Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/310

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. HI. APRIL 22, in.

out, and Staunton would amend the text by reading "she'll" for "shall." Cowden Clarke supposes the subject of " shall find time " to be the same as that of " hath been inform' d," i.e., Cordelia. Dyce observes : <c The text is obscure, and perhaps corrupt." Mr. Craig, the editor of the ' Arden Shake- speare,' remarks, " apparently hopelessly corrupt."

Now the text is evidently not corrupt, and it is strange that the obvious meaning has escaped so illustrious a body of critics. Mason, indeed, was on the right track when he recognized that " shall find time " harks back to " I " for its subject ; but he got no further.

My paraphrase is as follows :

" O that the sun would rise, that I may read this letter. [It is too dark to see, but] by some miracle I know 'tis from Cordelia, who hath most fortunately been informed of my benighted wanderings ; until sunrise, I shall take opportunity from my enormous state of enforced idleness herein the stocks to recuperate my jaded faculties '[by a little sleep]. Thus, weary eyes, you may escape the shame of beholding so disgraceful a lodging. Better luck to-morrow ! "

[He sleeps.

For proof that Shakespeare believed in the power of sleep to " give losses their remedies," the reader need go no further than this very play, II. ii. 158-9 ; III. vi. 102-5 ; IV. iv. 12.

I think my paraphrase fully explains the words " enormous state " and " seeking to ^ive losses their remedies," which have really caused all the trouble.

T. J. MOSLEY.

' HAMLET,' IV. vii. 28 :

Stood challenger on mount of all the age. According to Moberly, the editor of the 4 * Rugby Edition,"

" the allusion seems to be to the coronation ceremony of the Emperor of Austria as King of Hungary, when, on the Mount of Defiance at Presburg, he unsheathes the ancient sword of .state, and shaking it [striking with it] north, south, east, and west, challenges the four corners of the world to dispute his rights."

It is, of course, an anachronism to write about an Emperor of Austria before 1812, and the ceremony is not a challenge at all, but only a solemn promise that the new king will defend the country against all enemies. But where did Shakespeare read or hear anything about it ?

In the English translation of Martin Fumee's ' Historie of the Trovbles. of Hungarie ' (London, 1600) there is a long description of " the Crowning of a King of

Hungarie " on pp. 346 et seq. t but unfor- tunately the scene on the mount is slurred over as follows :

" And from thence [the Cordiliers] he [the King] went mounted on horsebacke richly decked .... two miles from thetowne [of Poson,] toaccomplishe certain ceremonies depending upon the oth which the Kings ought to make in such sacred things."

L. L. K.

' MEASURE FOR MEASURE ' : FRENCH PARALLEL. According to Prof. Haraszti of the Kolozsvar University, Claude Rouillet of Beaune wrote a tragedy in French (1563 and 1577) and also in Latin (1596) the plot of which is founded on the same story as ' Measure for Measure.' The title of the French play is ' Philanire, Femme d'Hipolite.' L. L. K.

SHAKESPEARE'S EPITAPH : " PAGE " (11 S. ii. 163, 422). It is possible that the word " page " in the sentence " My work touch- ing the ' Proficiency and Advancement of Learning ' I have put into two Books, whereof the former, which you saw, I account but as a Page to the latter," merely denotes a preface, introduction, or advertisement ; and that it is not used by Bacon in a meta- phorical sense. N. W. HILL.

" ALL 's WELL THAT ENDS WELL,' I. i. 114-16 (11 S. ii. 422). Sydney Walker probably suspected "cold" to be corrupt because the two adjectives do not agree in kind. As the two substantives, wisdom and folly, are contrasted, it does not neces- sarily require an antithesis between the two adjectives. But taking the adjective of quality as unhappily placed against the adjective of quantity, then " superfluous" needs explanation. The meaning of " cold " is " free from excitement," "unimpassioned." Compare the obsolete expression " wise and cold," and the sense in the ' N.E.D.,' v. " cold," II. 7 f&> with the more modern " cool." TOM JONES.

Would not the difficulty in the lines,

Yet these fix'd evils sit so fit in him, That they take place, when virtue's steely bones Look bleak i' the cold wind ; withal, full oft we see Cold wisdom waiting on superfluous folly.

be got over easily by reading " Old " in place of the second " Cold " ? Thus : Old wisdom waiting on superfluoxis folly. This emendation may be justified on the ground that

wisdom views with an indifferent eye All finite things, as blessings born to die.

N. W. HILL.