Nov. 15. 1851.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



379 



delighted that the bait caught, vouchsafes, in his 

 peculiarly eccentric style, to lecture on his own 

 device, and thus reads to his brethren a sermon 

 IN STONE.* Moses Margoliouth. 



VALUE OF SIIAKSPEAKE S LEAGUE. MEANING OF 



SHIP. LOG-SUIP. 



So universal was Shakspeare's knowledge even 

 of the arcana of other men's pursuits, that his 

 commentators, in their anxiety to reduce his at- 

 tainments to an ordinary standard, have attributed 

 to him a sort of ubiquitous apprenticeship to all 

 manner of trades and callings, — now a butcher, — 

 now an attorney's clerk, — now a schoolmaster, — 

 and anon a holder of horses at the theatre door, 

 where doubtless he acquired that farrier-know- 

 ledge so profusely lavislied upon Petruchio's 

 charger in The Tuining of the Shrew. Dr. Farmer, 

 amongst other atrocities which have earned for 

 him an unenviable immortality in connexion with 

 Shakspeare's name, had the incredible folly to re- 

 cognise, in the splendid image — 



" Tliere's a divinity that shape? our ends, 

 llough-hew them how we will," 



an allusion to skewer making ! in which the rough- 

 hewing was Shaks}Kiare's, while his more skilful 

 sire shaped the ends! Even Dr. Johnson cried 

 "shop" at til at passage of The Winters Tale 

 where Perdlta, fearing lest Florizel's father might 

 discover him " obscured with a swain's wearing," 

 exclaims — 



" How would lie look to see his work so noble 

 Vilely bound up." 

 Whereupon the great critic utters this sapient 

 apothegm, " It is impossible for any man to rid 

 his mind of his profession" — meaning of course 

 Shakspeare's profession of book making! 



It is therefore surprising that none of them 

 should have discovered a trace of Shakspeare in 

 the occupation oi ship-hoy ; since in no calling 

 has he shown a more accurate knowledge of tech- 

 nicalities; and his seamanship has satisfied the 

 strictest professional criticism. It is to this cir- 

 cumstance my attention is more especially directed 



* The writer was anxious to obtain some informa- 

 tion respecting that curious relic from the inhaliitaiits of 

 the place : he was induced, tlierefore, to address a note 

 of query to the present resident, of the house in question, 

 Mr. G. C. Hague; but the following was the extent 

 of the reply received : — " All I know of the sun-dial 

 is this: It is told that a .lew, who was a mason, and 

 assisted in putting ui> the front of Wentworth House, 

 the mansion of the Karl Fitzwilliam, made tlie thing, 

 and put it up during his leisure hours. 'J'his is all that 

 I ever learned about it. 1 should be greatly obliged 

 to you if you would inform ir.e what the translation of 

 the Hebrew characters is. — I am, Sir, vours, &c. 



G. C. Hague." 



at present by a singular blunder which I have ob- 

 served in one of the illustrations to Knight's Illus- 

 trated Shakspeare. 



The artist, AV. Dicks, professes to illustrate 

 JEgeon's description of his shipwreck, taking for 

 his text these lines in the first scene of the Comedy 

 of Errors : 



" We were encounter 'd by a mighty rock, 

 AVliich being violently borne upon 

 Our helpful ship was splitted ia the midst." 



But if he had studied the context he would have 

 perceived that the "helpful ship" was not a goodly 

 argosy, as he has depicted it, but " a small spare 

 mast, such as seafiiring men provide for storms." 



Xow, it must not be said that the inadvertence 

 is Shakspeare's, because the term helpful, indica- 

 tive of sudden resource, and these lines imme- 

 diately following — 



" So that in this unjust divorce of us 

 Fortune had left to both of us alike 

 What to delight in — what to sorrow for " — 



prove that Shakspeare never for a moment lost 

 sight of the circumstances he was describing. 



I was endeavouring to discover what particular 

 nautical technicality might justify this application 

 oi ship in the sense of raft or flout, when T recol- 

 lected that sailors call the little float by which the 

 log-line is held stationary in the water, by the 

 term log-ship; and, by a rather singular coin- 

 cidence, the origin of this very word log-ship is 

 made the subject of comment in a recent number 

 of "Notes and Queries" (p. 254.), by a West 

 Indian correspondent, A. L., who thinks the term 

 log-chip. 



"His story, however, if it be not altogether the 

 offspring of his own ingenuity, appears quite un- 

 supported by evidence; nor, even if authenticated, 

 would it be conclusive of the inference he draws 

 from it. For, surely, the same origin might be attri- 

 buted to log itself, with equal, or even with greater 

 probability. The very nature of log is, not only 

 to float, but to remain sluggish or stationary in the 

 water : and as it might not be convenient to pro- 

 vide a fresh log (or chip) lor every occasion, there 

 would be a clear advantage in tying a string to it, 

 for the i)urpose of h;iuling it inboard again, to 

 serve another turn. Moreover, I must remind 

 A. L. that sailors do not say, "Heave the chip," 

 but " Heave the log." 



This same passage in the Comedy of Ei-roi's 

 sticsests another consideration ; which is, that 

 Shakspeare ajipears to have used leogve and mile 

 synonymously. When ^Egcon's " liel[)ful ship " 

 was "splitted in the midst," it wiis " ere tlie shijis" 

 (approaching to his rescue) "could meet by thrice 

 five leagues;" so that each ship must have been 

 at least five leagues distant when discovered. 

 Now Sli;d;siienre was too good a sailor to sujipose 

 tiiat a shij) could be visible to a man on the surface 



