Notes and Queries, Number 30, May 25, 1850 | Page 5

Queen's Library in the Green Park to Buckingham House.
Mr. Cunningham states, we dare say correctly, that Sheridan died at No.
17 Saville Row. We thought he had died at Mr. Peter Moore's, in Great
George Street, Westminster. Was he not living there shortly before his
death? and did not his funeral at Westminster Abbey proceed from Mr.
Moore's?
* * * * *
ON A PASSAGE IN MACBETH.
If any of your correspondents would favour me, I should like to be
satisfied with respect to the following passage in Macbeth; which, as at
present punctuated, is exceedingly obscure:--
"If it were done, when 'tis done, then 'twere well It were done quickly:
If the assassination Could trammel up the consequence, and catch, With

his surcease, success; that but this blow Might be the be-all and the
end-all here, {485} But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,-- We'd
jump the life to come."
Now, I think by altering the punctuation, the sense of the passage is at
once made apparent, as thus,--
"If it were done when 'tis done then 'twere well. It were done quickly, if
the assassination Could trammel up the consequence, and catch, With
his surcease, success, that but this blow Might be the be-all and the end
all here," &c.
but to make use of a paradox, it is not done when it is done; for this
reason, there is the conscience to torment the evil-doer while living,
and the dread of punishment in another world after death: the "bank and
shoal of time" refers to the interval between life and death, and to
"_jump_" the life to come is to hazard it. The same thought occurs in
_Hamlet_, when he alludes to--
"That undiscovered country, from whose bourne No traveller returns."
But that is clear enough, as in all probability the annotators left the
passage as they found it. I have not the opportunity of consulting Mr.
Collier's edition of Shakespeare, so that I am unaware of the manner in
which he renders it; perhaps I ought to have done so before I troubled
you. Possibly some of your readers may be disposed to coincide with
me in the "new reading;" and if not, so to explain it that it may be
shown it is my own obscurity, and not Shakespeare's, with which I
ought to cavil.
I have witnessed many representations of _Macbeth_, and in every
instance the passage referred to has been delivered as I object to it: but
that is not to be wondered at, for there are professed admirers of
Shakspeare among actors who read him not as if they understood him,
but who are--
"Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."

G. BLINK.
* * * * *
MINOR QUERIES.
_As throng as Throp's Wife._--As I was busy in my garden yesterday, a
parishioner, whose eighty-two years of age render her a somewhat
privileged person to have a gossip with, came in to speak to me. With a
view to eliciting material for a Note or a Query, I said to her, "You see
I am _as throng as Throp's wife_;" to which she replied, "Aye, Sir, and
she hanged herself in the dishcloth." The answer is new to me; but the
proverb itself, as well as the one mentioned by "D.V.S." (No. 24. p.
382.) "As lazy as Ludlum's dog, &c.," has been an especial object of
conjecture to me as long as I can remember. I send this as a pendant to
"D.V.S.'s" Query, in hopes of shortly seeing the origin of both these
curious sayings.
J.E.
Ecclesfield, Sheffield, April 19. 1850.
_Trimble Family._--In a MS. account of the Fellows of King's I find
the following:--
"1530.--Rich. Trimble, a very merry fellow, the fiddle of the society,
who called him 'Mad Trimble.' M. Stokes of 1531 wrote this distich on
him:--
'Os, oculi, mentum, dens, guttur, lingua, palatum Sunt tibi; sed nasus,
Trimbale, dic ubi sit?'
By which it appears he had a very small nose; and this day, July 13,
1739, I hear that there is one Mr. R. Trimble of an English family, an
apothecary at Lisburn in Ireland, who is remarkable for the same."
As "NOTES AND QUERIES" circulate in Ireland, are there any of the
family of "Trimble" now in that country, and are they distinguished by

any such peculiarity?
J.H.L.
_The Word "Brozier."_--my brother Etonians will feelingly recollect
the word "Brozier," used by the boys for nearly a century to denote any
one who had spent his pocket-money; an event of very frequent
occurrence shortly after the holidays. There were also sometimes
attempts made to "_brozier my dame_," in case a suspicion had arisen
that the good lady's larder was not too well supplied. The supper table
was accordingly cleared of all the provisions,