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

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 0 0
"For the King's Arms at large, with ornaments thereto, designed for the pediment of the said front, the same being in the whole 15 foot long and 9 foot high, I finding timber, &c. 73 15 0
--------- ￡103 15 0"
Extracted from Rawlinson MS. A. 170, fol. 132.
J. YEOWELL.
The Aliases and Initials of Authors.--It has often occurred to me that it would save much useless inquiry and research, if a tolerable list could be collected of the principal authors who have published their works under assumed names or initials: thus, "R. B. Robert Burton," Nathaniel Crouch, "R. F. Scoto-Britannicus," Robert Fairley, &c. The commencement of a new volume of {125} "N. & Q." affords an excellent opportunity for attempting this. If the correspondents of "N. & Q." would contribute their mites occasionally with this view, by the conclusion of the volume, I have little doubt but a very valuable list might be obtained. For the sake of reference, the whole contributions obtained