Notes and Queries, Number 211, November 12, 1853. Various

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      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 is—Lord Braybrooke can correct me if I am wrong—that 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:

      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.

      Shirt Collars.—In Hone's Every-day Book, vol. ii. p. 381., I find the following, which I think is after the present ridiculous fashion of wearing shirt collars, viz. so tight round the neck, and so stiff, that it is a wonder there are not some serious accidents.

      These collars, at present worn by the fast young men of the day, are called "The Piccadilly three-folds." Now, if this goes on until they get to a "nail in depth, and stiffened with yellow starch, and double wired," I think it will only be proper to put a heavy tax upon them.