'Welcome ever smiles,
And Farewell goes out sighing.'
p. v. Marigolds. Dr Prior, writing from his place, Halse, near Taunton, 11 Oct., 1876, says, "I asked in a family here whether they had ever heard of marigolds being strown on the beds of dying persons, and they referred me to a book by Lady C. Davies, Recollections of Society, 1873. At p. 129:
"'Is Little Trianon ominous to crowned women?'
"'Passing through the garden,' said the King, 'I perceived some soucis (marigolds, emblems of sorrow and care) growing near a tuft of lilies. This coincidence struck me, and I murmured:
"Dans les jardins de Trianon
Je cueillais des roses nouvelles.
Mais, helas! les fleurs les plus belles
Avaient péri sous les glaçons.
J'eus beau chercher les dons de Flore,
Les hivers les avaient detruits;
Je ne trouvai que des soucis
Qu'humectaient les pleurs de l'Aurore."'
"I am inclined to hold my first opinion that cradle and death-bed refer to the use of the flowers, and not to anything in their growth or appearance."
p. 1. My dear L—. Altho' Prof. Spalding says that L. was an early and later friend of his, of great gifts and taste, and that he had visited the New World (p. 108), yet Mrs Spalding and Dr Burton have never been able to identify L., and they believe him to be a creation of the author's.—F.
p. 4. Shakspere had fallen much into neglect by 1634. "After the death of Shakspeare, the plays of Fletcher appear for several years to have been more admired, or at least to have been more frequently acted, than those of our poet." Malone, Hist. Account of the English Stage, Variorum Shakspere of 1821, vol. ii. p. 224. And see the lists following, by which he proves his statement.—F.