Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/62

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [n s. vn. JAN. is, 1913.

(W. T. Fernie. * Herbal Simples '). Celery is a cultivated variety of the common smallage (small ache), or wild celery (Apium graveolens), which grows abundantly in moist English ditches or in water. The root of the wild celery, smallage, or marsh parsley was reckoned by the ancients one of the five great aperient roots, and was employed .in their diet drinks. The great parsley is the large age. or large acho ; by a strange inconsistency, the Romans adorned the heads of their guests and the tombs of their dead with crowns of the smallage. Common parsley (Apium, petro- selinum) is only found in this country as a cultivated plant, and was introduced into England from Sardinia in the sixteenth century. Its adjective title petro-selinum signifies " growing on a rock."

The Greeks held parsley in high esteem, making therewith the victor's crown of dried and withered parsley at their Isthmian games, and the wreath for the adorning the tombs of their dead. Hence the proverb 8etcr#ai (rcAu/oi/ (to need parsley) was applied to persons dangerously ill and not expected to live. The herb was never brought to table of old, being held sacred to oblivion and the defunct.

TOM JONES.

FIRST FOLIO SHAKESPEARE (11 S. vii. 8). It seems a pity not to consult my to ' N. & Q.' such queries as these. A reference to p. 495 therein would reveal the earliest known mention of the first edition in William Cartwright's letter, dated 30 Nov. 1623, the week of publication.
 * Shakespeare Bibliography ' before sending

There are several earlier pictorial repre sentations of the volume than that quoted not all of which, however, are so definitely labelled. A search among the many por traits mentioned on pp. 616-19 and 728, ai the British Museum and elsewhere, woulc bring to light other examples. Speaking from memory, I mention these :

Shakespeare, Works, 1744, 6 vols., 4to. The portrait by H. Gravelot exhibits two folios beneatl the oval bust.

[This was reprinted in the 1771 edition, 6 vols. 4to.]

Shakespeare, Works, 1787-8, 8 vols., 8vo. Tlv portrait by Angus depicts the poet, with pen ir hand, at a table littered with books and manu scripts. On the floor is an open folio decked wit! flowers.

Shakespeare, Works, c. 1780. The portrait by Cook (after a painting attributed to Taylor o Burbage) depicts an open folio labelled 'Shake speare s Works/

Shakespeare, Works, c. 1770. The portrait by . Fougeron shows the poet declaiming, apparently n front of his birthplace, and holding possibly a olio, which is partly hidden by his loose doublet, ^s the folio was published posthumously, however, his plate may safely be left out of the reckoning.

In both the latter cases I can give only an approximate date, as the loose portraits n my possession have not all been identified.

The portrait of the Earl of Southampton nentioned by MR. HARRIS is reprinted in ny work (see p. 638).

In addition to the entries given above, me should not overlook the Westminster Abbey statue, which exhibits the poet with elbow resting on a pile of books ; engraved n 1744, and reprinted in 1750-51, 1752, and 1771. This monument, by the way, brmed the model for that on the face of the Stratford-on-Avon Town Hall, sculp- tured in 1768, the gift of Garrick.

There are several fraudulent portraits, such as the Felton picture, purporting to date back to 1595. This delineates in the background a bookcase containing folios. In my possession is one of Zincke's frauds, which pretends to be a contemporary por- trait in oils of the poet. A folio upon a table near the figure is labelled ' As You Like It ' (an ironical comment on the eagerness with which collectors bought up so-called " original " portraits of Shake- speare about the end of the eighteenth century). WILLIAM JAGGARD.

" OF SORTS " (11 S. vii. 10). I can claim no special authority to reply to DR KRUEGER'S inquiry under this head, but, as it is my own somewhat colloquial expres- sion which exercises him, I wilt explain what, at any rate, I meant by " a bowl of sorts." We all, I suppose, have pretty much the same idea of the size and shape of what is generally termed a bowl ; but as I did not intend to indicate a bowl of exactly this kind, but yet some sort or kind of bowl, I wrote a bowl " of sorts." The expression is now common, but I think it is a quite modern idiom. My impression is that it is not twenty years old. As I used it and as it is often used no disparage- ment was intended : the bowl might have been superior to what we generally under- stand by a bowl ; still, most commonly the expression is one of depreciation or dis- paragement. " A spaniel of sorts," for example, would be understood to mean a dog whose owner called him a spaniel, but which, critically regarded, would be con* sidered somewhat of a mongrel. D. O,