Oct. 19. 1850.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



337 



kingdom into his hand, and become their king, making 

 signes that they would resigne unto him their right 

 and title of the wliole land, and become his subjects. 

 In which, to persuade us the better, the king and the 

 rest with our consent, and with great reverence, joy- 

 fully singing a song, did set the crowne upon his head, 

 inriched his necke with all their chaines, and ofFred 

 unto him many other things, honouring him by the 

 name of Hioh, adding thereunto, as it seemed, a sign of 

 triumph ; which thing our Generall thought not meet I 

 to reject, because he knew not what honour and profit 

 it might be to our countrey. Whereupon, in the name 

 and to the use of Her Majestic, he took the scepter, 

 crowne, and dignitie of the said country into his hands, 

 wishing that the riches and treasure thereof might 

 so conveniently be transported to the inrichmg of her 

 kingdom at home, as it aboundeth in y^ same. 



" Our Generall called this countrey Nova Albion, 

 and that for two causes ; the one in respect of the 

 white bankes and clilfes, which lie towards the sea, and 

 the other, because it might have some affinities with 

 our countrey in name, which sometime was so called." 



Then comes the curious statement : 



" There is no part of earth heere to he taken up, wherein 

 there is not some probable show of gold or silver." 



The narrative then goes on to state that formal 

 possession was taken of the country by putting 

 up a "monument" with "a piece of sixpence of 

 current English money under the plate," &c. 



Drake and the bold cavaliers of that day pro- 

 bably found that it paid better to rob the Spaniard 

 of the gold and silver ready made in the shape of 

 " the Acapulco galleon," or such like, than to sift 

 the soil of the Sacramento for its precious grains. 

 At all events, the wonderful richness of the 

 "earth" seems to have been completely over- 

 looked or forgotten. So little was it suspected, 

 until the Americans acquired the counti-y at the 

 peace with Mexico, that in the fourth volume of 

 Knight's National Cyclopadia, published early in 

 1848, in speaking of TJpper California, it is said, 

 " very little mineral wealth has been met with " ! 

 A few months after, intelligence reached Europe 

 how much the reverse was the case. T. N. 



TUE DISPUTED PASSAGE FROM THE TEMPEST. 



(Vol. ii., pp. 259. 299.) 



When the learning and experience of such gen- 

 tlemen as Ma. Singer and Mr. Collier fail to 

 conclude a question, there is no higher ap])eal than 

 to plain common sense, aided by the able argu- 

 ments advanced on each side. Under these cir- 

 cumstances, perhaps you will allow one who is 

 neither learned nor exjierienced to olfer a word or 

 two by way of vote on the meaning of the passage 

 in the Tempest cited by Mr. Singkr. It appears 

 to me tliat to do full justice to the cpiestion the 

 passage should be (juoled entire, which, with your 

 permission, 1 will do. 



" Fer. There be some sports are painful ; and their 



labour 

 Delight in them sets o£F: some kinds of baseness 

 Are nobly undergone ; and most poor matters 

 Point to rich ends. This, my mean task 

 Would be as heavy to me as odious, but 

 The mistress, which I serve, quickens what's dead, 

 And makes my labours pleasures : O, she is 

 Ten times more gentle than her father's crabbed, 

 And he's compos'd of harshness. I must remove 

 Some thousands of these logs, and pile them up 

 Upon a sore injunction : my sweet niislress 

 Weeps when she sees me work, and says, such 



baseness 

 Had ne'er like executor. I forget ; 

 But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my la- 



bour(s), 

 Most busy(l)est when I do it." 



The question appears to be whether "most 

 busy" applies to "sweet thoughts" or to Ferdi- 

 nand, and whether the pronoun " it" refers to the 

 act of forgetting or to " labour(s) ; " and I must 

 confess that, to me, the whole significancy of the 

 passage depends upon the idea conveyed of the mind 

 being " most busy" while the body is being exerted. 

 Every man with a spark of imagination must many 

 a time have felt this. In the most essential par- 

 ticular, therefore, I think Mr. Singer is right in 

 his correction; but at the same time agreeing with 

 Mr. Collier, that it is desirable not to intei-fere 

 with the original text further than is absolutely 

 necessary, I think the substitution of " labour" for 

 " labours" is of questionable expediency. What is 

 the use of the conjunction "but" if not to connect 

 the excuse for the act of forgetting with the act 

 itself? 



AVithout intending to follow Mr. Collier 

 through the course of his argument, I should like 

 to notice one or two points. The usage of Shak- 

 speare's day admitted many variations from the 

 stricter grammatical rules of our own ; but no 

 usage ever admitted such a sentence as this, — for 

 though elliptically expressed, Mr. Collier treats 

 it as a sentence, — 



" Most busy, least when I do it." 



This is neither grammar nor sense : and I persist 

 in believing that Shakspeare was able to construct 

 an intelligible sentence according to rules as much 

 recognized by custom then as now. 



But, indeed, does not IMr. Collier virtually ad- 

 mit that the text is inexplicable in his very attempt 

 to explain it ? lie sums up by saying " that in fact, 

 his toil is no toil, and that when he is 'most busy' 

 he 'least does it,'" which is precisely the reverse 

 of what the text says, if it express any meaning 

 at all. I will agree with him in preferring the old 

 text to any other text where it gives a perfect 

 meaning ; but to prefer it here, when the omis- 

 sion of a single letter produces an image at once 



