Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/201

 iotb S .v.MAncH3,i906.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

161

LONDON, SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 1906.

CONTENTS.-No. 114.

NOTES -.'Macbeth,' 'The Tempest,' and the Storm of 1703 161 Lord Camelford's Duel, 162 Americans in English Records, 163 Early English Literature, 164- Vanishing London : Paradise Row, Chelsea Famous London Houses Felix Bryan MacDonogh, 165 ' Better- ment "Napoleon's Funeral ' Bleak House': Jarndyce v. Jarndyce Mount Murray, Isle of Man, 166 "Man in the street" Newcastle Plate, 167.

QUERIES : Horse racing in France Durham Graduates The Holly, Oaths, and Lightning Goldsmith : Various Reading in ' The Traveller ''The Voice of the Church. 1 167 -Charles I. and Elias Ashnule St. Paul's Cathedral : its Foundation Stone 'Curse of Seaforth 'Bohemian Language Inventories and Stocktaking in Antiquity Wigan Bell Foundry Chemists' Coloured Glass Bottles- Homer and the Digamma Quartering of Arms, 168- George Baker, Oxford Prizeman Vowels on Monument Kynan Sir William Leach Sir T. Browne's Daughter Candlewick or Candlewright Street Thomas Howard, of Dublin Abelard's Vision of Hell -Thomas Perks Steem- sin and Cliffe Families" Walking " Cloth, 169 -Power's 4 Bibliotheca Hibernica' Gordon Letters Thomas Glou- cester, Armiger Dogs at Constantinople "Pic-Nic," a Carriage" In light I will remember." 170.

REPLIES : Portmanteau Words and Phrases, 170 -Laconic Letters, 171 "From the thick film" Tyrone : its History Thomas Pounde, S.J., 172 *" Superman" Suicides buried in the Open Fields Horace Walpole Lette-s- Spinola's Whale G. J. Holyoake : his Name, 173 "Pight'e": "Pikle" Pidgin or Pigeon English Thermo- meter Scale " Famous " Cbelsea London Parochial History " M'sicks," 174 Collingwood's Descendants Cross legged Knights Ivy Lane, Strand " Dumping," 175 Copyright in Letters Falstaff on Honour Bowes Castle, Yorkshire Oscar Wilde Bibliography, 176 -Hair- Powdering Closets " Brelan " Cricket : Pictures and Engravings Peacock as a Christmas Symbol, 177 Ghost Story in Dickens Portman Family, 178.

NOTE'S ON BOOKS: 'Visitation of England and Wales ' ' As David and the Sibyls Say'' Tuscan Folk-lore and Sketches ' ' Ordo Romanus Primus ' ' The Gentle- man's Magazine.'

Booksellers' Catalogues.

got**.

MACBETH,' 'THE TEMPEST,' AND THE STORM OF 1703.

IN the stage-history of the above named plays, I have not seen any notice of the fuss made about the acting of them soon after "The Storm" of 26-27 Nov., 1703. This storm was, says Lord Stanhope ('Hist. England, 1701-1713,' p. 104), "the most terrible tempest ever known in England. For several years afterwards it was men- tioned, not as A storm, but as THE storm " ; and Stanhope gives over three pages to a description of the disasters it wrought, with references to his authorities.

The players, naturally desiring to be on the spot, at once put Shakespeare's storm- plays 'Macbeth' and 'The Tempest' on the stage, and this shocked Jeremy Collier and the opposers of the theatre, who thought the act a mocking of God. At least three of them speedily denounced the players. The treatise first published was :

Immorality 1 of the | English Stage, | with |
 * ' A | Representation | of the | Impiety and

Reasons for putting a Stop thereto | and some Questions Addresst to | those who frequent the Play- | Houses, | London, | Printed, and are to be Sold by J. Nutt | near Stationers - Hall, 17C4 [20 January, 1703/4]."

On leaf 5 we find :

"Her Majesty having now, upon occasion of the late great Calamity, appointed a Day of Solemn Fasting and Humiliation throughout the Kingdom, for the deprecating of God's Wrath, surely the Players have little Reason to expect that they shall go on in their abominable Outrages ; who, 'tis to be observed with Indignation, did, as we are assured, within a few Days after we felt the late dreadful IStorm, entertain their Audience with the ridiculous Representation of what had fiird us with so great Horror in their Plays call'd ' Mackbeth ' and ' The Tempest,' as if they design'd to Mock the Almighty Power of God, who alone commands the Winds and the Seas, and they obey him. No surely, it cannot but be hoped, that a Suspension at least of the Players acting for some considerable time will follow, when the Prophane- ness and Immorality of the Stage comes to Her Majesty's Knowledge, who, 'tis to [p. 6J be remem- bered, has never once given any Countenance to the Play- House by Her Royal Presence, since Her happy Accession to the Throne. 1 '

Like remarks are made as to ' Macbeth ' in

"A Letter written by another Hand; in | Answer,

to some Queries sent by a | Person of Quality

Relating to the Ir- | regularities charged upon the

Stage."

Added to

"Mr. Collier's | Dissuasive | from the | Play- House ; | in | a Letter to a Person of Quality, | Occasion'd | By the late Calamity of the | Tempest. Inn-Gate in Holborn, 1704 [9 June]."
 * London : | Printed for Richard Lane, at Gray's-

On p. 18 is :

" The dismal Calamity of so much Wreck and Ruin by the late Storm, was certainly a most

R roper Occasion for a Dissuasive from Places of jwd Diversion, and the Play-Houses as Principal. The Tempest it self call'd so loud for it, that if the Nation be not rou/'d with the Alarm, 'tis the Symptom of Lethargy, far gone, and likely to prove fatal.

"But Stupidity under that Convulsion was not the worst of our Case : No, that Dreadful Hurri- cane, the Voice of an angry Heaven, and Terrour of Earth and Sea, was, it seems, a Jest at the Play- House ; Macbeth with his Lightning and Thunder the Entertainment of the Day, and the Mention of Chimnies blown down, clapt by the Audience with an unusual Length of Pleasure and Approbation.

"Was it possible? Mirth at such a Season! Satisfactory Plaudits on such an Occasion ! VVhat can you call this, but another Prodigy [p. 19] of Horrour, to be chronicled with the Storm?

"'Twas, you '11 say, Sport to our bold Britains of the Pit, but no Diversion to the Boxes. To suppose the Mention of Mischief was Mirth to the Ladies, were to make Macbeth Wiues of them or the very wayward Sisters of the Play : with whom Fair is Foul, and Foul is Fair, Mischief a May- Game, and Destruction a Delight."

Collier himself says in his 'Dissuasive,' pp. 14-15: