Sept. 3. 1853.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



217 



another, for which I am indebted to a critical 

 student of Shakspeare, my friend Mr. W. R. 

 Grove, the Queen's Counsel. In AlFs Well that 

 ends Well, the third scene of the Second Act opens 

 •with the following speech from Lafeu •. 



" They say miracles are past ; and we have our phi- 

 losophical persons to make modern and familiar things, 

 supernatural and causeless. Hence is it that we make 

 trifles of terrors ; ensconcing ourselves in a seeming 

 knowledge when we should submit ourselves to an un- 

 known fear." 



On reading this passage as thus printed, it will 

 be seen that the two sentences of v/hich it is com- 

 posed are in direct contradiction to each other ; 

 the first asserting that we have plulosophers who 

 give a causeless and supernatural character to 

 things ordinary and familiar : the second stating 

 as the result of this, " that we make trifles of 

 terrors," whereas the tendency v/ould necessarily 

 be to make " terrors of trifles." The confusion 

 arises from the careless pointing of the first sen- 

 tence. By simply shifting the comma at present 

 after " things," and placing it after " familiar," the 

 discrepancy between the two sentences disappears, 

 as also between the two members of the first sen- 

 tence, which are now at variance. It should be 

 pointed thus : 



" They say miracles are past ; and we have our phi- 

 losophical persons to make modern and familiar, things 

 supernatural and causeless." 



It is singular that none of the editors should have 

 noticed this defect, which I have no doubt will 

 hereafter be removed by the adoption of a simple 

 change, that very happily illustrates the import- 

 ance of correct punctuation. 11. H. C. 



Shalispeare' s Skull. — As your publication has 

 been the medium of many valuable comments 

 upon Shakspeare, and interesting matter con- 

 nected with him, I am induced to solicit inform- 

 ation, if you will allow me, on the following sub- 

 ject. I have the Works of Shakspeare, which 

 being in one volume 8vo., I value as being more 

 portable than any other edition. It was published 

 by Sherwood without any date afiixed, but pro- 

 bably about 1825. There is a memoir prefixed by 

 Wm. Harvey, Esq., in which, p. xiii., it is stated 

 that while a vault was being made close to 

 Shakspeare's, when Dr. Davenport was rector, a 

 young man perceiving the. tomb of Shakspeare 

 open, introduced himself so far within the vault 

 that he could have brought away the skull, but 

 he was deterred from doing so by the anathema 

 inscribed on the monument, of — 



" Curs'd be he that moves my bones." 

 This is given upon the authority of Dr. IsTathan 

 Drake's work on Shakspeare, in two vols. 4to. 

 Now in this work much is given which is copied 

 into the memoir, but I do not there find this 



anecdote, and perhaps some reader of " N. & Q." 

 may supply this deficiency, and state where I may 

 find it. I may be allowed to state, that Pope's 

 skull was similarly stolen and another substituted. 

 I annex Wheler's remark that no violation of 

 the grave had, up to the time of his work, taken 

 place. 



" Through a lapse of nearly two hundred years have 

 his ashes remained undisturbed, and it is to be hoped 

 no sacrilegious hand will ever be found to violate the 

 sacred repository." — • History of Stratford-upon-Avon, 

 by R. B. Wheler (circa 1805 ?), 8vo. 



A SUBSCBIBER. 



On a Passage in ^^ Macbeth." — Mr. Singleton 

 (Vol. vii., p. 404.) says, " Vaulting ambition, that 

 overleaps itself," is nonsense — the thing is impos- 

 sible ; and proposes that " vaulting ambition " 

 should " rest his hand upon the pommel, and over- 

 leap the saddle (sell)," a thing not uncommon in 

 the feats of horsemanship. 



Did Mb. Singleton never overleap himself, and' 

 be too late — later than himself intended ? Did he 

 never, in his younger days, amuse himself with a 

 soprasalto; or with what Donne calls a " vaulter's 

 sombersault ? " Did he never hear of any little 

 plunderer, climbing a wall, d erreaching himself to 

 pluck an apple, and falling on the other side, into 

 the hands of the gardener ? " By like," says Sir 

 Thomas More, " the manne there overshotte him- 

 self." 



What was the marine about ? Attempting such a 

 perilous gambol, perhaps, as correcting Shakspeare. 



To overleap ~| , . .-fmerely, to leap, reach, shoot^ 

 overreach 1- I over or beyond the mark 



overshoot J (_ himself intended. 



Q. 



Bloorasbury. 



P. S. — Mb. Abbowsmith reminds us of the old 

 saw, that "great wits jump." He should recol- 

 lect also that they sometimes nod. 



Lemon-juice administered in Gout and Rheuma- 

 tism. — At a time when lemon-juice seems to be 

 frequently administered in gout and rheumatism, 

 as though it were an entirely new remedy, I have 

 been somewhat amused at the following passage, 

 which may also interest some of your readers ; it 

 occurs in Scelta di Lettere Familiari degli Autori 

 piu celeh-i ad uso degli studiosi della lingua Ita- 

 liana, p. 36., in a letter "Di Don Francesco a 

 Teodoro Villa" : 



" lo non posso star meglio di quel che sto, e forse 

 perche uso di spesso il bagno freddo, e beo limonata a 

 pranzo e a cena da molti mesi. Q,uesta e la mia quoti- 

 diana bevanda, e dacche mi ci sono messo, m' ha fatto 

 un bene che non si puo dire. Di quelle doglie di capo. 



