490 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 60. 



you would of course give this the prior phice in 

 your journal. 



Another objection is, that the length of such 

 precis would not permit them to come within the 

 limits of your work. But they should nut be long. 

 And even if one of them should take up four or five 

 pages, you could divide it between two or three 

 successive numbers of your periodical. And, be- 

 sides, your work, by embracing this object, would 

 be greatly increased in utility; the number of your 

 subscribers would be multiplied, and the increased 

 expense of publication would thus be defrayed. 



But, if the advantages resulting from such a 

 division of intellectual labour would be as great 

 as I fondly hope, I feel sure that the energy and 

 enterprise which caused you to give a tangible 

 reality to your scheme for " Notes and Querius" 

 would also enable you to overcome all dithculties, 

 and answer all trifling objections. R. M. 



ON A PASSAGE IN lOVE S LABOUb's LOST. 



In Love's Lahours Lost, Act II. Sc. 1., Boyet, 

 speaking of the King of Navarre and addressing 

 the Princess of Franco, says : 



" All Ills bebavioui-s did make their retire 



To the court of his eye, peeping tliovoiigh desire: 

 His heart, like an agate, with your print impressed, 

 Proud witli Ills form, in his eye pride expressed: 

 His tongue, all iiiipatient to speak and tint see. 

 Did stumble with haste in liis eyesiglit to be ; 

 All senses to that sense did make their repair. 

 To feel only looking on fairest of fair." 

 This speech is a remarkable specimen of the 

 affected style of compliment prevalent in the time 

 of Elizabeth. The third cou])let, at first sight, 

 appears to have a signification exactly opposed to 

 that which the context requires. AVe should ex- 

 pect, instead of " the tongue all impatient to speak" 

 to find "the tongue all impatient to see." 



No one of the editors of Shakspeare appears to 

 me to have given a satisfactory explanation of this 

 passage. I therefore venture to offer the Ibl- 

 lowing. 



In the Latin poets (who in this followed the 

 Greeks) we find adjectives and participles followed 

 by the genitive case and the gerund in di. Thus 

 in Horace we have "patiens pulveris atquc solis," 

 " patiens liminis aut aqua; ccelcstis," and in Silius 

 Italicus (vi. 612.), "vetus bellandi." For other 

 instances, see Mr. Baines' Art of Latin Poetrt/, 

 j,p. 56— CO. 



The Latin poets having taken this license, then 

 proceeded a step further, and substituted the in- 

 finitive mood fi)r the gerund in di. I cannot find 

 any instance either of " patiens " or " inipatiens" 

 used in this connection; but numerous instances of 

 other adjectives and participles followed by the 



infinitLve mood may be found in pp. 68. to 73. of 

 the Art of Latin Poetry. I cite two only, both 

 from Horace : " indocilis pauperiem pati," " quid- 

 libet impotens sperare." 



Following these analogies, I suggest that the 

 words "impatient to speak and not see" mean 

 " impatient of speaking (impatiens loquendi) and 

 not seeing," i. e., " dissatisfied with its function of 

 speaking, preferring that of seeing." 



This construction, at least, renders the passage 

 intelligible. X. Z. 



TREATISE OF EQUIVOCATION. 



(Vol. ii., pp. 168. 446.) 



I feel greall}' indebted to J. B. for a complete 

 solution of the question respecting this ambiguous 

 book. Bewildered by the frequent reference to 

 it by nearly cotemporaneous writers, I had appre- 

 hende<l it certain, that it had been sprinted, if not 

 a published work ; and that even a second edition 

 had altered the title of the first. It is now cer- 

 tain, that its e-xistence was, and is, only in manu- 

 script; and that the alteration was intended only 

 for its first impression, if printed at all. It is a 

 fact not generally known, that many papal pro- 

 ductions of the time were multiplied and circu- 

 lated by copies in IMS.: Leycester's Commonwealth, 

 of which 1 have a very neat transcript, and of 

 which many more are extant in different libraries, 

 is one proof of the fact * I observe, that in Ber- 

 nard's very valuable Bihliotlieca MSS, S^'C, I had 

 marked under Laud Misc. MSS., p. 62. No. 968. 

 45. A Treatise against Equivocation or Fraudu- 

 lent Dissinndation, what I supposed might be the 

 work in request : but being prepossessed with the 

 notion that the work was in print, I did not pur- 

 sue any inquiry in that direction. I almost now 

 suspect that this is the very work which J. B. has 

 brought to light. I had hoped during the present 

 year to visit the Bodleian, and satisfy myself with 

 an inspection of the important document. I am 

 additionally gratified with the information relative 

 to the same subject by Mr. Sansom, p. 446. J.B. 

 observes, that the MS. occupies sixty-six pages 

 only. Will no one have the charity for historic 

 literature to make it a public benefit? If with 

 notes, so much the better. It is of far more in- 

 terest, as history is concerned, and that of our own 

 country, th.nn many of the tracts in the Harleian 

 or Somers' Collections. Parsons's notice of it in 

 his Mitigation, and towards tlie end, as if he 

 was just then made acquainted with it, is vpry 



* A Memorial for the Reformation in England, by 

 R. P. (Parsons), of which I have a well transcribed 

 copy, is another. It was published by Gee. 



