Notes and Queries, Number 211, November 12, 1853 - Various 2 стр.

on which, rather to my surprise, Mr. Dyce has no note. Now in Ireland, when a person is seen laughing immoderately without any apparent cause, it is usual to say, "O, he has found a mare's nest, and he's laughing at the eggs." This perfectly agrees with the above passage from Bonduca, and is doubtless the original sense and original form of the adage.

There is another of these proverbial expressions which, I think, has also lost its pristine sense. By "Tread on a worm and it will turn" is usually meant that the very meekest and most helpless persons will, when harshly used, turn on their persecutors. But the poor worm does, and can do, no such thing. I therefore think that the adage arose at the time when worm was inclusive of snake and viper, and that what was meant was, that as those that had the power to avenge themselves when injured would use it, so people should be cautious how they provoked them. I am confirmed in this view by the following passage in the Wallenstein's Tod of Schiller, Act II. Sc. 6.:

EXTRACTS FROM COLCHESTER CORPORATION RECORDS

I inclose you some rather curious extracts from the corporation books of Colchester, which I made a few years since, during an investigation of some of the charities of that ancient borough.

"The informacōn of Richard Glascock of Horden-of-the-Hill, in the County of Essex, Cordwayner, aged twenty-four yeeres or thereabouts, taken upon oath the 5th of June, 1651, before Jno. Furlie, Gent., Mayor of the Towne of Colchester.

"The Informant saieth, that upon the Lord's daie, the fower and twentieth daie of May last, that Wm Beard of Horden abovesaid, did cut off the taile of the catt of Thomas Burgis of Fanies Pishe, and Margaret, the wife of the sd Thos Burgis, after the catt's taile was cutt off, came home, and seeing that her catt's taile had bin cutt off she enquired who had done it, and being told that the sd Wm Beard had done it, she sd she would be even wth him before he went out of towne.

"The informacōn of Hy Potter, aged twenty yeeres or thereabouts, of Horden abovesaid, Lynnen Weaver, taken upon oath the day and yeere abovesaid.

"This informant saieth, that ye sd fower and twentieth daie of May the taile of the catt of the sd Thomas Burgis being cutt off by the sd Wm Beard, and ye sd Margaret the wife of the sd Thos Burgis haveing bin told that the sd Wm Beard had done it, she prsentlie told the sd Beard she would be even with him before he went out of towne, and flewe in his face, and said she would give him something before he went out of her howse. And this informant saieing, Good woman, I hope you will give him noe poyson, and she replyed, he would not be soe foolish as to take any thinge of her, but she would be even wth him before he went out of towne."

"The informacōn of Rd Spencer, aged thirtie yeeres or thereabouts, Servant to Captn Thomas Caldwell, taken upon oath the day and yeere aforesaid.

"This informant saieth, that the before-named Wm Beard being very sicke and in a strange distemper, and haveing heard that Margaret, the wife of the before-named Thomas Burgis, had threatened him, did suspect the sd Wm Beard might be bewitched or ill dealt wth, did cut off some of his haire off from his head, and did wind it up together and put it into the fire, and could not for a good while make it burne, untill he tooke a candle and put under it or into it, and then wth much adoe it did burne, and after it was burnt ye sd Beard laie still, and before it was burnt he was in such a distemper that three men could hardlie hold him into his bed.

CONVOCATION IN THE REIGN OF GEORGE II

One hears it so often repeated, that Convocation was finally suppressed in 1717, in consequence of the accusations brought by the Lower House against Bishop Hoadley, that it seems worth while noting in correction of this, that though no licence from the Crown to make canons has ever been granted since that time, yet that Convocation met and sat in 1728, and again for some sessions in the spring of 1742, when several important subjects were brought before it; among which was the very interesting question of curates' stipends, in these words:

"VIIth. That much reproach is brought upon the beneficed, and much oppression upon the unbeneficed, clergy, by curates accepting too scanty salaries from incumbents."

and which was really the last subject that was ever brought before Convocation. On Jan. 27, 1742, it was unanimously agreed, that "the motion made by the Archdeacon of Lincoln concerning ecclesiastical courts and clandestine marriages, the qualifications of persons to be admitted into holy orders, and the salaries and titles of curates," should be "reduced into writing, and the particulars offered to the House at their next assembly." But in the next session, on March 5, 1742, the Prolocutor, Dr. Lisle, was afraid to go on with the business before the House, and after "speaking much of a præmunire," and "echoing and reverberating the word from one side of good King Henry's Chapel to the other," the whole was let drop; and Convocation was fully consigned to the silence and the slumber of a century. The whole of these transactions are detailed in a scarce pamphlet, A Letter to the Rev. Dr. Lisle, Prolocutor of the Lower House, by the Archdeacon of Lincoln (the Venerable G. Reynolds).

Tor-Mohun.

PARALLEL PASSAGES

1. "When she had passed it seemed like the ceasing of exquisite music."Longfellow's Evangeline, Part i. I.

"When she comes into the room, it is like a beautiful air of Mozart breaking upon you."Thackeray "On a good-looking young Lady." (Quoted in Westminster Review, April 1853.)

2. "Two stars keep not their motion in one sphere."Whence?

"We are the twin stars, and cannot shine in one sphere. When he rises I must set."Congreve, Love for Love, Act III. Sc. 4.

3. "Et ce n'est pas toujours par valeur et par chasteté que les hommes sont vaillants et que les femmes sont chastes."De La Rochefoucauld, Max. I.

"Yes, faith! I believe some women are virtuous, too; but 'tis as I believe some men are valiant, through fear."Congreve, Love for Love, Act III. Sc. 14.

4. "Mais si les vaisseaux sillonnent un moment les ondes, la vague vient effacer aussitôt cette légère marque de servitude, et la mer reparait telle qu'elle fut au premier jour de la Création."Corinne, b. I. ch. 4.

"Such as Creation's dawn beheld, thou rollest now!"Byron, Childe Harold.

5. "Il est plus honteux de se méfier de ses amis que d'en être trompé."De La Rochefoucauld, Max. LXXXIV.

6. In "N. & Q.," Vol. iv., p. 435., I cited, as a parallel to Shelley, the following from Southey's Doctor, vol. vi. p. 158.:

5. "Il est plus honteux de se méfier de ses amis que d'en être trompé."De La Rochefoucauld, Max. LXXXIV.

6. In "N. & Q.," Vol. iv., p. 435., I cited, as a parallel to Shelley, the following from Southey's Doctor, vol. vi. p. 158.:

"The sense of flying in our sleep might, he thought, probably be the anticipation or forefeeling of an unevolved power, like an Aurelia's dream of butterfly motion."

In Spicer's Sights and Sounds (1853), p. 140., is to be found a poem professing to have been "dictated by the spirit of Robert Southey," on March 25, 1851, the fourth stanza of which runs as follows:

What inference should be drawn from this coincidence for or against the reality of the "spiritual dictation?"

SHAKSPEARE CORRESPONDENCE

Shakspeare's Works with a Digest of all the Readings (Vol. viii., pp. 74. 170. 362.).I am exceedingly obliged to your correspondent Este for his suggestions, and need not say that any sincere advice will be most respectfully considered. In the second volume of my folio edition of Shakspeare, I am partially endeavouring to carry out the design to which he alludes, by giving a digest of all the readings up to the year 1684. How is it possible to carry out his wish farther with any advantage? I should feel particularly thankful for a satisfactory reply to the following questions in relation to this important subject:1. As many copies of the first and other folio editions, as well as nearly all the copies of the same quarto editions, differ from each other, how are these differences to be treated? What copies are to be taken for texts, and how many copies of each are to be collated? 2. Are such books as Beckett, Jackson and others, to be examined? If not, are any conjectural emendations of the last and present centuries to be given? Where is the line to be drawn? A mere selection is valueless, or next to valueless; because, setting aside the differences in opinion in such matters, we want to know what conjectures are new, and which are old? 3. Are the various readings suggested in periodicals to be given? 4. Can any positive and practical rules be furnished, likely to render such an undertaking useful and successful?

Minor Notes

Local Rhymes, Kent.

Unless this is preserved in "N. & Q." it will probably be forgotten with the highwaymen, whose proceedings at Shooters' Hill, no doubt, originated it.

Samuel Pepys's Grammar.I have lately been looking over the Diary of this very clever person, and I confess it has surprised me to find him, a graduate of Cambridge, and, in fact, I may say a man of letters, constantly employing such vulgar bad grammar as "he do say," and such like. I am the more surprised when, on looking at his letters, even the familiar ones to his cousin Roger and to W. Hewer, I can find nothing of the kind, they being as grammatical and as well written as any of the time.

My hypothesis isLord Braybrooke can correct me if I am wrongthat Pepys, writing his Diary in short-hand, used one and the same character for all the persons of the present tense of do, and that the decypherer did not attend to this circumstance. In his letter to Col. Legge (vol. v. p. 296.), Pepys writes "His R. H. does think," &c., which in the Diary would surely be "His R. H. do think," &c. In a similar way I would account for the use of come instead of came in the Diary, as there is nothing of the kind in the Letters. Should I be right, I may have rendered a slight service to the memory of an able and worthy man.

Roman Remains.In Wright's Celt, Roman, and Saxon, p. 207., a curious Roman altar, dedicated to Silvanus, "ab aprum eximiæ forme captum," is mentioned as found at Durham. It was found in the wild district to the west, in the neighbourhood of Stanhope in Weardale, and is preserve in the rectory house there.

P. 330., figure A. This armilla (?) was not found in Northumberland, but in Sussex, together with several others of the same form, a torques and celts.

Wallington.

To grab.A very popular writer has lately rightly denounced the use of this word as a vulgarism. Like many other monosyllables used by our working classes, it may plead antiquity in extenuation of its vulgarity. It has been derived from the Welsh word grabiaw, to grasp, and in ancient times was one of our "household words." The retention by a tailor of a portion of the cloth delivered to him, although it had been a usage from time immemorial, might have been considered by our forefathers as a grabbage: we now call it cabbage.

Curfew at Sandwich.Sometime back it was stated that the curfew at Sandwich had been discontinued. It has been resumed in consequence of the opposition made by the inhabitants. The same occurred about twenty years ago. (From information on the spot.)

Ecclesiastical Censure.Ecclesiastical censure was often used in the Middle Ages to enforce civil rights, specially that of the exemption of the clergy from the judgment of a lay tribunal. The following instance thereof is new to me. I have copied it from "Collectanea Gervasii Holles," vol. i. p. 529., Lansdowne MS. 207., in the British Museum:

"The Major and Burgesses of Grimesby hanged a Preist for theft called Richard of Notingham. Hereupon yē Bp sendes to yē Abbott of Wellow to associate to himselfe twelue adjacent chapleins to examine yē cause, and in St. James his Church Excommunicates all yt had any hand in it of whatsoever condition they were, yē King, Queen, and Prince of Wales excepted; and yē Bp himselfe did Excommunicate them in yē Cathedral Church of Lincolne, yē fifth of yē Ides of Aprill following."

Bottesford Moors, Kirton-in-Lindsey.

The Natural History of Balmoral.Dr. William Macgillivray, Professor of Civil and Natural History in the Marischal College of Aberdeen, and who died there Sept. 5, 1852, left an unpublished MS. on "The Natural History of Balmoral and its Neighbourhood." This work has been purchased from his executors by His Royal Highness Prince Albert; and is to be printed for the use of Her Majesty and the Royal Family, and for circulation among their august relatives. It was the last work on which the distinguished author was engaged, and was only completed a short time previous to his death. It also contains some curious speculations regarding several plants and herbs of that Alpine district, and their uses in a medicinal and domestic point of view, as known to the ancient Caledonians and Picts. Altogether it is a most interesting work.