Mar. 29. 1851.] 



:f^OTES AND QUERIES. 



251 



of Sophocles, so often represented at Berlin), and 

 such as to ensure the favourable attention of an 

 English audience, particularly as the subject turns 

 so much upon the danger and uselessness of the 

 meteoric or visionary education, then so prevalent 

 at Athens. Arch^ds. 



Dusseldorf, March 6. 



Denarius Philosnphm'um (Vol. iii., p. 1G8.). — 

 Bishop Thornborough may have been thus styled 

 from his attachment to alchemy and chemistry. 

 One of his publications is thus entitled: 



" Nihil, Alifiuid, Omnia, in Gratiam eorum qui 

 Artem Auriferain Physico-chyniice et pie, protitenuir.' 

 Oxon. 1621. 



Another part of his monumental inscription is 

 singular. On the north side are, or were, these 

 words and figui'es — " In uno, 2° 3" 4'' 10 — non 

 spirans spero." 



" He was," says AVood, " a great encourager of 

 Bu^hall in his searches after mines and minerals : " 



and Richardson speaks of this prelate as — 



" Rerum politicarnm potius qnam Theologic.irum 

 et artis Chemicee peritia Claius." 



J. H. M. 



On a Passage in the Tempest (Vol. ii., pp. 259. 

 299. 3.37. 4-29. 499.). — If you will allow me to 

 offer a conjecture on a subject, which you may 

 think has already been sufficiently discussed in 

 your pages, I shall be glad to submit the following 

 to the consideration of your readers. 



The passage in the Tempest, Act III. Scene 1., 

 as quoted from the first folio, stands thus : 



" I forget : 

 But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours 

 Most busie lest, when I do it." 



This was altered in the second folio to 



" Jlost busie least, when I do it." 



Instead of which Theobald jiroposes, — 



" Most busyless, when I do it." 



But " busyless " is not English. All our words 

 ending in less (fn-ming adjectives), are derived 

 from Anglo-Saxon nouns; as love, joy, hope, &c., 

 and never from adjectives. 



My conjecture is that Shakspeare wrote — 

 " I forget : 



But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labour's 



Most business, when 1 do it." 

 " Most " being used in tiie sense of " greatest," as 

 m Henry VI., Pt.I., Act IV. Scene 1., "(noticed by 

 Steeveas) : — 



" But always resolute in most extremes." 



Thus the change of a single syllable is suflicient 

 to make good Euglisii, good sense, and good meiie 

 of a passa^'c which i.s otherwise defective in these 

 three particulars. It retains the * in " labours," 

 keeps the coniiua in its place, and provides that 



antecedent for " it," which was justly considered 

 necessary by Mr. Singer. John Taylor. 



30. Upper Gower Street. 



Meaning of Waste-book (Vol. iii., pp. 118. 195.). 

 — Richard Dafforne, of Northampton, in his very 

 curious 



'• IMerchant's Mirrour, or Directions for the Perfect 

 Ordering and Keeping of his Accounts; framed by 

 way of Debitor and Creditor after the (so tearmed) 

 Italian Manner, containing 250 rare Questions, with 

 their Answers in the form of a Dialogue ; as likewise 

 a Waste Book, with a complete Journal and Ledger 

 thereunto appertaining ;" 



annexed to Malyne's Consuetudo vel Lex Mci-ca- 

 toria, edit. 1636, folio, gives rather a different 

 explanation of the origin of the term " waste- 

 book " to that contained in the answer of your last 

 correspondent. " ^YASTE-B00K," he observes, 



" So called, because, when the Matter is written into 

 the Journall, then is this Book void, and of no csteemc, 

 especially in Holland ; where the buying people firnie 

 not the Waite-book, as liere our nation doe in 

 Kngland." 



Jas. Ckossi.et. 



Arthur s Seat and Salishuy Craigs (Vol. iii., 

 p. 119.). — L. M. M. R. is informed that there is a 

 tradition of King Arthur having defeated the 

 Saxons in the neighboui-hood of this hill, to the 

 top of which he ascended for the purpose of view- 

 ing the country. 



In the Encydopcedia Britannica we have another 

 explanation also {sub voce), as follows : — 



" Arthur's Seat is said to be derived, or rather cor- 

 rupted, from A'rd S'-ir, a ' place or field of arrows,' 

 wliere people shot at a mark : and this not iinproperly ; 

 for, among these cliffs is a dell, or recluse valley, where 

 the wind c:m scarcely re^icli, now c.dled the Hunter's 

 Bog, the bottom of it being a morass." 

 The article concludes thus : 



" The adjacent crags are supposed to h.ive taken 

 their name from the Earl of Salisbury ; who, in the 

 reign of Edward III., accompanied that prince in an 

 expedition against the Scots." 



But query "a height of earth;" "earthes" 

 (an old form of the genitive), or " airthcs height," 

 not unnaturally corrupted to " Arthur's Seat." 



W. T. M. 



Edinburgh. 



Salishiiry Craigs. — Craiglockliart Hill and 

 Craiguiillar Castle, both in the neighbourhood of 

 tlie Craigs, are all so called from Henry de Craig- 

 uiillar, who built the castle (now in ruins) in the 

 twelfth century. There is a charter in the reign 

 of Alexander ■[[., in 1212, by William, son of 

 Henry de Craiguiillar, to the monastery of Dun- 

 fermline, which is the earliest record of the castle. 



Blowen. 



Meaning of ^^ ILirrisers" (Vol. ii., p. 376.). — 

 I am told that the practice which Clericus Rus- 



