Notes and Queries, Number 70, March 1, 1851 | Page 4

of a tavern and coffee-house in the Piazza, Covent
Garden; to which he afterwards added a school of oratory, upon a plan
hitherto unknown in England, founded upon the Greek, Roman, French,
and Italian Societies, under the title of The British Inquisition."
The first part of this plan (the public ordinary) was opened on the 11th
of March, 1754; and an amusing account of its operations may be
found in Angelo's Pic Nic, p. 32. The second part of "Macklin's mad
plan," as it was then termed, "The British Inquisition," commenced
proceedings on the 21st of November in the same year; and here,
according to the first advertisement, "such subjects in Arts, Sciences,
Literature, Criticism, Philosophy, History, Politics, and Morality, as
shall be found useful and entertaining to society, will be lectured upon
and freely debated."
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
* * * * *
"LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST (Act II. Scene 1.).
"It is odd that Shakspeare should make Dumain inquire after Rosaline,
who was the mistress of Biron, and neglect Katharine, who was his
own. Biron behaves in the same manner.--Perhaps all the ladies wore
masks.--STEEVENS.
"They certainly did."--MALONE.
"And what if they did?"--QUERY.
In what possible way can the circumstance of the ladies wearing masks
lessen the inconsistency pointed out by Steevens?

Rosaline has been immediately singled out by her former admirer--
"Did I not dance with you in Brabant once?"
--a circumstance quite inconsistent with uncertain identity afterwards.
But if the gentlemen really did mistake the identity of their ladies,
Boyet's answers must have misled them into a similar mistake in their
names: so that the natural consequence would have been, that each
lover would afterwards address his {164} poetical effusion nominally
to the wrong lady! which does not appear to have been the case.
Therefore, even if the masking be admitted, it can in no way lessen the
inconsistency of the cross questions, which to me appears to have
arisen from a most palpable instance of clerical or typographical
transposition.
Steevens was on the right scent, although he rejected it in the same
breath, when he said,--
"No advantage would be gained by an exchange of names, because the
last speech is determined to Biron by Maria, who gives a character of
him after he has made his exit."
This is a good reason against a transposition in the male names, but it is
none whatever against the same occurrence in the ladies' names; and
consequently it is there that the true solution of the difficulty must be
sought.
If we admit that a substitution may have occurred, of "Rosaline" for
"Katharine," in Boyet's answer to Dumain, and vice versâ in his answer
to Biron, all difficulty disappears at once.
The completeness with which the idea of transposition not only
accounts for the existence of the error, but at the same time suggests the
manner in which it may be corrected, ought of itself to secure its
reception, even if it were not corroborated in a very singular way by the
following collateral circumstance.

It may be observed that Boyet points out two of the ladies, not only by
name, but also by styling them "heirs;" one of Falconbridge, the other
of Alençon. Now in their previous descriptions of their respective
lovers, one of the ladies (Maria) says she had met Longaville at a
marriage of a "Falconbridge;" another lady (Katharine) says she had
met Dumain at "Duke Alençon's." When, therefore, we find that Boyet,
in reply to Longaville's question, designates Maria as "heir of
Falconbridge," it is in direct analogy that he should, in answer to
Dumain's question, designate Katharine as "heir of Alençon;" but, in
consequence of the transposition of names, Boyet appears, as the text
now stands, to confer that designation, not upon Katharine, but upon
Rosaline, whom Biron had met at Brabant!
There can be no doubt, therefore, that the names of Katharine and
Rosaline have been transposed contrary to the author's intention, and
the only wonder is--not that such a very commonplace error should
have been committed--but that it should have been suffered to remain
through so many editions up to the present time.
A. G. B.
Leeds, Feb. 10. 1851.
* * * * *
NOTES ON NEWSPAPERS.
I send you the following, as a help to "Materials for a satisfactory
History of Newspapers," alluded to in the last volume of "NOTES
AND QUERIES," p. 375.
I have in my possession some old newspapers, ranging from 1691 to
1694, entitled A Collection for Improvement of Husbandry and Trade,
edited by John Houghton, F.R.S., St. Bartholomew Lane, behind the
Royal Exchange, London. The size is a small folio, published weekly,
generally every Friday. It was carried on for some time merely as a
single leaf, with no advertisements. In this form, the editor says--

"These