216 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No, 201. 



cast-off works of the Saracens, in wblch their tools 

 are frequently found. Miners are not accustomed 

 to be very accurate in distinguishing traders of 

 foreign nations, and these Jews and Sai-acens have 

 probably a reference to the old merchants from 

 Spain and Africa ; and those employed by them 

 might possibly have been Jews escaped the 

 hori'ors of captivity and the desolation which 

 about that period befel their country. 



" The Jews," says Whitaker ( Origin of Arianism, 

 p. 334.), "denominated themselves, and were deno- 

 minated by the Britons of Cornwall, Saracens, as the 

 genuine progeny of Sarah. The same name, no doubt, 

 carried the same reference with it as borne by the 

 genuine, and as usurped by the spurious, offspring of 

 Abraham." 



BiBLIOTHECAR. CnETIIAM. 



Northamptonshire Folk Lore (Vol. vii., p. 146.). 

 — In Norfolk, a ring made from nine sixpences 

 freely given by persons of the opposite sex is con- 

 sidered a charm against epilepsy. I have seen 

 nine sixpences brought to a silversmith, with a 

 request that he would make them into a ring ; but 

 13|j. was not tendered to him for making, nor do 

 I think that any threehalfpences are collected for 

 payment. After the patient had left the shop, 

 the silversmith informed me that such requests 

 were of frequent occurrence, and that he supplied 

 the patients with thick silver rings, but never 

 took the trouble to manufacture them from the 

 sixpences. 



A similar superstition supposes that the sole of 

 the left shoe of a person of the same age, but op- 

 posite sex, to the patient, reduced to ashes is a 

 cure for St. Anthony's fire. I have seen it applied 

 with success, but suppose its efficacy is due to 

 some astringent principle in the ashes. E. G. R. 



SHAKSPEAEE COKRESPONDENCE. 



Oh Tivo Passages in Shahspeare. — Taking up a 

 day or two since a Number of " N. & Q.," my at- 

 tention was drawn to a new attempt to give a 

 solution of the difficulty wliich has been the tor- 

 ment of commentators in the following passage 

 from the Third Act of Romeo and Juliet : 



" Gallop apace, you fiery-footed steeds, 

 Towards Phoebus' mansion ; such a waggoner 

 As Phaeton would whip you to the West, 

 And bring in cloudy night immediately. — 

 Spread thy close curtain, love-performing Night, 

 That runaways' eyes may wink, and Romeo 

 Leap to these arms, untalk'd of and unseen." 



" Runaways' " being a manifest absurdity, the 

 recent editors have substituted " unawares," an 

 uncouth alteration, which, though it has a glim- 

 mering of sense, appears to me almost as absurd 

 as the word it supplies. In this dilemna your 



correspondent Mb. Singer ingeniously suggests 

 the true reading to be, — 



" That rumourers' eyes may wink, and Romeo 

 Leap to these arms, untalk'd of and unseen." 



No doubt this is a felicitous emendation, though 

 I think It may be fairly objected that a rumourer, 

 being one who deals in what he hears, as opposed 

 to an observer, who reports what he sees, there is 

 a certain inapproprlateness in speaking of a ru- 

 mourer's eyes. Be this as it may, I beg to sug- 

 gest another reading, which has the merit of having 

 spontaneously occurred to me on seeing the word 

 " runaways' " In your correspondent's paper, as If 

 obviously suggested by the combination of letters 

 In that word. I propose that the passage should 

 be read thus : 



" Spread thy close curtain, love-performing Night, 

 That rude day's eyes may wink, and Romeo 

 Leap to these arms, untalk'd of and unseen." 



A subsequent reference to Juliet's speech has left 

 no doubt In ray mind that this is the true reading, 

 and so obviously so, as to make It a wonder that 

 it should have been overlooked. She first asks 

 the " fiery-footed steeds " to bring in " cloudy 

 night," then night to close her curtain (that day's 

 eyes may wink), that darkness may come, under 

 cover of which Romeo may hasten to her. In the 

 next two lines she shows why this darkness is pro- 

 pitious, and then, using an unwonted epithet, in- 

 vokes night to give her the opportunity of dark- 

 ness : 



" Come, civil night, 

 Thou sober suited matron all in black. 

 And learn me how to lose a winning game," &c. 



The peculiar and unusual epithet "civil," here 

 applied to night, at once assured me of the accu- 

 racy of the proposed reading, it having evidently 

 suggested Itself as the antithesis of " rude " just 

 before applied to day ; the civil, accommodating, 

 concealing night being thus contrasted with the 

 unaccommodating, revealing day. It is to be re- 

 marked, moreover, that as this epithet civil Is, 

 through Its ordinary signification, brought Into 

 connexion with what precedes It, so Is It, through 

 Its unusual meaning of grave, brought into con- 

 nexion with what follows, it thus furnishing that 

 equivocation of sense of which our great dramatist 

 is so fond, rarely missing an opportunity of " pal- 

 tering v^ith us in a double sense." 



I think, therefore, I may venture to offer you 

 the proposed emendation as rigorously fulfilling 

 all the requirements of the text, while at the same 

 time it necessitates a very trifling literal disturb- 

 ance of the old reading, since by the simple change 

 of the letters naio into ded, we convert "run- 

 aways'" Into "rude day's," of which It was a very 

 easy misprint. 



Having offered you an emendation of my own, 

 I cannot miss the opportunity of sending you 



