228
NOTES AND QUERIES, no s. vm. SKPT. 21, 1907.
as he was to the players, Master Herbert could not
restrain a sort of trembling awe at the aspect of the
kingly apparition. There was then so little help
rendered to a play by scenery, or by the tricks
and machinery of stage illusion, that players relied
wholly upon their art for their effects, and im-
aginative acting worked upon the imagination of
spectators, and enabled them to co-operate in
sympathy. The house was deeply quiet, the very
'groundlings,' sometimes so noisy, were still and
attentive, as the Ghost, in a sad and solemn mono-
tone, revealed to the Prince the villany of the King.
The play within the play produced the greatest ex-
citement amongst an audience full of fine and un-
debauched dramatic instinct, and Master Herbert
noticed with some amusement how all the players
crowded to the wings to listen as Taylor delivered,
to the delight of Master Shakspeare, Hamlet's
advice to the players.
" The young actor who played the Queen required, as Herbert thought, the poet's admonition ; nor could Ophelia always keep his voice gentle and soft and low enough : but he afterwards heard Master Shakspeare explaining to Rutland how difficult it was to procure actors who could look feminine, or enter into and express the ways, the passions, the characters of women. Master Shakspeare added that he thought some day the women parts would be enacted by women themselves, though all those to whom he expressed this view seemed to think that the idea was but a ' devout imagination ' of the poet. The Gravedigger was played in a manner which recalled the memory of Tarleton, though it was thought in the house that Master Shakspeare had had Tarleton in his mind when he admonished clowns, through Hamlet, to speak no more than is set down for them. The Osric was, as Master Herbert thought, somewhat exaggeratedly fantastic, since an actor needs moderation when playing so trippingly grotesque a character; but the Horatio was very nobly rendered, and Laertes, as played by Robert Wilson, was a gallant and fiery youth. Master Herbert heard Lord Southampton whisper that surely Taylor and Wilson did some what overdo the fencing scene."
" His [Shakspeare's] attire, says Master Herbert in one of the letters which I have seen, was ' after the habit of a scholarlike gentleman,' and yet there was in the style and aspect of the immortal player a touch of cavalier and nobleman."
Master Herbert had the honour of being presented by Southampton to the Warwick- shire yeoman-dramatist. Basing his judg- ment upon this and subsequent interviews, he reports that Shakespeare was extra- ordinarily sweet and gentle, of a great and perfect courtesy, very quiet and modest in manner. NEMO.
' THE OXFORD DICTIONARY.' I am glad to have the information given in your review, ante, p. 98. In London one is considerably in the dark as to what letters have been pub- lished. At our National Library volumes only are available after they have been bound, and not for many months after publication, unless by special permission. At my club the official-bound volumes are
put on the shelves as soon as received from,
the Oxford University Press ; but these are
denuded of every vestige of paper covers
and the various notices in the parts or
fascicules as issued.
I see on the back of the last official-bound volumes the endorsement is slightly changed from ' The Oxford English Dictionary ' to ' The Oxford Dictionary,' the latter being now, therefore, the short official title.
For the benefit of new readers of ' N. & Q. r I may observe that this vast work has had many notices in ' N. & Q.' during the last quarter of a century, which will well repay perusal. In an admirable notice on 26 March, 1887 (7 S. iii. 259), the work was described as "of monumental and national importance " :
" The fact that the dictionary represents the accumulated knowledge of many of the first scholars of the age is conceded. It is less generally known, however, that, besides appealing to the advanced student of English literature, who turns to it for the history of a word, and to the scientist, who can study the growth of scientific terminology, it is intended for the general reader, who will find ' the derivation and accepted pronunciation, the pas^ history and present use of every word which may occur in his reading.'"
RALPH THOMAS.
[Is our correspondent sure that the Clarendon Press has altered the title ? ' The Oxford English Dictionary ' appeared on the last section issued.]
"NosE OF WAX." A few days ago I heard a gentleman of learning and culture use in a speech he was making the phrase " a nose of wax." He applied it to a par- ticular person ; and the words were evidently intended to describe a character pliable and easily led. I am not sure that I have ever heard the phrase in English before ; but the simile is common in India. M dm kd ndk, literally " nose of wax," is used in Urdu to express just the same idea. This is a curious coincidence ; for I do not think the simile is one which would readily suggest itself independently at different places.
W. COLDSTREAM.
THE ENGLISH OPERA-HOUSE : Two PER- FORMANCES IN ONE EVENING. In ' The Chronological Historian,' by W. Toone, 1826, under 24 Sept., 1817, is the following:
"A new plan was introduced at the English Opera-house, to divide the entertainments of the night into two distinct performances, the first per- formance to begin at six and continue till nine, and the second to begin at half -past nine and continue till twelve : the plan was after a few nights abandoned."
Something like the above plan has been followed recently in the performances of Wagner. ROBERT PIERPOINT.
