Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/252

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NOTES AND QUERIES. t u s. ix. MAR. 28, im.

her letter, and " shall" cannot possibly refer to himself ; his present position is too Helpless. On the other hand, Cordelia is 3,bout to restore order in England, with the aid of her French forces.

2. The "From" of the Qq. and F. is, T think, an easy corruption of form, in the sense of shape, restore, reform : a not in- frequent usage of the noun, and also of the adjective " formal."

3. " Enormous," in the sense of " out of the norm or regular course," is a aTrag Acyo/xevov in Shakespeare, and gives merely a strained sense here. But Shakespeare, I 'believe, did not write it. I think he wrote emulous, a not uncommon word with him, and exactly suiting the present passage when used in its bad sense of the jealous or malicious rivalry of factions : see ' Troilus and Cressida,' II. iii. 79, " a good quarrel to draw emulous fac- tions and bleed to death upon " ; ib. 142, " He is not emulous as Achilles is " ; ib. III! iii. 189, " Whose glorious deeds but in these fields of late Made emulous missions Amongst the gods themselves " ; ib. II. ii. 212 (similarly of the noun), " Whilst emulation in the army crept."

4. The admittedly corrupt printing of the Quarto of 16081 speak of the " Pide Bull " Quarto only, which is certainly the first printed Quarto, and " perhaps the very worst specimen of the printer's craft that over issued from the press," says Craig, Introduction to the Arden edition, p. xii gives us full warrant for believing that 1. 167 did not leave Shakespeare's hand as it now stands in modern texts, or as it was printed in the Folio, viz. :

This shamefull lodging. Fortune goodnight, The harmless necessary " tag " is wanting, for one thing, and an effort to supply it with some element of sweet reasonableness may not be out of place. The germ of the miss- ing portion may, perhaps, be found in the grim pleasantry of Kent, who has just been put in the stocks by Cornwall and Regan. In 11. 151, 152, ante, he says to Gloucester : Some time I shall sleep out, the rest I '11 whistle. A good man's fortune may grow out at heels : <jrive you good morrow !

Of course we are not at liberty to put our own guesswords into Shakespeare's text, such as it is, although, perhaps, it is hardly a liberty to make use of his own words ; and even so, any suggested restoration of this kind must be bracketed, as below. Kent is certainly " a good man " ; his fortunes have, figuratively, " grown out at heels," and his legs being in the stocks (1. 145), he,

personally and literally, is " out at heel " in that " shameful lodging."

The passage then, in my view, should be printed as follows :

and he 'II find time

To form this emulous state, seeking to give Losses their remedies. All weary and o'er-watch'd Take vantage, heavy eyes,, not to behold This shameful lodging. [I am out at heel:] Fortune, good night : smile once more ; turn thy wheel. [Sleeps.

Or, assuming that Kent apostrophises For- tune, we could read :

[Thou art out at heel.] Fortune ! &c.,

i.e., Thou, my fortune, art out at heel.

HENRY CUNINGHAM.

ST. BOTOLPH'S, ALDGATE, DISCOVERY AT REBUILDING, 1742. One of the less familiar prints illustrating the topography or local interest of Aldgate is a folio etching repre- senting a mummified figure. The accom- panying text is sufficiently explanatory :

" This print is an exact Representation of a Boy about 12 years old, who was found erect with his Cloaths on in a vault under Saint Bo- tolph's, Aldgate, old Church, in the year 1742, and is supposed to have been shut in at the time of the plague in London, 1665, as the vault had not been open'd from that period 'till the time above mentioned, when the Church was pull'd down. The Extraordinary Circumstance of this Boy is that his Skin, Fibres, and Intestines are all <lried, and very little of his Bones appears and [he only] weighs about 18 pounds. He is in the possession of Mr. T. Rogers, No. 2, Maiden Lane, Wood Street, London ; this print may be had, price 2s., with a ticket for a sight of the Boy."

The impression before me is overprinted "In the Possession of John Symmons, Esq., Grosvenor House, Westminster." There are no references to this remarkable " find " in the histories of this church.

ALECK ABRAHAMS.

" CHILTERN." The origin of this name has been much discussed. Prof. Skeat said that the first part was celte, of which he did not know the meaning. Is it any- thing more than the celd which is constantly applied to springs and sources of rivers ?

Chiltern St. Mary in Wilts is at a stream- head. Chilfroom Down is the source of the River Frome. Chilcomb, near Win- chester, was Celtecomb; Chilcompton, in Somerset, was Childcompton ; Challacomb, in Devon, was Celdecoma; and each is a river-source. Chillmill was once Childmell, and looks as parallel to Fontmell as Back- well is to Backchild (now called Bapchild) in Kent. Even the surname Children, which