154 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 225. 



lains live (though in Rags and Nastiness) yet in Plenty 

 and Luxury." 



" A(nswer). The next Abuse you see is, Black your 

 shoes, your Honour, and the Japanners stick in his 

 Stomach. We shall not take upon us to answer for these 

 pitiful Scrubs, but in his own words ; the Subject is so 

 low, that it becomes disagreeable even to us, as it does 

 even to himself, and he may clear the Streets of these 

 Vermin in what Manner he pleases if the Law will give 

 him leave, for we are in no want of them ; we are better 

 provided for already in that respect by our Masters and 

 their Sons." - 



G.N. 



The following lines by Charles, Earl of Dorset 

 and Middlesex (the writer of the famous old song 

 " To all you ladies now at land"), are an instance 

 of the application of this term to the turbulent 

 link-boys, against whom the proclamation quoted 

 by Mr. Cunningham was directed. Their date is 

 probably a short time before that of the procla- 

 mation : 



" Belinda's sparkling wit and eyes, 



United cast so fierce a light, 

 As quickly flashes, quickly dies ; 



Wounds not the heart, but burns the sight. 

 Love is all gentleness, Love is all joy ; 



Sweet are his looks, and soft his pace : 

 Her Cupid is a black-guard boy, 



That runs his link full in your face." 



F. E. E. 



"wurm, in modern german passage in 



schiller's " wallenstein." 



(Vol. viii., pp. 464. 624. ; Vol. ix., p. 63.) 



I believe Mr. Keightlet is perfectly right in 

 his conjecture, so far as Schiller is concerned. 

 Wurm, without any prefix, had the sense of ser- 

 pent in German. Adelung says it was used for 

 all animals without feet who'move on their bellies, 

 serpents among the rest. Schiller does not seem 

 to have had Shakspeare in his thoughts, but the 

 proverb quoted by Adelung : 



" Auch das friedlichste Wiirmchen beiszt, wenn man 

 es treten will." 



In this proverb there is evidently an allusion to the 

 serpent, as if of the same nature with the worm ; 

 which, as we know,! neither stings nor bites the 

 foot which treads on it. Shakspeare therefore 

 says " will turn," making a distinction, which 

 Schiller does not make. In the translation Cole- 

 ridge evidently had Shakspeare in his recollection ; 

 but he has not lost Schiller's idea, which gives the 

 worm a serpent's sting. Vermo is applied both by 

 Dante and Ariosto to the Devil, as the " great 

 serpent:" 



" . . . . . I' mi presi 

 Al pel del vermo reo, che '1 mondo fora." 



Inferno, C. xxxv. 



" Che al gran vermo infernal mette la briglia." 

 Orlando furioso, C. xlv. st. 84. 



E. C. H. 



With deference to C. B. d'O., I consider that 

 Wurm is used, in poetry at least, to designate any 

 individual of the tribe of reptiles. In the Kampf 

 mit dem Drachen, the rebuke of the " Master" is 

 thus conveyed : 



" Du bist ein Gott dem Volke worden, 

 Du kommst ein Feind zuriick dem Orden, 

 Und einen schlimmern Wurm gebar. 

 Dein Herz, als deiser Drache war, 

 Die Schlange die das Herz vergiftet, 

 Die Zwietracht und Verderben stiftet!" 



The monster which had yielded to the prowess 

 of the disobedient son of the "Order" is elsewhere 

 called "der Wurm:" 



" Hier hausete der Wurm und lag, 

 Den Raub erspiihend Nacht und Tag ; " 



while the " counterfeit presentment" of it — " Alles 

 bild ich nach genau" — is delineated in the follow- 

 ing lines : 



" In eine Schlange endigt sich, 

 Des Riickens ungeheure Lange 

 Halb Wurm erschien, halb Molch und Drache." 



The word in question is in this passage applic- 

 able perhaps to the serpent section, but we have 

 seen that it is used to denote the entire living 

 animal. A. L. 



Middle Temple. 



WAS shakspeare descended from a landed 

 proprietor ? 



(Vol. ix., p. 75.) 



I am inclined to think that Mr. Halliwell has 

 been misled by his old law-books, for upon looking 

 at the principal authorities upon this point, I 

 cannot find any such interpretation of the term 

 inheritance as that quoted by him from Cowell. 

 The words " the inheritance," in the passage 

 " heretofore the inheritance of William Shakspeare, 

 Gent., deceased," would most certainly appear to 

 imply that Shakspeare inherited the lands as heir- 

 at-law to some one. But, however, it must not 

 be concluded upon this alone that the poet's 

 father was a landed proprietor, as the inheritance 

 could proceed from any other ancestor to whom 

 Shakspeare was by law heir. 



Blackstone, in his Commentaries, has the follow- 

 ing : 



" Descent, or hereditary succession, is the title 

 whereby a man on the death of his ancestor acquires 

 his estate by right of representation, as his heir-at-law. 

 An heir, therefore, is he upon whom the law casts the 

 estate immediately on the death of the ancestor : and 

 an estate, so descending to the heir, is in Law called the 

 inheritance." — Vol. ii. p. 201. 



