Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/538

 444 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io» s. iv. DM. 2.1905. Douglas Freshfield's ' Round Kangchenjunga <1903), pp. 108, 109 :— "We were face to face with Kangchenjunga From time to time we came across some of the large tailless rats, to shoot which, in the belief of the natives, brings on storms and tempests." These animals are, I presume, possessed of •evil spirits armed with such powers, and take their revenge accordingly. Shakespeare knew of them three centuries ago. The people of the Himalayas have invested their mountains with numerous spirits, demons, and other supernatural inhabitants for ages. H. C. HART. " I WIS YOUR GRANDAM HAD A WORSER MATCH," 'RICHARD III.,' I. iii. 102.—These words were used by Richard, Duke of Glou- cester, in a taunting reply to Earl Rivers, referring to the marriage of Elizabeth Wood- ville (Grey) to King Edward IV. As they stand with the context, they seem to suggest that one of the grandmothers of Earl Rivers married beneath her. It appears, however, on tracing the genealogy of the family, that Richard Woodvule of the Mote, the paternal grandfather, married Jane Beauchamp, who was a member of a Somersetshire family of no particular notoriety, and that Peter of Luxembourg, Count de St. Pol, the maternal grandfather, was not below the rank of his spouse, Marguerite de Eaux, who was the daughter of the Duke of Andria. On the other hand, Jacquetta, a princess of Luxem- bourg by birth, widow of the great Duke of Bedford, and consequently the third lady of the realm, allied herself with a simple knight, Richard Woodville, one of the hand- somest men of the period, which marriage, according to Agnes Strickland (' Lives of the •Queens of England,' Bohn, vol. ii. p. 1), occa- sioned scarcely less astonishment in its day than that of Elizabeth Woodville, for its inequality. It would seem, therefore, that Gloucester was referring to the match of Jacquetta, and that Shakespeare was under the impression that Earl Rivers belonged to the same generation as his nephews Grey and Dorset, both of whom are present. The 'N.E.D.'gives the alternative mean- ings to the word "grandam," (1) an ances- tress, and (2) a gossip. The first appears to be only used of a more distant relationship {f,g., our grandmother Eve): and the other •does not seem to be applicable to the present case. I should feel indebted to any of your readers if they could throw light on the passage, or refer me to any work in which the matter has been discussed. F. W. BAXTER. 170, Church Street, Stoke Newington, N. ' LEAR,' III. vi. 25, 26.—The reading more commonly accepted here is, "Look, where he stands and glares ! Wantest thou eyes at trial, madam ?" The first quarto gives, "Looke where he stands and glars, leaiut thou eyes, at tral madam" : the second, " Looke, wantst thou eies at triall madam." In neither is there a note of admiration after glars, or comma after tral (or trMl), or note of interrogation after madam. Theobald changes " he " to " she," and most editions seem to suppose that in the latter sentence Edgar is referring to Lear's words. There is no warrant for Theobald's alteration, for " he" clearly refers to Edgar's previous words, " The foul fiend bites me,''1 while in his next speech he continues the same theme. Moreover, his words, though wild and whirl- ing, are not meaningless, which can hardly be said of " Wantest thou eyes at trial, madam ?" I suggest " Look, where he stands and glares, worse than eyes at trol-madam." In 'The Winter's Tale,' IV. iii. 92, "troll-my- dames" is a corruption of trou-madam, and trou in that word, as in so many technical senses, exactly corresponds with our "eye" in similar senses (see Littrc, • ".) ; and the pigeon-holes in the arches of the bridge at trou-madam might, I think, be aptly likened to glaring eyes, they being, as it were, " the holes where eyes should be, which pitifully disaster the cheeks." " Trial" for tral would be suggested by the immediate context, and by Lear's words just below. K. D. "MlCHING MALLICHO" (9th S. XI. 504 : 10th S. i. 162; ii. 344, 524 ; iii. 184, 426).—Taking it as proved that malliclu) represents Castilian nuil hecho=crime, mischief, may we not assume that miching is the equally Castilian pet-name of a cat, »u'cAm=pussy ? The sense would then be a catlike, skulking, under- hand misdeed. The same idea is pursued in that which follows, " It means mz's-chief " ; for i:i in and mit are also used in Spain as vocatives for calling kittens and cats. EDWARD S. DODGSON. "A FAIRE VESTALL. THRONED BY THE WEST," 'MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM,' II. i. 158 (10th S. iii. 425).—Do not the comparisons with Barnfield's ' Cynthia' suggest that the plagiarism, if any there is, is on the part of the latter? 'Cynthia,' I understand, was published in 1595. Surely 'Titus Andronicns' is antecedent to this. 1590 is usually the latest date assigned. 'Romeo and Juliet,' perhaps, is doubtful, but ' 1, 2, and 3 Henry VI.,' 'Richard III.,' and probably 'Richard II.' also, would be before 1595.