May 28. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



623 



sidered it unlucky to miss a " bout " in corn or 

 seed sowing, which sometimes happened when 

 " broadcast " was the only method. The ill-luck 

 did not relate alone to a death in the family of the 

 farmer or his dependants, but to losses of cattle or 

 accidents. It is singular, however, that the super- 

 stition should have transferred itself to the drill ; 

 but it will be satisfactory to E. G. R. to learn that 

 the process of tradition and superstition-manufac- 

 turing is not going on in the nineteenth century. 



E. S. Taylor. 



Superstition in Devonshire ; Valentine's Day 

 (Vol. v., pp. 55. 148.). — This, according to Forby, 

 vol. ii. p. 403., once formed in Norfolk a part of 

 the superstitious practices on St. Mark's Eve, not 

 St. Valentine's, as mentioned by J. S. A., when the 

 sheeted ghosts of those who should die that year 

 (Mrs. Crowe would cull them, I suppose, Doppel- 

 gdngers) march in grisly array to the parish church. 



The rhyme varies from J. S. A.'s : — 



" Hempseed I sow ; 

 Hempseed grow ; 

 He that is my true love 

 Come after me, and mow." 



and the Norfolk spectre is seen with a scythe, in- 

 stead of a rake like his Devonshire compeer. 



E. S. Tatloe. 



A NOTE ON GULUVEB S TRAVELS. 



If I may argue from the silence of the latest 

 edition of Gulliver s Travels, with Notes, with 

 which I am acquainted, viz. that by W. C. Tay- 

 lor, LL.D., Trinity College, Dublin, the Preface 

 to which is dated May 1st, 1840, I may say that 

 all the commentators on Swift — all, at least, down 

 to that late date — have omitted to refer to a work 

 containing incidents closely resembling some of 

 those recorded in the " Voyage to Lilliput." 



The work to which I allude is a little dramatical 

 composition, the Bambocciata, or puppet-show, by 

 Martelli, entitled The Sneezing of Hercules. Gol- 

 doni, in his Memoirs, has given us the following 

 account of the manner in which he brought it out 

 on the stage : 



" Count LantierL was very well satisfied with my 

 father, for he was greatly recovered, and almost com- 

 pletely cured : his kindness was also extended to me, 

 and to procure amusement for me he caused a puppet- 

 show, which was almost abandoned, and which was very 

 rich in figures and decorations, to be refitted. 



" I profited by this, and amused the company by 

 giving them a piece of a great man, expressly composed 

 for wooden comedians. This was the Sneezing of Her- 

 cules, by Peter James Martelli, a Bolognese. 



" The imagination of the author sent Hercules into 

 the country of the pigmies. Those poor little crea- 

 tures, frightened at tlie aspect of an animated mountain 



with legs and arms, ran and concealed themselves in 

 holes. One day as Hercules had stretched himself out 

 in the open field, and was sleeping tranquilly, the timid 

 inhabitants issued out of their retreats, and, armed with 

 prickles and rushes, mounted on the monstrous man, 

 and covered him from head to foot, like flies when they 

 fall on a piece of rotten meat. Hercules waked, an^ 

 felt something in his nose, which made him sneeze ; on 

 which, his enemies tumbled down in all directions. 

 This ends the piece. 



" There is a plan, a progression, an intrigue, a cata- 

 strophe, and winding up ; the style is good and well- 

 supported ; the thoughts and sentiments are all pro- 

 portionate to the size of the personages. The verses 

 even are short, and everything indicates pigmies. 



"A gigantic puppet was requisite for Hercules: 

 everything was well executed. The entertainment was 

 productive of much pleasure; and I could lay abet, 

 that I am the only person who ever thought of execut- 

 ing the Bambocciata of Martelli." — Memoirs of Goldoni, 

 translated by John Black, 2 vols., duod. : vol. i. 

 chap. 6. 



It is certainly not necessary to point out here in 

 what respects the adventures of Hercules, the ani- 

 mated mountain, and those of Quinbus Flestrin, 

 the man mountain, differ from, or coincide with, 

 each other, as the only question I wish to raise is, 

 whether a careful analysis of Martelli's puppet- 

 show ought, or ought not, to have been placed 

 among the notes on Gulliver s Travels. 



C. Forbes. 



Temple. 



SHAKSPEAEE CORRESPONDENCE. 



In reply to J. M. G. of Worcester, who inquires 

 for a MS. volume of English poetry containing 

 some lines attributed to Shakspeare, and which is 

 described in Thorpe's Catalogue of MSS. for 1831, 

 I can supply some particulars which may assist 

 him in the research. The MS., which at one 

 period had belonged to Joseph Hazlewood, was 

 purchased from Thorpe by the late Lord Viscount 

 Kingsborough ; after whose decease it was sold, 

 in November, 1842, at Charles Sharpe's literary 

 sale room, Anglesea Street, Dublin. It is No. 574. 

 in the auction catalogue of that part of his lord- 

 ship's library which was then brought to auction. 



The volume has been noticed by Patrick Eraser 

 Tytler, in his Life of Sir Walter Raleigh, Edin- 

 burgh, 1833 (in Appendix B, p. 436., of 2nd edit.), 

 where, citing the passage from Collier, which is 

 referred to by J. M. G., he asserts that the lines 

 are not Shakspeare's, but Jonson's. But he do^s 

 not appear to me to have established his case be- 

 yond doubt; as the lines, though found among 

 Jonson's works, may, notwithstanding, be the pro- 

 duction of some other writer : and why not of 

 Shakspeare, to whom they are ascribed in the 

 MS. ? Some verses by Sir J. C. Hobhouse ori- 

 ginally appeared as Lord Byron's : and^ there are 



