Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 7.djvu/31

 s. vii. JAN. 12, IDOL] NOTES AND QUERIES.

when coactive with such unrealities as dreams ; then it is very credent that it is able to arrive at the truth when it has something real, such as actions and the like, to deal with.

We have a hint in these lines that the jealousy of Leontes, which has appeared to be the growth of a moment, really antedates the present time in half -suspicions arising from uncomfortably vivid dreams.

E. MERTON DEY.

' THE WINTER'S TALE,' II. i. 174-9.

Camillo's flight, Added to their familiarity

(Which was as gross as ever touch'd conjecture, That lack'd sight only, nought for approbation But only seeing, all other circumstances Made up to the deed), doth push on this proceeding.

The note in the 'New Variorum' is as follows :

" ' Coniecture' is the subject of ' touch'd,' not the object. Their familiarity was as clear as conjecture could reach, that lacked no proof but sight. Schmidt here interprets ' touch * by move, arouse, with 'conjecture' in the accusative. But it was not the grossness which aroused conjecture, but conjecture that estimated the amount of grossness."

For the king's idea as expressed by "fami- liarity " we should go back to I. ii. 108-18, " paddling palrns," &c. This the king saw, or imagined he saw, arid his suspicions were aroused thereby. That which "lack'd sight only" was "the deed." It was with the criminal act that " conjecture " was concerned. The thought is confused by taking "fami- liarity," as Dr. Furness does, to mean a supposed criminal relation. It is the criminal relation which is to be established by " this proceeding"; but "their [gross] familiarity," so Leontes tells us, is one of the proofs of such guilt, " Camillo's flight "being the other. As the proof cannot be the same thing as that which is to be proved, we see that "familiarity "must be restricted to the mean- ing plainly indicated by the king the acts that aroused suspicion, "touch'd conjecture." These acts, in themselves sufficient proof to the king, "lack'd sight only" of one more, "the deed." The suggested inversion could have been obviated so easily "as e'er con- jecture touch'd "that one must believe the present reading cannot have this meaning.

E. MERTON DEY.

ot. Louis.

LOTTERIES. It may be worth notice that the royal proclamation, "Imprinted at London in Pater noster Rowe, by Henrie Bynneman," as to "A very rich Lotterie generall, without any Blanckes towardes the reparation of

the Hauens, and strength of the Realme,"* really belongs to the ninth year of Elizabeth (for which year Lord Crawford's 'Handlist' gives no entry). The copy in the Bodleian is an example of one of the two editions of " a Chart thereof [sc. of the lottery] published in August, 1567," referred to in a proclamation of 9 Jan., 1568[-9l. A copy of the other edition is transcribed by A. J. Kempe in ' The Loseley MSS.' (1836), pp. 188 sqq. Not only is the imprint completed by the words "anno 1567," but also the chart is headed with a most gorgeous woodcut, some 20 in. by 12J. Mr. Kempe gives a reproduction of this enticing representation of the prizes plate, money, and tapestry as a frontispiece to his book. Several other documents relating to the lottery of 1567-9 are reprinted by Mr. Kempe ; and he has a note on some other early lotteries which will repay perusal, to say nothing of a most charming selection from

the " posies " of the

adventurers."

O. O. H.

ETYMOLOGY AND WHIST. In some respects etymology is not unlike whist. It is of no use to play at it till you have learnt the rules of the game. A novice may win a trick when he holds the cards : that is to say, when the facts are accessible and the deduc- tion is obvious. A skilful player may be baffled when the cards are against him ; that is to say, when the facts of the case are obscure or indiscoverable. But he knows better than to play the fool.

A simple instance may suffice. Given the Latin forms cedere, cessum, cessdre, and the French cesser, and a novice may easily guess at the origin of the English verb cease. But he may easily come to grief, in company with Dr. Johnson, over the word surcease. It is not derived, as he says, from F. sur and cesser, but is connected with the F. sursis, a delay or respite, being derived from the Latin supersedere. Several of our authors have been caught in this pitfall.

WALTER W. SKEAT.

THE BEST BOOK OF THE NINETEENTH CEN- TURY. This is an invidious topic, but Sir W. Besant has faced it in Ifarmsworth's Magazine, and others may scent quarry as well as he. The good knight awards the palm to Carlyle's 'Past and Present,' but in so doing tilts against a windmill. The superiority of a book (as of all things') must be relative, and therefore restricted. Influence is Sir Walter's scale, but this, too, is of necessity limited. By

Bodleian, and Queen's Coll. collections of proclama- tions.
 * Copies of which are in the British Museum,