154 Old Nick-Woolsack. ld Nick.-Warton, in his "History of English Poetry," says: "Nicka was the Gothic demon, who inhabited the element of the water, and who strangled persons that were drowning:" and from him the name has been transferred, with the epithet "old," to the devil of the Christian theology. Butler gives Nicholas Machiavel the credit of conferring the cognomen. Vade in pace.-(Literally, Go in peace.) In monastic communities, offences were sometimes punished by the dreadful infliction of starving to death in prison; and bones have occasionally been found among the ruins of convents of victims who appear to have perished in this manner. The punishment acquired this name, “Vade in pace," from the words in which the sentence was pronounced. Packed Jury. The word "packed," when used in this sense, is derived from the Anglo-Saxon paecan, to deceive. Woolsack. The seat of the Lord Chancellor of England in the House of Lords, is so called, from its being a large square bag of wool without back or arms, covered with red cloth: the original intention was, that he should thereby be reminded that it was his most prominent duty to watch over this staple commodity of the kingdom. . asaniello.-The history of this extraordinary man is so well known, that mention would not be here made of his fortunes, save for the purpose of introducing a singularly graphic and comprehensive sketch of the rebellion which rendered him so famous: it is from the pen of James Howell, and was written immediately after Masaniello's death. "There was a. young man in the city of Naples, about twenty-four years old: he wore linen slops, a blue waistcoat, and went barefoot, with a mariner's cap upon his head: his profession was to angle for little fish with a cane, line and hook, and also to buy fish, and to carry and retail them to some that dwelt in his quarter. His name was Tomaso Anello, but vulgarly called Masaniello by contraction; yet was this despicable creature the man that subjugated all Naples; Naples, the head of such a kingdom, the metropolis of so many provinces, the queen of so many cities, the mother of so many glorious heroes, the rendezvous of so many princes, the nurse of so many champions and sprightly cavaliers. This Naples, by the impenetrable judgment of God, though having six hundred thousand souls in her, saw herself commanded by a poor, abject fisher-boy, who was attended by a numerous army, amounting in a few hours to one hundred and fifty thousand men. He made trenches, set sentinels, gave signs, chastised the banditti, condemned the guilty, viewed the squadrons, ranked their files, comforted the fearful, confirmed the stout, encouraged the bold, promised rewards, threatened the suspected, reproached the coward, applauded the valiant, and marvellously incited the minds of men, by many degrees his superiors, to battle, to spoil, to burnings, to blood, and to death. He awed the nobility, terrified the viceroy, disposed of the clergy, cut off the heads of princes, burnt palaces, rifled houses at his pleasure, freed Naples from all sorts of taxes, restored it to its ancient priviléges, and left not until he had converted his blue waistcoat into cloth of silver, and made himself a more absolute lord of that city, and all its inhabitants, and was more exactly obeyed in all his orders and commands, than ever monarch had the honor to be in his own kingdom. This most astonishing revolution in the city of Naples began upon Sunday the seventh of July, Anno 1647, and ended with the death of Masaniello, which was upon July the sixteenth, 1647, the tenth day from its beginning." Calamity is, literally, a storm that destroys the reeds or stalks of corn; from the Latin calamus, a reed. Rebus.-An antiquated species of ingenuity, in great favor with our ancestors; and is an answer, or expression of thought, by things, instead of wordsLatin, rebus (dative plural of res), by things. Darius received a rebus from the Scythians, when, by way of · a reply to his humiliating demands, they sent him a bird, a frog, a mouse, and a bundle of arrows. writes: hakspere's Sonnets.-Schlegel says that "As a decrepit father takes delight To see his active child do deeds of youth, And again, in Sonnet LXXXIX., "Say that thou didst forsake me for some fault, Was Shakspere lame? "A question to be asked;" and there is nothing in the inquiry repugnant to poetic justice, for he has made Julius Cæsar deaf in his left ear. Where did he get his authority? Preface to Johnson's Dictionary.-Horne Tooke, in his Diversions of Purley, after speaking in the most contemptuous terms of Johnson's Dictionary, admits that he never could read the preface to it, without being affected even to tears. Such a tribute from such a critic must be rather startling to the nine out of ten who have never heard of such a preface, and to the ninety-nine out of a hundred who have never read it. 158 Falstaff, or Oldcastle? 66 alstaff, or Oldcastle?-Rowe notices a tradition that the character of Falstaff was written originally under the name of Oldcastle; and that the change was made on account of the offence taken by zealous Protestants in the time of Elizabeth, who looked upon the name given to the fat knight as a slur upon Sir John Oldcastle, the Lord Cobham, one of the most strenuous supporters of Wickliffe's Reformation. And Fuller, in his Church History, says: Stage poets have themselves been very bold with, and others very merry at, the memory of Sir John Oldcastle, whom they have fancied a boon companion, a jovial royster, and a coward to boot. The best is, Sir John Falstaffe hath relieved the memory of Sir John Oldcastle, and of late is substituted buffoon in his place." Modern critics, however, hold to the opinion that the character never underwent any change of name, and was Falstaff from the first. Independently of the fact that the prince in one place calls Falstaff "my old lad of the castle," there is proof, beyond all speculation, that the character was originally "Oldcastle ;" and it is to be found by referring to the quarto edition of the second part of Henry IV., printed in 1600. In the famous scene between Falstaff and the Chief-Justice, it reads thus: JUST. What tell you me of it; be it as it is. FALST. It hath its originall from much griefe, from study, and perturbation of the braine, I have read the cause of its effects in Galen, it is a kind of deafenes. |