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In compliance with the order from H. T. W., Bengal (see G. W.'s Current Notes for July last, p. 61), the Church of his family burial-place is here represented, to the exclusion of much interesting matter, for which G. W. has to apologize to his Correspondents.

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GARRICK'S FRIBBLERIAD.

As a Collector of Curiosities connected with the

Drama, I have of course a copy of Garrick's Fribbleriad. I wish to know, through the medium of Current Notes, whether any other collector can and will oblige

me with information as to the characters introduced. After the hero, Fitzpatrick, to whom Tom Davies has devoted one gossiping chapter in his Life of Garrick, there seems to be no clue to the speakers in the Fribble Conclave; nor am I sure that any real persons were intended, but the spirit of the day would be sure to introduce real, rather than fictitious characters, so that one would be glad to hear what well-read collectors have to say about Lord Trip, Sir Cock-a-doodle, Phil Whiffle, Sir Diddler Patty-pan, and the Rev. Mister Marjoram.

I am, sir, your subscriber and constant reader,
Mr. Willis.

FELTHAM.

AMERICAN GO-A-HEADISM.

September 20th.

SIR,-Allow me to suggest to your New York Correspondent [Current Notes for August, No. XX. p. 69,] that the language he has addressed towards Mr. Dickens is neither civil nor polite, and is quite uncalled for, and his insinuation respecting Lord Mahon unjustifiable. Pray, in what relation does Lord Mahon stand to Mr. Dickens that they should thus be put side by side like two criminals? Do they write on the same subjects? and is there any similarity in their style? I think not. Further, his logic is bad-we are said to patronize both Lord Mahon and Mr. Dickens, and that the English patronize a snobbish taste and style. Yet he asserts his lordship to be a gentleman, Mr. Dickens a snob. Now it is quite clear that a gentleman and a snob are incompatible. Yet Lord Mahon is a gentleman, and writes in a snobbish style. Mr. Dickens also writes in a snobbish style, but is not a gentleman. So it plainly appears from your correspondent that, because Lord Mahon is a nobleman, that therefore he is a gentleman; and because Mr. Dickens is not a nobleman, that therefore he is not a gentleman!

It is a well-known fact that purse-proud people, as the Americans are, who originally were the offscouring of this country, which now they so ungraciously and undutifully assail, always look with supreme contempt on those who are their superiors in education.

Mr. Willis.

I am, sir, your obedient servant, AN ENGLISHMAN.

BELOE'S SEXAGENARIAN.

SIR, I lately purchased from your Catalogue a copy of the first edition of "Beloe's Sexagenarian" with "a Manuscript Key to the Names,"-but I find that this MS. Key only deciphers thirty names in the first volume, and twenty-eight in the second-which bear no proportion to the number left unexplained.

Can you or any of your Correspondents enable me to procure a more complete list of the persons who are described in these volumes? which lose much of their value and interest from the want of knowing precisely to what individuals they refer.

In spite of the obloquy with which the work has been assailed in some quarters, I feel convinced that it is a valuable piece of literary biography, delineating, with little reserve perhaps, but still delineating truthfully, the more prominent features of most of the various characters which he had met with in the course of his life. I confess my partiality to this sort of literary gossip, and shall be much obliged by your furnishing me with a more full and complete Index to the Names mentioned in these volumes.

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SCHLEGEL says that sufficient use has not been made of Shakspere's Sonnets, as important materials for his biography. Let us see what that might lead to. In Sonnet XXXVIII. he writes:

"As a decrepit father takes delight

To see his active child do deeds of youth,
So I, made lame by fortune's dearest spite,
Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth."
And again, in Sonnet LXXXIX.

"Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault, And I will comment upon that offence; Speak of my lameness, and I straight will halt Against thy reasons making no defence." and there is nothing in the inquiry repugnant to poetic Was Shakspere lame? "A question to be asked;" justice, for he has made Julius Cæsar deaf in his left Where did he get his authority?

ear.

DR. DARWIN'S PROPHECY ON STEAM.

THE following curious prophecy is from Dr. Darwin's well known, at least twenty years before the date of its "Botanic Garden," published in 1789, but written, it is publication:

"Soon shall thy arm, unconquer'd Steam, afar
Drag the slow barge, or drive the rapid car;
Or on wide waving wings expanded bear
The flying chariot through the fields of air.
Fair crews triumphant leaning from above
Shall wave their fluttering 'kerchiefs as they move;
Or warrior bands alarm the gaping crowd,
And armies shrink beneath the shadowy cloud :
So mighty Hercules o'er many a clime
Waved his huge mace in virtue's cause sublime;
Unmeasured strength with early art combined,
Awed, served, protected, and amazed mankind.”

SPORTSMEN'S TERMS OF THE MIDDLE AGES.

THE sporting vocabulary of the middle ages furnishes many terms curiously happy in description: a route of wolves; a pace of asses; a barren of mules; a tribe of goats; a skulk of foxes; a singular of boars; a Sownder of wild swine; a harras of horses; a rag of colts; a richess of martens; a husk, or a down of hares; a clowder of cats; a shrewdness of apes; and a labor of moles. A hart was said to be harbored, a buck lodged, a roe-buck bedded, a hare formed, a rabbit set, &c. We have also a litter of whelps, and a cowardice of curs.

THE ALCHYMISTS.

66

Birmingham.

SIR,-Your correspondent "A Customer and an Alchymist" [Current Notes for July, No. XIX. p. 64] is informed that a list of books on Alchymy will be found in the Bibliotheca Chymica of P. Borellus, 12mo.; and that a Catalogue of Chymicall Books" was published in 1675 by William Cooper, Bookseller, at the Pelican in Little Britain, London, 12mo. This latter is in three parts; the first had been published separately, and the two latter added, upon the work being appended to the "Philosophical Epitaph of W. C., Esq." London, 12mo. 1673. It is under this title that your correspondent must search for the Catalogue which will be found to contain a most curious and complete list of Chemical-or what is the same Alchemical-works published in Europe up to that time. Mr. Willis.

WILLIAM BATES.

ALDERMAN DOWDEN'S BOTANY OF THE BOHEREENS.

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Northampton, Sept. 28, 1852.

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Apropos of Alderman Dowden and his "Botany of the Bohereens," (Current Notes, August, p. 70, and Sept. p. 79) allow me to say that Bohereens, about which T. H. enquires, means green lanes, and not any particular district. 'Botany of the Bohereens means the Botany of the Green Lanes therefore. Mrs. Crawford has used the word in one of her popular songs, "Oh, Dermot Asthore! how his fond heart would flutter When I met thee by night in the shady boreen." G. J. DE W.

CAMPBELL'S ADELGITHA.

It is not very clear what is the nature of the clue which A. K. (Current Notes for September, p. 78) seeks respecting Campbell's Adelgitha. The Poem is to be found in every edition of his collected works. W.

TO CORRESPONDENTS.

P. S. P. (30th Sept.) thanked; but the letter ascribed to Richelieu has been so often printed in translation, with similar imitations of the style in English of this well

known to be fictitious document, that it must be familiar to

most of the readers of G. W.'s Current Notes. school boy exercise, many specimens of which have been forwarded to G. W.

It is neither more nor less than a common Jesuitical

ALBUM POETRY.-E. thanked. Specimens of the poetry of Saml. Rogers, May 13, 1839, although copied from his Autograph, were in print, or in ladies' albums, certainly thirty years before that date. Roscoe's lines are perfectly familiar to the ear. So are those signed "J. Montgomery," and dated from "the Mount near Sheffield," Jan. 25, 1840. Bernard Barton's have probably been printed, but they are not remembered, and therefore are here printed or reprinted.

"My signature and date when penn'd
Thou'rt welcome to, my unknown friend,
They cost nor time, nor trouble;
Though much, I think, my humble name,
And minimum of minstrel fame,
Are both alike,--a bubble."
Woodbridge, Suffolk, Oct. 16, 1848.

BERNARD BARTON.

"A COLLECTOR OF COINS," Northampton, Oct. 9, will appear if he forwards 10s for engraving the Jetton; the inscription on which he reads inaccurately.

C. M. J. versus the Senior Church Warden, 20th Sept. M. A. S. (Falstaff's Comic Annual), 1st Oct.—A. F. K. (Francis Hanksbee) 2nd October-F. W. E. (Nursery Rhymes)-L. (The Fate of Genius, King's Bench Walk, Temple)-R. (Theodore Hook)-F. W. Fairholt, 11 Montpelier Square, Brompton (Hone's History of Parody) - B. N. (Bermondsey Tokens), and T. F. D. C. (Joseph Ashbury and Oxberry's Dramatic Chronology) thanked, and in type, but must stand over. Albert Smith and his "Soft Soap" on albums received too late as a puff to do him any good. Will look again at it.

Literary and Scientific Obituary.

BARNES, John. (Director of the Construction of Steam
Engines and Vessels for the Service of the Messageries
Nationales of France). La Clotat, near Marseilles.
24th September. Aged 54.

BRADFIELD, Henry Joseph. Poet. Suicide. St. Alban's
Hotel, Haymarket. 11th October. Aged 45.
COLBY, Thomas (Major-General). Ordnance Survey.
R. E. Liverpool. 2nd October.

FINDEN, William. Engraver. Upper Cheyne-row, Chelsea. 20th September. Aged 66.

FISHER, William (Rear Admiral). Novelist. 38, Blandford Square. 30th September. Aged 72. LITTA, Pompeo (Count). Italian Genealogist and Antiquary. 17th August.

THOMSON, Thomas. Edinburgh Reviewer, Edinburgh. 2nd October.

TOWNSEND, Thomas Stuart, D.D. (Lord Bishop of Meath). Theology and Education. Malaga. 16th September. Aged 51.

WELSFORD, Henry. Philologist. London Street, Fitzroy Square. October 4.

No. XXIII.]

FOR THE MONTH.

"I will make a prief of it in my Note-Book."-SHAKSPERE.

WAS SHAKSPERE LAME?

THIS question, first suggested, I believe, by Capell, and now revived by your Correspondent (Current Notes, p. 8), can only have arisen, as it seems to me, from an inconsiderate perusal of the passages which have led to the supposition, and a disregard of the immediate context. Nevertheless, a few words upon the subject may not be thought wholly supererogatory, as the belief has, somehow, obtained the sanction of high authority-that of Sir Walter Scott, for instance, who seems to have introduced Shakspere into his novel of "Kenilworth' for no other purpose than to make a gratuitous allusion to his deformity, "He is a stout man at quarter-staff, and single falchion," says the novelist, "though, as I am told, a halting fellow."

In Sonnet XXXVII. I must admit, that there appears to be some ambiguity of meaning:

"As a decrepit father takes delight

To see his active child do deeds of youth; So I, made lame by Fortune's dearest (direst?) spite, Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth:"

but it will surely be evident, that as in the first t wo lines the illustration is purely physical, the senile decrepitude of the father being opposed to the youthful vigour of his offspring; so in the two latter, Shakspere, proceeding in the adulatory vein of the preceding sonnets, has ascribed to himself a merely moral or social inferiority, to heighten by the contrast the "worth and truth" of his idolized friend. But if this interpretation of the passage be not accepted, and the literal meaning be insisted on, I must take refuge in the 9th line of the

same sonnet

"So then I am not lame, poor, nor despised," and ask with Malone, "If the words are to be understood literally, we must then suppose that our admired poet was also poor and despised, for neither of which suppositions there is the smallest ground."

I now proceed to quote from Sonnet LXXXIX. the other passage in which Shakspere is supposed to assert his lameness; placing before it a few lines from the preceding sonnet, which tend to illustrate what I conceive to be its only true meaning. The italics are my own:— "When thou shalt be disposed to set me light,

And place my merit in the eye of scorn,
Upon thy side, against myself, I'll fight,
And

prove thee virtuous though thou art forsworn.

Such is my love, to thee I so belong
That for thy right myself will bear all wrong.

[NOVEMBER, 1852.

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Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault, And I will comment upon that offence; Speak of my lameness and I straight will halt, Against thy reason making no defence." This, amplified into prose, would read, I imagine :"Whenever you may be disposed to make me appear as of little worth, and set my qualities in a contemptible light, I, taking part with thee against myself, will aid thee in thy object, so that, forsworn as thou art, no suspicion may arise of thy candour and truth.

bear

*

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"So great indeed is my love-so entirely is my existence and its interests absorbed in thine, that I will make thee appear cruel and unjust, by shewing the any imputation-however unmerited-rather than falsity of it.

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"Thus, ascribe your desertion of me to some fault of mine-whatever that may be I will speak of it as if I were actually guilty; shouldst thou say that I labour under some bodily infirmity-lameness, for instanceI would actually assume a limp, lest by my upright gait discredit might be thrown upon thy assertion."

Now if I have taken an erroneous view, and Shakspere in case of his imperfection being alluded to, becomes was actually lame, his promise to "make no defence " simply ridiculous, and he would scarcely make a promise to "halt," and claim merit for so doing, if he could not help it. What, too, can he mean by "bearin the accusations, of which he immediately after ing all wrong, "unless some injustice were done to him Speaks; and "fighting against himself" can only mean in this place, his assenting to injurious imputations. Indeed, except upon the supposition of his moral and physical integrity, the two Sonnets, from which I have quoted, lose all point and force, and become simply absurd.

It may be also asked, how can the fame which it is known Shakspere attained by his performance of the Ghost in Hamlet-his greatest character-be reconciled with the notion of his physical deformity.

Your correspondent will find that Charles Knight, in and ingenious use of the Sonnets; and the matter which his "Shakspere, a Biography," has made considerable they, as well as the Dramatic works, afford, for the elimination of an imaginative biography of the great Bard, has been still further improved in a clever and amusing little volume, entitled "Shakspere's Autobiographical Poems, being his Sonnets clearly developed, with his character drawn chiefly from his works, by Charles Armitage Brown." London, James Bohn, 1838, PP. 306. WILLIAM BATES.

Birmingham, Nov. 1852.

M

PHOENICIAN INSCRIPTIONS.

I HAVE Somewhere read, that Bishop Clayton offered a considerable sum of money for a copy of all the inscriptions in the Wady Elmocatteb, in order that an attempt might be made to interpret them: I am, therefore, inclined to think that the learned readers of your excellent "Current Notes" will not object to have a little peep into the general character of these compositions, which have, of late, excited some little curiosity.

I have diligently read, here and there, many of the 187 collected in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature; and beg you to admit three of them among your interesting notes.

No. 16. " The soldiers of the army of the Rephaim, being confounded at the terrible peals of thunder, were put to flight at Murait, in the neighbourhood of Sina, by the spears of the sons of Turk" (the eldest son of Japhet).

No. 14. "I am left at the murmuring sound, at Sina, weak and afflicted with grief."

No. 1. "At Sina, the star of the constellation Virgo shot forth a diffusion of rays in the midst of heaven; the inner circle being of a white" (pearl) colour, and the outer circle being of a golden colour.

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Nathan Hafi, the Grandfather." The star here described, is given in the same terms in Chinese, Sanscrit, Persian, &c. records. See a picture of it in Kampfer's Amonitates Exoticæ, p. 313.

These writings have, I think, been represented as the handy-work of the Israelites during their passage through the Wady Elmocatteb; but, independent of the idea that the Israelites either could not, or woULD not have been allowed to engrave figures on a rock; the inscriptions themselves shew that they were the work of those who made a pilgrimage to Sina, or passed through the valley to or from Jerusalem, etc., to which may be added, that the language is not Hebrew, but Phoenician. I think I may also venture to affirm that there is no such thing as a catalogue of proper names in the whole valley. According to the specimens in my possession, there are not more than three or four proper names contained in twenty inscriptions.

I am, sir, yours very truly,

October 28th, 1852.

NURSERY RHYMES.

T. R. BROWN.

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AN ALLEGORY OF MORTALITY. THE following stanzas from "Ritson's Ancient Songs and Ballads," vol. 1, p. 15. He says that it is prefixed, though not connected with a ballad in French, on the death of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, slain at the Battle of Evesham, 4th August, 1265. It presents the same play upon words as in the verses inserted in the " Current Notes," vol. 1, p. 78, entitled "An Allegory of Mortality." The version in the Harleian MSS. mentioned by T. R." (p. 82), might possibly prove a connection of the two, as parts of one original. "Erthe toc of erthe erthe wyth woh Erthe other erthe to the erthe droh Erthe leyde erthe in erthe ne throh Tho hevede erthe of erthe erthe ynoh."

JOHN EVELYN, Esq.

SYLV.

IN the blank leaf of a copy of the " Sylva" of this great general scholar, in the possession of the philosophical editor of the last edition of that useful work, is the following inscription:

To the memory

Of JOHN EVELYN, Esq.

A man of great learning, of sound judgment,
and of extensive benevolence.

From an early entrance into public life,
to an extreme old age,

He considered himself as living only for the benefit
of Mankind.
Reader,

Do justice to this illustrious character,
And be confident,

That as long as there remains one page of his
voluminous writings,

And as long as Virtue and Science hold their
abode in this Island,

The memory of the illustrious EVELYN
will be held in the highest veneration.

In the Dedication to the English translation of the celebrated Life of Peyresc, by Gassendi, Mr. Evelyn is deservedly styled the English Peyresc; Mr. Evelyn, in the general extent of his knowledge, and in his ardent zeal for the improvement and communication of science and of literature, completely resembling that learned Counsellor of the Parliament of Aix in Provence.

The translation was some time ago presented to a great niece of Mr. Evelyn, a lady of great talents for epistolary writing.

Some races are for talents fam'd,
And parallels display;

England's Peyresc is Evelyn nam'd,
His niece its Sévigné.

ARMS OF THE ISLE OF MAN.

"My signet-my signet-Oh! you mean that with the three monstrous legs, which I suppose was devised as the most preposterous device, to represent our most absurd majesty of Man."- Peveril of the Peak, vol. ii. P. 73. VERBUM SAPIENTI.

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