338 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 51. 



noble and complete, would, to my mind, savour 

 more of superstition tban true worship. 



P. S. It should be observed that JIk. Colliee's 

 " least" is as much of an alteration of the original 

 text as Mr. Singer's " busyest," the one adding 

 and the other omitting a letter. The folio of 1632, 

 where it differs from the first folio, will hardly add 

 to the authority of Ma. Colller himself 



Samuel Hickson. 



Oct. 10. 1850. 



If one, who is but a charmed listener to Shak- 

 speare, may presume to oSer an opinion to practised 

 interpreters, I should suggest to Mr. Singer and 

 ]Mr. Collier, another and a totally different read- 

 ing of the passage in discussion by them from the 

 exquisite opening scene of the 3d Act of the 

 Tempest. , 



There can be little doubt that "most busy" 

 applies more poetically to thoughts than to labours; 

 and, in so much, Mr. Singer's reading is to be 

 commended. But it is equally true that, by ad- 

 hering to the early text, Mr. Collier's school 

 of editing has restored force and beauty to many 

 passages which had previously been outraged by 

 fancied improvements ; so that his unflinching 

 support of the original word in this instance is 

 also to be respected. But may not both be com- 

 bined ? I think they may, by undei'standing the 

 passage in question as though a transposition had 

 taken place between the words "least" and "when." 



" Most busy when least I do it," 



or. 



" Most busy when least employed." 



forming just the sort of verbal antithesis of which 

 the poet was so fond. 



An actual transjjosition of the words may have 

 taken place through the fault of the eaidy printers ; 

 but even if the present order be preserved, still 

 the transposed sense is, I think, much less diflicult 

 than the forced and rather contradictory meaning 

 contended for by Mr. Collier. Has not the 

 pause in Ferdinand's labour been hitherto too 

 much overlooked ? What is it that has induced 

 him to forget his task ? Is it not those delicious 

 thoughts, most busy in the pauses of labour, 

 making those pauses still more refreshing and 

 renovating ? 



Ferdinand says — 



" I forget," 



and then he adds, by icay of excuse, — 

 " But the sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours. 

 Most busy when least I do it." 



More busy in thought when idle, than in labour 

 when employed. The cessation from labour was 

 favourable to the thoughts that made it endurable. 

 Malone quarrelled with the word " but," for 

 which he would have substituted " and " or " for." 

 But in the apologetic sense which I would confer 



upon the last two lines of Ferdinand's speech, the 

 word " but," at their commencement, becomes not 

 only appropriate but necessary. A. E. B. 



Leeds, October 8. 1850. 



" LONDON bridge IS BROKEN DOWN. 



(Vol. ii., p. 258.) 



Your correspondent T. S. D. does not remember 

 to have seen that interesting old nursery ditty 

 " London Bridge is broken down" printed, or even 

 referred to in print. For the "edification" then 

 of all interested in the subject, I send you the 

 following. 



The old song on "London Bridge" is printed 

 in Ritson's Gammer Gurtons Garland, and in 

 Halliwell's Nursery Rhymes of England ; but both 

 copies are very imperfect. There are also some 

 fragments preserved in the Gentleman's Magazine 

 for September, 1823 (vol. xciii. p. 232.), and in 

 the Mirror for November 1st of the same year. 

 From these versions a tolerably perfect copy has 

 been formed, and printed in a little work, for 

 which I am answerable, entitled Nursei-y Hhymes, 

 with the Txines to tvhich they are still sung in the 

 Nurseries of England. But the whole ballad has 

 probably been formed by many fresh additions in 

 a long series of years, and is, perhaps, almost in- 

 terminable when received in all its different 

 versions. 



The correspondent of the Gentleman's Magazine 

 remarks, that " Loudon Bridge is broken down " 

 is an old ballad which, more than seventy years 

 previous, he had heard plaintively warbled by a 

 lady who was born in the reign of Charles II., and 

 who lived till nearly that of George II. Another 

 correspondent to the same magazine, whose con- 

 tribution, signed " D.," is inserted in the same 

 volume (December, p. 507.), observes, that the 

 ballad concernins; London Bridge formed, in his 

 remembrance, part of a Christmas carol, and com- 

 menced thus : — 



" Dame, get up and bake your pies, 

 On Christmas Day in the morning." 



The requisition, he continues, goes on to the 

 dame to prepare for the feast, and her answer is — 



" London Bridge is broken down, 

 On Christmas Day in the morning." 



The inference always was, that until the bridge 

 was rebuilt some stop would be put to the dame's 

 Christmas operations; but why the falling of a 

 part of London Bridge should form part of a 

 Christmas carol it is difficult to determine. 



A Bristol correspondent, whose communication 

 is inserted in that delightful volume the Chronicles 

 of London Bridge (by Richai-d Thomson, of the 

 London Institution), says, — 



" About forty years ago, one moonlight night, in a 

 street in Bristol, his attention was attracted by a dance 



