Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/539

 io* s. iv. DEC. 2, iocs.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 445 But similarity (of ideas, and even of diction) is no proof of plagiarism. It is constantly found where no intercommunication is pos- sible. " Night's pitchy mantle " (' 1 Henry VI.,' II. ii. 2) is certainly suggestive of "night's sable mantle," but " winter's wrath- ful nipping cold " (' 2 Henry VI.,' II. iv. 3) is not necessarily a paraphrase of " wrath's winter "; and " tributary tears " and " eternal night" might occur anywhere, and are no more literary monopolies than "green goose- berries" or "fat oxen." Thus, again, the occurrence of " Bellona's bridegroom" in 'Macbeth,' though certainly suggestive of " Mars's female mate " in Chapman's ' Iliad,' does not necessarily involve an alteration in the date (1606) usually assigned to the play. (By the by, 1 think the fifth book of Chap- man's 'Iliad' was published in 1609, not 1610.) The expression would occur to any one acquainted with classical history, even in translations, and Shakespeare was familiar with Bellona from Phayre's '^Eneid.' There is a very striking parallel to Chapman in ' Troilus and Cressida' which could not have been copied, as Chapman's twenty-third book was not published till 1611:— Ulysxet. That spirit of his [Diomede's] In aspiration lifts him from the earth. 'Troilus and Cressida,' IV. v. 15, 16. Diomed's dart still from his shoulders flew, Si ill mounting with the spirit it bore. Chapman's 'Iliad,' XXIII. 710, 711. J. FOSTER PALMER. 8, Royal Avenue, S.W. LORD NELSON'S COAT AND ADMIRAL WESTPHAL'S BLOOD. — As possibly in the future there may be some question as to whether the bloodstains on the coat which Lord Nelson wore at Trafalgar were caused by his wound, I venture to draw attention to a letter addressed to The Times by Lord Glasgow on 13 November. In that letter Lord Glasgow states that some years ago Admiral Westphal told him that the blood- stains in question were caused by Lord Nelson's coat having been placed under Admiral Westphal's head while he, then a midshipman, lay wounded in the cockpit of the Victory at Trafalgar. " It isn't Nelson's blood, it's my blood, said the Admiral in after years. "It happened in this way I was severely wounded in the head by a splinter, and was taken to the cockpit. The men who had taken me down found a coat folded up and placed it under my head. It turned out to be the Admiral's coat, and that was the way in which my blood stained Nelson's coat." Lest this version should be permanently accepted, it is well to hear the other side. In a letter to The Times, which appeared 15 November, Mr. Sargeaunt, Assistant Secre- tary and Curator of the Royal United Service Institution, Whitehall, where Nelson's coat is now being exhibited, states that he has examined " the stains on both the coat and waistcoat. The waistcoat bears stains of blood about the left shoulder, the spot where the fatal bullet entered, and there are marks of blood on the coat at th& place where it would immediately cover the stains on the waistcoat. The coat bears a few other stains on the linin? of the left tail, and it is possible that when Lord Nelson was being carried below to the cockpit the blood dripped on to this portion of the coat. There are some other staina on the lining of the coat which appear to be those of oil of camphor." Mr. Sargeaunt adds that he does not question Lord Glasgow's statement, but, having regard to Dr. Beatty's account of the wound, printed in The Medical Journal of 1806, vol. xv., he thinks it right to point out that "the bloodstains about the left shoulder of the coat are unquestionably the result of Lord Nelson's wound." ' N. «fe Q.' is the place, above all others, where sea-serpents may be " scotched," if not actually killed. RICHARD EDGCUMBE. Edgbarrow, Crowthorne, Berks. NELSONIANA.—I can remember many years ago a large coloured engraving representing ' The Death of Nelson,' in which he is sup- ported by several of the sailors, and is wearing a dark green coat. To the left of the spectator was an officer of marines, habited in a scarlet coat and epaulettes, and to the right a couple of midshipmen looking on. At Lartington Hall, near Barnard Castle, the seat of the Rev. Thomas Witham, were two fine companion pictures by W. Jones Barker, one representing Wellington reading the dispatches of the battle of Chilian wall an in 1849, and the other showing Nelson on_his knees in his cabin composing his prayer just before the battle of Trafalgar in 1805. I also remember, some forty years ago, meeting an old naval officer who had been in the Minotaur, commanded by Capt. Louis, at the battle of the Nile in 1798, and who spoke of Nelson as Sir Horatio, for he had not then been raised to the peerage. JOHN PICKFORD, M. A. Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge. CHARLES LAMB.—I have been unable to find in Mr. E. V. Lucas's splendid ' Li fe o Charles Lamb ' any explanation of the r efer-