Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/20

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [* s. vm. JULY e, iwi.

form, the " settlements " being carried on in

the same way until we come to the entry : April 4th. 1777. Settled and balanced this

Account in full to the late Dr. James's Decease,

viz : to March 23rd, 1776.

Fleming Pinkstar ^| Fras Newbery Jun r j- Exors of Dr. JamesJ Fras Newbery Jun r.

An account of this Mr. Pinkstar occurs in Mr. Welsh's book (pp. 138-9). The settle- ment for 1778 is signed by Francis Newbery and "Robert Harcourt James," presumably a son or brother of the doctor ; and after 1781 Francis Newbery drops the "jun r " after his name.

My volume ends in January, 1798, when the accounts are stated in the writing of R H. James to be " Entered in New Book."

As I have said above, I think this volume should be deposited in some national col- lection, and I invite suggestions on the subject. EDWARD HERON- ALLEN.

[Goldsmith died at a quarter to 5 A.M. on Monday, 4 April, 1774 (Forster's Life,' ii. 422). See also MR. WELSH'S query, ' Goldsmith's Publishers,' p. 15.]

SHAKESPEARIANA.

364). MR. E. M. DEY at the latter reference does not do me the honour to make any reference to my somewhat elaborate proof that " tire " in the passage under review means attire^ though this is the meaning of the word which he himself adopts. Whether this is perfect courtesy on the part of a comparatively new recruit to a veteran (at least in age) is for others, not for me, to judge. I learn from him, as he had learnt it and some other things from a variorum which I am not privileged to possess, that in my quite independent conclusion I had been anticipated by Steevens. While I am always glad to learn that I am not alone in any opinion, I am too old to care for mere names, however famous, and like to be told the ground of any man's opinion as well as the opinion itself.
 * OTHELLO,' II. i. 60-65 (9 th S. ii. 403 ; vi.

Grant that "tire" means attire, which I think I fully proved, it is impossible to retain either the ingeniuer, or ingeniver, of the folios, or the ingener of modern texts. It will not do to take this word from one critic, that word from another, and so on ; then, piecing them together, attire Shakespeare in a Joseph's coat of ill-matched colours.

Though I still think Cassio's language inflated, I was not sorry, after my last note was written, to come upon "interior" in the sense of soul in Carlyle's translation of

Goethe's 'Wilhelm Meister.' The passage in which it occurs is as follows :

"Among the many things which have been tried for giving some repairs to the exterior [the body], which often fails far sooner than the interior [the soul], there are in fact several invaluable recipes," &c. Popular edition, vol. iii. p. 88.

The question of inflated language apart, Cassio made use of a quite legitimate meta-

Ehor when (as I read and explain the text) e spoke of Desdemona attiring her soul in ideal excellence. Thus St. Paul writes to the Colossians (iii. 12), " Put on [i.e., clothe your- selves with (evSvo-acrOe)] kindness, humility, meekness, long - suffering," &c. St. Peter speaks of women adorning themselves with "the incorruptible apparel of a meek and quiet spirit " (1 Peter iii. 4, R. V.). Perhaps Shakespeare's "essential vesture of creation" is St. Peter's a6apTov tfjidrtov.

Cassio represents Desdemona as realizing the Greek ideal of excellence, KaAo/cdyatfos, fair as she was good, and good as she was fair ; in beauty of form, much more in essential excellence, beyond the description of the most skilful pens. Though unconscious of gross contradiction, some corrupters of the text have discovered some wonderful ingener who was equal to the task.

As is well known, in line 65 there is a seemingly irreconcilable difference between the First Quarto (1622) and the First Folio (1623). The difference is wholly irreconcil- able if we accept as genuine the line as in the Folio it has come down to us. In vain do we search for anything having the remotest resemblance either in form or in meaning between the "Does beare all Excellency" of the Quarto and the "Dos tyre the Ingeniuer" of the Folio.

I now ask readers to contrast 11. 64, 65 as we find them in the Quarto with my reading of the lines in the Folio :

And in the essential vesture of creation Does bear all excellency.

And in the essential vesture of creation Does tire the interior.

Is there no resemblance in meaning here? Most decidedly I think there is ; only the two editions have, so to speak, played at cross- purposes with the two lines. " The essential vesture of creation" in the Quarto is the spiritual nature (answering to the " interior " in the Folio), which is said to " bear all ex- cellency " ; " the essential vesture of creation," in which in the Folio " the interior " is said to be attired, is the "all excellency" the ideal excellence of the Quarto. Otherwise, Desdemona, in the essential vesture of creation her spiritual nature, her soul bears all