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"Most busiest when I do it." (Holt White.)

"Most busy least when I do it." (Collier's Folio.) "Least busy when I do it." (Pope.)

But what got he

tials of Queubus, and the like.
for his pains? A paltry sixpence; just what Sir
Toby, the improvident younger brother, was ac-
customed to give him when he was in funds. Yes,
and he got also what Sir Toby never gave, an
ostentatious reminder of it next morning. With a
covert sneer, therefore, he coins a diminutive to
express the smallness of the gift, and acknow-
ledges the gratillity, and in the same vein coins
impiticose (s being the usual causative, and im the

"Most busy less when I do it." (Charles Knight and usual intensitive augment); and says, I did make Dyce.)

a great "begging up and down," and after much "Most busy felt when I do it." (Staunton.) ado and importunity, I received "a scrap" of With all these readings, I beg to suggest another, your bounty, a crumb from Dives-I did impitiwhich appears to me the correct one :—

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Twelfth Night, Act II. Sc. 3. With the change of one, or at most two letters, I would read impiticos or impiticose. In Florio's Queen Anna's New World of Words, we find the following:

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"Pitoccare, to beg up and down for broken pieces of

meat or scraps. Also to dodge and patter.

"Pitocco, an old crafty beggar, a micher, a patcht coat beggar, a dodger, a patterer, a wrangler."

Now, one distinctive characteristic of Feste is, that he is a beggar over any other of Shakspeare's Clowns, and a piticco, a crafty and patcht-coat one. "Would not two of these have bred, Sir?" says he, "and then the bells of St. Bennet, Sir, might put you in mind-one, two, three; and though it please you, Sir, to be one of my friends," &c. &c.

He, therefore, having observed what a mine Sir Toby had in Sir Andrew, was minded to try to extract some of the ore for himself, and condescending to the intelligence of this Kobold, or guardian spirit, endeavour to propitiate him by such gibberish as that of the Vapians passing the equinoc

cose thy gratillity.

There might also have been an intended quibble in the phrase, if Shakspeare had been aware of another and apparently primary meaning of pitocco, not given by Florio, but which probably gave rise to his explanation of patcht-coat beggar. Vauzon gives "pitocco, also a part, in old times, of male attire, perhaps a species of mantle;" and in this sense the Clown would mean I did impouch, or, as some editors, by a happy corruption of the word, make him say-I did impetticoat thy bounty. BRINSLEY NICHOLSON.

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"head" be a likely misprint for bud? "Nip in the bud," is proverbial; which "Nip in the head' is not, nor very apposite to the particular case in view.

"How might she tongue me! But reason dares her no," &c.

I, for one, gladly accept MR. Keightley's "says" for "dares," in the line as it stands. But might not the error lie in the transposition, rather than substitution of the words? and the line originally have run :

"How might she tongue me? But her reason dares not."

QUIVIS.

"THE COMEDY OF ERRORS": ANTIPHOLUS OR ANTIPHILUS. Some days since, a critique appeared in The Times on Shakspeare's Comedy of Errors, occasioned by the production of that play at the Princess's Theatre. The writer of the notice in question, when speaking of the brothers Antipholus, used these words: "It ought to have been Antiphilus though." Now, it appears to me, that this observation is more indicative of etymological skill than philological sagacity; and argues a better acquaintance with the text of Terence, than with the rules and practice of dramatic composition. The suggestion as to the change of name is one which carries with it no weight whatever: for, supposing that Antipholus were changed to "Antiphilus," what benefit would result? Why, none whatever; but, on the contrary, an erroneous idea would be conveyed, and the meaning expressed by the name would be at variance with the circumstances in which the two men are placed. Undoubtedly, Shakspeare deliberately chose the name Antipholus, not for its etymological force, but because it sounds well when declaimed, and, moreover, has a Greek look. "Antiphilus" would have a thin sound, which would necessarily be less effective for stage purposes than the more full one of Antipholus.

We cannot imagine that Shakspeare's acquaintance with the dead languages was sufficient to enable him to manufacture a name having a fine sound and an appropriate signification; nor can we think that Shakspeare would have taken the trouble to consult the scholars of the day on so trivial a subject. If we adopt the word "Antiphilus," we imply that the two brothers were mutual friends; whereas they were unknown to each other, throughout almost the whole play.

Terence, in his Heautontimorumenos, has Antiphila, but there the name is applicable: having a meaning, cognate with that of àrripixía. Ï grant that Antipholus has a peculiar sense, if it has any at all; but if we could believe in Shakspeare's scholarship, we might conjecture that he took the word from Tiroxis, in consequence of

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“HAMLET.”—In the Saturday Review, March 12, a writer on "The Novel and the Drama," says, "Shakspeare never mentions Hamlet." This observation reminded me that once, and under singular circumstances, we seem to get a glimpse of Shakspeare's idea of that play. In his will, in an interlineation, while bequeathing 26/8" to buy him a ring," he wrote his friend's name, probably the godfather of his only son, Hamlett, instead of Hamnet Sadler. So absorbingly does his Hamlet seem to have possessed his memory as to have been written off unconsciously by his sickness-wasted hand. Ought Sonnet 108 to be read as having reference to his son- Hamnet? SAMUEL NEIL.

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beauty. Rarely has so much been done by a

comma.

I am sorry to have my faith in this emendation shaken by an implied disbelief in it, by so able a Shakspearian as MR. KEIGHTLEY.

Before leaving the great poet, permit me to ask Mr. Keightley, or any other equally capable critic, to point out the connexion of the fine line in Troilus and Cressida

"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin," with those that precede and follow it.

The idea expressed in this line, seems to me to be complete in itself, and not suggested by the main thought or sentiment of the passage.

New York.

H. N.

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This is certainly a new version of the reading of palm-tree, but I think the writer will not find many persons willing to accept it. In the first place, there is nothing in As You Like It to show that the forest in which Rosalind found the palmtree was the forest of Arden in Warwickshire. If so, it would be strange to find any one of the palm species growing there, and equally strange to find a tuft of olives near Rosalind's house; and more strange still, to find a lioness couching in that forest unless it had escaped from some travelling menagerie, exhibiting such beasts in the neighbourhood. If it is admitted that, by palmtree, Shakspeare intended the goat willow (Salix caprea), and this being our English tree, it might grow in the forest, we have to substitute another name for the olive, to make an English tree of it. But it should be remembered that, although the branches of the Salix, or willow, when gathered for Palm Sunday celebration, are commonly called palm, the willow itself is not called palm-tree by the writers of Shakspeare's time.

The fact, I believe, is, that the forest in which Rosalind found the palm-tree and the olive-trees was a southern one. - in which the lioness might naturally find a hiding place. What will Dr. Prior say to this? SIDNEY BEISLY.

"FIRST COMPLAINT:" "CORIOLANUS," Act II. Sc. 1.-Menenius Agrippa, speaking of himself, says, as it is generally printed:

"I am known to be a humorous patrician, and one that loves a cup of hot wine with not a drop of allaying Tiber in't said to be something imperfect in favouring the first complaint."

It has been proposed to read this, "the thirst complaint"; but is not the passage better as it stands? Menenius says he has two faults, or complaints. The first that he is "humorous," i. e. hot-headed and crotchetty; the second, that he is too fond of a cup of wine: and that this second complaint has rather a tendency to aggravate the first. I do not remember such a phrase as "the thirst A. A. complaint" in any author.

Poets' Corner.

TRUSTY: TRUST: AS USED BY SHAKSPEARE. Shakspeare has been cited as using the word trust and trusty in the sense of the modern words reliance and reliable. It will not be uninteresting to examine his use of these words, which were favourites of his. Trusty he uses seventeen times; fifteen times directly of persons. Once in All's Well that Ends Well (Act III. Sc. 6) indirectly to persons, when he speaks of a trusty business, i. e. requiring agents who could be trusted; and once of a sword. Here also he really, as it were, applies the word to an agent, swords and other weapons having a sort of personal existence attributed to them,-sometimes being actually named. He trusts his sword to help him.

He uses the word trust over one hundred and twenty times of these, for more than seventy times, he applies the word to persons directly; in about twenty instances to attributes or things, but in most of these cases with reference to persons trusted; and scarcely ever in such a sense as would be exactly synonymous to our "rely on." Frequently it is in these places followed by on," "in," or "to."

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Thus we have-judgment, age, word, honesty, heels, the mockery of unquiet thoughts, conditions, oaths, honour, virtue, speeches. In most of these, there is not that absolute reliance upon the thing itself implied in the word reliable. It would hardly be good nineteenth-century English to say, that "your honesty is reliable." Though it was good Elizabethan to bid a man "trust his honesty." At any rate, Shakspeare is entirely with me in the word trusty; and evidently prefers my use of the word trust, if he very occasionally disregards it. J. C. J.

"INCONY."-This word is used twice by Shakspeare in the same play, Love's Labour's Lost; and by the same speaker, Costard. When Armado gives him money (Act III. Sc. 1), he calls him "my incony Jew;" and after the by no means delicate jests between himself and Boyet, he call the conversation "most incony vulgar wit." Many very wide conjectures have been

made as to the origin of the word. Is it not probably merely a corruption of the Old French inconnu, unknown, unheard of: a phrase answering very much, also, to our own vernacular, "noend-of"? The passages would then mean, "such a Jew as never was heard of "—"no-end-of vulgar wit." A. A.

Poets' Corner.

"VERY PEACOCK": "HAMLET," Act III. Sc. 2. (2nd S. xii. 451.) It seems very probable that this passage is corrupt. There seems no reason, from the King's character and bearing, to compare him with a peacock. He rather affects a grave and condescending manner. The crime of which he is guilty, and which Hamlet is so anxious to bring to some certain test, is not pride, conceit, or affectation, but poisoning. Is it not likely the word ought to be read paddock, i. e. a toad? The "venomous" and "poisonous" toad, is mentioned in As You Like It; Macbeth; Henry VI.; Richard III.; and in many other places, by Shakspeare, and, in Macbeth, it is called by the very name-paddock. If we read

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SHAKSPEARE (“ N. & Q.,” passim.) — While committees and sub-committees are arguing upon the methods, and means, and measures of its celebration, the day of our household poet's orient and occident will, I fear, pass by, leaving us to console ourselves with Milton's solution of its difficulty finding in his own works, and in the everliving heart of England, his already erected monument. The birth-and-death-day of Shakspeare, nevertheless, will hardly miss of its due heralding in " N. & Q.”—

"With one auspicious and one drooping eye,"enriched, as through fourteen years it has been, by the successive commentaries; which, of themselves, form a valuable addition to our Shaksperian library.

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Among the many tributes paid to our "great son of memory"-unconsciously paid, I might say is the question, so variously debated, of his especial profession and its precedent studies. Was he a lawyer?-inquired the late Lord Chancellor Campbell. A soldier? - was the no less presumable argument of MR. THOMS (2nd S. vii. 118, 320, 351). I know not which of these, or what other, was our English Пoλúтporos; but, should a poetical cairn be resolved upon, I beg to cast my sand-grain into the heap; which, if rendering to

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him his due honours, will "make Ossa like a wart."

Men ask-what Shakspeare was?-A Lawyer, skilled

In form and phrase?-A Soldier, in the Field
Well theorised and practised?-Or, was he
A Sailor on the wild and wandering sea?-
A Traveller, who roamed the earth to trace
The homes and babits of the human race ?--
A Student, on his cloistered task intent
Of mystic theme or subtile argument ?-
A Churchman erudite ?--A Statesman wise ?-
A Courtier, apt in shows and revelries? -
A sage Physician, who from plant and flower
Won the deep secrets of their various power ?-
A Teacher, whose kind spirit loved to bring
"Sermons from stones, and good from every-
thing" ?-

Not one of these, but all.-Dispute not what
Our Shakspeare was,—but say, What was he not?

EDMUND LENTHAL SWIFte.

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"Or on a bend sable, a spear gold. Crest, a falcon displayed argent, holding in its beak a spear in pale or."

I have seen the crest depicted as a falcon displayed, holding in each claw a spear in pale. Which of these is the true blazon? Did Shakspeare use any motto? CARILFORD. Cape Town.

[The following extract, from the Grant of Arms preserved in the Heralds' College, printed by Mr. J. G. Nichols in The Herald and Genealogist, No. 6, p. 510, is the best reply to this query:

"Gould, on a bend sables a speare of the first, steeled argent; and for his crest, or cognizance, a falcon, his winges displayed, argent, standing on a wrethe of his coullors, supporting a speare gould, steeled as aforesaid, sett upon a helmett, with mantelles and tasselles, as bath been accustomed, and dothe more playnely appeare depicted on this margent."

Mr. Nichols adds: "In the margin are sketched with a pen the arms and crest, and above them this mottoNON SANS DROICT.'"]

STATISTICS OF SHAKSPEARIAN LITERATURE.The following curious tabular view of the relative proportion of books connected with Shakspeare, published in each period of ten years, from 1591

to 1830 inclusive, is derived from a very interest- to measure the length and breadth of his skull, or ing paper upon the subject by Mr. W. S. Jevons, or perhaps make an exhibition of it at the tercenof Owen's College, Manchester, which appeared in tenary. the Athenæum of Saturday last:

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SHAKSPEARE'S EPITAPH (3rd S. v. 179.)—I am sorry to observe your correspondent, MR. PINKERTON, speak of this as "little better than doggrel," though he afterwards qualifies the description. Still, I cannot think that he is aware of the cause of the lines being written, which is supposed to have been this. A little beyond Shakspeare's tomb towards the east is a gothic doorway, now walled up. This once led, not to a vestry, but a charnel-house of considerable size, above ground, lighted, and ventilated by certain loop-holes, in which a large quantity of human bones was deposited. This, in the progress of improvement or restoration (as they now call it), has been removed-I know not at what period; but when very young I have been, more than once, in the charnel-house, which appears to have been so far an object of terror to the poet that he wrote the lines now inscribed on his monument to prevent his bones being disturbed, and added to the heap. Such, at least, was the account given; and lucky was it for him, at any rate, that he left the direction, or, in these times, some inquisitive craniologist or phrenologist would have had him up again

THE SECOND SHAKSPEARE FOLIO, 1632.

Nothing definite is known regarding the sources from which the new readings in the Shakspeare folio, 1632, were derived. The prevailing opinion, so far as our researches show, is, that they are conjectural emendations of some now unknown editor. Ben Jonson has, in some instances, been guessed at. As an examination of the folio demonstrates that some editorial revision and oversight were exercised upon considerable portions of it, and as many of the changes introduced into it have been adopted into the subsequent reprints, it becomes a legitimate subject for curiosity, and a proper topic for having "N. & Q." about it. Let me, on the condition that Ben Jonson is supervisor is abandoned, suggest John Milton; and in support of my hypothesis, lay down the following statements and arguments: - 1st. Milton was a diligent and admiring student of Shakspeare's works- of which the proofs are, the special Shakspearianisms in his poems; his making both L'Allegro and Il Pensero find enjoyment from the "stage"; his early inclination for the drama, as exhibited in Arcades and Comus, as well as in his design to compose a Tragedy on Adam's Fall, from which he was probably dissuaded by a perusal of the Adamus Exul of Grotius. This love for dramatic forms of composition remained with him like a "ruling passion" to the last, as Samson Agonistes, published in 1671, shows plainly. The all-prevailing proof of this thesis is, however, the epitaph on Shakspeare, written in 1630, and prefixed in the place of honour to the Second Folio just after Ben Jonson's lines "Upon the Effigies of my worthy Friend, the Author, Master William Shakspeare and his Works" on p. 7 of the book, counting the title. This poem-issued anonymously, and only acknowledged in 1645 - could only have been written regarding the first folio, and as it was unpublished, the proprietors of the folio must have got knowledge of it from

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