I annex Wheler's remark that no violation of the grave had, up to the time of his work, taken place.
"Through a lapse of nearly two hundred years have his ashes remained undisturbed, and it is to be hoped no sacrilegious hand will ever be found to violate the sacred repository."—History of Stratford-upon-Avon, by R. B. Wheler (circa 1805?), 8vo.
A Subscriber.
On a Passage in "Macbeth."—Mr. Singleton (Vol. vii., p. 404.) says, "Vaulting ambition, that o'erleaps itself," is nonsense—the thing is impossible; and proposes that "vaulting ambition" should "rest his hand upon the pommel, and o'erleap the saddle (sell)," a thing not uncommon in the feats of horsemanship.
Did Mr. Singleton never o'erleap himself, and be too late—later than himself intended? Did he never, in his younger days, amuse himself with a soprasalto; or with what Donne calls a "vaulter's sombersault?" Did he never hear of any little plunderer, climbing a wall, o'erreaching himself to pluck an apple, and falling on the other side, into the hands of the gardener? "By like," says Sir Thomas More, "the manne there overshotte himself."
What was the manne about? Attempting such a perilous gambol, perhaps, as correcting Shakspeare.
To {overleap, overreach, overshoot} himself are merely, to {leap, reach, shoot}, over or beyond the mark himself intended.
Q.
Bloomsbury.
P.S.—Mr. Arrowsmith reminds us of the old saw, that "great wits jump." He should recollect also that they sometimes nod.