362 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[No. 207. 



set me a-building, i. e. writing. After all I see no 

 difficulty in " the all-building law ; " it means the 

 law that builds, maintains, and repairs the whole 

 social edifice, and is well suited to Angelo, whose 

 object was to enhance the favour he proposed to 

 grant. 



Again, if H. C. K. had looked at Collier's edit., 

 he would have seen that in Act I. Sc. 2., princely 

 is the reading of the second folio, and not a 

 modern conjecture. If he rejects this authority, 

 he must read a little farther on perjury for 

 penury. As to the Italian prenze, I cannot re- 

 ceive it. I very much doubt Shakspeare's know- 

 ledge of Italian, and am sure that he would not, if 

 he understood the word, use it as an adjective. 

 Mb. Collier's famed corrector reads with War- 

 burton priestly, and substitutes garb for guards, a 

 change which convinces me (if proof were want- 

 ing) that he was only a guesser like ourselves, for 

 it is plain, from the previous use of the word 

 ■living, that guards is the right word. 



Thos. Keightlet. 



Shakspeare's Works with a Digest of all the 

 Readings (Vol. viii., pp. 74, 170.). — I fully concur 

 with your correspondent's suggestion, and beg to 

 suggest to Mr. Halhwell that his splendid mono- 

 graph edition would be greatly improved if he 

 would undertake the task. As his first volume 

 contains but one play (Tempest), it may not be 

 too late to adopt the suggestion, so that every 

 variation of the text (in the briefest possible form) 

 might be seen at a glance. Este. 



DEATH ON THE FINGERS. 



" Isaac saith, I am old, and I know not the day of 

 my death ( Gen. xxvii. 2.) ; no more doth any, though 

 never so young. As soon (saith the proverb) goes the 

 landi's skin to the market as that of the old sheep ; and 

 the Hebrew saying is, There be as many young skulls 

 in Golgotha as old; young men may die (for none have 

 or can make any agreement with the grave, or any 

 covenant with death, Isa. xxviii. 15. J 8.), but old men 

 must die. 'Tis the grant statute of heaven (Heb. ix. 

 27.). Senex quasi seminex, an old man is half dead ; 

 yea, now, at fifty years old, we are accounted three 

 parts dead ; this lesson we may learn from our fingers' 

 ends, the dimensions whereof demonstrate this to us, 

 beginning at the end of the little finger, representing 

 our childhood, rising up to a little higher at the end 

 of the ring-finger, which betokens our youth ; from it 

 to the top of the middle finger, which is the highest 

 point of our elevated hand, and so most aptly repre- 

 sents our middle age, when we come to our aKfii], or 

 height of stature and strength ; then begins our de- 

 clining age, from thence to the end of our forefinger, 

 which amounts to a little fall, but from thence to the 

 end of the thumb there is a great fall, to show, when 

 man goes down (in his old age) he falls fast and far, and 

 breaks (as we say) with a witness. Now, if our very 



fingers' end do read us such a divine lecture of mor- 

 tality, oh, that we could take it out, and have it perfect 

 (as we say) on our fingers' end, &c. 



" To old men death is prce januis, stands before their 

 door, &c. Old men have (pedem. in cymbd Charonis) 

 one foot in the grate already ; and the Greek word 

 y^pav (an old man) is derived from irapa ro els yi]V 

 opay, which signifies a looking towards the ground; 

 decrepit age goes stooping and grovelling, as groaning 

 to the grave. It doth not only expect death, but oft 

 solicits it." — Christ. Ness's Compleat History and 

 Mystery of the Old and New Test, fol. Lond. 1690, 

 chap. xii. p. 227. 



From The Barren Tree, a sermon on Luke xiiiv 

 7., preached at Paul's Cross, Oct. 26, 1623, by 

 Thos. Adams : 



" Our bells ring, our chimneis smoake, our fields 

 rejoice, our children dance, ourselues sing and play, 

 Jovis omnia plena. But when righteousnesse hath sowne 

 and comes to reape, here is no haruest ; ovk evpiaKu, 

 I finde none. And as there was neuer lesse wisdome 

 in Greece then in time of the Seven Wise Men : so 

 neuer lesse pietie among vs, then now, when vpon good, 

 cause most is expected. When the sunne is brightest 

 the stars be darkest: so the cleerer our light, the more 

 gloomy our life with the deeds of darkness. The 

 Cimerians, that live in a perpetuall mist, though they 

 deny a sunne, are not condemned of impietie ; but 

 Anaxogoras, that saw the sunne and yet denied it, is 

 not condemned of ignorance, but of impietie. Former 

 times were like Leah, bleare-eyed, but fruitful ; the 

 present, like Rachel, faire, but barren. Wc give such 

 acclamation to the Gospell, that we quite forget to 

 observe the law. As vpon some solemne festivall, the 

 bells are nmg in all steeples, but then the clocks are 

 tyed vp : there is a great vntun'd confusion and clangor, 

 but no man knowes how the time passeth. So in this 

 vniuersall allowance of libertie by the Gospell (which 

 indeed rejoyceth our hearts, had we the grace of sober 

 vsage), the clocks that tel vs how the time passes. 

 Truth and Conscience, that show the bounded vse and 

 decent forme of things, are tyed vp, and cannot be 

 heard. Still Fructiim non invenio, I finde no fruits. I 

 am sorry to passe the fig-tree in this plight :. but as I 

 finde it, so I must leave it, till the Lord mend it." — 

 Pp. 39, 40., 4to. Lond. 1623. 



Balliolensis. 



Jfltn0r §,atti. 



On a " Custom of y'^ Englyshe.'' — When a more 

 than ordinarily doubtful matter is offered us for 

 credence, we are apt to inquire of the teller if he 

 " sees any green " in our optics, accompanying the 

 query by an elevation of the right eyelid with the 

 forefinger. Now, regarding this merely as a 

 " fast " custom, I marvelled greatly at finding a 

 similar action noted by worthy Master Blunt, as 

 conveying to his mind an analogous meaning. 

 I can scarcely credit its antiquity ; but what other 

 meaning can I understand from the episode he 



