Various

“ MR. COLLIER'S FOLIO SHAKSPEARE: A PASSAGE IN "AS YOU LIKE IT."
It appears to me so obvious that the degree of authority to be conceded to each particular correction or emendation in Mr. Collier's folio Shakspeare must depend in a great measure on the general character of the proposed alterations throughout the work, that I cannot help thinking it would be desirable to reserve all controversy on such points until after the appearance of the promised volume. Such a resolution I made for myself, and to it I shall religiously adhere. ”

“ As the Knight of Kerry has expressed a wish to receive the opinions of your readers who take an interest in the subject, I venture to offer the foregoing remarks, in consequence of having the very valuable copy of Raleigh's great work in our possession, and shall be happy if the few observations I have made may be in any respect acceptable to him or to your readers. ”

“ Rosalind, in short, seeks for a better cause for Phebe's pride or want of feeling than her own insufficient attractions, in the nature or quality of her mother. It will be observed that, in this view, I have conceded that who may be taken with something of the signification of what; but the answer to the question, taken strictly, must be the name of some individual who might be known to the Querist, and be in some measure a warranty for the disposition of the daughter, though for no personal beauty but her own. ”

“ Your correspondent Mr. Halliwell having noticed my approval of the emendation of a passage in Coriolanus, found in Mr. Collier's copy of the second folio, where "bosom multiplied" is happily corrected to "bissom multitude," perhaps I may be permitted to say that I cannot subscribe to his opinion, that "it is one of those alterations which no conjectural ingenuity could have suggested." To me it appears that the steps are obvious by which any intelligent reader of the poet might be led to make the correction. ”

“ Many facts might be given to show that coal was frequently used in London during the reign of Edward II.; and unless we are to infer that the king used without hesitation that which was denied to the citizens on pain of death, we cannot suppose that any such stringent measure was in force as to render the use of coal a capital offence. ”

“ Still a species of subacid drink, such as still prepared from this fruit by the Icelanders, may have been dignified in olden times with the name of wine; but Olafsen was certainly in error when he stated that Bishop Paul brought over to Iceland, according to tradition, a native of the Canary Isles, to teach the art. ”

“ The celebrated monastery of St. Gall (an Irish saint) still possesses the fragment of what was once a missal, and written in the Irish character. This codex must have been older than the ninth century, for it is set down "inter libros Scottice scriptos" in a catalogue of the books belonging to that library, made in the ninth century. Among the saints enumerated in the canon of the mass is Patrick the bishop, "intercedentibus pro nobis beatis apostolis Petro et Paulo et Patricio æpiscopo" (see the fragment in Appendix A to Cooper's Report, p. 95.) . ”

“ As Raleigh says "I myself knew the old Countess {565}of Desmond," and plainly declares that she was married in the time of Edward IV., it is most probable that he received this account from herself at all events, when he so strongly appeals to the witness of "all the noblemen and gentlemen of Munster" for the truth of his statement, it is most unlikely he would have written thus merely on common or casual report. The Knight of Kerry says, "There are statements in existence of 1464 being the year of her birth." ”

“ The editors further state that "within our own times, during the disastrous war with England, it was proposed to employ wine made from bilberries for the same purpose in Iceland."
The Synod of Roeskilde, according to Pontoppidan, Annal. Eccles. Dan. ii. 329. and iii. 538., forbids the use of any liquor but pure wine in the sacrament in the following words:—
"Pastores sunt admoniti ad communionem uti, non musto aut aliis liquoribus illicitis, sed puro vino, juxta institutionem." ”

“ Bealby mentions that in his visit to Kidderminster in 1836, he was shown the house in the High Street in which Richard Baxter is said to have resided: a few more particulars on the subject may prove interesting.
It was a three storied, high gabled house, with low ceilinged rooms, lighted by long ranges of casement. The exterior of the house displayed a goodly proportion of wood-work, and appeared to be much in its original condition. No garden or extra-ground was attached to it, another street (Swan Street) running immediately at its back. ”

“ Early in the spring of 1581, upon the Earl of Ormond leaving Ireland, Captain Raleigh (for he was then only such) , with Sir William Morgan and another gentleman, received a commission to succeed the Earl for a time in his government in Munster (the old lady's county) , and he spent the summer there of that year. It may be further remarked, that the then Earl of Desmond and Sir John Desmond are among the rebels, and that therefore the House of Desmond did suffer by attainder in the reign of Elizabeth ”

“ Hardouin would not allow that Virgil ever lived, but stoutly held that the Æneid was "a fardel of monkish fictions" put together during the middle ages: not "the bigoted Anglo-Saxons" of the eighth, but Dr. Ledwich of the eighteenth century, denied the existence of the great St. Patrick; a few weeks ago a correspondent of "N. & Q." asked "Is not the battle itself (of Waterloo) a myth?" (Vol. v., p. 396.) ; and last week, another tells us that "the saint (Patrick) certainly vanishes into 'an airy nothing,' if we are to credit the above authors" (Dr. Ledwich and Dr. Aikin) . ”

“ Who with no deep researches vex the brain,
Who from the dark and doubtful love to run,
And hold their glimmering tapers to the sun."
S. S. S.
Son of the Conqueror; Walker Tyrrel (Vol. v., p. 512.) .—No other son of William the Conqueror, except William Rufus, was slain by an arrow in the New Forest. ”

“ To an Oxford man, independent of its merit as a compendium of the prolix comment of Eustathius, this volume should be especially interesting, on account of the prefatory dissertation "Ad {555}Magdalinenses," entitled De Græcis Literis et Homeri Lectione et Imitatione, by Laurence Humphrey. This worthy was sometime Greek reader in the university, but went abroad on account of religion at the accession of Queen Mary, and did not return until happier times after her death. ”

“ But I forbear quoting further the account of this same cardinal's pompous "absolution of these realms," and "reconciliation to the church of Rome," all which are given in "marvellous" detail by our worthy historian. I pass on to observe, in conclusion, that, from the fact (as recorded in the first of the foregoing historic extracts) that "Sir Richard Pool, chamberlain" to Prince Arthur, was sent by him into Wales, I gather your correspondent I. J. H. H. has been led to suppose him a Welsh knight. ”

“ This is most probably the correct date, which is perfectly consistent with Raleigh's account of her marriage in the reign of Edward IV. It is likely she married very young. There is every probability that Raleigh was well acquainted with the "old Countess" when he was in Ireland, and acted so gallant a part against the rebels in that country. ”

“ A grandson, however, of the Conqueror, Richard, son of Robert Duke of Normandy, met with the same fate as Rufus, as stated by the cotemporary chronicler, Florentius Wigornensis. (Edition of the Historical Society, vol. ii. p. 45.) Immediately after describing the death of William Rufus, he says:
"Nam et antea ejusdem Willelmi junioris germanus, Ricardus, in eadem foresta multo ante perierat, et paulo ante suus fratruelis, Ricardus, comitis scilicet Normannorum Rotberti filius, dum et ipse in venatu fuisset, a suo milite sagitta percussus, interiit." ”

“ The London booksellers of the present day (good harmless men!) are satisfied with endeavouring to put down heresies as to discounts. Their predecessors, in the year 1655, set to work in good earnest, associated to purify the faith by denouncing in an Index expurgatorius, under the alarming titles of A Beacon set on Fire, and A Second Beacon set on Fire, all publications of a blasphemous, heretical, or improper kind. ”

“ He had been brought up by the king in learning, and made Dean of Exeter; but being after sent to learn experience by travel, he grew so great a friend of the Pope's that he became an enemy to King Henry, and for his enmity to the king was by Pope Julius III. made cardinal. For this man's cause the lords aforesaid being condemned were all executed; the Lord Marquess, the Lord Montacute, and Sir Edward Nevill, beheaded on the Tower Hill the ninth of January ”

“ The abundance of warm springs, and the volcanic fires throughout the island, render the temperature of the inhabited districts of Iceland much warmer in winter than would be supposed from its high northern latitude. The word "red emayle" no doubt means "red enamel," an apt simile enough, and well understood in the writer's days. ”

“ Newton, Cicero, and Gravitation (Vol. v., p. 344.) .—Newton is celebrated for having proved that all bodies attract one another with a force varying inversely as the square of the distance. What resemblance has this to a statement, that all bodies gravitate to the centre of the world, or, as explained by Cicero, the earth? which at most only implies its rotundity. Perhaps S. E. B. was joking, like Hegel, when he said that Newton called 5/A2 gravitation, and inferred that gravitation varied as 1/A2. Otherwise modern philosophers, as e.g. ”

“ Brogue, meaning a broad Irish accent, is an instance; fetch is another:
"In Ireland (says Mr. Banim) a fetch is the supernatural fac-simile of some individual, which comes to assure to its original [or his friend or relative] a happy longevity or immediate dissolution. If seen in the morning, the one event is predicted; if in the evening, the other."
Taibhse (pr. thaivshe) is the Irish word, and perhaps fetch might be derived from it by a sort of metathesis.
Eirionnach.
Derivation of "Caul."—
"Guianerius, cap. ”

“ To strengthen the case for the reading of the passage in Cymbeline, Act III. Sc. 4., "Whose mother was her painting," he cites a passage from As You Like It, Act III. Sc. 5., in which he says, "mother is directly used as a sort of warranty of female beauty!" Here is the passage:
"Who might be your mother,
That you insult, exult, and all at once,
Over the wretched?"
Shakspeare was, if I am not mistaken, one of those persons to whom a mother was, as some one expresses it, "the holiest thing alive." He concentrates this sentiment in the words of Troilus (Troilus and Cressida, Act V. Sc. 2.) ”

“ That he is called a kinsman of the prince is also some confirmation of the statement afforded by J. G. N., that he became so by his mother's near connexion with the Countess of Richmond, but his own alliance with the house of Plantagenet must have taken place about the close of the fifteenth century (and I own this offers some objection to my theory of his descent) ; it could not have occurred in 1513, as your correspondent states, since Cardinal Pole was, as I have stated, born in 1500, and was therefore fifty-four years old at the commencement of Mary's reign, viz. ”

“ From this cellar an underground passage is said to extend to St. Mary's Church, about a quarter of a mile distant. Sir Ralph Clare was buried in St. Mary's, opposite to where Baxter's pulpit then stood. The flat stone that covers his grave has once again been restored to the light by the removal of the cumbrous sleeping-box that concealed it,—thanks to the judicious alterations now being carried on by the present vicar; alterations very different to those "beautifyings" of 1786, in which Baxter's pulpit was sold as worthless lumber. (Vide "N. & Q.,", Vol. v., p. 363.) ”

“ Widows' and Family Mourning is always kept made up, and a note, description of the Mourning required, will insure its being sent forthwith, either in Town or into the Country, and on the most Reasonable Terms. ”

“ By the same Author out of Greek Latined, now also Englished."
Antony à Wood gives a list of the writings of Laurence Humphrey, among which is a life of Bishop Jewell in Latin: he also speaks highly of his scholarship and proficiency in theology. After his return from abroad he became Regius Professor of Divinity at Oxford, and President of his college. In 1570 he was made Dean of Gloucester, and ten years afterward Dean of Winchester. His divinity was strongly tinctured with Calvinism, but he was a zealous and able defender of the Reformation. ”

“ It extends from signature A 1 to G 8, and ends abruptly on the verso of G 8 without any colophon. On the verso of the title page is a small woodcut representing the Holy Dove hovering over the Virgin, who is surrounded by nine kneeling figures, all under a depressed arch, supported by two pillars whose shafts have a kind of chevron ornament worked on them, somewhat similar to the pillars of the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral. Perhaps if I give the title-page of this curious little tract in extenso, it will be more easily identified:
"¶ Speculum Christianorum multa bona continens. ”

“ Sneezing (Vol. v., pp. 364. 500.) .—I have often seen, but where I cannot now recollect, that the custom of saying "God bless you!" when any one {573}sneezed, arose from the fact that in the great plague of Athens sneezing was an unfailing proof of returning convalescence. Your classical readers will remember the anecdote told in the Anabasis of Xenophon (c. ii. sect. i.-v.) . I copy from Mitford, who has besides a note to the purpose:
"At daybreak the troops were assembled, and Chirosophus, Cleanor, and Xenophon successively addressed them. ”