Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 7.djvu/74

 NOTES AND QUERIES. m s. VIL JAX. a, ma. Here it will be observed that the form is " Burgee's caution." Does this extract indicate that the word is of Dutch origin ? ALBERT MATTHEWS. Boston, U.S. BISHOPS' TRANSCRIPTS.—Some years ago I had occasion to refer to a parish register of the seventeenth century. Its condition was so bad that I decided to refer to the bishop's transcript. After some trouble I found the latter, but it was in a worse state than the register—for the following reason. It was stored, together with an enormous number of other transcripts, in a very damp and dirty cellar, close to a leaking water-pipe. A number of the documents, including allega- tions for marriage licences, had been reduced to pulp, and were, of course, quite useless. Some of the transcripts were of registers which no longer exist, and were, therefore, exceedingly valuable. I pointed this out to the Registrar, and he said that he had nothing more suitable for them in the matter of store-room. I wrote to the Archdeacon, who referred me back to the Registrar, at the same time pointing out that he could not consent to having them removed, as the responsibility would be too great ! The responsibility of leaving them as they were had not been considered. I wrote to the Bishop, and offered to rearrange the records, as I had special know- ledge of their value, but received no reply, and I did not feel justified in pursuing the matter further. I did, however, write a very polite letter to the Archbishop on another matter relating to the registers, but it failed to receive acknowledgment. THOS. GURNEY. SHAKESPEAHIANA : " ENTRANCE."— No more the thirsty entrance of this soil SlMll dauh her lips with her own children's blood. • 1 Heury IV..' I. i. 5, 6. The licence which Shakespeare occasionally allows himself in the use of the English language, or which was allowed, and some- times used, by the men of his day in their conversations and writings, has not escaped the Argus eyes of literary antiquaries. Nowadays we are surprised to find " ex- pects " used as a noun substantive for " expectations," " exclaim " for " exclama- tion," " dispose " for " disposition," " sup- pose " for " supposition," " manage " for management," and the like. Now, is it not possible that, in the above lines, " en- trance " is a shortened form for " entrance- ment " ? If so, all suspicion of corruption, all difficulty of interpretation, vanish. " This soil "—in other words, England—is per- sonified ; she has been beside herself ; she has been entranced ; and, in that state of enhancement, she has been athirst for blood—the blood of her own children, with which her lips are daubed ! Just so, in the Book of Revelation, Babylon the Great ia represented as a woman drunken with the blood of the saints. Thus, in two short lines, does the poet depict to us one of the bloodiest periods in English history ! PHILIP PERRING. 7, Lyndhurst Road, Exeter. 'THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD.'—In Sir W. Robertson Nicoll's recent book ' The Problem of Edwin Drood ' there is a passage based on so strange a misunderstanding of a part of Dickens's narrative that it should not pass without rectification. If we omit a portion which correctly paraphrases part of chap, xv., and italicize the words to which serious exception must be taken, the passage in question will read as follows :— " I confess to being perpetually puzzled by the account of Neville's capture on the morning after the murder. Why was he pursued in that manner? All that was known against him was that he had been with Edwin on the previous night. He is only eight miles away from Cloisterham, and stop- ping at a roadside tavern to refresh. He starts again on his journey; and becomes aware of other pedestrians behind him coming up at a faster pace than his. He stands aside to let them pass, but only four pass. Other four slackened speed, and loitered as if intending to follow him when he should go on. The remainder of the party (half a dozen, perhaps) turn and go back at a great rate. Among those, who go back is Mr. Cruparklf. Naturally Neville is bewildered. Two of them hold his arms and •'•""' him back into a group whose central figures are Jasper and Crisparkle. Why on earth did not Crisparkle speak to him at the be- ginning, and tell him what had happened? All this is somnambulistic."—Pp. 186-8. That the italicized phrases are not in keep- ing with the narrative will be evident from the following quotation from Dickens, in which 1 venture to make one interpolation and to italicize one word :— " Walking between his conductors, who held his arms in theirs, he went on [not bark] as in a dream, until they came again into the high road, and into the midst of a little group of people. The men who had turned back were among the group, and its central figures were Mr. Jasper and Mr. Crisparkle." The proceedings of the pursuing party as described by Dickens seem to me perfectly intelligible. Neville had hesitated " whether to pursue the road, or to follow a cart- track which evidently struck into the road again by and by. He decided in favour of this alter track."