Notes and Queries, Number 197, August 6, 1853 | Page 9

and
not the dead man. But how can he be said to be punished alive when
the punishment comes after his death? Sir, this can be done no other
way but by devesting out of him, from the time of the act done in his
life, which was the cause of his death, the title and property of those
things which he had in his lifetime."
The above extract is long, but the work from which it is taken can be
accessible to but very few {124} of your readers. Let them not,
however, while they smile at the arguments, infer that those who took

part in them were not deservedly among the most learned and eminent
of our ancient judges.
THOMAS FALCONER.
Temple.
Shakspeare Suggestion.--
"These sweet thoughts do even refresh my labours; Most busy--less
when I do it." Tempest, Act III. Sc. 1.
I fear your readers will turn away from the very sight of the above. Be
patient, kind friends, I will be brief. Has any one suggested--
"Most busy, least when I do"?
The words in the folio are
"Most busy lest, when I do it."
The "it" seems mere surplusage. The sense requires that the thoughts
should be "most busy" whilst the hands "do least;" and in Shakspeare's
time, "lest" was a common spelling for least.
ICON.
Shakspeare Controversy.--I think the Shakspeare Notes contained in
your volumes are not complete without the following quotation from
The Summer Night of Ludwig Tieck, as translated by Mary Maynard in
the Athen. of June 25, 1853. Puck, in addressing the sleeping boy
Shakspeare, says:
"After thy death, I'll raise dissension sharp, Loud strife among the herd
of little minds: Envy shall seek to dim thy wondrous page, But all the
clearer will thy glory shine."
CERIDWEN.

* * * * *
Minor Notes.
Falsified Gravestone in Stratford Churchyard.--The following instance
of a recent forgery having been extensively circulated, may lead to
more careful examination by those who take notes of things
extraordinary.
The church at Stratford-upon-Avon was repaired about the year 1839;
and some of the workmen having their attention directed to the fact,
that many persons who had attained to the full age of man were buried
in the churchyard; and, wishing "for the honour of the place," to
improve the note-books of visitors, set about manufacturing an
extraordinary instance of longevity. A gravestone was chosen in an
out-of-the-way place, in which there happened to be a space before the
age (72). A figure 1 was cut in this space, and the age at death then
stood 172. The sexton was either deceived, or assented to the deception;
as the late vicar, the Rev. J. Clayton, learned that it had become a
practice with him (the sexton) to show strangers this gravestone, so
falsified, as a proof of the extraordinary age to which people lived in
the parish. The vicar had the fraudulent figure erased at once, and
lectured the sexton for his dishonesty.
These facts were related to me a few weeks since by a son of the late
vicar. And as many strangers visiting the tomb of Shakspeare "made a
note" of this falsified age, "N. & Q." may now correct the forgery.
ROBERT RAWLINSON.
Barnacles in the River Thames.--In Porta's Natural Magic, Eng. trans.,
Lond. 1658, occurs the following curious passage:
"Late writers report that not only in Scotland, but also in the river of
Thames by London, there is a kind of shell-fish in a two-leaved shell,
that hath a foot full of plaits and wrinkles: these fish are little, round,
and outwardly white, smooth and beetle-shelled like an almond shell;
inwardly they are great bellied, bred as it were of moss and mud; they

commonly stick in the keel of some old ship. Some say they come of
worms, some of the boughs of trees which fall into the sea; if any of
them be cast upon shore they die, but they which are swallowed still
into the sea, live and get out of their shells, and grow to be ducks or
such like birds(!)."
It would be curious to know what could give rise to such an absurd
belief.
SPERIEND.
Note for London Topographers.--
"The account of Mr. Mathias Fletcher, of Greenwich, for carving the
Anchor Shield and King's Arms for the Admiralty Office in York
Buildings, delivered Nov. 2, 1668, and undertaken by His Majesty's
command signified to me by the Hon. Samuel Pepys, Esq., Secretary
for the Affairs of the Admiralty:
£ s. d.
"For a Shield for the middle of the front of the said office towards the
Thames, containing the Anchor of Lord High Admiral of England with
the Imperial Crown over it, and cyphers, being 8 foot deep and 6 foot
broad, I having found the timber, &c. 30