io"s.ii.jni.Y23,i904.] NOTES AND QUERIES.
67
Queries ,
WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that the answers may be addressed to them direct.
SHAKESPEARE'S SONNET xxvi. It is so very remarkable that nearly all the best com- mentators on this sonnet fail even to attempt an explanation of its last two lines, that I am emboldened to ask the members of that strong body of Shaksperian experts who from time to time contribute their knowledge to these pages what is the best accepted solution of these following and probably very important lines :
Then may I dare to boast how I do love thee, Till then, not show my head where thou mayst prove me.
The author clearly means that when his position is improved he will then remove the veil of secrecy at present concealing him, i.e., he would show his head somewhere where his patron would be able to prove his identity. This seems to be the plain English of the last line. Was this promise ever fulfilled? It has been suggested by many eminent Shaksperians that this sonnet accompanied
- Lucrece ' when sent to the Earl of Southamp-
ton, the " Lord of my love." It has also been suggested quite recently that the true author showed his head at the very beginning of the first two lines of ' Lucrece/ especially as they were printed in the first edition. My query, therefore, is this. Is there any better solution or explanation? For no Shaksperian can possibly accept this, plausible as it may appear to be. NE QUID NIMIS.
THACKERAY ILLUSTRATIONS. Can any one supplv a list of pictures and drawings (not included as illustrations in editions of Thacke- ray's works) descriptive of scenes in Thacke- ray's novels ? L. M.
BROWNING SOCIETIES. Can any of your readers tell me where I can get a list of the Browning Societies in England ? A. W. P.
MILTON'S SONNET SIL- AS when those hinds that wore transformed to frogs Railed at Latona's twin-born progeny.
Where shall I find the legend of the hinds in question ? I know, of course, all about the twin-born progeny of Latona. H. T.
DISRAELI ON GLADSTONE. Can any oblig- ing reader of ' N. & Q.,' gifted with a long memory, tell me the date when Disraeli described his famous and lifelong opponent
as " an egotistical rhetorician, inebriated with
the exuberance of his own verbosity, and
never failing in a superabundance of argu-
ments to vilify an opponent or to glorify
himself"? My quotation is, I think, very
nearly correct. EDWARD P. WOLFERSTAN.
45, Lincoln's Inn Fields, W.C.
[Col. Dalbiac gives the date as 1878, and the words as "a sophistical rhetorician, inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity, and gifted with an egotistical imagination, that can at all times command an interminable and inconsistent series of arguments to malign an opponent and to glorify himself" (' Dictionary of Quotations,' 1896, p. 13).]
BATHING - MACHINES. What is the date, who was the maker, and who the publisher of the earliest known engraving, or paint- ing, of a bathing-machine ? There is a very early one in the bureau of the library of the city of Hamburg. Its scene is, I think, the beach at Brighton, under the regency or the reign of George IV. E. S. DODGSON.
SCANDINAVIAN BISHOPS. The names and dates of consecration and death of the Arch- bishops of Drontheim, from 1148 to 1408, and the names and dates of the Bishops of Shakolt and Holar for the same period, will be very gratefully received by the writer, who lives far from libraries. FRANCESCA.
THOMAS HOOD. In the ' Memorials of Thomas Hood ' (vol. i. p. 11) occurs the follow- ing foot-note :
"My uncle [John Hamilton Reynolds] is often referred to in the letters as ' John.' A frequent correspondence was kept up between my father and him, which would have afforded materials of much value towards the compilation of these memorials. I regret to say they are unavailable, owing to Mrs. John Reynolds' refusal to allow us access to them. It is a great disappointment that the public should be thus deprived of what would become its property after publication the records of one of its noted writers."
I shall feel greatly obliged to any reader of 'N. & Q.' who will tell me whether the correspondence referred to is still in existence, and if so, in whose possession it is.
WALTER JERROLD.
Hampton-on-Thames.
GLASS PAINTERS. Since Lyon, the glass painter, what artists have plied their craft in Exeter? and what of their work has been introduced into the cathedral ? Also, can the Oxford artists be named after the seventeenth century ? J. W. K.
FLEETWOOD CABINET. (See 9 th S. iii. 347.) In 1881 the annual meeting of the Royal Archaeological Institute was held at Bedford.
