466
NOTES AND QUERIES. uo' h s. v. j w, im
the glass." Bacon's 'Interpretation of Nature':
Boston edition of Spedding's Bacon, vol. vi.
page 61.
The meaning then is that man is most assured of what he is really most ignorant, namely, his own essence which he can only see in a glass darkly. The expression is somewhat elliptical, but ellipsis is not unusual with Shakespeare.
Shakespeare continually uses the word "glass" in the sense of a mirror. He uses the adjective " glassy " in only three other places, in each case meaning " like a mirror. " They are as follows : As plays the sun upon the glassy streams.
' I. Henry VI.', V. Hi. 62.
That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream. 'Hamlet,' IV. vii. 168. Secrecies writ in the glassy margents of such books.
' Lucrece,' line 102. ISAAC HULL PLATT.
Wallingford, Penn., March 2, 1906.
Let me add that in the Revised Version the passage quoted from Corinthians is rendered, " For now we see in a mirror, darkly ; but then face to face." This seems to bring the mirror a little more " face to face."
I. H. P.
Clarke's explanation is, I believe, gene- rally accepted as plausible :
"That essential nature of man which is like glass from its faculty to reflect the image of others in its own, and from its fragility, its liability to injury or destruction."
Schlegel and Tieck translate the phrase "sprod" wie Clas" brittle as glass which indicates the German acceptation. Indi- vidually, I cannot help thinking it an instance of anacoluthia on the part of the dramatist of which there are others spora- dically occurring in his works especially when taken along with the immediate context, Shakespeare having perhaps in mind James i. 23, " like unto a man behold- ing his natural face in a glass." So in
- Hamlet,' IV. vii., the Queen, when de-
scribing Ophelia's death, says :
There is a willow grows aslant a brook, That shows his hoar leaves in the glassy stream ;
and in 'Lear,' II. ii., the epithet "glass- gazing " is among a score of others applied by Kent to Oswald. This would favour the following rendering of the passage :
Man, proud man, Drest in a little brief authority, Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd, His glassy essence [i.e., his image seen in a glass,
or viewing his image in a glass], like an angry
ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven As make the angels weep
The sentence in question, which is clearly elliptical, thus becomes intelligible to the average playgoer, an entity on whose behalf,
and for whose edification, Shakespeare was
in general an habitual caterer.
N. W. HILL. Philadelphia.
It is queried, "What does this mean?" The reply is taken from an essay in the Annals of Psychical Science for December, 1905, p. 355, entitled ' The Scientific Appre- hension of the Superphysical World ' :
peatedly as a sea of glass, like unto crystal, clear
transparent glass. Shakespeare's unerring judg-
ment tells, in a wonderfully perspicuous passage,
of the contemplation, by superphysical beings, of
not man's material body, but his glassy essence."
T. B. WlLMSHURST. Tunbridge Wells.
41 ONEYERS," ' 1 HENRY IV.,' II. i. (10 th S. iv. 443 ; v. 265). In support of the interpre- tation " bankers " for this designation, there may be compared ' The Tempest,' III. iii. 48-9 :
Each putter-out of five for one will bring us
Good warrant of.
Here the allusion is to the recipient of bank money, but the expression can be readily associated with the "oneyer" of 'Henry IV. 3
W. B.
Here "Gad," conscious of his association with Sir John, the Prince, and others, says that "I am joined with ...... nobility and tran-
quillity, burgomasters and great oneyers/'&c., all eulogistic, so honourable, not dishonour- able. As to ** moneyers," Halliwell calls it Norman French as coiners, so degrading, not honorific. A. HALL.
INSCRIPTIONS AT LUCERNE. COL. PARRY,
in his note 'Inscriptions at Capri,' ante,
p. 381, has set a good example, and one
which, for the sake of genealogists, it is to
be hoped will be widely followed. As my
small contribution I append two inscriptions,
in German, noted in May as being in the
arcade surrounding the Hofkirche (Roman
Catholic) at Lucerne :
1. Sarah Agnes Arnold, b. in Lancaster, 29 Aug., 1818 ; d. at Lucerne, 3 March, 1884.
2. Gustav Arnold, of Altdorf and Lucerne, d. 28 Sept., 1900 ; Sarah Agnes, nee Walmsley, d. 3 March, 1884. CHAS. A. BERNAU.
" ESHIN' " : " BELTIN' " = CANING. So far as I remember, none, upwards of fifty years ago, talked of "caning" as punishment for an offence in or out of school. Good " eshin's " and good " bel tin's " were the terms used for muscular punishments, the g being dropped. Men used to go and cut a
