9* S. XII. SEPT. 26, 1903.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
245
seem to me remarkable, for these are akin to
law; that he should be a great poet, affecting
the human heart as no other poet has ever
done, and showing the highest powers of the
imagination, seems to me impossible. To be
a great lawyer is incompatible with being a
great poet. Nevertheless Shakspeare was
fond of showing his little legal knowledge,
and Bacon has written some verse. There
have been writers of eminence, like Walter
Scott and Thackeray, who were lawyers by
profession, but they must have made law
quite subordinate to literature, although
some of them, like Walter Scott, have got
money by following the law. Hoffmann, the
author of 'The Pot of Gold' and other imagi-
native stories, was a man of genius who was
also a judge or a magistrate. I think, however,
that his legal duties sat lightly on him. His
connexion with the law seems somewhat
similar to that of Walter Scott. It was
neither absorbing nor permanent. Politi-
cians turn to literature. Literary men, like
Chateaubriand and Lamartine, have held
high place as politicians, but they never
were real statesmen, and I should not call
them men of great genius. A man of action
may be great in more fields of action than
one. Julius Csesar and Napoleon Bonaparte
were statesmen and generals, but they were
not, and could not be, poets, though Julius
Csesar was a writer. Amongst the ancient
Greeks and later Spaniards and Portuguese
we find poets who were soldiers and even
generals. They, however, were not wholly
military. Only a part, and sometimes a
small part, of their lives was spent in service.
Horace's experience of war was very short,
and although he was a military tribune he
was not a distinguished soldier. A man may
be excellent in more ways than one, but he
cannot be a man of genius in two different
ways. A few instances, such as that of
Sheridan, might be given which seem to
be exceptions to the rule ; I doubt whether
they are so. The same inclination made
Sheridan an orator and a writer of comedy.
E. YARDLEY.
[MR. EDWARD LATHAM at 9 th S. xi. 373 gave exact references to Buffon's definition.]
ENVELOPES. A writer in a magazine of high character, telling of the Victorian times previous to the introduction of the penny postage, says, " Envelopes in those days were not invented : letters were folded together and open at the sides." This is not accurate, even so far as England is concerned. I have seen among the papers of a North- Country baronet who flourished in the earlier
years of George III., and was in frequent
communication with the higher officials of
the Government, several large envelopes
measuring about eight inches by six. They
were made of strong paper, but had probably
never passed through the post, as they had
no office stamps upon them. Among the
papers of a Swiss lady who married an
Englishman, and was a contemporary of the
baronet mentioned above, are still preserved
some unused envelopes about five inches by
four. It is probable, though not certain,
that they were of foreign manufacture.
COM. EBOR.
[The late Sir T. Duffus Hardy, Deputy-Keeper of the Records, told us of an instance in which an applicant for an office was summarily rejected for sending " a licked envelope."]
" CHAPERONED BY HER FATHER." I came across this expression recently in the columns of a halfpenny journal of large circulation. Is it not somewhat novel to introduce the male sex in such a character ? With the healthy English substantive " escort " avail- able, there are those inclined to resent altogether the intrusion of this frequently misspelt, French-sounding " chaperon " into our language. CECIL CLARKE.
Junior Athenaeum Club, W.
"WHILE THERE is LIFE THERE is HOPE." The thought in this common saying is obvious enough, but it is interesting to note that an exact parallel occurs in one of Cicero's letters. In * Att.' ix. 10, 3, he writes, " ut segroto, dum anima est, spes esse dicitur." The form of expression shows that the saying had already reached the proverbial stage.
ALEX. LEEPER.
Trinity College, Melbourne University.
- MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM.' Nick Bot-
tom the weaver, Robin Starveling the tailor, and the rest, meet "in a cottage," to settle the parts of those who " are to play in pur interlude " (Act I. sc. ii.). From time to time many persons were Ci presented " by the jury at the Quarter Sessions for the North Riding of Yorkshire for playing interludes, and others for receiving and entertaining them. It is worth notice that most of the actors were weavers, tailors, and shoemakers. At Helmsley, 8 July, 1612, two weavers and a shoemaker were reported as " wandering up and downe, common players of interludes." At Thirsk, 7 April, 1619, four weavers and two tailors were presented as *' common players of enterludes, &c., playing at New Malton and divers other places," and an ale- house-keeper of Pickering also was presented "for receiving into his dwelling-house, and
