Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 11.djvu/171

 9 th S. XL FEB. 28, 1903.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

163

and water, as a fire is smothered by water. Orlando was " between the devil and the deep sea." Kipling uses the word smother to de- scribe the blinding foam driven from a swell- ing sea by the hurricane.

I suggest that the correct reading in ' Lear ' should be "Oh ! how the smother swells up towards my heart !" T. B. WILMSHURST.

'As You LIKE IT ': " JUNO'S SWANS." And wheresoe'er we went, like Juno's swans, Still we went coupled and inseparable. I. iii. 77. This curious mistake of the dramatist, first noted by Wright, is commented on by the " Variorum " editor, who has been unable to trace its source. Shakespeare undoubtedly was indebted to Kyd's (?) play of * Soliman and Perseda' for the attribution of swans to Juno. In Act IV. of that play we have this passage :

I should have deern'd them Juno's goodly swans, Or Venu-^ milk-white doves : so mild they are, And so adorned with beauty's miracle. That Shakespeare in ' As You Like It ' showed some little evidence of familiarity with 'Soliman and Perseda' seems certain. Or- lando's conquest of the wrestler has its counterpart in Erastus as the beardless youth overthrowing the Englishman, Turk, French- man, and Basilisco. And whereas in 'As You Like It ' Rosalind bestows a chain on Orlando after his victory, in 'Soliman and Perseda' Erastus, after his triumphs, bemoans the loss of a chain given him by Perseda.

CHAS. A. HERPICH. THE WINTER'S TALE,' I. ii. 11-14. I am question'd by my fears, of what may chance, Or breed upon our absence ; that may blow No sneaping winds at home, to make us say, " This is put forth too truly."

In the same scene, 11. 30-2, Hermione says to Leontes :

Tell him, you are sure

All in Bohemia 's well ; this satisfaction

The bygone day proclaim'd.

The news from Bohemia was of an assuring nature, if it could be credited, but Polixenes is disturbed by doubts on the subject : ** I am questioned by my fears as to what (evils) may chance or breed upon our absence, that (said evils) may blow no sneaping (nipping) winds at home (give no timely warning to those in authority at home, such as, being reported) to make us say, ' This is put forth too truly ' (to confirm us in our expressed fears)." E. MERTON DEY.

'THE WINTER'S TALE,' I. ii. 74-5.

The imposition clear'd Hereditary ours.

" The imposition clear'd (the adding to, im-

)osition of anything upon, original sin having Deen clear'd by our answering boldly ' Not

uilty ') hereditary ours (only the sin which was hereditary could be imputed to us)." E. MERTON DEY.

St. Louis, U.S.

' HAMLET,' I. i. 115 sq. (9 th S. viii. 237, 480 ; x. 342 ; x. 224). In support of what I have written I will quote from ' Julius Csesar ' the well-known lines, spoken by Calphurnia : When beggars die there are no comets seen ; The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.

Shakspeare here undoubtedly has in his mind the thought that comets prognosticate he death of rulers, and that they appeared oefore the death of Csesar. An objection has been made to the recurrence of the word star in the passage in ' Hamlet.' But another famous English poet has a similar repetition. Gray in his ' Bard ' has written the following lines :

The swarm, that in thy noontide beam were born, Gone to salute the rising morn. Fair laughs the morn, and soft the zephyr blows, While, proudly riding o'er the azure realm, In gallant trim the gilded vessel goes, Youth on the prow and Pleasure at the helm.

The morn in one line refers to Richard II. I think that in the next line it has a different signification. For Gray's own note to the second morn is that the magnificence of Richard's reign is meant. He is referring no longer to Richard himself. E. YARDLEY.

MR. PIERPOINT quotes Hesiod in connexion with his topic I presume he is familiar with ' Iliad,' xvi. 458 :

cos ec^ar'' ovS' aariOntrt Trarrjp dvSpwv re 0ctov re. - Se

TrcuSa i\ov Bath.

PATRICK MAXWELL.

THE 'PASTON LETTERS' AND THE 'N.E.D.' (See ante, p. 142.)

Dam. 1450, i. 170, "Sir John Bukk ...... holp

brake my damme, destroyed my new mille."

Damage (law). 1440, i. 41, "John Lyston re- coveryd in assisa novae disseisinse vij c [700J marc in damages ayenst Sir Robert Wyngfeld."

Dance attendance. 1475, iii. 130, "I purpose ......

therafftre to daunce atendaunce most abowt yowr plesure and ease."

Dash, v. 1 (sense 6). 1450, i. 146, " F[or] in a general oyer and termyuer a suptrsedeas may dassh al."

Debar, sb. (not in). 1459, i. 452, " where there be no lawefull answere nor debarre of the tayle."

Deburse. 1457, i. 416, " the yeerly grete damage he beryth in debursyng hys money aboute shyppes and botes."

Dece^/zt%.-1464, ii. 166.