Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/165

 io> s. ii. At,, w, 1904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

133

Church, Buxton, Norfolk, is a tablet to Mary Ann Kent,

"daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Kent, of Fulham, Middlesex, who died under Inoculation on the 10 day of March, 1773. in the fourth year of her age. This much lamented Child was in the highest state of Health and her mental powers began to open and promise fairest Fruit, when her fond parents,deluded by a Prevalent Custom, suffered the rough officious hand of Art to Wound the Flourishing root of Nature, and rob the little innocent of the gracious (iift of Life. Let this unhappy Event teach dis- trustful Mortals that there is no safety but in the hands of Almighty God."

JOHN T. PAGE. West Haddon, Northamptonshire.

"A SINGING FACE" (10 th S. ii. 87). This occurs in the play 4 Bombastes Furioso,' where Fusbos, the Minister of State, attempts to sing, and Bombastes, the general, says :

Fusbos, give place.

I ou know you haven't got a singing face : Here, nature, smiling, gave the winning grace.

STAPLETON MARTIN. The Firs, Norton, Worcester.

ELIAS TRAVERS'S DIARY (10 th S. ii. 68). An account of this diary is given in the Siritish Quarterly Review for January, 1872, under the title of 4 An English Interior in the Seventeenth Century.' Some extracts from this paper appear in' 6 th S. i. 453.

EVERARD HOME COLEMAN. 71, Brecknock Road.

LARGEST PRIVATE HOUSE IN ENGLAND (10 th S. ii. 29). Campden, in Gloucestershire, before it was burnt during the Civil Wars, occupied eight acres. One would have thought that the largest mansion in England was one of the following : Longleat, Eaton Hall, Ilaby Castle, Audley End, Chats- worth, Belvoir Castle, Luton Hoo, Blen- heim, Althorpe, or Holkham in Norfolk.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

SHAKESPEARE'S SONNET xxvi. (10 th S. ii. 67). Sonnet xxvi. must be studied as a whole, and then it cannot be understood without reference to the preceding sonnet-series (i.-xxv.). The latter are ostensibly addressed to a beautiful youth, with whom the poet is on more than intimate terms, for xxv. ends with a declaration of their mutual, firm, and enduring love. But in xxvi. we plunge into another and very frigid atmosphere. This sonnet was sent as an envoi, or covering note, with i.-xxv., to the addressee, who had evi- dently laid on the poet a charge a request or command that he would produce a poem or poems on a given subject. This charge the poet has taken up and executed, and so fulfilled a thrice-named duty. But several

points are obvious, as that the addressee was; a man of sufficient station and authority to- secure the execution of his wishes ; also than Shakespeare was but slightly acquainted with him, although he hopes to be on friendly terms someday; also that sonnets i.-xxv. were pure poetry, so that the poet fears they may be taken as a mere exercise of his cleverness. Then, with poetical humility, he depreciates- his work, but hopes that the addressee's good opinion will pass over its defects.

The only intelligible interpretation of this sonnet is that the addressee is Mr. W. H., the "only begetter" of the Sonnets, i.e., the original cause of their production at any rate of the initial series.

T. LE MARCHANT DOUSE.

[The writer obliges us with a communication on Shakespeare's Sonnets in Mrs. Stopes's edition,, contributed to the Literary World of 1 July.]

ADAM ZAD (10 th S. ii. 48). I suppose MR, STILWELL refers to Persian ddamt-zdd, "a- son of Adam, a man," the latter portion of the phrase being from Persian zadan, "to- bring forth." Natives of India call bears- ddam - zdd, or " sons of men," considering them half human, and will not, as a rule, molest them (Forsyth, * Highlands of Central India,' second ed., p. 365). EMERITUS.

NATALESE (10 th S. i. 446, 515 ; ii. 76). - From H. 2's observation at the last reference I gather that his original note was to be taken as evidence for Natalensis, though the question of Latinization was not there broached. I quite agree that if an in- habitant of the colony is commonly called a Natalese, then Natalensis is a suitable rendering. On the other hand, if he is usually known as a Natalian, Natalianus is indicated on comparing Italian with Italianus. But a far better version than either of these may be obtained by using the full designation, Terra Natalis, in conjunction with some such word as cives or voluntarii. This- would place the Latinity beyond cavil. With regard to the usually gentilitial -anus, which presumably renders Natalianus "impossible,^ I fear that H. 2's contention that stems ending with a liquid or nasal take -ensis is- inadequate. Liquids may be found, requi- sitely placed, in yEsolani, Asculani, Atellani, Bolani, Fsesulani, Longulani, Nolani, Ocri- culani, Puteolani, Rusellani, Tralliani, Trebu- lani, Tusculani, Verulani ; and nasals in Romani, Cumani, Transrheriani, and so forth. (The true stem vowel-endings are here, as in H. 2's examples, ignored ; though why the -i of natali- is elided in Natalese I do not understand.)