Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/132

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. v. FEB. 17, 1000.

must have visited Strawberry Hill in Jun between the dates of these two letters, i.e. the 8th and one of the subsequent Wed nesdays.

2. Horace Walpole mentions the King of the Cherokees," and further on remarks " the Cherokee Majesty dined here yesterday at Lord Macclesfield's." Three Cherokee chiefs visited England in 1762, reaching London on 21 June. The letter under con- sideration must therefore have been written after 21 June. This leaves only two possible dates, Wednesday the 23rd, or Wednesday the 30th. From the reference to the presence of the Cherokees at Lord Macclesfield's at Twickenham, the latter of these two dates seems the more probable, as the Cherokees were hardly likely to leave London almost immediately on their arrival. The letter should accordingly be placed between Nos. 796 and 797 in vol. iv. HELEN TOYNBEE.

P.S. P. 62, col. 1, 1. 20, for "June 12, 1772,' read "June 12, 1774."

AN INTENDED EMENDATION BY MR. BROWNING. With the kind permission of Mr. John T. Nettleship, well known as artist, and equally well known as author of that admirable volume ' Robert Browning : Essays and Thoughts,' I give what I think will be interesting to many.
 * PARLEYINGSWITH CHRISTOPHER SMART,' vi.:

In August, 1889, Mr. Nettleship had written to Mr. Browning regarding a difficult passage in the poem mentioned above. Mr. Browning, replying on 21 August, sent an emendation, adding, " So I propose to alter the passage." Unfortunately, before this letter was written, the volume of the uniform edition (the last edition issued in Mr. Browning's lifetime) containing the 'Parleyings' had already appeared (it was published in the month preceding), so that the intended emendation has never been given to the public.

I now give the passage (1) as we have it in the uniform edition, vol. xvi. p. 152, and (2) as Mr. Browning in his letter to Mr. Nettle- ship corrected it :

(1)

Now, what I fain would know is could it be That he whoe'er he was that furnished forth The Chapel, making thus, from South to North, Rafael touch Leighton, Michelagnolo Join Watts, was found but once combining so The elder and the younger, taking stand On Art's supreme, or that yourself who sang A Song where flute-breath silvers trumpet-clang, And stations you for once on either hand With Milton and with Keats, empowered to claim Affinity on just one point (or blame Or praise my judgment, thus it fronts you full) How came it you resume the void and null,

Subside to insignificance, live, die Proved plainly two mere mortals who drew nigh One moment that, to Art's best hierarchy, This, to the superhuman poet-pair ?

(2) . For the sake of distinctness the changes

made by Mr. Browning in his letter to Mr. Nettleship are given in italics :

Now, what I fain would know is could it be

That he whoe'er he was that furnished forth

The Chapel, making thus, from South to North,

Rafael touch Leighton, Michelagnolo

Join Watts, was found but once combining so

The elder and the younger, taking stand

On Art's supreme ? And did yourself, who sang

A Song where flute-breath silvers trumpet-clang,

And stations you for once on either hand

With Milton and with Keats, empowered to claim

Affinity on just one point (or blame

Or praise my judgment, thus it fronts you full)

Did you like him resume the void and null,

Subside to insignificance, live, die,

Proved both of you mere mortals who drew nigh

One moment that, to Art's best hierarchy,

This, to the superhuman poet-pair ?

The change, though slight, is of more im- portance than at first sight appears. In the passage as published, the question as put to Smart,

How came it you resume the void and null ? implies that he actually had resumed, while in the passage as corrected he is asked whether he did " resume the void and null." R. M. SPENCE, D.D.

Manse of Arbuthnott, N.B.

"OuT OF PRINT." It would seem as if certain appendages to literature die hard. Surely the above is an instance of uridesired Longevity, the termination of which few of us would deplore. Who then shall be bold

nough to dispatch so tenacious an intruder and provide the satisfactory substitute ? Out of hand, out of sale, if you will. But out of print, how can that well be when a

hing has once appeared in type ? The term misleads and irritates. It is difficult to con- ceive how the same ever crept into accept- ance. Let the closing century witness its extinction, say I and others.

CECIL CLARKE.

Authors' Club, S.W.

"ANOTHER TO." Grammarians say that

1 other " and " another," having a com- )arative significance, should be followed )y "than"; but with these words, as with 'different," the antithetical construction lue, no doubt, to the adversative notion mplied in them is constantly appearing. An example occurs in the Spectator of 3 January, p. 47, where the writer of an nteresting article on * Waves ' has the