«16 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 191. 



famine clem thee." While in the region of conjec- 

 ture, I will add that coasting, in Troilus and Cres- 

 sida (Act IV. Sc. 5.), is, in my opinion, simply 

 accosting, lopped in the usual way by aphsBresis ; 

 and that " the still-peering air" in AWs Well that 

 Ends Well (Act III. Sc. 2.), is, by the same figure, 

 " the still-appearing air," i. e. the air that appears 

 still and silent, but that yet " sings with piercing." 

 One conjecture more, and I have done. I do 

 not like altering the text without absolute neces- 

 sity ; but there was always a puzzle to me in this 

 passage : 



" Where I find him, vrere it 

 At home, upon my brother's guard, even there. 

 Against the hospitable canon, would I 

 Wash my fierce hand in 's blood." 



Coriol, Act I. Sc. 10. 



Why should Aufidius speak thus of a brother 

 who is not mentioned anywhere else in the play or 

 in Plutarch ? It struck me one day that Shak- 

 speare might have written, " Upon my household 

 hearth ; " and on looking into North's Plutarch, I 

 found that when Coriolanus went to the house of 

 Aufidius, " he got him up straight to the chimney- 

 hearth, and sate him downe." The poet who ad- 

 hered so faithfully to his Plutarch may have wished 

 to preserve this image, and, chimney not being a 

 very poetic word, may have substituted household, 

 or some equivalent term. Again I say this is all 

 but conjecture. Thomas Keightley. 



P. S. — It is really very annoying to have to 

 reply to unhandsome and unjust accusations. The 

 Rev. Mr. Arkowsmith first transposes two lines 

 of Shakspeare, and then, by notes of admiration, 

 holds me up as a mere simpleton ; and then 

 A. E. B. charges me with having pirated from 

 him my explanation of a passage in Love's La- 

 hour's Lost, Act V. Sc. 2. Let any one compare 

 his (in "N. & Q.," Vol. vi., p. 297.) with mine 

 ^Vol. vii., p. 136.), and he will see the utter false- 

 ness of the assertion. He makes contents the nom. 

 to dies, taken in its ordinary sense (rather an un- 

 usual concord), /take dyes in the sense of tinges, 

 imbues with, and make it governed of zeal. But 

 perhaps it is to the full-stop at presents that the 

 "that's my thunder!" applies. I answer, that that 

 ■was a necessary consequence of the sense in which 

 I had taken dies, and that their must then refer to 

 things maugre Mr. Akrowsmith. And when he 

 says that I " do him the honour of requoting the 

 line with which he had supported it," I merely ob- 

 serve that it is the line immediately following, and 

 that I have eyes and senses as well as A. E. B. 



A. E. B. deceives himself, if he thinks that lite- 

 rary fame is to be acquired in this way. I do not 

 much approve either of the manner in which, at 

 least to my apprehension, in his opening para- 

 graph, he seems to insinuate a charge of forgery 

 Ugainst Mr. Collier. Finally, I can tell him that 



he need not crow and clap his wings so much .tt 

 his emendation of the passage in Lear, for, if I 

 mistake not, few indeed will receive it. It may- 

 be nuts to him and Mr. Arrowsmith to know 

 that they have succeeded in driving mj name out 

 ofthe"N. & Q." 



bed hair a reproach. 



I do not know the why or the wherefore, but in 

 every part of England I have visited, there appears 

 to be a deep-rooted prejudice in the eyes of the 

 million against people with red hair. Tradition, 

 whether truly or not must remain a mystery, 

 assigns to Absalom's hair a reddish tinge ; and 

 Judas, the traitorous disciple, is ever painted with 

 locks of the same unhappy colour. Shakspeare, 

 too, seems to have been embued with the like 

 morbid feeling of distrust for those on whose hap- 

 less heads the invidious mark appeared. In hi3- 

 play of As You Like It, he makes Rosalind (who is. 

 pettishly complaining of her lover's tardiness ia 

 coming to her) say to Celia : 



" Bos. His very hair is of the dissembling colour. 

 Celia. Something browner than Judas'." 



It will be apparent from this quotation, that irr 

 England, at any rate, the prejudice spoken of is 

 not of very recent development ; and that it has 

 not yet vanished before the intellectual progress of 

 our race, will, I think, be painfully evident to 

 many a bearer of this unenviable distinction. It 

 seems to be generally supposed, by those who har- 

 bour the doctrine, that red-headed people are dis- 

 semblers, deceitful, and, in fact, not to be trusted 

 like others Avhose hair is of a different colour ; and 

 I may add, that I myself know persons who, ou 

 that account alone, never admit into their service* 

 any whose hair is thus objectionable. In Wales,, 

 pe7i coch (red head) is a term of reproach univer- 

 sally applied to all who come under the category;. 

 and if such a wight should by any chance involve 

 himself in a scrape, it is the signal at once for a. 

 regular tirade against all who have the misfortune 

 to possess hair of the same fiery colour. 



I cannot bring myself to believe that there ia 

 any really valid foundation for this prejudice; and 

 certainly, if not, it were indeed a pity that the 

 superstitious feeling thus engendered is not ati 

 once and for ever banished from the memory. 



T. Hughes. 



extracts from newspapers, 1714. 



Daili/ Courant, Jan. 9, 1714 : 



"Rome, Dec. 16. — The famous painter. Carlo Ma- 

 ratta, died some days ago, in the ninetieth year of his 

 age." 



The Post Boy, Jan. 12-14, \1U.— 0ld MSS, 

 relating to Winchester. — In the Post £oy, Jan. 



