Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/428

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. i. APRIL so,

Walmer Road, W., and most probably it was in that house that he breathed his last. With reference to the funeral, the clergyman to whom I have alluded stated that he thought it was probably extremely plain, and that he had little doubt the ceremony was performed by the chaplain of the cemetery. Neither in the Times nor in the Illustrated London News, which in those days made a feature of such information, have I been able to discover any account of the funeral. I remember that a portrait of the deceased prelate appeared in one of the illustrated papers of the day, and think it was in the Illustrated Times, since incorporated with the latter of the papers mentioned above.

W. E. HARLAND-OXLEY. C2, The Almshouses, Rochester Row, S.W.

" BELLAMY'S " (10 th S. i. 169). There is an account of our own House of Commons " Bellamy's " in ' Old and New London.'

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

SHAKESPEARE'S GRAVE (10 th S. i. 288, 331). At the last reference Shakespeare's monu- ment is said to be " five feet from the floor." Is this a correct measurement 1 Surely it is much higher. HARRIETT M'!LQUHAM.

In my reply to MR. I. H. PLATT an obvious error occurs. Whether I am to blame, or the printer, I cannot say ; but I meant to write "within the seven years succeeding Shake- speare's death," not "preceding" it, which, of course, makes all the difference.

CHAS. F. FORSHAW, LL.D.

Bradford.

[Our correspondent clearly wrote "preceding," which puzzled us a good deal.]

EASTER DAY BY THE JULIAN RECKONING (10* S. i. 324). May I point out a slight mistake in the note on the above subject ? The Sunday letters for this year are C, B, not D > C. C. S. H.

FLAYING ALIVE (9 th S. xii. 429, 489: J0 S. i. 15, 73, 155). -In the Library of Trinity College, Cambridge, is, or was, a piece of the skin of a man hanged for killing his wife, perhaps four inches square and a six- teenth of an inch in thickness, resembling in texture a fine kid glove. In the same case was a lock of Sir Isaac Newton's hair, and the hair will last long after the body has mouldered into dust.

Readers of Dickens may remember that in the Pickwick Papers ' Mr. Dowler, who is really a great coward, spoke of the rules of the service imperatively requiring that he should fulfil his promise of skinning his

adversary. "Did you skin him, sir?" said Mr. Winkle, faintly.

There is the ancient legend of Apollo having flayed Marsyas alive for his presump- tion in challenging the god to a musical contest, and in the ' Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography ' the story is narrated _at length. It seems to have formed a favourite subject with sculptors and writers of anti- quity. P. S. (Philip Smith, B.A.), the writer of the article ' Marsyas,' observes :

"In the fora of ancient cities there was fre- quently placed a statue of Marsyas with one hand erect, in token, according to Servius, of the freedom of the state, since Marsyas was a minister of Bacchus, the god of liberty (Serv. in ' ^En.' iv. 528). It seems more likely that the statue, standing in the place where justice was administered, was intended to hold forth an example of the severe punishment of arrogant presumption."

The circumstance is alluded to by Juvenal, ' Sat.' ix. 2, and Horace, 'Sat.' i. 6, 120. I once saw a gruesome engraving of it, representing Marsyas tied to a tree, head downward, whilst Apollo was stripping off his skin.

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

MARLBOROUGH AND SHAKESPEARE (10 th S. i. 127, 177, 256, 292). On 18 November, 1748, Chesterfield gives his son an account of the career and character of Marlborough, in which he says, "He [Marlborough] was eminently illiterate ; wrote bad English, and spelled it still worse." But Chesterfield writes of Marlborough with almost open enmity, and perhaps exaggerates a few slips that were pardonable before the days of Murray and Mavor. M. N. G.

At the last reference MR. YARDLEY is nob quite accurate regarding Pepys's references to Shakespeare's plays in his ' Diary.' Pepys mentions eleven of the plays, the three omitted by MR. YARDLEY being 'Twelfth Night,' 'Taming of the Shrew,' and ' Henry VIII.' So far from making no remark on 'Hamlet,' 'Romeo and Juliet,' and ' Henry IV.,' he saw the first-named several times, and the following is but one of many similar remarks on it :

" Saw ' Hamlet, Prince of Denmark,' done with scenes very well, and mightily pleased with it, but above all with Betterton, the best part, I believe, that ever man acted."

Of ' Romeo and Juliet ' he says :

"Saw ' Romeo and Juliet ' but it is a play of

itself the worst that ever I saw in my life, and the worst acted that ever I saw these people do."

The first time he saw 'Henry IV.' he writes :

" Bought the play of 'Henry IV.,' and so went to the theatre and saw it acted, but my expectation