Aua. 13. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



147 



Sir Thomas. Oh, the pebbles in his mouth : but they 

 are only jnit in to practise in private : you should take 

 them out when you are addressing the public." 



I cannot trace the joke farthei", but as Foote, 

 though so rich in wit, was a great borrower, it 

 might not be new in 1764. H. B. C. 



Garrick Club. 



AX i:STERPOLATION OF THE PLATERS : TOBACCO. 



I have witnessed the representation of the Twelfth 

 Night as often, during the last five-and-forty years, 

 as 1 have had an opportunity ; and, in every in- 

 stance, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew, and the Clown, in 

 their rollicking orgies, smoke tobacco. Now, this 

 must be an " interpolation of the players ;" for not 

 only was tobacco unknown in Illyria, at the period 

 of the story, but Shakspeare does not once name to- 

 hacco in his works, and, therefore, was not likely 

 to give a stage-direction for the use of it. The 

 great poet is freely blamed for anachronisms ; it is 

 but fair he should have due credit when he avoids 

 them. The stories of his plays are all antecedent 

 to his own time, therefore he never mentions 

 either the drinking of tobacco, or the tumultuous 

 scenes of the ordinary which belonged to it, and 

 which are so constantly met with in his cotem- 

 porary dramatists. I see there is a note in my 

 commonplace-book, after some remarks upon 

 Green's Friar Bacon and Friar Bungay, " that this 

 play, though written by a pedant, and a Master of 

 Arts, contains more anachronisms than any one 

 play of Shakspeare's." 



Can any of your correspondents learned in stage 

 traditions say when this " smoking interpolation" 

 was first made ? 



But, Sir, I think I shall surprise some of your 

 readers by pointing out another instance of the 

 absence of tobacco or smoking. In the Arabian 

 Night's Entertainments, which are said to be such 

 faithful pictures of oriental manners, there is no 

 mention of the pipe. Neither is coffee to be met 

 with in those tales, so delightful to all ages. We with 

 difficulty imagine an oriental without his chibauk ; 

 and yet it is certain they knew nothing of this 

 luxury before the sixteenth century. At present, 

 such is the almost imperious necessity felt by the 

 Turk for smoking and cofTee, that as soon as the 

 gun announces the setting of the sun, during the 

 fast of the Ramada, before he thinks of satisfying 

 his craving stomach with any solid food, he takes 

 his cup of cofi'ee and lights his pipe. — As I think 

 it dishonest to deck ourselves with knowledge 

 that is not self-acquired, I confess to the having 

 but just read this "note" in the last number of 

 the Revue des Deux Mondes, in a fine work upon 

 America by the celebrated savant, M. Ampere. 



W. ROBSON. 

 Stockwell. 



Curious Epitaph. — In the Diary of Thomas 

 Moore, Charles Lamb is said at a certain dinner 

 party to have "quoted an epitaph by Clio Rickman, 

 in which, after several lines in the usual jog-trot 

 style of epitaph, he continued thus : 



' He well perform'd the husband's, father's part, 

 And knew immortal Hudibras by heart.' " 



There is an epitaph in the churchyard of New- 

 haven, Sussex, in which the last of these two lines 

 occurs, but which does not answer in other respects 

 to the character of the one quoted by Lamb. On 

 the contrary, it is altogether eminently quaint, 

 peculiar, and consistent. The stone is to the 

 meinory of Thomas Tipper, who departed this life 

 May the 14th, 1785, aged fifty-four years; and the 

 upper part is embellished with a representation, 

 in bas-relief, of the drawbridge which crosses the 

 river, whence it might be inferred that the compre- 

 hensive genius of Mr. Tipper included engineering 

 and architecture. The epitaph runs thus : 



" Reader, with kind regard tliis grave survey, 

 Nor heedless pass where Tipper's ashes lay. 

 Honest he was, ingenuous, blunt and kind, 

 And dared do what ^q\v dare do — speak his mind» 

 Philosophy and History well he knew. 

 Was versed in Physick and in Surgery too : 

 The best old Stingo he both brew'd and sold, 

 Nor did one knavish act to get his gold. 

 He play'd through life a varied comic part, 

 And knew immortal Hudibras by heart. 

 Reader, in real truth this was the man : 

 Be better, wiser, laugh more if you can." 



Is there any reason for supposing this epitaph 

 to have been written by Clio Rickman ; and is 

 anything known of Mr. Tipper beyond the bio- 

 graphy of his tombstone ? G. J. De AVilde. 



Enigmatical Epitaph. — I offer for solution an 

 enigma, copied from a tomb in the churchyard of 

 Christchurch in Hampshire : 



" WE WEUE NOT SLAYKE BUT RAYSD ; 

 RAYSD NOT TO LIFE, 

 BVT TO BE BVRIED TWICE 

 BY MEN OP STRIFE. 



WHAT REST COVLD ™ LIVING HAVE, 

 WHEN DEAD HAD NONE ? 

 AGREE AMONGST YOV, 

 HERE WE TEN ARE ONE. 

 HEN. ROGERS DIED APRIL 17, 1641. 

 I. R." 



The popular legend is, that the ten men perished 

 by the falling in of a gravel-pit, and that their re- 

 mains were buried together. This, however, will 

 not account for the " men of strife." 



Is it not probable that, in the time of the civil 

 wars, the bodies might have been disinterred for 

 the sake of the leaden coffins, and then deposited 

 in their present resting-place ? 



