Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 1.djvu/91

 9 th S. I. JAN. 29, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

83

vould seem to refer to Desdemona : " Nor to

x>mply with heat the yong affects But to

be free, and bounteous to her minde."

' OTHELLO,' II. i. 315.

Abuse him to the Moor in the ranke garb ; taking " ranke " of the quartos to be correct. In order to injure Cassio by leading him to commit an act that would disgrace him in the eyes of Othello, the general, lago forms a plot, if Roderigo will "stand the putting on," to anger Cassio on the watch, lago having previously caused him to forget that he had "poor and unhappy brains for drinking," with the result that Cassio had exceeded, for him, the bounds of temperance. In the line quoted lago states it as his purpose to secure and bring to the notice of the Moor evidence that will fix upon Cassio a breach of military discipline while on duty and clothed with the power, or in the actual garb, of his military rank. He would destroy Cassio's usefulness by causing him to disgrace his uniform.

Tis meet I should be us'd so, very meet. How have I been behav'd, that he might stick The small'st opinion on my least misuse?
 * OTHELLO,' IV. ii. 107-9.

If the last two lines are uttered in justi- fication, the first line is thereby given a touch of irony, something which is surely far re- moved from its true spirit. Is not this speech, however, one of self-reproach from beginning to end? Desdemona is utterly cast down, and, in the depths of her despair, sees herself in the worst possible light. "'Tis meet I should be us'd so, very meet. How have I been behav'd [her conduct in deceiving her father], that he might stick the small'st opinion [favourable judgment, degree of credit or esteem] on my least misuse ? " How have I been behaved that even my least misconduct should merit any the smallest degree of indul- gence on his part? With this explanation of " opinion " a meaning is given to this speech very much in keeping with the character of the gentle Desdemona and her unhappy situation. EDWARD MERTON DEY.

St. Louis, Mo., U.S.

'CYMBELINE,' IV. ii. 333-4 (8 th S. xi. 224, 343). B. C. is quite correct in saying that three bodies of troops are mentioned in III. vii., but of these two only were avail- able for service in Britain. Excluding those who were engaged in warfare against the Pannonians and Dalmatians, we have the legions in Gallia and the proposed levy at Rome. Lucius, who had the command of the legions in Gallia, had preceded them to

Britain, and was now (IV. ii.) informed of their arrival there. As we are told that the Roman levy under the command of lachimo has not yet arrived, I fail to see to what other troops the words " to them " can refer. We know of none already in Britain with whom the legions from Gallia were now united. R. M. SPENCE, M.A.

Manse of Arbuthnott, N.B.

'HAMLET ' (8 th S. xii. 484). The reading of this note recalls to my mind the lines of Pope :

Booth enters hark ! the universal peal ! But has he spoken? Not a syllable. What shook the stage, and made the people stare? Cato's long wig, flowered gown and lackered chair. ' Imitations of Horace, 5 book ii. epistle i.

E. YARDLEY.

' HAMLET,' I. i. 158 (8 th S. xi. 224, 343). The French have, so far as I am aware, no other word than chanter = to sing, for the crowing of the cock. Is it, then, to be wondered at that it should mediaevally have been so Eng- lished ? Different cocks have different styles of crowing, and it is not improbable that the old monks may have fancied them as repeating some portions of their litanies and orisons. There is one near here who to me, who am neither monk nor Catholic, seems to repeat, " Cum spiritu tuo ! " As for being " the bird of dawning," <fec., it is my experience that he will crow at any time that he may be aroused, and that it is the man that rouses the bird, and not the bird the man. For a really early bird, I think the wren carries the palm, by some half hour at least.

THOMAS J. JEAKES.

I was surprised on seeing a representation of this play at the Lyceum Theatre in September last to find the description of the cock omitted, the idea in which is so beautiful :

Marcettus. Some say, that ever 'gainst that season

comes

Wherein our Saviour's birth is celebrated, This bird of dawning singeth all night long ; And then, they say, no spirit stirs abroad : The nights are wholesome ; then no planets strike, No fairy takes, nor witch hath power to charm ; So hallowed and so gracious is the time.

' Hamlet,' I. i.

It is a passage that always occurs to me on Christmas Eve, and certainly on the last eve the cockerels were crowing at intervals during the whole of the night an undesigned coincidence, as Paley would have said. The propriety of the epithet " singeth " is by no means clear, as the note is harsh. And vet Tennyson applies to the cock the same epithet in 'Mariana; or, the Moated Grange';