470 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2nd s. No 102., Dec. 12. '57. 



Jobnson is seldom successful in his endeavours 

 to comprehend these sententious quirks. In the 

 very next play, King Richai'd III. (Act III. 

 Sc. 2.), upon the second of the three lines : 



" Fear and be slain ; no worse can come to fight : 

 And fight and die, is death destroying deatli, 

 Where fearing dying pays deatli servile breath." 



His note runs : " ' death destroying death,' that 

 is, to die fighting is to return the evil that we 

 suffer, to destroy the destroyers. I once read, 

 death defying death; but. destroying is as well." 

 Where, besides that sadly contagious itch for al- 

 tering the text to suit his own conception of what 

 the poet should have written, he altogether mis- 

 takes the sense of the words : which is, that to die 

 fighting, whether you slay your adversary or not, 

 is death to the death so taken, or, to coin a word, 

 death, stoutly met, undeaths death — neutralises, 

 undoes, defeats it ; whereas fearing dying pays 

 death servile breath. W. R. Areowsmith. 



Kinsham Court, Presteign. 



LONDON DURING THE COMMONWEALTH. 



I have been charmed with that gossiping, enter- 

 taining book, Howell's Londinopolis, or Perlustra- 

 tion of the City of London. After introducing me 

 to its first rise, — the river, the fountains and 

 bridge, with a graphic account of the Tower and 

 public buildings, — he guided me through the 

 various wards and streets, describing them as they 

 appeared underthe Protectorate. In the peram- 

 bulation we came to the church of St. Michael, 

 Cornhill, where " certain men wei'e ringing a 

 peal in a thunder-storm, when an ugly-shapen 

 sight appeared, and put its claws into certain 

 stones in the north window for three or four inches 

 deep, as if they had been so much butter ; the 

 same may be seen to this day [1657]." Query 

 whether they are now visible, after a lapse of two 

 centuries ? 



He gives a very amusing account of the stews 

 in Southwark, near which John Bunyan used to 

 7)reach. They were regulated by Act of Par- 

 liament, "not to charge more than fourteen 

 pence per week for a chamber." "Every pre- 

 caution to be taken against perilous burning." 

 And to prove the outward piety of the establish- 

 ment, the doors were to be religiously closed on 

 holy days, — a severe penance upon such establish- 

 ments, whose doors would be thronged on feast 

 days, when good eating and drinking would natu- 

 rally create the strongest appetite Tor a savoury 

 stew. One of these had for its sign a Cardinal's 

 hat. 



Has any one of your readers seen a perfect 

 copy of this very amusing and interesting book ? 

 Mine was in the original binding, and in fine pre- 

 servation ; but, like other copies, it appears to 



want from signature R, p. 128., to A a, p. 301. It 

 has a fine portrait, with armorial bearings, by 

 Melan and Bosse, and the view of London by Hol- 

 lar, and had every appearance of being perfect, 

 except the apparently missing leaves. If those 

 pages of the witty Cavalier were cancelled by the 

 Commonwealth censorship, it would be a rich 

 treat to read the castrations. Gborge Offor. 



THE DEAF AND DUMB : HOW MAY THEY BE 

 TAUGHT TO SPEAK ? 



Professor Kilian, who is, I believe, a Scotch- 

 man by origin, but settled in France, has founded 

 an establishment for teaching Sou7-ds-muets — the 

 deaf and dumb — to speak. This institution is at 

 St. Hippolyte, in the department du Gard, and 

 M. Kilian, some months since, exhibited in Paris 

 one of his pupils, whom he had instructed not 

 only to speak and write with considerable pro- 

 priety, but to understand what others said to him. 

 The success of his efforts produced a deep and 

 most favourable impression, and it is to be hoped 

 that his principles will attract that notice in our 

 own country which the friends of humanity must 

 desire. I myself met M. Kilian at Nimes with 

 one of his pupils, who certainly understood many 

 things which were said to him, both by myself 

 and others of the company. There can therefore 

 be no doubt of the feasibleness of the undertaking 

 within certain limits. Of course where there is 

 organic defect nothing can be done ; but where 

 dumbness arises from deafness there is great hope. 

 It was as interesting as it was delightful to my- 

 self to hear a person so afflicted both speak and 

 read. I think the experiment of sufficient im- 

 portance to deserve a record in your pages. 



There is little doubt that, so far as M. Kilian is 

 concerned, the idea is an original one, but still it 

 is not new. I knew a deaf person myself, who 

 afiirmed tliat he understood much that was said 

 in the same way as M. Kilian's pupils. Allow me 

 to explain the method in a word or two : — The 

 two principles laid down are, the tendency to ob- 

 serve, ancl to imitate. The pupil observes the 

 motions of the lips and tongue, and imitates them. 

 In the course of training he learns to connect 

 ideas with these motions of the organs of speech, 

 and himself acquires an ability both to under- 

 stand what is said, and to speak himself. Before 

 he learns to express his own thoughts, he will 

 learn to repeat after others what they say. It 

 appears therefore that the eye is made to become 

 the substitute of the ear, and that such persons 

 can only comprehend what is said to them in the 

 light. Still it must be a great blessing and a 

 pleasure to them. 



The importance of the whole subject is such 

 that, with your permission, I will mention a re- 



