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Do faithful homage and receive free honours.

Macbeth Act 3 Scene 6.

Tenants are said in our law Books to do homage; for examples see every section in the 1. cap. Book 2 of Littleton's Tenures: and Shakspeare frequently uses this verb „do" in connection with homage.

Fealty.

Fealty is the same that fidelitas is in Latin.

York.

I am in parliament pledge for his truth,
And lasting fealty to the new made king.

Richard II. Act 5 Scene 2.

And when a freeholder doth fealty to his lord, he shall hold his right hand upon a book, and shall say thus: know ye this, my lord, that I shall be faithful and true unto you, and faith to you shall bear for the lands which I claim to hold of you, and that I shall lawfully do to you the custom and services which I ought to do, at the terms assigned, so help me god and his saints; and he shall kiss the book. But he shall not kneel when he maketh fealty, nor shall he make such humble reverence as is aforesaid in homage. (Litt. Sec. 91.)

Calaban.

I'll swear, upon that bottle, to be thy True subject; for the liquor is not earthly.

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Stephano.

Here; swear then how thou escap❜dst.

Trinculo.

Swam a-shore, man, like a duck; I can swim like a duck, I'll be sworn.

Stephano.

Here, kiss the book: Though thou canst swim like a duck, thou art made like a goose.

Trinculo.

O Stephano, hast any more of this?

Stephano.

The whole butt, man; my cellar is in a rock by the sea-side, where my mine is hid. How now, moon-calf? how does thine ague? Calaban.

Hast thou not dropped from heaven?

Stephano.

Out o'the moon, I do assure thee: I was the man in the moon, when time was.

Calaban.

I have seen thee in her, and I do adore thee; My mistress shewed me thee, thy dog, and bush.

Stephano.

Come, swear to that; kiss the book: I will furnish it anon with new contents: swear.

Tempest Act 2 Scene 2.

The reader will perceive that Calaban does fealty to Stephano; he says he will be true to him, and kisses the bottle, in lieu of the book, but

Shakspeare does not connect the act of stooping with doing fealty, and Littleton says that when a freeholder doth fealty to his lord, he shall not kneel, nor shall he make such humble reverence as is aforesaid in homage." (Litt. Sec. 91.) If the reader should be satisfied from these explanations that Caliban doth fealty to Stephano, or at least that reference is here made to the formalities to be observed in „doing fealty," he may on reading further,

Trinculo.

I afeard of him? a most poor credulous

By this good light, this is a very shallow monster: a very weak monster: The man' the moon? Well drawn, monster, in good sooth.

monster:

Calaban.

I'll shew thee every fertile inch o'the island;

And kiss thy foot: I pr'ythee, be my god.

Trinculo.

By this light, a most perfidious and drunken monster; when his god's asleep, he'll rob his bottle.

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I shall laugh myself to death at this puppy-headed monster: A most scurvy monster! I could find in my heart to beat him,

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Come, kiss.

Stephano.

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Tempest Act 2 Scene 2. consider that Shakspeare confounds homage with fealty, in other words that he makes Stephano say to Calaban kiss the book" as, ,when a freeholder doth fealty unto his lord" and afterwards „down and swear" as, when the tenant shall make homage to his lord." But this apparent confusion is easily explained by the 88 Section of Littleton's Tenures, a man may see a good note in M. 15. E. 3. where a man and his wife did homage and fealty in the common place, which is written in this form. Note, that I. Lewkner and Eliz. his wife did homage to W. Thorpe in this manner: the one and the other held their hands jointly between the hands of W. T. and the husband saith in this form: We do to you homage, and faith to you shall bear, for the tenements which we hold of A. your counsor, who bath granted to you our services in B. and C. and other towns, &c. against all nations, saving the faith which we owe to our lord the king, and to his heirs, and to our other lords, and both the one and the other kissed him. And after they did fealty, and both of them hold their hands upon the book, and the husband said the words, and both kissed the book. In this section the reader will perceive that I. Lewkner and Eliz. his wife did homage and fealty and in so doing observed the formalities peculiar to each.

Knight's Service.

Tenure by homage, fealty, and escuage, is to hold by knight service, and it draweth to it ward, marriage, and relief.

Countess.

In delivering my son from me, I bury a second husband.

Bertram.

And I, in going, madam, weep o'er my father's death anew: but I must attend his majesty's command, to whom I am now in ward, evermore in subjection.

All's Well That Ends Well Act 1 Scene 1.

For when such tenant dieth, and his heir male be within the age of twenty one years, the lord shall have the land holden of him until the age of the heir of 21 years; the which is called full age, because such heir, by intendment of the law, is not able to do such knight's service before his age of 21 years. And also if such heir be not married at the time of the death of his ancestor, then the lord shall have the wardship and marriage of him. (Litt. Sec. 103 wardship was abolished by the 12 Char. 11. cap. 24.) First Capulet.

How long is't now, since last yourself and I
Were in a mask?

Second Capulet.

By'r lady, thirty years.

First Capulet.

What, man! 'tis not so much, 'tis not so much:
'Tis since the nuptial of Lucentio,

Come pentecost as quickly as it will,

Some five and twenty years, and then we mask'd.
Second Capulet.

'Tis more, 'tis more: his son is elder, sir:

His son is thirty.

First Capulet.

Will you tell me that?

His son was but a ward two years ago.

Romeo and Juliet Act 1 Scene 3.

The first Capulet says it cannot be so much as thirty years since they were in a mask, but since the nuptial of Lucentio,

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The second Capulet says it is more because bis (Lucentio's) son is thirty: but the first Capulet, to prove that the son of Lucentio was not ,,thirty years," but some five and twenty, says,

,,His son was but a ward two years ago."

Now the period of wardship lasted until the ward attained twenty one years of age. Two years and twenty one years make twenty three years. Thus the age of the eldest son of Lucentio, according to the first Capulet's method of computation was twenty three years: and then the ordinary period of gestation, and the period between the time at which the Capulets are speaking and Pentecost, would probably make up some twenty five years.

Tenure in Capite.

Where the tenure was of the sovereign immediately it was said to be in capite, or in chief. Cade. Men shall hold of me in capite.

2 Henry VI, Act 4 Scene 7. According to Cowel, it was a tenure by which a person held of the king immediately, as of his crown, either by knights service or socage; and not

of any honour, castle, or manor belonging to it, and therefore it is otherwise called a tenure, that holdeth merely of the king: because as the crown is a corporation and seigniory in gross, as the Common Lawyers term it, so the king that posseth the crown, is in account of law, perpetually king, and never in his minority, nor ever dieth. Rex nunquam moritur. (By a statute 12 Charles II, all such tenures were abolished.)

Beurtheilungen und kurze Anzeigen.

Rudolph Gottschall, Die deutsche Nationalliteratur in der ersten Hälfte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts. Zweite vermehrte und verbesserte Auflage. Breslau bei Trewendt. 1860. 3 Bde. 8.

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Der Ruf der Gottschallschen Literaturgeschichte ist ein so wohlbegründeter und ihre Vorzüge sind so oft hervorgehoben worden, dass es überflüssig wäre, die so eben erschienene neue Auflage mit Mehr als einer Anzeige zu begleiten. Mit gewissenhafter Sorgfalt hat der Verfasser nachgetragen, was an bedeutenderen poetischen Hervorbringungen seit dem Erscheinen der ersten Auflage (1854) ans Licht getreten ist, so dass man kaum irgend etwas Nennenswerthes vermissen, wohl aber von Manchem erst durch des Verfassers Kritik die nähere Bekanntschaft machen dürfte; gute Register (das alphabetische zählt nahe an 700 Autoren auf) erhöhen den Werth dieser relativen Vollständigkeit. Verdienstlicher namentlich auch für das grös

sere Publicum, welches sich zu bilden die Neigung, aus den Quellen zu schöpfen jedoch nicht die Möglichkeit hat, sind die grösseren Abschnitte culturhistorischen Inhalts, um welche das Werk jetzt vermehrt erscheint. Es sind dies:

I. S. 23

67. Der Musenhof zu Weimar. (Herzogin Amalie und Wieland. Karl August und Goethe. Herder. Schiller und Goethe. Gäste in Weimar: Jean Paul, Tieck. Beziehungen der Dichter Weimars zu einander, zum Publicum, zum Theater und zur Politik. Zuletzt, zwar nur mit wenigen Strichen, doch anschaulich genug gezeichnet, die Frauen, welche für die classiche Zeit Weimars von so hervorragendem Einfluss geworden sind die fürstlichen Damen, die Kalb, die Stein, die Vulpius, die beiden Lengefeld, die Imhof u. s. w.)

Dieser Ab

II. S. 224 -260. Die Literatur und das Publicum. schnitt enthält in neun Unterabtheilungen (Die Frauen- und die Männerlyrik. Taschenbücher und Miniatur-Ausgaben. Das moderne Unterrichtswesen und die Literatur. Der Buchhandel und der Geschmack des Publicums. Stellung der Schriftsteller. Adel und Judenthum in der Literatur. Gruppirung der Dichter nach den deutschen Landschaften. Die Höfe und die Dichtkunst. Schillerfest und Schillerstiftung.) eine Reihe aufklärender und anregender Betrachtungen. Verfehlt ist nur die Zusammenstellung des Adels und des Judenthums, da wohl von dem Judenthum, nicht aber von dem deutschen Adel, sofern derselbe sich an der Literatur betheiligt, specifische Eigenschaften auszusagen sind. Denn das schon getrauen wir uns nicht zu behaupten, dass die Aristocratie die gefälligen Formen des Salons in die Literatur übertragen habe; ausserdem aber hat der Verfasser selbst Nichts gefunden, was sich als ein dem dichtenden Adel Gemeinsames und Eigen

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