XXVI.

MACBETH A GOOD CHURCHMAN.

(From the Academy for March 2, 1878.)

T may be a satisfaction to some minds to be assured that,

after all, Macbeth was a good Churchman. Shakespeare has overlooked this side of his character, though Holinshed has recorded it, and the fact is verily so, as was long since remarked by Mr. J. H. Burton. What I wish now to point out is the mention of Macbeth in this aspect in a famous Elizabethan work, even in Laws of the Ecclesiastical Polity, “Will any man deny that the Church doth need the rod of corporal punishment to keep her children in obedience withal? Such a law as Macabeus made among the Scots, that he which continued an Excommunicate two years together, and reconciled not himself to the Church, should forfeit all his goods and possessions." Keble's note quotes from Boece the Latin of this, as Hooker thinks, commendable enactment :"Qui pontificis authoritatem annum totium execratus contempserit neque se interim reconciliavit, nostis reipublicæ habetor; qui vero duos annos in ea contumacia perseveravit fortunis omnibus multator."

XXVII.

"THE COAL OF FIRE UPON THE ICE."

(From the Academy for July 20, 1878.)

HERE being other reasons for supposing that Shake

THE

speare wrote Coriolanus in 1608, I may perhaps point out that there is in it what may be a reference to the famous frost of 1607-8, when fires were lighted on the Thames. Says Marcius, in his favourite vein of contempt for the

It must be allowed that this is a somewhat out-of-the-way image. Coals on ice are not usually a common spectacle; but it would seem they were so in the winter of 1607-8, and at that time the image would be by no means far-fetched or unfamiliar; it would, in fact, be obviously suggested. Of course one would lay no great stress on it if there was nothing else to connect the play with that time; but there being other things that so connect it, the allusion may perhaps be taken as confirmatory.

"Above Westminster," writes Chamberlain to Carleton, January 8th, 1607-8, " the Thames is quite frozen over, and the Archbishop came from Lambeth on Twelfth Day over the ice to Court. Many fantastical experiments are daily put in practice, as certain youths burnt a gallon of wine upon the ice, and made all the passengers partakers."

An account of this frost, written during its prevalence, is given in a tract called "The Great Frost: Cold Doings in London, a Dialogue," reprinted by Mr. Arber in his most useful collection, An English Garner, Vol. I.-a volume soon, we hope, to be followed by others not less valuable. The citizen in this dialogue tells-to quote a side-note-of beer, ale, wine, victuals, and fires on the Thames. 'Are you cold with going over ?" runs the text, "You shall, ere you come to the middle of the river spy some ready with pans of coals to warm your fingers." I will just mention that the passage in this tract: "Amongst many other things upon the frozen Thames. It was a marvellous deliverance," pp. 97-9

...

of Mr. Arber's reprint, is evidently out of its place.

T

XXVIII.

"THE WASHING OF TEN TIDES."

(From the Academy for Sept. 1, 1877.)

URNING over, the other day, Murray's Handbook of Kent, I read :-"Execution Dock, Wapping, was the usual place at which pirates and persons committing capital crimes at sea were hung at low-water mark, there to remain till three tides had overflowed them," and at once Antonio's kindly wish for the Boatswain in the Tempest came into my mind as interpreted or illustrated by the custom described. It seems unlikely that this suggestion should not have been made before, but I do not myself remember having seen it.

Nor, I find, does Dr. Elze, whom I have to thank for a copy of certain Noten und Conjecturen zu neu-englischen Dichtern. The same idea has occurred to him, prompted by a passage in Harrison's Description of England:

"Pirates and robbers by sea are condemned in the Court of the Admiraltie, and hanged on the shore at low-water mark, where they are left till three tides have overwashed them."

Evidently Antonio's phrase is a mere exaggeration of such a sentence. For such a "wide-chapped rascal" as the Boatswain, three tide washings are not enough-let him have

ten.

Here is another allusion to this form of punishment, from a well-known play, Green's Tu quoque; or, The City Gallant. Staines is dismissing his faithful servant Bubble:

"Bub. But, master, wherefore should we be parted?

Staines. Because my fortunes are desperate, thine are hopeful.
Bub. Why, whither do you mean to go, master?

Staines. Why, to sea.

Bub. To sea! Lord bless us, methinks I hear of a tempest already. But what will you do at sea?

Staines. Why, as other gallants do that are spent-turn pirate.

Bub. O master, have the grace of Wapping before your eyes, remember a high tide; give not your friends cause to wet their handkerchiefs. Nay, master, I'll tell you a better course than so; you and I will go and rob my uncle; if we 'scape, we'll domineer together; if we be taken, we'll hang together at Tyburn; that's the warmer gallows of the two."

Stow-this reference is given in Hazlitt's Dodsley's Old English Plays, xi., 188—points out "the usual place of execution for hanging of Pirates and Sea-rovers at the low-water mark," there to remain till three tides had overflowed them.

CHISWICK PRESS C. WHITTINGHAM AND CO., TOOKS COURT, CHANCERY LANE, ✔