Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/202

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vin. AUG. 31, 1907.

' LOVE'S LABOUR 's LOST,' IV. iii. 337-9 :

Loues feeling is more soft and sensible,

Then are the tender homes of Cockled Snayles.

Loues tongue proues dainty, Bachus grosse in

taste.

It has been thought that the meaning of the last line, with an apostrophe added to Bacchus (Bacchus'), is that " Love's tongue proves Bacchus' tongue to be gross in taste in comparison with his, Love's tongue " (Daniel, quoted by Furness).

This is rather weak, for Love's tongue would not have to be very refined to be less gross than Bacchus's. Far from being " dainty," as the received text would indicate, the Greek and Roman Bacchus that is, the noisy or riotous god may justly be considered the reverse.

The comparison begun with " more. . . . than " in the first and second lines of this passage is carried on in the last line. Ex- panded, we read : Love's tongue proves (more) dainty, (than) Bacchus'

gross in taste,

" dainty " and " gross " being the emphatic words. The comma after " dainty," in the Quarto and First Folio, is right as marking the ellipsis. E. MERTON DEY. St. Louis.


 * HENRY IV.,' PART II., in. ii. 236 :

Bullcalf. And here 's four Harry ten shillings in French crowns for you.

Is this intended as nonsense by the poet, as the rest of what the unwilling conscript says certainly is ? or can the words be reconciled to the monetary system prevalent in Henry IV.'s time ?

G. KRUEGER.

Berlin.

' HENRY IV.,' PART II., IV. iv. 90-92 :

A". Henry. Westmoreland ! thou art a summer

bird,

Which ever in the haunch of winter sings The lifting up of day.

Apart from the curious expression " haunch of winter," which has been explained as " the rear of winter," on what grounds I know not, how can a summer bird sing in winter ? Can any one tell the name of that strange bird singing at the dawn of a winter day ? G. KRUEGER.

' OTHELLO,' V. ii., AND SWINBURNE. Othello, having secreted a weapon, suddenly stabs himself and dies, whereupon Cassio exclaims :

This did I fear, but thought he had no weapon ;

For he was great of heart.

There is an echo of this in Swinburne's ' Locrine,' p. 112 :

Would God my heart were great !

Then would I slay myself.

W. C. B.

SONNET III. AND SIDNEY'S ' ARCADIA.' The theory that the Sonnets may have been mere poetical exercises might be partially confirmed by the third Sonnet, wherein two lines seem to have been transferred from Sidney's 'Arcadia,' p. 280, Book III., edition 1590 : " What lesson is that unto you, but that in the April of your age you should be like April ? " Cf.

Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee Calls back the lovely April of her prime.

This, however, is also echoed by others from Daniel (' Delia,' xxxii.) onward ; and, as Rolfe notes, in ' Lucrece,' 11. 1758-9.

Again : " When your glass shall accuse you to your face, what a change there is in you!" Cf.

Look in thy glass, and tell the face thou viewest. CHAS. A. HERPICH.

" HlS GLASSY ESSENCE," ' MEASURE FOR

MEASURE,' II. ii. 120 (10 S. v. 264, 465). I have just been reading a Servian trans- lation of ' Measure for Measure,' published in the Letopis, No. 129 (Neusatz, 1882). It may interest those who followed the corre- spondence upon this passage a year ago to see how the Servian translator renders it. His version is as follows :

Trosno celjade, kao srdit majmun,

Lakomu igra s nebom igracku

Da angjeo zaplace.

Trosno celjade really means " brittle essence," and it is clear that the allusion is supposed to be to the brittle nature of glass. To my mind, the true sense is one which I have not yet seen suggested, viz., man playing tricks before Heaven is compared to an ape posturing before what he takes to be another ape in the glass.

JAS. PLATT, Jun.

' MERCHANT or VENICE,' I. i. 29-36 (10 S. vi. 504 ; vii. 145). I am afraid it is MR. MERTON DEY himself who has " neglected " ' N. & Q.,' for how else could he have said that DR. SPENCE'S suggestion and mine are " the same " ? The only point common to the two suggestions is the reference of " worth " to the supposed merchant (not to his merchandise) ; but then this is the way in which almost all editors and readers of the play take the adjective. Indeed, I very much doubt if any consideration other than the difficulty of construing the passage