ON Aug. 3 The Times published an interesting account of Dr. R. T. Gunther on the relics of past science now exhibited at Oxford, particularly those in the Lewis Evans collection. The glory of the collection, as every one interested in old scientific instruments knows, is Humphrey Cole's Great Astrolabe dated May 21, 1575. the business of keeping a post-office a "trade"? Recently, on the outskirts of London, a house was sold on condition that trading therein should be "restricted to chemistry and druggists' business and dentist or doctor." The purchaser sought and obtained the position of sub-postmaster-general in the district, that is to say started keeping a local post-office. The first owner of the house then issued a writ and moved for an injunction to restrain the new owner from acting in alleged breach of the contract. Mr. Justice P. O. Lawrence held that the keeping of a post-office was not "trading "' but something in the nature of a monopoly at a fixed remuneration, and dismissed the motion. The plaintiff appealed and the Court of Appeal upheld the Judge's decision. The Master of the Rolls in giving judgment brought forward, among other considerations, the fact remun that the sub-postmaster's eration did not depend upon his trading abilities; he could not charge more for his services than the fixed amount, or obtain more by excess of zeal or industry. This last sentence may be taken as containing an important point in the philosophy of trade. (v. The Times, July 30). ᎡᎬ! EUTER sends report of an extraordinary incident on Aug. 2 at Edmonton (Alb.); Fourteen circus elephants, who were hitched to an animal wagon and proceeding through the town to the circus grounds, were stampeded by a small dog who ran out and barked at them. A baby elephant started the alarm. The elephants broke their harness, overturned two wagons full of bears and tigers, and then rushed through the west end of the City. They smashed through a fence round the hospital, dashed through streets and gardens, and at last got out into the woods. There they were rounded up by policemen and circus men with elephant chains. The baby elephant gave more trouble than all the rest apparently; turned on a trainer who had cornered him, and pursued the man into a cemetery. This proved fortunate for the trainer, who managed to save his life by dodging from tombstone to tombstone. our TWO papers in the Cornhill for August will probably be of interest to readers: Ada Waller's account of a trainingschool for girls in Berlin, founded by the Empress Augusta, seen as it was conducted in the eighties of last century; and Margaret Collis's description of life in Ireland before the railways. The former includes sketches of the old Emperor William I and the Empress, and two or three members of the Imperial Family, together with some entertaining anecdote; the latter gives a valuable and substantial picture, illustrated by much detail well set out, of conditions and incidents and types of character well worth adding to what we already have of the kind. The way the famine of 1847 and 1848 was fought, and under what gigantic difficulties, makes an impressive part of the story. AMONG the facts contributory to our were general social history which make appearance from time to time in the Press we noted some of the statements at the conference of delegates of the Tailors and Garment Workers' Trade Union, which resumed its meetings at Leeds on Aug. 2. They discussed at length the employment of youths in this industry, and strong views expressed on the disappearance of all-round efficiency-the efficiency of the old journeyman tailor, a character who is being squeezed out of his job-in favour of teaching to accomplish one part only of the multiple process of making a garment. A suit of clothes, thanks to machinery, was now, said one speaker, produced by a process of sixty-six parts. The failure to get any general idea of training, which necessarily followed this mere working at one part, means more and more the elimination of the craft idea. This trend in things has long been recognized, often commented on, as often regretted. The disappearance of the craft idea in the mass of the nation-no matter what the craft-would seem to involve the disappearance of the true source of the arts. AT ante p. 56 we noted the forthcoming sale at Christie's of two famous portraits, Romney's 'Mrs. Davenport' and Raeburn's 'Sir Duncan Campbell.' The former, as by this time we all know, fetched a record price for Romney, in fact, as The Times expert informs us, the highest auction price in England, possibly in the world for a picture: to wit, 58.000 guineas. The Raeburn portrait brought 5,200 guineas. Literary and Historical IN 'HAMLET.' (See ante p. 75.) which, as a reference to the Oxford Diction "do ary will show, were sometimes confounded or had at least the same meaning differently spelt. The a in adout" is merely adverbial, creating a slightly intensive form of "dout," of course in the sense of "do TEXTUAL NOTES ON SOME PASSAGES out" or destroy (compare doff" from "do off," "" don from on &c.). Shakespeare uses dout again in Henry V,' IV. ii. 11, "dout them with superfluous courage"; and in Hamlet,' IV. vii. 192, "but that this folly douts it." Both in form and meaning the line absolutely requires "dout" in the sense of do out " ΟΙ extinguish." A stupid or careless printer of Q.2 would print the commoner word with the easier meaning as he conceived it. III. I. iv. 36. The dram of eale Doth all the noble substance of a doubt, &c. This crux is not extraordinarily difficult, nor is it insoluble. For example, it cannot be compared for sheer knottiness with the equally celebrated run from brakes of ice" in 'Measure for Measure' (II. i. 39). Of the innumerable attempts at emendation none appears to command much approval and many may be dismissed at once as obviously wide of the mark. Q2 (1604), in which alone the passage occurs, was probably printed direct from Shakespeare's own MS., which had been in use as a prompter's copy, the reason for this being that the King's Company was desirous at the earliest moment of issuing an authentic edition which should drive the "stolen and surreptitious" Quarto (1) out of circulation. Now, just as the Second Quarto prints deale for 'deil or devil," eale" in this passage may justly be regarded as a monosyllabic contraction for "evil" or "ill." There seems to be general and sound agreement on this point. The real crux lies in "of a doubt," and SO herein the trace of the letters is of the amend" and mend, &c. If it is objected that " adout is a araέ λeyóμevov, the answer is obvious, namely that there are many anaέ λeyóμeva in the plays. When we find such specimens of the old printing as 66 a leaven" for eleven" in Q.2 (I. ii. 252), and a leven" also for eleven in Merchant of Venice,' II. ii. 155; in the Folio in Hamlet,' II. ii. 451, for "total," and in Q2 (III. iv. 59) "heave a kissing " for a heavenkissing," need we be surprised that "adout " (or adout" of course with the meaning utmost importance. A reference to the of extinguish) was printed as "" a doubt"? whole passage will show that Shakespeare The passage then, in my opinion should, in is careful not to speak of an invariable a modern text, be printed simply as folfault" in men, but only oft in the lows:particular men. And pales and forts of reason are only broken down. His thought seems to have been running on the word there is a strong presumption that the in of a doubt represents another " oft,' and that he meant to round off his argument that the dram or minute quantity of evil only oft "-not universally-vitiated "the noble substance," even in particular the 'deuell" of Q2 that the printer's eye may readily have been deceived by the likeress into the belief that one only of the words was required in the line; (3) from the strong probability that Shakespeare got his idea of the whole passage, and even some of his words, from Montaigne (see Vol. I., chap. xxii., 'Of Custome,' Tudor Translations, p. 104, Dent's reprint, p. 106): "These forrein examples are not strange, if wee but consider that we ordinarily finde by travell, and how custom quaileth and weakeneth our customary senses and wee may plainly see her upon every occasion to force the rules of Nature.' Hence the evidence would seem to be decisive in favour of quell." Sundry unhappy attempts to elucidate this passage may be found in the notes to the Cambridge Shakespeare and Furness's Variorum. The passage is omitted by Q1 and the Folio. Qq 2-5 have no comma after eate," and rightly so. Apparently Pope was the first editor to obscure the sense, which he did not understand, by inserting a comma; and he has been followed in this by Steevens, Staunton, Dyce, the Cambridge editors, and many others. Johnson's unfortunate remark, namely, that " angel and devil are evidently opposed" has much to answer for, since it only added to the obscurity. Angel "here is not opposed to devil," but to monster"—a word quite as significant for Shakespeare's purpose as "devil." This clearly appears when the intruding comma after eate " is removed, and the essential substitution of "evil" for devil" is made. This is the conjecture of Thirlby, and was rightly adopted by Theobald. The blunder must have originated in the printing of Q2, and in the idea, since perpetuated by almost every editor, that angel must necessarily be contrasted with devil.' Further, it is sig- THE BROWNES OF WOODCHESTER AND nificant that the spelling of Q2 is " devill," and not, as usual, divell." The true meaning of the passage is therefore clear enough. Custom is а "monster (cf. "damned custom," line 37 ante) because, (1) he eats, (i.e. destroys) (2) all sense (3) of evil (4) habits. Per contra, he is an Angel," because (1) he clothes (2) the use (or doing) (3) of good (4) actions. So each expressive word has its due contrast displayed in the perfect and unapproachable mastery of Shakespeare's language. I assume that "eate "-of course pronounced ate is Shakespeare's word, and that it is here used in the sense of consume, destroy, corrode, &c.; and that therefore no verbal correction is necessary; but if one were necessary, an admirable substitute would be found in " 'bate," in the sense of weaken, destroy, as in 'Love's Labour's Lost' I. i. 6 (of devouring Time), "bate his scythe's keen edge." (b). l. 169. And either .the devell (Q2) or throw him out, etc. Mr. John M. Robertson, in his admirable volume, Montaigne and Shakespeare (1909), p. 51, I find, refers to the 'Hamlet passage and notices the power of custom, but he does not specifically refer to the quotations set out above. HENRY CUNINGHAM. THE ROMAN PAVEMENT. ON the 26th of July was re-exposed, after But already at that time (1797) many This ་ Who was Edmund Browne, the author of that valuable drawing? He was known as of Rodborough.' He lived, presumably, so close to the parish boundary of Woodchester, in Rodborough, that his house, and that of his parents, was perhaps within view of Woodchester Church (now demolished) and its yard wherein lay the mysterious pavement. He not only drew accurately, and with skill, but he was so much interested in the mosaic that ten years later, in 1722, he excavated, at his own expense, the whole mosaic and commissioned one, Richard Bradley, to draw and colour it for him. (In the King's Library, MSS. K.13, b.). Browne's own drawing, Lysons tells us, he found in possession of Sir Geo. Paul, Bt., and it is pertinent to mention that on Feb. 7, 1712 (that is, a little while before Browne had made the Elephant and other drawings) he had married Sarah Dean, at Woodchester Church, and that, in that same year, Sir Robert Atkins had publicly stated that the dimensions of the famous pavement were not yet known. Browne had been entered at Lincolns Inn, Feb. 17, 1704/5, as son and heir of Joseph Browne (gent.), and he died in 1731. His birth and baptism are entered in fine Gothic characters and under-scrolled Mar. 4, 1683." I observed, while noting down, by the courtesy of the Vicar of Woodchester, the births of the various children of Joseph Browne and the entry of Edmund's marriage, that the register shewed clearly that each one of these is beautifully entered and scrolled-under by a master penman and not by the parish clerk. Some of these entries stand out from the page as remarkable feats of writing. They are, I think, the work of an over-looked Gloucestershire worthy, namely Joseph Browne, whose name appears as of Woodchester, at the foot of Dr. Plot's map of Co. Stafford, in his History of that County. The latter is noteworthy in itself as a piece of engraving; but, further, it is noteworthy that Plot (as Mr. S. A. Burne, of Cheadle (Staff.), who drew my attention to the fact, remarks) forsook his well-known Dutch engraver Bergh, who had engraved for him his Oxfordshire map, and much else in his Co. Stafford History, in favour of this excellent engraver of the map"-Joseph Browne! On p. 300, Plot gives an interesting account of Richard Clutterbuck of Rodborough, a gifted neighbour of Browne, and related by Browne. From 1680 onwards, when the elder Brownes lost one or two of their elder child ren, and buried them in Woodchester churchyard, it is possible that the famous mosaic pavement first became exposed to their view; and perhaps Joseph Browne became acquainter with it. In 1687 (Dec. 3) he buried his second son Daniel there; and in 1693 the pavement is said to have been alluded to by Dr. Parsons, and it actually is referred to in the additions to Camden's Britannia.' (1695). Though the Brownes lived and were buried there and the second Edmund Browne (Esq.) died there in 1754, the arms assumed by the family, Erm., on a fess embattled and counter-embattled sable, 3 escallops argent, belong to the Salopian Brownes of Caughley. This, taken with the fact that as yet we have no evidence how Joseph Browne came to Woodchester first, points to the interesting likelihood that he may have been a Staffordshire or Shropshire man by birth, although Plot knew of him as of Woodchester only. How the historian became acquainted with him, we have yet to learn; but Plot had an intimate friend in Archdeacon Gregory Gloucester (d. 1678). His name and art, at any rate, have not received any local remembrance. ST. CLAIR BADDELEY. of sea running at the time, which occasioned the surf to break over her with great violence. She likewise took fire when she struck in the Spirit Room, which forced the unfortunate people on deck, when numbers were washed overboard. She parted in the course of the night, when the principal casualities occurred under such disadvantages the survivors could not be supposed to have saved any property; they have lost everything, besides many dear relations; 177 are saved, 206 souls are lost. the Senior Under the circumstances Officer in Command (Major King, 98th Regiment), has given me order to issue to these unfortunate sufferers a few suits of supernumary Clothing of the Old Pattern that were in store, and as these men have been obliged to take these Articles under peculiar circumstances of distress they have requested me to intercede with Your Honble. Board to be allowed these few suits free of all charges. I have, however, transmitted Clothing lists of the same. which I trust will meet your approbation. The Major Commanding has further directed me to issue to these men the indemnification for loss of necessaries as set forth in the War Office reglations dated March 1st, 1796, he (the Major Commanding) having authorised the same to be advanced to several detachments of other Corps who were wrecked from the same vessel. have accordingly done so, and the Ordnance Paymaster has advanced the Amount on my responsibility till your considerations shall be made known. I have ascertained that these men were only subsisted the Royal Artillery to the 31st October, and the R. At. drivers to the 30th Novr. previous to leaving Canada. I have therefore drawn a month's subsistence for them. I have the hour to be, P. FADDY, I Capt. Commanding R. Artillery. 18th Dec., 1816. Ordered that Capn Faddy be acquainted, under the peculiar circumstances he has stated the Board approve of the Issues of Clothing and other Articles made on this occasionthat they also approve of the Compensation which has been made to the Men for the Loss of necessaries-and also of Captain Faddy having drawn for a month's Subsistence for the Artillery. |