Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 12.djvu/253

 9* S. XII. SEPT. 26, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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seem to me remarkable, for these are akin to law; that he should be a great poet, affecting the human heart as no other poet has ever done, and showing the highest powers of the imagination, seems to me impossible. To be a great lawyer is incompatible with being a great poet. Nevertheless Shakspeare was fond of showing his little legal knowledge, and Bacon has written some verse. There have been writers of eminence, like Walter Scott and Thackeray, who were lawyers by profession, but they must have made law quite subordinate to literature, although some of them, like Walter Scott, have got money by following the law. Hoffmann, the author of 'The Pot of Gold' and other imagi- native stories, was a man of genius who was also a judge or a magistrate. I think, however, that his legal duties sat lightly on him. His connexion with the law seems somewhat similar to that of Walter Scott. It was neither absorbing nor permanent. Politi- cians turn to literature. Literary men, like Chateaubriand and Lamartine, have held high place as politicians, but they never were real statesmen, and I should not call them men of great genius. A man of action may be great in more fields of action than one. Julius Csesar and Napoleon Bonaparte were statesmen and generals, but they were not, and could not be, poets, though Julius Csesar was a writer. Amongst the ancient Greeks and later Spaniards and Portuguese we find poets who were soldiers and even generals. They, however, were not wholly military. Only a part, and sometimes a small part, of their lives was spent in service. Horace's experience of war was very short, and although he was a military tribune he was not a distinguished soldier. A man may be excellent in more ways than one, but he cannot be a man of genius in two different ways. A few instances, such as that of Sheridan, might be given which seem to be exceptions to the rule ; I doubt whether they are so. The same inclination made Sheridan an orator and a writer of comedy.

E. YARDLEY.

[MR. EDWARD LATHAM at 9 th S. xi. 373 gave exact references to Buffon's definition.]

ENVELOPES. A writer in a magazine of high character, telling of the Victorian times previous to the introduction of the penny postage, says, " Envelopes in those days were not invented : letters were folded together and open at the sides." This is not accurate, even so far as England is concerned. I have seen among the papers of a North- Country baronet who flourished in the earlier

years of George III., and was in frequent communication with the higher officials of the Government, several large envelopes measuring about eight inches by six. They were made of strong paper, but had probably never passed through the post, as they had no office stamps upon them. Among the papers of a Swiss lady who married an Englishman, and was a contemporary of the baronet mentioned above, are still preserved some unused envelopes about five inches by four. It is probable, though not certain, that they were of foreign manufacture.

COM. EBOR.

[The late Sir T. Duffus Hardy, Deputy-Keeper of the Records, told us of an instance in which an applicant for an office was summarily rejected for sending " a licked envelope."]

" CHAPERONED BY HER FATHER." I came across this expression recently in the columns of a halfpenny journal of large circulation. Is it not somewhat novel to introduce the male sex in such a character ? With the healthy English substantive " escort " avail- able, there are those inclined to resent altogether the intrusion of this frequently misspelt, French-sounding " chaperon " into our language. CECIL CLARKE.

Junior Athenaeum Club, W.

"WHILE THERE is LIFE THERE is HOPE." The thought in this common saying is obvious enough, but it is interesting to note that an exact parallel occurs in one of Cicero's letters. In * Att.' ix. 10, 3, he writes, " ut segroto, dum anima est, spes esse dicitur." The form of expression shows that the saying had already reached the proverbial stage.

ALEX. LEEPER.

Trinity College, Melbourne University.

tom the weaver, Robin Starveling the tailor, and the rest, meet "in a cottage," to settle the parts of those who " are to play in pur interlude " (Act I. sc. ii.). From time to time many persons were Ci presented " by the jury at the Quarter Sessions for the North Riding of Yorkshire for playing interludes, and others for receiving and entertaining them. It is worth notice that most of the actors were weavers, tailors, and shoemakers. At Helmsley, 8 July, 1612, two weavers and a shoemaker were reported as " wandering up and downe, common players of interludes." At Thirsk, 7 April, 1619, four weavers and two tailors were presented as *' common players of enterludes, &c., playing at New Malton and divers other places," and an ale- house-keeper of Pickering also was presented "for receiving into his dwelling-house, and
 * MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.' Nick Bot-