Mr. Vaux writes as follows:—Admiral Vernon was the first to require his men to drink their spirits mixed with water. In bad weather he was in the habit of walking the deck in a rough grogram cloak, and thence had obtained the nickname of Old Grog in the Service. This is, I believe, the origin of the name grog, applied originally to rum and water. I find the same story repeated in a quaint little book, called Pulleyn's Etymological Compendium.

[A.S. has communicated a similar explanation; and we are obliged to "An old LADY who reads for Pastime" for kindly furnishing us with a reference to a newly published American work, Lifts for the Lazy, where the origin of "Grog" is explained in the same manner.

The foregoing was already in type when we received the following agreeable version of the same story.]

ORIGIN OF WORD "GROG"—ANCIENT ALMS-BASINS

Mr. Editor,—As a sailor's son I beg to answer your correspondent LEGOUR'S query concerning the origin of the word "grog," so famous in the lips of our gallant tars. Jack loves to give a pet nickname to his favourite officers. The gallant Edward Vernon (a Westminster man by birth) was not exempted from the general rule. His gallantry and ardent devotion to his profession endeared him to the service, and some merry wags of the crew, in an idle humour, dubbed him "Old Grogham." Whilst in command of the West Indian station, and at the height of his popularity on account of his reduction of Porto Bello with six men-of-war only, he introduced the use of rum and water by the ship's company. When served out, the new beverage proved most palatable, and speedily grew into such favour, that it became as popular as the brave admiral himself, and in honour of him was surnamed by acclamation "Grog."

MACKENZIE WALCOTT, M.A.

P.S.—There are two other alms-basins in St. Margaret's worthy of note, besides those I mentioned in your last number. One has the inscription, "Live well, die never; die well and live ever. A.D. 1644 W.G." The other has the appropriate legend, "Hee that gives too the poore lends unto thee LORD." A third bears the Tudor rose in the centre. In an Inventory made about the early part of the 17th century, are mentioned "one Bason given by Mr. Bridges, of brasse." (The donor was a butcher in the parish.) "Item, one bason, given by Mr. Brugg, of brasse." On the second basin are the arms and crest of the Brewers' Company. Perhaps Mr. Brugg was a member of it. One Richard Bridges was a churchwarden, A.D. 1630-32.

M.W.

7. College Street. Nov. 17.

DYCE VERSUS WARBURTON AND COLLIER—AND SHAKSPEARE'S MSS

In Mr. Dyce's Remarks on Mr. J.P. Collier's and Mr. C. Knight's Editions of Shakspeare, pp. 115, 116, the following note occurs:—

"King Henry IV., Part Second, act iv. sc. iv.

"As humorous as winter, and as sudden As flaws congealed in the spring of day."

"Alluding," says Warburton, "to the opinion of some philosophers, that the vapours being congealed in air by cold, (which is most intense towards the morning,) and being afterwards rarified and let loose by the warmth of the sun, occasion those sudden and impetuous guests of wind which are called flaws."—COLLIER.

"An interpretation altogether wrong, as the epithet here applied to 'flaws' might alone determine; 'congealed gusts of wind' being nowhere mentioned among the phenomena of nature except in Baron Munchausen's Travels. Edwards rightly explained 'flaws,' in the present passage, 'small blades of ice.' I have myself heard the word used to signify both thin cakes of ice and the bursting of those cakes."—DYCE.

Mr. Dyce may perhaps have heard the world floe (plural floes) applied to floating sheet-ice, as it is to be found so applied extensively in Captain Parry's Journal of his Second Voyage; but it remains to be shown whether such a term existed in Shakspeare's time. I think it did not, as after diligent search I have not met with it; and, if it did, and then had the same meaning, floating sheet-ice, how would it apply to the illustration of this passage?

That the uniform meaning of flaws in the poet's time was sudden gust of wind, and figuratively sudden gusts of passion, or fitful and impetuous action, is evident from the following passages:—

"Like a red morn, that ever yet betoken'd Wreck to the seamen, tempest to the field, Sorrow to shepherds, woe unto the birds, Gust and foul flaws to herdsmen and to herds." Venus and Adonis. "Like a great sea-mark standing every flaw." Coriolanus, act v. sc. iii. "—patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw." Hamlet, act v. sc. i. "Like to the glorious sun's transparent beams Do calm the fury of this mad-bred flaw." 3d Pt. Henry VI., act iii. sc. i. "—these flaws and starts (impostors to true fear)." Macbeth, act iv. sc. iv. "Falling in the flaws of her own youth, hath blistered her report." Meas. for Meas., act ii. sc. iii.

So far for the poet's acceptation of its meaning.

Thus also Lord Surrey:—

"And toss'd with storms, with flaws, with wind, with weather."

And Beaumont and Fletcher, in The Pilgrim:—

"What flaws, and whirles of weather, Or rather storms, have been aloft these three days."

Shakspeare followed the popular meteorology of his time, as will appear from the following passage from a little ephemeris then very frequently reprinted:—

"De Repentinis Ventis.

"8. Typhon, Plinio, Vortex, aliis Turbo, et vibratus Ecnephias, de nube gelida (ut dictum est) abruptum aliquid sæpe numero secum voluit, ruinamque suam illo pondere aggravat: quem repentinum flatum à nube prope terram et mare depulsum, definuerunt quidam, ubi in gyros rotatur, et proxima (ut monuimus) verrit, suáque vi sursum raptat."—MIZALDUS, Ephemeridis Æris Perpetuus: seu Rustica tempestatum Astrologia, 12º Lutet. 1584.

I have sometimes thought that Shakspeare may have written:—

"As flaws congested in the spring of day."

It is an easy thing to have printed congealed for that word, and congest occurs in A Lover's Complaint. Still I think change unnecessary.

Has the assertion made in An Answer to Mr. Pope's Preface to Shakspeare, by a Strolling Player, 1729, respecting the destruction of the poet's MSS. papers, been ever verified? If that account is authentic, it will explain the singular dearth of all autograph remains of one who must have written so much. As the pamphlet is not common, I transcribe the essential passage:—

"How much it is to be lamented that Two large Chests full of this GREAT MAN'S loose papers and Manuscripts in the hands of an ignorant Baker of WARWICK (who married one of the descendants from Shakspear), were carelessly scattered and thrown about as Garret Lumber and Litter, to the particular knowledge of the late Sir William Bishop; till they were all consum'd in the general Fire and Destruction of that Town."

S.W.S.

Mickleham, Nov. 14. 1849.

Страница 3 из 12

Назад 1 2 3 4…12 Далее