Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 5.djvu/291

 9* s.v. APRIL M. MOO.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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letter 1,488, should therefore be printed as part of what he gives as letter 1,484, which, though dated 21 January, 1775 (i.e., Saturday), was, as we have seen, written on Thursday, 19 January.

It may be added that Cunningham was not the originator of this mistake, but merely followed Vernon Smith, the original editor of the letters to Lady Ossory.

HELEN TOYNBEE.

SHAKESPEARIANA.

'THE WINTER'S TALE,' I. ii. 30 (the re- ferences are to the Globe Edition).

Hermione. Tell him, you are sure

All in Bohemia 's well ; this satisfaction The bygone day proclaimed.

The current explanation assumes that mes- sengers had arrived ; but in that case Polixenes's plea of " fears of what may chance" at home is absurd. Surely the meaning is simply " No news good news."

I. ii. 258 :

Camilla. If ever fearful

To do a thing, where I the issue doubted, Whereof the execution did cry out Against the non-performance, 'twas a fear, &c.

The difficulty of this passage is not apparent (though it has excited many strange com- ments), Camillo's intention evidently being to say that if execution (subsequent to the time of hesitancy) showed that his fear was need- less, it was, nevertheless, a reasonable fear. Subsequent performance ridiculed or up- braided the non-performance that resulted from excessive caution.

I. ii. 391 :

Polix. As you are certainly a gentleman, thereto Clerk-like experienced, which no less adorns Our gentry than our parents' noble names, In whose success we are gentle, I beseech you, &c.

The ordinary reading is that Polixenes tell Camillo he is a gentleman, and, in addition, a man of learning, " thereto " having the same sense as in 4 Othello,' II. i. 133: "If she be black, and thereto have a wit." But is not the meaning rather that Camillo is a gentleman by virtue of his education and knowledge of affairs 1 At any rate, such was the view of the editors of Folios 2, 3, and 4, who all read "thereto expedienced" (hastened, promoted per saltum) ; and Leontes has already told us that from meaner form he benched Camillo and reared him to worship. The clerk-like experience, too, is thus of the staple oj Polixenes's argument, whereas, under the ordinary reading, it is a remark by the way and little suited to a time of wonder anc anxiety. The reading now suggested is con- firmed by the next passage, viz., I. ii. 400 :

Polix. I conjure thee, by all the parts of man Which honour does acknowledge, whereof the least [s not this suit of mine, that thou declare, &c.

The first part of this seems simple, but the clause beginning " whereof " is a real difficulty, and drives the commentators to treat "parts of man " as equivalent to " duties of man,"
 * or the king's suit can thus be lamely called

a " part of man." But though we may say, "It is the part of a commentator to illustrate bis author," we cannot use " the parts of a commentator" in any such sense. The passage, bowever, becomes quite clear when it is seen that *' which " is equivalent to " whom," and the parts are those of a man whom honour acknowledges ; of which acknowledgment the king's suit is an important instance. " Which " is properly used for " whom " when the meaning is "such as," Latin qiialem. (See Abbott, 'Shakesp. Gram.,' par. 266.) In his previous speech the king vainly besought Camillo as a gentleman ; he now charges him as a man of honour, and the appeal is successful.

I. ii. 459.

Polix. The gracious queen, part of his theme, but

nothing Of his ill-ta'en suspicion.

This is clear if we may suppose Polixenes understood that he was accused of a design on the queen's virtue, but that she was not suspected, though her name was necessarily mentioned in the charge against himself.

II. iii. 112.

Leon. Once more, take her hence.

Paulina. A most unworthy and unnatural lord Can do no more. Leon. I '11 ha' thee burnt.

Why should Paulina call her unoffending (nay, sympathetic) husband "unworthy and unnatural"; or alternatively, why should she say that if he be so he can do no more than take her away 1 The answer is that she does not ; it is Leontes whom she calls " unworthy and unnatural " ; and the next line furnishes one instance among many in this play of the omitted nominative, " I can do no more." Leontes's increased fury, other- wise inexplicable, is now a natural result of her upbraiding. H. G. GOTCH.

Kettering.

(To be continued.}

FOOTBALL ON SHROVE TUESDAY AT CHESTER-LE-STREET. The Yorkshire Herald of 28 March gave a graphic account of the way in which the main thoroughfare of Chester-le-Street was given over to foot- ballers on the previous day. " For hundreds of years," it is said, the custom has been observed, and to all appearance it is as