276
NOTES AND QUERIES. IP s. m OCT. s, 1903.
gogue ; the other is a snarling buffoon. The
meagre account of Thersites in the 'Metamor-
phoses ' would be suitable both to Homer's
and to Shakspeare's creations ; and it might
have given rise to Shakspeare's conception of
the character. The * Metamorphoses ' must
have been the only classical source of Shak-
speare's knowledge of Greek myths. But he
did not master even this work thoroughly.
If he had read the Greek plays, either in the
original or in a translation, he would have
known much of the ancient history and
mythology of the Greeks. But his works
show that he had only a slight knowledge of
both. The likeness between his thoughts and
those of the Greek dramatists must either be
quite accidental, or he must have got at their
thoughts otherwise than by reading their
works. With regard to the Latin play of the
1 Menjechmi,' he could have known the plot
of it without having read the play. It has
been observed that, although its plot and
that of * The Comedy of Errors ' are the same,
there is not much resemblance besides. It
has also been observed and this is not un-
likelythat 'The Comedy of Errors' was
originally written by somebody else, and re-
written by Shakspeare. I believe that the
same thing may be said with truth of ' The
Taming of the Shrew ' and other of his inferior
plays. But none except himself could have
written those that are really great. Chaucer
has both false quantities and anachronisms
in his poetry. But we see in 'The Wife of
Bath's Tale,' in the Prologue to it, in ' The
Cock and the Fox,' and elsewhere, that his
reading of Latin was extensive. Spenser
makes the second syllable of Euphrates short;
and Marlowe, if he wrote ' Tarn burlaine,' com-
mits the same error. We cannot deny their
scholarship, whatever faults we may find in
them. Sir Walter Scott misquotes, and
makes false quantities :
Moritur et moriens dulces reminiscitur Argos. And there are similar instances in his novels of a carelessness which seems to show ignor- ance. Yet undoubtedly he had read much Latin. Shakspeare, however, riot only makes mistakes, but shows also a very limited knowledge of the classics. E. YARDLEY.
4 RESKIMER, A CORNISH GENT.' (9 th S. xii. 169). -This was probably John Reskiraer, of Marthen, in Cornwall, who was the head of his ancient family in Holbein's time. He was the son of William Reskimer by his wife Elwabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Arundell, of Tolverne. The date of William Reskirner's Inq. p. m. was 11 Edw. IV., No. 45, he having died on 11 February, 1471, when his
son John was found to be fourteen years of
age and over. He was therefore born about
1457. He married first Elizabeth, daughter
of Sir Robert Holland, and secondly
Catherine, daughter of John Trethurffe. The
date of his death seems to be unknown. He
was succeeded in his estates by his son John,
who died childless, and the property then
descended to the younger son William, who
married Alice, daughter of John Densell,
serjeant-at-law, and died 14 January, 1564.
Either of these gentlemen might possibly
have sat to Holbein. W. F. PRIDEAUX.
' NOTES AND QUERIES ' : EARLY RE- FERENCES (9 th S. xi. 265 ; xii. 151). As ife ; i would prove most interesting if all such early literary references to 'N. & Q.' were collected, let me add to those already given from Thackeray and Wendell Holmes one from Calverley. In his verses ' To Mrs. Goodclrild' (when were these first pub- lished?), "C. S. C." wrote:
No doubt the Editor of Notes and Queries Or ' Things not Generally Known' could tell
The words' real force
the words in question being "quite contrary" in the children's " Mary, Mary," rime.
ALFRED F. ROBBINS.
" CAVATINA " (9 th S. xii. 227). As in other cases, we have to discover (1) the formal origin ; and (2) the sense-development. The first point is easy ; cavatina is a diminutive of cavata, fern. pp. of cavare, to hollow out; from Lat. cau-us, hollow. As to the sense, cavare seems to have had many meanings as to hollow out, to mine, to fetch away earth, to draw out. Hence Zambaldi, at col. 301, 1. 1, of his 'Ital. Diet.,' says that cavata means (1) the act of cavare; (2) in music, the mode of producing voice or of extracting sound from an instrument ; and that cavatina means a musical air, composed for the most part of a recitative, an adagio, and a cabaletta (else- where explained as a quick and merry song), which the actor sings as he enters upon the stage. If this be right, the cavatina was so named from its mode of utterance. Further search in good Italian dictionaries will pro- bably tell us more. WALTER W. SKEAT.
This word is derived from the Italian verb cavare, which means to draw out or extract, as in the phrases cavare acqua, cavare un dente, cavar sangue, arid has cavata for past participle feminine. Used substantially, cavata is a musical term for the extraction of sound from an instrument, especially the violin. With a diminutive suffix it becomes cavatina, meaning a ' short air taken (estratta) from a grand scena or from a piece consisting of several tempi"
