408 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 209. 



grass ;' and such, we have good reason to suppose, 

 was the true reading." (Collier's Shakspeare Notes 

 and Emendations., p. 25.) 



The modern slang, " Do you see anything green 

 in my eye?" can hardly, I suppose, be called in 

 evidence on the question of beauty or ugliness. 

 Is there any more to be found in favour of '■'■green 

 eyes?" Habry Lekot Temple. 



SHAKSPEAEE COKRESPONDENCE. 



On the Death of Falstaff (Vol. viii., p. 314.).— 

 The remarks of your correspondents J. B.^ and 

 Nemo on this subject are so obvious, and I think I 

 may also admit in a measure so just, that it ap- 

 peal's to me only respectful to them, and to all 

 who may feel reluctant to give up Theobald's 

 reading, that I should give some detailed reason 

 for dissenting from their conclusion. 



In the first place, when Falstaff began to " play 

 -with flowers, and smile upon his fingers' ends," it 

 was no far-fetched thought to place him in fancy 

 among green fields ; and if the disputed passage 

 were in immediate connexion with the above, the 

 argument in its favour would be stronger. But, 

 unfortunately, Mrs. Quickly brings in here the 

 conclusion at which she arrives : " I knew there 

 ■was but one way ; /w," she adds, as a farther 

 reason, and referring to the physical evidences 

 upon his frame of the approach of death, " his nose 

 was as sharp as a pen on a table of green frieze." 

 We can hardly imagine him "babbling" at this 

 moment. "How now. Sir John, quoth I;" she 

 continues, apparently to rouse him : " What, man ! 

 be of good cheer. So [thus roused] 'a cried out — 

 God, God, God ! three or four times : now, I to 

 comfort him," &c. Does this look as though he 

 were in the happy state of mind your correspon- 

 dents imagine ? I take no account of his crying 

 out of sack and of women, &c., as that might have 

 been at an earlier period. At the same time it 

 does not follow, had Shakspeare intended to re- 

 place him in fancy amid the scenes of his youth, 

 that he should have talked of them. A man who 

 is (or imagines he is) in green fields, does not talk 

 about green fields, however he may enjoy them. 

 Both your correspondents seem to anticipate this 

 difficulty, and meet it by supposing Falstafl'to be 

 " babbling snatches of hymns ; " but this I con- 

 ceive to be far beyond the limits of reasonable 

 conjectiu'e. In fact, the whole of their very beau- 

 tiful theory rests upon the very disputed passage 

 in question. At an earlier period apparently, his 

 mind did wander ; when, as Mrs. Quickly says, he 

 was " rheumatick," meaning doubtless lunatic, that 

 is, delirious ; and then he talked of other things. 

 When he began to " fumble with the sheets, and 

 play with flowers, and smile upon his fingers' 

 ends," though for a moment he might have 



fancied himself even " in his mother's lap," or any- 

 thing else, he was clearly past all " babbling." In 

 saying this, I treat Falstaff as a human being who 

 lived and died, and whose actions were recorded 

 by the faithfullest observer of Nature that ever 

 wrote. Samuel Hickson. 



Passage in " Tempest." — 



" Thy banks with pioned and twilled brims. 

 Which spongy April at thy best betrims, 

 To make cold nymphs chaste crowns." 



Tempest, Act IV. Sc. I. 



The above is the reading of the first _ folio. 

 Pioned is explained by Mr. Collier, " to dig," as 

 in Spenser ; but Mr. Halliwell (Monograph 

 Shakspeare, vol. i. p. 425.) finds no authority to 

 support such an interpretation. Mr. Collier's 

 anonymous annotator writes " tilled;" but surely 

 this is a very artificial process to be performed by 

 "spongy April." Hamner proposed "peonied;" 

 Heath, "lilied ;" and Mr. Halliwell admits this 

 is more poetical (and surely more correct), but 

 appears to prefer " twilled," embroidered or inter- 

 woven with flowers. A friend of mine suggested 

 that "lilied" was peculiarly appropriate to form 

 " cold nymphs chaste crowns," from its imputed 

 power as a preserver of chastity : and in Mr. 

 Halliwell's folio, several examples are quoted 

 from old poets of " peony " spelt " piony ;" and of 

 both peony and lily as " defending from unchaste 

 thoughts." Surely, then, the reading of the first 

 folio is a mere typographical error, and peonied and 

 lilied the most poetical and correct. Este. 



Monumental Inscriptions (Vol. viii., p. 215. &c.). 

 — I have never seen the monumental inscription 

 of Theodore Palajologus accurately copied in any 

 book. When in Cornwall lately, I took the 

 trouble to copy it, and as some of your readers 

 may like to see the thing as it is, I send it line for 

 line, word for word, and letter for letter. It is 

 found, as is well known, in the little out-of-the- 

 way church of St. Landulph, near Saltash. 



" Here lyeth the body of Theodore Paleologus 

 Of Pesaro in Italye, descended from y" Imperyall 

 Lyne of y^ last Christian Emperors of Greece 

 Being the sonne of Camilio, y" sone of Prosper 

 the Sonne of Theodoro the sonne of lohn, y'= sonne 

 of Thomas, second brother to Constantine 

 Paleologus, the 8th of that name and last of 

 y' lyne y' raygned hi Constantinople, untill sub- 

 dewed by the Turkes, who married with Mary 

 ¥« daughter of William Balls of Hadlye in 

 SoufFolke Gent, & had issue 5 children, Theo- 

 doro, lohn, Ferdinando, Maria & Dorothy, and de- 

 parted this life at Clyfton y" 21*'" of January, 1636." 



Ed. St. Jackson. 



