Notes and Queries, Number 188, June 4, 1853. Various

      The third—

      Here follows a long interesting description. It is an exterior view; size of drawing 7¼ wide × 9⅞ high, "W. H. 1640."

      The fourth shows the stage, on which are two actors: this drawing, 7⅞ × 6½, was done by J. Eyre, 1629, and on which he gives a curious description of his accompanying Prince Charles, &c.; at this time he belonged to the Court, as he also accompanied that prince to Spain.

      The fifth, done by the same hand in a most masterly manner, pen and ink portrait of Shakspeare, copied, as he writes, from a portrait belonging to the Earl of Essex, with interesting manuscript notice.

      The sixth, done also by J. Eyre:

      The first three, in justice to Hollar, independent of the admirers of the immortal bard and lovers of antiquities, should be engraved as "Facsimiles of the Drawings." This shall be done on my receiving the names of sixty subscribers, the amount of subscription one guinea, for which each subscriber will receive three engravings, to be paid for when delivered.

      P. S.—These curious drawings may be seen at No. 1. Osnaburgh Place, New Road.

      Thomas Shakspeare.—From a close examination of the documents referred to (as bearing the signature of Thomas Shakspeare) in my last communication to "N. & Q.," Vol. vii., p. 405.), and from the nature of the transaction to which they relate, my impression is, that he was by profession a money scrivener in the town of Lutterworth; a circumstance which may possibly tend to the discovery of his family connexion (if any existed) with William Shakspeare.

      Passage in Macbeth, Act I. Sc. 5.—

      In Mr. Payne Collier's Notes and Emendations, p. 407., we are informed that the old corrector substitutes blankness for blanket. The change is to me so exceedingly bad, even if made on some sort of authority (as an extinct 4to.), that I should have let it be its own executioner, had not Mr. Collier apparently given in his adhesion to it. I now beg to offer a few obvious reasons why blanket is unquestionably Shakspeare's word.

      In the Rape of Lucrece, Stanza cxv., we have a passage very nearly parallel with that in Macbeth:

      In Lucrece, the cloak of night is invoked to screen a deed of adultery; in Macbeth the blanket of night is invoked to hide a murder: but the foul, reeking, smoky cloak of night, in the passage just quoted, is clearly parallel with the smoky blanket of night in Macbeth. The complete imagery of both passages has been happily caught by Carlyle (Sartor Resartus, 1841, p. 23.), who, in describing night, makes Teufelsdröckh say:

      Birmingham.

      "Discourse of Reason" (Vol. vii., p. 497.).—This phrase, "generally supposed to be peculiarly Shakspearian," which A. E. B. has indicated in his quotation from Philemon Holland, occurs also in Dr. T. Bright's Treatise of Melancholy, the date of which is 1586. In the third page of the dedicatory epistle there is this sentence:

      Here, then, is another authority against Gifford's proposed "emendation" of the expression as it occurs in Hamlet.

      Minor Notes

      The MSS. of Gervase Hollis.—These were taken during the reign of Charles I., and continue down to the middle of Charles II. In Harl. MSS. 6829, will be found a most curious and valuable volume, containing the painted glass, arms, monuments, brasses, and epitaphs in the various churches and chapels, &c. throughout the county of Lincoln. The arms are all drawn in the margin in colours. Being taken before the civil war, they contain all those which were destroyed or defaced by the Parliament army. They were all copied by Gough, which he notices in his Brit. Top., vol. i. p. 519., but not printed.

      His genealogical collections are contained in a series of volumes marked with the letters of the alphabet, and comprehended in the Lansdowne Catalogue under No. 207. The Catalogue is very minute, and the contents of the several volumes very miscellaneous; and some of the genealogical notes are simply short memoranda, which, in order to be made available, must be wrought out from other sources. They all relate more or less to the county of Lincoln. One of these, called "Trusbut," was presented to the British Museum by Sir Joseph Banks in 1817, and will be found in Add. MSS. 6118.

      Anagrams.—The publication of two anagrams in your Number for May 7, calls to my mind a few that were made some years ago by myself and some friends, as an experiment upon the anagrammatic resources of words and phrases. A subject was chosen, and each one of the party made an anagram, good, bad, or indifferent, out of the component letters. The following may serve as a specimen of the best of the budget that we made.

      Birmingham.

      Family Caul—Child's Caul.—The will of Sir John Offley, Knight, of Madeley Manor, Staffordshire (grandson of Sir Thomas Offley, Lord Mayor of London temp. Eliz.), proved at Doctors' Commons 20th May, 1658, contains the following singular bequest: