Notes and Queries, Number 187, May 28, 1853 | Page 8

.
"The imagination of the author sent Hercules into the country of the
pigmies. Those poor little creatures, frightened at the aspect of an
animated mountain with legs and arms, ran and concealed themselves
in holes. One day as Hercules had stretched himself out in the open
field, and was sleeping tranquilly, the timid inhabitants issued out of
their retreats, and, armed with prickles and rushes, mounted on the
monstrous man, and covered him from head to foot, like flies when
they fall on a piece of rotten meat. Hercules waked, and felt something
in his nose, which made him sneeze; on which, his enemies tumbled
down in all directions. This ends the piece.
"There is a plan, a progression, an intrigue, a catastrophe, and winding
up; the style is good and well-supported; the thoughts and sentiments

are all proportionate to the size of the personages. The verses even are
short, and everything indicates pigmies.
"A gigantic puppet was requisite for Hercules; everything was well
executed. The entertainment was productive of much pleasure; and I
could lay a bet, that I am the only person who ever thought of
executing the Bambocciata of Martelli."--Memoirs of Goldoni,
translated by John Black, 2 vols., duod. vol. i. chap. 6.
It is certainly not necessary to point out here in what respects the
adventures of Hercules, the animated mountain, and those of Quinbus
Flestrin, the man mountain, differ from, or coincide with, each other, as
the only question I wish to raise is, whether a careful analysis of
Martelli's puppet-show ought, or ought not, to have been placed among
the notes on Gulliver's Travels.
C. FORBES.
Temple.
* * * * *
SHAKSPEARE CORRESPONDENCE.
In reply to J. M. G. of Worcester, who inquires for a MS. volume of
English poetry containing some lines attributed to Shakspeare, and
which is described in Thorpe's Catalog of MSS. for 1831, I can supply
some particulars which may assist him in the research. The MS., which
at one period had belonged to Joseph Hazlewood, was purchased from
Thorpe by the late Lord Viscount Kingsborough; after whose decease it
was sold, in November, 1842, at Charles Sharpe's literary sale room,
Anglesea Street, Dublin. It is No. 574. in the auction catalogue of that
part of his lordship's library which was then brought to auction.
The volume has been noticed by Patrick Fraser Tytler, in his Life of Sir
Walter Raleigh, Edinburgh, 1833 (in Appendix B, p. 436., of 2nd edit.),
where, citing the passage from Collier, which is referred to by J. M. G.,
he asserts that the lines are not Shakspeare's, but Jonson's. But he does

not appear to me to have established his case beyond doubt; as the lines,
though found among Jonson's works, may, notwithstanding, be the
production of some other writer: and why not of Shakspeare, to whom
they are ascribed in the MS.? Some verses by Sir J. C. Hobhouse
originally appeared as Lord Byron's: and there are {524} numerous
instances, both ancient and modern, of a similar attribution of works to
other than their actual authors.
ARTERUS.
Dublin.
The Island of Prospero.--We cannot assert that Shakspeare, in the
Tempest, had any particular island in view as the scene of his immortal
drama, though by some this has been stoutly maintained. Chalmers
prefers one of the Bermudas. The Rev. J. Hunter, in his Disquisition on
the Scene, &c. of the Tempest, endeavours to confer the honour on the
Island of Lampedosa. In reference to this question, a statement of the
pseudo-Aristotle is remarkable. In his work "[Greek: peri thaumasiôn
akousmatôn]," he mentions Lipara, one of the Æolian Islands, lying to
the north of Sicily, and nearly in the course of Shakspeare's Neapolitan
fleet from Tunis to Naples. Among the [Greek: polla teratôdê] found
there, he tells us:
"[Greek: Exakouesthai gar tumpanôn kai kumbalôn êchon gelôta te
meta thorubou kai krotalôn enargôs. legousi de ti teratôdesteron
gegonenai peri to spêlaion.]"
If we compare this with the aerial music heard by Ferdinand (Tempest,
I. 2.), especially as the orchestra is represented by the genial burin of M.
Retsch in the fifth plate of his well-known sketches (Umrisze), it will
appear probable that Shakspeare was acquainted with the Greek writer
either in the original or through a translation. As far as I am aware, this
has not been observed by any of the commentators.--From The
Navorscher.
J. M.

Coincident Criticisms.--I shall be obliged if you will allow me through
your pages to anticipate and rebut two charges of plagiarism. When I
wrote my Note on a passage in The Winter's Tale ("N. & Q.," Vol. vii.,
p. 378.), I had not seen the Dublin University Magazine for March last,
containing some remarks on the same passage in some respects much
resembling mine. I must also declare that my