368 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2°i S. No 45., Nov. 8. '56. 



Library, from which the above elep;y Is taken. 

 Amongst these are " Verses upon Chloris," " To 

 I\Irs. Madlean or Maitland," a funeral elegy " on 

 the same deserving gentlewoman, May 10, 1652," 

 " Silva Vivens, done by the same Hand," " Upon 

 the death of Barrack's Lady, who dyed about 

 midle age." This last person was the wife of 

 Sinclair of Barrack, probably George, who mar- 

 ried, 1st., Anne, daughter of John Dunbar of Hem- 

 prigs ; 2nd, Elizabeth, daughter of David Murray 

 of Clarden ; and 3rd, Elizabeth, daughter of the 

 Eev. William Cumaing, minister of Halkirk. 

 Which of these three was the lady lamented by 

 her kinsman is uncertain. 



Alexander St. Clare was, we have no doubt, 

 St. Clare of Roslyn, who married Jean, daughter 

 of Robert, seventh Lord Seraple. 



Marion SydserfF was a sister of the author of 

 Tarngd's Wiles, a comedy. Thomas, or, as he is 

 usually styled, Sir Thomas, was a loyal subject of 

 the house of Stuart, and for some time manager 

 of the theatre in the Cannongate. He was the 

 author, or rather editor, of the Caledonius Mer- 

 curius, of which there is a complete set In the 

 library of the Faculty of Advocates. The comedy, 

 which Is exceedingly rare, and usually brings from 

 one to two guineas — when it occurs for sale — 

 possesses considerable merit. J. M. 



8HAKSPEARIANA. 



" When we have shuffled off this mortal coil" 

 (2"'' S. I. 151. 221.; ii. 207. 284.) — "Not to 

 crack the wind of the poor phrase," I must be 

 allowed to answer X.'s ignorutio elenchi at the 

 last reference. He says of me, "Nor does he 

 produce any passage from any author to counten- 

 ance his interpretation of body " (meaning " of 

 coil "). First, body for " coil," is not my inter- 

 pretation, but is a popular misinterpretation. It 

 was to expose It that I originally ventilated the 

 subject in " N. & Q." Secondly, I did produce 

 three passages from printed books, each being an 

 example of the use of "coil" for body ^ and I did 

 so, not Indeed to countenance that use, but to 

 show that It was in vogue. Now how did the 

 blunder originate ? I have lately received a letter 

 from a gentleman who is a stranger to me, written 

 partly with the object of strengthening my posi- 

 tion, that most people do understand body by the 

 word " coil " when they read Hamlet, and of ex- 

 plaining how the error arises. He cites Serjeant 

 Shee's defence of Palmer, which affords another 

 example : and he considers that the public mind 

 confounds Col. Hi. 9. with the passage in question, 

 and the natural history of Snakes (the coiled 

 tribe), in casting or " putting oif their sloughs." 

 He calls to mind that St. Paul uses a-inK^vonai, 

 which is the word employed by Greek naturalists 



for expressing the annual casting of Its skin by a 

 snake. He also refers to 2 Cor. v. 1 — 5., as pos- 

 sibly assisting the confusion. Perhaps thus sup- 

 position may be received as an account of the 

 origin of the blunder. X.'s remark on the anti- 

 thesis between "coil" and "quietus" is excellent, 

 and shows that he knows how to employ a power- 

 ful instrument to unpick Shakspearian bolts. 

 Another time he -nMld do well to read the Notes 

 he professes to cenWR. C, Mansfield Ingleby* 

 Birmingham. 



''Mortal Coil" (2"'^ S. II. 206.) — If Mr. 

 Ingleby had admitted, among his "Intelligent 

 friends," those far-famed masters of the English 

 tongue William Warburton and Samuel Johnson, 

 and asked them what they understood by " mortal 

 coil," he most assuredly would not have received 

 the reply, — "Why! the body of the person who 

 makes his quietus." And had he pursued his In- 

 quiry, and asked his own friends, " Quietus, from 

 what? From the body: the body make his 

 quietus from the body ? " this unavoidable con- 

 sequitur would surely (we borrow an expression 

 of Cowper) have ramfeezled the whole party, 

 Mr. Ingleby and his friends; and they would 

 have seen at once, with Warburton and all suc- 

 ceeding editors, that this " mortal coil" must mean 

 the coil — the unquiet state or condition — of this 

 mortal life — "those troublous storms that toss 

 the private state, and make the life unsweet." 



A poet laureat celebrating, in the year 1761, 

 the birth- day of " our (afterwards) good old king," 

 furnishes us with the following lines, pat to the 

 purpose : 



" By Temprance nurs'd, and early taught 

 To tame each hydra of the soul, 

 Each lurking pest ; which mocks its birth, 

 And ties its spirit down to earth, 

 Immers'd in mortal coiV 



Whitehead, Ode G.* 



I say, pat to the purpose, for it shows, as I con- 

 tend, that "mortal coil" refers to the condition of 

 mortality ; and may refer, not only to its unquiet, 

 its troublous condition, but, as In the poet laureat, 

 perhaps to Its corrupt or sinful condition. Q. 



Bloomsbury. 



I think that there can be little doubt that these 

 words In Hamlet do bear reference to the body. 

 It Is not Improbable that they were suggested to 

 Shakspeare by the words In Romans vii. 24. : " O 

 wretched man that I am ! Who shall deliver me 

 from the body of this death ? " Hermann Hugo, 

 in his Pia Desideria, has adopted the same idea ; 

 and in one of his emblems represents a man en- 

 caged within a huge death or skeleton, — a notion 

 stolen from him, like most of his other notions, by 

 Francis Quarles, in his Emblems. 



Henry T. Riley. 



♦ Quoted by Richardson, except the first line. 



