Hen. VI. and VII., occur the following entries : — 



" 1432. Item, paj^d to Davy, berebrewere for a pyp of 

 here that was droncke at the Barryeate when the ffurst 

 aflfray was of the ffrensheraen - - vj'. viij"^." 



1497. Among the expences of the "-law-day" 

 feast at " Cutthorne Crosse " on the official peram- 

 bulation of the boundaries will be found 



' Half a barrell of doble bere 

 Haifa barell^ne dobyl beere - 

 Ten galons peny ale 

 Ale and Bere - - - 



xx^. 

 xijd. 



Xd. 



ij». viij<5." 



[* Our readers would be interested (we think) with any 

 of these " slv hits " which our correspondent can explain. 

 — Ed. "N.&Q."] 



