2"? S. IX. Jan. 28. '60.] 



NOTES AND QUEKIES. 



59 



information obtained in this manner, that he com- 

 posed his voluminous writings on natural history 

 (2V. H., viii. 17.). The account of the Greek 

 writers is somewhat different. Athenanis (ix. p. 

 398 e ) states that Aristotle received 800 talents 

 (=195,000£.) from Alexander for his History of 

 Animals. iEliau (V. H., iv. 19.) speaks of a gift 

 of an enormous sum of money to Aristotle for the 

 same purpose, but attributes it to Philip, evi- 

 dently confounding the father and son. This 

 donation is likewise alluded to, in general terms, 

 by Seneca, de Vit. beat., 27. Compare Schneider, 

 ad Ari&tot. H. A. Epimetr. i., vol. i. p. xlii. 



It is immaterial whether Alexander placed the 

 services of numerous persons over a wide extent 

 of country at Aristotle's disposition for scientific 

 information concerning animals, or furnished him 

 with the means of purchasing those services on a 

 large scale. The two accounts come substantially 

 to the same result ; and they are corroborated by 

 the internal evidence of the extant work on ani- 

 mals. Aristotle exhibits a minute knowledge of 

 facts in natural history in a variety of districts, 

 which a private observer, unaided by a public 

 authority, could not have obtained. He fre- 

 quently refers to observations of the habits of 

 animals made by professional persons, and parti- 

 cularly by fishermen, which he doubtless procured 

 in the manner indicated by Pliny. The detailed 

 account of the lion in H. A., ix. 44., particularly 

 describes his habits when attacked by hunters, 

 and was doubtless derived from the information 

 of persons who had pursued the lion in the field. 



It is very improbable that, with these facilities 

 for making inquiries of hunters and herdsmen, he 

 should in two places have repeated so important a 

 statement as that of the presence of the lion in 

 the whole of Northern Greece, from Abdera in 

 Thrace to the confines of iEtolia, without verifica- 

 tion, and upon the mere credit of Herodotus, 

 whom he elsewhere designates as a fabulist, and 

 whose errors in natural history he points out and 

 rectifies in several places. G. C. Lewis. 



SHAKESPEARE AND HENRY WILLOBIE. 



I do not find in any of the commentators on 

 Shakespeare which I have here had an opportunity 

 of consulting, any notice of a passage in Henry 

 Willobie's Avisa (edition of 1594 or 1596), which 

 it may be conjectured refers to him.* As the book 

 is, I believe, rare, I extract the passage in full, 

 together with two sonnets connected with it, and 



[ * Sir. J. P. Collier, in the Life of Shaktpeare prefixed 

 to his edition of 1858, refers at p. 115. to this passage in 

 Willobie, now, however, we believe printed fur the first 

 time in trtengo. In hit) Introduction to the Raj)e of Lu- 

 crece, vol. vi. p. 626., Mr. Collier also quotes the allusion 

 to Shaktpesra from the Commendatory Poem at the com- 

 mencement of the Aiisa.—iiu. " N, & Q."] 



which, if W. S. may be taken for Shakespeare's 

 initials, may not improbably be his writing. 



May we not also conjecture that " Mr. W. H.," 

 to whom the first edition (1609) of Shakespeare's 

 Sonnets was dedicated, may have been his friend, 

 this Henry Willobie? whose sonnets, written 

 some years probably before Shakespeare's, must 

 have been known to him, and may have begotten 

 — that is, suggested — a similar work to our im- 

 mortal bard. 



Cant. XLIIII. 

 " Henrico WUlobego. Italo-Hispalensis. 



" H. W. being sodenly infected with the contagion of a 

 fantasticall fit, at the first sight of A, pyneth a while in 

 secret griefe, at length not able any longer to indure the 

 burning heate of so feruent a humour, bewrayeth the 

 secresy of his disease vnto his familiar frend W. S., who 

 not long before had tryed the curtesy of the like passion, 

 and was now newly recouered of the like infection ; yet 

 finding his frend let bloud in the same vaine, he took 

 pleasure for a tyme to see him bleed, and iu steed of stop- 

 ping the issue, he inlargeth the wound, with the sharpe 

 rasor of a willing conceit, perswading him that he 

 thought it a matter very easy to be compassed, and no 

 doubt with payne, diligence and some cost in time to 

 be obtayned. Thus this miserable comforter comforting 

 his frend with an impossibilitie, eyther for that he now 

 would secretly laugh at his frends folly, that had giuen 

 occasion not long before vnto others to laugh at his owne, 

 or because he would see whether an other could play his 

 part better then himselfe, and in vewing afar off the 

 course of this loving Comedy, he determined to see whe- 

 ther it would sort to a happier end for this new actor, 

 then it did for the old player. But at length this Co- 

 medy was like to haue growen to a Tragedy, by the 

 weake and feeble estate that H. W. was brought vnto, 

 by a desperate vewe of an impossibility of obtaining his 

 purpose, til Time and Necessity, being his best Phisitions 

 brought him a plaster, if not to heale, yet in part to ease 

 his malady*. In all which discourse is liuely represented 

 the vnrewly rage of vnbrydeled fancy, hauing the raines 

 to roue it liberty, with the dyuers and sundry changes 

 of affections and temptations, which Will, set loose from 

 Reason, can deuise, &c." 



Then follows a Sonnet in eight stanzas (seven 

 of which are given in Ellis's Specimens, ii. 376.) by 

 H. W., complaining of his want of success in his 

 suit, commencing, — 



" What sodaiue chance or change is this, 

 That doth bereaue my quyet rest? " 



and ending with the following stanza : — 



" But yonder comes my faythfull frend, 

 That like assaultes hath often trj'de, 

 On his aduise I will depend, 

 [for whether] Where I shall winne, or be denyde, 

 And looke what counsell he shall giue, 

 That will I do, wheie dye or live." 



Cant. XLV. 

 W. S. 

 "Well met, frend Hairy, what's the cause 

 You looke so pale with Lented cheeks? 

 Your wanny face and sharpened nose 

 Shew plaint-, your mind something mislikes, 

 If you will tell me what it is, 

 He helne to mend what is amisse. 



