Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/254

 246

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. IL SKT. 2*. t

originally written to enunciate in a familiar way a discovery due to Swammerdam, what a universal titter he would raise ! It would, however, be difficult to find the idea stated more simply and solemnly than it is a propos of the famous Dutch scientist by Michelet (' L'Insecte,' p. 106) :

" Pour le peu que nous en voyons, chaque animal est la petite planete, le monde qu'habitent des animaux f>lus petits encore, habites par d'autres plus petits. Et cela sans fin, sans repos, sauf 1'impuissance de nos sens et 1'imperfection de 1'op-

tique. Get infini "

T. P. ARMSTRONG.

Putney.

THREE SISTERS MARRIED AT ONCE. This is surely a very rare occurrence. Three sisters named Kay were united in wedlock to the men of their choice at the same time by Dr. Campbell, of Stirling, on 5 August. A re- markable coincidence was that two of the bridegrooms, it is reported, bore the same surname, though not blood relations. I have not heard of triple marriages before, and it might be interesting to know of other cases of a like nature, if such there be.

WALTER M. GRAHAM EASTON.

SHAKSPEARE'S IMITATIONS OF HIS OWN CHARACTERS. There is a sort of family like- ness in the offspring of Shakspeare's genius :

Facies non omnibus una, Nee diversa tamen, qualem decet esse sororum.

A careful observer can detect the resemblance between Timon of Athens and King Lear. The disagreeable character of Leonatus Post- humus, with his savage, selfish jealousy against an innocent wife, is like that of Othello ; and as lachimo plays a similar part to that of lago, the resemblance is strengthened. 'The Winter's Tale 'has also a likeness to 'Othello.' There is something of Othello, Desdemona, and Emilia in Leontes, Hermione, and Paulina. But there is no lago in the play. The loss and recovery by Leontes of his wife and daughter, whom he had thought dead, may be compared with a simi- lar event in 'Pericles'; but the catastrophe is more absurd and unnatural in 'The Winter's Tale ' than in the other play. The revival of Hermione is also like that of Hero in ' Much Ado about Nothing,' but it is more impro- bable, Hermione being represented as a statue, and the secret of her existence having been concealed fifteen years. Doubtless the original of these unexpected revivals is the 'Alcestis' of Euripides. Sir Andrew Ague- cheek and Master Slender have some resem- blance one to the other, but their common original, as most people know, is Master

Stephen in Ben Jonson's ' Every Man in his Humour.' ' The Two Gentlemen of Verona ' contains much that reminds us of Shak- speare's later productions. In the second scene of the first act is a conversation similar to that in ' The Merchant of Venice ' between Portia and Nerissa. In the first scene of the second act Shakspeare plays on a string similar to one in ' As You Like It.' In the first scene of the third act the soliloquy of Valentine is like the speech of Romeo when he hears that he is banished. Some- thing of the fourth scene of the fourth act has been reproduced, with much variation, in 'Twelfth Night.' Doubtless other resem- blances might be noted. There is so much in ' The Two Gentlemen of Verona,' as there is also in 'The Comedy of Errors,' which is afterwards repeated in 'Romeo and Juliet' and in ' Twelfth Night,' that we cannot fail to see the one author of all these plays. Any- body, I imagine, can see that it is the same author working out in these plays the same ideas in different ways, and not one author imitating another author. E. YARDLEY.

DRAMATIS PERSONS OF 'OTHELLO.' On 22, 23, and 27 August, at the Fulham Theatre, ' Othello ' was given with Miss Ellen Terry as Desdemona. In addition to the ordinary characters of the play there were named in the cast Julia and Marco. As these cha- racters appear in no edition from the First Folio down to the Temple edition, I should like to know whence they come or how to account for their appearance.

MAURICE JONAS.

" GILLERY." This word is still in frequent use by folks when speaking of guile, deceit, shams, and untrustful persons. The fol- lowing are specimens of present use : " It 's a gillery an' a swindle"; "It's aw' gillery"; "None o' yer gillery"; "Hey's nowt ber gillery"; "Key's full o' his gillery"; "It's only his gillery." A man " o' gillery " is

As full o' deceit

As a' egg 's full o' meat !

THOMAS RATCLIFFE. Worksop.

THE MURDER OF ATAHUALPA. It is diffi- cult to recur to the horrible murder of the last of the Incas under the orders of Pizarro without expressing a feeling of shudder ; but in ' N. & Q. we are only concerned with facts. Reading lately Mr. Lord's new and interest- ing work on 'The Lost Empires of the Modern World,' I found it stated that the date of the above event "was August 13, 1532, the Feast of St. John the Baptist." The