Notes and Queries, Number 30, May 25, 1850. Various
that is, as I suppose, a vault belonging to the Wine Coopers' Company. The arms exhibit a shield with a pair of compasses, an axe, and a dray, or truck, with goats for supporters. In a country like England, dealing so much at one time in Rhenish wine, a more likely origin for such a sign could hardly be imagined. For this information I am indebted to the courtesy of Sir Edmund Head."
Can Mr. Cunningham, Sir E. Head, or any of our correspondents point out any German "Randle Holme" whose work may be consulted for the purpose of ascertaining the arms, &c. of the various professions, trades, &c. of that country?
Why has not Mr. Cunningham, in his description of St. James' Street, mentioned what certainly existed long after the commencement of the present century, the occasional "steps" which there were in the foot-path—making the street a succession of terraces. This fact renders intelligible the passage quoted from Pope's letter to Mr. Pearse, in which he speaks of "y'e second Terras in St. James' Street." Why, too, omit that characteristic feature of the street, the rows of sedan chairs with which it was formerly lined? The writer of this perfectly remembers seeing Queen Charlotte in her sedan chair, going from the Queen's Library in the Green Park to Buckingham House.
Mr. Cunningham states, we dare say correctly, that Sheridan died at No. 17 Saville Row. We thought he had died at Mr. Peter Moore's, in Great George Street, Westminster. Was he not living there shortly before his death? and did not his funeral at Westminster Abbey proceed from Mr. Moore's?
ON A PASSAGE IN MACBETH
If any of your correspondents would favour me, I should like to be satisfied with respect to the following passage in Macbeth; which, as at present punctuated, is exceedingly obscure:—
"If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well
It were done quickly: If the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch,
With his surcease, success; that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end-all here,
But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,—
We'd jump the life to come."
Now, I think by altering the punctuation, the sense of the passage is at once made apparent, as thus,—
"If it were done when 'tis done then 'twere well.
It were done quickly, if the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch,
With his surcease, success, that but this blow
Might be the be-all and the end all here," &c.
but to make use of a paradox, it is not done when it is done; for this reason, there is the conscience to torment the evil-doer while living, and the dread of punishment in another world after death: the "bank and shoal of time" refers to the interval between life and death, and to "jump" the life to come is to hazard it. The same thought occurs in Hamlet, when he alludes to—
"That undiscovered country, from whose bourne
No traveller returns."
But that is clear enough, as in all probability the annotators left the passage as they found it. I have not the opportunity of consulting Mr. Collier's edition of Shakespeare, so that I am unaware of the manner in which he renders it; perhaps I ought to have done so before I troubled you. Possibly some of your readers may be disposed to coincide with me in the "new reading;" and if not, so to explain it that it may be shown it is my own obscurity, and not Shakespeare's, with which I ought to cavil.
I have witnessed many representations of Macbeth, and in every instance the passage referred to has been delivered as I object to it: but that is not to be wondered at, for there are professed admirers of Shakspeare among actors who read him not as if they understood him, but who are—
"Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
MINOR QUERIES
As throng as Throp's Wife.—As I was busy in my garden yesterday, a parishioner, whose eighty-two years of age render her a somewhat privileged person to have a gossip with, came in to speak to me. With a view to eliciting material for a Note or a Query, I said to her, "You see I am as throng as Throp's wife;" to which she replied, "Aye, Sir, and she hanged herself in the dishcloth." The answer is new to me; but the proverb itself, as well as the one mentioned by "D.V.S." (No. 24. p. 382.) "As lazy as Ludlum's dog, &c.," has been an especial object of conjecture to me as long as I can remember. I send this as a pendant to "D.V.S.'s" Query, in hopes of shortly seeing the origin of both these curious sayings.
Ecclesfield, Sheffield, April 19. 1850.
Trimble Family.—In a MS. account of the Fellows of King's I find the following:—
"1530.—Rich. Trimble, a very merry fellow, the fiddle of the society, who called him 'Mad Trimble.' M. Stokes of 1531 wrote this distich on him:—
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