162
NOTES AND QUERIES. [* s. xi. FEB. ss, MOB.
I saw the following quoted as the last words
of Grotius, with a reference to Bayle's Dic-
tionary': "multa agendo, nihil egi." Truly
they are in the work (under Grotius), but,
lo and behold ! Bayle says : After that on
pent tirer Vechelle.
" Qu'on a inse're' un mensonge dans un petit Livre Anglois [' Sentimens de quelques Theologiens de Hollande,' p. 402], lorsqu'on y a mis que Grotius ait enmourant, multa agendo. nihil egi, en entreprenant beauooup de choses je n ai rien avance" (vol. ii. p. 1324, third edit., 1720).*
Let me now mention a remedy or palliative for the disease. I suggest some such rules as the following :
Quotations.
1. Be accurate. Even a comma may seriously modify the meaning of a phrase.
2. Quote as fully as is necessary to preserve the meaning of your author. Do not take out just sufficient for your purpose, if by so doing you misrepresent what is meant by the writer.
3. Take care while being accurate and quoting as fully as necessary to see that the sense in which the words were written is not mistaken. They might have been ironical or otherwise.
4. Always give chapter and verse. While on this point, might I suggest that ' N. & Q.' should set an example and add to its motto, "When found, make a note of" (Dickens, ' Dombey and Son,' Capt. Cuttle, chap. xv.). Every one ought to know that Capt. Cuttle is a character in Dickens's novel of ' Dombey and Son,' but every one does not. If there is a mistake in the quotation, but the reference is correct, the error is easily rectified.
Quotations of Quotations.
1. Always verify these, if possible ; if not, quote chapter and verse, if given in your authority ; or, failing this, give the reference to your authority. If your authority does not give the reference, you may perhaps be able to supply the omission from another source, and then verify it.
2. On discovering a misquotation or incor- rect reference in any of your own books, correct it without delay.
Direct quotation is one thing a tout seigneur tout honneur but taking an idea from some one else, and embellishing it or improving it, thus making it our own, is another. It is left to few of us nowadays to be entirely original. As A. Daudet says ('Trente Ans de Paris/ ' Henri Rochefort') :
- I do not deny that other authorities may give
Grotius's last words as " multa," &c., but Bayle's name at all events should not be quoted as support- ing this version. On the contrary.
" II n'est pas defendu en litterature de ramasser
une arme rouillee ; I'important est de savoir aiguiser
la lame et d'en reformer la poignee a la mesure de sa
main."
EDWARD LATHAM.
61, Friends' Road, East Croydon.
SHAKESPEARIANA.
"RUNAWAYS' EYES," ' ROMEO AND JULIET,' III. ii. 6. Schmidt ('Lexicon') says run- aways are "people who ramble about the streets at night to spy out the doings of others." This seems to be an amazingly con- fident statement. Dowden, in his recent edition (Appendix iii.), says :
" If, following Delius, we read runaways' eyes, the runaways (if not the stars) must be wanderers in the streets. Attempts have been made to produce an example of runaway in such a sense, but I think without success, and Prof. Hales (Longman s Maga- zine, Feb., 1892) has to admit that the word in this sense is SLiral \tyoptvov, not only in Shakespeare, but in all English literature." I am happy to say I have caught this im- portant runaway, and if he will answer the purpose I am glad to hand him over to the authorities. To fulfil the above requirements one individual is exactly what is needed i.e., the watchman. Here he is. I quote from Tho. Brewer, 'The Life and Death of the Merry Devill of Edmonton' (prose), reprint (1819) of 1631 edition, p. 37, 1608 :
" By and by came the constable with the bloody runnawaies to beare Smug to the stockes (which stood under the constables window). With much adoe, they dragd him to them, and with as much adoe got in his legg."
Runaway, as applied to the watch, may be explained by giving away the sense of " here. " to me," as in come away, and bring away in Shakspeare, and haste away in Ben Jonson. It would then be not an unnatural term to use to the watch by persons in distress, " Help ! come away ! run away ! " No doubt further examples will be found. H. C. HART.
Co. Donegal. [See 8 th S. i. 432, 518 ; ii. 35, 75, 135 ; iii. 285 ; iv. 84.]
'KiNG LEAR.' In II. ii. of the Folio the king exclaims :
Oh how this Mother swels vp toward my heart !
Histerica passio, downe thou climing sorrow,
Thy Elements below.
Modern editions follow this, and, I believe, without exception, give us "this mother" in II. iv.
In 'As You Like It,' I. ii. of the Folio, Orlando exclaims :
Thus must I from the Smoake into the Smother,
From tyrant Duke vnto a tyrant Brother. Smoke and smother represent the perils of fire
