Vincula rerum laxet, et ingens
Pateat tellus, Tiphysque novos
Detegat orbes; nec sit terris
Ultima thule.'
"'A prophecy,' he adds, 'of the discovery of America.'"
I have quoted this from an edition of Bacon's Essays, printed at the Chiswick Press, by C. Whittingham, for J. Carpenter, Old Bond Street, London, 1812: and not the least curious circumstance is the curious form which Bacon, evidently quoting from memory, has given to the passage.
HENRY H. BREEN.
St. Lucia, March, 1851.
Shakspeare's Designation of Cleopatra (Vol. iii., p. 273.).
—I fully agree with your correspondent S. W. SINGER that an imperfect acquaintance with our older language has been the weak point of the commentators, but at the same time I think they have been equally guilty of an imperfect acquaintance with the history and character of Cleopatra, and one at least of a careless reading of the text; otherwise it appears incomprehensible how, on the one hand, the words of the great poet could have been so distorted; on the other hand, how Scarus could be thought to allude, by the word "ribald," to Antony. On reference to Rider's Dictionary, published in 1589, the very year in which Malone places Shakspeare's first play, First Part of Henry VI., may be found the word Ribaud, leno, a bawd, a pander; Ribaudrie, lascivia, obscœnitas, impudicitia, Venus; and Ribaudrous, obscœnus, impudicus, impurus.