Volume 5 — Notes.

READINGS IN SHAKSPEARE, NO. II.

I cannot look upon this emendation, although sanctioned by the two latest editors of Shakspeare, as by any means a happy one. The original word in the second quarto, "ease," so nearly resembles "eale" in the first quarto (especially when printed with the old-fashioned long "[s]"); and the subsequent transition from ease to base is so extremely obvious, and at the same time so thoroughly consistent with the sense, that it is difficult to imagine any plausible ground for the rejection of base in favour of ill. Dram was formerly used (as grain is at present) to signify an indefinitely small quantity; so that "the dram of base" presents as intelligible an expression as can be desired.

But in addition to its easy deduction from the original, base possesses other recommendations, in being the natural antagonist of noble in the line following, and in the capability of being understood either in a moral or physical sense.

If the whole passage be understood as merely assertive, then base may have, in common with ill, a moral signification; but if it be understood as a metaphorical allusion to substantial matter, in illustration of the moral reflections that have gone before, then base must be taken (which ill cannot) in the physical sense, as a base substance, and, as such, in still more direct antagonism to the noble substance opposed to it.

In a former paper I had occasion to notice the intimate knowledge possessed by Shakspeare in the arcana of the several arts; and I now recognise, in this passage, a metaphorical allusion to the degradation of gold by the admixture of baser metal. Gold and lead have always been in poetical opposition as types of the noble and the base; and we are assured by metallurgists, that if lead be added to gold, even in the small proportion of one part in two thousand, the whole mass is rendered completely brittle.

The question then is, in what way "the dram of base" affects "all the noble substance?" Shakspeare says it renders it doubtful or suspicious; his commentators make him say that it douts or extinguishes it altogether! And this they do without even the excuse of an originally imperfect word to exercise conjecture upon. The original word is doubt, the amended one dout; and yet the first has been rejected, and the latter adopted, in editions whose peculiar boast it is to have restored, in every practicable instance, the original text.

Now, in my opinion, Shakspeare did not intend doubt in this place, to be a verb at all, but a noun substantive: and it is the more necessary that this point should be discussed, because the amended passage has already crept into our dictionaries as authority for the verb dout; thus giving to a very questionable emendation the weight of an acknowledged text. (Vide Todd's Johnson.)

Any person who takes the amended passage, as quoted at the head of this article, and restores "dout," to its original spelling, will find that the chief hindrance to a perfect meaning consists in the restriction of doth to the value of a mere expletive. Let this restriction be removed, by conferring upon doth the value of an effective verb, and it will be seen that the difficulty no longer remains. The sense then becomes, "the base doth doubt to the noble," i.e. imparts doubt to it, or renders it doubtful. We say, a man's good actions do him credit; why not also, his bad ones do him doubt? One phrase may be less familiar than the other, but they are in strict analogy as well with themselves as with the following example from the Twelfth Night, which is exactly in point:

Hence, since the original word is capable of giving a clear and distinct meaning, there can be no possible excuse for displacing it, even if the word to be substituted were as faultless as it is certainly the reverse.

For not only is dout an apocryphal word, but it is inelegant when placed, as it must be in this instance, in connexion with the expletive doth, being at the same time in itself a verb compounded of do. Neither is the meaning it confers so clear and unobjectionable as to render it desirable; for in what way can a very small quantity be said to dout, or expel, a very large quantity? To justify such an expression, the entire identity of the larger must be extinguished, leaving no part of it to which the scandal mentioned in the third line could apply.

But an examination of the various places wherein scandal is mentioned by Shakspeare, shows that the meaning attached by him to that word was false imputation, or loss of character: therefore, in the contact of the base and the noble, the scandal must apply to the noble substance—a consideration that must not be lost sight of in any attempt to arrive at the true meaning of the whole passage.

So far, I have assumed that "often" (the third substitution in the amended quotation) is the best representative that can be found for the "of a" of the original; and inasmuch as it is confirmed by general consent, and is moreover so redundant, in this place, that its absence or presence scarcely makes any difference in the sense, it is not easily assailable.

The best way, perhaps, to attempt to supplant it is to suggest a better word—one that shall still more closely resemble the original letters in sound and formation, and that shall, in addition, confer upon the sense not a redundant but an effective assistance. Such a word is offer: it is almost identical (in sound at least) with the original, and it materially assists in giving a much clearer application to the last line.

For these reasons, but especially for the last, I adopt offer, as a verb in the infinitive ruled by doth, in the sense of causing or compelling; a sense that must have been in familiar use in Shakspeare's time, or it would not have been introduced into the translation of Scripture.

In this view the meaning of the passage becomes, "The base doth the noble offer doubt, to his own scandal"—that is, causes the noble to excite suspicion, to the injury of its own character.

Examples of do in this sense are very numerous in Spenser; of which one is (F.Q., iii. 2. 34.):

And in Chaucer (Story of Ugolino):

And in Scripture (2 Cor. viii. 1.):

By this reading a very perfect and intelligible meaning is obtained, and that too by the slightest deviation from the original yet proposed.

By throwing the action of offering doubt upon "the noble substance," it becomes the natural reference to "his own scandal" in the third line.

Hamlet is moralising upon the tendency of the "noblest virtues," "be they as pure as grace, as infinite as man may undergo," to take, from "the stamp of one defect," "corruption in the general censure" (a very close definition of scandal); and he illustrates it by the metaphor:

A. E. B.

Leeds.

NATIONAL DEFENCES.

Collet, in his Relics of Literature, has furnished some curious notices of a work on national defences, which perhaps ought to be consulted at the present time, now that this matter is again exciting such general interest among all classes. It was compiled when the gigantic power of France, under Buonaparte, had enabled him to overrun and humble every continental state, and even to threaten Great Britain; and when the spirit of this country was roused to exertion by a sense of the danger, and by the fervour of patriotism. The government of that day neglected no means to keep this spirit alive in the nation; and George III. conceiving the situation of his dominions to resemble, in many respects, that which terminated so fortunately for England in the days of Queen Elizabeth, directed proper researches to be made for ascertaining the principles and preparations adopted at that eventful period. The records of the Tower were accordingly consulted; and a selection of papers, apparently of the greatest consequence, was formed and printed, but not published. This work, which contained 420 pages in octavo, was entitled, A Report of the Arrangements which were made for the Internal Defence of these Kingdoms, when Spain, by its Armada, projected the Invasion and Conquest of England; and Application of the Wise Proceedings of our Ancestors to the Present Crisis of Public Safety. The papers in this work are classed in the order of external alliance, internal defence, military arrangements, and naval equipments. They are preceded by a statement of facts, in the history of Europe, at the period of the Spanish Armada; and a sketch of events, showing the effects of the Queen's measures at home and abroad. As a collection of historical documents, narrating an important event in British history, this work is invaluable; and, as showing the relative strength of this country in population and other resources in the sixteenth century, it is curious and interesting.

J. Y.

NOTES ON HOMER, NO. II. (Continued from Vol. v., p. 100.)

The Wolfian Theory.

The most important consideration concerning Homer is the hypothesis of Wolf, which has been contested so hotly; but before entering on the consideration of this revolution, as it may be called, I shall lay before your readers the following quotation from the introduction of Fauriel to the old Provençal poem, "Histoire de la Croisade contre les Albigeois," in the Collection des Documens Inédits sur l'Histoire de France. He observes:—

"The romances collectively designated by the title of Carlovingian, are, it would seem, the most ancient of all in the Provençal literature. They were not, originally, more than very short and simple poems, popular songs destined to be recited with more or less musical intonation, and susceptible, consequently on their shortness, of preservation without the aid of writing, and simply by oral tradition among the jongleurs, whose profession it was to sing them. Almost insensibly these songs developed themselves, and assumed a complex character; they attained a fixed length, and their re-composition required more invention and more design. In another point of view, they had increased in number in the same ratio as they had acquired greater extent and complexity; and things naturally attained such a position, that it became impossible to chant them from beginning to end by the aid of memory alone, nor could they be preserved any longer without the assistance of a written medium. They might be still occasionally sung in detached portions; but there exists scarcely a doubt, that from that period they began to be read; and it was only necessary to read them, in order to seize and appreciate their contents."[1]

These remarks, though applied to another literature, contain the essentials of the theory developed by Wolf in regard to Homer. Before the time of Wolf, the popularly accepted opinion on this subject was as follows: That Homer, a poet of ancient date, wrote the Iliad and Odyssea in their present form; and that the rhapsodists having corrupted and interpolated the poems, Peisistratos, and Hipparchos, his son, corrected, revised, and restored these poems to their original condition.

Such was the general opinion, when at the end of the seventeenth century doubts began to be thrown upon it, and the question began to be placed in a new light. The critics of the time were Casaubon, Perizon, Bentley, Hédelin, and Perrault, who, more or less, rejected the established opinion. Giambattista Vico made the first attempt to embody their speculations into one methodical work. His Principi di Scienza nuova contain the germ of the theory reproduced by Wolf with so much scholarship. Wolf, founding his theory on the investigations of Vico and Wood, extended or modified their views, and assumed that the poems were never written down at all until the time of Peisistratos, their arranger. In 1778, the famous Venetian Scholia were discovered by Villoison, throwing open to the world the investigations of the Alexandrian critics; and by showing what the ideas of the Chorizontes were (on whom it were madness to write after Mure), strengthening the views of Wolf. In 1795, then, were published his famous Prolegomena, containing the theory—

"That the Iliad and Odyssey were not two complete poems, but small, separate, independent epic songs, celebrating single exploits of the heroes; and that these lays were, for the first time, written down and united as the Iliad and Odyssey by Peisistratus, tyrant of Athens."[2]

The former critics (Hédelin and Perrault) had been overruled, derided, and quashed by the force of public opinion; but Wolf brought so many arguments to support his views,—collected so formidable a mass of authorities, both traditional, internal, and written, that the classical world was obliged to meet him with fresh arguments, as ridicule would not again succeed. Thus arose the formidable Wolfian controversy, which "scotched," though not "killed," the belief of the critical world in Homer. The principal arguments he adduces are from the poems themselves, in his attempt to establish the non-being of writing at the time of their composition.

Thus, in the Odyssea,[3] a master of a vessel has to remember his cargo, not having a list of his goods; in the Iliad,[4] Bellerophon carries a folded tablet containing writing or signs to Prætos in Lycia. This Wolf interprets to signify conventional marks, like the picture writing of the otherwise civilised Mexicans.[5] Again, in the Iliad (VII. 175.), the chiefs are represented as throwing lots in a helmet, and the herald afterwards handing the lots round for recognition, as each of the lots bore a mark known only to the person who made it. From this Wolf argues that writing was unknown at the time, or the herald would have immediately read the names aloud. But do we not even now make use of such marks without confounding them with writing? This is nothing at all; and it must be remembered, firstly, that this does not apply to the Homeric time, but to the period of Troy; secondly, that if it had applied to that time, it would be absurd to expect from illiterate warrior chiefs, education superior to the mediæval crusaders, their counterparts at a later period of the world's progress. These are the principal arguments that Wolf adduces to prove the non-existence of writing at the Homeric period; whereas, far from proving anything, they are self-contradictory and incorrect.

To prove that the Peisistratidæ first wrote down the poems of Homer, he cites Josephus (Orat. contr. Apion., I. 2.), who observes that—

"No writing, the authenticity of which is acknowledged, is found among the Greeks earlier than the poetry of Homer; and, it is said, that even he did not commit his works to writing, but that, having been preserved in the memory of men, the songs were afterwards connected."

Josephus had merely heard this reported, as is evident from his use of the words "it is said." Pausanias, in the Tour in Greece (vii. 26. 6.), has the following observation:—

"A village called Donussa, between Ægira and Pellene, belonging to the Sicyonians, was destroyed by that people. Homer, say they, remembered this town in his epic, in the enumeration of the people of Agamemnon, 'Hyperesia then, and Donoessa, rocky town' (Ιλ. β. 573.); but when Peisistratos collected the torn and widely scattered songs of Homer, either he himself, or one of his friends, altered the name through ignorance."

Wolf also makes use of this report, liable to the same objections as the above, as one of his proofs. It is even doubtful whether Peisistratos did edit Homer at all; but, under any circumstances, it was not the first edition;[6] for is not Solon represented as the reviser of the Homeric poems?

Cicero (de Oratore, III. 34.) says:

"Who is traditionally reported to have had more learning at that time, or whose eloquence received greater ornaments from polite literature than that of Peisistratos? who is said to have been the first that arranged the books of Homer, from their confused state, into that order in which we at present enjoy them."

This also is produced as a proof by Wolf, though, for the same reason, it is doubtful. But see Wolf's principal inaccuracies ably enumerated and exposed by Clinton (F.H., i. p. 370.).

Such is the far-famed theory of Wolf, which, as most modern scholars agree, is only calculated "to conduct us to most preposterous conclusions."[7] And this last dictum of Othello's, Mr. Editor, reminds me, that here it would not be preposterous to come to a conclusion for the present, and to close my observations in another paper, where I shall a theory "unfold," which, after the most patient consideration and reconsideration, I am inclined to think the most approximative to the truth.

KENNETH R. H. MACKENZIE.

Feb. 16. 1852.

FOLK LORE.

Fernseed.

—I find in Dr. Jackson's works allusions to a superstition which may interest some of your readers:

"It was my hap," he writes, "since I undertook the ministery, to question an ignorant soul (whom by undoubted report I had known to have been seduced by a teacher of unhallowed arts, to make a dangerous experiment) what he saw or heard, when he watcht the falling of the Fernseed at an unseasonable and suspicious hour. Why (quoth he), fearing (as his brief reply occasioned me to conjecture) lest I should press him to tell before company, what he had voluntarily confessed unto a friend in secret some fourteen years before, do you think that the devil hath aught to do with that good seed? No; it is in the keeping of the king of Fayries, and he, I know, will do me no harm, although I should watch it again; yet had he utterly forgotten this king's name, upon whose kindness he so presumed, until I remembered it unto him out of my reading in Huon of Burdeaux.

"And having made this answer, he began to pose me thus; Sr, you are a scholar, abut I am none: Tell me what said the angel to our Lady? or what conference had our Lady with her cousin Elizabeth concerning the birth of St. John the Baptist?

"As if his intention had been to make bystanders believe that he knew somewhat more on this point than was written in such books as I use to read.

"Howbeit the meaning of his riddle I quickly conceived, and he confessed to be this; that the angel did foretell John Baptist should be born at that very instant, in which the Fernseed, at other times invisible, did fall: intimating further (as far as I could then perceive) that this saint of God had some extraordinary vertue from the time or circumstance of his birth."

Jackson's Works, book v. cap. xix. 8. vol. i. p. 916. Lond. 1673, fol.

In the sixth and seventh sections of the same chapter and book I find allusions to a maiden over whom Satan had no power "so long as she had vervine and St. John's grass about her;" to the danger of "robbing a swallow's nest built in a fire-house;" and to the virtues of "south-running water." Delrius also is referred to as having collected many similar instances.

I have not access to Delrius, nor yet to Huon of Burdeaux, and so am compelled deeply to regret that the good doctor did not leave on record the name of the "king of the Fayries."[8]

RT.

Cornish Folk Lore.

—A recent old cottage tenant at Poliphant, near Launceston, when asked why he allowed a hole in the wall of his house to remain unrepaired, answered that he would not have it stopped up on any account, as he left it on purpose for the piskies (Cornish for pixies) to come in and out as they had done for many years. This is only a sample of the current belief and action.

S. R. P.

DICTIONARY OF ARCHAIC AND PROVINCIAL WORDS.

Will you allow me to suggest that, under the above, or some such heading, "N. & Q." should receive any words not to be found in any well-known dictionary; such, for instance, as Halliwell's or Webster's, which do not by any means contain all the words belonging to the class of which they profess to be the repositories. You may also invite barristers, reporters, professional men generally, and others, to send such waifs of this description as they meet with. "N. & Q." will then soon become in this department of literature, as it is already in many others, a rich mine from which future authors will draw precious store of knowledge. I will begin by giving one or two examples.

Earth-burn. An intermittent land-spring, which may not show itself for several years. There is such a spring, and so named, near to Epsom.

Lavant. A land-spring, according to Halliwell. But this also is an intermittent spring. The word is probably from lava, to flow.

Pick. (Lancashire.) To push with the hand. "I gen her a pick;" that is, "I pushed her from me;" or, "I gave her a violent push forward."

Pick is also the instrument colliers get coals with; or an excavator gets earth with; or a stonemason uses to take the "rough" off a stone. He may also finish the face of ashlar by "fine-picking" it.

Gen. (Lancashire.) A contraction of the word gave.

ROBERT RAWLINSON.

P.S.—I have seen, in a court of justice in Lancashire, judge and counsel fairly set fast with a broad spoken county person; and many of the words in common use are not to be found in any dictionary or glossary. Again, I have spoken to reporters as to technical words used at such meetings, for instance, as those of the mechanical engineers in Birmingham, and I have been informed that they are frequently bewildered and surprised at the numbers of words in use having the same meaning, but which are not to be found in any dictionary. It would be of the utmost value to seize and fix these words.

R. R.

[The proposal of our correspondent jumps so completely with the object of "N. & Q.," as announced in our original Prospectus, that we not only insert it, but hope that his invitation will be responded to by all who meet with archaisms either in their reading or in their intercourse with natives of those various districts of England which are richest in provincialisms.—ED.]

THE LAST OF THE PALÆOLOGI.

In Chambers' Edinburgh Journal, vol. xvii. p. 24., there is a very interesting article, bearing the above heading, in which it is shown that Theodore Palæologus, the fourth in direct descent from Thomas, the younger brother of Constantine, the last Christian Emperor of Greece, lies buried in the church of Landulph in Cornwall. This Theodore married Mary, the daughter of William Balls, of Hadley in Suffolk, gentleman; by whom he had issue five children, Theodore, John, Ferdinando, Maria, and Dorothy. Theodore, the first son, died in or about 1693, without issue. Of John and Ferdinando there is no trace in this country. Maria died unmarried; and Dorothy was married at Landulph to William Arundell in 1636, and died in 1681.

Ferdinando Palæologus appears to have died in the island of Barbadoes in 1678, and was buried in the church of St. John.

These researches are extremely interesting, and it is only to be regretted that they are not more frequently made and left on record. Allow me to suggest that such of your readers as have time, inclination, and opportunity for making inquiries of this nature, should, through the medium of "N. & Q.," place on record any striking illustrations similar to the above. Your own publication, Vol. iii., p. 350., contains a list of names of the poor of St. Albans, several of which are borne still by noble families. Possibly there may be still existing descendants of the Dorothy Palæologus who married William Arundell at Landulph.

To mention another instance: I believe there now lives at Rugby a member of the legal profession, who is directly descended from one of the most renowned Polish families. Particulars of this case, if furnished by or with the consent of the head of the family, would, I have no doubt, prove exceedingly interesting.

L. L. L.

THE LAST LAY OF PETRARCH'S CAT.

In the year 1820 I saw the following Latin verse inscribed under the skeleton of a cat in one of the rooms of Petrarch's favourite villa at Arqua, near Padua. If you choose to print them, with or without the accompanying English version, they are at your service:—

J. O. B.

Minor Notes.

Sobriquet.

—As this word is now pretty generally adopted in our language, I send you this Note to say that the word is not soubriquet, as some of your correspondents write it, but sobriquet; the former being what the French term a locution vicieuse, and only used by the illiterate. Ménage derives the word from rubridiculum.

PHILIP S. KING.

Origin of Paper.

—Whether a product is indigenous or foreign may generally be determined by the rule in linguistics, that similarity of name in different languages denotes foreign extraction, and variety of name indigenous production. The dog, whose name is different in most languages, shows that he is indigenous to most countries. The cat, on the contrary, having almost the same name in many languages, is therefore of foreign extraction in nearly all countries. The word paper is common to many tongues, the moderns having adopted it from the Greek; in which language, however, the root of the word is not significant. In Coptic (ai GUPTIC) the word bavir means a plant suitable for weaving: and is derived from the Egyptian roots ba, fit, proper; and vir, to weave. The art of paper-making may therefore be inferred to be the invention of the Egyptians; and further, that paper was made by them as by us, from materials previously woven. This inference would be either confirmatory or corrective of history, in case the history were doubtful, which it is not.

T. J. B.

Lichfield.

Persistency of Proper Names.

—The village of Boscastle, originally founded by the Norman Botreaux, still contains, amongst other French names, the following:—Moise, Amy, Benoke, Gard, Avery (Query, Yvery),—all old family names; and places still called Palais, Jardin, and a brook called Valency.

S. R. P.

Launceston.

Cheap Maps.

—This is the age of cheap maps and atlases, yet the public is miserably supplied. We have maps advertised from 1d. to 5s., and atlases from 10s. 6d. to 10 guineas. Yet they are generally impressions from old plates, or copies of old plates, with a few places of later notoriety marked, without taking the entire chart from the latest books of voyages and travels. Look at the maps of Affghanistan, Scinde, Indian Isles, American Isthmus, &c.

On inquiry at all our shops here for a moderately priced map of the new railway across South America to Panama, and for maps of California and Borneo, not one could be got.

Have any of your chart-wrights in London got up such maps for youth and emigrants? If not, let them take the hint now given by

PATERFAMILIÆ.

Edinburgh.