ApraL 26. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



319 



hns no parallel in Sbakspeave's works. To John 

 Fletcher, indeed, at the close of the reign of Queen 

 Elizabeth, these things were known ; but scarcely 

 to the attendant of Queen Katherine, who has but 

 just narrated the circumstances, then newly hap- 

 pened, of AVolsey's fall. On maturer consider- 

 ation, then, I am inclined to think that the whole 

 of the scene (Act III. Sc. 2.) to which your 

 correspondent refei'S, was originally written by 

 Fletcher, although, as it now stands, it is strongly 

 marked by the hand of Shakspeare. In the same 

 category, also, I am inclined to place Scenes 3. 

 and 4. of Act II. It will be observed that these 

 changes are not inconsistent with the view I had 

 previously taken ; the elFect being merely, that I 

 am inclined to ascribe a little more than in the 

 first instance to the hitherto unsuspected partici- 

 pator in the work. I am not sure, too, that I 

 shall not be coming nearer to Mh. Spedding ; as, 

 if I am not mistaken, it is in some of these scenes 

 that he imagines he detects " a third hand ;" a 

 theory which, though I do not adopt, I certainly 

 have not confidence enough to reject altogether. 

 But this view affects so very small a portion of 

 the play, that it is of very little consequence. 



Samuel, Hickson. 



ILLUSTRATIONS Of TENNYSON. 



That great poets are sometimes obscure, needs 

 no proof. That the greatest poets will necessarily 

 be so to the ordinary reader, seems to nie equally 

 indisputable. 



Not without efibrt can one enter into the spon- 

 taneous thought of another, or even of himself in 

 another mood. How much more when that other 

 is distinguished fiom his fellows by the greatness 

 and singularity of his thoughts, and by the ex- 

 treme subtilty of their connecting links. Obscu- 

 rity is not a blemish but an excellence, if the pains 

 of seeking are more than compensated by the 

 pleasures of finding, the luxury of i.uiOriais, where 

 the concentrated energy of a passage, when once 

 understood, gives it a hold on the imagination and 

 memory such as were ill sacrificed to more diluted 

 clearness. 



Granilis prwfatio tenui incepto — a sort of apology 

 to Tennyson for implying that he needs illustra- 

 tion. Some time ago I made a few notes on par- 

 ticular passages in Lochsley Hall, which I now 

 enclose. Some of them are, I dare say, super- 

 lluous — some, jjossibly, erroneous. If so, they will 

 stand a fair chance of being corrected in your 

 valuable publication. 



IJy tlie bye, if a "Notes and Queries" had 

 existed in the days of yEscliylus, we might have 

 been saved Irom many a recourse to " corrupt 

 te.xt" and "lacuna; adniodum deflenda;." 



Notes on Lochslcrj Hall. 

 Stanza 2. "Dreary gleams:" in apposition witii 



" curlews." I know the construction of this line 

 has puzzled a good many readers. 



Stanza 23. " Yet it shall be." Yet " decline" 

 thou certainly wilt. 



Stanza 28. "He will answer," &c. With an 

 oath, it may be — at the least with a coarse rebuff. 



Stanza 29. "The heart's disgrace." The dis- 

 grace, the injury, and degradation the heart has 

 suffered — its prostitution to a mercenary service 

 by a marriage of interest. 



Stanza 34. "Never." Alas! I never can. 



Stanza 35. " In division of the records of the 

 mind." In dividing my recollections of her into 

 two groups, and erasing the one. 



Stanza 38. "The poet is" (as I think has been 

 already pointed out) Dante. 



Stanza 40. "He hunts," &c. He— thy husband. 



Stanza 42. " Never, never," &c. Never again ! 

 (joys never to return) sung by the ghosts of years 

 departed. 



Stanza .51. "I have but an angry fancy" — my 

 only qualification. 



Stanza 53. "But the jingling of the guinea," (Src. 

 But there is no fighting now : the nations get over 

 their quarrels in another way — by the jingling of 

 the guinea, instead of the clang ot arms. 

 r 54. " ]\rother-ase." 



Stanzas 



|_93. "Mother-age, for mine I know 



not." 



This mother-age is a great difficulty. At first 

 I took it for the past of history, but now understand 

 by it the past of his own life, at least its earliest 

 and brightest period — that age which had been as 

 a mother, the only mother he ever knew. 



Stanza 70. "Youthful ji)ys." The bright hopes 

 of his youth. (?) 



Stanza 75. "Blinder motions." Less rational, 

 less well-guided emotions. 



Stanza'"91. "The distance." The distant fu- 

 ture, the " good time coming." 



There are some lines in In Memorirnn (I have 

 not the book at hand, but any reader thereof will 

 instantly recollect them), which indicate Tenny- 

 son's acquaintance with and appreciation of Jeremy 

 Taylor, who thus expresses the thoughts of the 

 "wild fellow in Petronius," suggested by the sight 

 of a floating corpse. 



" That pcradventiiro this man's wire, in some part of 

 the Continent, safe and warm, looks next month for 

 the pood man's return : or, it may be, his son knows 

 nothing of tlie tempest : or his fatluT thinks of that 

 affectionate kiss which is still warm upon the good old 

 man's cheek ever since he took a kind farewell ; and 

 he weep^5 with joy to think how blessed he shall be 

 when his beloved boy returns into the circle of hi.s 

 father's arms." — llolij Dying. 



Compare with " Sure never moon to evening," 

 &c., in the same poem, and I think the same 

 place : 



