Various

“ It's to me a vain argument that our enemies are scarce yet well settled, when you consider that fear in some, and ambition in others, have brought them to comply; and that the Parliament, being made up, for the most part, of members that formerly run our enemy down, they will be ready to make their peace as soon as they can, rather than hazard themselves upon an uncertain bottom. ”

“ The cat will mew, and dog will have his day."
If, then, a literary jury be required to decide this question, the point on which they have to give a verdict is, whether to drink vinegar (or wormwood-wine) or to drink up a river is more in consonance with the tenor of Hamlet's speech. Theobald indeed says, that "Hamlet is not proposing any impossibilities to Laertes, such as drinking up a river would be, but rather seems to mean, Wilt thou resolve to do things the most shocking and distasteful to human nature?" ”

“ Numerous passages in our old dramatic writers show that it was a fashion with the gallants of the time to do some extravagant feat, as a proof of their love, in honour of their mistresses; and among others, the swallowing some nauseous potion was one of the most frequent: but vinegar would hardly have been considered in this light; wormwood might. In Thomas's Italian Dictionary, 1562, we have 'Assentio, Eysell;' and Florio renders that word [Assentio] by Wormwood. ”

“ Lot 254 is The Original Warrant to the Lord Mayor of London, directing him to proclaim Oliver Cromwell Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, Ireland, and the Dominions thereto belonging; and Lot 500, a Warrant of the Privy Council of Lady Jane Gray, is a document of the highest importance, as proving (what has been doubted) that the Council of Lady Jane Grey did actually perform official acts as a Council. These of course are among the gems of the collection; but in the whole thousand lots there is not one but is of interest. ”

“ The scene on the Thames was the water-procession on Lord Mayor's day.
W. D.
Chaucer and Gray (Vol. iii., p. 492) .
—MR. THOMS suggests a very interesting parallel between a line in Chaucer, and Gray's "Even in our ashes", &c. Gray himself refers to Petrarch as his original, and the thought occurs in Shakspeare:
"In me thou seest the glowing of such fire,
That on the ashes of his youth doth lie." ”