Notes and Queries, Number 201, September 3, 1853 | Page 5

certain
inappropriateness in speaking of a rumourer's eyes. Be this as it may, I
beg to suggest another reading, which has the merit of having
spontaneously occurred to me on seeing the word "runaways'" in your
correspondent's paper, as if obviously suggested by the combination of
letters in that word. I propose that the passage should be read thus:
"Spread thy close curtain, love-performing Night, That rude day's eyes
may wink, and Romeo Leap to these arms, untalk'd of and unseen."
A subsequent reference to Juliet's speech has left no doubt in my mind
that this is the true reading, and so obviously so, as to make it a wonder
that it should have been overlooked. She first asks the "fiery-footed
steeds" to bring in "cloudy night," then night to close her curtain (that
day's eyes may wink), that darkness may come, under cover of which
Romeo may hasten to her. In the next two lines she shows why this
darkness is propitious, and then, using an unwonted epithet, invokes
night to give her the opportunity of darkness:
"Come, civil night, Thou sober suited matron all in black, And learn me
how to lose a winning game," &c.
The peculiar and unusual epithet "civil," here applied to night, at once
assured me of the accuracy of the proposed reading, it having evidently
suggested itself as the antithesis of "rude" just before applied to day;
the civil, accommodating, concealing night being thus contrasted with
the unaccommodating, revealing day. It is to be remarked, moreover,
that as this epithet civil is, through its ordinary signification, brought
into connexion with what precedes it, so is it, through its unusual
meaning of grave, brought into connexion with what follows, it thus
furnishing that equivocation of sense of which our great dramatist is so
fond, rarely missing an opportunity of "paltering with us in a double
sense."

I think, therefore, I may venture to offer you the proposed emendation
as rigorously fulfilling all the requirements of the text, while at the
same time it necessitates a very trifling literal disturbance of the old
reading, since by the simple change of the letters naw into ded, we
convert "runaways'" into "rude day's," of which it was a very easy
misprint.
Having offered you an emendation of my own, I cannot miss the
opportunity of sending you {217} another, for which I am indebted to a
critical student of Shakspeare, my friend Mr. W. R. Grove, the Queen's
Counsel. In All's Well that ends Well, the third scene of the Second Act
opens with the following speech from Lafeu:
"They say miracles are past; and we have our philosophical persons to
make modern and familiar things, supernatural and causeless. Hence is
it that we make trifles of terrors; ensconcing ourselves in a seeming
knowledge when we should submit ourselves to an unknown fear."
On reading this passage as thus printed, it will be seen that the two
sentences of which it is composed are in direct contradiction to each
other; the first asserting that we have philosophers who give a causeless
and supernatural character to things ordinary and familiar: the second
stating as the result of this, "that we make trifles of terrors," whereas
the tendency would necessarily be to make "terrors of trifles." The
confusion arises from the careless pointing of the first sentence. By
simply shifting the comma at present after "things," and placing it after
"familiar," the discrepancy between the two sentences disappears, as
also between the two members of the first sentence, which are now at
variance. It should be pointed thus:
"They say miracles are past; and we have our philosophical persons to
make modern and familiar, things supernatural and causeless."
It is singular that none of the editors should have noticed this defect,
which I have no doubt will hereafter be removed by the adoption of a
simple change, that very happily illustrates the importance of correct
punctuation.

R. H. C.
Shakspeare's Skull.--As your publication has been the medium of many
valuable comments upon Shakspeare, and interesting matter connected
with him, I am induced to solicit information, if you will allow me, on
the following subject. I have the Works of Shakspeare, which being in
one volume 8vo., I value as being more portable than any other edition.
It was published by Sherwood without any date affixed, but probably
about 1825. There is a memoir prefixed by Wm. Harvey, Esq., in which,
p. xiii., it is stated that while a vault was being made close to
Shakspeare's, when Dr. Davenport was rector, a young man perceiving
the tomb of Shakspeare open, introduced himself so far within the vault
that he could have brought away the skull, but he was deterred from
doing so by the anathema inscribed on the monument, of--
"Curs'd be