Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 2.djvu/511

 9 th S. II. DEC. 24, ! 98.]

NOTES AND QUEKIES.

503

read 'Hamlet.' After this' it becomes a matter of phrases and words, of which I will give a few. "Comparisons are odious" (p. 632) is, of course, the correct form of trie saying employed by Dogberry, who was no doubt ignorantly travestying a common phrase of the period when he used the word odorous." On p. 716 Burton says, "They have cheverel consciences that will stretch." In 'Romeo and Juliet,' Act II. sc. iv., I find the words, " O, here 's a wit of cheverel that stretches from an inch narrow to an ell broad." The word "cheverel" answers to our elastic, which might have been used (if it is not) in the stately verse of Tennyson as well as in the doggerel of Poet Close. Much might be said about "A New Comedy of Errors " (p. 25) ; "Hotspurs " (p. 27) ; "In sober sadness" (p. 44)]; "Many men are melancholy by hearing music " (p. 373) " By the same token " (p. 577) ; " A brave bonaroba, a bella donna" (p. 599) ; with a host of similar words and sayings reminiscent of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and others of our old dramatists. Burton made them pay tribute, and had no scruples about it. He declares (p. 8) :

" We can say nothing but what hath been said. The composition and method is ours only, and shows

a scholar Our poets steal from Homer ; he spews,

saith JEli&n, they lick it up. Divines use Austin's words verbatim still, and our story-dressers do as much ; he that comes last is commonly best."

It is very plain that our author preferred Ben Jonson, whom he calls " our arch poet," to Shakespeare or any other dramatist of the time. I fancy that the reason of this predi- lection is to "be found in the fact that the first-named possessed a superior knowledge of the classics to any of the others. But the main reason why Burton forbore quoting fre- quently from the plays of the period was tiiat the drama was then in very ill odour with many people. Burton himself, though I believe he was acquainted with most of the chief dramatic productions of the time, has little to say in their praise. He says (p. 346) :

"Dancing, singing, masking, mumming, stage plays, howsoever they be heavily censured by some severe Catos, yet if opportunely and soberly used, may justly be approved."

Again he says (p. 210) :

" If they [the gentry] read a book at any time, 'tis an English Chronicle, St. Huon of Bordeaux, Amadis de Gaul, &c., a play book, or some pam- phlet of news, and that at such seasons only when they cannot stir abroad, to drive away time, their sole discourse is dogs, hawks, horses and what news."

More might be quoted to the same effect to show that the dramatists of the period

received but scanty recognition from the studious recluse of Christ Church, Oxon. Bur- ton was, besides, evidently acquainted with the doings at the " Mermaid tavern and the Apollo Club, as may be seen from the follow- ing extracts : " I am aquae potor, drink no wine at all, which so much improves our modern wits " (p. 11). Again he says (p. 442) that "Ennius took black hellebore tb quicken his wits as our poets drink sack to improve their inventions." It is easy to picture this austere water-drinker gravely shaking his head when he heard about the symposia held by these meteoric sons of genius. But there was something besides drinking at those famous meetings, as Francis Beaumont would have told him had they met :

What things have we seen Done at the Mermaid ! heard words that have

been

So nimble and so full of subtle flame, As if that every one from whom they came Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest, And had resolved to live a fool the rest Of his dull life.

" O noctes ccenseque Deum " (Horace, ' Sat.,' ii. 6). The salt meats and the "soused herrings" they ate were ambrosia, and the sack they drank was nectar, and their talk, inethinks, was not unworthy of such im- mortals.

From the poems of Shakespeare Robert Burton quotes several times. Poems to him, however erotic they might be, were one thing dramas or plays another, when written in English. The first quotation (p. 511), con- sisting of four lines, 871-4, is from the 'Venus and Adonis.' I will give it as it is found in the ' Anatomy,' as it would seem that Burton quoted from memory :

"When Venus ran to meet her rose-cheeked Adonis, as an elegant poet of ours sets her out,

The bushes in the way Some catch her neck, some kiss her face, Some twine about her legs to make her stay, And all did covet her for to embrace."

Shakespeare, whose name is given at the foot of the page, wrote as follows :

The bushes in the way

Some catch her by the neck, some kiss her face, Some twine about her thigh to make her stay : She wildly breaketh from their strict embrace.

I have given these two extracts for the pur- pose of showing what a difficult task it would be to produce a correct edition of this book. As it took one man's whole life to write it, it would, I verily believe, take another's, at the least, to edit it with anything like accuracy. The next quotation (p. 512) is from the same poem, and consists of lines 575-6 :