Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 4.djvu/414

 454 NOTES AND QUERIES. [9'h s. iv. dkc. 2, -99. equivalent to " unappoiuted." In 'Measure for Measure,' III. i., Isabella says to Claudio, Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven, Intends you for his swift ambassador, Where you shall be an everlasting leiger: Therefore your best appointment make with speed : To-morrow you set on. As in this passage "appointment" evidently means " preparation," we may safely say that in the passage in 'Hamlet' "disappointed" means "unprepared." IFshall not take it upon me to say whether this is to be under- stood in a general sense, "unprepared for death," or whether there may not be reference to the prayers preceding extreme unction, of the benefit from which Hamlet's father had been deprived. R. M. Spence, D.D. Manse of Arbuthnott, N.B. Mr. John Baxter proposes to rewrite this line in the peculiar form Unshriven, unhousel'd, unaneled. Does he intend this for blank verse ? Like Thackeray with a line of Lord Lytton, I have tried it all roads, back'ards, forrards, and upside down, but I cannot make it scan. When Mr. Baxter originally committed it to print in the pages of the New York Times, did he explain its rhythm and poetic struc- ture? If so, will he kindly repeat the ex- planation to assist readers on this side of the Atlantic ? Percy Simpson. The only objection to Mr. Baxter's " some- what violent departure from the traditional text" with regard to this line is that his version halts—lacking a foot. The accepted term " disappointed, used in the sense of unprepared (cf. ' Measure for Measure,' III. i. CO), unequipped for the last journey, would cover the meaning of " unshriven" and of much besides. The line would be more symmetrical might one say :— Unhousel'd, unappointed, unaneled. A. R. Bayley. One cannot but commiserate the readers of the "literary columns" of the New York Times. None of its contributors would appear to be aware of the existence of the ' New English Dictionary,' which clearly explains disappointed," as used in this passage. Q. V. ' A Midsummer Night's Dream,' I. i. 200- 207:— Her. His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine. Hel. None, but your beauty: would that fault were mine! Her. Take comfort: he no more shall see my face ; Lysander and myself will fly this place, Before the time I did Lysander see, Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me : O, then, what graces in my love do dwell, That he hath turn'd a heaven unto a hell! Johnson says:— '' Hermia is willing to comfort Helena, and to avoid all appearance of triumph over her. She therefore bids ner not to consider the power of pleasing as an advantage to be much envied or much desirea, since Hermia, whom she considers as possessing it in the supreme degree, has found no other effect of it than the loss of happiness." Johnson considers the propriety of these lines (202-7) to consist in the fact that they offer comfort to Helena, who is unhappy, by assuring her that she (Hermia) is equally so. While misery may love company, I believe we may understand Hermia merely as assur- ing Helena that she will soon leave her a clear field, and urging, as proof that she could love no one but Lysander, the graces which he possesses in her eyes. " Power of pleas- ing " is not identical with " my love " (capacity for loving), as Helena in her own case has discovered to her sorrow; and if this is Hermia's meaning, as Johnson evidently supposes from O, then, what graces in my love do dwell, she would more likely have used the word fair ("O happy fair!" line 182) instead of "love." In the phrase "he hath turn'd," "he" certainly does refer to " love " (Lysander) in the previous line; but, according to John- son's interpretation, " he " would seem to go further back for its antecedent (Lysander, line 204), instead of, as we are told by Furness, referring to "love," with the meaning as- signed it by Johnson—Hermia's own love. As an aside, and as indicating what Thomas Bowdler considered improper to be read aloud in a family, it will be noted that in his edition of 1820 lines 204-7 were omitted. E. M. Dey. Wentworth's ' Orisons.'—Some time ago I mentioned in ' N. <fe Q.' the loss by the Chicago fire of the copy of this famous work of Puritan devotions which had belonged to "Long John " Wentworth, the genealogist of all Wentworths, and asked for the where- abouts of other copies. Mr. Tregaskis has now found me an imperfect one in fine order. Charles W. Dilke. Hawkwood.—Sir John Hawkwood is cre- dited by Fuller with having been engaged in manual trade. Mr. H. G. Hope {ante, p. 341) and many others have said that he was a tailor ; but that Fuller and those who follow him were possibly in error will be granted