Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/489

 ii s. in. JUNE 24, wii.j NOTES AND QUERIES.

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variously asserting themselves, or, as Kent puts it, more poetically,

It is the stars,

The stars above us, govern our conditions ; Else one self mate and mate could not beget Such different issues. (IV. iii. 32.)

In the absence of any hint to the contrary then, we may conclude that Goneril, Regan, and Cordelia were children of the same woman who, whether she were the only wife of Lear or merely one of a series, must necessarily have been much younger than her husband. He, if he may be believed, was " fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less " (IV. vii. 61), when their third daughter was, as he said, " so young and so untender " (I. i. 105). I fancy she died when Cordelia was quite a babe, otherwise, when denounced by her father, the poor girl would surely have referred to her lack of a maternal comforter. The loss was un- remembered, it had not made its mark upon her heart, for who that has ever known a ten- der mother outlives the instinct of turning to her for solace in the hour of trouble ?

I judge that Lear regarded his Queen as having been a kindly woman, as he would otherwise have reproached her, have as the Yorkshire phrase goes " blamed Goneril on her " when, after, his dismissal from the house of Albany, he told Regan that if she were not glad to see him, he would divorce himself from her mother's tomb "as sepul- chring an adultress" (ii. iy. 130). It is evident that he does not attribute the hard, cruel dispositions either to his wife's influence or to his own, and in truth I do not think that Lear flatters himself in this. When at his best he must have been both genial and generous, a man endowed with various attrac- tions. Observe the attachment he inspired in Kent, in Gloucester, and in the Fool, and, by the way, it is all to the credit of his amiability that he cared to have such a monitor as the last about his person. That a touchy autocrat could endure such a trial is strong evidence of his natural sweetness of disposition. Whether his spouse had been equally Well-dowered, " I hae ma doots " : if, as I have suggested, she died young, her disposition would not be fully developed, and perhaps nobody might be aware of its trend. I can only say that Goneril and Regan must have owed their characters to somebody.

Cordelia seems to me to be, in more senses than one, her father's child. She had his personal magnetism, she drew all worthy hearts : " Since my young lady's going away into France," says a Knight to the King,

" the fool hath much pined away " (I. iv. 71). Lear's own proud obstinacy was also reflected in his darling. Save for the purpose of the plot, it is difficult to forgive her for not deigning to explain to her father, who- nevertheless knew well enough what she- meant, her

I love your majesty According to my bond ; nor more nor less.

(I. i. 91.)

ST. SWITHIN.

THE MUSEUMS OF LONDON

ANTIQUITIES : PROSPECTIVE, PRESENT, AND PAST

(Concluded from p. 403.)

STBYPE (' Survey of London,' 1720 edition- ii. 24) says that other contemporary collectors of London antiquities were Dr. John Har- wood and John Bagford. Harwood " has been very exact in taking notice from time to time of these antiquities, and preserved a great many of the most curious and remarks able of them."

Bagford is said by the same authority to have " taken up with his own hands some of the many pieces of red pottery found at digging of the foundation of St. Paul's.": Probably his discoveries -were identical with those of Conyers. It is not definitely stated what collection he formed, or who absorbed it. Presumably he was not in this as " hungry and rapacious " as Dibdin condemns him for. being in collecting title- pages and specimens of printing.

Clearly, from frequent reference and some of the foregoing indications, the master collector of this day was Dr. John Wood- ward. To him probably belongs the credit of forming the first museum of London antiquities. Perhaps before, and with great industry after, the Fire, he acquired on- every occasion specimens of more or less importance. We can believe he was credu- lous, and not quite so learned as he pro- fessed to be, yet to him we owe the pre- servation of many objects of interest that even Wren only observed and then neglected. Strype endeavoured to induce him to have his " observations and reflections " on his London antiquities and the circumstances of their discovery printed as an appendix to his (1720) edition of Stow ; but evidently, if completed, they were ultimately lost. Many objects of civic interest are said to have passed at his death to Cambridge University, whre probably their origin has been lost