Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/15

 xii. JULY *, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

SHAKESPEARE'S BOOKS. (See 9 th S. v. 329 ; vi. 144, 283, 464 ; vii. 163, 423 ; viii. 78, 180, 321 ; xi. 64, 203.) Pistol. He hears ivith earn.

Evan*. The tevil and his tani ! what phrase is this, ," He hears with ear " '! Why, it is affectations.

' Merry Wives,' I. i.

Nurse. I saw the wound, I saw it with mine eyes. ' Romeo and Juliet,' III. ii.

Shakespeare in these passages refers to " pleonasm us," the vice of surplusage, thus described by Puttenham :

" The Poet or makers speech becomes vicious and unpleasant by nothing more than by using too much surplusage : and this lieth not only in a word or two more than ordinary, but in whole clauses, and peradventure large sentences unpertinently spoken, or with more labour and curiositie than is requisite. The first surplusage the Greeks call Pleonasmua, I call him too full speech, and is no great fault, as if one should say, I heard it with mine eares and saw it with mine eyes, as if a man could heare with his heels, or see with his nose."

The words which Evans and the Nurse use, " He hears with ears " and I " saw it with mine eyes," are the words which Puttenham uses in illustrating this ornament. I think Evans also refers to cacozelia (see 9 th S. viii. 79). W. L. RUSHTON.

(To be continued.)

"CABINET " IN A CONSTITUTIONAL SENSE. Historians have often explained that the Cabinet is not an officially recognized part of our Constitution. That, however, can no longer be considered to be entirely the case, for the account of their Majesties' Court, held at Buckingham Palace on 28 May, officially supplied to the newspapers, contains the subjoined :

" The following members of His Majesty's Govern- ment in the Cabinet attended the Court : The Marquis of Londonderry (President of the Board of Education), the Earl of Onslow (President of the Board of Agriculture), Lord George Hamilton (Secretary of State for India)."

POLITICIAN.

Qnttitt.

WE must request correspondents desiring infor- mation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.

LUSHINGTON. It is commonly stated in slang dictionaries that luxh, meaning drink, is an abbreviation of lushingion, and that this is a use of the surname of " a once well- known London brewer." What evidence is there of the existence of a London brewer of this name, and when did he live ?

In 9 th S. iv. 523 ME, J. HOLDEN MACM JCHAEL

gives some account of a tavern club called the " City of Lushington," of which, he says, the Prince Regent, Sheridan, and Kean were members. Unfortunately he gives no autho- rity for his statements. I should be glad to have references to any contemporary mention of this club. The date 1741 in MR. MAC- MICHAEL'S article is (as I learn from 4 th S. ix. 381) a misprint for 1841. The error has caused me some loss of time.

The name of an Alderman Lushington appears in some of the jocular phrases at one time proverbially current with reference to strong drink. This is presumably merely a

Eim. But what is the date of Alderman ushington's tenure of office, and had he any particular celebrity or notoriety 1

HENRY BRADLEY.

Clarendon Press, Oxford.

CRABBE'S MSS. Can any of your readers tell me if the MSS. of Crabbe's 4 Village,' 4 Newspaper,' * Parish Register,' * Borough,' 'Tales,' and 'Tales of the Hall' (these last sold for \l. 6s. in 1846) are still in existence? Does any surviving member of the family of Mr. Samuel Hoare, the banker of Bath and Hampstead Heath, still possess Crabbe's letters to Miss Hoare ? R. HUCHON.

67, Rue Jeanne d'Arc, Nancy.

MOTTOES. What is the meaning of the mottoes "From Caf to Caf" and "Sohou, Sohou " ? The former is given as the motto of General W. M. Cafe, V.C., the latter of George Cawston, Esq., of Cawston, Norfolk. I quote from Mr. A. C. Fox-Da vies's ' Armorial Families.' JAMES HOOPER.

"NlGHTRAIL AND NOTABLENESS." What

is the meaning of the words italicized in the following passage ?

" Does it not look as if she would have been an useful creature in the days of nightrail and notable- ness, had she been a wife in good time?" Lady G. in 'Sir Charles Grandison, 5 vol. v. letter xliii.,

M. H. C.

[Nightrail is a loose robe worn over the other dress, also a nightgown, and, yet again, a species of headgear in use in the seventeenth century. ]

MARAT IN LONDON. Marat, as he himself relates, resided in London ten years and in Dublin one year. In 1776 he was living in Church Street, Soho, the dedication to the Royal Society of his treatise ' On a Singular Affection of the Eyes caused by the Use of Mercurial Preparations,' dated 1 January, 1776, bearing that address, as is duly noted in 'London, Past and Present' (i. 400). The house in which Marat lived} has not been