Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 9.djvu/79

 ii s. ix. JAX. 24, 1914.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

THE SECOND FOLIO OF THE SHAKESPEAKE PLAYS, 1632 (US. viii. 141, 196, 232, 294 317; ix. 11). The two points originally raised by SIB EDWIN BURNING-LAWRENCE (1) that correct pages in the case of that containing Milton's epitaph on Shakespeare appear in some copies, and incorrect pages in other copies, and (2) that the three known copies giving " starre-ypointed Pyramid " instead of " starre-ypointing " are the correct ones are interesting, and should be pursued further, if possible. But may I be allowed to prevent undue Baconian enthu- siasm regarding the added point about Sylvester's pyramid of words about Sidney For although SIR EDWIN'S assurance that Sidney's crest, A porcupine az., quilled collared, and chained or, as here used, stands for " hanged-hog," would evidently have been " doubly sure " had he known that Sylvester had dedicated some sonnets to Anthony Bacon (his ' Sonnets upon the late Miraculous Peace in France '), all can be adequately explained without supposing any reference either to a Beacon or to Bacon.

The pyramid -form of the words of Syl vester's address to the departed Sidney is due simply and solely to the suggestion in Sidney's arms, Or, a pheon az., the barbed head of an arrow forming a fine apex there- for.

And the opening sentence

ENGLAND'S Apelles (rather OVR APOLLO) WORLD'S wonder SIDNEY, that rare more-then-men, This LOVELY VENVS first to LIMNE beganne, With such a P E N c I L L as no P E N N E dares follow : How the shold I in Wit & Art so shalow, Attempt the Task (which yet none other can) ? is due solely and simply to the fact that Sidney had preceded Sylvester as a trans- lator of ' Bartas His Diuine Weekes & AVorkes " as Sylvester put it.

SIR EDWIN DURNING-LAWRENCE should turn to the Stationers' Register for 23 Sept., 1588. He will there find William Ponsonby given permission to print, not only Sidney's famous ' Arcadia,' but also " A translation of Salust de Bartas done by the same S r P. into englishe." J. DENHAM PARSONS.

If there is one thing more clear than another in Milton's tribute to Shakespeare, it is that the dramatist needs no conven- tional monument to perpetuate his memory. Now apparently, on the showing of SIR EDWIN DURNING-LAWRENCE, a Baconian

pyramid of one kind or another was a prac- tically universal erection in the Elizabethan age. But Milton holds that Shakespeare's fame can dispense with such a laborious- pile, whether it is to be called a " star- ypointing " or a " star-ypointed " pyramid. The dramatist is altogether apart from these- things, and is for ever enshrined in the hearts of his readers. Thus if the pyramid, with its hanged-hog, or its beacon, or its Bacon,. is to be adhibited to any literary product as- an indication of origin, it is to be used, in Milton's view, anywhere but in connexion with the work of Shakespeare. The poet may have known Bacon's secret of omni- science, as SIR E. DURNING-LAWRENCE stoutly avers, and on that assumption it is reassuring to find him testifying that Shakespeare's writings were beyond its mighty range. Such dull witness, he affirms, as a " star-ypointing " or " star-ypointed "" structure is totally irrelevant in the case of these sublime products, whatever intrinsic merits it may possess as a token of mystic import. Manifestly, therefore, it needs a good deal more than the settling of a doubt- ful reading to prove that Milton proclaimed Bacon to have been the world's greatest poet under the name of Shakespeare.

It may be pointed out to SIR EDWIN DURNING-LAWRENCE in passing that the sonnet he quotes from Sylvester is a narra- tive or statement, and not " a splendid panegyric addressed to Sidney"; and it may also be relevant to ask him to reconsider his interpretation of " holy relique " in that somewhat laboured example of versification. Meanwhile he may possibly advance his cause a little if he will definitely settle one great difficulty about Bacon's poetical possibilities. In the philosopher's Collected Works there are various specimens of what may be considered his acknowledged experi- ments in verse. If the man who wrote the dramas and the poems called Shakespeare's also produced these, then it is probably a fair inference that in doing so he made un- commonly successful practice in the guise of an inexpert adventurer. SIR EDWIN DURNING - LAWRENCE will certainly confer a favour on students of English poetry if he will finally dispose of the dilemma thus suggested. THOMAS BAYNE.

SIR EDWIN DURNING-LAWRENCE says at e last reference that the pyramidal verses on Sir Philip Sidney prefixed to Sylvester's- Du Bartas ' appear to have no possible connexion with that work, and again, more positively, that the whole page has none.