unable to represent her fascinating voice pictorially, has placed in her right-hand a hawk's lure, which she is in the act of waving round her head; while her left grasps a dark lanthorn, no very dark emblem of the fate of Darnley. Miss Strickland misdescribes the caricature by stating that it is "a sceptre formed of a fish's tail" the mermaid holds in her hand; while the writer in the Illustrated News, with equal absurdity, and less excuse, says that it is " a flail or tail.' A reference to any old engraving of a lure, either proper or heraldic, will at once show what it is the mermaid holds in her right hand. The arms of the house of Broc-argent upon bend sable, a luer or, as engraved in Halstead's Succinct Genealogies — would decide the question at once. The writer in the Illustrated News, not contented with one glaring error, makes another, by stating that the lanthorn in the mermaid's left-hand represents an hour-glass, and with great simplicity confesses that he is puzzled to understand why she carries such an implement. In illustrations of the Gunpowder Plot, that used to adorn many of the old Common Prayer-Books, Guy Fawkes is represented as carrying a lanthorn of an exactly similar description. * According to the article in the Illustrated News there is another rude satirical drawing in the State Paper Office, representing a hare surrounded by swords, emblematical of the cowardice and peril" of Bothwell. And to quote the exact words: 66 "On a sheet bound up with the original drawing the artist has left a still cruder sketch of the same figures. In this, beside the initials M. R. to indicate the Queen, and J. H. to mark John Hepburn, there are over the mermaid the words Spe illecto inani,' while round the inner ring, which surrounds the hare, we read Foris vastabit te gladius et intus pavor.' And in the centre of the circle just above the animal, may be deciphered, Timor undique clades." " The quotation completely corroborates my assertion, that it is a lure the mermaid holds; for in the Symbola Heroica of Claude Paradin, published at Antwerp in 1583,† the motto appended to the representation of a lure is "Spe illectat inani." The device of the hare surrounded by swords issuing from clouds, and thus representing the vengeance of Heaven, occurs in the same work, with the motto "Malo undique clades;" and at the end of the explanation of this symbol there is the following quotation from the Vulgate (Deuteronomy xxxii. 25), “Foris vastabit eos gladius et intus pavor." Towards the close of the last century, when there prevailed a complete craze for commentating on Shakspeare, an amiable clergyman, Mr. James Plumptre, writing from the classic shades of Clare Hall, Cambridge, undertook to show that the character of Hamlet's mother was founded on Mary Queen of Scots. That Hamlet's father was Darnley, and Claudius, Bothwell. As a specimen of the closeness of the analogy, I may give just one or two instances. Hamlet's father was poisoned while sleeping in an orchard, and Darnley was blown up at night when asleep, and his body found the next day in a garden. Again, in the play, the Queen dies by poison, of which Claudius is the involuntary administerer. In the history, Bothwell poisons Mary's cup of happiness, and it was her marriage with him, which was the cause of her sorrows and her death. But as Hamlet appeared almost in James's reign, why should Shakspeare thus insult the memory of the mother to the rising sun? The reply is, he made his peace by applying these flattering lines to James:— "The courtier's, soldier's, scholar's eye, tongue, sword; The expectancy and rose of the fair state, The glass of fashion, and the mould of form, The observed of all observers." James certainly was well flattered, and well he liked to be; but this is too, too solid. It may be questioned whether the evident bias in favour of the Tudor party, which Shakspeare shows in his historical dramas, relating to the Wars of the Roses, was adopted in compliment to the Queen or derived from the chronicler he studied. But there can be no doubt that A Winter's Tale was composed as an indirect apology for Anne Boleyn, and consequently a direct compliment to her daughter Elizabeth. Space, however, will not permit me to do more than refer to Horace Walpole's remarks on the subject in his keenly-written, if not convincing, Historical Doubts; and most who read them will agree with their writer, that A Winter's Tale is in reality a second part of King Henry VIII. WILLIAM PINkerton. A NEW SHAKSPEARE BOND. Few and scanty as are the contemporary notices of Shakspeare, which the industry of his biographers and illustrators have yet brought to light, many of the most valuable of these have been discovered within the last half century; and few who know the activity which now prevails-as in the Public Record Office, so among the possessors of family papers-in cataloguing and arranging such legal, historical, and literary remains as are †The first edition of Paradin's Devises Héroiques et still preserved, but must feel a somewhat conEmblems was published at Paris in 1557; the illustra-fident hope that, in the course of these researches, tions being executed by Dupetit Bernard the famous wood-engraver. A fictitious name, the work being really written by the clever and eccentric Charles Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough, assisted by his chaplain, Mr. Rans. some new facts connected with Shakspeare will be brought to light. We are sure that there is no one engaged in researches and labours among old manuscripts but indulges the hope of being one day the fortunate discoverer of some such docu ment. Our readers will then judge with what feelings a gentleman, who has been for some time employed in calendaring a long series of papers, which the noble owner is desirous of having properly preserved, lately discovered among them a small paper endorsed in a handwriting of the time of James I., "SHAKESPEARE'S BOND," and the haste with which he unfolded it, in order to discover whether it was a bond which had been executed by the Shakspeare. Alas! it was only the bond of a contemporarya Thomas Shakespeare of Lutterworth. A Shakspeare who has hitherto, we believe, escaped the industry of Shakspearian investigators. Thanks to the kindness of the noble Lord, to whom the deed belongs, we are enabled to lay the following copy of it before our readers: “Memorand, that I, Thomas Shakespeare of Lutterworth, in the County of Leic., gent., doe by these pñtes bind mee, my heires, executors, and administrators, for the payment of twentyfive shillings and eighte pence to James Whitelocke of the Middle Temple, London, esquier, uppon the sixte daye of ffebruary nexte ensewinge the daye of the date of these pñtes. In witnesse whereof I, the said Thomas Shakespeare, have hereunto put my hand and seale the xxvijth of November, Año Dni, 1606, Whether Thomas Shakespeare, of Lutterworth, Gent., was in any way related to his distinguished namesake of Stratford-upon-Avon-under what circumstances he was led to give this bond for "twenty-five shillings and eight pence" to "James Whitelocke, of the Middle Temple, London, esquier"- -we know nothing. Perhaps some of our readers may be able to turn to account this new contribution to Shakspearian biography. All of them will, we are sure, join us in thanking the owner of this curious document for his liberality in giving it to the world. Shakspeariana. JONSON'S LINES ON SHAKSPEARE'S PORTRAIT. Under an engraving of Montaigne by Philippe de Leu, the following lines by Mulherbe (1555 1628) are to be found. They are generally believed to have been among his earliest verses, and may therefore date about 1590 or so :"Voici du grand Montaigne une entière figure; Le peintre a peint le corps, et lui son bel esprit ; Le premier, par son art, égale la nature; Mais l'autre la surpasse en tout ce qu'il écrit.” Did Ben Jonson, when writing under Droeshout's portrait, imitate or plagiarise these lines? The epigrammatic point seems strangely alike in both pieces. How far would the granting of the imitation or plagiarism of these lines by Jonson affect Droeshout's portrait as "the only authenticated" one? Was the epigram fitted to the portrait, or was the portrait, being ready, suggestive of the epigram, as being too good to be lost under the circumstances? Let me recall " a modern instance. In 1832, Fraser's Magazine, No. 26, contained an engraving from Goethe's portrait by Stieler of Munich, of which Carlyle said, So looks and lives... the clearest, most universal man of his canst likewise behold," &c. And yet the copy in Nay, the very soul of the man thou Fraser's Magazine proved a total failure and involuntary caricature, resembling, as was said at the time, "a wretched old-clothesman, carrying behind his back a hat which he seemed to have stolen." (Carlyle's Works, ii. p. 422.) I do not quote Jonson's lines, because they are known to every one. SAMUEL NEIL. Moffat. time. ROBIN GOODFELLOW AND PUCK.-In the Midsummer Night's Dream, printed in the folio of 1623, I do not find the name of "Puck," and should like to know when it was substituted for that of "Robin Goodfellow "- the name given to this character in the folio. If the name of Puck is not Shakspeare's, why is it retained? SIDNEY BEISLY. [We do not understand what our Correspondent means by saying that the name of Puck does not occur in the First Folio; it does not occur in the List of Dramatis Persona, for there is no such list; but it occurs in the Play; for instance, Act II. Sc. 1: "Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Pucke," &c. 'My gentle Pucke, come hither," &c.] 66 66 looking into the MS. of my own Shakspeare-Expositor, I found the line, which I supposed I had copied accurately from the folio, given thus: — Nips youth in the bud, and follies doth emmew," without a single syllable of remark, the whole note being devoted to emmew! It is quite evident then, that nip had suggested bud, which I had unconsciously written. When lately printing the play it never recurred to my mind. This I think is worth noting, as it is a key to many of the errors of printers. When my edition of The Tempest appears, the reader will be perhaps surprised at my simple solution of the difficulty in "Most busy lest when I do it." I cannot with H. N. receive gilded for guiled shore; the correction of the Second Folio in Merchant of Venice, Act III. Sc. 1, for a gilded shore is nonsense; and guiled, in the grammar of the time, was equivalent to guiling, guileful. As to H. N.'s question respecting the connexion of" One touch of Nature makes the whole world kin" (Tr. and Cr., Act III. Sc. 3), I would reply that Nature gives the one and self-same touch to all mankind, i, e. affects or disposes them all alike; so that they all think and act in the same manner, and the connexion with the following line is thus manifest. I would beg to refer A. A. to "N. & Q." for 1861 for the real origin of incony. THOS. KEIGHTLEY. AMERICAN SHAKSPEARE EMENDATION. Is the following absurd Shakspearian emendation, referred to by Burton, in The Book-Hunter (p. 64), really American? "Without venturing too near to this very turbulent arena (Shakspearian Criticism) where hard words have lately been cast about with much reckless ferocity, I shall just offer one amended reading because there is something in it quite peculiar and characteristic of its literary birthplace beyond the Atlantic. The passage commented upon is the wild soliloquy, where Hamlet resolves to try the test of the play, and says: The devil hath power The amended reading stands "As he is very potent with such spirits, Abuses me too-damme!" If so, I should like to know in what publication it first appeared. It is difficult to believe that such stuff could have been written except as a satire. J. C. L. INVENTORY OF SHAKSPEARE'S GOODS.-It is probable that the inventory mentioned in the "Probate Act," appended to Shakspeare's will, then constrained to be made by law, and now lodged in the registry of the Prerogative Court of THE DESCENDANTS OF SHAKSPEARE'S SISTER JOAN. In William Howitt's Visits to Remarkable Places, and in his Homes and Haunts of the Poets, mention is made of the descendants of Shakspeare's sister Joan, who married a Hart; indeed allusion is made in the last-named work to the remarkable likeness between the bust of Shakspeare in Stratford-upon-Avon church, and one of Joan's deThe scendants then educating at Stratford. former pedigree of Shakspeare and his connections is given in Shakspeare's Home, by J. C. M. Bellew. The descendant of the Stratford-upon-Avon branch of the Shakspeare Harts is now in Australia. I send you a pedigree of the Tewkesbury branch, kindly furnished by the late post-master of Tewkesbury, Mr. Jno. Spurrier, and from the writing of Mr. W. Potter, an old inhabitant of Tewkesbury, whose sister, Hannah Potter, married William Shakspeare Hart. The inscriptions on the tombstones also relate to the same subject; and, in giving these particulars to your pages, a hope may be expressed, that in building monuments, collecting the scattered property, and founding museums and libraries to Shakspeare, when the curatorship of these places is to be bestowed, the living descendants of Shakspeare's sister Joan will not be forgotten. Pedigree of Shakspeare's sister, Joan Shakspeare, who married a Hart. The Tewkesbury branch: John Shakspeare Hart, about seventy years back, was living in Tewkesbury; he married a is not published in England, and of which I presume presentation copies alone have arrived here. It contains an entirely new view of one of Shakspeare's heroines by the late John Quincey Adams, sixth President of the United States: person of the name of Richardson; he was the owner of some property at Stratford, which his family sold some forty or fifty years back. He had three children, William, Sarah, and John. John died; was not married. William married Hannah Potter. He had six children; Elizabeth "Whatever sympathy we may feel for the sufferings married Russell; died, left no children. Mary of Desdemona, flows from the consideration that she is Ann died unmarried. Thomas died leaving two innocent of the particular crime imputed to her, and that children, a son and a daughter; his son is named she is the victim of a treacherous and artful intriguer. George, and his daughter Joan; they live at Bir-But while compassionating her melancholy fate we cannot mingham. Ellen married John Ashley, carpenter ling with Othello is disgusting. forget the vice of her character. Upon the stage her fondWho in real life would of Tewkesbury; died leaving four sons and one have her for sister, daughter, or wife? She is not guilty daughter. Sarah married William Ashley, a of infidelity to her husband, but she forgets all the affeccarpenter. She is living at Evesham; has a tion for her father, and all her own filial affection for him. family. Hannah married Edwin Elliot, lace weaWhen the Duke proposes, on the departure of Othello for the war, that she should return during his absence to ver; lives at Beeston, near Nottingham. She has her father's house, the father, the daughter, and the a family of children. husband all say 'no,' she prefers following Othello to be besieged by the Turks in the island of Cyprus. Sarah Hart married William Whitehedd; died, leaving a family of seven. Thos. Whitehedd, two children, at Cheltenham. William Whitehedd, at Tewkesbury, twelve children. George married, but no child. John, stocking-weaver; three children, at Bulstone. Henry, single. Martha married George Grubb; keeps a beer-house in the Oldbury. Ann married Henry Key, glazier and plumber, living at Winchcomb; seven children. On the north side of the Abbey Church, Tewkesbury, there is a headstone on which is written the following, in good preservation: "In Memory of Jno. Hart, who died Jan. 22nd, 1800, the sixth descendant from the Poet Shakespear, aged 45 years. Here lies the only comfort of to dwell, and until that blest time, my Love, farewell." In the old Baptist burial-ground there is a headstone with the following: 1. "The character of Desdemona is admirably drawn, and faithfully preserved throughout the play. It is always deficient in delicacy. Her conversation with Emilia indiof the nuptial tie, and she allows Iago, almost unrebuked, cates unsettled principles, even with regard to the obligation to banter with her very coarsely upon women. This character takes from us so much of the sympathetic interest in her sufferings, that when Othello smothers her in bed, the terror and pity subside immediately into the senticertain Plays and Actors of Shakspeare, by James Henry ment that she has her deserts." — Notes and Comments upon Hackett, New York, 1863, p. 235. Mr. The above is from a letter of Mr. Adams. Hackett, in a note, says that he does not share his correspondent's opinions on Desdemona. I fear that the Americans are descending from that high standard of purity which prevented the young lady telling Sam Slick her brother's rank in the navy, and are going to plays as bad as Othello. "Manhattan's' letter in The Standard of Feb. 19, says: The "Last night I went to the Olympic Theatre of Mr. John Wood, formerly Laura Kean's Theatre. It was jammed before seven o'clock, and the play commenced at eight. The cream of our citizens-I counted thirtyseven fur capes, that our Mayor, Gunther, never sold for less than 300 dollars each, on females close to me. music was superb. The play was a new one, written conjointly by two Bohemians, named Beaumont Daly and Fletcher Wood, and called Taming the Butterfly. I stayed it over, and dared not lift my eyes or look at any respectable female in my vicinity, for fear I should morLike-tify her by seeing her blush and cover her face. It was cheered from beginning to the end, but was full of doubles entendres no, there was no doubt it was such as no respectable lady would hear twice." "In Memory of Jno. Turner, who departed this Life May 18th, 1808, aged 54 years. Also of Wm. Shakespear Hart, who died Novr 22nd, 1834, aged 56 years. wise Hannah, Widow of the above W. S. Hart, died Febry 13th, 1848, aged 67 years." 2. "To the Memory of Thomas Shakespear Hart, who died Nov 13th, 1850, aged 47 years. 'Boast not of thyself, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth.'' A. B. SOMETHING NEW ON SHAKSPEARE. As a general rule, extracts from newly-printed books are not suited to "N. & Q.," but I think an exception may be made in favour of one which - I should like to know whether the second performance was to empty benches. FITZHOPKINS. Garrick Club. THE KESSELSTADT MASK OF SHAKSPEARE. Since my notice of this supposed mask of Shakspeare was written, I have received some information upon the subject, which I think ought to be laid before the readers of "N. & Q." In the first place, I am assured that although the worthy Canon of Mayence was of a very respectable family, it was not a family of sufficient importance to have furnished an ambassador to this country, or even an attaché to an embassy; one not at all likely to have numbered among its branches any member of the diplomatic body. Secondly, the late canon and his brother were driven to such distress during the continental troubles which followed the French Revolution, as frequently to have been in want of the common necessaries of life-even of food; and had they possessed at that period such a collection of antiquities as has been supposed, they must necessarily have parted with them for their support. With the peace came better times; the canonry was bestowed upon one of them, and the other contrived to get together the means of living very quietly; and they then amused themselves by forming the collection of antiquities which was eventually sold by auction; and I am assured that the zeal with which they applied themselves to its formation far exceeded their judgment and good taste. Thirdly, that collection was well known to an English gentleman distinguished for his knowledge of early English Literature and Antiquities. Mr. De Pearsall, whose madrigals and “ Hardy Norseman " have made his name familiar to all lovers of sweet sounds, and whose contributions to The Archæologia on "The Kiss of the Virgin," "Duels in the Middle Ages," &c., are justly regarded as among the most interesting papers in that valuable collection, was well acquainted with the brothers Kesselstadt, and at the sale of the collection purchased some of the most interesting objects in it, which are at this time in the possession of his daughter, Mrs. Hughes. When we consider how highly a gentleman of Mr. De Pearsall's taste and acquirements would have prized such a Shakspearian relic as the Kesselstadt Mask if satisfied, as he had every opportunity of satisfying himself, of its genuineness, we cannot but consider the fact that he did not become the purchaser of it, as a strong proof-for though only a negative proof it is still a very strong one-that, in the opinion of a very competent authority, who had the advantage of being able to investigate its history thoroughly, the Kesselstadt mask was not what it professed to be, a cast taken from the face of Shakspeare after his death. WILLIAM J. THOMS. PROFESSOR ARCHER BUTLER'S ESSAY ON SHAKSPEARE. the-way and forgotten sources, such papers on Shakspeare as are really worth reprinting? One such paper I shall mention,-an Essay written by the late gifted and lamented Professor Archer Butler, while an undergraduate in the University of Dublin, between the age of eighteen or nineteen. Though written at such an early age, this Essay has much of the vigorous thought, discriminating criticism, and eloquent diction, which marked his maturer years. It appeared in the first number of the Dublin University Review, January, 1833, p. 87, and, I believe, has never been reprinted. The concluding passage is as follows, but it cannot give any notion of the charming and genial Essay from which it is taken :— "The Heart of Man-the same in every clime and season-was the subject which SHAKSPEARE sought to exanine; and he disencumbered the mighty problem of every term which did not immediately enter into that calculation. Scorning to confine himself to the superficial varieties of character, he explored the quality of the metal that lies beneath. Others are content to consign to verse the endless modifications of social man; it was SHAKSPEARE's alone to grasp the abstract Spirit of Humanity.' There is an admirable paper on Cowper by Professor Butler in the same volume, p. 325, and next to it a story by Carleton, which have not, either of them, been reprinted. Dublin University Review, I may mention that it As a query was made not long ago about the consists of two volumes, or six numbers, reaching from January, 1833, to April, 1834. After it ceased to exist in this form, it began a new life as a monthly serial under the title of The Dublin University Magazine. I have often wished to see all Dr. Johnson's papers on Shakspeare collected and published in one well-printed volume. His other papers would form a valuable supplement to his famous Preface. Perhaps some of your correspondents would help to furnish a list of the best Shakspeare papers in periodical literature with the writers' names when known; also critical notices of Shakspeare or illustrations of his works not generally known, or not to be found in works professedly devoted to Shakspeare. Among those who, from a moral and religious point of view, have formed a very unfavourable estimate of Shakspeare, may be noted the writer of a remarkable article in the Eclectic Review, January, 1807, and also the excellent Richard Cecil. See Cecil's Remains, published by Knight (no date or index), p. 100. This is a point, however, on which the best men differ. EIRIONNACH. It has been a matter of much surprise to me that the Among the many literary plans and works devised at this season to honour the memory of existing materials for several additional volumes of Carleton's inimitable Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry, Shakspeare, has it been suggested, or attempted, to have never been collected from the various serials in collect from periodical literature and other out-of-which they are scattered and lost sight of. |
