Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/572

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. 11. DEC. 10, WML

This is not very lucid, neither is ' The Phoenix and the Turtle,' written by that famous genius William Shake-speare, with the hyphen, but there seems a kinship between the above lines and the mysterious poem of 1601, espe- cially in the following verse :

So they lov'd, as love in twain Had the essence but in one ; Two distincts, division none ; Number there in love was slain, which may point to the same author. In that case I hold that the author of both hailed from Gray's Inn, and not from Strat- ford-on-Avon. Besides this, the Stratford man never had a hyphen, nor yet any of his relations. But it seems no use mentioning matters of this kind ; let us pass to another piece of evidence pointing to Bacon. It is Ben Jonson who gives this, and he certainly knew both Bacon and Shaksper the actor well. The evidence is from 'The Silent Woman,' where Sir John Daw, who does not "profess" to be a poet, is induced to favour his friends on the stage with a specimen of his "works," and gives, among others, the following extracts from what he calls his
 * Madrigal of Modesty ' :

Silence in woman is like speech in man, Deny 't who can.

No noble virtue ever was alone

But two in one.

Then when I praise sweet modesty, I praise

Bright beauty's rays.

Now Sir John Daw has been proved, with- out yet any contradiction, to be intended for Bacon, and if that really be so, have we not Ben Jonson poking fun at ' The World 's a Bubble,' under the clear impression that he is parodying Bacon ? otherwise why should Ben choose this particular and rather unusual metre ? I notice that Mr. Sidney Lee, in his book just published on ' Great Englishmen of the Sixteenth Century,' says that Farnaby ascribes the poem to Lord Verulam " on hazy grounds." This is untrue and misleading, for Farnaby gives no grounds at all, whether hazy" or not. He simply states the fact sans phrase. NE QUID NIMIS.

DANIEL WEBSTER (10 th S. ii. 407). This was, I believe, first said by Mr. Fox of Lord Inurlow, who died on 12 September, 1806 Lord Campbell, in his > Lives of the Lord Chancellors,' vol. v. p. 661, says : i "' Keefe ' the famous farce writer, has left us a little portrait of him shortly before he was removed trom office, at a moment when he must have been suffering from bodily pain : * I saw Lord Thurlow

I" ui urt u : h f waf ? ! hin > and 8e emed not well in health ; he leaned forward with his elbows on his knees which were spread wide, and his hands clutched in each other. He had on a large three- cocked hat. His voice was good, and he spoke in

the usual Judge style, easy and familiar.' But, generally speaking, although pretending to despise the opinion of others, he was acting a part, and his aspect was more solemn and imposing than almost any other person's in public life which induced Mr. Fox to say, ' it proved him dishonest, since no man could be so wise as Thurlow looked. 1 "

Daniel Webster died in 1852.

HARRY B. POLAND. Inner Temple.

My father used to say that when he was a student of the Middle Temple (circa 1838-41) he had often heard old lawyers allude to the saying, "No one could be as wise as Lord Thurlow looked." E. E. STREET.

[T. F. D. and MR. ALAN STEWART also refer to- Fox.]

HIGH PEAK WORDS (10 th S. ii. 201, 282, 384). The interesting list of words given by MR. ADDY is a striking proof of the truth of his remark *' that we are far from knowing the extant vocabulary of our English dialects." The late Prof. Max Miiller some years ago* put forth, and reiterated the assertion, that the vocabulary of the English peasant con- tained no more than 300 words. From so- high an authority on that subject there was, of course, no appeal, and the dictum, going the round of the press, was everywhere ac- cepted as gospel. That the good old words used in common conversation are being improved away by the grammar teaching of our elementary schools, responsible for so- many present vulgarisms, is a lamentable fact. Yet there still remain thousands of technical names and trade terms which not even the Board School roller can crush out- If the he or she teacher ever heard them, they would be as Greek to either.

Only a real countryman, born and bred r can possibly become familiar with the hun- dreds of terms still in use in the various branches of husbandry and handicrafts there- with connected. They cannot be found in the text-books, therefore are not English f To take one familiar example, would not the far-famed Professor have been surprised to find that the common wagon needed between thirty and forty distinct substantives to- describe its several parts 1 Would the highest certificated teacher readily define in that con- nexion hound, needle, rave, strake ? How, again, would he technically describe that extinct implement known in literature as the flail, but known to the countryman as the drashle f If he will extend his researches by a refer- ence to the ' Promptorium ' and the ' Cath. Angl.,' s.v. 'Flayle,' he will find much of interest, and that surviving words have had a longish innings.