Various

“ The reminiscences of your correspondent SENEX concerning the riots of London in the last century form an interesting addition to the records of those troubled times; but in all these matters correctness as to dates and facts are of immense importance. The omission of a date, or the narration of events out of their proper sequence, will sometimes create vast and most mischievous confusion in the mind of the reader. ”

“ Long Friday, meaning of.—C. Knight, in his Pictorial Shakspeare, explains Mrs. Quickly's phrase in Henry the Fourth—"'Tis a long loan for a poor lone woman to bear,"—by the synonym great: asserting that long is still used in the sense of great, in the north of England; and quoting the Scotch proverb, "Between you and the long day be it," where we talk of the great day of judgment. May not this be the meaning of the name Long Friday, which was almost invariably used by our Saxon forefathers for what we now call Good Friday? ”

“ The defence set up was, that young Allen was not killed by Maclane, but by another Scottish soldier of the same regiment, one McLaughlin, who confessed it at the time to the justice, as the justice says, though he owns he took no one step against a person who declared himself a murderer in the most express terms.... The perfect innocence of the young man as to the charge of being concerned in any riot or tumult, is universally acknowledged, and a more general good character is nowhere to be found. ”

“ More busy in thought when idle, than in labour when employed. The cessation from labour was favourable to the thoughts that made it endurable.
Malone quarrelled with the word "but", for which he would have substituted "and" or "for". But in the apologetic sense which I would confer upon the last two lines of Ferdinand's speech, the word "but", at their commencement, becomes not only appropriate but necessary. ”

“ It is not impossible that "Robin o' the Wood" may have been a general name for any such outlaws as these and that Robin Hood, as well as "Roberd the Robbere" may stand for some earlier and forgotten hero of Saxon tradition. It may be remarked that "Robin" is the Norman diminutive of "Robert", and that the latter is the name by which we should have expected to find the doings of a Saxon hero commemorated. It is true that Norman and Saxon soon came to have their feelings and traditions in common ”

“ It is therefore wonderful that it should not at once occur to every one conversant with the Roman occupation of this island, that all these "COL-harbours" mark the settlements, farms, outposts, or garrisons of the Roman colonies planted here.
J.I.
Oxford.
Cold Harbour.—Your correspondent asks whether there is a "Cold Harbour" in every county, &c. I think it probable, though it may take some time to catalogue them all. There are so many in some counties, that ten on an average for each would in all likelihood fall infinitely short of the number. ”

“ Gradely.—This word is not only used in Yorkshire, but also very much in Lancashire, and the rest of the north of England. I have always understood it to mean "good," "jolly," "out and out." Its primary meaning is "orderly, decently." (See Richardson's Dictionary.) The French have grade; It. and Sp., grado; Lat. gradus.
AREDJID KOOEZ.
Gradely.—This word, in use in Lancashire and Yorkshire, means grey-headedly, and denotes such wisdom as should belong to old age. A child is admonished to do a thing gradely, i.e. with the care and caution of a person of experience. ”

“ I think every man is a fool or a physician at thirty years of age, (that is to say) , by that time he ought to know his own constitution, and unless he is determined to live an intemperate and irregular life, I think he may by diet and regimen prevent or cure any chronical disease; but as to acute disorders no one who is not well acquainted with medicine should trust to his own skill. ”

“ But these sweet thoughts do even refresh my labour (s) ,
Most busy (l) est when I do it."
The question appears to be whether "most busy" applies to "sweet thoughts" or to Ferdinand, and whether the pronoun "it" refers to the act of forgetting or to "labour (s) ;" and I must confess that, to me, the whole significancy of the passage depends upon the idea conveyed of the mind being "most busy" while the body is being exerted. Every man with a spark of imagination must many a time have felt this. ”

“ All the commentators seem to have passed the line without observation. I am almost afraid to suggest that we should read "pillars'" in the genitive plural, "proof" being taken in the sense of established strength.
Before dismissing this conjecture, I have taken the pains to examine every one of the twenty-four other passages in which Milton has used the word "proof." I find that it occurs only four times as an adjective in all of which it is followed by something dependent upon it. ”

“ A rag is a beggarly fellow, but that will make little better sense here. Associated as the phrase is, I think it must mean rages, and I find the word used for ragings in the compound bard-rags, border-ragings or incursions, in Spenser's Fairy Queen, ii. x. 63., and Colin Clout, v. 315."
Having on one occasion found that a petty larceny committed on the received text of the poet, by taking away a superfluous b, made all clear, perhaps I may be allowed to restore the abstracted letter, which had only been misplaced and read brags, with, I trust, the like success? ”

“ The political and social views of the WEEKLY NEWS are liberal and progressive, and in these and all other departments of thought its original papers and articles treat earnestly and candidly of the great questions. ”

“ Thus, from the order in which SENEX has stated his reminiscences, a reader unacquainted with the events of the time will be likely to assume that the "attack on the King's Bench prison" and "the death of Allen" arose out of, and formed part and parcel of, the Gordon riots of 1780, instead of one of the Wilkes tumults of 1768. By the way, if SENEX was "personally either an actor or spectator" in this outbreak, he fully establishes his claim to the signature he adopts. ”

“ It is as follows:—Master the grammatical construction of the passage in question (if from a drama, in its dramatic and I scenic application) , deducing therefrom the general sense, before you attempt to amend or fix the meaning of a doubtful word.
Of all writers, none exceed Shakspeare in logical correctness and nicety of expression. With a vigour of thought and command of language attained by no man besides, it is fair to conclude, that he would not be guilty of faults of construction such as would disgrace a school-boy's composition ”

“ Gradely.—I think this word is very nearly confined to Lancashire. It is used both as an adjective and adverb. As an adjective, it expresses only a moderate degree of approbation or satisfaction; as an adverb, its general force is much greater. Thus, used adjectively in such phrases as "a gradely man," "a gradely crop," &c., it is synonymous with "decent." In answer to the question, "How d'ye do?" it means, "Pretty well," "Tolerable, thank you."
Adverbially it is (1.) sometimes used in sense closely akin to that of the adjective. Thus in "Behave yourself gradely," it means "properly, decently." ”

“ When the learning and experience of such gentlemen as MR. SINGER and MR. COLLIER fail to conclude a question, there is no higher appeal than to plain common sense, aided by the able arguments advanced on each side. Under these circumstances, perhaps you will allow one who is neither learned nor experienced to offer a word or two by way of vote on the meaning of the passage in the Tempest cited by MR. SINGER. It appears to me that to do full justice to the question the passage should be quoted entire, which, with your permission, I will do.
"Fer. There be some sports are painful ”

“ But it is equally true that, by adhering to the early text, MR. COLLIER'S school of editing has restored force and beauty to many passages which had previously been outraged by fancied improvements, so that his unflinching support of the original word in this instance is also to be respected. But may not both be combined? I think they may, by understanding the passage in question as though a transposition had taken place between the words "least" and "when".
"Most busy when least I do it,"
or,—
"Most busy when least employed." ”

“ Whether Robin Goodfellow and his German brother "Knecht Ruprecht" are at all connected with Robin Hood, seems very doubtful. The plants which, both in England and in Germany, are thus named, appear to belong to the elf rather than to the outlaw. The wild geranium, called "Herb Robert" in Gerarde's time, is known in Germany as "Ruprecht's Kraut". ”

“ On the sides are the following inscriptions:—
North Side.
Sacred to the Memory of
William Allen,
An Englishman of unspotted life and amiable disposition, [who was inhumanely murdered near St. George's Fields, the 10th day of May, 1768, by the Scottish detachment from the army.] [1]
"His disconsolate parents, inhabitants of this parish, caused this tomb to be erected to an only son, lost to them and the world, in his twentieth year, as a monument of his virtues and their affections." ”

“ The Roman colonists must have formed settlements in all directions during their long occupation of so favourite a spot as Britain. "Cold Harbour Farm" is a very frequent denomination of insulated spots cultivated from time immemorial. ”

“ The maiden also requireth some toy or small present of him who hath deflowered her, which she may show as an argument and proof of her condition; and she that hath been loved and abused of most men, and shall have many such favours and toys to show to her wooers, is accounted more noble, and may on that account be advantageously married; and when she would appear most honourably dressed, she hangs all her lovers' favours about her neck, and the more acceptable she was to many, so much the more honour she receives from her countrymen. ”

“ As a proof that this view of the construction is correct, let L.B.L. substitute for "delighted spirit", spirit no longer delighted, and he will find that it gives precisely the sense which he deduces from the passage as it stands. If this be true, then, according to his view, the negative and affirmative of a proposition may be used indifferently, in the same time and circumstances giving exactly the same meaning. ”

“ John Hakonson owns this book, herein first are written verses, then how Norway was colonised, then of Erik the Far-travelled, thereafter of Olaf Tryggvason the king with all his deeds, and next is the history of Olaf Haraldson, the saint, and of his deeds, and therewith the history of the earls of Orkney, then is there Sverrers Saga; thereafter the Saga of Hakon the Old, with the Saga of Magnus the king, his son, then the deeds of Einar Sokkeson of Greenland, and next of Elga and Ulf the Bad; and then begin the annals from the creation of the world to the present year. ”

“ He is not entirely free from the credulity of his age and his account of Ireland will match anything to be found in Sir John Mandeville. Here we are told of an island on which nothing rots, of another on which nothing dies, of another on one-half of which devils alone reside, of wonderful monsters and animals, and of miracles the strangest ever wrought. He invents nothing. What he relates of Ireland he states to have found in books, or to have derived from hearsay. The following extract must therefore be taken as a specimen of Irish Folk-lore in the twelfth century ”

“ After this decisive testimony of Bishop Berkeley's son, accompanied by the candid confession of error on the part of the editor of the Biographia Britannica, the rumour as to Berkeley's authorship of Gaudentio ought to have been finally discredited. ”

“ Rather, Mr. Turner says, from Sax. gradlie upright; gradely in Lanc., he observes, is an adjective simplifying everything respectable. The Lancashire people say, our canny is nothing to it."
The word itself is very familiar to me, as I have often received a scolding for some boyish, and therefore not very wise or orderly prank, in these terns:—"One would think you were not altogether gradely," or, as it was sometimes varied into, "You would make one believe you were not right in your head;" meaning, "One would think you had not common sense." ”

“ The new edition of the Pictorial Shakspeare which Mr. Charles Knight has just commenced under the title of the "National Edition" cannot, we think, prove other than a most successful attempt to circulate among all classes, but especially among readers of comparatively small means, a cheap, well-edited, and beautifully illustrated edition of the works of our great poet. The text of the present edition is not printed, {351} like of its precursor, in double columns, but in a distinct and handsome type extending across the page ”

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