224
NOTES AND QUERIES. [9* s. x. 8. 20, 1902.
use as their national school in lieu, of the
one in Palmer Street, which was required
by the late vestry as an addition to the Town
Hall in Caxton Street. It is, in part at
least, a quaint and interesting structure
dating from 1709, when it was built by Mr.
William Green, being, as Sir Walter Besant
tells us, designed by Sir Christopher Wren.
Its best features have been retained, but a
portion is quite new, in order, it is said, to
adapt it to the fresh work for which it is now
required. W. E. HARLAND-OXLEY.
C2, The Almshouses, Rochester Row, S. W. (To be continued.)
SHAKESPEARIANA.
'THE MERCHANT OF VENICE,' V. i. 56, 57. In a recent number of Der Kunstwort the writer of an article headed ' Natur-Musik ' quotes from some German translation of 'The Merchant of Venice ' the famous speech of Lorenzo beginning "How sweet the moon- light sleeps upon this bank ! " for the purpose of illustrating the truth that Nature speaks to us with a voice of music. It is somewhat startling to find the passage
Soft stillness and the night Become the touches of sweet harmony
rendered
Saufte Still' und Nacht Sie werden Tasten siisser Harmonic.
I am not a German scholar, but surely the use of werden here quite misrepresents Shakespeare's meaning. C. C. B.
'ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA,' IV. xv. 12-14 :
sun, Burn the great sphere thou movest in ! darkling
stand The varying shore o' the world. Globe text.
The expression "the varying shore o' the world " admits of a very beautiful interpreta- tion, if we call in aid the idea of the sun as a traveller, as to which we may compare 'Macbeth,' II. iv. : "And yet dark night strangles the travelling lamp." The sun in his voyage round the world passes and illuminates those parts of the world on which he consecutively shines, which are aptly alluded to as "the varying shore o' the world," since, as he never stops in his course, they are necessarily continually changing. This change or variation is relative to the motion of the sun, and, if a catastrophe were to put an end to the sun, would cease, and what before was "the varying shore o' the world "would "darkling stand." We are, of course, here dealing with astronomical notions which are now obsolete, and to show how easily "the great sphere thou movest in" might
suggest some such idea as " the vessel thou
voyagest in " we need only quote Sylvester's
' Du Bartas ' (' The Fourth Day of the First
Week ') :-
These Torches then range not at random, o're The lightsom thicknes of an un-firme Floor : As heer below, diversly mowing them. The painted Birds between two aires do swim. But rather fixed unto turning Sphears, Ay, will-they, nill-they, follow their careers : As Cart-nailes fastned in a wheel (without Selfs-motion) turn with others turns about.
Cleopatra wishes the sun to burn his sphere (in the sense in which Sylvester uses the word) and to be consumed with it, in order that the world may cease to be illuminated by his journeying round it.
ALFRED E. THISELTON. 28, Millman Street, Bedford Row, W.C.
' MACBETH,' I. v. 51-55.
That my keen knife see not the wound it makes. El win : " That the wound may not be re- flected in the brightness of the blade." If the wound were so reflected it would see itself, not the knife see it. The thought seems to be that the darkness shall be so dense as to shroud the deed from all ob- servers, even from the very knife as the nearest immediate agent.
E. MERTON DEY.
St. Louis.
' MACBETH,' I. vii. 2-4.
If the assassination
Could trammel up the consequence, and catch With his surcease, success.
This is one of the instances in Shakespeare where success means succession (' Wint., I. ii. 394; '2 Hy. IV.,' IV. ii. 47). Macbeth is balancing the chances for and against his securing by the meditated deed the succes- sion of the crown to himself and his line. E. MERTON DEY.
St. Louis.
' MACBETH,' II. i. 56-60. Delius says that "it" (1. 60) refers to "whereabout" (1. 58). There are two reasons why Macbeth does not wish his steps to be heard that they may not betray his whereabout and that the sound may not take the present horror from the time, which (horror) now suits with it (the time). E. MERTON DEY.
St. Louis.
' HAMLET,' I. i. 115 sq. (9 th S. viii. 237, 480 ; ix. 342). The chief objection that I make to MR. SMITH'S interpretation is that it causes the dews of blood to fall from the meteors, shooting stars, or comets. The blood is not
fmerally supposed to be thus produced, or does Shakspeare make it come thence in
