Minor Notes.
On a Passage in Sedley.
—There is a couplet in Sir Charles Sedley's poems, which is quoted as follows in a work in my possession:
"Let fools the name of loyalty divide:
Wise men and Gods are on the strongest side."
Does the context require the word "divide?" or is it a misprint for "deride?" Of course, the latter word would completely alter the sense, but it seems to me that it would make it more consistent with truth. The word "divide" supposes loyalty to be characteristic of fools, and places the Gods in antagonism to that sentiment; while the word "deride" restores them to their natural position.
HENRY H. BREEN.
St. Lucia, April, 1851.
On a Passage in Romeo and Juliet.
—In the encounter between Mercutio and Tybalt (Act III. Sc. 1.), in which Mercutio is killed, he addresses Tybalt tauntingly thus:—
"Good king of cats, &c., will you pluck your sword out of his pilcher by the ears? Make haste, lest mine be about your ears ere it be out."
The first quarto has scabbard, all the later editions have pilcher, a word occurring nowhere else. There has been a vain attempt to make pilcher signify a leathern sheath, because a pilch was a garment of leather or pelt. To me it is quite evident that pilcher is a mere typographical error for pitcher, which, in this jocose, bantering speech, Mercutio substitutes for scabbard, else why are the ears mentioned? The poet was familiar with the proverb "Pitchers have ears," of which he has elsewhere twice availed himself. The ears, as every one knows, are the handles, which have since been called the lugs. Shakspeare would hardly have substituted a word of his own creation for scabbard; but pitcher was suggested by the play upon the word ears, which is used for hilts in the plural, according to the universal usage of the poet's time. The ears, applied to a leathern coat, or even a sheath, would be quite unmeaning, but there is a well sustained ludicrous image in "pluck your sword out of his pitcher by the ears."
S. W. SINGER.
Inscription on a Tablet in Limerick Cathedral.—
"Mementi Mory.
"Here lieth Littele Samuell Barinton, that great Under Taker, of Famious Cittis Clock and Chime Maker; He made his one Time goe Early and Latter, But now He is returned to God his Creator.
"The 19 of November Then He Seest, And for His Memory This Here is Pleast, By His Son Ben 1693."
The correctness of this copy, in every respect, may be relied upon.
R. J. R.