upon it as it stands he actually agrees with me. I said that the passage "in our sense of the term is unintelligible. I still say so; and he, who attempts to mend it, or modernise the form, says so too. The question next arises, Does he not mean no system, when he says system? Otherwise, why does he say that Shakspeare uses the passive for the active participle, when he explains the word not by the active participle, but by an adjective of totally different meaning? Is it not more likely that MR. HALLIWELL may have misunderstood Shakspeare's system, than that the latter should have used intelligible words, and precise forms of words, so at random? And, moreover, does not the critic confound two meanings of the word delightful; the one obsolete, full of delight, the other the common one, giving delight, or gratifying?

Now, by a violent figure which Shakspeare sometimes uses, delighted may mean delightful in the former sense; perhaps, rather, filled with delight. The word then would be formed directly from the noun, and must not be regarded as a participle at all, but rather an ellipsis, from which the verb (which may be represented by give, fill, endow, &c.) is omitted. Take, as an instance, this passage in Measure for Measure: —

"Clau. Death is a fearful thing!
"Isa. And shamed life a hateful."

The meaning here is not life ashamed, but life covered with shame. In this sense MR. HALLIWELL, apparently without knowing why, has adopted the term delightful; but then the two succeeding words of his explanation, "sweet, pleasant," he would appear to have taken at random from a dictionary, forgetting that he was not using the word in its ordinary sense; for it is not possible that he can suppose Shakspeare to have used the word in the sense of the active participle. Now, though I do not think this at all the expression that Shakspeare would use, it is undoubtedly allowable as a general characteristic; but the word actually used would appear to imply the result of a particular action, which would have been productive of anything but delight. In short, as we are agreed that the word delighted in the passage in question in its present sense is unintelligible, so also are we, I think, agreed that the substitute, if any, must be used in a passive sense.

Now, with regard to the first instance furnished by MR. HALLIWELL of the use of the passive for the active participle, if I were sure that the delinquent were well out of hearing, and not likely "to rise again and push us from our stools,". I should be disposed to repeat the charge of impertinence against the editor who altered "professed" to professing." The word professed is one of common use, and in the present instance perfectly

66

intelligible. "To your bosom, professed to entertain so much love and care for our father, I commit him," seems to express the sense of the passage: a doubt is implied by the expression, but there is a directness of insult in the term professing quite inconsistent with the character of Cordelia.

"Becomed love" is love suited or fitted to the occasion. The use of the passive participle is every way more appropriate than that of the active, though the latter is more common now.

In the next instance, I have to observe that there is no such verb as to guile. Guile is a noun; and "guiled shore" is guile-covered, or charactered shore. According to this rule, the modern word talented, that is, talent-endowed, has been formed, it not having been considered that licences are allowed in poetry that are unsuited to ordinary language.

The passage next referred to is conditional, and I regard the use of the passive participle here, too,

as correct.

I have thus reduced MR. HALLIWELL's list to that number which usually forms the exception rather than the rule; and if accident, misprint, error in copying, or other special circumstance be not held sufficient to account for the single remaining instance, I have then only to say that I prefer deformed to deforming, as an epithet applied disparagingly to Time's hand, as more in accordance with Shakspeare's practice, who was not in the habit of repeating the same idea, which, in the latter case, would occur again in the word "defeatures" in the following line.

MR. HALLIWELL may, doubtless, find other instances, perhaps more felicitous than these; at present, all I can say is that he has failed to show that the use of the passive for the active participle was common with Shakspeare. As to other variations between the grammatical_usage of Shakspeare's day and that of our own, I can assure him that I am not quite so ignorant of the fact as he imagines. SAMUEL HICKSON.

August 1. 1850.

ENGLISH COMEDIANS IN GERMANY.

I am glad to be enabled to reply to MR. BOLTON CORNEY'S Query (Vol. i., p. 439.) respecting a German book of plays.

The learned illustrator of the Curiosities of Literature would find the information he desires in the Vorrath zur Geschichte der deutschen dramatischen Dichtkunst of the formerly celebrated J. Christoph Gottsched (Leipzig, 1767-69, 2 vols. 8vo.). But as this book, now somewhat neglected, would perhaps be difficult to be found even in the British Museum, I will transcribe the contents of the Schau-Bühne englischer und französischer Comödianten auff welcher werden vorgestellt die schönsten und neuesten Comödien, so vor

13. Von Fortunato seinem Wünschhütlein und Seckel.

14. Der unbesonnene Liebhaber. 15. Die grossmüthige Thaliklea. Vol. III.

16. Vom Könige Ahasvero und Esther und dem hoffartigen Hamon.

17. Vom verlohrnen Sohn, in welchem die Verzweifflung und Hoffnung gar artig introducirt werden. 18. Von Königs Mantalors unrechtmässiger Liebe

und derselben Straffe.

19. Der Geitzige.

20. Von der Aminta und Sylvia.

21. Macht den kleinen Knaben Cupidinis. 22. George Damlin, oder der verwirrte Ehmann. Some years before, another similar collection had been published. The first vol. printed in 1620, and reprinted in 1624, has this title:

"Englische Comedien und Tragedien, d. i. Sehr schöne, herrliche und ausserlosene, geist- und weltliche Comedi- und Tragedi-Spiel (sic), sampt dem Pickelhering, welche wegen ihrer artigen Inventionen kurtzweiligen auch theils wahrhafftigen Geschichte halbet, von den Engelländern in Deutschland (I beg to notice these words) an Königlichen, Chur- und Furstlichen Höfen, auch in vornehmen Reichs- See- und Handel Städten seynd agirt und gehalten worden, und zuvor nie im Druck aussgangen."

The volume contains 10 plays. The 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10, are the 16, 17, 13, 10, and 12, of the collection of 1670. The other five are the following: 4. Eine schöne lustige Comödia von Jemand und Niemand.

7. Tragödia von Julio und Hippolyto.

8. Eine sehr klägliche Tragödia von Tito Andromico und hoffertigen Kayserinn, darinnen denkwürdigen Actiones zu befinden.

9. Ein lustig Pickelherings-Spiel von der schönen Mario und alten Hanrey.

The second volume was published in 1630, under the title, Lieberkampff, oder ander Theil der Englischen Comödien : it contains 8 plays. The 1st is

the 21st of the collection of 1670, with this addition:

Die Personen der Lustspiels sind; 1. Venus, die stumme Person; 2. Cupido; 3. Jucunda, Jungfraw; 4. Floretus, Liebhaber; 5. Balendus, Betrieger ; 6. Corcillana, Kuplerin; 7. Hans Worst.

The 2d is the 20th of the same collection, " mit 9 Personen, worunter die lustige Person Schräm heisst."

3. Comœdia von Prob getrewer Lieb mit 11 Personen, worunter auch eine allegorische, der Traum ist. The 4th is the 18th, "mit 9 Personen, worunter die lustige Schampilasche Lean Potage heisst." The four remaining are operas, without particular titles.

Ebert (Bibliogr. Lexicon, N. 5064.), speaking of these collections, says, "the plays they are composed of are not translations from the English," but, "as it appears," German original works.

I am at a loss to understand how that bibliographer, generally so exact, did not recognise at least five comedies of Molière. MR. BOLTON CORNEY will, I wish and hope, point out the originals - English, Italian, and, I suppose, Spanish 1 - of some others.

If you think proper to make use of the above, I entreat you, for the sake of your readers to correct my bad English, and to consider my communication only as a token of the gratification I have found in your amusing and useful "NOTES AND QUERIES.

D. L.

Ancien Membre de la Société des Bibliophiles.

Béthune, July 31. 1850.

P. S.-The Query (Vol. i., p. 185.) concerning the name of the Alost, Louvain, and Antwerp printer, Martens or Mertens, is settled in the note, p. 68., of Recherches sur la Vie et les Editions de Thierry Martens (Martinus, Martens), par J. De Grand, 8vo. Alost, 1845. I am ready to send a copy of the note if it is required.

[We have also received a reply to MR. CORNEY'S Query from MR. ASHER of Berlin, who refers for particulars of this interesting collection to Tieck's Preface to his Alt-Deutsche Theater. We propose shortly returning to the curious fact of English comedians performing in Germany at the close of the sixteenth and commencement of the seventeenth centuries: a subject which has several times been discussed and illustrated in the columns of our valuable contemporary The Athenæum.]

from the most ample list. Its professed object was to disprove the phenomenon of motion; but its real one, to embarrass an opponent. It has always attracted the attention of logicians; and even to them it has often proved embarrassing enough. The difficulty does not lie in proving that the conclusion is absurd, but in showing where the fallacy lies. From not knowing the precise kind of information required by Idrns, I am unwilling to trespass on your valuable space by any irrelevant discussion, and confine myself to copying a very judicious note from Dr. Whateley's Logic, 9th edit. p. 373.

"This is one of the sophistical puzzles noticed by Aldrich, but he is not happy in his attempt at a solution. He proposes to remove the difficulty by demonstrating that in a certain given time, Achilles would overtake the tortoise; as if any one had ever doubted that. The very problem proposed, is to surmount the difficulty of a seeming demonstration of a thing palpably impossible; to show that it is palpably impossible, is no solution of the problem.

"I have heard the present example adduced as a proof that the pretensions of logic are futile, since (it was said) the most perfect logical demonstration may lead from true premises to an absurd conclusion. The reverse is the truth; the example before us furnishes a confirmation of the utility of an acquaintance with the syllogistic form, in which form the pretended demonstration in question cannot be exhibited. An attempt to do so will evince the utter want of connection between the premises and the conclusion."

ท

What the Archbishop says is true, and it disposes of the question as one of "Formal Logic:" but yet the form of the sophism is so plausible, that it imposes with equal force on the " common sense of all those who repose their conclusions upon the operations of that faculty. With them a different procedure is necessary; and I suspect that if any one of the most obstinate advocates of the sufficiency of common sense for the "balancing of evidence were to attempt the explanation of a hundred fallacies that could be presented to him, he would be compelled to admit that a more powerful and a more accurate machine would be of advantage to him in accomplishing his task. This machine the syllogism supplies.

The discussion of Gregory St. Vincent will be found at pages 101-3. of his Opus Geometricum, Antw., 1647, fol. The principle is the same as that which Aldrich afterwards gave, as above referred to by Dr. Whateley. I can only speak from memory of the discussion of Leibnitz, not having his works at hand; but I am clear in this, that his principle again is the same. Ιδιώτης is in error, however, in calling St. Vincent's " a geometrical treatment" of it. He indeed uses lines to represent the spaces passed over; and their discussion occurs in a chapter on what is universally (but very absurdly) called "geometrical propor

tion." It is yet no more geometrical than our school-day problem of the basket and the hundred eggs in Francis Walkinghame. Mere names do not bestow character, however much philosophers as well as legislators may think so. All attempts of the kind have been, and must be, purely numerical. T.S.D. Shooter's Hill, August 3.

Achilles and the Tortoise.-Your correspondent will find references in the article "Zeno (of Elea)" in the Penny Cyclopædia. For Gregory St. Vincent's treatment of the problem, see his Quadratura Circuli, Antwerp, 1647, folio, p. 101., or let it alone. I suspect that the second is the better reference. Zeno's paradox is best stated, without either Achilles or tortoise, as follows:- No one can go a mile; for he must go over the first half, then over half the remaining half, then over half the remaining quarter; and so on for ever. Many books of logic, and many of algebra, give the answer to those who cannot find it.

Replies to Minor Queries.

M.

"Barum” and “ Sarum” (Vol. ii., p. 21.).—The formation of the first of these words has not yet been accounted for. I must premise my attempt to supply an explanation by admitting that I was not aware it was in common use as a contraction for Barnstaple. I think it will be found that the contracted form of that name is more usually "Berdest," "Barnst." In trying further to contract the word, the two last letters would be omitted, and it would then be "Barn," with the circumflex showing the omission of several letters. Having reduced it to this state, an illiterate clerk would easily misread the circumflex for the plain stroke "-," expressing merely the omission of the letter "m," and, perhaps ignorant of the name intended, think it as well to write at full length "Barum." J. Br.

stated in Turner's Sacred History, vol. iii. p. 283., Countess of Desmond (Vol. ii., p. 153.) It is that the Countess of Desmond died in 1612, aged decease, and not 1626, as mentioned by your 145. This is, I presume, the correct date of her querist K.; for in Lord Bacon's History of Life and Death, originally published in 1623, her death is thus alluded to:

"The Irish, especially the Wild Irish, even at this day, live very long. Certainly they report that within these few years the Countess of Desmond lived to a hundred and forty years of age, and bred teeth three times."

The manner of her death is recorded by Mr. Crofton Croker, in his agreeable volume of Researches in the South of Ireland, 4to. London, 1824.

"In this part of the country, her death is attributed to a fall whilst in the act of picking an apple from a tree in an orchard at Drumana."

In the Olla Podrida, a volume of miscellanies, printed for private distribution, by Mr. Sainthill of Cork, there is a portrait of the "old countess," from an etching made by Mr. Crofton Croker (if I mistake not) in his early days. J. M. B. Michael Servetus, alias Reves.-The manuscript, the character and fate of which S. H. (Vol. ii., p. 153.) is anxious to investigate, contained books iii.-vii., inclusive, of the work of Servetus De Trinitate; and as these fragments differed somewhat from the printed text, they were probably the first, or an early, draft (not necessarily in the author's handwriting) of part of the Christianismi Restitutio. The purchaser of this MS., at the sale of Du Fay's library in Paris in the year 1725, was the Count de Hoym, ambassador to France from Poland. I beg to refer your correspondent to pp. 214-18. of the Historia Michaelis Serveti, by Henr. ab Allwoerden, published with Mosheim's approbation, Helmstad. 1728.

Both a "Note" and a "Query" might be founded on a memorable passage in the fifth book De Trinitate, in which Servetus, long before Harvey, explains the circulation of the blood. R. G. Caxton's Printing-office (Vol. ii., pp. 99. 122. 142.). It is a pity MR. NICHOLS did not take the trouble to see, and, having seen, to notice in his first communication, that Abbot Islip was mentioned in the passage from Stow's Survey cited by MR. RIMBAULT. As that gentleman quotes from, I believe, the second edition of the Survey, I may be allowed to doubt, until it is clearly shown, that "Islip's name has been introduced by the error of some subsequent writer." But supposing this to be so, it would in no way affect the only question which is material, Who was Caxton's patron? nor touch the accuracy of the Life of Caxton, which MR. NICHOLS seems desirous of impeaching. I am anxious to point this out, because I feel it right to vindicate to the utmost, where they deserve it, useful works, which, like the little volume I am writing of, are published at a price that ensures for them a circulation of almost unlimited extent. ARUN.

Somagia (Vol. ii., p. 120.).—This is the plural of "somagium," "summagium," and means "horseloads." It is a word frequently found in documents relating to agrarian matters, and may signify the load packed upon the horse's back (whence the name "sumpter-horse"), or in a cart drawn by a horse. MR. SANSOM will find a full

explanation of the derivatives of its root, "sagma," at p. 50., vol. vii., of Ducange. J. BT.

Various Modes of Interment among the Ancients (Vol. ii., pp. 8, 9. 22. 41. 78.).-In modes of interment some nations have been distinguished by an idiosyncrasy almost incredible from their inhumanity.

"Barcæi, populi inter Colchos et Iberos morbo absumptos igni comburebant, sed qui in bello fortiter occubuissent, honoris gratia vulturibus devorandos · Elian. Hist. Anim. lib. "In objiciebant." Hyrcania (refert Cicero in Tusc. Quæst. lib. i. 45.) ali canes solitos fuisse, a quibus delaniarentur mortui, eamque optimam Hyrcanos censuisse sepulturam."Kirchmannus de Funer. Romanorum, The appendix to this work may be consulted for this, and yet greater violations of the law of nature and nations.

cadavera foedum semper ac miserabile creditum fuit. "Apud saniores barbaros ab animalibus discerpi Foetus abortivi feris alitibusque exponebantur in montibus aut locis aliis inaccessis, quin et ipsi infantes, &c. Fuit hæc Asinina sepultura pana Tyrannorum ac perduellium. (Spondan. de Camet. S. pp. 367. 387, et seqq.) Quam et victorum insolentia odiumque vulgi implacabile in hostes non raro exercuit."Ursinus, Arbor. Biblicum.

Hyde accounts for the Persians who embraced the religion of the Magi not having adopted the two contrivances of corporal dissolution prevalent among civilised nations-cremation or burning, and simple inhumation-by the superstitious reverence with which they regarded the four elements. T. Browne remarks that similar superstitions may have had the same effect among other nations.

Sir

Of the post-mortem punishments described by Ducange, the former was the customary sepulture of the Troglodita; the latter corresponds with the rites of some of the Scythians recorded by Statius:

"At gente in Scythica suffixa cadavera truncis, Lenta dies sepelit putri liquentia tabo." I shall be obliged if you, or a correspondent disposed "not only to teach but to communicate," will kindly throw light on a passage, relating to the Trogloditæ, in Strabo, book xvi., where he relates, Capræ cornu mortuis saxorum cumulo coopertis fuisse superimpositum."

T. J.

Guy's Porridge-pot (Vol. ii., p. 55.).-Your correspondent is quite correct, when he says "neither the armour nor pot belonged to the noble Guy.” He would have been a guy if he had worn the armour, seeing that it was made for a horse, and not for a man.

What the stout old lady who showed us the "relics of Old Guy" in 1847 called "Guy's breastplate," and sometimes his helmet! is the "croupe" of a suit of horse armour, and "another breastplate" a "poitrel." His porridge-pot is a garrison

crock of the sixteenth century, used to prepare "sunkits" for the retainers; and the fork a military fork temp. Hen. VIII.

The so called "Roman swords" are "anelaces," and a couteau de chasse of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

The "British weapon" is a hammer at arms temp. Hen. VIII., and "the halbert" a black bill

temp. Hen. VII. The only weapons correctly described are the Spanish rapiers.

The shield with the "sight" is very curious; it weighs thirty pounds, and is of the temp. of Henry VIII.

It is impossible to describe the horror of the old lady at our doubting her version; she seemed to wonder the earth did not open and swallow us for our heresy. NASO. "Welcome the coming, speed the parting Guest" (Vol. ii., p. 134.).

"Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest," is from Pope (Imitations of Horace, book ii. sat. ii.).

Pope's distich, whence the line is taken, runs,— "For I, who hold sage Homer's rule the best,

Welcome the coming, speed the going guest." Query. Where is "sage Homer's rule" to be found? RUSTICUS.

[The following additional reply furnishes a solution of the Query of RUSTICUS :

"True friendship's laws are by this rule express'd, Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest." These lines are from Pope's Homer, the Odyssey, Book xv., lines 83 and 84.

É. H.]

Dutch Language (Vol. ii., p. 77.).-H. B. C. recommends, among other works, Hendrik Conscience's novels. These are in Flemish, not Dutch. The difference may not be great between the two; but one would hardly recommend to a learner of English, Burns's Poems as a reading-book. In 1829 Dr. Bowring wrote an article, being a sketch of Dutch literature, in the Foreign Quarterly Review; which article was reprinted in Amsterdam in the form of an 18mo. volume, and which I believe is still to be got, and is a very useful guide to Dutch literature.

S. W.

T. H. [C. I. R. (to whom we are indebted for a similar reference) adds the concluding line

"And shake his head at Doctor Swift," which would show that the verses were written not ear

Brydall, in his Camera Regis (Lond. 1666, p. 114.), quotes the statute of 11 Hen. VII. c. 21., as the authority for the "singularity" attaching to the city, that "butchers shall kill no beasts in

William of Wykeham (Vol. ii., p. 89.)."Historica descriptio complectens vitam ac res gestas beatissimi viri Guilmi Wicanii quondam Vintoniensis

will be found to be the correct one. The statute in question has, I think, never been repealed; but in the absence of abbatoirs, or other proper provision for the slaughtering of cattle without the walls of the city, it seems doubtful whether the