124 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 197. 



of your readers. Let them not, however, while 

 they smile at the arguments, infer that those who 

 took part in them were not deservedly among the 

 most learned and eminent of our ancient judges. 



Thomas Falconer. 

 Temple. 



Shdkspeare Suggestion. — 



" These sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours ; 

 Most busy — less wheu I do it." 



Tempest, Act III. Sc. 1. 



I fear your readers will turn away from the 

 ■very sight of the above. Be patient, kind friends, 

 I will be brief. Has any one suggested — 



" Most busy, least when I do "? 

 The words in the folio are 



" Most busy lest, when I do it." 



The "it" seems mere surplusage. The sense re- 

 quires that the thoughts should be "most busy" 

 •whilst the hands "do least;" and in Shakspeare's 

 time, "lest" was a common spelling for least. 



Icon. 



Shakspeare Controversy. — I think the Shak- 

 speare Notes contained in your volumes are not 

 complete without the following quotation from 

 The Summer Night of Ludwig Tieck, as translated 

 by Mary Maynard in the Athen. of June 25, 1853. 

 Puck, in addressing the sleeping boy Shakspeare, 



" After thy death, I'll raise dissension sharp. 

 Loud strife among the herd of little minds : 

 Envy shall seek to dim thy wondrous page, 

 But all the clearer will thy glory shine." 



Ceridwen. 



Falsified Gravestone in Stratford Churchyard. 

 — The following instance of a recent forgery 

 having been extensively circulated, may lead to 

 more careful examination by those who take notes 

 of things extraordinary. 



The church at Stratford-upon-Avon was re- 

 paired about the year 1839; and some of the 

 workmen having their attention directed to the 

 fact, that many persons who had attained to the 

 full age of man were buried in the churchyard ; 

 and, wishing " for the honour of the place," to 

 improve the note-books of visitors, set about 

 manufacturing an extraordinary instance of lon- 

 gevity. A gravestone was chosen in an out-of- 

 the-way place, in which there happened to be 

 a space before the age (72). A figure 1 was 

 cut in this space, and the age at death then 

 stood 172. The sexton was either deceived, or 

 assented to the deception ; as the late vicar, the 

 Kev. J. Clayton, learned that it had become a 

 practice with him (the sexton) to show strangers 



this gravestone, so fixlsified, as a proof of the ex- 

 traordinary age to which people lived in the parish. 

 The vicar had ihe fraudulent figure erased at once, 

 and lectured tlie sexton for his dishonesty. 



These fiicts were related to me a few weeks since 

 by a sou of the late vicar. And as many strangers 

 visiting the tomb of Shakspeare "made a note" of 

 this falsified age, "!N. & Q." may now correct the 

 forgery. Robert Kawunson. 



Barnacles in the River Thames. — Tn Porta's 

 Ndturcd Magic, Eng. trans., Lond. 1658, occurs 

 the following curious passage : 



" Late writfrs report that not only in Scotland, but 

 also in the river of Tham'.^s hy London, there is a kind 

 of shell-tish In a two-leaved shell, that hath a foot full 

 of ])liiits and wruikles: these fish are little, round, and 

 outwardly white, smooth ar.d beetle-shellfd like an 

 almond shell ; inwardly they are great bellied, bred as 

 it were of moss and mud; tliey commonly stick in the 

 keel of some old ship. Some say they come of worms, 

 some of the boughs of trees which fall into the sea; if 

 any of them be cast upon shore they die, but they 

 whicli are swallowed still into the sea, live and get out 

 of tlieir shells, and grow to be ducks or such like 

 birds ^!)." 



It would be curious to know what could give 

 rise to such an absurd belief. Spbklend. 



Note for London Topographers. — 



" The account of Mr. Mathias Fletcher, of Green- 

 wich, for carving the Anchor Shield and King's Arms, 

 for the .'Admiralty Office in York Buildings, delivered 

 Nov. 2, 16G8, and undertaken by His Majesty's com- 

 mand signified to nie hy the Hon. Samuel Pepys, £sq.,. 

 Secretary for the Affairs of the Admiralty : 



" For a Shield for the middle of the £ s. d^ 

 front of the said office towards the Thames, 

 containing the Anchor of Lord High Ad- 

 miral of England with the Imperial Crown 

 over it, and cyphers, being 8 foot deep and 

 6 foot broad, 1 having found the timber, 

 &c. SO 



" For the King's Arms at large, with 

 ornaments thereto, designed for tlie pedi- 

 ment of tlu- said front, the same being in 

 the whole 1 5 foot long and 9 foot high, I 

 finding timber, &c. - - - - 73 15 O 



£103 15 O* 



Extracted from Rawlinson MS. A. 170, fol. 132. 



J. Yeowell. 



The Aliases and Initials of Authors. — It has 

 often occurred to me that it would save much 

 useless inquiry jtnd research, if a tolerable lists 

 could be collected of the principal authors who 

 have published their Avorks under assumed names 

 or initials : thus, " 11. B. Robert Burton," Nathaniel 

 Crouch, "R.F.Scoto-Britannicus," Robert Fairley, 

 &c. The commencement of a new volume of 



