Chapter 2

_Martin._ _No dost!_ and he hath written a book against thy faith also."--_Id._, vol. iii. p. 164.

"_Lichfield and Coventry._ We heard of no such order.

_Lord Keeper._ _No did?_ Yes, and on the first question ye began willingly. How cometh it to pass that ye will not now do so?"--_Id._, p. 690.

"Then said Sir Thomas Moyle: 'Ah! Bland, thou art a stiff-hearted fellow. Thou wilt not obey the law, nor answer when thou art called.' '_Nor will_,' quoth Sir John Baker. 'Master Sheriff, take him to your ward.'"--_Id._, vol. vii. p. 295.

Is it needful to state, that the original editions have, as they ought to have, a note of interrogation at "Baker?" I will not tax the reader's patience with more than two other examples, and they shall be fetched from the writings of that admirable papist--the gentle, the merry-hearted More:

"Well, quod Caius, thou wylt graunte me thys fyrste, that euery thynge that hath two erys is an asse.--Nay, mary mayster, wyll I not, quod the boy.--_No wylt_ thou? quod Caius. Ah, wyly boy, there thou wentest beyond me."--The Thyrde Boke, the first chapter, fol. 84. of Sir Thomas More's _Dialogues_.

"Why, quod he, what coulde I answere ellys, but clerely graunt hym that I believe that thyng for none other cause but only bycause the Scripture so sheweth me?--_No could ye?_ quod I. What yf neuer Scripture had ben wryten in thys world, should there neuer haue bene eny chyrch or congregacyon of faythfull and ryght beyleuyng people?--That wote I nere, quod he. _No do ye?_ quod I."--_Id._, fol. 85.

In taking leave of this idiom, it would not perhaps be amiss to remark, that "ye can," in Duke Humphey's rejoinder to the "blyson begger of St. Albonys," is not, as usually understood, "you can?" but "yea can?"

* * * * *

_To be at point_ = to be at a stay or stop, _i.e._ settled, determined, nothing farther being to be said or done: a very common phrase. Half a dozen examples shall suffice:

" . . . . . What I am truly Is thine, and my poore countries to command: Whither indeed before they (thy) heere-approach, Old Seyward with ten thousand warlike men Already _at a point_, was setting forth." _Macbeth_, Act IV. Sc. 3. 1st Fol.

No profit to give the commentators' various guesses at the import of the phrase in the above passage, which will be best gathered from the following instances of its use elsewhere. But, before passing further, I beg permission to inform MR. KNIGHT that the original suggester of "sell" for "self," in an earlier part of this play, whose name {522} he is at a loss for, was W. S. Landor, whose footnote to vol. ii. p. 273., Moxon's edit. of his works, is as follows:

"And here it may be permitted the editor to profit also by the manuscript, correcting in Shakespeare what is _absolute nonsense_ as now printed:

'_Vaulting_ ambition that o'erleaps _itself_, And falls on the _other side_.'

Other side of what? It should be _its sell_. _Sell_ is saddle in Spenser and elsewhere, from the Latin and Italian."

A correspondent of "N. & Q."., Vol. vii., p. 404., will be delighted to find his very ingenious discovery brought home, and corroborated by Landor's valuable manuscript: but it is an old said saw--"Great wits jump." Now to our examples:

"_Pasquin._ Saint Luke also affirmeth the same, saying flatly that he shall not be forgiuen. Beholde, therefore, how well they interprete the Scriptures.

_Marforius._ I am alreadie _at a poynt_ with them, but thou shalt doo me great pleasure to expounde also vnto me certayne other places, vppon the which they ground this deceit."--_Pasquine in a Traunce_, turned but lately out of the Italian into this tongue by W. P.: London, 1584.

"But look, where malice reigneth in men, there reason can take no place: and, therefore, I see by it, that you are all _at a point_ with me, that no reason or authority can persuade you to favour my name, who never meant evil to you, but both your commodity and profit."--Foxe's _Acts and Monuments_, vol. viii. p. 18.

"Not so, my lord," said I, "for I am _at a full point_ with myself in that matter; and am right well able to prove both your transubstantiation with the real presence to be against the Scriptures and the ancient Fathers of the primitive Church."--_Id._, p. 587.

"_Winchester._ No, surely, I am fully determined, and fully _at a point_ therein, howsoever my brethren do."--_Id._, p. 691.

"_Brad._ Sir, so that you will define me your church, that under it you bring not in a false church, you shall not see but that we shall soon be _at a point_."--_Id._, vol. vii. p. 190.

"_Latimer._ Truly, my lord, as for my part I require no respite, for I am _at a point_. You shall give me respite in vain; therefore, I pray you let me not trouble you to-morrow."--_Id._, p. 534.

"Unto whom he (Lord Cobham) gave this answer: 'Do as ye shall think best, for I am _at a point_.' Whatsoever he (Archbishop Arundel) or the other bishops did ask him after that, he bade them resort to his bill: for thereby would he stand to the very death."--_Id._, vol. iii. pp. 327-8.

"'Et illa et ista vera esse credantur et nulla inter nos contentio remanebit, quia nec illis veris ista, nec istis veris illa impediuntur.' Let bothe those truthes and these truthes be beleued, and we shall be _at appoinct_. For neither these truthes are impaired by the other, neither the other by these."--_A Fortresse of the Faith_, p. 50., by Thomas Stapleton: Antwerp, 1565.

"A poore man that shall haue liued at home in the countrie, and neuer tasted of honoure and pompe, is alwayes _at a poynt_ with himselfe, when menne scorne and disdayne him, or shewe any token of contempt towardes his person."--John Calvin's _CVIII. Sermon on the Thirtieth Chap. of Job_, p. 554., translated by Golding: London, 1574.

"As for peace, I am _at a point_."--_Leycester Correspondence_, Camd. Soc., p. 261.

W. R. ARROWSMITH.

(_To be continued._)

* * * * *

FOLK LORE.

_Weather Rules._--The interesting article on "The Shepherd of Banbury's Weather Rules" (Vol. vii., p. 373.) has reminded me of two _sayings_ I heard in Worcestershire a few months back, and upon which my informant placed the greatest reliance. The first is, "If the moon changes on a Sunday, there will be a flood before the month is out." My authority asserted that through a number of years he has never known this fail. The month in which the change on a Sunday has occurred has been fine until the last day, when the flood came. The other saying is, "Look at the weathercock on St. Thomas's day at twelve o'clock, and see which way the wind is, and there it will stick for the next quarter," that is, three months. Can any of your readers confirm the above, and add any similar "weather rules?"

J. A., JUN.

Birmingham.

_Drills presaging Death_ (Vol. vii., p. 353.).--Your correspondent asks if the superstition he here alludes to in Norfolk is believed in other parts. I can give him a case in point in Berkshire:--Some twenty years ago an old gentleman died there, a near relative of my own; and on going down to his place, I was told by a farm overseer of his, that he was certain some of his lordship's family would die that season, as, in the last sowing, he had missed putting the seed in one row, which he showed me! "Who could disbelieve it now?" quoth the old man. I was then taken to the bee-hives, and at the door of every one this man knocked with his knuckles, and informed the occupants that they must now work for a new master, as their old one was gone to heaven. This, I believe, has been queried in your invaluable paper some time since. I only send it by the way. I know the same superstition is still extant in Cheshire, North Wales, and in some parts of Scotland.

T. W. N.

Malta.

A friend supplies me with the information that before drills were invented, the labourers {523} considered it unlucky to miss a "bout" in corn or seed sowing, will sometimes happened when "broadcast" was the only method. The ill-luck did not relate alone to a _death_ in the family of the farmer or his dependents, but to losses of cattle or accidents. It is singular, however, that the superstition should have transferred itself to the drill; but it will be satisfactory to E. G. R. to learn that the process of _tradition_ and _superstition-manufacturing_ is not going on in the nineteenth century.

E. S. TAYLOR.

_Superstition in Devonshire; Valentine's Day_ (Vol. v., pp. 55. 148.).--This, according to Forby, vol. ii. p. 403., once formed in Norfolk a part of the superstitious practices on _St. Mark's Eve_, not St. Valentine's, as mentioned by J. S. A., when the sheeted ghosts of those who should die that year (Mrs. Crowe would call them, I suppose, _Doppelgängers_) march in grisly array to the parish church.

The rhyme varies from J. S. A.'s:--

"Hempseed I sow: Hempseed grow; He that is my true love Come after me, and mow."

and the Norfolk spectre is seen with a _scythe_, instead of a rake like his Devonshire compeer.

E. S. TAYLOR.

* * * * *

A NOTE ON GULLIVER'S TRAVELS.

If I may argue from the silence of the latest edition of _Gulliver's Travels, with Notes_, with which I am acquainted, viz. that by W. C. Taylor, LL.D., Trinity College, Dublin, the Preface to which is dated May 1st, 1840, I may say that all the commentators on Swift--all, at least, down to that late date--have omitted to refer to a work containing incidents closely resembling some of those recorded in the "Voyage to Lilliput."

The work to which I allude is a little dramatical composition, the Bambocciata, or puppet-show, by Martelli, entitled _The Sneezing of Hercules_. Goldoni, in his _Memoirs_, has given us the following account of the manner in which he brought it out on the stage:

"Count Lantieri was very well satisfied with my father, for he was greatly recovered, and almost completely cured: his kindness was also extended to me, and to procure amusement for me he caused a puppet-show, which was almost abandoned, and which was very rich in figures and decorations, to be refitted.

"I profited by this, and amused the company by giving them a piece of a great man, expressly composed for wooden comedians. This was the _Sneezing of Hercules_, by Peter James Martelli, a Bolognese.

. . . . . . . . . .

"The imagination of the author sent Hercules into the country of the pigmies. Those poor little creatures, frightened at the aspect of an animated mountain with legs and arms, ran and concealed themselves in holes. One day as Hercules had stretched himself out in the open field, and was sleeping tranquilly, the timid inhabitants issued out of their retreats, and, armed with prickles and rushes, mounted on the monstrous man, and covered him from head to foot, like flies when they fall on a piece of rotten meat. Hercules waked, and felt something in his nose, which made him sneeze; on which, his enemies tumbled down in all directions. This ends the piece.

"There is a plan, a progression, an intrigue, a catastrophe, and winding up; the style is good and well-supported; the thoughts and sentiments are all proportionate to the size of the personages. The verses even are short, and everything indicates pigmies.

"A gigantic puppet was requisite for Hercules; everything was well executed. The entertainment was productive of much pleasure; and I could lay a bet, that I am the only person who ever thought of executing the Bambocciata of Martelli."--_Memoirs of Goldoni_, translated by John Black, 2 vols., duod. vol. i. chap. 6.

It is certainly not necessary to point out here in what respects the adventures of Hercules, the _animated mountain_, and those of Quinbus Flestrin, the _man mountain_, differ from, or coincide with, each other, as the only question I wish to raise is, whether a careful analysis of Martelli's puppet-show ought, or ought not, to have been placed among the notes on _Gulliver's Travels_.

C. FORBES.

Temple.

* * * * *

SHAKSPEARE CORRESPONDENCE.

In reply to J. M. G. of Worcester, who inquires for a MS. volume of English poetry containing some lines attributed to Shakspeare, and which is described in Thorpe's _Catalog_ of MSS. for 1831, I can supply some particulars which may assist him in the research. The MS., which at one period had belonged to Joseph Hazlewood, was purchased from Thorpe by the late Lord Viscount Kingsborough; after whose decease it was sold, in November, 1842, at Charles Sharpe's literary sale room, Anglesea Street, Dublin. It is No. 574. in the auction catalogue of that part of his lordship's library which was then brought to auction.

The volume has been noticed by Patrick Fraser Tytler, in his _Life of Sir Walter Raleigh_, Edinburgh, 1833 (in Appendix B, p. 436., of 2nd edit.), where, citing the passage from Collier, which is referred to by J. M. G., he asserts that the lines are not Shakspeare's, but Jonson's. But he does not appear to me to have established his case beyond doubt; as the lines, though found among Jonson's works, may, notwithstanding, be the production of some other writer: and why not of Shakspeare, to whom they are ascribed in the MS.? Some verses by Sir J. C. Hobhouse originally appeared as Lord Byron's: and there are {524} numerous instances, both ancient and modern, of a similar attribution of works to other than their actual authors.

ARTERUS.

Dublin.

_The Island of Prospero._--We cannot assert that Shakspeare, in the _Tempest_, had any particular island in view as the scene of his immortal drama, though by some this has been stoutly maintained. Chalmers prefers one of the Bermudas. The Rev. J. Hunter, in his _Disquisition on the Scene, &c. of the Tempest_, endeavours to confer the honour on the Island of Lampedosa. In reference to this question, a statement of the pseudo-Aristotle is remarkable. In his work "[Greek: peri thaumasiôn akousmatôn]," he mentions Lipara, one of the Æolian Islands, lying to the north of Sicily, and nearly in the course of Shakspeare's Neapolitan fleet from Tunis to Naples. Among the [Greek: polla teratôdê] found there, he tells us:

"[Greek: Exakouesthai gar tumpanôn kai kumbalôn êchon gelôta te meta thorubou kai krotalôn enargôs. legousi de ti teratôdesteron gegonenai peri to spêlaion.]"

If we compare this with the aerial music heard by Ferdinand (_Tempest_, I. 2.), especially as the orchestra is represented by the genial burin of M. Retsch in the fifth plate of his well-known sketches (_Umrisze_), it will appear probable that Shakspeare was acquainted with the Greek writer either in the original or through a translation. As far as I am aware, this has not been observed by any of the commentators.--From _The Navorscher_.

J. M.

_Coincident Criticisms._--I shall be obliged if you will allow me through your pages to anticipate and rebut two charges of plagiarism. When I wrote my Note on a passage in _The Winter's Tale_ ("N. & Q.," Vol. vii., p. 378.), I had not seen the _Dublin University Magazine_ for March last, containing some remarks on the same passage in some respects much resembling mine. I must also declare that my Note on a passage in _All's Well that ends Well_ ("N. & Q.," Vol. vii., p. 426.) was posted for you some time before the appearance of A. E. B.'s Note on the same passage ("N. & Q.," Vol. vii., p. 403.). The latter coincidence is more remarkable than the former, as the integrity of the amended text was in both notes discussed by means of the same parallel passage. _Apropos_ of A. E. B.'s clever Note, permit me to say, that though at first it appeared to me conclusive, I now incline to think that Shakspeare intended Helen to address the _leaden messengers_ by means of a very hyperbolic figure: "wound the still-piecing air that sings with piercing" is a consistent whole. If, as A. E. B. rightly says, _to wound the air_ is an impossibility, it is equally impossible that the air should utter any sound expressive of sensibility. The fact of course is, that the cannon-balls _cleave_ the air, and that by so cleaving it a shrill noise is produced. The cause and effect may, however, be metaphorically described, by comparing air to Bertram. I believe it is a known fact that every man who is struck with a cannon-ball cries out instinctively. Shakspeare therefore might, I think, have very poetically described the action and effect of a cannon-ball passing through the air by the strong figure of _wounding the air that sings with the piercing which it is enduring_.

In concluding this Note, I beg to express what is not merely my own, but a very general feeling of disappointment in respect of MR. COLLIER'S new edition of Shakspeare. To it, with a new force, may be applied the words of A. E. B. in "N. & Q.," Vol. vi., p. 296.:

"But the evil of these emendations is not in this instance confined to the mere suggestion of doubt; the text has absolutely been altered in all accessible editions, in many cases _silently_, so that the ordinary reader has no opportunity of judging between _Shakspeare_ and his improvers."

That MR. COLLIER should be the greatest of such offenders, is no very cheering sign of the times.

C. MANSFIELD INGLEBY.

Birmingham.

_Dogberry's Losses_ (Vol. vii., p. 377.).--I do not know whether it has ever been suggested, but I feel inclined to read "lawsuits." He has just boasted of himself as "one that knows the _law_;" and it seems natural enough that he should go on to brag of being a rich fellow enough, "and a fellow that hath had _lawsuits_" of his own, and actually figured as plaintiff or defendant. Suppose the words taken down from the mouth of an actor, and the mistake would be easy.

JOHN DOE.

* * * * *

THE COENACULUM OF LIONARDO DA VINCI.

I have in my possession a manuscript critique on the celebrated picture of The Last Supper by Lionardo da Vinci, written many years ago by a deceased academician; in which the writer has called in question the _point of time_ usually supposed to have been selected by the celebrated Italian painter. The criticisms are chiefly founded on the copy by Marco Oggioni, now in the possession of the Royal Academy of Arts.

Uniform tradition has assumed that the moment of action is that in which the Saviour announces the treachery of one of his disciples "Dico vobis quia unus vestrum me traditurus est." Matth. xxvi. 21., Joan. xiii. 21., Vulgate edit.; and most of the admirers of this great work have not failed to find in it decisive proofs of the intention of the painter to represent that exact point of time. {525}

The author of the manuscript enters into a very detailed examination of the several groups of figures which compose the picture, and of the expression of the heads; and he confesses his inability to find in them anything decisively indicating the period supposed to be chosen. He remarks that nine at least of the persons, including the principal one, are evidently engaged in animated conversation; that instead of that concentrated attention which the announcement might be supposed to generate, there appears to be great variety of expressions and of action; and that neither surprise nor indignation are so generally prominent, as might have been expected. He inclines to think that the studied diversity of expression, and the varied attitudes and gestures of the assembled party, are to be regarded as proofs of the artist's efforts to produce a powerful and harmonious composition, rather than a natural and truthful representation of any particular moment of the transaction depicted by him.

The work in question is now so generally accessible through the medium of accurate engravings, that any one may easily exercise his own judgment on the matter, and decide for himself whether the criticism be well founded.

It must be borne in mind that the subject had long been a familiar decoration of conventual refectories before the time when Lionardo brought his profound knowledge of external human nature, and his unsurpassed powers of executive art, to bear on a subject which had before been treated in the dry, conventional, inanimate manner of the Middle Ages. The leading features of the traditional picture are retained: the long table, the linen cloth, the one-sided arrangement of the figures, the classic drapery, and the general form and design of the apartment, are all to be found in the earlier works; and must have been considered, by observers in general, far more essential to the correct delineation of the scene than any adherence to the exact description of it in any one of the Evangelists. But as the subject was usually introduced into refectories for the edification of the brethren assembled with their superior at their own meals, it does not seem likely that the treachery of Judas should have been intended to be the prominent action of the picture. It was a memorial of the institution of the Eucharist, although the Christ was not represented as dispensing either bread or wine. In such a case, if any particular point of time was ever contemplated by the artist, he might judiciously and appropriately select the moment when the Saviour was announcing, in mysterious words, the close of his mission--as in St. Matthew and St. Mark; or was teaching them a lesson of humility when the spirit of rivalry and strife had disclosed itself among them--as we find in St. Luke and St. John.

It is not perhaps generally known that the statutes of Queen's College, Oxford, prescribe the order of sitting at the common table in manner which evidently refers to the _coenaculum_ of the old church painters.

E. SMIRKE.

* * * * *

Minor Notes.

_Scotter Register (County Lincoln)._--The following extracts from the register of the parish of Scotter, in the county of Lincoln, are perhaps sufficiently interesting to be worth printing in "N. & Q.":

1. "Eccelesia parochialis de Scotter comitatu Lincolniæ dedicata est Beatis Apostolis Sancto Petro et Sancto Paulo ut apparet in Antiquo Scripto viduæ Loddington de Scotter, viz. in testamento vltimo Thomæ Dalyson, Gen. de Scotter, qui obiit Junii 19^o, anno Domini 1495.

"GUL. CARRINGTON, "Rector ecl[=i]a ibid."

2. "_Memorandum_, That on Septuagesima Sunday, being the 19^{th} day of January, 1667, one Francis Drury, an excommunicate person, came into the church in time of divine service in y^e morning, and being admonisht by mee to begon, hee obstinately refused, whereuppon y^e whole congregation departed; and after the same manner in the afternoon, the same day, he came again, and refusing againe to go out, the whole congregation againe went home, soe y^t little or no service pformed. They prevented his further coming in y^t manner, as hee threatned, by order from the Justice, uppon the statute of Queene Elizabeth concerning the molestation and disturbance of publiq preachers.

WM. CARRINGTON, Rec."

"O tempora, O mores."

3. "Michæl Skinner Senex centum et trium annorum sepultus fuit die sancti Johannis, viz. Dec. 27, 1673."

EDWARD PEACOCK, Jun.

Bottesford Moors, Kirton Lindsey.

"_All my Eye._"--"_Over the Left._"

"What benefit a Popish successor can reap from lives and fortunes spent in defence of the Protestant religion, he may put in his eye: and what the Protestant religion gets by lives and fortunes spent in the service of a Popish successor, will be over the left shoulder."--Preface to _Julian the Apostate_: London, printed for Langley Curtis, on Ludgate Hill. 1682.