382
NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. xn. NOV. 13, 1930
Shah Shuja, it may be mentioned, was
the second son of the Emperor Shah Jehan,
and was Viceroy of Bengal. The exact
date and place of Gabriel Boughton's death
are unknown, but that he was dead by 1657
is known from a letter to Fort St. George,
dated 31 Dec., 1657, which is cited in Hedges's
' Diary,' iii. 188, and from which it appears
that his widow had married William Pitts,
a servant of the Company. Nor is anything
known of his family. Dr. Brown ascertained
that his name did not occur in the pedigree
of the Rouse-Boughtons of Downton Hall,
Shropshire. To use Col. Crawford's words :
" No stone marks his resting - place, no
memorial of him is in existence. But
History will continue to record his services j
to the Company and to his country."
Col. Crawford's researches have also cleared up a point on which there was some uncer- tainty. The late Surgeon-Major Norman Chevers (known to the older readers of
- N. & Q.' as CALCTJTTENSIS) contributed to
The Calcutta Review for 1854, vol. xxiii., an article entitled ' Surgeons in India, Past and Present,' in which the Boughton legend was dealt with. Dr. Chevers con- jectured that Gabriel Boughton may have been identical with the " Mr. Boughton " who in 1615 accompanied Sir Thomas Roe to India, " and, on touching at Tamara on the coast of Arabia, was allowed to visit the house of the Mussalman king, where he was treated with ' cahu,' a black liquor, drank as hot as could be endured, which is supposed to have been coffee." Dr. Chevers's suggestion was adopted by Dr. Brown. But Col. Crawford points out, on the authority of Mr. William Foster's edition of ' The Embassy of Sir Thomas Roe ' (Hakluyt Society, 1899), pp. 32, 100, that the Boughton who accom- panied Roe was a private adventurer, named Humphrey Boughton, who died at Barhampur on 25 Nov., 1615, just two months after Roe's arrival in India. Hum- phrey may, however, have been a relative of Gabriel, and it would be interesting if some genealogical correspondent of ' N. & Q.' could throw some light on the matter.
It may be added in conclusion that the number of The Indian Medical Gazette in which Col. Crawford's article appeared also contains a valuable paper by Mr. William Foster on John Woodall, who, though he never visited India, was the first Surgeon- General to the East India Company. Wood- all's name is included in the ' Diet. Nat. Biog.,' but Mr. Foster's memoir gives some fuller details of a very distinguished career. W. F. PRIDEAUX.
LEGAL REFERENCES IN
SHAKESPEARE.
I SUBJOIN a few notes on legal allusions I have noticed in Shakespeare which I have not seen touched upon elsewhere.
1. Servant's speech in ' Romeo and Juliet,' I. ii. 58 : "I pray, sir, can you read ?.... Perhaps you have learn' d it without book : but, I pray, can you read anything you see ? "
This contains an allusion to an abuse of the " benefit of clergy " which was not un- common. Male criminals could claim benefit of clergy (on their first offence, if it was not one of treason) if they showed themselves able to read. The test of scholarship was Psalm Ii. 1, and not infrequently the culprit learned this verse off by rote, and this h& repeated parrot-like with the book in his hand as though he were reading. Hence one who has committed something to memory may have learnt it " without book," being quite illiterate, and point is given to the query, " Can you read anything you see ? "
For " without book," meaning " by heart," see Gosson's ' Apology,' ed. Arber, p. 74.
2. Holofernes' speech in 'Love's Labour's Lost,' IV. ii. 75, on seeing Jaquenetta ap- proach : "A soul feminine saluteth us."
" Soul feminine " is the pedant's per- version of feme sole, the legal expression for an unmarried woman.
3. Pandarus's speech, ' Troilus and Cres- sida,' III. ii. 216 : " Because it shall not speak of your pretty encounters, press it to death."
Mr. Deighton in his edition of this play (" Arden Shakespeare") does not bring out the legal significance of the punishment of pressing to death for silence. This (" Peine forte et dure") was the punish- ment inflicted upon those who " stood mute of malice ' ' and refused to plead. As a man could not be tried for felony until he had pleaded either " guilty " or " not guilty," those who knew that they would be con- victed, if tried, sometimes chose not to plead, but to be pressed to death uncon- victed, when their property was not for- feited, but passed to other members of the family.
4. Edgar's speech, ' Lear,' V. i. 43 :
I can produce a champion that will prove What is avouched there.
Paulina's speech, ' Winter's Tale,' II. iii. 60 :
I say good queen ;
And would by combat make her good, so were I A man.
