486
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vm. DEC. 21, 1907.
MOORISH LOVE CHARMS. The lore con-
tained in the following paragraphs from
' The Women of Morocco ' in The World
supplement of 22 October, may be of value
to some of us :
" Moorish women resort much to charms to gain lovers, or to keep their affections when gained. There is one charm which is seldom known to fail. It consists of shredding a small piece of an under- garment which the man has worn, and after certain incantations have been said over it, of rolling the particles into the sha]>e of a small ball. This is embedded in a larger ball of clay, and after being slightly damped it is kept in a pot over the embers of live charcoal. I have been assured that, as soon as the heat penetrates the clay, the man, whoever he may be, will lay aside whatever work he is doing at the time, and fly to the arms of the woman who invokes the charm ! As long as the ball is kept warm, so long will the heat of love burn in the heart of the lover for that woman.
" Another spell much resorted to is cast by cut- ting off the tips of a donkey's ears, cooking them, and mixing them in the man's food. He then be- comes as foolish as a donkey with love for the charmer who has provided his unsavoury repast ! "
ST. SWITHIN.
LIPHOOK FOLK-LORE. There are some very interesting and amusing ' Nature Notes from Liphook Villagers,' communicated by M. Fowler, in Knowledge and Scientific News for November. They may be de- pended on as genuine, and not " faked " in any way. J. T. F.
Winterton, Doncaster.
A SHAKESPEARE WILL. As everything relating to the name, if not the family, of Shakespeare has an interest, the abstract of the following will, which I came across at Somerset House, may be worthy of pre- servation in the columns of ' N. & Q.' :
"John Shakespeare, of Lapworth, co. Warwick, Yeoman. To be buried in Lapworth Church. All his freehold lands in Lapworth, on the death of Dorothy his wife, to go to John Twycroft, his nephew. To Alice and Margaret Twycroft, his sisters [?-in-law], and Thomas Twycroft, his brother, 3?. 6s. 8d. each. To Robert, Harry, and Matthew Twycroft, three of the brethren of the said John Twycroft, SI. 6*. 8d. apiece. To the three daughters of William Shakespeare, his brother, 3/. 6*. Sd. apiece. To Katherine Howett, wife of John Howett, 40*. To William and Thomas, two of the sons of his brother William Shakespeare, 40.*. apiece. To John and Anthony, sons of Richard Robins, 20*. apiece. To William Walton of Park- wood, 10*. To John and Francis, the sons of John Shakespeare, son of Christopher his brother, 20*. apiece. To the two sons of Edward Shakespeare, eon of his brother William Shakespeare, 20*. To the four children of Margaret Hudson, wife of Edward Hudson, 10*. apiece. To John Cotterell, son of John and Elizabeth Cotterell of Lapworth, 40s. apiece. To the children of John Shotteswell, his nephew, of Parkwood. 20*. apiece. To Alice Shakespeare, daughter of Francis Shakespeare, 6rf.
weekly till 40*. be paid. Twelve pence to the
parish church of Lapworth, to be distributed in
penny loaves to the poor on All Saints' Day.
Also 12d. on the same day to poor people.
His copyhold lands in Kingswood to his
nephew William Twycroft on a surrender made by
hini into the hands of the lord of the manor of
Kingswood by the hand of John Featherstone, Esq.,
and John Shakespeare of Kingswood aforesaid,
yeoman, two of the customary tenants of Kings-
wood. To Alice, Margaret, ana Thomas Twycroft,
31. 6*. 8d. apiece. To his brother Christopher
Shakespeare, 6d. every week during his life. To
Richard Price of Rowington a cow. To William
Shakespeare, son of his orother Christopher, 40*.
To Catherine Shotteswell, his sister, wife of John
Shotteswell, 20*. To John and William Shottes-
well, the sons of the said Catherine and William
Shotteswell, 51. each. To Dorothy Banks, 10*. To
Dorothy Clare, 10*. To all his godchildren, I2d.
apiece. To Ann Price, his servant, 10*. To the
two children of John Shotteswell, his nephew, 30*.
apiece. To his nephew John Twycroft a table and
clipboard in his hall, and other furniture. To wife
Dorothy bed, bedding, and curtains. To Margaret
Twycroft the better bedstead over the hall, the other
bedstead to Alice Twycroft. To nephew William
Twycroft the screen in the hall. [Several legacies
of household utensils are omitted.] Wife Dorothy
sole executrix. John Featherstone, Esq., of Park-
wood and John Shakespeare of Kingswood, yeoman,
overseers of the will, for which 10*. apiece. Legacies
to Katherine, Elizabeth, and Winifred Shake-
speare, to Huniphrey, Thomas, and John, children
of Humphrey Shakespeare. Dated 30 Oct., 1637.
Made his mark, as did John Shakespeare of Kings-
wood and Katherine Shotteswell, two of the wit-
nesses the other two, Richard Robins and William
Twycrosse, signing. Proved 27 April, 1638. 51 Lee."
AYEAHB.
[Many extracts referring to Shakespeares occur- ring in the Lapworth registers will be found in the late Robert Hudson's ' Memorials of a Warwick- shire Parish,' 1904, pp. 140, 152, 153, 158, 159, 169.]
COLEORTON. The sixth chapter of F. W. H. Myers's monograph on Words- worth in the " English Men of Letters " opens with an account of the friendship formed in 1803 between the poet and Sir George Beaumont. Curiously enough, the biographer (probably thinking for the moment of Dunmow) places Sir George's residence, Coleorton Hall, in Essex. This suggests that he had overlooked the heading prefixed to Wordsworth's ' Inscriptions,' which were placed, as the legend runs ; " in the grounds of Coleorton, the seat of Sir George Beaumont, Bart., Leicestershire." The excellence of the brief lyrics themselves Myers duly recognizes, speaking of them presently as " inscriptions which form dignified examples of that kind of com- position." Perhaps in the reissue of his book the statement was rectified ; the reference now made is to the original edition of 1881. THOMAS BAYNE.
