Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/233

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S. I. MAR. 19, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

225

fermanus van Clattercop, the said great-

randfather, must have charged and smoked

is pipes 134,400 times in the twelve months,

68 times each day, 23 times each hour, and

bout once every three minutes. With regard

o the number of pipes used (they were long

(nes from Delft), and apparently broken

accidentally or intentionally, it will be seen

that they averaged three every two days.

The counsel of prudence in a case of this

character is not to impugn the veracity of

the historian, but rather to recognize the

abnormal faculty of his historical figure.

ARTHUR MAYALL.

PECULIAR CHORIASMUS IN SCOTT. In 'The leart of Midlothian,' ch. vii., Scott has the allowing singular inversion in his account of the proceedings of the Porteous mob :

" Porteous and his friends alike wanted presence of mind to suggest or to execute such a plan of escape. The former hastily fled from a place where ,heir own safety seemed compromised, and the atter, in a state resembling stupefaction, awaited n his apartment the termination of the enterprise of the rioters."

Had the narrative been in verse, and had the author used " those " for the friends and " this " for Porteous, he would have afforded an example of a skilled rhetorician illustrating a recognized figure, but it is difficult to reduce his actual statement within the limits of a definition. This is a specimen of the careless kind of grace through which, when it pleases Sir Walter Scott to adapt Nature herself to his purpose, he can place his sunset in the east, or accompany a party in a walk across a ferry into a glen where their presence is urgent. We do not venture to question the perfect right of the Magician to do these things, but we claim the privilege of recording them in an age that is strong in its skill of annotation. THOMAS BAYNE.

Helensburgh, N.B.

EARLY SHAKSPEARIAN BOOKS. As early Shaksperian books are so rare, not more than half a dozen having been offered for sale during the last three years, perhaps a list of these works in my possession may interest readers of 'N. & Q.' The most important book in my collection is a unique, perfect copy of the 1611 edition of ' Pericles.' There is an imperfect edition, wanting two leaves, in the British Museum. There exists such a demand for these rare quartos that a leading bookseller told me my copy might fetch mthe auction-room three hundred guineas, rrom a textual point of view the 1600 edition of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream,' printed by J. Roberts, is the most important, and the one which I prize the most. The money

value of these books shows a marked discre- pancy. My copy of the above book is perfect, with the exception of its being cropped at the edges. I gave about forty pounds for this copy at the Crawford sale. Now I note a second edition of 'Lord Cromwell,' 1613, offered for sale at fifty-five pounds, which proves what little knowledge of the contents of these books is shown by Shaksperian buyers, for surely under no conditions can a pseudo-Shaksperian play be considered to be worth more than an authentic edition of a genuine work :

' Henry V.,' 1608, very fine copy.

' Richard II.,' 1634, very fine copy.

' Romeo and Juliet,' 1637, very fine copy.

' Merchant of Venice,' 1637, very fine n -

Richard II.,' 1634, very fine copy, fine

' Merchant ot Venice,' lt>37, very fine copy.

' Merry Wives of Windsor,' 1630, very fine copy.


 * Pericles,' 1630, fair copy.

' Pericles,' 1635, fair copy.

' Merry Wives of Windsor,' 1619, fair copy.

' Whole Contention,' 1619, fair copy.

' Poems,' 1640, fair copy.

' Two Noble Kinsmen, 1634, very fine.

' Merry Devil,' 1640, very fine.

' Birth of Merlin,' 1660, very fine.

' Oratu ' [sic], containing the trial episode in the ' Merchant of Venice,' 1596, very fine.

One hundred discourses, containing the tale of the induction of ' The Taming of the Shrew,' ' Palace of Pleasure,' 1587.

'Macbeth,' 1673, very rare; also 1674 edition.

' Hamlet,' 1676, 1683, 1695, 1703, late quartos.

'Othello,' 1681, 1695, 1705, late quartos.

Lodge's ' Rosalynde ' and Giraldi Cinthio and 'Mirror for Magistrates,' 1610.

MAURICE JONAS.

9, Draper's Gardens.

ROMAN HOUSE. It may be of interest to record in ' N. & Q.' that on Friday, 25 Feb- ruary, Padre Germano, the well-known rediscoverer of the famous Roman house standing beneath the basilica of SS. Giovanni e Paulo, on the Coelian, having completed excavating the baths belonging to it, which he had recently found at a lower level, personally opened them for inspection. His previous excavations had laid bare twelve chambers, varying in size, not a few of which were decorated with rough paintings repre- senting subjects both pagan and Christian. There was also the " vinarium," with dozens of wine- jars embedded in situ. These new excavations disclose the respective apart- ments for hot and cold baths, the locality of the furnace, the terra-cotta pipes, together with another "vinarium," full of amphorae, at the immediate rear of the hot - water apparatus, which perhaps seems a rather questionable arrangement. Some of these amphorae bear the Christian monogram distinctly upon them. The whole mosaic pavement appears intact. I also noticed an