A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES, GENEALOGISTS, No. 22.] NOTES: "When found, make a note of."—CAPTAIN CUTTLE. SATURDAY, MARCH 30. 1850. CONTENTS. Page In two former communications on a subject incidental to that to which I now beg leave to call your attention, I hinted at a result far more important than the discovery of the author of the Taming of a Shrew. That result I lay before your readers, in stating that I think I can show grounds for the assertion that the Taming of the Shrew, by Shakspeare, is the original play; and that the Taming of a Shrew, by Marlowe or what other writer soever, is a later work, and an imitafion. I must first, however, state, that having seen Mr. Dyce's edition of Marlowe, I find that this writer's claim to the latter work had already been advanced by an American gentleman, in a work so obvious for reference as Knight's Library Edition of Shakspeare. I was pretty well ac ETC. {Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4d. quainted with the contents of Mr. Knight's first edition; and knowing that the subsequent work of Mr. Collier contained nothing bearing upon the point, I did not think of referring to an edition published, as I understood, rather for the variation of form than on account of the accumulation of new matter. Mr. Dyce appears to consider the passages cited as instances of imitation, and not proofs of the identity of the writer. His opinion is certainly entitled to great respect: yet it may, nevertheless, be remarked, first that the instance given, supposing Marlowe not to be the author, would be cases of theft rather than imitation, and which, done on so large a scale, would scarcely be confined to the works of one writer; and, secondly, that in original passages there are instances of an independence and vigour of thought equal to the best things that Marlowe ever wrote - a circumstance not to be reconciled with the former supposition. The following passage exhibits a freedom of thought more characteristic of this writer's reputation than are most of his known works:"And custom-free, you marehants shall commerce And interchange the profits of your land, Sending you gold for brasse, silver for lead, Casses of silke for packes of wol and cloth, To bind this friendship and confirme this league." Six Old Plays, p. 204. A short account of the process by which I came to a conclusion which, if established, must overthrow so many ingenious theories, will not, I trust, be uninteresting to your readers. In the relationship between these two plays there always seemed to be something which needed explanation. It was the only instance among the works of Shakspeare in which a direct copy, even to matters of detail, appeared to have been made; and, in spite of all attempts to gloss over and palliate, it was impossible to deny that an unblushing act of mere piracy seemed to have been committed, of which I never could bring myself to believe that Shakspeare had been guilty. The readiness to impute this act to him was to me but an instance of the unworthy manner in which he had almost universally been treated; and, without at the time having any suspicion of what I now take to be the fact, I determined, if possible, to find it out. The first question I put to myself was, Had Shakspeare himself any concern in the older play? A second glance at the work sufficed for an answer in the negative. I next asked myself on what authority we called it an "older" play. The answer I found myself obliged to give was, greatly to my own surprise, On no authority whatever! But there was still a difficulty in conceiving how, with Shakspeare's work before him, so unscrupulous an imitator should have made so poor an imitation. I should not have felt this difficulty had I then recollected that the play in question was not published; but, as the case stood, I carefully examined the two plays together, especially those passages which were identical, or nearly so, in both, and noted, in these cases, the minutest variations. The result was, that I satisfied myself that the original conception was invariably to be found in Shakspeare's play. I have confirmed this result in a variety of ways, which your space will not allow me to enter upon; therefore, reserving such circumstances for the present as require to be enforced by argument, I will content myself with pointing out certain passages that bear out my view. I must first, however, remind your readers that while some plays, from their worthlessness, were never printed, some were withheld from the press on account of their very value; and of this latter class were the works of Shakspeare. The late publication of his works created the impression, not yet quite worn out, of his being a later writer than many of his contemporaries, solely because their printed works are dated earlier by twenty or thirty years. But for the obstinate effects of this impression, it is difficult to conceive how any one could miss the original invention of Shakspeare in the induction, and such scenes as that between Grumio and the tailor; the humour of which shines, even in the feeble reflection of the imitation, in striking contrast with those comic (?) scenes which are the undisputed invention of the author of the Taming of a Shrew. แ The first passage I take is from Act IV. Sc. 3. Thou hast fac'd many things? "Grumio. "Tailor, I have. "Gru. Face not me: thou hast brav'd many men; brave not me. I will neither be fac'd nor brav'd." In this passage there is a play upon the terms "fac'd" and "brav'd." In the tailor's sense, things" may be "fac'd" and "men" may be "brav'd;" and, by means of this play, the tailor is entrapped into an answer. The imitator, having probably seen the play represented, has carried away the words, but by transposing them, and with the change of one expression - men for "things" has lost the spirit: there is a pun no longer. He might have played upon "brav'd,” but there he does not wait for the tailor's answer; and "fac'd," as he has it, can be understood but 66 "Saudre, Face not me: I'll neither be fac'd nor brav'd at thy hands, I can tell thee."-p. 198. A little before, in the same scene, Grumio says, "Master, if ever I said loose-bodied gown, sew me in the skirts of it, and beat me to death with a bottom of brown thread." I am almost tempted to ask if passages such as this be not evidence sufficient. In the Taming of a Shrew, with the variation of "sew me in a seam" for "sew me in the skirts of it," the passage is also to be found; but who can doubt the whole of this scene to be by Shakspeare, rather than by the author of such scenes, intended to be comic, as one referred to in my last communication (No. 15. p. 227., numbered 7.), and shown to be identical with one in Doctor Faustus? I will just remark, too, that the best appreciation of the spirit of the passage, which, one would think, should point out the author, is shown in the expression, "sew me in the skirts of it," which has meaning, whereas the variation has none, A little earlier, still in the same scene, the following bit of dialogue occurs: — "Kath. I'll have no bigger; this doth fit the time, And gentlewomen wear such caps as these. "Pet. When you are gentle, you shall have one too, and not till then." Katharine's use of the term "gentlewomen" In the other suggests here Petruchio's "gentle." play the reply is evidently imitated, but with the absence of the suggestive cue: "For I will home again unto my father's house. "Ferando. I, when y'are meeke and gentle, but not before."-p. 194. Petruchio, having dispatched the tailor and haberbasher, proceeds — throughout continuing to urge the vanity of outward appearance, in reference to the "ruffs and cuffs, and farthingales and things," which he had promised her, and with which the phrase "honest mean habiliments" is used in contrast. The suf ficiency to the mind of these, "For 'tis the mind that makes the body rich," is the very pith and purpose of the speech. Commencing in nearly the same words, the imitator entirely mistakes this, in stating the object of clothing to be to "shrowd us from the winter's completely beside the purpose. In Act II. Sc. I., rage" which is, nevertheless, true enough, though Petruchio says, As the morning does not derive its glory from the circumstance of its being "wash'd with dew," and as it is not a peculiarly apposite comparison, I conclude that here, too, as in other instances, the sound alone has caught the ear of the imitator. In Act V. Sc. 2., Katharine says, "Then vail your stomachs; for it is no boot; And so, farewell, for we will to our bed."—p. 214. Is it not evident that Shakspeare chose the word "sped" as a rhyme to "bed," and that the imitator, in endeavouring to recollect the jingle, has not only spoiled the rhyme, but missed the fact that all "three " were "married," notwithstanding that "two" were "sped"? It is not in the nature of such things that instances should be either numerous or very glaring; but it will be perceived that in all of the foregoing, the purpose, and sometimes even the meaning, is intelligible only in the form in which we find it in Shakspeare. I have not urged all that I And place your hand below your husband's foot; might, even in this branch of the question; bat In token of which duty, if he please, respect for your space makes me pause. In conMy hand is ready: may it do him ease." clusion, I will merely state, that I have no doubt myself of the author of the Taming of a Shrew Though Shakspeare was, in general, a most corhaving been Marlowe; and that, if in some scenes rect and careful writer, that he sometimes wrote it appear to fall short of what we might have exhastily it would be vain to deny. In the third pected from such a writer, such inferiority arises line of the foregoing extract, the meaning clearly from the fact of its being an imitation, and prois, "as which token of duty;" and it is the per- bably required at a short notice. At the same formance of this "token of duty" which Kathatime, though I do not believe Shakspeare's play to rine hopes may "do him ease." The imitator, as contain a line of any other writer, I think it exusual, has caught something of the words of the tremely probable that we have it only in a revised original, which he has laboured to reproduce at a most unusual sacrifice of grammar and sense; the form, and that, consequently, the play which Marlowe imitated might not necessarily have been fellowing passage appearing to represent that the that fund of life and humour that we find it now. wives, by laying their hands under their husbands' SAMUEL HICKSON. feet-no reference being made to the act as a token of duty-in some unexplained manner, "might procure them ease." "Laying our bands under their feet to tread, If that by that we might procure their ease, And, for a precedent, I'll first begin And lay my hand under my husband's feet." p. 213. One more instance, and I have done. Shakspeare has imparted a dashing humorous character to this play, exemplified, among other peculiarities, by such rhyming of following words as"Haply to wive and thrive as least I may." "We will have rings and things and fine array." "With ruffs, and cuffs, and farthingales and things." I quote these to show that the habit was Shakspeare's. In Act I. Sc. 1. occurs the passage that would thoroughly woo her, wed her, and bed her, and rid the house of her." The sequence here is perfectly natural: but observe the change: in Ferando's first interview with Kate, he says, – "My mind, sweet Kate, doth say I am the man Must wed and bed and murrie bonnie Kate." P. 172. In the last scene, Petruchio says,— St. John's Wood, March 19. 1850. Cf. Voltaire, "Siècle de Louis XV." (ŒŒuvres, xxi. p. 67.): — "Il (le Chevalier de Belle-Isle) était capable de tout imaginer, de tout arranger, et de tout faire." "Guerre aux chateaux, paix à la chaumière," ascribed to Condorcet, in Edin. Rev. April, 1800. p. 240. (note*) By Thiers (Hist. de la Rév. Franç. Par. 1846. 8vo. ii. 283.), these words are attributed to Cambon; while, in Lamartine's Hist. des Girondins (Par. 1847. 8vo.), Merlin is represented to have exclaimed in the Assembly, "Déclarez la guerre aux rois et la paix aux nations." Macaulay's Hist. of England (1st ed.), ii. 476.: "But the iron stoicism of William never gave way: and he stood among his weeping friends calm and austere, as if he had been about to leave them only for a short visit to his hunting-grounds at Loo." ". . . . non alitèr tamen Dimovit obstantes propinquos, Et populum reditus morantem, Quàm si clientum longa negotia Dijudicatâ lite relinqueret, Tendens Venafranos in agros, Aut Lacedæmonium Tarentum." Hor. Od. iii. v. 50-56. "De meretrice puta quòd sit sua filia puta, Nam sequitur levitèr filia matris iter." These lines are said by Ménage (Menagiana, Amstm. 1713. 18mo., iii. 12mo.) to exist in a Commentary "In composita verborum Joannis de i Galandiâ." F. C. B. WILLIAM BASSE AND HIS POEMS. Your correspondent, the Rev. T. Corser, in his note on William Basse, says, that he has been inLibrary, in a 4to. volume, some poems of that formed that there are, in Winchester College writer. I have the pleasure of assuring him that his information is correct, and that they are the "Three Pastoral Elegies" mentioned by Ritson. The title-page runs thus: "Three Pastoral Elegies of Anander, Anetor, and Muridella, by William Bas. Printed by V. S. for J. B., and are to be sold at his shop in Fleet Street, at the sign of the Great Turk's Head, 1602. Then follows a dedication, "To the Honourable and Virtuous Lady, the Lady Tasburgh;" from which dedication it appears that these Pastoral Elegies were among the early efforts of his Muse. The author, after making excuses for not having repaid her Ladyship's encouragement earlier, says, “Finding my abilitie too little to make the meanest satisfaction of so great a principall as is due to so many favourable curtesies, I am bold to tende your Ladyship this unworthy interest, wherewithal I will put in good securitie, that as soone as time shall relieve the necessitie of my young invention, I will disburse my Muse to the uttermost mite of my power, to make some more acceptable composition with your bounty. In the mean space, living without hope to be ever sufficient inough to yeeld your worthinesse the smallest halfe of your due, I doe only desire to leave your Ladyship in assurance"That when increase of age and learning, sets My mind in wealthi'r state than now it is, Or mortgage you a better Muse than this; While, though I owe more then I can make good, Your Ladsyhip's in all humblenes "WILLUM BAs." The first Pastoral consists of thirty-seven stanzas; the second of seventy-two; the third of forty-eight each stanza of eight ten-syllable verses, of which the first six rhyme alternately; the last two are a couplet. There is a short argument, in verse, prefixed to each poem. That of the first runs thus: "Anander lets Anetor wot His love, his lady, and his lot.” of the second,— "Anetor seeing, seemes to tell The beauty of faire Muridell, of the third, "Anander sick of love's disdaine This notice of these elegies cannot fail to be highly interesting to your correspondent on Basse and his works, and others of your readers who feel an interest in recovering the lost works of our early poets. W. II. GUNNER. Winchester, March 16. 1850. FOLK LORE. Something else about "Salting." - On the first occasion, after birth, of any children being taken in to a neighbour's house, the mistress of the house ways presents the babe with an egg, a little iour, and some salt; and the nurse, to ensure good luck, gives the child a taste of the pudding, which is forthwith compounded out of these in gredients. This little "mystery" has occurred too often to be merely accidental; indeed, all my poorer neighbours are familiarly acquainted with the custom; and they tell me that money is often given in addition at the houses of the rich. What is the derivation of cum grano salis, as a hint of caution? Can it come from the M.D.'s prescription; or is it the grain of Attic salt or wit for which allowance has to be made in every welltold story? A. G. Ecelesfield Vicarage, March 16. 1850. Norfolk Weather-Rhyme. "First comes David, then comes Chad, And then comes Winneral as though he was mad, White or black, Or old house thack." The first two lines of this weather proverb may be found in Hone's Every-Day Book, and in Denham's Proverbs and Popular Sayings relating to the Seasons (edited for the Percy Society): but of March, is there called "Winnold," and not, as St. Winwaloe, whose anniversary falls on the 3rd in our bit of genuine Norfolk, Winneral. Those versions also want the explanation, that at this time there will be either snow, rain, or wind; which latter is intended by the "old house thack," or thatch. Toothache. It is a singular fact, that the charm Medical Charms used in Ireland - Charm for for toothache stated (No. 19. p. 293 ) to be prevalent in the south-eastern counties of England, is also used by the lower orders in the county of Kilkenny, and perhaps other parts of Ireland. I have often heard the charm: it commences, "Peter sat upon a stone; Jesus said, "What aileth thee, Peter?'" and so on, as in the English form. To cure Warts, the following charm is used: A wedding-ring is procured, and the wart touched or pricked with a gooseberry thorn through the ring. To cure Epilepsy, take three drops of sow's milk. To cure Blisters in a cow's mouth, cut the blisters; then slit the upper part of the tail, insert a clove of garlic, and tie a piece of red cloth round the wound. To cure the Murrain in Cows.-This disease is supposed to be caused by the cow having been stung about the mouth while feeding, in consequence of contact with some of the larger larvæ of the moth (as of the Death's-head Sphynx, &c.), which have a soft fleshy horn on their tails, erroneously believed to be a sting. If a farmer is so lucky as to procure one of these rare larvæ, he is to bore a hole in an ash tree, and plug up the unlucky caterpillar alive in it. The leaves of that ash tree will, from thenceforth, be a specific against the disease. The universal prevalence of the superstition concerning the ash is extremely curious. Kilkenny, J. G. |