This communication is, I am afraid, already too long for "N. & Q.;" I will therefore only add my opinion, that, though the old corrector has reported many bad readings, they are far outnumbered by the good ones in the collection.
W. N. L.Mr. Collier's "Notes and Emendations:" Passage in "The Winter's Tale."At p. 192. of Mr. Payne Collier's new volume, he cites a passage in The Winter's Tale, ending
" I should blush
To see you so attir'd, sworn, I think
To show myself a glass."
The MS. emendator, he says, reads so worn for sworn; and adds:
"The meaning therefore is, that Florizel's plain attire was 'so worn,' to show Perdita, as in a glass, how simply she ought to have been dressed."
Now Mr. Collier, in this instance, has not, according to his usual practice, alluded to any commentator who has suggested the same emendation. The inference would be, that this emendation is a novelty. This it is not. It has been before the world for thirty-four years, and its merits have failed to give it currency. At p. 142. of Z. Jackson's miscalled Restorations, 1819, we find this emendation, with the following note:
"So worn, i. e. so reduced, in your external appearance, that I should think you intended to remind me of my own condition; for, by looking at you thus attired, I behold myself, as it were, reflected in a glass, habited in robes becoming my obscure birth, and equally obscure fortune."
Jackson's emendations are invariably bad; but whatever may be thought of the sense of Florizel being so worn (instead of his dress), it is but fair to give a certain person his due. The passage has long seemed to me to have this meaning:
"But that we are acquiescing in a custom, I should blush to see you, who are a prince, attired like a swain; and still more should I blush to look at myself in the glass, and see a peasant girl pranked up like a princess."
& more, in MS., might very easily have been mistaken for sworn by the compositor. Accordingly, I would read the complete passage thus:
" But that our feasts
In every mess have folly, and the feeders
Digest it with a custom, I should blush
To see you so attir'd, and more, I think,
To show myself a glass."
Birmingham.
Minor Notes
Alleged Cure for Hydrophobia.From time to time articles have appeared in "N. & Q." as to the cure of hydrophobia, a specific for which seems still to be a desideratum.
In the Miscellanea Curiosa (vol. iii. p. 346.) is a paper on Virginia, from the Rev. John Clayton, rector of Crofton in Wakefield, in which he states the particulars of several cures which he had effected of persons bitten by mad dogs. His principal remedy seems to have been the "volatile salt of amber" every four hours, and in the intervals, "Spec. Pleres Archonticon and Rue powdered ana gr. 15." I am not learned enough to understand what these drugs are called in the modern nomenclature of druggists.
C. T. W.Epitaph at Mickleton.The following inscription is copied from a monument on the north wall of the chancel of Mickleton Church, co. Gloucester:
"The Ephitath of John BonnerHeare lyeth in tomed John Bonner by name,Sonne of Bonner of Pebworth, from thence he cameThe : 17 : of October he ended his daies,Pray God that wee leveing may follow his wayes1618 by the yeareScarce are such Men to be found in this shereMade and set up by his loveing frendEvens his kindesman and [so I] doe endJohn Bonner, Senior. Thomas Evens, Junior1618."The words in brackets are conjectural, the stone at that point being much corroded.
Balliolensis.Charade attributed to Sheridan.You have given a place to enigmas in "N. & Q.," and therefore the following, which has been attributed to R. B. Sheridan, may be acceptable. Was he the author?
"There is a spot, say, Traveller, where it lies,
And mark the clime, the limits, and the size,
Where grows no grass, nor springs the yellow grain,
Nor hill nor dale diversify the plain;
Perpetual green, without the farmer's toil,
Through all the seasons clothes the favor'd soil,