Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/391

 us. iv. NOV. ii, ion.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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when I was preparing the notes. It is wel known that the collection includes a sonnet in praise of Shakespeare, but it seems never to have been noticed that Weever carriec his admiration to the point of appropriating Shakespeare's words.

In ' Epig.' xv. of the third " week ' (i.e. section, or book), ' In Fucam,' occur the lines :

A withered Hermite fiue-score winters worne Might shake off fiftie, seeing her beforne.

Save for the last three words, this, as Mr. Bullen points out, is quoted verbally from ' Love's Labour's Lost,' IV. iii. 242-3.

Other less important borrowings from this scene occur in the same " week " of ' Epi- grams.' In ' Epig.' xii. Weever has the lines :

Her face is pure as Ebonie ieat blacke, ....

Beautie in her seemes beautie still to lacke. Cf. ' Love's Labour's Lost,' IV. iii. 247, 251:

By heaven, thy love is black as ebony ....

That I may swear beauty doth beauty lack. In ' Epig.' xi. the phrase " eagle-sighted eies " may also perhaps be a reminiscence of the same scene, 1. 226.

Lastly, the ninth ' Epigram ' of the "week" runs as follows :

IN BATTUM.

Battus affirm 'd no Poet euer writte, Before that Loue inspir'd his dull head witte, And yet himselfe in Loue had witte no more, Than one stark mad, thogh somwhat wise before.

Taking into consideration these other references to * Love's Labour's Lost,' is it not probable that " Battus " is Shakespeare's Biron, who, as everybody knows, says, Never durst poet touch a pen to write Until his ink were temper'd with Love's sighs,

' Love's Labour's Lost,' IV. iii. 346-7, and who, as " wit turn'd fool " by love, agrees exactly with the subject of the epi- gram ? If so, Weever may, I think, claim to have written the very first scrap of critical comment upon a Shakespearian character. B. B. MCKEBBOW.

PBOF. V. E. MOUBEK. In ' N. & Q.' for 15 September, 1906, a note appeared ('A Great Bohemian Teacher ' ) referring to the sixtieth birthday of Prof. Dr. V. E. Mourek, LL.D. A wide circle of English friends will learn with deep regret that this eminent lexicographer, and translator of Smiles and Thackeray, died suddenly from heart failure on 24 October. To the students of Prague Bohemian University ** Taticek " (dear father) Mourek was guide, philosopher, and friend. I am proud to have enjoyed his unbroken friendship since he welcomed me

at the Tycho Brahe festival ten years ago r when he was active as the courteous and efficient secretary. The deepest sympathy will go out to Mrs. Mourek, a charming Irish lady who kept open house to young English- women visiting or residing at Prague, to many of whom she has been a friend in need. Bohemia is the poorer by the loss of one of her best sons. FRANCIS P. MABCHANT, Streatham Common.

HOUGHTON HALL PICTUBES : THEIB SALE IN 1779. In these days, when we read so much about the deportation of works of art from this country, the following extract from The Gentleman's Magazine for May, 1779, may be interesting to readers of ' N. & Q.' :

" The Empress of Russia has purchased the- Houghton collection of pictures for 43,OOOL They were estimated at 40,OOOZ., but the Empress advances 3,OOOZ. for the liberty of selecting such of them as are most suited to her purpose of establishing a. school for painting in her capital- The rest will probably be disposed of by auction in England. Such is the fate of this first collection, in Great Britain ; which, exclusive of presents, cost its noble proprietor near 100,000?. to form, and which ought to have been added to the Devonshire or Bedford collections : but is gone,, if it survives the hazard of the sea or the risque* of war, to assist the slow progress of the arts n the cold unripening regions of the North."

Cassell's ' Gazetteer of Great Britain and [reland ' (1896), commenting upon this transaction, adds : " Those which now adorn the walls are of no conspicuous merit,, except only the ' Fortune-Teller ' by Opie." In The European Magazine, February, 1782, will be found an

' Authentic Catalogue of the Houghton Collec* to the Empress of Russia, with the price which was paid to Lord Orford for each Painting, as- settled by the appraisement." The prices here stated are very low as com- pared with those paid for Old Masters in our days ; few of the prices reached 5001., and then it was usually for a pair.
 * ion of Pictures, lately sold, and transmitted

The collection, which had been arranged in ' Salons " bearing the names of the different Dainters, was made known to the public in a eries of engravings published a short time >efore the sale by Alderman Boydell.

HEBBEBT B. CLAYTON.

ST.OLAVE'S, SILVEB STBEET : ITS CHUBCH- YABD INSCBIPTIONS. Not far from the old General Post Office is Silver Street, and at he corner of this and Monkwell Street s "The Cooper's Arms," so happily identi- ied by Dr. Wallace as standing on the site formerly occupied by the house in.