Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/492

 484

NOTES AND QUERIES.

[9 th S. I. JUNE 18, '98.

' TEMPEST,' I. ii. 457-9.

Mir. There's nothing ill can dwell in such a

temple :

If the ill spirit have so fair a house, Good things will strive to dwell with 't.

Miranda first denies the possibility of any- thing evil in Ferdinand, and then says that, even if he has any failing, there must be redeeming qualities. The last two lines express the alternative of his being absolutely good :

[or] If the ill spirit have so fair a house, c.

There is no attempt at a logical support of her first statement, except so far as sustaining her recommendation to mercy.

'TEMPEST,' II. i. 123-7. (Sebastian's speech.) " Who n in 1. 127 would seem to refer to " yourself " in 1. 123 (or, by associa- tion, to "eye" in 1. 125). "Sir, you may

thank yourself for this great loss who, in

addition to your natural grief, have, to augment it (to wet the grief on 't), the con- sciousness of having been the cause of it." Also, it may be that " hath cause " (1. 126) is a case of absorption for " hath th' cause."

'TEMPEST,' II. i. 231-8.

Ant. Thus, sir :

Although this lord of weak remembrance, this, Who shall be of as little memory When he is earth'd, hath here almost persuaded For he's a spirit of persuasion, only Professes to persuade the king his son 's alive, 'Tis as impossible that he 's undrown'd As he that sleeps here swims.

The object, of course, of Antonio's entire speech is to discredit the evidence of Ferdi- nand's having escaped drowning. Francisco has told of Ferdinand's apparently successful efforts to reach the shore, and it is this account which Antonio attacks in " this lord of weak remembrance," that is, did not remember the facts as they really were. Then comes the sneer at Francisco's position the world would remember him with as little accuracy when he was gone ("who shall be of as little memory when he is earth'd"). This latter could hardly have been said of the " noble Neapolitan, Gonzalo "; nor could the former, as Gonzalo had merely tried to comfort and divert the mind of the king, not to persuade him of the unreality of his loss. Antonio then says that Francisco is a mere " spirit of persuasion," whose end and aim is persuasion, having no substance of fact "only professes to persuade." And in this I do not believe Antonio questions that Francisco sincerely desires to persuade the king, and so relieve his distress, but that he

" only professes [asserts a belief in order] to persuade." E. M. DEY.

St. Louis, Mo., U.S.

WHIST IN EARLY AGES. In my volume on ' English Whist and Whist-Players ' I pointed out, with reference to the assertion of Daines Barrington that whist was at first chiefly confined to the servants' hall, several instances in which the members of the nobility joined in playing the game. The ' Letter-Books of John Hervey, First Earl of Bristol,' which were published in 1894, supply several further quotations on early players of whist in high life. Mrs. Hervey (as she then was) writes on 25 October, 1697, to her husband that his

' ' four sisters have been hear this afternoon, and as they never come unattended brought with them Mr. Ga, Mr. Down, and Mr. Bo. Part of them staid and playd at whish [sic] tel this moment, which is past eleven a'clock." Vol. i. p. 122.

Twenty years later (18 March, 1717), Lord Hervey, as his title was then, writes to the Rev. Mr. Thomas Foulkes, the tutor of Mad Tom Hervey at Oxford, about that son's gambling propensities. He is to follow the example of his

"good grandfather Hervey who, pray tell Tom,

never played at any game but whist, and at that only in Christmas-time for six pence a corner." 76., ii. 49.

Lady Bristol was at Bath in April, 1723, and was then in the centre of the world of whist. " Poor bishop Nevell," she writes,

"can scarce be reckoned among the living, being (in my oppinion) wors than dead ; they say he sitts at Lindseys with one to hold his cards and another to give him snuff ; palsey and gout have brought him to this missirable condition." Ib., ii. 268.

On 1 May she cheerfully informs her husband that the diversion of the evening is the puppet show :

" Betty is gone with lady Torrington ; the wiskers have promised me some diversion after 'tis over." Ib., ii. 278.

" My lord Carleton, who is president of the Wiskers as well as the Counsell," sent her a message on 4 May to ask where she would be attended, obviously for a game of whist (ib., ii. 281). A week later Lady Bristol writes that was going to spend the evening with Mrs. Paget :

" Mrs. Smith and she live together, and were both very kind to me when I was laid up, and as I reign Queen of the Whisk party I have (at her request) appointed them to meet me there." Ib., ii. 287. On 15 May this queen had to mourn the departure of her chief adviser :

" My lord Pres t [Carleton] has left us this day. You can't easily believe how much he will bo