Notes and Queries, Number 30, May 25, 1850 | Page 5

well It were done quickly: If the assassination Could trammel up the consequence, and catch, With his surcease, success; that but this blow Might be the be-all and the end-all here, {485} But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,-- We'd jump the life to come."
Now, I think by altering the punctuation, the sense of the passage is at once made apparent, as thus,--
"If it were done when 'tis done then 'twere well. It were done quickly, if the assassination Could trammel up the consequence, and catch, With his surcease, success, that but this blow Might be the be-all and the end all here," &c.
but to make use of a paradox, it is not done when it is done; for this reason, there is the conscience to torment the evil-doer while living, and the dread of punishment in another world after death: the "bank and shoal of time" refers to the interval between life and death, and to "_jump_" the life to come is to hazard it. The same thought occurs in _Hamlet_, when he alludes to--
"That undiscovered country, from whose bourne No traveller returns."
But that is clear enough, as in all probability the annotators left the passage as they found it. I have not the opportunity of consulting Mr. Collier's edition of Shakespeare, so that I am unaware of the manner in which he renders it; perhaps I ought to have done so before I troubled you. Possibly some of your readers may be disposed to coincide with me in the "new reading;" and if not, so to explain it that it may be shown it is my own obscurity, and not Shakespeare's, with which I ought to cavil.
I have witnessed many representations of _Macbeth_, and in every instance the passage referred to has been delivered as I object to it: but that is not to be wondered at, for there are professed admirers of Shakspeare among actors who read him not as if they understood him, but who are--
"Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."
G. BLINK.
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MINOR QUERIES.
_As throng as Throp's Wife._--As I was busy in my garden yesterday, a parishioner, whose eighty-two years of age render her a somewhat privileged person to have a gossip with, came in to speak to me. With a view to eliciting material for a Note or a Query, I said to her, "You see I am _as throng as Throp's wife_;" to which she replied, "Aye, Sir, and she hanged herself in the dishcloth." The answer is new to me; but the proverb itself, as well as the one mentioned by "D.V.S." (No. 24. p. 382.) "As lazy as Ludlum's dog, &c.," has been an especial object of conjecture to me as long as I can remember. I send this as a pendant to "D.V.S.'s" Query, in hopes of shortly seeing the origin of both these curious sayings.
J.E.
Ecclesfield, Sheffield, April 19. 1850.
_Trimble Family._--In a MS. account of the Fellows of King's I find the following:--
"1530.--Rich. Trimble, a very merry fellow, the fiddle of the society, who called him 'Mad Trimble.' M. Stokes of 1531 wrote this distich on him:--
'Os, oculi, mentum, dens, guttur, lingua, palatum Sunt tibi; sed nasus, Trimbale, dic ubi sit?'
By which it appears he had a very small nose; and this day, July 13, 1739, I hear that there is one Mr. R. Trimble of an English family, an apothecary at Lisburn in Ireland, who is remarkable for the same."
As "NOTES AND QUERIES" circulate in Ireland, are there any of the family of "Trimble" now in that country, and are they distinguished by any such peculiarity?
J.H.L.
_The Word "Brozier."_--my brother Etonians will feelingly recollect the word "Brozier," used by the boys for nearly a century to denote any one who had spent his pocket-money; an event of very frequent occurrence shortly after the holidays. There were also sometimes attempts made to "_brozier my dame_," in case a suspicion had arisen that the good lady's larder was not too well supplied. The supper table was accordingly cleared of all the provisions, and a further stock of eatables peremptorily demanded.
I spell the word "brozier" as it is still pronounced; perhaps some of your readers have seen it in print, and may be able to give some account of its origin and etymology, and decide whether it is exclusively belonging to Eton.
BRAYBROOKE.
April 14.
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REPLIES.
THE DODO QUERIES.
There is no mention of the Solitaire as inhabiting Bourbon, either in P��re Brown's letter or in the _Voyage de l'Arabic Heureuse_, from whence the notice of the Oiseau Bleu was extracted. I have since seen Dellon, _R��lation d'un Voyage des Indes Orientales_, 2 vols. 12mo. Paris, 1685, in which there is a brief notice of the Isle of Bourbon or Mascarin; but neither the Dodo, the Solitaire, or the