Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/191

 9 th S. II. SEPT. 3, '98.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

183

Southampton, where he had passed so many happy hours of courtship with Lady Rachel. He met his death like a gallant Englishman and a true Christian, and his wife's letters have contributed to enshrine his memory for all time. 1 am glad to see that the London County Council, now that Lincoln's Inn Fields have come under their jurisdiction, have placed a tablet in the centre of the square to his memory, with this inscription :

On this Spot was Beheaded

Lord William Russell,

A Lover of Constitutional Freedom,

21st of July, 1683.

For this act on their part, I, as a lover of London antiquities, beg to thank that august body, and to express the hope that they will repeat it as occasion presents itself.

R. CLARK. Walthamstow.

MARSTON AND SHAKSPEARE. Have the fol- lowing lines in Marston's 'First Satire' (1598) ever been identified as an attack on Shake- speare 1

But oh, the absolute Castillo,

He that can all the poynts of courtship show.

He that can trot a Courser, break a rush,

And arm'd in proofe, dare dure a strawei strong

Eush. o on his glorious scutchion Can quaintly show wit's newe invention, Advancing forth some thirstie Tantalus, Or els the Vulture on Prometheus, With some short motto of a dozen lines. He that can purpose it in dainty rimes, Can set his face, and with his eye can speake, Can dally with his Mistres' dangling feak, And wish that he were it, to kisse her eye And flare about her beauty's deitie. Tut, he is famous for his reveling, For fine sette speeches, and for sonnetting ; He scorns the violl and the scraping sticke, And yet 's but Broker of another's wit. Certes if all things were well known and viewed, He doth but champe that which another chew'd. Come, come, Castilion, skim thy posset curd, Show thy queere substance, worthlesse, most ab- surd.

Take ceremonious complement from thee, Alas ! I see Castillo's beggery.

What drew my attention to the passage was the similarity between the fourth line of the above passage and ' King Lear,' IV. vi. 171:

Arm it in rags, a pigmy's straw does pierce it ; and it may be noted that from " Plate sin with gold to "seal the accuser's lips " ('King Lear,' IV. vi. 169-174) is not in the quartos. " He that can trot a Courser" appears to refer to Shakespeare's horse-holding days, and "his glorious scutchion " to the grant of arms.

With the lines " Plate sin with gold," &c.

cf. Montaigne, first book, ch. xlii. "Hie beatus introrsum est; istius bracteata fseli- itas est " (Seneca, 'Epist.,' 115). " One is in- wardly happy : another's felicitie is plated and guilt-over " (Florio's translation).

There are at least four other passages or lines in Shakespeare, the third of which is also omitted from the quartos, so far as I can ascer- tain, referring to a spear as a straw or grass, or as being shaken or wagged, viz. :

1. To tickle our noses with spear grass, &c.

'1 Henry IV., 'II. iv. 340.

2. Now I see our lances are but straws.

' Taming of the Shrew,' V. ii. 173.

3. Tremble and start at wagging of a straw.

'Richard III., 'III. v. 7.

4. He is coming ; I hear his straw rustle.

' Measure for Measure,' IV. iii. 34.

It is certainly strange that two such pas- sages, comparing "spear" to "straw," and "shake" to "wag" especially the one in ' Richard III.,' considering its context should be in the folio editions published after Shakespeare's death, and not in the quartos published in his lifetime.

Will some more experienced critics throw light on the point, and also give their views on the passage in Marston's ' Satire ' ?

C. S. HARRIS.

THE OBSERVANCE OF A WAKE DISCONTINUED. I happened to come across the Wellington (Shropshire) Journal (p. 8, col. 1) of 30 July, from which I extracted the following, which you may care to record in ' N. & Q.' I offer no surmises as to the cause thereof :

" The Wakes. Perhaps there are few instances on record of the sudden collapse of an old institution to equal that which has marked the annual ' wake ' at Albrighton (near Wolverhampton) this year. There were no swing-boats, no Aunt Sallys, no roundabouts, no gingerbread stalls, but the village wore its ordinary aspect of peaceful quietude."

STEERHOPE DE ST.

WATERLOO. You have so many inquiries about Waterloo that perhaps the following 8vo. pamphlet may be interesting :

"Inscriptions gravies sur les Monumens eriges a Waterloo et sur le Champ cle Bataille en M&noire du 18 Juin, 1815. Bruxelles, chez Gerard Litho- graphe [sic], editeur, Rue d'Accolay No. 29. Depose"

I have also a privately printed account of the field of Waterloo written the day after the battle by Mr. Newman Smith.

E. E. T.

MR. GLADSTONE AS PHILOLOGIST. Mr. John Temple Leader, a friend of Mr. Gladstone, in a small volume recently published in Florence, entitled 'Philological Pastime of an Englishman,' derives the English word