September 1586, when Recorder Fleetwood wrote to Burghley that the apprentices had conspired an insurrection against the French and Dutch, but especially the French, "all things as like unto yll May day as could be devised, in all manner of circumstances, mutatis mutandis." (Wright's Elizabeth, vol. ii. p. 308.) That the play came before the censor during the heat of this feeling is proved by his marginal notes. First he writes against the first scene:

"Leave out the insurrection wholly, and the cause thereof, and begin with Sir Thomas More at the Mayor's sessions, with a report afterwards of his good service done, being sheriff of London, upon a mutiny against the Lombards, only by a short report, and not otherwise, at your own perils."

Similarly, at p. 14, he orders the players to mend a reference to the frowning brow of the displeased commons of the city. In the next page, where a foreigner defies any "English," the censor substitutes "man." At p. 16, in defiance of history, he changes "stranger" and "Frenchman" into "Lombard." For this reason the play seems to belong to the last months of 1586, or the early part of 1587. This chronological whereabouts is confirmed by the name of the actor at p. 53-T. Goodale, who is known to have acted with Burbage in Tarlton's Seven Deadly Sins in or before 1588; and by the reference to Ogle as theatrical property-maker at p. 59. Ogle is known to have been so in 1584.

Tyllney directed the players to leave out the insurrection wholly, at their own perils, and only to report the good service of Sheriff More. The actors, at their perils, seem to have retained the insurrection, as the very raison d'être of the play, and to have determined that More's speech to the insurgents was a sufficient balance, or "cooling card for any political excitement which the representation of the mutiny might favour. This speech of More's has in it much internal evidence of being the work of Shakespeare. The same may be said of another soliloquy of More's at p. 39, and of two comic scenes with Fawkner, a ruffian, at pp. 42 and 50. From More's speech to the insurgents I will quote a specimen. He has asked them what they want, and has been told "the removing of the strangers." He replies (p. 27): "Grant them removed, and grant that this your noise Hath chid down all the majesty of England; Imagine that you see the wretched strangers, Their babies at their backs, and their poor luggage, Plodding to th' ports and coasts for transportation, And that you sit as kings in your desires, Authority quite silenced by your brawl, And you in ruff of your opinions clothed, What had you got? I'll tell you: you had taught How insolence and strong hand should prevail, How order should be quelled; and by this pattern Not one of you should live an aged man; For other ruffians, as their fancies wrought,

That I from such an humble bench of birth
Should step as 'twere up to my country's head,
And give the law out there! I, in my father's life
To take prerogative and tythe of knees
From elder kinsmen, and him bind by my place
To give the smooth and dexter way to me
That owe it him by nature! Sure these things,
Not physicked by respect, might turn our blood
To much corruption: but More, the more thou hast,
Either of honour, office, wealth, and calling,
Which might accite thee to embrace and hug them,
The more do thou in serpent natures think them,
Fear their gay skins with thought of their sharp state."
&c.

Thirdly, the whole of the comic business with It is humorous and Fawkner should be read. natural to a degree unattained by any known predecessor of Shakespeare, and much more like the youthful freedom of the subsequent creator of Falstaff and Sir Toby than the comic business in such plays as the Comedy of Errors or Love's Labour's Lost. A portion may be given, as a brick out of an architectural building for a speci

men:

"More. How long have you worn this hair?

"Fawk. I have worn this hair ever since I was born. "More. You know that's not my question, but how long

Hath this shag fleece hung dangling on thy head?
"Fawk. How long, my lord? why sometimes thus
long,

Sometimes lower, as the Fates and humours please.
"More. So quick, sir, with me, ha? I see, good fellow,
Thou lov'st plain dealing. Sirra, tell me now
When were you last at barber's? How long time
Have you upon your head worn this shag hair?

"Fawk. My lord, Jack Fawkner tells no Æsop's fables; troth, I was not at barber's this three years: I have not been cut, nor will not be cut, upon a foolish vow, which, as the Destinies shall direct, I am sworn to keep.

"More. When comes that vow out?
"Fawk. Why, when the humour's purged-not these
three years.

"More. Vows are recorded in the court of heaven,
For they are holy acts. Young man, I charge thee
And do advise thee, start not from that vow:
And, for I will be sure thou shalt not shreve,*
Besides, because it is an odious sight
To see a man thus hairy, thou shalt lie
In Newgate till thy vow and thy three years
Be full expired.-Away with him."

This poetry, it must be remembered, is of the same date as Marlowe's Tamburlain, and only two or three years later than Peele's Arraignment of Paris. Shakespeare in his twenty-third year must have been capable of the effort, and that he was a dramatic author thus early I think I have sufficiently proved in an article in the North British Review for July 1870, in which I showed that the date of the Comedy of Errors must be between April 1585 and April 1589, and is probably Christmas 1585 or the subsequent January. I will not say more of the internal probability of the play, or these parts of it, being Shakespeare's, but I will now refer to the state of the MS.

The MS. consists-(1) of the official copy of "the book of Sir Thomas More," as submitted to the censor, with his marginal observations; (2) of insertions and additions written on a different paper, and in three scriveners' handwritings all different from that of the original copy, and also differing among themselves.

The first addition is a long fragment printed by Mr. Dyce in a note at p. 81. It is very much in the style of the bulk of the play, and was probably made by the original author, who was anxious to make an alteration, but not having his MS. before him, failed to make it fit in with the

rest.

The second set of additions is the scene

(pp. 19-22) beginning and ending with speeches of the Clown. This is in a more cursive handwriting than the other two. In the same hand there is also a scene at p. 68, beginning "Where be these players?

The third series of additions is still in another handwriting, and contains precisely those scenes which on internal grounds I attribute to Shakespeare. The series consists of two scenes or series of scenes. The first begins at p. 22, with the entry of Sir John Munday, and finishes at the end of p. 29. It contains More's masterly address to the insurgents. The second begins at p. 39, and ends at the top of p. 53, including the passage given in note 1 of the same page, which proves that the part of the Messenger was taken by T. Goodale. This series of additions contains the soliloquy of More quoted above, and the two scenes with Fawkner. The intermediate portion,

Perhaps swerve, unless it means shrive, in order to obtain absolution from the vow.

the scene with Randall and Erasmus, is weaker, but then it is little more than a transcription of the older matter. Both the old and the new copies of the comic scenes with Fawkner may in great part be consulted, and we may see how masterly were the alterations which changed a poor morsel of buffoonery into a true piece of comic humour.

Now one remarkable thing about these additions is that, being apparently the work of three the contributions of the botching poets had been persons, they are also in three handwritings. If given to the theatrical copyist, they would have appeared in one and the same handwriting. Being of the three authors. Hence, whatever probabiin three hands, the MS. is probably in the hands lity there is that the poetry of the scenes in question is Shakespeare's, there is almost the same amount of probability that the MS. of those scenes is in his handwriting.

the handwriting to militate against this supposiThere is nothing whatever in the character of tion. The way in which the letters are formed is absolutely the same as the way in which they But, as his handwriting was of so ordinary a are formed in the signatures of Shakespeare. type, this general similarity is in itself quite insufficient for identification. The argument for or against must depend mainly on the critical question-are these scenes, or are they not, probably affirmative is about equal to the internal evidence Shakespeare's? The internal evidence for the which would lead us to assign the second act of Edward III., or the first act of The Two Noble Kinsmen, or the fourth and fifth acts of Pericles to flavour, which only a critical taste can thoroughly the great poet. It depends on the Shakespearian discriminate; but as several of the best Shakespearian critics, especially those of Germany, have no hesitation in assigning these pieces to Shakespeare, so it seems to me we need not fear to of "Sir Thomas More" are from Shakespeare's affirm the probability-first, that the special scenes head, and secondly, that the manuscript of them is

from his hand.

RICHARD SIMPSON.

MEMORANDA ON JUNIUS.

1. Where is the remainder of the letter on

Gibraltar signed "Vindex" (letter xc. of Wocdfall's edition), and why was it considered a breach of confidence to print it, considering that the publication of the previous letters was itself a much greater breach of confidence?

2. In Sir P. Francis' copy of Belsham's History of England, at the passage describing the proceedings which arose from the Middlesex election, occurs the following MS. note (quoted in Bohn's Junius, ii. lxii.) :—

"I wrote this speech for Lord Mansfield as well as all those of Lord Chatham on the Middlesex election.-P. F." What is the exact meaning to be attached to this? Mr. Wade appears to think that they were written for Lord Chatham to deliver, and not simply reported. Or does it mean that he composed them as Dr. Johnson wrote the Parliamentary Debates, which it is well known were almost entirely ideal?

3. Who is the "modern French author" from whom the passage in Valentinian is quoted in letter xcix., signed "An Innocent Reader"?

4. What does the following passage in Byron's journal refer to (Works, ii. 269, ed. 1832) ?—

"Holland doesn't think the man is Junius, but that the yet unpublished journal throws great light on the obscurities of that part of George II.'s reign. What is this to George III.'s? I don't know what to think. Why should Junius be yet dead," &c.

5. I have not seen quoted by any of the Franciscans the able memoir of Francis in the Annual Biography and Obituary (1820). Amongst much that is interesting occurs the following:-"The writer of this article was honoured with a last visit from Sir P. Francis on the 23rd of December, 1817," then, it will be remembered, worn down by infirmities and tottering upon the brink of the grave.

"The conversation was miscellaneous, and proved highly interesting, for care was taken that he should both lead and select the subjects. Of these Junius, that fertile theme for investigation, occupied a distinguished rank. He ridiculed the idea of his being the author; he had already written on that subject until he was tired-would write no more letters-answer no more questions relative to it. If mankind are so obstinate as not to believe what I have already said, I am not fool enough to humble myself any more with denials-I have done.""

This was Francis' usual way of playing with the question, but we cannot prevent a suspicion that this would not be the course adopted by Junius.

Francis himself could be outspoken enough at times about political tergiversation. Writing in his Historical Questions (1818) of the Earl of Strafford, once a democrat "before he basely sold himself and his name and all his descendants to Charles," he asks

"Now does any one who bears the name of Wentworth wish to have it proved that he is legitimately descended from that felon ? On delicate questions tastes may differ. For my part I would rather be known for the spurious issue of a highwayman, ditch-delivered of a drab."

Rather strong this if he were Junius; for if poor Wentworth was vile, what was Francis? C. ELLIOT BROWNE.

THE USE OF WHALES' RIBS.—I recollect seeing many years ago in the neighbourhood of Haarlem whales' ribs set upright in the ground, to enable the cattle to rub their sides against them instead of injuring the trees or fences. I was once struck with the same in a large park between Ingatestone and Chelmsford, Essex. The owner was a Dutch gentleman, who had introduced this sensible idea into England (at least I had met with it nowhere but in Holland before). I know not whether it still obtains.

P. A. L.

SWISS FOLK LORE.-When any one sneezes during a frost the Swiss say "God bless you, it's going to thaw." Is the idea peculiar to Helvetia ? and may it not be founded on fact? The moist atmosphere that precedes a thaw is often the forerunner of a cold, which commences by sneezing.

In Switzerland it is considered unlucky to introduce mayflowers (thorn blossoms) into a house, and the hawthorn bush is excluded from many gardens and shrubberies. I never met with such an idea in England, and more's the pity, for our hawthorn hedges stand in need of such an evil reputation; it would protect them from the marauders who make such havoc at this season. STEPHEN JACKSON.

CENTENARIANISM: A MAN 125!-The following note is merely gossip. Being in Holywood, co. Down, in this present month of June, '71, and looking over the churchyard wall, I was invited by an old man, who had the keys of the gate, to come in. My guide seemed very willing to do the honours of the place, so I asked him to point me out the "oldest gravestone." He understood my question in a different spirit to that in which it was put, and conducted me to a monument, on which I read that a Mr. Bryson and his daughter Anne, aged respectively 103 and 106 years, were there interred.

"That is the oldest stone in the

burying-ground," said my guide, although the dates told quite otherwise. He then told me the following wonderful instance:-"I made a visit a short time ago to my own part of the country near Ballynahinch (co. Down), and met an old man, a carpenter, whom I had known long ago, and asked him how long was his father dead. He told me that his father was still living, and was 125 years old, and that this was owing to his having married a second time when very old. His friends all thought this a very rash proceeding, but it was in reality what kept him alive, as his wife fed him carefully; and whenever he cried out or mourned, she took him up, laid him on her knee, and whished him like a child, and when he was quieted, put him back to bed." W. H. P. Belfast.

Deritend is Der-yat-end, the end of Birmingham near the Deer-gate-that is, near to the common way into the woodlands of Aston. Is it not more likely that the first syllable is derived from the British word Dur or Dour, water, making the whole name Water-gate-end rather than Deergate-end? The river Rea crosses Deritend, and would seem to supply the reason for the suggested prefix. There is a street at Northampton called Dern-gate, which was formerly terminated by a gate leading to the river Nene, and which has always been understood as having been the Watergate. In mediæval times the British word became Latinised under the forms of Doura and Douva, which the glossaries expound as "Fossa, locus ubi est aqua stagnans." The Rea, within its present banks, is not a sluggish stream, and the slopes to it at this particular spot are not indicative of a marsh. But the Nene, before its banks were artificially raised, must have widely spread its waters at certain seasons, and left something very like a marsh when they had subsided. The British word, however, is not limited by the meaning implied by the glossaries, but includes waters of all kinds-to streams leaping over rocky beds as well as to calm flowing rivers.

G. J. DE WILDE. EDWARD FAIRFAX AND TASSO.-Sir Walter Scott, in his Letters on Demonology and Witchcraft, refers to the prosecutions under the statute of James I. against witchcraft, and adds: "One of the most remarkable was (proh pudor!) in

-

stigated by a gentleman, a scholar of classical taste, and a beautiful poet, being no other than Edward Fairfax of Fuyieston, in Knaresborough Forest, the translator of Tasso's Jerusalem Delivered. In allusion to his credulity on such subjects, Collins has introduced the following elegant lines:

'How have I sate while piped the pensive wind, To hear thy harp by British Fairfax strung; Prevailing poet, whose undoubting mind

Believed the magic wonders which he sung!"" The publishers of Sir Walter Scott's works, Messrs. Adam and Charles Black, have just issued a new edition of the Demonology, and to the above passage a foot-note is appended as follows:

"The lines of Collins apply to Tasso, not to his translator, though the mistake into which Sir Walter fell is a very common one."

Now, which is right, Sir Walter or his anonymous annotator? I subjoin the whole of the stanza, though rather long, from Collins's "Ode on the Popular Superstitions of the Highlands of Scotland":

"In scenes like these, which, daring to depart

From sober truth, are still to nature true,
And call forth fresh delight to fancy's view,
The heroic Muse employed her Tasso's art!
How have I trembled, when at Tancred's stroke,
In gushing blood the gaping cypress poured!
When each live plant with mortal accents spoke,

And the wild blast upheaved the vanished sword!

I

SWALLOWS FORMERLY USED IN PHYSIC. lately came across the following quaint receipt in an old work entitled "A Book of Knowledge. Printed for Thomas Passinger at the Three Bibles on London Bridge, 1687." It professes to be a remedy for "the sinews that are shrunk in the thighe or elsewhere," and runs as follows:

"Take young swallows out of their nests, by number twelve, rosemary-tops, bay-leaves, lavender-tops, strawberry-leaves, of each a handful; cut off the long feathers of the swallows' wings and tails, put them into a stone to pieces, guts, feathers, bones, and all; then mix them morter, and lay the herbs upon them, and beat them all with three pounds of hog's grease, and set it in the sun a month together; then boil it up and strain it, and keep the ointment; anoint the place grieved, and with God's blessing it will do much good."

Cotes Magna, Lincolnshire.

JOHN CORDEAUX.

CURIOUS ADDRESSES ON LETTERS.-In Kreuszler's Denkmäler der Reformation I find a singular instance of this. Luther, writing to his wife, does not give her the title "Domina," which was usual in those days for women of standing in Latin, but "Dominus"; not "seine Herrin," but "seinen Herrn." Thus:

"Meinem freundlichen lieben Herrn Katharina Lutherin, Doctorin und Predigerin zu Wittenberg."

At the present time, where letters pass through the hands of many post-office agents, those of Rouen must have smiled on reading one now before me, addressed by the comic actor Le Peintre Jeune to a playmate of his

"A Monsieur, Monsieur X.,
Jeune homme très-aimable,

Rouen."
P. A. L.

QUIVER INSCRIPTION.-The following motto is inscribed on a brass plate let into a quiver or sheath for holding twelve arrows:—

"Into bull's eye is my intent,
When string is rached,* and bow is bent.
"JOHN SAXON, 1831."
JOHN HIGSON.

Lees, near Oldham.

ARGYLLSHIRE FOLK LORE.-I have the following superstitions from Cowal, Argyllshire:-An unusually large child at birth has its first shirt * Rached, so spelled.

put on inside out, otherwise it will never thrive. An open knife held between the teeth, with the edge outwards, has power to charm away ghosts, such as marsh-lights, &c. Fishermen in the kyles will on no account give a light out of their boat while at sea. It is also unlucky to give a light of any kind out of a house on New Year's Day. W. F. (2.) EIGHTH.-This word is rather remarkable and yet has not, that I know of, been remarked. According to the analogy of four-th, six-th, seven-th, &c., it ought to be spelled eight-th with two t's, and it is so pronounced; yet it is now always written eighth, which-if the spelling be had regard to it is difficult to pronounce otherwise than aith (as in faith) or ait-h (see note t). The loss of the t is, however, of no recent date. In Wycliffe's Bible (Forshall & Madden, Oxford, 1850) I find both eigtthe and eigthe, but more often eigthe." There is, however, a third, but I think far less frequent form, eigte or eigt †, in which the mutilation has gone a step farther; and this form ‡, singularly enough, seems to have prevailed, almost to the exclusion of the other two §, with Wycliffe's successors until about A.D. 1629 ||, when the present form, eighth, seems to have come into universal use: F. CHANCE.

Sydenham Hill.

"CHALK FOR CHEESE."-In Nicholas Grimald's translation of Marcus Tullius Cicero's

"Three bookes of dueties to Marcus his sonne, turned out of latine, &c., imprinted at London in Flete Strete within Temple Barre, at the signe of the hand and starre, by Rycharde Tottel, 1568,"

and on third page of the preface, N. G. to the reader, occurs the following:

"And wanting the right rule, they take chalke for cheese, as the sainge is."

Those making notes of early proverbial phrases may be glad of this notice. F. W. C. Clapham Park, S.W.

DR. GARTH ON REVOLUTIONS.-Some while before the demise of Queen Anne, Doctor (Dispensary) Garth composed the dedication-in Latin, his majesty in posse not understanding our vernacular

often appears instead of the i, and always instead of 9, but for the sake of uniformity I have written i and g only.

The form eigte is readily accounted for, if we consider the t dropped in eigthe to be the second (i. e. the t belonging to the th in eigtthe)-for eigthe would then be pronounced eigt-he, and as the h would then be scarcely, if at all, heard, it would naturally soon be dropped. With the addition of an h after the g.

I do not find the two t's after the time of Wycliffe. Thus for some two hundred years the cardinal and ordinal numbers, eight and eighth, seem to have been both written alike (viz. eyght or eight), and can only have been distinguished by the context. Were they also pronounced alike? This, to judge from our pronunciation of eighthso different from the spelling-seems doubtful.

of an intended version of Lucretius. It contained an illustration of the periodicity of revolution, which may in these continentally ticklish times be worthy a corner of " N. & Q." :—

"Voluntas principum est aliquando pro legibus. Tu illis solutum nolles; sed salubriter latæ sive utiliter emendatæ tibi præcipue arrident; et tales constituis, quibus tui pareant, et quas ipse etiam serves; si quid imperant, imperas ; si quid vetant, vetas; inde tibi cautum est, hoc ne agas, illud ut exequaris.. Non desunt Principes, qui vix quicquam, si dominationi conducant, turpe existimant; quicquid æquum est averimprobantque, non prout ratio postulat, sed quem admosantur, quicquid iniquum, gratum habent; et probant dum hortatur ambitio."-Gallicè, Coups d'État.

E. L. S.

ROYAL DEATHS FROM SMALLPOX.-The following from the British Medical Journal is worth preserving in the columns of "N. & Q.” :—

"By way of impressing the ravages of smallpox in the pre-Jennerian period on people's minds in a manner more picturesque than that of ordinary statistics, Dr. John Gairdner selects the history of a few royal houses. Thus, of the descendants of Charles I. of Great Britain, he finds that of his 42 lineal descendants up to the date 1712 five were killed outright by smallpoxviz. his son Henry, Duke of Gloucester, and his daughter Mary, wife of the Prince of Orange and mother of William III.; and three of the children of James II.-viz. Charles, Duke of Cambridge, in 1677; Mary, Queen of England and wife of William III., in 1694; and the Princess Maria Louisa in April, 1712. This does not include, of course, severe attacks not fatal, such as those from which both Queen Anne and William III. suffered. Of the immediate descendants of his contemporary, Louis XIV. of France (who himself survived a severe attack of smallpox), five also died of it in the interval between 1711 and 1774-viz. his son Louis, the Dauphin of France, in April of 1711; Louis, Duke of Burgundy, son of the preceding, and also Dauphin, and the Dauphiness his wife, in 1712; their son, the Duc de Bretagne, and Louis XV., the greatgrandson of Louis XIV. Among other royal deaths from smallpox in the same period were those of Joseph I.. Emperor of Germany, in 1711; Peter II., Emperor of Russia, in 1730; Henry, Prince of Prussia, 1767; Maximilian Joseph, Elector of Bavaria, December 30, 1777." H. F. T.

Queries.