404 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 182. 



editors, they would no more have hesitated in 

 accepting Malone's correction than they would 

 object to the same correction in the misprint I am 

 about to point out ; viz. : 



" Two planks were pointed out by the witnesses, 

 viz. one with a knot in it, and another which was 

 piered with strips of wood," &c. — Saunders^s Newsletter, 

 April 9th, 3rd page, 1st col. 



The Passage in " King Henry VIII." Act HI. 

 Sc. 2. (Vol. vii., pp. 5. 111. 183.). — Is an old 

 Shakspearian to talk rashly in " N. & Q." without 

 being called to account ? " If ' we can,' " says 

 Mr. Singer, " ' by no means part with have,' we 

 must interpolate beeii after it, to make it any way 

 intelligible, to the marring of the verse." Now, 

 besides the passage in the same scene — 



" my loyalty, 



Which ever has, and ever shall be growing," 



pointed out by your Leeds correspondent, there is 

 another equally in point in AU\<i Well that Ends 

 Well, Act II. Sc. 5., which, being in prose, settles 

 the question as to whether the omission of the past 

 participle after the auxiliary was customary in 

 Shakspeare's time. It is Lafeu's farewell to 

 Parolles : 



" Farewell, Monsieur : I have spoken better of you, 

 than you have or will deserve at my hand ; but we 

 must do good against evil." 



Either this is " unintelligible," and " we must 

 interpolate" deserved, or (the only possible alter- 

 native) all three passages are free from Mr. 

 Singer's objection. C. Mansfield Ingleby. 



Birmingliam. 



On a Passage in "Macheth." — Macbeth (Act I. 

 Sc. 7.) says : 



" I have no spur 

 To prick the sides of my intent, but only 

 Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself, 

 And falls on the other." 



Should not the third line be — 



" Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps its sell!" 



Sell is saddle (Latin, sella ; French, selle), and is 

 used by Spenser in this sense. 



" O'erleaping tfoeZ/"" is manifest nonsense ; where- 

 as the whole passage has evident reference to horse- 

 manship ; and to " vault" is " to carry one's body 

 cleverly over anything of a considerable height, 

 resting one hand upon the thing itself," — exactly 

 the manner in which some persons mount a horse, 

 resting one hand on the pommel of the saddle. 



It would then be perfectly intelligible, thus — 



" Viiulting ambition, which o'erleaps its saddle (sell), 

 And falls on the other (side of the horse)." 



Does Mr. Collier's " New Text," or any other 

 old copy, prove this ? S. Singleton. 



Greenwich. 



Robert Weston. — I copy the following from a 

 letter of R. L. Kingston to Dr. Ducarel In Nichols's 

 Literary History, vol. Hi. p. 629. : 



" Robert Weston was Lord of the Manor of Kil- 

 mington in Devon, and divided his estate among four 

 daughters, reserving to the eldest son the royalties of 

 his courts. In his will or deed of settlement is this 

 clause: — 'That the Abbot of Newnhams, near Axmin- 

 ster, had nothing to do in the highway any further 

 than to his land of Studhays, and that he should stand 

 without the court gate of his land of Studhays, and 

 take his right ear in his left hand, and put his right arm 

 next to his body under his left across, and so cast his 

 reap-hook from him ; and so far he shall come." 



Balliolensts. 



Sonnet on the Rev. Joseph Blanco White. — 

 Some years ago, I copied the following sonnet 

 from a newspaper. Can you say where it first 

 made its appearance ? After the annexed tesii- 

 mony of Coleridge, it is needless to say anything 

 In its praise. 



" SONNET ON THE REV. JOSEPH BLANCO WHITE. 



Mysterious Night ! When our first parent knew 

 Thee from report divine, and heard thy name, 

 Did he not tremble for this lovely frame. 



This glorious canopy of light and blue? 



Yet 'neath a curtain of translucent dew, 



Bathed in the rays of the great setting flame, 

 Hesperus, with the host of heaven, came. 



And lo ! Creation widen'd in man's view. 



Who could have thought such darkness lay conccal'd 

 Within thy beams, O Sun ! Or who coidd find, 



Whilst fly, and leaf, and insect, stood reveal'd, 



That to such countless orbs thou mad'st us blind ? 



Why do we then shun death with anxious strife? 



If light can thus deceive — wherefore not life?" 



Coleridge Is said to have pronounced this " The 

 finest and most grandly conceived In our language ; 

 at least, It Is only In Milton's and in Wordsworth's 

 sonnets that I recollect any rival." Balliolensis. 



English and American Booksellers. — It is rather 

 curious to note, that whilst English booksellers 

 are emulously vying with one another to publish 

 editions of tlncle Toms, Queechys, Wide Wide 

 Wo7-lds, &c., they neglect to issue English works 

 which the superior shrewdness of Uncle Sam 

 deems worthy of reprinting. Southey's Chronicle 

 of the Cid, which was published by Longman in 

 1808, and not since printed in England, was 

 brought out in a very handsome octavo form 

 at Lowell, U. S., in 1846. And this, the " first 

 American edition," as it is called on the title-page, 

 can be readily procured from the booksellers in 

 London ; whereas the English original is not to 

 be met with. In like manner, Macaulay's Essays 

 were collected and published first in America ; 

 and so with Praed's Poems, and many others. 



