SHAKSPEARE CORRESPONDENCE.
Shakspeare Readings, No. X.—"Sheer" versus "Warwick-sheer."—At page 143. of Notes and Emendations, Mr. Collier indulges in the following reverie:—
"Malone did not know what to make of 'sheer ale,' but supposed that it meant sheering or reaping ale, for so reaping is called in Warwickshire. What does it mean? It is spelt sheere in the old copies; and that word begins one line, Warwick having undoubtedly dropped out at the end of the preceding line.... It was formerly not at all unusual to spell 'shire' sheere; and Sly's 'sheer ale' thus turns out to have been Warwickshire ale, which Shakspeare celebrated, and of which he had doubtless often partaken at Mrs. Hacket's. We almost wonder that, in his local particularity, he did not mention the sign of her house," &c.
The meaning of sheer ale was strong ale—that which we now call "entire"—ale unmixed, unreduced, unmitigated—the antithesis of that "small ale," for a pot of which poor Sly begged so hard, sinking his demand at last to "a pot o' the smallest ale." If Christopher lived in our own times, he might, on common occasions, indulge in small; but for great treats he would have Barclay's entire: and, instead of bullying Dame Hacket about "sealed quarts," he would perhaps, in these educated days, be writing to The Times under the signature of "A Thirsty Soul." Sly evidently was rather proud of underlying a score of fourteenpence for sheer ale.
Let us hear in what sense old Phil. Holland, in Precepts of Health, uses the word:
"And verily water (not that onely wherewith wine is mingled, but also which is drunke betweene whiles, apart by itselfe) causeth the wine tempered therewith to doe the lesse harme: in regard whereof, a student ought to use himselfe to drinke twice or thrice every day a draught of sheere water," &c.
Here "sheere water" is put in apposition to that with which "wine is mingled;" the meaning of sheer, therefore, is integer: and sheer milk would be milk before it goes to the pump.
But perhaps it will be objected that sheer, applied to water, as in this place, may mean clear, bright, free from foulness. Well, then, here is another example from Fletcher's Double Marriage, where Castruccio is being tantalised after the fashion of the Governor of Barataria:
"Cast. (tastes.) Why, what is this? Why, Doctor!
Doctor. Wine and water, sir. 'Tis sovereign for your heat: you must endure it.
Villio. Most excellent to cool your night-piece, sir!
Doctor. You're of a high and choleric complexion, and must have allays.
Cast. Shall I have no SHEER WINE then?"
The step from this to sheer ale is not very difficult.
It may be remarked that, at present, we apply several arbitrary adjectives, in this sense of sheer, to different liquors. Thus, to spirits we apply "raw," to wines and brandy "neat," to malt drink "stout" or "strong;" and then we reduce to "half and half," until at length we come to the very "small," a term which, like other lowly things, seems to have been permitted to endure from its very weakness.
A. E. B.
Leeds.
"Clamour your tongues," &c.—
"Clamour your tongues, and not a word more."
Wint. Tale, Act IV. Sc. 4.
Notwithstanding the comments upon this word clamour, both in the pages of "N. & Q.," and by the various editors of Shakspeare, I have not yet seen anything that appears to my mind like a satisfactory elucidation.
Gifford, not being able to make anything of the word, proposed to read charm, which at all events is plausible, though nothing more. Nares says the word is in use among bell-ringers, though now shortened to clam. Unfortunately the meaning attached to the term by the ringers is at variance with that of clamour in the text; for to clam the bells is what we should now call putting them on sette or setting them, and this is but preparatory to a general crash: still it is possible that the words may be the same.
Mr. Arrowsmith (Vol. vii., p. 567.) maintains the genuineness of clamour in preference to charm; and, without a word of comment, quotes two passages from Udall's translation of Erasmus his Apothegms—"oneless hee chaumbreed his tongue," &c.; and again—"did he refrein or chaumbre the tauntying of his tongue." I confess I cannot fathom Mr. Arrowsmith's intention; for the obvious conclusion to be drawn from these quotations is, that charm, and not clamour, is an abbreviation of the older word chaumbre.
I am very much inclined to think that the verb in question comes directly from the A.-S. We find the word clam or clom—a bond, that which holds or retains, a prison; in the latter form the word is frequently used, and for the use of the former in the same sense Bosworth quotes Boethius (Rawlinson's ed., Oxon. 1698, p. 152.), which work I am unable to consult. From these words, then, we have clommian, clæmian, &c., to bind or restrain. It seems not very unlikely that from this original came Shakspeare's word clammer or clamour. I may add that Skinner explains the word clum by a note of silence, quoting "Chaucer in fab. Molitoris" (I have no copy of Chaucer at this moment within reach); and in the A.-S. we find clumian, to keep close, to press, to mutter, comprimere, mussitare: all these words probably have the same root.
An instance of the use of the word clame or clamour is to be found in a work entitled The Castel of Helthe; gathered and made by Syr Thomas Elyot, Knight, &c.; printed by Thomas Berthelet: London, 1539 (black-letter). At p. 52. is the following:
"Nauigation or rowynge nigh to the lande, in a clame water, is expedient for them that haue dropsies, lepries, palseyes, called of the vulgar people, takynges, and francies. To be carried on a rough water, it is a violent exercise," &c.
H. C. K.
—— Rectory, Hereford.
Shakspeare Suggestions (Vol. viii., p. 124.).—Icon asks—"Has any one suggested 'Most busy, when least I do.' The 'it' seems mere surplusage?"
The same suggestion, nearly verbatim, even to the curtailment of the "it," may be found in this present month's number of Blackwood's Magazine, p. 186.
But Icon will also find the same reading, with an anterior title of nearly three years, together with some good reasons for its adoption, in "N. & Q.," Vol. ii., p. 338. And he may also consult with advantage an illustrative quotation in Vol. iii., p. 229.
In the original suggestion in "N. & Q.," there is no presumption of surplusage: the word "it" is understood in relation to labours; that word being taken as a collective singular, like contents, and other words of the same construction.
The critic in Blackwood disclaims consulting "N. & Q.;" and it is, no doubt, a convenient disclaimer. He follows the herd of menstrual Aristarchi, by hailing, with wondering admiration, the substitution of ethics for checks! And he shows his fitness for the task he has undertaken, by stating that "Mr. Singer alone had the good taste to print it (ethics) in his text of 1826."
Mr. Halliwell, however, in a recent pamphlet, states that—
"This new emendation has not only been mentioned in a great variety of editions, but has been introduced into the text by no fewer than five editors, the first, I believe, in point of time, being the Rev. J. Rann, who substituted ethics into the text as early as 1787."
A. E. B.
Leeds.
Critical Digest.—Your readers have seen no more welcome announcement than that contained in p. 75. of your present volume, that this project of a work, bringing into one view the labours of preceding editors and commentators, is in good hands and likely to be brought to bear. On the form of such a work it is perhaps premature to offer an observation; but, to be perfect, it ought to range with that remarkable monument of a lady's patient industry, Mrs. Cowden Clarke's Concordance. On the materials to be employed, all your readers have such an interest in the subject as to warrant them in making suggestions; and it will be well to do so before the plans are fully matured.
It ought, in my opinion, to be more comprehensive than even the largest scheme suggested by your correspondent; for, in addition to the comments which may be thought most worthy of insertion in full, or nearly so, it ought to contain at least a reference to every known comment, in the slightest degree worthy of notice, in relation to any passage in the work. To accomplish this would of course be a work of enormous labour, and the object of the present Note is to suggest, as first step, the circulation of a list of works intended to be consulted, for the purpose of inviting additions; not that such a list should encumber the pages of "N. & Q." but I am much mistaken if you would not afford facilities for receiving the communications asked for. This course is the more necessary, inasmuch as, in addition to works written exclusively on the subject of Shakspeare, there is a vast amount of Shakspearian criticism spread over works, the titles of which give no indication of the necessity for consulting them. For instance, upwards of two hundred pages of Coleridge's Literary Remains are so employed; and though, perhaps, the work is so well known that it would have found a place in the first copy of the list I have suggested, it may serve as an illustration of the sort of information which it would be desirable to invite.
J. F. M.