Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/509

. ii. DEO. 24, '98.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

501

LONDON, SATURDAY, DECEMBER 34, 1898.

CONTENTS. No. 52.

NOTES : Burton and Shakspeare, 601 The First Half- penny Newspaper Sporting Ghosts, 504 Bibliography of Christmas Ancient Customs at Queen's College Com- pound Words in Poetry Hereditary Odour, 505 Shak- spearian Qnartos " Purr "=Kick Sailor's Epitaph Black Blotting Paper Beetle and Wedge, 506 Tolling Bells" Randan," 507.

QUERIES ; "Foundet" W. Bramfield J. Neston Stonard : Vincent : Newcombe, 507 West Indian Families S. Atkinson "A Member of the University of Cam- bridge " Carkeet and Andrews Families Jacobites Bride of Lammermoor 'Jack Plackett's Common Mrs. Woodham, 508 The Book of Tephi ' Prof. Freeman R. Graham J. Maxwell Ball Game Minutes and Seconds The Curse of St. Withold ' Fifty American Bibliographies' " Weighing-in a Mayor "" Interlunar cave" Caron House, 509.

REPLIES :-Bvelyn's 'Diary,' 510 "Christmas Tup" Middlesex, 511 Bridget Cheynell " burner is y-cumen in " Linwood's Galleries Cecil Habakkuk, 512 Sir T. Cotton Mortar and Pestle French Proverb " Cherry- cob " Chinese Punishments Relics of Charles I. Instru- mental Choir, 513-Puddledock "Cirage" Portraits of Cromwell, 514 Roman Catholic Tennysoniana Sir J. Rudston Cure for Consumption The Consonantal Com- bination "st" " Buoy" Earl of Carnwath, 515 Mar- garet Plantagenet " Eardly " Kingston-upon-Thames Parish Registers Local Society in Devon Dr. Iron-Beard and yEsculapius Noblemen's Inns, 516 Papal Bull against a Comet" Welking" Algernon Wireless Telegraphy Boethi us Local Names of the Cowslip, 517' Courses de Festes et de Bagues' The 'H.ED.' and Shakspeare's Plays " Will ye go and marry, Katie ? " Madoc ap Owen Gwynedd. 518.

NOTES ON BOOKS : Gomme's ' Traditional Games ' Horder's ' Poetical Works of Whittier ' Clodd's ' Tom Tit Tot* Traill's 'Among my Books' Clegg's ' Directory of Booksellers ' Gomme's ' Parlour and Playground Games.'

ROBERT BURTON AND WILLIAM

SHAKSPEARE.

IN the following paper I propose to show, as fully as I can, after a careful reperusal of the ' Anatomy of Melancholy,' what was its author's acquaintance with the works of Shakespeare. It is a most interesting sub- ject inasmuch as the writers were contempo- raries ; and, so far as I know, Burton's great work has never been properly examined in this respect. Rurton had exceptional advan- tages : ne was a highly educated man ; he was an omnivorous reader ; and he lived at a famous university where he could gratify his inclination to the full, for there he had "new books every day, pamphlets, curran- toes, stories, whole catalogues of volumes of all sorts, new paradoxes, opinions, schisms, heresies, controversies in philosophy, religion, &c."* (p. 3). It was a wonderful age in which he lived learning, genius, and valour abounded. The stir and ferment of the

of the sixth edition (1651-2) checked by the six- teenth edition (London, Blake, 1836), which purports to retain the spelling, &c., of the original. I only give the page, which is enough to enable the reader to verify any quotation with little trouble.
 * I make use of Tegg's modernized reprint (1849)

times, so full of extraordinary and romantic events, fascinated and captivated the minds of men, and urged them to attempt, and very of ten to achieve, what was great and glorious both in peace and war. Burton says :

" I hear new news every day, and those ordinary rumours of war, plagues, fires, inundations, thefts, murders, massacres, meteors, comets, spectrums, prodigies, apparitions, of towns taken, cities be^ sieged in France, Germany, Turkey, Persia, Poland, &c. ? daily musters and preparations, and such like, which these tempestuous times afford, battles fought, so many men slain, monomachies, ship- wrecks, piracies, and sea - fights ; peace, leagues,

stratagems, and fresh alarms Now come tidings

of weddings, maskings, mummeries, entertain- ments, jubilees, embassies, tilts and tournaments, trophies, triumphs, revels, sports, plays : then again, as in a new shifted scene, treasons, cheating tricks, robberies, enormous yillanies in all kinds, funerals, burials, deaths of princes, new discoveries, expeditions, now comical, then tragical matters."

x. O.

All these " hurlyburlies " (p. 685) Robert Burton watched from his quiet study "in the most flourishing college in Europe" (p. 2), for which he appears to have entertained a genuine affection, and where for more than thirty years he continued a scholar, " labori- ously collecting this Cento out of divers writers " (p. 7). "I make them pay tribute," he adds on the following page, " to set out this my Macaronicon,* the method only is mine own." He furthermore says :

" I cite and quote mine authors, which, howso- ever some illiterate scribblers account pedantical, as a cloak of ignorance, and opposite to their affected fine style, I must and will use."

This last observation leads me to the sub- ject I have taken in hand. There is not much fault to be found with Burton's cita- tions from ancient authors, though he very often contents himself with giving only the names, such as Virgil, Homer, Horace, as the case may be. It was indeed a pedantic age, and as every person of education was sup- posed to have the classical writers by heart, it would have been considered, one may fancy, almost an insult to the memory and intelligence of the reader to have given an exact reference. As a proof of what I say, I may mention Lord Bacon's ' Essays,' wherein tie frequently quotes Virgil, Cicero, Tacitus, and other writers, without giving more than the names, and often not so much. In this respect he follows the example of Michel de Montaigne, his predecessor. Robert

This word, which admirably describes the character of Burton's book, is spelled Maceronicon n both the editions to which I have referred. See Dr. Brewer's 'Dictionary of Phrase and Fable,' which will, I think, justify my correction.