i-i S. YI. 155., Dec. 18. '58.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



495 



from the originals in the British Museum and one 

 or two other collections. 



Besides the signatures I made tracings of the 

 several interlineations which occur in the body of 

 the will, because I had once a notion that they 

 might possibly be in the handwriting of Shak- 

 speare, but I have since changed my opinion in 

 that respect. 



It is a very singular fact that no other hand- 

 writing of Shakspeare is known to be extant, 

 except the three signatures attached to his will, 

 two signatures on the title and mortgage- 

 deeds respectively in the possession of the City 

 of London Library and of the British Museum, 

 and another signature in a copy of Florio's 

 translation of Montaigne's Essays, also in the 

 British Museum. I believe all these signatures to 

 be unquestionably genuine ; they all sufficiently 

 resemble each other, and they are all written in 

 a scrawling, weak, and uncertain hand, like that 

 of a man who scarcely knew how to spell his own 

 name ; and I think there may be very reasonable 

 doubts whether Shakspeare's proficiency in the 

 art of penmanship extended beyond the capability 

 of writing his own name. 



We are told by his "fellows," Hemynge and 

 Condell, who published the first folio edition of 

 the plays, seven years after the death of Shakspeare, 

 that " his mind and hand went together : and 

 what he thought, he uttered with that easiness, 

 that we have scarce received from him a blot in 

 his papers." 



That Shakspeare's transcendent genius would 

 have enabled him to dictate to an amanuensis with 

 fluency and correctness cannot be doubted, and 

 thus the manuscripts may have been written or 

 transcribed in a very fair and legible hand, with 

 " scarce a blot in his papers." 



If any writing of Shakspeare were to be ob- 

 tained during his life, or after his death, so ardent 

 and industrious a collector as Sir Robert Cotton 

 would surely not have neglected to preserve it 

 among the autographs of so many others of his 

 illustrious and literary contemporaries which are 

 still to be found in the volumes of the Cottonian 

 Library. William James Smith. 



Conservative Club. * 



BOB BOT. 



I enclose a copy (from the original among the 

 papers of the late John Anderson, Professor of 

 Natural Philosophy in the University of Glas- 

 gow) of a declaration by Rob Roy. It is an 

 authentic and contemporaneous transcript (from 

 an original, now lost we may suppose for ever), 

 in the handwriting of James Anderson, parish 

 clergyman of Ilosneath. The paper bears on the 

 cover in Professor Anderson's writing : " This 

 is (the) Handwriting of my Father, and shews 



to what Lengths Party Rage could carry even 

 Persons of Rank and Education." It is cer- 

 tainly a very curious scrap, and is, I think, 

 worthy of a place in " N. & Q.," where so many 

 curious and valuable things are already stored up. 

 I leave your readers to determine its historical 

 value. I have a pencil-tracing of the original, at 

 the service of any reader of " N. & Q." for com- 

 parison. The key to the initials below is, I think, 

 correct : — 



No. 1. John Graham of Killearn. 



2. Duke of Montrose. 



3. Lord Ormistoun (then Lord Justice 



Clerk). 



4. Bridge of Cramond. 



5. Duke of Athole. 



6. Lord Edward (Duke of Athole's brother). 



7. Duke of Argyle. 



" Declaration To all true Lovers of Honour and 

 Honesty. By R. R. M. 



" Honour and Conscience oblige me to detect the As- 

 sazines {sic) of our Country and Countrymen, whose un- 

 bounded Malice made them use their utmost Endeavours 

 with me to become the Instrument of Matchless villanj', 

 prompting and suborning me, by Rewards, threats, and 

 promises, to become a false Evidence against a person of 

 Distinction, whose greatest Crime known to me was That 

 He broke the party I was unfortunately off. {sic) This 

 proposal was handed to me first by (1.) I — n G — h — m 

 of K — 1 — n from his master (2.) the D— ke of M — se 

 with the valuable Offers of Life and fortune, which I 

 could not entertain but with the utmost horrer (3.) : 

 L — d O — n, who trysted with nie at the (4.) Bridge of 

 C — D was no less solicitious {sic) on the same sub- 

 ject, which I modestly shifted untill I got out of his 

 Clutches, fearing his Justice would be no Checque upon 

 his Tyrranny. To make up the Triumvirate in this bloody 

 Conspiracy His Grace (5.) the D — ke of A — le resolved if 

 possible to outstrip the other two, who having Coyduck'd 

 me into his Conversation, Immediatly committed me to 

 prison contrary to the parole of Honour solemnly given 

 me by his brother (6.) L — d E — d in the D — kes name 

 and ill his own who was privy to all that past betwixt 

 us : The Reason why they broke their promise was be- 

 cause I boldly refused to bear false witness against (7.) 

 the D — ke of Ar — le. It must be owned if just provi- 

 dence had not helped me to escape the Barbarity of these 

 monstrous Proposers, my fate had been certainly deplor- 

 able, committed to some stinking Dungeon, where I might 

 chuse to Rott, dye or be damned: But since I cannot pur- 

 chase the Sweetes of Life, Liberty, and Treasure at their 

 high price, I advise the Triumvirate to find out one of 

 their own Kidney who I'll engage will be a fit Tool for 

 any Cruel or Cowardly Enterprize. To narrate all the 

 parlr (particular) steps made towards this foul plot and 

 all the persecutions I suffered by the D — ke of M — se his 

 means both before and after I submitted to the Govern- 

 ment would take up too much time ; But were the D — ke 

 of M — se and I let alone to debate our own private 

 Quarrel, which in my Opinion ought to be done, I would 

 shew to the World, how little he could signify to serve 

 either King or Country' : and I here solemnly declare 

 what I have said in this is positive Truth, and that these 

 were the only persons deterred me many times since mj' 

 first submission to throw myself over again on the King's 

 Mercy.— June 25th, 1717." 



C. D. Lamont. 



