Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/287

 io s. viii SEPT. -21, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

237

The words " I would rather trust and be deceived," &c., are spoken by Benjamin Goldfinch, and form the conclusion of the play ' A Pair of Spectacles,' adapted by Sydney Grundy from Labiche and Bela- bour 's ' Les Petits Oiseaux.'

WlLLOTJGHBY MAYCOCK.

The phrase " Les grandes douleurs sont muettes," about which MB. LATHAM in- quires at p. 169, is somewhat like what Shakspeare has written ; but the two ideas are not quite the same :

Give sorrow words : the grief that does not speak Whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it Weak.

And I think that Shakspeare may have remembered Spenser :

He oft finds medicine who his grief imparts : But double griefs afflict concealing hearts.

' Faerie Queene,' Book I. c. ii. s. 34.

E. YARDLEY.

MACAULAY ON COMPETITIVE EXAMINA- TIONS (10 S. viii. 169). There is some in- formation on the matter in Trevelyan's Wednesday, 1 June, chap. xiii. On 11 July,
 * Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay,' sub

1854, Macaulay wrote to Ellis : " I have

at last finished my Report on the I.C.S. It is much longer than I anticipated it would foe, and has given me great trouble."

H. K. ST. J. S.

Macaulay's encomium on competitive ex- aminations will be found embodied in his speech on the government of India, de- livered in the House of Commons, 10 July, 1833. It will be found in any edition of Macaulay's ' Speeches.'

R. FREEMAN BULLEN.

Bow Library, E.

[CoL. F. E. R. POLLARD-URQUHART and MR. J. WATSON also thanked for replies.]

HAMLET AS A CHRISTIAN NAME (10 S. viii. 4, 155). There are innumerable in- stances of both Hamlet and Hamnet as Christian names in Cheshire. It is, of course, derived from the Norman Baron Hamo or Hamon. As a surname in the same county it has existed from 1500. A family of this name, founded by Wm. Hamnet, citizen, Sheriff, and Mayor of Chester, has come down to the present time, and has owned considerable property in South Cheshire and North Shropshire at different times (vide Cheshire wills at Chester). In the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum (Randle Holme Collection) is a pedigree of Wm. Hamnet, carrying back to a Hamnet Johnson, also of Chester,

early in^!400. One or two of the family were Sheriffs of Chester (see Ormerod), and in the Visitation of Cheshire are mentioned under "Wall of Chester," whom they eventually represented. Both Hamnet and Sutton, as found in Shakespeare's friend after whom his son was called, are true Cheshire names. I know a good deal about this family, as my grandmother was a Hamnet, and her mother again, curiously enough, was an Arden, also of Tarporley in Cheshire (for pedigree see Ormerod's ' Cheshire '). J. R.

10, West Hill, Highgate, N.

Hamlet Marshall was Prebendary of South Scarle in Lincoln Cathedral ; see Turner, ' Bodleian Charters,' 1878, p. 648.

W. C. B.

My old tutor, the Rev. W. B. Philpot, whilom vicar of South Bersted (Bognor), had a son named Hamlet.

EDWARD HERON-ALLEN.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &o.

English Church Furniture. By J. Charles Cox, LL.D., F.S. A., and Alfred Harvey, M.B. (Methuen &Co.)

THIS volume belongs to " The Antiquary's Books," and readers will recognize in one of the authors the accomplished editor of the series. Dr. Cox has an unusually large acquaintance with churches and their contents in every part of England. He is con- stantly visiting and describing them for pxiblications which pretend to accuracy, and his investigations and conclusions can therefore be relied upon as trustworthy. In this case he has a colleague who is also a keen antiquary in church matters, and the result of their union is a book which is brimful of information, and offers a hundred and twenty-one illustrations. Many of the books dealing with church matters, though excellent in their way, are not abreast of modern research, which has modified some conclusions, and added a number of instances which escaped the notice of early chroniclers. The pages take to a large extent the form of lists by counties, which may seem a little dull ; but we are convinced that, with the aid of the large ' General Index ' provided, this arrangement will DC of great use to those who seek to find the prevalence of any special feature they come across in a church. Humour is not wanting. For instance, the twelfth- century font at Bridekirk had an inscription which was formerly read, " Here Skard was converted, and to this man's example were the Danes brought," but it is now declared to mean

Richard he me wrought, And to this beauty carefully me brought.

Abundant references to learned papers afford a chance of further investigation of disputed points.