Can any of your curious contributors give me any account of these Red Maids?—why they are so called, &c., &c.?—and, in fact, of the charity in general?
It will not be one of the least of many benefits of your publication, that, in noticing from time to time the real intention of many ancient charitable bequests, the purposes of the original benevolent founder may be restored to their integrity, and the charity devoted to the use of those for whom it was intended, and who will receive it as a charity, and not, as is too often the case, be swallowed up as a mere place,—or worse, a sinecure.
ARTHUR GRIFFINHOOF, JUN.
THE NAME OF SHYLOCK.
Dr. Farmer has stated that Shakspere took the name which he has given to one of the leading characters in the Merchant of Venice from a pamphlet entitled Caleb Shilloche, or the Jew's Prediction. The date of the pamphlet, however, being some years posterior to that of the play, renders this origin impossible. Mr. C. Knight, who points out this error, adds—"Scialac was the name of a Marionite of Mount Libanus."
But "query," Was not Shylock a proper name among the Jews, derived from the designation employed by the patriarch Jacob in predicting the advent of the Messiah—"until Shiloh come"? (Gen. xlix. 10.) The objection, which might be urged, that so sacred a name would not have been applied by an ancient Jew to his child, has not much weight, when we recollect that some Christians have not shrunk from the blasphemous imposition of the name Emanuel ("God with us") upon their offspring. St. Jerome manifestly reads SHILOACH, for he translates it by Qui mittendus est. (Lond. Encyc. in voc. "Shiloh.") Now the difference between Shiloach and Shylock is very trivial indeed. I shall be very glad to have the opinion of some of your numerous and able contributors on this point.
But, after all, Shylock may have been a family name familiar to the great dramatist. In all my researches on the subject of English surnames, however, I have but once met with it as a generic distinction. In the Battel Abbey Deeds (penes Sir T. Phillipps, Bart.) occurs a power of attorney from John Pesemershe, Esq., to Richard Shylok, of Hoo, co. Sussex, and others, to deliver seizin of all his lands in Sussex to certain persons therein named. The date of this document is July 4, 1435.
MARK ANTONY LOWER.