Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 3.djvu/110

 104

NOTES AND QUERIES. [9< h s. in. FEB. n, m

that dignity, preferring the precarious career of a literary man. The same error occurs in a metrical translation in German entitled " Don Juan. Uebersetzung nach den Original- Text des Abate da Ponte von C. H. Bitter, 1871." It seems to have arisen from the circumstance that the Bishop of Ceneda, young Da Ponte's patron, who does not appear to have been related to the dramatist, bore the same name. JOHN HEBB.

Canonbury Mansions, N.

HISTOEICAL PARALLEL. Probably most people have noticed a slight historical parallel between the reception by Boling- broke (Henry IV.) of the news of his rival's death in the last scene of Shakespeare's 'King Richard II.' and David's attitude towards the slayer of King Saul in the first chapter of the second book of Samuel. David, however, laments the death of Saul in the loveliest of elegies ; while Henry acknow- ledges his complicity in Eichard's death : They love not poison that do poison need, Nor do I thee : though I did wish him dead, I hate the murderer, love him murdered.

But a more than chilling reception and no " good word nor princely favour " awaits the officious worshipper of the rising sun in either case. David, indeed, commands one of his followers to fall upon and slay the Amalekite :

"Thy blood be upon thy head: for thy mouth hath testified against thee, saying, I have slain the Lord's anointed."

And though Henry bids the unhappy Sir Piers of Exton depart with his life, the latter is dismissed with no comfortable words : The guilt of conscience take thou for thy labour.

With Cain go wander through the shades of night, And never show thy head by day nor light. Henry has ocular demonstration of Richard's death, for Exton brings the coffin with him. David needs none ; he had asked the Ama- lekite, on the conclusion of his story, the unanswerable question, " How wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thine hand to destroy the Lord's anointed 1 " And Richard, when Exton strikes him down, exclaims : That hand shall burn in never-quenching fire That staggers thus my person. Exton, thy fierce

hand Hath with the king's blood stain'd the king's own

land.

A. R. BAYLEY.

ERROR IN THE 'SPECTATOR.' The Greek motto to No. 183 (Addison's) in Henry Morley's one-volume edition, no date, is cor- rectly ascribed to Hesiod, but in the trans- lations of the mottoes at the end of the

volume it is said to be from Homer. This error is repeated in the handsome three- volume edition, 1891, which, except in form, is a duplicate, or nearly a duplicate, of the one-volume edition. The two lines are from Hesiod's 9eoyoi/ta, 27, 28. Readers who possess this edition may like to correct this error if they have not already done so.

JONATHAN BOUCHIER.

PRICES OF SOME RARE BOOKS 100 YEARS AGO. Taking from its shelf by chance and glancing through the pages of a priced cata- logue of the books of the Rt. Hon. Denis Daly, sold at Dublin, 1 May, 1792, I was so struck by some of the figures that I jot them down for the whetting of the appetite of book- lovers of this generation, just as they come, without any regard to classification, but merely according to priority in the volume :

' Romance of Palmerin d'Oliva, 1637, 15-*.

Shakspeare's Works. A very fine copy of the first folio edition, with the portrait by Droeshout, elegantly bound in red morocco, 1623, 30/. 14s. 3d.

'Confessio Amantis,' Caxton, 1493, fine copy, 15J. 7. Ud.

' The Book of Fame,' made by Gefferey Chaucer. Emprynted by Wylliam Caxton, very 'fine copy, red morocco, \1l. 10s. 3d. [whilst Rapin's History with Tindal's continuation brought 111. 12s. Id. !].

' Policronicon,' Wynken de Worde, 1495, 18Z. 15s. ^d.

' Polycronycon,' Treveris, 1525, Ql. 16s. Qd.

Froissart's ' Chronycles,' by Pynson, 1525, 17J. 12s. Id.

Boccaccio, 'IlDecamerone,' Giunta, 1527, 21. 5s. 6d. [the Venetian piracy of this ed. brought II. 2s. 9d.].

The editiones principes and incunabula brought high prices for the time. The 1,441 lots realized 4,152/. 4s. ll^d

J. ELIOT HODGKIN.

RIME TO " MONTH." Ante, p. 60, you say there is no known rime to "month." Has 'N. & Q.' never published the two rimes attri- buted in my time at Cambridge to Dr. Whewell 1

And there he lived in lodgings for a month, Raising binomials to the (n + l)th ;

and

Conning now and then his Grunth.

T. WILSON. Harpenden. [Thackeray has " The fighting onety-oneth."]

OLIVER CROMWELL AND CHRISTMAS. - Under the head of 'New Year's Readings' in the Carlisle Patriot of 30 December, 1898, it is stated that

"it was Oliver Cromwell who ordered that through- out the principal towns in the country Christmas should not be observed, 'it being an hurtful custom.' In order to make people forget Christmas, he en-