Читать книгу Notes and Queries, Number 30, May 25, 1850 - Various - Страница 2

DR. RICHARD HOLSWORTH AND THOS. FULLER

Can any of your readers inform me who was the author of The Valley of Vision, published in 1651 as the work of Dr. Richard Holsworth, the Master of Emmanuel College, and Dean of Worcester. In a preface to the reader, Fuller laments "that so worthy a man should dye issulesse without leaving any books behind him for the benefit of learning and religion." He adds that the private notes which he had left behind him were dark and obscure; his hand being legible only to himself, and almost useless for any other. The sermon published as The Valley of Vision appears to have been prepared for publication from the notes of a short-hand writer. When Fuller published, about eleven years afterwards, his Worthies of England, he wrote thus:—

"Pity it is so learned a person left no monuments (save a sermon) to posterity; for I behold that posthume work as none of his, named by the transcriber The Valley of Vision, a Scripture expression, but here misplaced.... This I conceived myself in credit and conscience concerned to observe, because I was surprised at the preface to the book, and will take the blame rather than clear myself, when my innocency is complicated with the accusing of others."

If, as is probable, Dr. Holsworth, in this instance, preached other men's sermons, which the short-hand writer afterwards gave to the world as his, it is a singular fact, that in the preface of this supposititious volume, Fuller speaks of the abuse of printed sermons by some—

"Who lazily imp their wings with other men's plumes, wherewith they soar high in common esteeme, yet have not the ingenuity with that son of the Prophet to confesse, Alasse! it was borrowed."

A.B.R.

QUERIES UPON CUNNINGHAM'S HANDBOOK OF LONDON

We promised to make a few QUERIES on this amusing volume, and thus redeem our promise.

Mr. Cunningham has been the first to point out the precise situation of a spot often mentioned by our old dramatists, which had baffled the ingenuity of Gifford, Dyce, and in fact of all the commentators,—the notorious Picthatch. He thus describes it:—

"Picthatch, or Pickehatch.—A famous receptacle for prostitutes and pickpockets, generally supposed to have been in Turnmill Street, near Clerkenwell Green, but its position is determined by a grant of the 33rd of Queen Elizabeth, and a survey of 1649. What was Picthatch is a street at the back of a narrow turning called Middle Row (formerly Rotten Row) opposite the Charter-house wall in Goswell Street. The name is still preserved in 'Pickax Yard' adjoining Middle Row."

Why then, among the curious illustrations which he has brought to bear upon the subject, has Mr. Cunningham omitted that of the origin of the name from the "picks upon the hatch?" which is clearly established both by Malone and Steevens, in their notes upon "'twere not amiss to keep our door hatch'd," in Pericles.

The following is an excellent suggestion as to the origin of the—

"Goat and Compasses.—At Cologne, in the church of Santa Maria in Capitolio, is a flat stone on the floor professing to be the Grabstein der Brüder und Schwester eines ehrbaren Wein-und Fass-Ampts, Anno 1693; that is, as I suppose, a vault belonging to the Wine Coopers' Company. The arms exhibit a shield with a pair of compasses, an axe, and a dray, or truck, with goats for supporters. In a country like England, dealing so much at one time in Rhenish wine, a more likely origin for such a sign could hardly be imagined. For this information I am indebted to the courtesy of Sir Edmund Head."

Can Mr. Cunningham, Sir E. Head, or any of our correspondents point out any German "Randle Holme" whose work may be consulted for the purpose of ascertaining the arms, &c. of the various professions, trades, &c. of that country?

Why has not Mr. Cunningham, in his description of St. James' Street, mentioned what certainly existed long after the commencement of the present century, the occasional "steps" which there were in the foot-path—making the street a succession of terraces. This fact renders intelligible the passage quoted from Pope's letter to Mr. Pearse, in which he speaks of "y'e second Terras in St. James' Street." Why, too, omit that characteristic feature of the street, the rows of sedan chairs with which it was formerly lined? The writer of this perfectly remembers seeing Queen Charlotte in her sedan chair, going from the Queen's Library in the Green Park to Buckingham House.

Mr. Cunningham states, we dare say correctly, that Sheridan died at No. 17 Saville Row. We thought he had died at Mr. Peter Moore's, in Great George Street, Westminster. Was he not living there shortly before his death? and did not his funeral at Westminster Abbey proceed from Mr. Moore's?

ON A PASSAGE IN MACBETH

If any of your correspondents would favour me, I should like to be satisfied with respect to the following passage in Macbeth; which, as at present punctuated, is exceedingly obscure:—

Now, I think by altering the punctuation, the sense of the passage is at once made apparent, as thus,—

but to make use of a paradox, it is not done when it is done; for this reason, there is the conscience to torment the evil-doer while living, and the dread of punishment in another world after death: the "bank and shoal of time" refers to the interval between life and death, and to "jump" the life to come is to hazard it. The same thought occurs in Hamlet, when he alludes to—

But that is clear enough, as in all probability the annotators left the passage as they found it. I have not the opportunity of consulting Mr. Collier's edition of Shakespeare, so that I am unaware of the manner in which he renders it; perhaps I ought to have done so before I troubled you. Possibly some of your readers may be disposed to coincide with me in the "new reading;" and if not, so to explain it that it may be shown it is my own obscurity, and not Shakespeare's, with which I ought to cavil.

I have witnessed many representations of Macbeth, and in every instance the passage referred to has been delivered as I object to it: but that is not to be wondered at, for there are professed admirers of Shakspeare among actors who read him not as if they understood him, but who are—

G. BLINK.

MINOR QUERIES

As throng as Throp's Wife.—As I was busy in my garden yesterday, a parishioner, whose eighty-two years of age render her a somewhat privileged person to have a gossip with, came in to speak to me. With a view to eliciting material for a Note or a Query, I said to her, "You see I am as throng as Throp's wife;" to which she replied, "Aye, Sir, and she hanged herself in the dishcloth." The answer is new to me; but the proverb itself, as well as the one mentioned by "D.V.S." (No. 24. p. 382.) "As lazy as Ludlum's dog, &c.," has been an especial object of conjecture to me as long as I can remember. I send this as a pendant to "D.V.S.'s" Query, in hopes of shortly seeing the origin of both these curious sayings.

J.E.

Ecclesfield, Sheffield, April 19. 1850.

Trimble Family.—In a MS. account of the Fellows of King's I find the following:—

"1530.—Rich. Trimble, a very merry fellow, the fiddle of the society, who called him 'Mad Trimble.' M. Stokes of 1531 wrote this distich on him:—