April 23. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



403 



Vindication of the Trinity, 1693-94, 4to., and his 

 Tritheism charged on SherlocKs new Notion of 

 the Trinity, 1694, 4to. For caustic wit and tre- 

 mendous power of vituperation, I scarcely know 

 any controversial works which surpass, or even 

 equal them. South looked upon Sherlock with 

 profound scorn as a Sciolist, and hated him most 

 cordially as a heretic and a political renegade. 

 He accordingly gives him no quarter, and seems 

 determined to draw blood at every stroke. Mrs. 

 Sherlock is of course not forgotten, and one of the 

 happiest passages in the Tritheism charged is the 

 well-known humorous illustration of Socrates 

 and Xantippe, p. 129. It is somewhat curious 

 that, notwithstanding these two works of South 

 have attracted so much notice, it seems to be quite 

 unknown that he also published a Latin tract 

 against Sherlock, in further continuation of the 

 controversy, in which the attack is carried on with 

 equal severity. The title of the tract in question 

 is, Decreti Oxoniensis Vindicatio in Tribus ad 

 Modestum ejusdem examinatorem modestioribus 

 Epistolis a Theologo Transmarino. Excusa Anno 

 Domini 1696, 4to., pp. 92. The tract, of which I 

 have a copy, is anonymous, but it is ascribed to 

 South in the following passages in The Agreement 

 of the Unitarians with the Catholic Church, part i. 

 1697, 4to., which is included in vol. v. of the 4to. 

 Unitarian Tracts, and evidently written by one 

 who had full information on the subject. His ex- 

 pressions (p. 62.) are — "Dr. South, in his Latin 

 Letters, under the name of a Transmarine Divine;" 

 and a little further on, " Dr. South, in two (En- 

 glish) books by him written, and in three Latin 

 letters, excepts against this (Sherlock's) explication 

 of the Trinity." In confirmation of this ascription, 

 I may observe that the Latin tract is contained in 

 an extensive collection of the tracts in the Trini- 

 tarian Controversy formed by Dr. John Wallis, 

 which I possess, and in which he has written the 

 names of the authors of the various anonymous 

 pieces. He took, as is well known, a leading part 

 in the controversy, and published himself an ano- 

 nymous pamphlet (not noticed by his biographers), 

 also in defence of Oxford decrees. On the title- 

 page of the Latin tract he has written " By Dr. 

 South." I have likewise another copy in a volume 

 which belonged to Stephen Nye, one of the ablest 

 writers in the controversy, and who ascribes it in 

 the list of contents in the fly-leaf, in his hand- 

 writing, to Dr. South. These grounds would 

 appear to be sufiicient to authorise our including 

 this tract in the list of South's works, though, from 

 the internal evidence of the tract itself alone, I 

 should scarcely have felt justified in ascribing it 

 to bim. Jas. Crosslet. 



8HAKSPEABE CORBESPONDENCB. 



Parallel Passages. — 



" You leaden messengers, 

 That ride upon the violent wings of fire, 

 Fly with false aim ; move the still-piecing air, 

 That sings with piercing, — do not touch my lord!" 

 AWs Well that Ends Well, Act III. Sc. 2, 



" the elements. 

 Of whom your swords are tempered, may as well 

 Wound the loud winds, or with bemock'd at stabs 

 Kill the still-closing waters, as diminish 

 One dowle that's in ray plume." 



The Tempest, Act III. Sc. 3. 



There can be little doubt that the clever cor- 

 rector of Mb. Collier's folio had the last of these 

 passages in view when he altered the word move 

 of the first, into wound of the second : but in this 

 instance he overshot the mark, in not perceiving 

 the nice and subtle distinction which exists be- 

 tween them. The first implies possibility : the 

 second impossibility. 



In the second, the mention of, to " wound the 

 loud wind, or kill the still-closing water," is to set 

 forth the absurdness of the attempt; but in the 

 first passage there is a direct injunction to a pos- 

 sible act: "Fly with false aim, move the still- 

 piecing air." To say " wound the still- piecing 

 air" would be to direct to be done, in one passage, 

 that which the other passage declares to be absurd 

 to expect ! 



If it were necessary to disturb move at all, the 

 word cleave would be, all to nothing, a better sub- 

 stitution than wound. 



Whether the annotating of Mr. Collier's folio 

 be a real or a pseudo-antique, it is impossible to 

 deny that its executor must have been a clever, as 

 he was certainly a slashing hitter. It cannot, 

 therefore, be wondered that he should sometimes 

 reach the mark : but that these corrections should 

 be received with that blind and superstitious faith, 

 so strangely exacted for them, can scarcely be 

 expected. Indeed, it is to be regretted that they 

 have been introduced to the public with such an 

 uncompromising claim to authority ; as the natural 

 repugnance against enforced opinion may endanger' 

 the success of the few suggestive emendations, to 

 be found amongst them, which are really new and 

 valuable. A. E. B, 



Leeds. 



P.S. — With reference to the above Ifote, which, 

 although not before printed, has been for some 

 time in the Editor's hands, I have observed in a 

 Dublin paper of Saturday, April 9th, a very sin- 

 gular coincidence ; viz. the recurrence of the self- 

 same misprint corrected by Malone, but retained 

 by Messrs. Collier and Knight in their respective 

 editions of Shakspeare. Had the parallel expres- 

 sions still- closing, still-piecing, which I have com- 

 pared in the above paper, been noticed by these 



