4th S. X. OCT. 26, '72.] NOTES AND QUERIES. "MORE THAN KIN, AND LESS THAN KIND."- The nearer bloody." Macbeth, Act ii. Scene 3. These passages have caused much discussion; they may have been suggested to Shakespeare by the following passage in one of Lyly's plays:— "MESTIUS. So it is, Serena; the neerer we are in bloud, the further we must be from love; and the greater the kindred is, the lesse the kindnesse must bee; so that between brothers and sisters, superstition hath bred love exquisite."-Mother Bombie, Act iii. Scene 1. I think this passage has never been used in W. L. RUSHTON. illustration of Shakespeare. Queries. and there are samples of them in Wharton. Barbour was "HUMBUG."-I shall feel obliged by being in- [Humbug is one of the many new-coined words of the called "the last new-coined expression," and is demiddle of the last century. In The Connoisseur it is nounced as "odious" on the lips of ladies, who seem to more difficult to say. It may be from Homberg, the have adopted it for especial use. Whence it is derived is convert mercury into gold. Hamburg got the credit of chemist of an earlier period who professed to be able to thence in the old Napoleon war-time; and that city originating the word, from the lies that used to issue might claim the merit of having sustained the name by its manufacture of Hamburg sherry.] facts. DE QUINCEY: GOUGH'S FATE.-Those who are not acquainted with the peculiarities of De Quincey have need to be warned against trusting him for He had no more regard for the accuracy of a fact than he had for the rightful ownership of a book. In the very article lately referred to in this paper "Early Memorials of Grasmere,” he devotes a long note, written in his usual loss of Charles Gough on Helvellyn in 1805. If RED SHAWLS.-A noteworthy incident, if correct, is preserved in the trade-mark affixed to the fine soft red shawls manufactured (I think) by Messrs. Jones of Newport, and sold at this place (Tenby). It represents a rough, rocky headland, and on its narrow pathway are, walking two and two, several females in the usual Welsh garb-high-style of overdone eloquence, to the well-known crowned hats, and red shawls crossed tightly round their shoulders. It is thus explained that on the invasion of the French and their landing in Fishguard, in 1797, a panic was produced, and the invaders were persuaded that a large body of troops awaited them by the women of the neighbourhood, thus dressed, perambulating the cliffs and shore, while the males, under Lord Milton, gallantly gathered to resist the French with what arms and missiles came to hand. Perhaps some readers of "N. & Q." can furnish further detail, and say with whom originated a plan which gives the red shawls and damsels of Wales an honourable place in the S. M. S. archives of their country. FATHERING. In a note at the back of an old Fathering." lease, dated 1702, I find the word From the context I conjecture that it is equivalent to "Father-in-law," i. e. the father of the grantor's wife. Is this conjecture correct? If so, it will help me to clear up a doubtful family name. W. M. H. C. ENGLISH POETRY.-Geoffry Chaucer is called “The Father of English Poetry," but did not one Lawrence Minot write poems on the wars of Edward III. before Chaucer's time? and are his poems extant in any shape? There is a poem entitled Bruce, by a John Barbour, produced in 1373. Was not this before Chaucer's poems were known? W. D. John Barbour was a Scotchman, and his poem must be called a Scotch poem. Canterbury. (Minot's poems are among the Cottonian MSS. in the British Museum. They were published by Ritson, 1796; I should like to see a circumstantial contemporary what was known of Gough's loss and the discovery account from local newspaper or other source of of his body; as also to know if the faithful little guardian survived his terrible watching, and how long. J. H. I. OAKLEY. OLD ENGRAVINGS.-I have many old engravings; I wish to be directed to the best work where I C. AKHURST. could find information of the artists and engravers, their private marks, monograms, &c. Brighton. "HAZARD ZET FORWARD."-This is the motto of the Setons. What does "zet" mean? It occurs W. M. H. C. also over the crest of Wightman (Scotland), whose second motto is, "A wight man needs no weapon." LANCASHIRE SCHOLARS.-I shall feel obliged to any one who will give me information about any of the following graduates of Oxford and Cambridge; all of them were natives of Lancashire, and were probably clergymen :-John Whitehead, Brasenose Coll., Oxford, M.A., 1693; George Whiteside, Brasenose Coll., Oxford, M.A., 1704; Richard Lawson, Brasenose Coll., Oxford, B.A., 1727; John Colbron, Jesus Coll., Cambridge, B.A., 1694; James Hull, Jesus Coll., Cambridge, B.A., 1704; James Smalley, Christ Coll., Cambridge, B.A., 1731; Edward Dickson, John's Coll., Cambridge, B.A., 1735; John Robinson, Christ Coll., Cambridge, B.A., 1743. HENRY FISHWICK. N.B. We are told by Lockhart that this song prevented Scott from publishing one he had written in words curiously like Miss Baillie's on the same subject of robbers making night their day. CORNISH NAMES OF PLACES.-How has it come about that so many names of parishes in Cornwall are genitive cases of saints' names? It does not seem to obtain equally in other Celtic districts. I have seen it accounted for by an originally scattered population; such explanation seems in every way unsatisfactory. J. H. I. OAKLEY. DUPLICATES IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.-On the verso of the title-page to a copy of Fuller's Church History of Britain, folio edition of 1655, I find stamped, in bluish-green ink, an octagonal shield bearing "Museum Britannicum," and underneath, also stamped, “Duplicate for sale, 1767." I do not know when the Museum commenced to disencumber its shelves of duplicates; at any rate, the folio I mention is an early example of the practice, as only some fourteen years had elapsed since the foundation of the institution. I should much like to learn the earliest date of the sales of duplicate works; and whether the books were sold privately or by an auctioneer. CRESCENT. Wimbledon. "Dubius sed non improbus vixi; Incertus morior, non perturbatus. Humanum est nescire et errare. Deo confido Omnipotenti benevolentissimo: Ens entium, miserere mei." The last line, says Dean Stanley, in The Memorials of W. A., "is supposed to have been suggested by the tradi the mercy of the Great First Cause.""] tional last prayer of Aristotle, who earnestly implored THE BROAD ARROW.-Can you give any information as to the word Benchmare, used in ohi Anglo-Saxon manuscripts as a name for the broad arrow, the Royal mark; also when the broad arrow was first used in this way to mark the Royal possessions? B. C. GIBBETING ALIVE.-A writer in the Daily News of October 2nd says, that near to Merrington Church, Durham, the bones of the last man ever gibbeted alive in England "At the cross roads near the mill, there long hung It was in 1805 that this miserable wretch was hoisted aloft to die lingeringly, and the county people to this day tell how his sweetheart kept him alive for a fortnight in milk, and how, when this was detected and prevented. by raising to him on the end of a stick a sponge soaked his yells were heard for miles." Is there any foundation for so horrible a story, and was 66 gibbeting alive," i.e. starving to death, ever a punishment known to English law? Chichester. E. M. S. MANSFIELD, RAMSAY & Co., BANKERS, EDINcome into existence? I have traced it back to BURGH.-When did this private banking-house 1797. It is mentioned in the Edinburgh Almanac of that year, but I believe it had its rise a quarter if not a half century sooner. I have failed to find an account of it in any History of Edinburgh, and there seems to be no full history of the banking trade. In the History of a Banking-Ho (some time known as "Forbes's") there is a short notice of the Mansfield's, but quite meagre. H. B. TENNYSON.-Can any one explain the following passage in Tennyson's In Memoriam, Canto 521"What keeps a spirit wholly true To that ideal which he bears? What record? not the sinless years That breathed beneath the Syrian blue." JOHN CHURCHILL SIKES. Lichfield House, Anerley. A PERCHER. In a letter from Lord Bolingbroke ("Whitehall, Jany y° 21, 1713") to an old Jacobite friend occurs the following passage :— "Do you intend, in earnest, to pass y winter in y North? The Queen is well, tho ye Whigs give out that she is, what they wish her,-a Percher: come up, and help to make her well, in all respects." What was "a Percher"? I observe in a letter SIZERGHI HALL.-Can any of your correspondents give me information respecting the haunted room at this curious old seat of the Stricklands? The tradition goes that a lady was shut up in it for many years, and then threw herself from the window; since which time the room has been haunted. I further hear that the ghost is said to appear with a certain looking-glass in her hand, and that, for some unknown reason, the floor of the room is always torn up, however carefully the planks have been laid; that this has happened over and over again, and is so at the present time. H. A. B. SESQUIPEDALIA VERBA.-There is an old word honorificabilitudinity-with the spelling of which schoolboys, when I was one, used to puzzle one another. It is recorded in Bailey's Dictionary, with the definition honourableness. Its Low Latin original is given by Du Cange, who quotes in illustration the following from Albertus Mussatus, De Gestis Henrici VII.: "Nam et maturius cum Rex prima Italia ostia contigisset, legatos illo Dux ipse direxerat cum regalibus exeniis honorificabilitudinitatis nec obsequentiæ ullius causæ, quibus etiam inhibitum pedes osculari regios." This word has been mentioned in "N. & Q." before (3rd S. viii. 396). But my present object is to inquire whether the actual use of it by any English author can be cited; also whether any other such "jaw-breakers" were ever in use in English? Another such word-anthropomorphitanianismicaliation-I saw quoted some years ago, as "the longest word in the English language," in a periodical broad-sheet, called Nuts to Crack; but this I very much suspect must have been manufactured for the purpose of appearing there. JAMES T. PRESLEY. Cheltenham Library. LIBRARY OF OLD UNITARIAN CHURCH, GREAT STRAND STREET, DUBLIN. Can any of your readers inform me what is become of the very valuable Oriental library which formerly existed in the rear of the Old Unitarian Church in Great Strand Street, Dublin, which appeared to be deserted and in a ruinous state when I last visited the Irish metropolis! H. HALL. Wralston, Hants. "THE MELANCHOLY OCEAN.". I have frequently heard persons speak as if this was an original phrase of Mr. Disraeli's, when he accounted for the discontent of the Irish people by the fact that they "dwelt on the shores of a melancholy ocean," and the writer of an essay in the Spectator of Sept. 7, 1872, seems to assume this to be so. The idea seems familiar to me, and I think I remember some lines ending "Placed far amid the melancholy main." Can any one inform me whose lines they are, and what poem they form part of? R. S. P. OLD BIBLE. I have lately seen an old quarto Bible, printed by Robert Barker, 1603, with a twelve tribes and the conventional twelve apostles. curious title-page, illustrating the standards of the It has many catechisms, poems, private prayers, most was Sternhold and Hopkins's Psalms, with &c., bound up with it, but what interested me the musical notes printed as we now see in Mervolume is printed by John Windet for the assigns cer's and other Hymn-books. This portion of the of John Day, 1603. I wish to know whether any modern use has been made of these tunes? I presume there is no great rarity in the volume. The Prayer-book portion was a good deal damaged. P. P. REMARKABLE BOOK.-I have in my possession a book entitled Fabularum Ovidii Interpretatio, Tradita in Academia Regiomontana, a Georgio Labino. It was printed "Parisiis apud Hieronymum de Marnef & Vidua Guillelmi Canellat, sub Pelicano monte D. Halarig. 1579." On the titlepage, between these two quotations, is an engraving of a pelican and her young ones. The dedication is to " Illustrissimo Principi ac Domino, Domino Alberto Marchioni Brandeburgensi, Prussiæ, Steninensi," &c., and, like the whole of the book, is in Latin. On the last page is the following: "Parisiis, Excudebat Carolus Rogerius, Anno Domini M.D.LXXIX. Mense Maio." B. R. THE PICTURE OF SHAKSPEARE'S MARRIAGE. (4th S. x. 143, 214, 278, 320.) 17, Hunter's Row, Scarborough. DEAR SIR,-I now hasten to fulfil my promise to answer a number of questions that have arisen concerning the picture now at Mr. Macmillan's. I will endeavour to show that it represents the betrothal marriage, and not the public marriage, of William Shakespere and Anne Hathaway; and I trust that what I have got to say may be considered so far conclusive as to justify the serious consideration of the genuineness of the picture. As you are well acquainted with the design of the picture, I shall commence to speak of it as though it were before us now. Having lined and cleaned the picture myself, I am enabled to speak with some degree of authority of its antiquity, evidence of which was manifest in the hardness of the dirt and varnish upon it, and the crispness of the paint. The picture was lined when I bought it; I have the old stretching-frame yet. It evidently had been lined many years; I had to take off the old lining on account of the picture having given way from it in several places. It had been restored round the edge, and the rents and holes had been carefully repaired, but no part had been altered or painted up. I removed all old repairs before restoring again. Presuming that you will give me credit for having gathered some knowledge of the age of a picture, after thirty years of practice in the art, I venture to say that the picture is older than the date some parties would assign to it. Another practical man has seen the picture, and after having above forty years' practice in London, restoring and cleaning, and during that period has had more than 6,000 pictures through his hands, says, "I am glad to find the picture is quite old enough for the time." You have corresponded with only two parties with a view to trace the history of the picture, and have established the painting as old, half a century back. An opinion has been given that the picture has "no reference to Shakespere." How such a conclusion is arrived at I am at a loss to decide, as the antique inscription informs us of its character; and it is admitted that the alleged Shakesperian figure "has a strong resemblance to the Stratford bust of the man." That the writing is as old as any other part of the picture I am certain, because the tone of old varnish, oil, and dirt upon it is precisely the same as was on the other parts of the picture. To presume that, because the likeness of a youth of nineteen or so is so much like himself at fiftytwo, he is not the man, is almost to infer that all men undergo as remarkable a change as the "Claimant" says he has. We often see youths of nineteen with a beard. The pointed beard was the fashion all the days of Shakespere, and he wore one until death. If the portrait in the picture had not had a strong likeness to the Stratford bust, who would have received it as a likeness? I think myself that the artist has made Shakespere look full seven years older than he really was when married, but it may have been as a compliment, if we remember that his bride was his senior by eight years. To assume that the picture is Dutch, and of inferior ability, or the work "of some ill-taught Englishman," is to manifest a strange error of judg ment. I could never agree that the picture is a copy, it is too free in its handling; if it were a copy it would have been more studied in its touch. It has nothing Dutch about it; it is essentially English, and very rare, inasmuch as "domestic scenes are seldom found in the art of the sixteenth century. It has been said that no picture of a domestic scene was ever painted before the Restoration. Some persons do not call pictures by their right subjects: I should call "King James I. eating his dinner" a domestic subject; and we find (with our first search for the information) one was painted by Henry Peacham, who died in 1650. The picture is a fair example of art as a middleclass work of the period of Shakespere. It is 4th S. X. OCT. 26, '72.] NOTES AND QUERIES. quaint in design and drawing, but the tone of the picture is good: all signs in its favour. If the foregoing be not correct, how did William I will now draw your attention to some of the characteristics of the picture bearing upon Shake-a sperian history. Marriages by betrothal or "handfasting" were in vogue in Shakespere's time, and are referred to by him in several of his plays; for example, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, and others; and we find it was performed by a priest, in the presence of a witness or witnesses. In the picture Shakespere stands on the priest's right hand, Anne The priest stands a little Hathaway on the left. behind them, and is in the act of joining their hands, and by the side of the bridegroom a witness stands watching the completion of the handfasting. So that everything requisite to represent the ceremony is carefully observed in the picture. If more witnesses be needful, we have the old couple in the foreground weighing out the money. Caps of velvet were worn by gentlemen in Shakespere's time; shoes; and their garters were tied outside of their breeches, round the knee. The figure alluded to has a velvet cap on, garters tied round the knees, and shoes on. Harrison, describing English gentlemen of the I think we are not far wrong in supposing the period, speaks of them wearing a gown, coat, or old couple to be the parents of Anne Hathaway, cloak of "brown, blue, or puke, with some pretty for the following reasons:-Hathaway was a well-furniture of velvet or furre." This answers to the to-do yeoman; he would therefore occupy a respect- picture: the figure we call Hathaway wears a able dwelling, and be in a position to give a dowry. brown coat trimmed with fur, and there is velvet He was well to do at the time he died, and left by on his belt. will lands, sheep, &c., and 61. 13s. 4d. to his daughter in cash. There is some mystery about the sum of 61. 138. 4d. I find it was the price for a play in those days, and the same sum was left to Shakespere's mother by her father, R. Arden. Shakespere's father was not well to do; for we read that in 1579 he was so poor that he was excused the payment of fourpence a week as one of the corporation, and in 1586 he was dismissed from that body. This brings us to consider the feasibility of Shakespere, the son, receiving money from some other source to enable him to enter into a matrimonial state, and, as Hathaway was well to do, what was more likely than that he gave his daughter a dowry at her betrothal? This is more than probable, as the seal of Hathaway, bearing his initials, is attached to the bond of marriage (see Encyc. Brit. vol. xx. p. 89). It is known that Hathaway was dead before the public marriage took place. This suggests, and I am backed by the last authority, i.e. Encyc. Brit. vol. xx. p. 89, that the bond was drawn up at the handfasting, with dates left open; that Hathaway was present, aud attached his seal to the document, which was to be completed at the May it not have been that church marriage. Hathaway, knowing of the attachment of his daughter to William Shakespere, and feeling his health declining, was anxious that the handfasting should not be deferred, but entered upon at once, that he might be able to give the customary dowry in his lifetime? We may presume, therefore, that the picture represents the event when he attached his seal to the marriage bond; otherwise we are bound to consider the contract is a forgery. In the fifteenth century it was common for the rich farmers' wives of Scotland to wear a bunch of keys pendent from a chain; and Dr. Nathan Drake, in his Shakespear and his Times, thinks the same may be applied to the still richer dames of England without any great exaggeration. An illustration of his opinion is seen in the picture, for the figure of the old lady in the foreground holds a long chain The figure of Anne Hathaway and her face would with a bunch of keys at the lower end of it. make her appear older than Shakespere by ten years; this is in accordance with the historical fact of her eight years' advance of him. The legend The word itself is Shakesperian in its quaintness and spelling. The frequent use of the vowel "e" at the end of "Rare," commencing the legend, has a capital R, words is in harmony with the period. with the tail brought down, which was common in the time of Shakspere. The very old way of spelling the word "appere" is found in the marriage bond (I am not quite of Shakespere. The very rare word "Lymninge" is used by Shakespere himself. sure, but I think it is found in Shakespere's works only.) The "15-" at the bottom of the legend I consider significant of genuineness. Why not the full date? It is known now when Shakespere was married publicly, but that does not show that he might know of a marriage by handfasting, but the artist did not paint a picture before that; and |