General Books

THE SHAKESPEARE MYSTERY. In 1853 there went up a jubilant cry from many voices upon the publication of Mr. Collier's "Notes and Emendations to the Text of Shakespeare's Plays from Early Manuscript Corrections," etc. "Now," it was said, "doubt and controversy are at an end. The text is settled by the weight of authority, and in accordance with common sense. We shall enjoy... more...

HIGH CHURCH AND LOW CHURCH. A Universal History of Party; with the Origin of Party Names would form an acceptable addition to literary history: "N. & Q." has contributed towards such a work some disquisitions on our party namesWhigandTory, andThe Good Old Cause. Such names asPuritan,Malignant,Evangelical, can be traced up to their first commencement, but some obscurity hangs on the... more...

TOM MOORE'S FIRST! It is now generally understood that the first poetic effusion of Thomas Moore was entrusted to a publication entitled Anthologia Hibernica, which held its monthly existence from Jan. 1793 to December 1794, and is now a repertorium of the spirited efforts made in Ireland in that day to establish periodical literature. The set is complete in four volumes: and being anxious to see... more...

THE PROCESSION OF THE FLOWERS. In Cuba there is a blossoming shrub whose multitudinous crimson flowers are so seductive to the humming-birds that they hover all day around it, buried in its blossoms until petal and wing seem one. At first upright, the gorgeous bells droop downward, and fall unwithered to the ground, and are thence called by the Creoles "Cupid's Tears." Frederika Bremer... more...

NOTES ON SEVERAL MISUNDERSTOOD WORDS. (Continued from p. 522.) Dare, to lurk, or cause to lurk; used both transitively and intransitively. Apparently the root of dark and dearn. "Here, quod he, it ought ynough suffice, Five houres for to slepe upon a night: But it were for an olde appalled wight, As ben thise wedded men, that lie and dare, As in a fourme sitteth a wery hare." Tyrwhitt's... more...

BRAMBLETYE HOUSE. On the borders of Ashdown Forest, in the county of Sussex, stands the above picturesque ruin of Brambletye House, whose lettered fame may be dated from the publication of Mr. Smith's novel of that name, in January, 1826. The ruin has since attracted scores of tourists, as we were, on our recent visit, informed by the occupier of the adjoining farm-house; which circumstance... more...

Kitty was a pretty little girl, with gray, laughing eyes, and a dimple in each cheek; but from the time when she first commenced to toddle alone she began to be dangerously fond of running away from home. Let a door be ajar ever so little and out pattered the tiny feet into the streets of the crowded city and all sorts of dangers. Papa and mamma had long consultations of what should be done to correct... more...

The World’s Neglected or Forgotten Leaders and Pioneers. Leif Ericson, the long-forgotten Scandinavian discoverer of North America, nearly five hundred years before Columbus, has at last received American justice, and a statue in his honor has been erected, which was unveiled in Boston, on Commonwealth Avenue, before a distinguished assemblage, on the 29th of October. The history of the Scandinavian... more...

NOTES. AUTHORSHIP OF HENRY VIII. In my last communication on the subject of Henry VIII., I referred to certain characteristic tricks of Fletcher's style of frequent occurrence in that play, and I now beg leave to furnish you with a few instances. I wish it, however, to be understood, that I advance these merely as illustrative specimens selected at random; as there is scarcely a line of the... more...

THE BRAHMIN BULL, IN THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, REGENT'S PARK. The Zoological Society possess several Zebus, or Indian oxen. These were formerly considered a distinct species, but zoologists are now of opinion that the Zebu is merely a variety of the common ox, "although," as Mr. Bennett observes, "it is difficult to ascertain the causes by which the distinctive characters of the two... more...