Sept. 29. 1855.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



239 



non solum ingenium texit, verum etiam salutem defendit. 

 Qiiotidie maternum larem pleno sordiiim torpore com- 

 plexus, abjectum humi corpus obscojni squaloris illuvie 

 respergebat. Turpatus oris color, illitaque tabo facias 

 ridiculse stoliditatis dementiam iigurabant. Quicquid 

 voce £edebat, deliramentis consentaiieum erat. Quicquid 

 opere exliibuit, profundam redolebat inertiam. Quid 

 niulta? Non virum aliquem, sed delirantis fortunaa 

 ridendum diceres monstrum. Interdum foco assidens, 

 favillasque manibus verrens, ligneos uncos creare, eos- 

 demque igni durare solitus erat : quorum extrema con- 

 trariis quibusdam hamis, quo nexuum tenaciores ex- 

 isterent, informabat. Rogatus quid ageret, acuta se 

 referebat in ultionem patris spicula prajparare." 



" Though this be madness, yet there's method in 

 it," as Polonlus says aside. 



" Nee parvo responsum ludibrio fuit, quod ab omnibus 

 ridiculi operis vanitas contemncretur, quanquam ea res 

 proposito ejus postmodum opitulata fuerit. Quas solertia 

 apud altioris ingenii spectatores primam ei calliditatis 

 suspicionem injecit. Ipsa namque exiguae artis industria, 

 arcanum opificis ingenium figurabat. Nee credi poterat 

 obtusi cordis esse, cui tarn exculto manus artificio callu- 

 isset : denique exactissima cura praeustorum stipitum 

 congeriem asservare solebat." 



Many mad pranks are recorded by Saxo. To 

 test the reality of his madness, female charms 

 were tried ; he stood that test in a way that 

 would furnish materials for a low comedy. The 

 cliaracter of madness depicted in its reality by 

 Ophelia is minutely distinguished from Hamlet's 

 assumed insanity. Shakspeare seems to have 

 been afraid of making Hamlet's madness too much 

 like the true, and altered his first draft accord- 

 ingly (Knight's Studies, p. 59.). The opinion of 

 such a man as Dr. ConoUy would be of great 

 value as a criticism on the real and assumed in- 

 sanity pourtrayed in tliis play. Shakspeare refers 

 to the slovenly, but not to the dirty, habits of 

 Hamlet; the latter could not well suit tragedy 

 which aims at the beau ideal. Ophelia says : 



" Lord Hamlet, with bis doublet all unbraced ; 

 No hat upon his head ; his stockings foul'd, 

 Uiigarter'd, and down-g^'ved to his ankle." 



John Kemble's personation of Hamlet showed the 

 stocking of one leg turned down from the knee, 

 but so artistically done, as not to offend the de- 

 licacy of the most prudish. 



In the history, the distinguished and learned 

 courtier, the Polonius of the play, is detected se- 

 creting himself to overhear Hamlet's conversation 

 with his mother ; but nothing is therein said of 

 " a rat, a rat," by Saxo Grammaticus, as Dr. 

 Farmer thinks, for he had not even consulted the 

 work (Malone's edit., vol. i. p. 337.). In the 

 play Hamlet answers Fengo, the king, that Po- 

 lonius was "at supper, not where he eats, but 

 where he is eaten ; a certain convocation of politic 

 worms are e'en at him." In the history, Hamlet 

 being jokingly asked if he had seen any vestige of 

 him, answered that he (Polonius) had gone to a 

 place still little known in Italy, " had fallen to the 



No. 209.] 



bottom of it, ac nimia coeni mole obrutum, b, sub- 

 euntibus passim porcis esse consumptum." But 

 he did not say that he boiled Polonius first to 

 make him fit meat for the pigs ; " Cujus corpus in 

 partes conscissum, aquis ferventibus coxit. . . 

 . . atque ita miseris artubus ccenum putre con- 

 stravit." Saxo's remark on this reply of Hamlet 

 is, — 



" Quod dictum tametsi veri confessionem exprimeret, 

 quia specie stolidum videbatur, auditoribus ludibrio fuit." 



This affair, both in the history and in the play, 

 caused Hamlet to be sent to England to " recover 

 his wits there ; or, if he do not, 'tis no great matter 

 there," quoth the gravedigger. 



T. J. BUCKTON. 



Lichfield. 



PORSENA, THE EIGHTH KING OF ROME. 



The Story of Porsena and his expedition against 

 Rome has hitherto been one of the most inexpli- 

 cable phenomena which occur in the early history 

 of that city. On one point alone do modern his- 

 torians appear to be agreed, namely, that the 

 purport of his expedition can not have been to 

 restore the Tarquins ; but on every thing else, 

 what was its purport, and when he lived, the most 

 opposite opinions have been given. Thus Ihne 

 places him in the age of the elder Tarquin, while 

 Niebuhr brings him down to a somewhat advanced 

 period of the republic. I flatter myself that I 

 Iiave hit upon his real history, and this I now 

 proceed to lay before your readers. 



A singular custom existed at Rome of offering 

 at public sales the goods of King Porsena. Of 

 what place, I ask, was Porsena king? Not of 

 Eturia, for all accounts represent his power as 

 confined to Clusium ; and not of Clusium, for of 

 that city he was lars. This being so, I know of 

 no alternative than to set him down as king of 

 Rome. This conjecture may seem somewhat 

 startling, but it is strongly confirmed by a state- 

 ment in Dionysius, according to which the Romans 

 presented to Porsena an ivory throne, a golden 

 crown, a sceptre, and other insignia of royalty ; 

 and by another in Livy (iii. 39.), to the effect that 

 under the leadership of the Valerii and Horatii the 

 kings had been expelled. Now, it so happens 

 that Livy mentions no Horatius in his account of 

 the expulsion of the Tarquins, but he does in- 

 troduce one (Codes) as a most determined enemy 

 of Porsena. From this it is evident that the 

 writer from whom this passage is primarily de- 

 rived, conceived Porsena to have been king of 

 Rome. Moreover, it harmonises so exactly with 

 what I shall show to be true history, that of its 

 accuracy I do not feel the slightest doubt. 



If so, how did Porsena come to be king of Rome ? 

 — by conquest ? Or did he have any right to that 



