Notes and Queries, Number 04, November 24, 1849 | Page 5

_Hamlet_, act v. sc. i.
"Like to the glorious sun's transparent beams Do calm the fury of this mad-bred flaw." _3d Pt. Henry VI._, act iii. sc. i.
"--these flaws and starts (impostors to true fear)." _Macbeth_, act iv. sc. iv.
"Falling in the flaws of her own youth, hath blistered her report." _Meas. for Meas._, act ii. sc. iii.
So far for the poet's acceptation of its meaning.
Thus also Lord Surrey:--
"And toss'd with storms, with _flaws_, with wind, with weather."
And Beaumont and Fletcher, in _The Pilgrim_:--
"What _flaws_, and whirles of weather, Or rather storms, have been aloft these three days."
Shakspeare followed the popular meteorology of his time, as will appear from the following passage from a little ephemeris then very frequently reprinted:--
"De Repentinis Ventis.
"8. Typhon, Plinio, Vortex, aliis Turbo, et vibratus Ecnephias, de nube gelida (ut dictum est) abruptum aliquid s?pe numero secum voluit, ruinamque suam illo pondere aggravat: quem repentinum flatum à nube prope terram et mare depulsum, definuerunt quidam, ubi in gyros rotatur, et proxima (ut monuimus) verrit, suáque vi sursum raptat."--MIZALDUS, _Ephemeridis ?ris Perpetuus: seu Rustica tempestatum Astrologia_, 12o Lutet. 1584.
I have sometimes thought that Shakspeare may have written:--
"As flaws cong_est_ed in the spring of day."
It is an easy thing to have printed cong_eal_ed for that word, and congest occurs in _A Lover's Complaint_. Still I think change unnecessary.
Has the assertion made in _An Answer to Mr. Pope's Preface to Shakspeare_, by a Strolling Player, 1729, respecting the destruction of the poet's MSS. papers, been ever verified? If that account is authentic, it will explain the singular dearth of all autograph remains of one who must have written so much. As the pamphlet is not common, I transcribe the essential passage:--
"How much it is to be lamented that Two large Chests full of this GREAT MAN'S loose papers and Manuscripts in the hands of an ignorant Baker of WARWICK (who married one of the descendants from Shakspear), were carelessly scattered and thrown about as Garret Lumber and Litter, to {54} the particular knowledge of the late _Sir William Bishop_; till they were all consum'd in the general Fire and Destruction of that Town."
S.W.S.
Mickleham, Nov. 14. 1849.
[We cannot insert the interesting Query which our correspondent has forwarded on the subject of the disappearance of Shakespeare's MSS. without referring to the ingenious suggestion upon that subject so skilfully brought forward by the Rev. Joseph Hunter in his _New Illustrations of the Life, Studies, and Writings of Shakspeare_, vol. i. p. 105.:--"That the entire disappearance of all manuscripts of Shakspeare, so entire that no writing of his remains except his name, and only one letter ever addressed to him, is in some way connected with the religious turn which his posterity took, in whose eyes there would be much to be lamented in what they must, I fear, have considered a prostitution of the noble talents which had been given him."]
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FOOD OF THE PEOPLE.--BILLS OF FARE IN 1683--HUMBLE PIE.
The food of the people must always be regarded as an important element in estimating the degree of civilization of a nation, and its position in the social scale. Mr. Macaulay, in his masterly picture of the state of England at the period of the accession of James II., has not failed to notice this subject as illustrative of the condition of the working classes of that day. He tells us that meat, viewed relatively with wages, was "so dear that hundreds of thousands of families scarcely knew the taste of it.... The great majority of the nation lived almost entirely on rye, barley, and oats." (_Hist. Eng._ vol. i. p. 418., 4th ed.)
It is not uninteresting to inquire (and having found, it is worth making a note of) what sort of fare appeared on the tables of the upper and middle classes,--who, unlike their poorer neighbours, were in a condition to gratify their gastronomic preferences in the choice and variety of their viands,--with the view of determining whether the extraordinary improvement which has taken place in the food of the labouring population has been equally marked in that of the wealthier orders.
Pepys, who was unquestionably a lover of good living, and never tired of recording his feastings off "brave venison pasty," or "turkey pye," has given in his Diary many curious notices of the most approved dishes of his day. The following "Bills of fare" of the period referred to speak, however, directly to the point; they are taken from a work entitled, _The accomplisht Lady's Delight, in Preserving, Physick, Beautifying, and Cookery_. London, printed for B. Harris, 1683.
"_A Bill of fare for a Gentleman's House about Candlemas._
"1. A Pottage with a Hen. 2. A _Chatham_-pudding. 3. A Fricacie of Chickens. 4. A leg of mutton with a Sallet. Garnish your dishes with Barberries.
"_Second Course._ 1. A chine of Muton.