290 



NOTES AND QUERIES. [2'"i s. v. 119., Ai-iul 10. '58. 



poet's thought in this dialogue ? Is it not clearly 

 evident that some word resembling sting in mean- 

 ing is required, instead of posture, to be placed in 

 antithesis to the honey'd words ? and have we not 

 a word which, at the same that it is easily mis- 

 taken for posture, exactly supplies the required 

 sense ? I read — 



«' The puncture of your blows are yet unknown." 



I shall not stop to inquire whether the poet did 

 not write puncturs, which would relieve him at 

 least from one grammatical incongruity, according 

 to our notions. It is at any rate quite clear that 

 he meant Cassius here to say, " The wounds or 

 stings (i. e. punctures^ of your blows are as yet un- 

 known, but for your words they rob the bees, and 

 leave them honeyless ; " and it is quite as certain 

 that, from the use he has made of the word posture 

 elsewhere, he attached the common meaning of at- 

 titude to it, which would be quite inapplicable here. 



One more instance, and I have done for the pre- 

 sent. 



In Act III. Sc. 1., where the conspirators first 

 meet Mark Antony, Brutus, in his conciliatory 

 speech, says — 

 «' For your part. 



To you our swords have leaden points, Mark Antonj- ; 



Our arms in strength of malice, and our hearts 



Of brothers' temper, do receive you in 



With all kind love, good thoughts, and reverence." 



Most modern editors have been content with 

 placing a comma after arms in the third line. I 

 adopted the suggestion of Steevens, and read " no 

 strength of malice," which does not much improve 

 the passage. It is now quite evident to me that 

 we should read " in strength of amitijy I need not 

 point out to those acquainted with old MSS. how 

 easily amitie, as it was usual to write and print it, 

 would be mistaken for malice. But to show that 

 it was most probably the word of the poet, we 

 have in Antony and Cleopatra, Act II. Sc 6., 

 "that which is the strength of their amitie shall 

 prove the very author of their variance." And 

 again in the same play. Act III. Sc. 2., " I'll 

 wrestle with you in my strength of love." What 

 Brutus is meant to express appears to be — For 

 your part, Mark Antony, our swords are point- 

 less ; our arms embrace you in strength of amity, 

 and we receive you in our hearts with the temper 

 of brothers, with all kind love, good thoughts, and 

 reverence. S. W. Singer. 



South Lambeth. 



EDINBUHGU legend; " KOKEBY. 



In a note to a passage in Scott's beautiful but 

 neglected poem of lioheby, the well-known legend 

 of Darrell of Littlecote is given, and there is added 

 a similar one which was current at Edinburgh dur- 

 ing the childhood of Sir Walter. A clergyman was 

 suddenly summoned to pray with a person at point 



of death. He obeyed, as in duty bound, the requi- 

 sition, and was put in a sedan chair, and removed 

 apparently to a distant part of the city, where 

 his bearers, under pain of death, forced him to 

 have his eyes bandaged. He was then carried to 

 and fro for some time, and led up several flights 

 of stairs. When his eyes were uncovered, he 

 found himself beside a lady newly-delivered of an 

 infant. He was ordered to say such prayers as 

 might be fitting for a person just about to die. 

 He ventured to remonstrate — observing that the 

 lady's appearance warranted hopes of recovery. 

 He was sternly ordered to proceed, which he did. 

 He was then hurried down stairs in the chair, 

 blindfolded as before ; but as he was descending, 

 heard the report of a pistol. Upon reaching his 

 home a purse of gold was forced upon him, with 

 the warning that any disclosure or even allusion 

 to this dark business would cost him his life. 

 After much musing, he fell asleep, but was 

 awakened by the news that a certain house in the 

 Canongate had been totally consumed by fire, 

 together with the beautiful and accomplished 

 daughter of the proprietor. Fear sealed the 

 clergyman's lips, and it was not until a short 

 period before his demise that he disclosed the 

 circumstances to some of his brethren. He had 

 not been long dead, when a fire broke out in the 

 building which had been erected in place of the 

 original edifice, and when the flames were at their 

 height a beautiful female, in an antique night- 

 dress, appeared in the middle of them, and ut- 

 tered these words : " Anes burned, twice burned, the 

 third time I'll scare you all," and then vanished. 



Strange as this story is, it is singular that a 

 belief in its truth can be traced much farther back 

 than the boyhood of Scott. Mr. Alexander Grant, 

 a writer, Anglice attorney, of reputation, who 

 came to Edinburgh, 1743, and who was the grand- 

 uncle of my informant, was in the habit of telling 

 it as a thing that actually had occurred, and which 

 was generally credited, at least as regards the 

 murder part of it, and consequent fire. The ap- 

 parition was probably a popular embellishment, 

 but he remembered the exact position of the 

 house ; it was the second one above Leith Wynd. 

 An inspection of the title-deeds would at once 

 give the names of the early possessors. J. M. 



DIFEICUETIES OF CUAUCEB. NO. IX. 



" Blake Beried." — 



" Of avarice and of swiche cursednesse 

 Is all my preaching, for to make em free 

 To yeve their pens, and namely unto me. 

 For min intente is not but for to winne, 

 And nothing for correction of sinne. 

 I recke never whan that thej' be bericd, 

 Though that hir soules gon a Make beried." 



Cant. Tuks, 12334—40. 



The last of these lines has been explained 



