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REPLIES
BLUNDER IN MALONE'S SHAKSPEARE
I regret that no further notice has been taken of the very curious matter suggested by "Mr. Jebb" (No 14. p. 213.), one of the many forgeries of which Shakspeare has been the object, which ought to be cleared up, but which I have neither leisure nor materials to attempt; but I can afford a hint or two for other inquirers.
1. This strange intermixture of some John Shakspeare's confession of the Romish faith with William Shakspeare's will, is, as Mr. Jebb states to be found in the Dublin edition of Malone's Shakspeare, 1794, v. i. p. 154. It is generally supposed that this Dublin edition is a copy (I believe a piracy) of the London one of 1790; but by what means the three introductory paragraphs of John Shakspeare's popish confession were foisted into the real will of William is a complete mystery.
2. Malone, in a subsequent part of his prolegomena to both of those editions (Lond. v. i. part II. 162., and Dublin, v. ii. p. 139.), printed a pretended will or confession of the faith of John Shakspeare, found in a strange, incredible way, and evidently a forgery. This consisted of fourteen articles, of which the first three were missing. Now the three paragraphs foisted into William's will would be the kind of paragraphs that would complete John's confession; but they are not in confession. Who, then, forged them? and foisted them—which Malone had never seen—into so prominent a place in the Dublin reprint of Malone's work?
3. Malone, in his inquiry into the Ireland forgeries, alludes to this confession of faith, admits that he was mistaken about it, and intimates that he had been imposed on, which he evidently was; but he does not seem to know any thing of the second forgery of the three introductory paragraphs, or of their bold introduction into William Shakspeare's will in the Dublin edition of his own work.
It is therefore clear that Mr. Jebb is mistaken in thinking that it was "a blunder of Malone's." It seems, as far as we can see, to have been, not a blunder, but an audacious fabrication; and how it came into the Irish edition, seems to me incomprehensible. The printer of the Dublin edition, Exshaw, was a respectable man, an alderman and a Protestant, and he could have no design to make William Shakspeare pass for a papist; nor indeed does the author of the fraud, whoever he was, attempt that; for the three paragraphs profess to be the confession of John. So that, on the whole, the matter is to me quite inexplicable; it is certain that it must have been a premeditated forgery and fraud, but by whom or for what possible purpose, I cannot conceive.
C.
HINTS TO INTENDING EDITORS
Beaumont and Fletcher; Gray; Seward; Milton.—By way of carrying out the suggestion which you thought fit to print at page 316, as to the advantages likely to arise from intimations in your pages of the existence of the MS. annotations, and other materials suitable to the purposes of intending editors of standard works, I beg to mention the following books in my possession, which are much at the service of any editor who may apply to you for my address, viz.:—
1. A copy of Tonson's 10 vol. edit. of Beaumont and Fletcher (8vo. 1750), interleaved and copiously annotated, to the extent of about half the plays, by Dr. Hoadly.
2. Mr. Haslewood's collection of materials for an edit. of Gray, consisting of several works and parts of works, MS. notes, newspaper cuttings, &c., bound in 6 vols.
3. A collection of works of Miss Anne Seward, Mr. Park's copy, with his MS. notes, newspaper cuttings, &c.
As a first instalment of my promised notes on Milton's Minor Poems, I have transcribed the following from my two copies, premising that "G." stands for the name of Mr. Gilchrist, and "D." for that of Mr. Dunster, whose name is misprinted in your 316th page, as "Dunston."
Notes on Lycidas.
On l. 2. (G.):—
"O'er head sat a raven, on a sere bough."
Jonson's Sad Shepherd, Act. I. Sc. 6.
On l. 26. (D.):—
"Whose so early lay
Prevents the eyelids of the blushing day."
Crashaw's Music's Duel.
On l. 27. (D.):—
"Each sheapherd's daughter, with her cleanly peale,
was come afield to milke the morning's meale."
Brown's Britannia's Pastorals, B. iv. Sc. 4. p. 75. ed. 1616.
On l. 29. (G.):—
"And in the deep fog batten all the day."
Drayton, vol. ii. p. 512. ed. 1753.
On l. 40. (G.):—
"The gadding winde."
Phineas Fletcher's 1st Piscatorie Eclogue, st. 21.
On l. 40. (D.):—
"This black den, which rocks emboss,
Overgrown with eldest moss."
Wither's Shepherd's Hunting, Eclogue 4.
On l. 68. (D.) the names of Amaryllis and Neæra are combined together with other classical names of beautiful nymphs by Ariosto (Orl. Fur. xi. st. 12.)
On l. 78. (D.) The reference intended by Warton is to Pindar, Nem. Ode vii. l. 46.
On l. 122. (G.):—
"Of night or loneliness it recks me not."
Comus, l. 404.
On l. 142. (G.):—
"So rathe a song."
Wither's Shepherd's Hunting, p. 430. ed. 1633.
On l. 165. (G.):—
"Sigh no more, ladies; ladies, sigh no more."
Shakspeare's Much Ado, ii. 3.
On l. 171. (G.):—
"Whatever makes Heaven's forehead fine."
Crashaw's Weeper, st. 2.
J.F.M.
REPLIES TO MINOR QUERIES
Depinges (No. 18. p. 277., and No. 20. p. 326.).—I have received the following information upon this subject from Yarmouth. Herring nets are usually made in four parts or widths,—one width, when they are in actual use, being fastened above another. The whole is shot overboard in very great lengths, and forms, as it were, a wall in the sea, by which the boat rides as by an anchor. These widths are technically called "lints" (Sax. lind?); the uppermost of them (connected by short ropes with a row of corks) being also called the "hoddy" (Sax. hod?), and the lowest, for an obvious reason, the "deepying" or "depynges," and sometimes "angles."
At other parts of the coast than Yarmouth, it seems that the uppermost width of net bears exclusively the name of hoddy, the second width being called the first lint, the third width the second lint, and the fourth the third lint, or, as before, "depynges."
W.R.F.
Lærig.—Without contraverting Mr. Singer's learned and interesting paper on this word (No. 19. p. 292.), I hope I shall not be thought presumptuous in remarking that there must have been some other root in the Teutonic language for the two following nouns, leer (Dutch) and lear (Flemish), which both signify leather (lorum, Lat.), and their diminutives or derivatives leer-ig and lear-ig, both used in the sense of tough.
Supposing the Ang.-Sax. "lærig" to be derived from the same root, it would denote in "ofer linde lærig," the leather covering of the shields, or their capability to resist a blow.
I will thank you to correct two misprints in my last communication, p. 299.; pisan for pison, and 'Ιοαννης for 'Ιωαννης.
By the by, the word "pison" is oddly suggestive of a covering for the breast (pys, Nor. Fr.). See Foulques Fitzwarin, &c.
B.W.
March 16th.
Lærig (No. 19. p. 292.).—The able elucidation given by Mr. Singer of the meaning of this word, renders, perhaps, any futher communication on the point unnecessary. Still I send the following notes in case they should be deemed worthy of notice.
"Ler, leer—vacuus. Berini Fabulæ, v. 1219. A.-S. ge-lær."
Junii Etymol. Anglicanum.
"Lar, lær—vacuus."
Schilteri Glossarium Teutonicum.
Respecting "Lind," I find in the version by Thorkelin of De Danorum Rebus Gestis Poema Danicum Dialecto Anglo-Saxonica (Havniæ, 1815), that "Lind hæbbendra" is rendered "Vesilla habens;" but then, on the other hand, in Biorn Haldorsen's Islandske Lexicon (Havniæ, 1814), "Lind" (v. ii. p. 33) is translated "Scutum tiligneum."
C.I.R.
Vox et præterea nihil (No. 16. p. 247.).—The allusion to this proverb, quoted as if from the Anatomy of Melancholy, by "C.W.G." (No. 16. p. 247.), may be found in Addison's Spectator, No. 61, where it is as follows:—
"In short, one may say of the pun as the countryman described his nightingale—that it is 'vox et præterea nihil.'"
The origin of the proverb is still a desideratum.
Nathan.
Vox et præterea nihil (No. 16. p 247.).—In a work entitled Proverbiorum et Sententiarum Persicarum Centuria, a Levino Warnero, published at Amsterdam, 1644, the XCVII. proverb, which is given in the Persian character, is thus rendered in Latin,—
"Tympanum magnum edit clangorem, sed intus vacuum est."
And the note upon it is as follows:—
"Dicitur de iis, qui pleno ore vanas suas laudes ebuccinant. Eleganter Lacon quidam de luscinia dixit,—
Φωνα τυ τις εσσι και ουδεν αλλο,
Vox tu quidem es et aliud nihil."
This must be the phrase quoted by Burton.
HERMES.
Supposed Etymology of Havior (No. 15. p. 230., and No. 17. p. 269.).—The following etymology of "heaviers" will probably be considered as not satisfactory, but this extract will show that the term itself is in use amongst the Scotch deerstalkers in the neighbourhood of Loch Lomond.
"Ox-deer, or 'heaviers,' as the foresters call them (most likely a corruption from the French 'hiver'), are wilder than either hart or hind. They often take post upon a height, that gives a look-out all round, which makes them very difficult to stalk. Although not so good when December is past, still they are in season all the winter; hence their French designation."—Colquhoun's Rocks and Rivers, p. 137. (London, 8vo. 1849.)
C.I.R.
Havior.—Without offering an opinion as to the relative probability of the etymology of this word, offered by your various correspondents (No. 17. p. 269.), I think it right that the use of the word in Scotland should not be overlooked.
In Jamieson's admirable Dictionary, the following varieties of spelling and meaning (all evidently of the same word) occur:—
"Aver or Aiver, a horse used for labour; commonly an old horse; as in Burns—
"'Yet aft a ragged cowte's been kenn'd To mak a noble aiver.'
"'This man wyl not obey.... Nochtheles I sall gar hym draw lik an avir in ane cart'—Bellend. Chron.
"'Aiver, a he-goat after he has been gelded: till then he is denominated a buck.
"Haiver, haivrel, haverel, a gelded goat (East Lothian, Lanarkshire, Sotherland).
"Hebrun, heburn, are also synonymes.
"Averie, live-stock, as including horses, cattle, &c.
"'Calculation of what money, &c. will sustain their Majesties' house and averie'—Keith's Hist.
"'Averia, averii, 'equi, boves, jumenta, oves, ceteraque animalia quæ agriculturæ inserviunt.'"—Ducange.
Skene traces this word to the low Latin, averia, "quhilk signifies ane beast." According to Spelman, the Northumbrians call a horse aver or afer.
See much more learned disquisition on the origin of these evidently congenerous words under the term Arage, in Jamieson.
EMDEE.
Mowbray Coheirs (No. 14. p. 213.).—Your correspondent "G." may obtain a clue to his researches on reference to the private act of parliament of the 19th Henry VII., No. 7., intituled, "An Act for Confirmation of a Partition of Lands made between William Marquis Barkley and Thomas Earl of Surrey."—Vide Statutes at Large.
W.H. LAMMIN.
Spurious Letter of Sir R. Walpole (No. 19. p. 304.)—"P.C.S.S." (No. 20. p. 321.) and "LORD BRAYBROOKE" (No. 21. p. 336.) will find their opinion of the letter being spurious confirmed by the appendix to Lord Hervey's Memoirs, (vol. ii. p. 582.), and the editor's note, which proves the inaccuracy of the circumstances on which the inventor of the letter founded his fabrication. In addition to Lord Braybrooke's proofs that Sir Robert was not disabled by the stone, for some days previous to the 24th, from waiting on the king, let me add also, from Horace Walpole's authority, two conclusive facts; the first is, that it was not till Sunday night, the 31st January (a week after the date of the letter) that Sir Robert made up his mind to resign; and, secondly, that he had at least two personal interviews with the king on that subject.
C.
Line quoted by De Quincey.—"S.P.S." (No. 22. p. 351.) is informed that
"With battlements that on their restless fronts
Bore stars"…
is a passage taken from a gorgeous description of "Cloudland" by Wordsworth, which occurs near the end of the second book of the Excursion. The opium-eater gives a long extract, as "S.P.S." probably remembers.
A.G.
Ecclesfield, March 31. 1850.
Quem Jupiter vult perdere priùs dementat.—Malone, in a note in Boswell's Johnson (p. 718., Croker's last edition), says, that a gentleman of Cambridge found this apophthegm in an edition of Euripides (not named) as a translation of an iambic.
"Ον Θεος Δελει 'απολεσαι, πρωτ' 'αποφρενοι."
The Latin translation the Cambridge gentleman might have found in Barnes; but where is the Greek, so different from that of Barnes, to be found? It is much nearer to the Latin.
C.
Bernicia.—In answer to the inquiry of "GOMER" (No. 21. p. 335.), "P.C.S.S." begs leave to refer him to Camden's Britannia (Philemon Holland's translation, Lond. fol. 1637), where he will find, at p. 797., the following passage:—
"But these ancient names were quite worn out of use in the English Saxon War; and all the countries lying north or the other side of the arme of the sea called Humber, began, by a Saxon name, to be called [Old English: Northan-Humbra-ric] that is, the Kingdome of Northumberland; which name, notwithstanding being now cleane gone in the rest of the shires, remayneth still, as it were, surviving in Northumberland onely; which, when that state of kingdome stood, was known to be a part of the Kingdome of Bernicia, which had peculiar petty kings, and reached from the River Tees to Edenborough Frith."
At p. 817. Camden traces the etymology of Berwick from Bernicia.
P.C.S.S.
Cæsar's Wife.—If the object of "NASO'S" Query (No. 18. p. 277.) be merely to ascertain the origin of the proverb, "Cæsar's wife must be above suspicion," he will find in Suetonius (Jul. Cæs. 74.) to the following effect:—
"The name of Pompeia, the wife of Julius Cæsar,
having been mixed up with an accusation against
P. Clodius, her husband divorced her; not, as he said,
because he believed the charge against her, but because
he would have those belonging to him as free from
suspicion as from crime."
J.E.
[We have received a similar replay, with the addition of a reference to Plutarch (Julius Cæsar, cap. 10.), from several other kind correspondents.]
Nomade (No. 21. p. 342.).—There can be no doubt at all that the word "nomades" is Greek, and means pastoral nations. It is so used in Herodotus more than once, derived from νομος, pasture: νεμω, to graze, is generally supposed to be the derivation of the name of Numidians.
