Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 7.djvu/540

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. VIL JUNK s, 1907.

311-14. The goldfinches, an elegy. By the Rev Richard Jago (' D.N.B.').

315-18. The blackbirds, an elegy. By the same. First appeared in The Adventurer, No. 37 13 March, 1753.

318-19. The Rake. By a lady in New England. an some American book-lover supply the name of this lady ? 320-22. Flowers. By Anthony Whistler. 322. Song ("While, Strephon, thus you teize me ") By the same.

323-6. The cabinet, or verses on Roman medal [1750J. To Mr. W. [Rev. Samuel Walker, M.A. rector of Whitchurch, Oxfordshire, 1723-68, whx married the Mother of Anthony Whistler]. Bj Mr. Graves [Rev. Richard Graves, of Claverton
 * D.N.B.'].

This poem had previously appeared in The Student, ii. (1751) 230-32. 326-7. Panacea, or the grand restorative. 328. The heroines, or modern memoirs, 1751. In 1. 12 Constantia is Constantia Phillips in the following line P ton and V ne are Lsetitia Pilkington and Frances Anne Viscountess Vane.

329-30. The parting. Written [1748J some years after marriage. The last three pieces are also by Graves.

330-32. Ode to memory, 1748. By William Shen- stone, Esq.

Dodsley informed Shenstone on 25 March, 1755, that his pieces were much admired by Akenside (Addit. MS. 28959).

333-5. The Princess Elizabeth, a prisoner at Woodstock, 1554.

335-6. Ode to a young lady, somewhat too sollici- tous about her manner of expression.

337-40. Verses, written towards the close of the year 1748, to William Lyttleton, Esq. [afterwards Lord Westcote] 340-44. [Five] songs. 345-7. [Three] rural inscriptions. 348-57. Pastoral ballad in four parts, written in 1743. The last six entries are also by Shenstone.

[361.] Mustek for the preceding ballad (pt. i. "Ye Shepherds so cheerful and gay"). By Mr. T. A. Arnic D.N.B.').

Some correspondence took place in Nov., 1754, about this music (B.M. Addit. MS. 28959). Arne said that he could not allow it to appear without a fee. Walsh, the king's music printer, paid him under arrangement " 20 guineas for every Collec- tion of Eight or Nine Songs." Arne ex- pected " six guineas for setting the other three parts." W. P. COURTNEY.

FIELDING AND SHAKESPEARE.

ONCE it was asserted in some magazine or newspaper that Walter Scott was the first to refer constantly to Shakspeare in his

novels. This assertion may not have been generally accepted. Perhaps it was con- tradicted. It certainly is not true. The older novelists, Fielding and Smollett, and especially Fielding, frequently allude to Shakspeare. Fielding often quotes him, and calls him the immortal Shakspeare. He does more than this. In ' Tom Jones,' in the ninth chapter of the fourth book, he writes :

" Black George was, in the main, a peaceable kind of fellow, and nothing choleric nor rash ; yet did he bear about him something of what the ancients call the irascible, and which his wife, if she had been endowed with much wisdom, would have feared."

This is partly the language of Hamlet : For, though I am not splenitive and rash, Yet have I something in me dangerous, Which let thy wiseness fear.

Again, in the seventh chapter of the fifth book :

" Some of the company shed tears at their part- ing: and even the philosopher Square wiped his eyes, albeit unused to the melting mood. As to Mrs. Wilkins, she dropt her pearls as fast as the Arabian trees their medicinal gums." This is much the language of Othello :

Of one whose subdued eyes, Albeit unused to the melting mood, Drop tears as fast as the Arabian trees Their medicinal gum.

The whole scene in which Blifil is imposed on Sophia as a husband is a prose repro- duction of one in * Romeo and Juliet.' Sophia is Juliet ; Mrs. Honour is the Nurse ; Squire Western is Capulet ; Mrs. Western, he Squire's sister, is Lady Capulet ; and Blifil is County Paris. Blifil is a villain, and Paris is a gentleman. The characters are different but the situation is the same. The conversation between Sophia and Honour Concerning Jones is quite a reminiscence f that between Juliet and the Nurse con- erning Romeo. Here is part of it :

Nay, to be sure, ma'am,' answered Honour, your la ship hath had enough to give you a surfeit 1 them, io be used ill by such a beggarly, jastardly fellow ! '

Hold your blasphemous tongue,' cries Sophia ; how dare you mention his name with disrespect )etore me ? He, use me ill ! no : his poor bleeding eart suffered more when he writ the cruel words han mine from reading them. ! he is all heroic irtue arid angelic goodness. I am ashamed of the weakness of my own passion for blaming what I light to admire."

he above may be compared with the follow- ng:

Nur*e. Shame come to Romeo ! Juliet. Blistered be thy tongue

or such a wish ' he was not born to shame : Tpon his brow shame is ashamed to sit ;