Sept. 4. 1852.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



217 



ance of if, and also offered his services to the cook 

 to help to prepare it for the table. Having thus 

 secured his witnesses, the young hunter cut tlio 

 salmon open, and with a weil-affected tone of 

 wonder, exclaimed, "Here's the young lady's ring 

 inside the salmon!" and so, sure enough, there 

 was : and the young lady, on being questioned, said 

 Ihat she supposed she must have lost the rin<j off 

 her finger the while she was bathing in the river, 

 and that the enamoured salmon had then and there 

 tnken it to heart. But I confess I am sceptical on 

 this point, and inclined to think that it was a well- 

 laid plan between the young maiden and her lover. 

 And it succeeded as it deserved ; for they were 

 married, and were very happy, and were soon sur- 

 rounded by many miniature duplicates of them- 

 selves. 



Whether or not the carving on the tympanum 

 of the northern — not ivestern — nave doorway of 

 Kibbesford Church represents the chief event of 

 the above legend, I am unable to say. Your cor- 

 respondent says it does, and recognises in the 

 carving " a rude human figure with a bow, and a 

 salmon transfixed with an arrow before it :" and 

 this is certainly the popular belief. But without 

 wishing to disturb the legend (which Nash, in his 

 History of WorcestersMi-e, does not mentii)u), I 

 very much doubt its application to the carving in 

 question. In such a rude representation it is a 

 mere matter of speculation to say what it is meant 

 for : but I take it to be a man shooting at a beaver. 

 The object at which he is aiming is rather larger 

 than himself, has a thin neck, a thickly-made body, 

 a sort of square tail, and what seems to be four 

 small legs ; and is raised on its hind feet out of 

 what seem to be meant for rashes. Running 

 towards the man is a small four-legged figure, 

 much more like a dog than a stag. Certainly there 

 is nothing about the salmon which has the least 

 resemblance to that fish : and that the sculptor 

 would have had the power to properly represent 

 it we may judge from one of the capitals on the 

 doorway, where he has carved two small fish in 

 such a way that there is no need of the inscription 

 " This is a fish " to tell us what is meant. We have 

 a proof that beavers abounded in the Severn in the 

 neighbourhood of Ribbesford in the fact that a 

 small island there is called " Beaver's Island." A 

 representation of the doorway is given in Nash, but 

 it is very far from correct. Before I conclude I 

 may mention — apropos to the Severn salmon — 

 the singular fact, that not more than fifty years 

 ago the indentures of the Bridgenorth apprentices 

 sot forth that their masters, under pain of certain 

 penalties, were not to give them Severn salmon for 

 tlinner more than three times a week ! 



CUTIIBEBT BeDE, B.A. 



"CAMBRIDGE DISPUTATIONS" II.LUSTBATIVE OF j 

 SHAKSPEARE. 



A Query appeared at page 55. of this present 

 Volume, requiring the meaning, amongst other 

 technical expressions, of '■'■Si A sit B, cadit 

 qjtcestio." 



I do not profess to answer that, or the other 

 question proposed by the Querist — nor does there, 

 at first sight, seem to be anything in the subject 

 in common Avith Shakspeare ; but as, in a former 

 Query of equally unpromising appearance, I found 

 a theme from which I drew a defence of the ori- 

 ginal word " sickle" (Vol. v., p. 324.) ; so, in this, 

 1 perceive an apt opportunity to explain another 

 expression in Measure for Measure, which has, in 

 my opinion, been hitherto wholly misunderstood. 

 I also wish to point it out as yet another proof of 

 Shakspeare's thorough familiarity with all tech- 

 nical knowledge, even with " the jargon of the 

 schools" from which it has been so absurdly the 

 fashion to suppose him excluded. 



What else but subservience to this prejudice 

 could prevent such men as Doctor Johnson from 

 seeking, at the right source, for the meaning of 

 many of those obscure expressions they were con- 

 fessedly unable to understand ? Of that, for ex- 

 ample, which I am now about to explain, where 

 Angelo, in his sophistical argument with Isabella 

 (^Measure for Measure, Act II. Sc. 4.) puts in sup- 

 position, that if Isabella Avould consent to commit 

 sin, her brother's life might be saved, adding these 

 words in qualification — 



" As I subscribe not that, nor any other, 

 But in the loss of question" 



Now, Dr. Johnson and the rest, in their hisson 

 conspectuities, could not make anything of this 

 phrase, "loss of questioii" ; and the Doctor even 

 went so far as to propose the substitution of toss 

 of question ! one of those happy emendations from 

 which we can never be sufficiently thankful for 

 deliverance. 



But, beyond all reasonable doubt, Shakspeare 

 meant, by " loss of question," the casus qucestionis 

 of the logicians ! 



Isabella is the respondent, who maintains the 

 qucBStio ; Angelo the opponent, by whose reason- 

 ing the " qucestio cadit""; consequently the latter 

 declares that his hypothetical case has for its sole 

 object "the loss of question" : that is, the refuta- 

 tion of the arguments urged by Isabella in favour 

 of a remission of her brother's condemnation. 



And observe how admirably appropriate this 

 logical technicality is to the subtle schoolmen ! 

 not less so than the scriptural allusions — the 

 "sickles of the tested gold" — the "prayers from 

 fasting maids" to the enthusiastic novice ! 



A. E. B. 



Leeds. 



