May 10. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



367 



At length, by fits, he darkly told. 

 With broken hint, and shuddering cold, 



Tliiit he liad seen, riglit certainly, 

 A shape with amice wrapped around, 

 With a wrought Spanish baldric hound, 



L'ke apilyrim from beyond the sea, 

 And knew — but how it mattered not — 

 It was the wizard, Michael Scott." 



After this final consununation, it is amusins; to 

 notice a slight " iuciiiia " on the part of the poet, 

 which I wonder has never been corrected in the 

 later editions. Having described the nuptial 

 ceremony of Cranstoun and Margaret in the early 

 part of the last Canto, he says in Section xxviii., 



" Nought of the bridal will I tell, 

 Which after in short space befell," 

 &c. &c. 



I think I have now succeeded in proving that the 

 Goblin Page, so far from being a mere '•'■ intruder" 

 into this glorious poem — so far from being a mere 

 after-thought, or interpolation, to "suit the taste 

 of the cottagers of the Border," as Mr. Jeffrey 

 "suspects," — is the essential instrument for con- 

 structing the machinery of the plot. We have, 

 indeed, the author's word that it formed the found- 

 ation of the poem. My readers will therefore 

 form their own estimate of the value of Mr. Jef- 

 frey's criticisms, couched as they are in no very 

 considerate, much less complimentary phraseology. 

 I cannot but admire the "douce vengeance" of 

 the gentle-spirited subject of liis rebukes, who has 

 contented himself with printing these worthless 

 sentences of an undiscerniug critic along with the 

 te.xt of his poems in the last edition, — tlieie to re- 

 main a standing memorial of the wisdojn of that 

 resolution adhered to throughout the life of the 

 accomplished author, who tells us, 



" That he from the first determined, tliat without 

 shutting his ears to the voice of true criticism, he 

 would pay no regard to tlvat which assumed the form 

 of satire." 



In point of fact, Slr\^'alter had no very exalted 

 opinion of the genus Critic ; and I could give one 

 or two anecdotes, which I heard fiom his own lips, 

 stroiigly reminding one of the old fable of the 

 painter who pleased nobody and everybody. 



In conclusion, I beg leave to observe, that in 

 these "Notes" I do not presume to underrate, in 

 any degree, Mr. Jeffrey's acknowledged powers of 

 criticism. He and Scott have alike passed away 

 from the stage of which they were long tlie orna- 

 ments in their respective spheres ; but I must 

 consider that in the passages iiere cited, as icell as 

 in many others, he Inis proved himself either in- 

 competent or unwilling to appreciate the original- 

 ity, the power, and, above all, the invention of 

 Sir Walter Scott's genius. A BoiiDEnER. 



POEMS DISCOVERED AMONG THE PAPERS OF SIK 

 KENELM DIGBT. 



Since I last wrote to you on the subject of these 

 poems, I have discovered the remaining portions 

 of Ben Jonson's poem on the Lady Venetia : 1 

 have therefore no doubt now that my MS. is a 

 genuine autograph ; and if so, not only this, but 

 the "■Houreglasse," which was inserted in your 

 63rd No., is Ben Jonson's. This last has, I 

 think, never been published ; nor have I ever 

 seen in print the following lines, which are written 

 in the same hand and on the same paper as the 

 " Houreglasse." They were probably written after 

 Lady Venctia's death. 



" You wormes (my rivals), whiles she was alive, 

 How many thousands were there that did strive 

 To liave your freedome ? for theyr sakes forbeare, 

 Unseemely holes in her solt skin to wear. 

 But if you must (as what worme can abstaine ?) 

 Taste of her tender body, yet refraine 

 With your disordered eatings to deface lier, 

 And feed yourselves so as you most may grace her. 

 First through her cartippes, see you work a paire 

 or holes, which, as the moyst enclosed ayre \jnr'\ 

 Turnes into water, may the cold drop|)es take. 

 And in her eares a payre of jewels make. 

 That done, upon her hosome make your feaste, 

 Where on a crosse carve Jesus in her brest. 

 Have you not yet enough of that soft skinne. 

 The touch- of which, in times past, might have bin 

 Enough to ransome many a thousande soule 

 Captiv'd to love? then hence your bodies roule 

 A little liigher ; where I would you have 

 This epitaph upon her forehead grave ; 

 Living, she was fayre, yong, and full of v/itt ; 

 Dead, all her faults are in her forehead writt." 

 If I am wrong in supposing this never to have 

 been printed, I shall feel much obliged by one of 

 vour correspondents informing me of the fact. 



H.A.B. 

 Trin. Col. Cambridge. 



FOLK LORE. 



The Christmas Thorn. — In my neighbourhood 

 (near Bridgewater) the Christmas thorn blossoms 

 on the 6th of January (Twelfth- day), and on this 

 day only. The villagers in whose gardens it 

 grows, and indeed many others, verily believe 

 tiiat this fact pronounces the truth of this being 

 tlie day of Christ's bh-th. S. S. B. 



Milk-maids in 1753. — To Folk-lore may be 

 added the following short extract from Bead's 

 Weehhj Journal, May 5, 1733 : 



" On May-Day the Milk-Maids who serve the 

 Court, danced Minuets and Rigadoons before the Uoyal 

 Family, at St. James's House, with great applause." 



Y. S. 



Diseases cured by Sheep (Vol. iii., p. 320.). — 

 Tlie attempted cure of consumption, or some com- 



