Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/299

 10 S. XL MAK. 27, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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' MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR,' I. iii. 49 : " SHE CARVES." In this scene Falstaff says of Mrs. Ford : "I spy entertainment in her ; she discourses, she carves, she gives the leer of invitation." What is the ex- planation of " she carves " ? Nares's ' Glossary ' does not help. Steevens's note is that anciently the young of both sexes were taught carving, as a necessary accom- plishment an explanation which, it seems to me, explains nothing. T. M. W.

[The ' N.E.D.' quotes these words under the thirteenth sense of carve, sb., and with regard to meaning states : " Schmidt suggests ' To show great courtesy and affability ' " of speech. The only other quotation is from ' Love's Labour's Lost,' V. ii. 323-4 :

He can carue too, and lispe : Why this is he That kist away his hand in courtesie.]

JULIUS CESAR'S DEAFNESS. Shakespeare makes Julius Caesar deaf in the left ear. To Mark Anthony Caesar says : " Come on my right hand, for this ear is deaf " ; and his attacks of epilepsy are also noted in the play : " He hath the falling sickness."

It is possible that attacks of giddiness associated with Meniere's disease of the ear may have been mistaken for epilepsy. The Romans were familiar enough with epilepsy, which they called " morbus comitialis,' from the attacks witnessed in the Forum or Senate House which broke up the assembly ; but it is unlikely that aural vertigo was under- stood at that time.

The source of Shakespeare's information as to the deafness I have not been able to find. ' Julius Caesar ' follows Plutarch's life so closely that I expected to find it there. Perhaps Suetonius, or other historian, may make some reference to this infirmity.

There can be little doubt that Jonathan Swift suffered from aural vertigo, and with the help of Sir W. R. Wilde and Dr. Bucknill we probably know more now about Swift's maladies than did his contemporaries.

Some guesses at truth might be made in the case of the disorders of so great a man as Julius Caesar if only all references could be considered and compared.

GEORGE WHERRY.

Cambridge.

' KING LEAR.' It is a bold assertion to make at this time of day, but I believe that the difficulties the editors of ' King Lear ' have found in explaining the text are mainly due to their acceptance of the Folio version of the play as generally better than that of the Quartos of 1608. Again and again they have rejected Quarto readings as nonsense which are really translatable. At I. i. 261

the King of France is represented by the Folio as saying of Cordelia :

Not all the Dukes of watrish Burgundy, Can buy this unpriz'd precious Maid of me.

Now who are these Dukes of Burgundy ? We know the duke of the play. Are these himself and his predecessors and successors ? If so, there is something ludicrous, surely, in the picture France suggests of these ghostly personages coming to bid for Cordelia. The reading of the Quartos is :

Not all the Dukes in watrish Burgundie, Shall buy this unprizd precious maide of me.

The printers of the Quartos do not indicate by an apostrophe the possessive case sin- gular, or they would have printed " Duke's." The passage should be edited :

Not all the Duke's in waterish Burgundy

Shall buy this unprized precious maid of me. So in ' Midsummer Night's Dream' (' Globe ' II. i. 122), the price to be paid is made the subject to " buys " :

The fairy land buys not the child of me.

The Folio editors, having made the living duke and his ghostly fellows subject of the sentence, saw that " Shall " could not stand, for their spokesman had already rejected the lady. Accordingly they substituted " Can " for " Shall." I suppose it was Steevens who restored " Shall," leaving " dukes " in the plural. Some of his successors have fallen into the trap.

W. D. SARGEAUNT.

Stoke Abbott Rectory, Beaminster.

c As You LIKE IT,' II. vii. 147-8 (10 S. xi. 84). The idea contained in the passages quoted by MR. HERPICH from Shakespeare and Constable is developed further in the following Welsh penillion (traditional stanzas for singing to the harp). They are to be found in that delightful collection ' Penillion Telyn,' by W. Jenkyn Thomas, Welsh Publishing Company, Carnarvon, p. 105 :

Aelwyd serch sy rhwng fy nwyfron,

Tanwydd cariad ydyw r galon,

A'r tan hwnnw byth ni dderfydd,

Tra parhao dim o'r tanwydd.

A ffyddlondeb yw'r meginau

Sydd yn chwythu'r t&n i gynnau,

A maint y gwres nid rhyfedd gweled

Y dwr yn berwi dros fy llyged. That is :

The hearth of love is between my breasts,

The fuel of love is the heart,

And that fire will never end

So long as any of the fuel remains.

And faithfulness is the bellows

Which blow the fire to a flame,

And so great is the heat it is not wonderful you should see

The water boiling over my eyes.