3. The Taming of the Shrew II 1, 71 ff.
Saving your tale, Petruchio, I pray,

Let us, that are poor petitioners, speak too:
Baccare! you are marvellous forward.

Baccare, so wird gewöhnlich angenommen, sei gleich backare und dies eine zusammenziehung aus back there; die bedeutung wäre dann zurück! platz da!' Aber die schreibung mit c, sowie das a in der zweiten silbe sprechen nicht gerade für diese etymologie. Wahrscheinlich ist baccare eine entstellung des bekannten provenzalischen pecaire, von dem im glossar zu Koschwitz' ausgabe der Mirèio gesagt wird: espèce d'interjection: pauvre ami! hélas! dame! An unserer stelle wäre es also einfach mit 'wahrlich, fürwahr' zu übersetzen. Aufserdem wird auch der vers besser, wenn man ihn mit dem dreisilbigen pecaire beginnen lässt.

4. The Winter's Tale IV 4.

Polixenes will der liebschaft zwischen Florizel und Perdita ein ende machen; er überhäuft die beiden und den schäfer mit vorwürfen und drohungen und richtet dabei an Perdita die worte:

Worthy enough a herdsman; yea, him too,
That makes himself, but for our honour therein,
Unworthy thee, if ever henceforth thou
These rural latches to his entrance open,
Or hoop his body more with thy embraces,
I will devise a death as cruel for thee
As thou art tender to't.

An der stelle hat anscheinend niemand anstofs genommen, und doch gibt das wort herdsman zu bedenken veranlassung. Dafs der könig mit dem Worthy enough a herdsman sagen sollte: Perdita sei gerade gut genug für einen hirten, ist ganz ausgeschlossen. Es ist inhaltlich aus vielen gründen unwahrscheinlich, dafs Polixenes der späteren schwiegertochter eine kränkung zufügen sollte, und ferner wäre dann der zusammenhang mit dem folgenden: yea, him too ganz unverständlich. Aber auch wenn der könig herdsman nicht in

Anglia, N. F. XXIII.

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274

H. WILLERT, VIER SHAKESPEARESTELLEN.

verächtlichem sinne brauchte und er, Perditas reize anerkennend, sagen wollte: sie sei wohl wert, dafs ein hirt sie freie, so könnte er doch kaum fortfahren: ja, sogar sein eigener sohn. Nach einem hirten gleich einen königssohn als geeigneten gatten vorzuschlagen, erscheint doch recht seltsam. Obwohl man sich mit dieser deutung ja allenfalls begnügen könnte, so kommt doch die anerkennung, die der zornige könig unwillkürlich ihrer schönheit zollen muss, besser zum ausdruck, wenn man für herdsman husband einsetzt: "Und du, zauberin, wohl eines gatten wert, ja, auch seiner, der nur, weil unsere ehre es verlangt, auf dich verzichten muss, wenn je usw.

BERLIN.

H. WILLERT.

WIDSITH.

As the article, signed Alfred Anscombe, which appeared in the April issue of Anglia, contains a number of erroneous statements about the text of Widsith which I printed as a supplement in my edition of Beowulf, I may be permitted a brief reply.

Mr. Anscombe objects to my text as reproducing 'not only errors which are fundamental, but also suggested emendations which a correct transcript of the original might require us to reject'. Further he says 'Both English and German scholars' have kept on copying Thorpe and Kemble and interpolating here and emending there, until the accepted printed text has ceased to be authoritative'. If Mr. Anscombe had stopped here some readers of Anglia might have taken these statements on trust. But he does not stop, he proceeds to give instances of what he considers incorrect readings and unjustifiable emendations. It will suffice if I take paragraph no. 1 on p. 526 in order to show what Mr. Anscombe's qualifications are for an excursion into Old English textual criticism. In lines 20 and 76 respectively, of Widsith occur the words casere weold Creacum, and mid Creacum ic was .... ond mid casere. 'These phrases', says Mr. Anscombe, 'are rendered "Cæsar ruled the Greeks", and "I was with the Greeks.... and with Cæsar". He calls these renderings 'nonsense'. He has an inspiration which was denied to Kemble and Thorpe, and indeed to all subsequent editors and commentators, for in the word casere he sees a proper name. To make sure, he writes to 'the Exeter Librarian' to ascertain the Ms. reading. The liberarian sends him the transcript casere 'in both instances, in the plainest way'. Mr. Anscombe's suspicion was now confirmed,

but not being familiar with the Old English script he wrote to me, asking 'what the uncouth letter in the word which represents cafepe actually stands for' (he is referring to the word cafere occuring in his own article in Anglia). He adds 'There can be no doubt, I believe, that Case-we was the name written down in the original poem'. On learning that p stands for the letter r, Mr. Anscombe is not satisfied; in a second communication to me he writes, 'casepe of course presents p for runic w, and the form -we seems to me to equate -væ in such Frankish names as Mero-væus. I do not think that the Creacas were in any way connected with Byzantium or the Greeks'.

This exposure will, I hope, dispense me from dealing with the other curiosities of criticism contained in this article, which have a merely psychological interest. Mr. Anscombe would have done well before attempting textual criticism of an Old English poem either to take the advice of an expert or else to study Old English and its bibliography. He would then have learned that the text of Widsith has been collated several times with the Ms. since the editions of Kemble and Thorpe. He would also have learned that the British Museum transcript of the MS. of the poem is not of equal value with the MS. itself.

MANCHESTER.

W. J. SEDGEFIELD.

THE INFLUENCE OF JONSON'S TRAGEDY

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.

Modern investigation of Elizabethan and Jacobean comedy has pretty completely shown that the greatest single influence with which the student has to reckon is that of Ben Jonson. We understand quite clearly, in at least a general way, the nature of the force he exerted and of the resulting modifications in the theory and the practice of comic writing. We have, however, neglected to consider at length a question of less importance, though intrinsically interesting: whether his tragedies Sejanus and Catiline exercised an influence, not to be sure comparable in extent, but of serious, historical significance. 1)

The problem has not, I admit, remained wholly untouched. Gifford 2) remarked the fact that Robert Baron's tragedy of Mirza was greatly indebted to the Catiline, and that Oldham in his Satires had borrowed from the same play. In one note on Sejanus 3) he pointed out a passage in The False One that

1) In quoting from Sejanus in this article I have used the customary text but for convenience of reference have given the line and scene numbering in my edition of Sejanus in the Belles Lettres Series of Heath and Company, except for one scene in which changes in numbering had to be made in the proof. References to V, viii, are to V, x, of Gifford's text, as the Folio stage directions seemed to justify combining V, v, vi, vii (of the ordinary texts) into one scene, thus reducing the number of scenes in V from ten to eight.

2) See his notes on Catiline, I, i.

3) See V, iv. A little further on he notes that Jonson, in Sejanus, was the first to make use in English of the expression 'the noon of night', and that later poets borrowed it from him.

Anglia. N. F. XXIII.

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