2nd s. N<» 45., Nov. 8. '56.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



369 



" Sheaf ^' or « Chief {1''^ S. li. 206.) — Was 

 Mb. Ingleby aware of the following passage, 

 quoted in tUe notes to the Variorum editions of 

 fcjhakspeare : 



" It hath been noted, in the warmer climates, the peo- 

 ple are more wise ; but in the northern climates, the wits 

 of chief (ingenia, qujB eminent,) are greater." — Bacon, 

 ^able of the Colours of Good and Evil. 



Chief, it is plain, has the same heraldic preten- 

 sions as sheaf. It was so called from the place it 

 occupied in the shield. But " Non nostrum tan- 

 tam componere litem." 



I do not share in the prevaHing ambition to 

 improve Shakspeare. Q. 



Bloomsbury. 



Shakspeare and Sir John Falstaff. — 



" A j'oung gentle lady of your acquaintance, having 

 read y" works of Shakespeare, made me this question : — 

 How Sir John Falstaife, or Fastalf, as he is written in y^ 

 statute book of Maudlin Colledge in Oxford, where everye 

 day that society were bound to make meraorie of his soul, 

 could be dead in y" time of Harrie y'' tift, and again live 

 in y time of Harrie y" sixt, to be banished for cowardice ? 

 Whereto I made answear, that it was one of those hu- 

 mours and mistakes for which Plato banisht all poets out 

 of his commonwealth. That Sir John Falstaflfe was in 

 those times a noble, valiant souldier, as apeeres by a 

 book in y" Heralds' Office dedicated unto him by a Herald 

 who had binne with him, if I well remember, for the 

 space of 25 yeeres in y" French wars ; that he seems also 

 to have binne a man of learning, because, in a Library of 

 Oxford, I find a book of dedicating Churches sent from 

 him for a present unto Bishop Wainflete, and inscribed 

 with his own liand. That in Shakespeare's first shew of 

 Harrie the fift, the person with which he undertook to playe 

 a buffone was not Falstaffe, but S"" Jhon Oldcastle ; and 

 that offence being worthily taken by personages de- 

 scended from his title (as peradventure by many others 

 allsoe), whoe putt to make an ignorant shifte of abusing 

 S"" Jhon Fastolphe, a man not inferior of vertue, though 

 not so famous in pietie as the other who gave witnesse 

 unto the truth of our reformation with a constant and 

 resolute martyrdom, unto which he was pursued by the 

 Priests, Bishops, Moncks, and Friers of those daj'cs," — 

 (From a MS. by Rich. James, B.D., Fellow of Christ 

 Church, Oxford, born 1692.) 



The above I found written on the fly-leaf of a 

 printed book, Cl. Hopper. 



Was Lord Bacon the Author of the Plays at- 

 tributed to Shakspeare (2"'> S. ii. 267.) — As your 

 correspondent has furnished a somewhat striking 

 coincidence between an expression of Shakspeare 

 and a passage of a letter written by Lord Bacon, 

 it may be worth while to preserve in " N. & Q." 

 a summary of Mr. W. H. Smith's argument on 

 the point in question. He contends, 1. That the 

 character of Shakspeare, as sketched by Pope, is 

 the exact biography of Bacon. 2. That Bacon 

 possessed dramatic talent to a high degree, and 

 could, according to his biographers, " assume 

 the most different characters, and speak the lan- 



guage proper to each with a facility that was per- 

 fectly natural." 3. That he wrote and assisted 

 at bal masques, and was the intimate friend of 

 Lord Southampton, the acknowledged patron of 

 Shakspeare. 4. That the first folio of 1623 was 

 not published till Bacon had been driven to pri- 

 vate life, and had leisure to revise his literary 

 works ; and that as he was obliged to raise money 

 by almost any means, it is at least probable that 

 he did so by writing plays. 5. That Shakspeare 

 was a man of business rather than poetry, and 

 acknowledged his poems and sonnets, but never 

 laid claim to the plays. Vox. 



James I.'s Letter to Shakspeare. — In the intro- 

 ductory remarks prefixed to Lintot's reprints of 

 Shakspeare s Poems, it is stated, on the authority 

 of a person then living, tliat Sir William Dave- 

 nant had possessed an original letter written by 

 James to Shakspeare. Tlie letter, however, was 

 not then known to be in existence. Is anything 

 now known of such letter ? or of any other re- 

 ference or allusion to it ? J. L. S. 



Coleridge. — A gentleman well known in the 

 musical world, Mr. George Rudall, has recently 

 told me the following anecdote. Many years ago, 

 at a musical party at the house of Mr. Skey, 

 Highgate, Mr. Eudall met Mr. Coleridge. Mr. 

 Rudall having performed upon the flute, he was 

 addressed by Mr. Coleridge ; who told him that " he 

 felt there was a poetry in his playing, and that he 

 was convinced that he could set to music a stanza 

 which he (Mr. Coleridge) would give him." Ac- 

 cordingly, he immediately wrote the ensuing, and 

 presented it to Mr. Rudall ; saying, that the next 

 time he should have the pleasure of meeting him, 

 he would give him a second stanza : — 

 " A sunny shaft did I behold. 



From sky to earth it slanted ; 



And poiz'd therein, a bird so bold, 



Sweet bird, thou wert enchanted : 



He sank, he rose, he twinkled, he twirl'd, 



Within that shaft of sunny mist; 



And thus he sang, Adieu, adieu ; 



Love's dreams prove seldom true: 



Sweet month of May, I must away ; 



Away! awayl to-day! to-day." 



This stanza, as far as Mr. Rudall knows, never 

 has found its way into print ; and I have there- 

 fore requested him to let me offer it to " N. & Q." 

 A second meeting never took place, and Mr. 

 Rudall has also to regret having lent and lost the 

 poet's autograph. Alfred RorrE. 



Somers' Town. 



Talleyrand and Shakspeare. — Talleyrand is re- 

 ported to have said of the Emperor Napoleon's 



