Beylies.

SHAKESPEARE'S GEOGRAPHY.
(9th S. xi. 208, 333, 416, 469.)

BOTH Bacon and Shakespeare (making the allusion, no doubt, in a general way, and without a specific reference) were justified in saying that Aristotle thought that moral philosophy was not a study to which young men should be formally introduced. His theory was that they should be made thoroughly practical before becoming theoretical citizens, and he frequently includes ethics under the wider term "politics" or "political science." Thus, so far as Aristotle is concerned, there is nothing surprising in the references made to his opinion, whether in 'Troilus and Cressida' or the Advancement of Learning.' The coincidence, of course, is interesting, but that is all. A very different question arises when we are asked to believe that Bacon is the author of both passages. The statement in the 'Advancement of Learning' is defensible, and quite worthy of the scholar and philosopher; but it is incredible that the logical thinker should have used such a reckless and brilliant prolepsis as that which enables Hector to refer to Aristotle. It is no explanation of such a literary freak to say that Bacon frequently lapsed in making, historical allusions, for the one aberration differs from the other not merely in degree, but in kind. Bacon, like other scholars in all ages, made mistakes through neglecting to verify his references, but it has to be proved that his imagination was daring enough to make him deliberately pitchfork mythology into the sphere of history. It was only the sovereign ease and indifference of Shakespeare that could compass such liberties with perfectly plausible and effective results. He, too, was no doubt quite well aware that a familiarity with Greek philosophy was never within the possibilities of the plume-waving Hector; but he was not on that account to be debarred from making the convenient assumption. The quick originality and the boldness of the proceeding point to the dramatist with his wide general knowledge rather than to the philosopher making a whimsical use of his exact scholarship. MR. STRONACH, by the way, seems to have overlooked the fact that the passage he quotes from 'Troilus and Cressida' is that to which THOMAS BAYNE.

I referred.

MR. STRONACH, in his reply at the last reference, remarks that it is curious that a Latin quotation which occurs in Shakespeare's

2 Henry VI.' also appears in Bacon's Promus, from which, I suppose, he infers that Bacon must have written the play. Is it not a still more singular fact that a sentence in MR. STRONACH's letter, which occupies seven lines, and on the face of it is not a quotation, appears almost verbatim in a footnote to one of the apophthegms in "The Moral and Historical Works of Lord Bacon. With Introductory Dissertation and Notes by John Devey, M.A.," published by Bell & Daldy, 1868? This foot-note, referring to the apophthegm, "Chilon said that kings' friends and favourites were like casting counters; that sometimes stood for one, sometimes for ten, sometimes for an hundred," states that this was not the saying of Chilon, but of Orontes, and concludes with the remark, "It is difficult to know whether to assign to this exclamation of Orontes, or to the famous allusion in the 'Winter Tale,' the origin of the modest expression of Lord Brougham, that the Whigs were all ciphers, and he was the only unit in the cabinet which gave the ciphers their value." As MR. STRONACH expresses himself in the same words, are we, therefore, to conclude that he also wrote the note in Devey's edition of Bacon's works? C. M. PHILLIPS.

The Tempest,' which shows that Shakspeare MR. STRONACH ignores my reference to thought Milan to be on the sea. I said that there was only one Latin quotation in 'Love's Labour's Lost,' and I referred to "Fauste, precor, gelidâ," &c.. A note to that play says that it is the first line of the first eclogue of tuanus were translated before the time of Mantuanus, and that "the eclogues of ManShakspeare, and the Latin was printed on the opposite side of the page for the use of schools." Supposing that I am wrong, and that some of the simple Latin sentences classical Latin, this would not prove Shakspoken by Holofernes may be found in speare's scholarship. He may have picked from a book a few words and sentences which anybody with the slightest knowledge of Latin could understand; but this would not was capable prove that he had read, or

of Athens' "ira furor brevis est" from He has quoted in Timon Horace; but that does not prove that he had find him quoting something very simple or read Horace-quite the contrary. When we very trite, and not quoting what shows real knowledge of the author, we come to the conclusion that he picked up the words which he repeats otherwise than by reading the works in which they are found. "Tantæne animis cœlestibus iræ" is another hackneyed

quotation, which might be known to people who had little knowledge of Latin. There are quotations less hackneyed than this to be found in the 'Second Part of Henry VI.,' a play which was not wholly written by Shakspeare. There are no signs of classical learning in his great plays; these are only found in the doubtful plays. Anybody might have supplied the motto to Venus and Adonis,' but there is not the slightest sign of real classical learning in the poem itself. References to Titan and Tantalus do not argue deep learning. Shakspeare is supposed to have had learning because Greek and Latin authors have expressed ideas similar to his own. If he got those ideas by reading their works, how is it that his knowledge of Greek history and mythology is so limited? Not sufficient attention is given to the evidence of want of learning that is to be found in his plays and other poems. In the works which undoubtedly are altogether his there is not a single passage which argues real classical learning. I am sure that he never read Greek. He has one passage very like what Eteocles says in the Phoenissæ,' and another like what is said in Edipus Tyrannus'; but Eteocles, Polynices, and Antigone were unknown to him. He knew Agamemnon, but not Clytemnestra, Orestes, Electra, and Iphigenia. He has shown clearly in 'Troilus and Cressida' that he did not know about Briseis, and was ignorant of the real cause of quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon. Patroclus Achilles :

says

to

I stand condemned for this: They think my little stomach to the war, And your great love for me, restrains you thus. A poet who was acquainted with the 'Iliad' would have known this was not the reason why Achilles kept himself in retirement.

MR. STRONACH has mentioned Bacon's mistakes concerning Chilon and others. I feel sure that Shakspeare knew nothing of the subjects about which Bacon makes mistakes. Bacon's memory sometimes failed him, and he evidently was not in the habit of verifying his references; but his learning was great, and that of Shakspeare was small.

E. YARDLEY.

It may be true, as MR. STRONACH says, that the territory of Bohemia once extended to the sea, and that it was, therefore, at one time a maritime country. I do not think that this fact, however, was known to Shakespeare. It is certain that Ben Jonson was

a number of men shipwrecked on the coast of Bohemia, "where is no sea near, by one hundred miles." The responsibility really rests with Robert Greene, whose romance of Dorastus and Fawnia,' first published in 1588 as 'Pandosto; or, the Triumph of Time,' served Shakespeare for the plot of his Winter's Tale." In the story, as in the play, Bohemia is treated as a country bordering on the sea; so that the poet, in adapting the story for the stage, merely copied Greene. E. F. BATES.

Pace MR. STRONACH, Shakespeare and Bacon made no blunder about Aristotle's view of youth and ethics. It is true that Aristotle's words are τῆς πολιτικῆς οὐκ ἔστιν οἰκεῖος akpoarns ó véos, but they occur (Nic. Eth., I. iii. 5) shortly after his description of ethics as ToλITIKÝ TIS ovoa (I. ii. 9). He was thus referring especially to this "kind of politics." The identification of ethics with politics is, as Sir A. Grant has pointed out, to be found also in Plato's 'Euthydemus.'

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

BYRONIANA (9th S. xi. 444, 492; xii. 18, 52). There is no conceivable excuse for the blunder into which I have fallen by trusting to a too treacherous memory. I must humbly apologize to your correspondents, and to readers of N. & Q.' generally, for stating that Lord Byron had not visited Ferrara previous to June, 1819. As MR. ALDRICH points out at the last reference, Byron visited Ferrara in April, 1817. The result of that visit, of "one day only," was 'The Lament of Tasso.' My sole excuse for having questioned your correspondent's accuracy lies in the fact that Byron certainly did not visit Ferrara in 1818. Count Stephen Széchenyi writes in his 'Journal' under date July, 1818: "Lord Byron has been here lately," &c. Now, as I well knew that Byron never left Venice or its neighbourhood during the whole of 1818, I foolishly jumped to the conclusion that

66

some one had blundered." As a matter of fact it was I who blundered. Byron visited Ferrara just one year and two months previous to the date given in Count Széchenyi's 'Journal.' If this impertinence on my part be forgiven, I promise that I will never again presume to take a mote out of my neighbour's while I have a beam in mine own. RICHARD EDGCUMBE. Edgbarrow, Crowthorne, Berks.

eye

Vladimir); Rascia the march of Servia, on the Resca, a tributary of the Morava (Semendria is its chief town); Cumania Moldavia; Theke Teck; Ferreti Pfirt, in south of Alsace; Kyburgi, Kyburg, a county in Burgundy, came to the house of Austria 1326; Goritiæ Görtz, or Goritz, near Istria; Anasum, i.e., Auarum, the Avars, against whom Charlemagne set up the Marchia Auarum sive Orientalis, now Austria; Burgoviæ, Burgau, about five miles south of the Danube, and about twenty-five east of Ulm; Lusatia Lausitz, between Saxony, Bohemia, and Silesia (now partly in Prussia and partly in kingdom of Saxony); Portus Naonis Pordenone, a town in the Frioul or Friuli (Forum Julii); Colocencis, adj. of Colocza, in Hungary, on the Danube, halfway down the long north and south reach; Bacientis, of Bacz, lower down the Danube; Strigonensis, of Gran, also on the Danube, not very far from Buda Pest. H. L. O. BRIGHTON MANOR COURT ROLL (9th S. xii. 48). The Appendix to the Report of the Local Records Committee gives the custodian of the Rolls of the Manor of Brighthelmston, otherwise Brighton, as Messrs. Upperton & Bacon, solicitors, 5, Pavilion Buildings; Manor of Brighthelmston-Michelham, E. A. Nicholson, Esq., Lewes, Sussex, or Messrs. Glasier & Sons, 7, St. James Street, London; Manor of Old Shoreham, G. A. Flowers, Esq., solicitor, Steyning, Sussex.

GERALD MARSHALL.

RIMING EPITAPH (9th S. xi. 487; xii. 51)."We shall die all," &c., is not an epitaph. It occurs in more than one Cornish churchyard, and the wording shows that it was an inscription pertaining to the churchyard sundial. The four words in the four lines read as a square," and are a punning play upon the word "di-al." If read in straight lines, the words are "We shall die-all," &c. If read corner-wise, the words are "We die! we die! All, all, all, all!" It refers to the passing moments shown by the dial, and also, of course, to all mortals. W. IAGO, B.A. Bodmin.

LUCRETIUS (9th S. xii. 48).-Surely Lucretius (v. 1135) need not have looked further than his own country to witness the fall of kings, and the substitution of a constitution which some held to be aristocratic and some to be democratic, but which unquestionably suffered from occasional episodes of mob rule. He may also have been thinking of Greece, or again of petty princelings whom he may have seen or heard of at Rome, refugees from popular uprisings. Lucretius's whole account

[Very numerous replies are acknowledged.] "DUDE" (9th S. vi. 450; vii. 16).—In ‘A Dictionary of the Malagasy Language,' by J. J. Freeman and D. Johns (An-Tananarivo, 1835), one reads, "Dodo, s., a spendthrift, a prodigal, a thoughtless rake; a., daring, adventurous, improvident, wasteful, boasting, ostentatious, vain, showing off, prodigal.' Perhaps this explains why the dodo bird (Didus ineptus), whose relics at Oxford attract so much attention, got its name in an island not far from Madagascar, even if it is not the E. S. DODGSON. etymon of dude.

WILLIAM BLYTHE'S DESCENDANTS (9th S. xii. 29).—If your correspondent will refer to 9th S. x. 281 he may find some details which may interest him, though certainly they do not answer the exact question he asks. However, if he cares to communicate with me, I may be able to help him in his search for information. RONALD DIXON.

46, Marlborough Avenue, Hull.

DOG WHICH FOLLOWED THE DUC D'ENGHIEN (9th S. xii. 28).-May one venture to believe that it was an impossibility for a dog to act as stated in Le Petit Journal of 29 March? When arrested at Ettenheim by a strong party of dragoons under a colonel, the truly unfortunate grandson of the Prince of Condé was hurried with the utmost speed to the citadel of Strasburg, and thence, after an interval of two days, transferred rapidly to

Paris. Without entering the city the unhappy prince was taken to the castle of Vincennes and-murdered. The foulest crime that stains the name of the great Napoleon took from 15 March to 21 March to accomplish. It is only fair to remark that it was said at the time that there was complicity in the murder, for the reason that on the fatal night of 20 March Talleyrand was seated at a card-table in Caulincourt's house in Paris. The party was about to rise from play when the pendule" on the chimney piece struck two. Talleyrand started as he heard it, and then, turning to Caulincourt, whispered, "Yes; 'tis all over now." L'esprit se refuse à l'idée d'un pareil crime !

HENRY GERALD HOPE.

119, Elms Road, S. W. I have an old print of the execution of the duke. He is without coat or vest, no covering before his eyes, and kneels before the levelled muskets of the soldiers; his right arm is extended to the utmost to keep a dog, apparently a large poodle, as far off as possible. The engraving is a tinted aquatint. This sort of print was much in vogue in the earlier part of the last century. Twickenham.

G. T. SHERBORN.

"OVERSLAUGH" (9th S. xi. 247, 331).-If for the derivation of the military meaning of "overslaugh a foreign language must be resorted to, it would be as well perhaps to go to the German as to the Dutch. We also use überschlagen, Low Ger. überslan (long a), in the sense of to skip, drop-e.g., eine Seite, eine Marche, &c. Could not German soldiers serving in the British army - say Hanoverians-have introduced the term, first as a verb, which afterwards was made a substantive? G. KRUEGER.

'LE VICAIRE SAVOYARD' (9th S. xii. 68).— La profession de foi du Vicaire Savoyard,' c'est le nom ou le titre d'une des parties de 'L'Émile' de Jean Jacques Rousseau (sur la religion naturelle). IGNORAMUS.

HORNE OR HEARNE (9th S. xi. 188, 275).— There can be no doubt that these place-names and families bearing these names in various countries are of different, often entirely distinct origin. Yet, nevertheless, the various modifications of the word- namely, Erne, Horne, Hearne, Hern, Herne, Hearon, Hirn, &c.-may be derived from one root. In the Teutonic languages it is irren, to wander, stray, err, or become outlaw, whence also Hurenliebe. profligate love; Hurn, copse, cave or hiding-place; Ahn, a departed or deified ancestor; Hirn, the brain or organ of

the wandering spirit or ghost; and Ehren, nobles or wandering conquerors. The Latin errare and Frankish errant, with the Celtic Err names, are related, for the original root must be far back in Indo-Germanic language. Miscellanea Genealogica et Heraldica, published by Mitchell & Hughes, and most of the many good genealogical publications distinctly show different origins of the families of Heron, Horne, and Hearne, and in some cases what may be termed onomatopoeic origins of the words, or origin due to mispronunciation or abbreviation of some entirely distinct name. Early in last century a book was published with some such title as 'Ancient Welsh and British Kings,' in which Haern and Tara Haern or Treherne occur. Herne the Hunter may have been no myth, but a member of the Berkshire family to which belonged Thomas Hearne or Hern, the antiquary and assistant librarian to the Bodleian Library in the eighteenth century, and his cousin Edward Hearn or Hearne, printer of the Morning Herald, which preceded the present Standard newspaper, whose descendants now reside in Melbourne. The names Herne and Heroun occur in the Roll of Battle Abbey. The Irish Hearns, to whom belongs Lafcadio Hearn, of Japanese fame, derive their name from the abbreviation of one or more Celtic tribe names, and are to be found wherever Irish families have settled, especially in the United States of America. They are apparently in no way connected with the Irish families of Erne, Heron, or Horne racially, as these appear to be of Norman or Lowland Scottish origin. G. NEUMANN.

Leeds.

SPANISH BADGE (9th S. x. 367).-For history see Dorregaray, Historia de las Ordenas de Caballeria,' vol. ii. part ii. pp. 329-30. C.

"NOTHING" (9th S. xi. 166, 333, 395, 452, 517). The riddle long known to me stands thus:

That which contented men desire,
The poor possess, the rich require,
The miser spends, the spendthrift saves,
And all men carry to their graves.

ELIZABETH FOWLER.

"BLETHERAMSKITE" (9th S. x. 507; xi. 335, 490). - Blethers (or bladders), blown up, dried, and attached by short strings to rods, were the insignia of the old Court and other privileged jesters. They were (and are at Bidford-on-Avon) carried by the fool and the hobby-horse of the morris dancers, to whom is entrusted the collection of coppers, and