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The Shakespeare Head Press, Stratford.—Discusses Greg’s edition of The Merry Wives of Windsor.

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The Shakespeare Head Press, Stratford-on-Avon
19. V. 1910.

My dear Greg,

It was very good of you to send me your edition of the 1602 Merry Wives, and I am sure that I shall profit by the study of your Introduction & Notes.

As I read the Introduction I was horrified to find on p. XVI “The second is the late H. C. Hart.” So poor Hart is dead. This is news to me, and very sad news. I see the “Athenæum” every week but usually fling it into the waste-paper basket after carelessly glancing at it; so I miss notices of the death of friends. Hart used to talk about a Ben Jonson “Glossary,” on which he had been engaged intermittently; and I wonder in what shape he left it. His death is a loss.

Your account of the reporting of “John Bull’s Other Island” is very much to the point; and your suggestion that the actor who played the Host of the Garter may have helped the reporter of “Merry Wives” seems quite reasonable.

It may be uncritical, but however often I were to print Shakespeare I should always incorporate passages from the 1602 4to. in the Folio text. I can’t see the objection of tacking “I will retort the sum in equipage” on to “Why, then the world’s mine oyster, / Which I with sword will open,” if one puts a full stop and a dash after “open.” The renewed request gives more point to Falstaff’s renewed refusal “Not a penny.”

“Cride-game” is a terrible teazer. Hart’s reference to bears seems to me far too peregrinate. What the deuce have bears to do with feasting at a farm house? “Cried I aim?” at any rate gives sense and “Cride-game” is meaningless[.]

I shall go closely through your edition, and I thank you for so kindly remembering me.

Yours sincerely
A. H. Bullen

25 Newton Road, Oxford. - 'I am much indebted to you for calling my attention to your article... to the goldsmiths Samuel Urlin, father and son'.

Kings College, Cambridge. - Thanks Gow for his article.

Trinity College. 'In connection with the Iynx passage...'

Longmans, Green, & Co., 6 & 7 Clifford Street, London, W.1.—They cite a review of V. L. Griffith's Experiments in Education.

Largely drawn from Fitzgerald's letters, with dates.

Sends her some printed copies of what he has written about Henry [not included].

(With an envelope.)

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Trinity College
19 Jan. 1927

Dear Semple,

I am sorry you have been out of sorts and glad you are so no longer. The check to your studies does not fall out inconveniently for me personally, as I am and shall be molested by the University Scholarships down to the middle of next month, and not anxious to see you or anyone unless it is required. If you do require an interview, of course write, and I will arrange one; but otherwise I will not at present make regular appointments with you. I understand from other directors of studies that this is not shabby conduct on my part, and that they sometimes see their victims only once or twice a term.

Yours sincerely
A. E. Housman.

4 Aug 1926

[Direction on envelope:] W. H. Semple Esq. | St John’s College

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The envelope is not stamped or postmarked.

Leigham - four pupils at his new school, fees, Derwent Coleridge in Plymouth, Samuel Macaulay to become rector of Hodort, Barnes' curacy to end soon, only 40 or 50 adults in his congregation

Windsor - to marry Mary Glynne

Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge - Describes a phosphorescence occasionally visible on lagoon shoals in the Maldives, connected to a local myth.

Beccles.—Responds to Wright’s article on the word ‘bouter’ in Notes and Queries, referring to domestic arrangements at his grandfather’s kitchen at Snettingham and his uncle's farmhouse at Redenhall.

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Beccles
2 July 1887

My dear doctor

I observe your “Bouter” note in N & Q {1}.

Are you sure that the word is “no longer used”?.

It appears, in divers shapes, (as I dare say you know as well as I do) in the dictionaries {2}.

Cole—
Bouter—sieve

Walker—
Bolter—a sieve to separate meal from bran

Bailey—
Bolting-hutch }
Bunting-hutch } a chest or trough to sift meal in

Johnson—
Bolter—a sieve to separate meal from bran or husks or finer from coarser parts

Nuttall—
Bolting-hutch—a tub[?] {3} for bolted flour.
Bolting-mill—a machine for sifting meal.
Bolting-tub—a tub to sift meal in.

A bolter I always understood was a common, if not essential, appendage to a corn-mill. In its domestic form it became a ‘hutch’—and its top might serve as a table. Hence, naturally enough, ‘bolter-table’, or bolter,—boulter—bouter in that sense.

In the scene described by Mr Crabbe I take the men stood in the scullery waiting till the female servants at the bouter had finished their repast, either for want of room or from motives of delicacy & politeness!.

I well remember the bolting hutch in my grandfather’s kitchen at Snettingham—where it was confined to its primary use. In my uncle’s farm house at ‘Pied bridge’, Redenhall, {4} the arrangements were more bucolic. Dinner was served in the spacious kitchen—for the family at a plain walnut-tree table in the centre, & for ye farm men on a long heavy oak table placed under a side window. This was about 1812.

I do not think the maid-servants dined with the men,—I sho[ul]d say, after them. [There follows a plan of the room in question.]

All this is merely an excuse for bothering you with a letter, because we are anxious to know—if you can spare five minutes to tell us—that your convalescence is complete or progressing quite satisfactorily,—your left thumb all right & prison fare no longer requisite.

Excuse bad writing.

Ever very truly yours
S. Wilton Rix

W. Aldis Wright Esq LLD.

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Black-edged paper. The missing letters of a word abbreviated by a superscript letter have been supplied in square brackets.

{1} Notes and Queries, 2 July 1887, pp. 5-6. The note concerns a passage in the Life of Crabbe (cf. Everyman ed., pp. 137-8).

{2} The arrangement of the succeeding list has been adjusted slightly.

{3} The square brackets are in the MS.

{4} Comma supplied.

Roos Hall, Beccles.—Thanks him for the copy of Prior’s lines. Baldry (a servant) calls bulrushes ‘poker docks’.

(Written some time between the writer’s marriage to F. W. D. Robinson on 17 October 1893 and the death of Aldis Wright’ on 19 May 1914.)

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Roos Hall, Beccles
Sunday

Dear Dr Aldis Wright

Many thanks for the copy of Prior’s lines which I hope Fred will not forget again. Baldry called the bulrushes “Poker docks” & seemed surprised I did not know what he meant, I never heard the word before. He comes from Kirby Cane & I often notice he uses queer words—they may be his own invention.

Yours sincerely
Annie M. Robinson

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{1} Charles Baldry, who was born at Kirby Cane in 1843 but was living at Beccles at the time of the 1891 census, when he was described as ‘Groom & Gardiner. Domestic Serv.’ All his children, the youngest of whom was eight, were also born at Kirby Cane.

Includes notes on Heinrich Ritter's History of Ancient Philosophy, George Grote's History of Greece, a draft of a paper given on "The Accentuation of Ancient Greek" dated Nov. 12, 1860, as well as a translation of Act I of Goethe's "Götz von Berlichingen".