Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/172

 164

NOTES AND QUERIES.

s. v. MABCH 3, 1900.

/ery natural protest, but wished, by deftb evading his questions, to avoid saying any thing unkind. E. M. DEY.

'KING JOHN,' II. i. 118, 119.

K. John. Alack, thou dost usurp authority. K. Phi. Excuse ; it is to beat usurping down.

The punctuation of the second line is du to Malone, and is now, I think, generallj accepted ; but this absolute use of the vert "excuse" seems very un-English. I hav< heard a Frenchman say "Excuse, sir"; bu I imagine that was a translation of " Pardon monsieur." The Folios read, without any stopping, "Excuse it is." I should either keep this as it stands, or perhaps put a comma after the word " is," taking the line to mean " It is sufficient excuse for my usurpation ol authority that I am fighting against usurpa- tion." PERCY SIMPSON.

' CORIOLANUS,' IV. vii. 55.

Rights by rights fouler, strengths by strengths do faile.

It seems probable that " fouler " represents " foulter " in the manuscript. The latter word may be found in Florio's 'Montaigne,' book ii chap, viii., where

Solve senescentem mature sanus equum, ne Peccet ad extremum ridendus, et ilia ducat, is translated

If you be wise, the horse growne-old betimes cast-off, Lest he at last fall lame, foulter, and breed a scoffe.

ALFRED E. THISELTON. 'JULIUS CAESAR,' V. i. 14.

Their bloody sign of battle is hung out. Taken, of course, from North's 'Plutarch': " The signal of battle was set out in Brutus's and Cassius's camp, which was an arming scarlet coat." But compare ' The Last East- Indian Voyage,' London, 1606 Sir Henry Middleton's voyage to Bantam and the Moluccas describing the Portuguese settle- ment of Ternate in the Moluccas, the Portu- guese then being at war with the Dutch : " The twelfth day came news the Hollanders were in sight, and out went their bloody colours at the fort" (Hakluyt Society's re- print, 1855, p. 44). PERCY SIMPSON.

ENGLISH VOLUNTEERS SERVING ABROAD: AN INTERVAL. Addressing the City of London Volunteers, who arrived at Cape Town on 29 January by the ss. Briton, "Lord Roberts remarked that the officers who organized the Volunteer force in 1859 never dreamt that the Volunteers would ever serve in South Africa. The last time a Volunteer force left England was to help the Dutch and they arrived just in time to save Flushing from the Spaniards. He

hoped that, under Queen Victoria as under Queen Elizabeth, the arrival of the English Volunteers would coincide with the turn of the tide of war." Times, 2 February, p. 5.

The magnificent patriotism of to-day has been free from any exception such as occurred in 1803 :

"A pleasantry of Pitt at this time has been preserved by tradition. It seems that one battalion which he was forming (or in the formation of which he was consulted) did not show the same readiness as distinguished the rest. Their draft rules which they sent to Pitt were full of cautions and reserves. The words except in case of actual invasion were constantly occurring. At length came a clause that at no time, and on no account whatever, were they to be sent out of the country. Pitt here lost patience, and taking up his pen he wrote opposite to that clause in the draft the same words as he had read in the preceding ' except in case of actual invasion'! Stanhope's 'Life of Pitt,' vol. iv. p. 82.

R. B.

Upton.

CAMPBELL AND VIRGIL. Under the heading * Pope and Flatman ' (5 th S. x. 346) W. G. points out how largely Campbell, in his 'Rainbow,' has drawn upon Henry Vaughan's lines on the same subject. A comparison of the following passages would seem to show that in his ' Locniel's Warning ' be is under no less obligation to Virgil : 3ro preach to the coward, thou death-telling seer, 3r, if gory Culloden so dreadful appear, Draw, dotard, around thy old wavering sight This mantle to cover the phantoms of fright. STe tantos mihi finge metus ......

Sed te victa situ verique effeta senectus, 3 mater, curis nequicquam exercet, et arm a 3,egum inter falsa vatem formidine ludit. 3ura tibi, divum effigies et templa tueri ; Bella viri pacemque gerent, quis bella gerenda.

' .Eneid,' vii. 438-44. la ! laugh'st thou, Lochiel, my vision to scorn ? lie juvenis, vatem irridens, sic orsa vicissim Ore refert. ' ^Eneid,' vii. 435-6.

Jut man cannot cover what God would reveal. Isee adeo tibi me, placida cum nocte jaceres psa palam fari omnipotens Saturnia jussit.

'^Eneid,' vii. 428-9.

false wizard, avaunt ! I have marshalled my clan ; ^heir swords are a thousand, their bosoms are one. ^.uare age, et armari pubem, portisque moveri ^aetus in arma para. ' ^Eneid,' vii. 429-30.

'ercentum adjiciunt, mens omnibus una sequendi.

4 ^Eneid,' x. 182. 'os unanimi densate catervas.

' ^Eneid,' xii. 264.

>ut woe to his kindred, and woe to his cause, When Albyn her claymore indignantly draws. lex ipse Latinus ......

entiat, et tandem Turnum experiatur in armis.

vii. 432-4.

} roud Cumberland prances, insulting the slain, their hoof-beaten bosoms are trod to the plain,