Sept. 10. 1853.] 



KOTES AND QUERIES. 



241 



35. Fifth, in maturity, glowing in health, with his 

 heart in the right place. 

 Let him, wisdom-join'd, think upon children 

 to come, 

 42. Sixth, let him carefully ponder on things of im- 

 portance to mankind ; 

 Disdaining whate'er, formerly, foolish he sought. 



49, Seventh, in mind or in tongue is he best, either 

 one or the other: 



56. Eighth, both join'd in excelling, for a term of 

 fourteen, 



63, Ninth, he declines in his powers of force, and the 

 deeds of his youthhood ; 

 Shorn of the vigour of manhood, he awaits his 

 recall, 



70, God in the tenth of the seven, mature, all his 

 functions develop'd, 

 Consigns him, full ripe, darkly to sleep in the 

 dust. 



So far Solon, Tusser quaintly but wisely : 



" Man's age divided here ye have. 

 By 'prentieeships, from birth to grave, 



7. The first seven years bring up as a child, 

 14. The next to learning, for waxing too wild, 

 21. Tlie next, keep under Sir Hobbard de Hoy; 

 ii8. The next, a man, no longer a boy, 

 35, The nexti let Lusty lay wisely to wive ; 

 42. The next, lay now, or else never to thrive. 

 49. The next, make sure for term of thy life ; 

 56. The next, save somewhat for children and wife, 

 63, The next, be stayd, give over thy lust ; 

 70, The next, think hourly, whither thou must. 

 77. The next, get chair and crutches to stay ; 

 84. The next, to heaven ; God send us the way ! 



Who loseth their youth shall rue it in age. 

 Who hateth the truth in sorrow shall rage," 



T. J. BUCKTON. 



Birmingham. 



" Contents dies" — Lovers Labours Lost, Act V. 

 Sc. 2, (Vol. viii., pp. 120. 169.). —I must be 

 permitted, with all due courtesy, to correct Mr. 

 Arkowsmith's assertion respecting this phrase ; 

 because, from its dogmatic tone, it is calculated 

 to mislead readers, and perhaps editors. He 

 maintains that this is a good concord, and pro- 

 nounces Johnson and Collier (myself, of course, 

 included) to be " unacquainted with the usage of 

 their own tongue, and the universal language of 

 thought," for not discerning it. 



Now it may, perhaps, surprise Mr. Arrowsmitii 

 to be told that he has proved nothing — that not a 

 single one of his instances is relevant. In this 

 passage the verb is neute?- or active ; in all of Lis 

 quotations it is the verb substantive Ave meet. 

 Surelyone so well versed, as we must suppose him 

 to be, in general grammar, requires not to be told 

 that this verb takes the same case after as before 

 it, and that the governing case often follows. 



Indeed, he has recognised this principle by giving 

 "This is the contents thereof" as one of his in- 

 stances of " contents " governing a singular verb. 

 Let him then produce an exact parallel to "contents 

 dies," or even such a structure as this, " the con- 

 tents is lies and calumnies," and then we may 

 hearken to him. Till that has been done, my in- 

 terpretation is the only one that gives sense to the 

 passage without altering the text. 



An exact parallel to the sense in wliich I take 

 " contents " is found in — 



" But heaven hath a hand in these events. 

 To whose high will we bound our calm C07itents" 

 Rich. II., Act V. Sc. 2. 



In conclusion, I must add that I still regard this 

 emendatory ci'iticism as a "game," the Latin 

 ludus, as it gives scope to sagacity and ingenuity, 

 but can rarely hope to arrive at certainty ; and it 

 does not, like questions of ethics or politics, involve 

 important interests, and should never excite our 

 an^ry feelings. As to " cogging and falsification," 

 which Mr. A, joins with it, they can have no just 

 reference to me, as I have never descended to the 

 employment of such artifices, Thos. Keightley. 



P. S, — I have just seen H. C, K,'s observation 

 on " clamour your tongues" in the Winter's Tale, 

 and it really seems strange that he should not 

 have read, or should have forgotten my view of it 

 in " N. & Q.," which is precisely similar to his 

 own. As to suspecting him of pilfering from me, 

 nothing is farther from my thoughts. 



Meaning of Delighted. — With reference to the 

 word delighted in Shakspeare, much discussed in 

 " N. & Q.," may I remind you that we call that 

 which carries (or is furnished, or provided with) 

 wings, winged ; that which carries wheels, wheeled; 

 that which cai-ries masts, masted ; and so on. Why 

 then should not a pre- Johnsonian writer call that 

 which carries delight, delighted f It appears to 

 me that this will sufficiently explain " delighted 

 beauty;" and "the delighted spirit" I would 

 account for in the same way : only remarking that 

 in this case, the borne delights meant are delights 

 to the bearer ; in the other case, delights to all 

 whom the bearer approaches, J, W. F. 



:^Xtuar §.atti. 



Gray — " The 'ploughman homeivard plods." — 

 On looking over some JMSS. which I had not seen 

 for years, I met with one of which the following is 

 a copy : 



" A person had a paper folded with this line from 

 Gray marked on it — 



' The ploughman homewards plods his weary way.' 



A poetical friend, on looking at the quotation, thought 

 it might be expressed in various ways without destroy- 



