Solution: He serves our God, and doth man ease It is a bee that makes hony and waxe. (65) Question: What is it that in the morning upon foure legges doth goe, and about noone it standeth fast upon two and no moe. Solution: (66) Question: Solution: (67) Question: Solution: (68) Question: Solution: (69) Question: Solution: (70) Question: Solution: 67 deilght In the evening againe it hath no lesser than three in store. Which tell me, Ser, art thou not he, whom I doe take thee for? It is a man; for when he is a childe, then doth hee creep upon hands and feet; but when he is a man, then he standeth straight upon two leggs; but when he is old and decrepit, besides his legs then he useth a staffe to support his body. This riddle gave Sphinx, a serpent, to all the passengers that went by her den, and those that could not resolve it, them she devored. And so Oedipus at last passing by and having resolved the doubt did ridde his country of this divell incorporate. As round as a hoope I am, but being night, then am I long as any snake, I say. It is a woman's girdle which shee weares about her middle. I eate my nurse that feeds mee full, I make all blind that doe delight. The sunne. I am cald by name of man, yet am as little as the mouse: when winter comes, I love to be with my red gorget neere the house. A bird called Robin-Redbrest. Although my body little is, yet I doe please the hearer's eare; The nightingale. What is it [that] more eyes doth weare which glister as the christall cleare (71) Question: Solution: (72) Question: Solution: (73) Question: Solution: (74) Question: Solution: (75) Question: Solution: (76) Question: Solution: (77) Question: Solution: Solution: (79) Question: Solution: (80) Question: Solution: When I doe goe to the water's side, My head is round, my body small, A saltseller and salt. Head and eye I am onely: A button of copper or mettall. A bird upon the house I saw, A hearneshaw had taken a frogge, and brought it to her young All my body belly is, and lesser then it my mouth is not. I doe containe what makes me mad. What I am, sir, now tell me that. A maltsacke full of malt, wherewith strong drinke is brewed. My coate is greene, and I can prate In such a prison I am set that hath more loope holes then a net. A parret in a cage of wyer. I doe resemble many a weight, yet I keepe me out of their sight, and do not once come where they be, yet every day they may see me. What mil is that that hath two wings whiles it doth turne and doth not grind. It is a jacke, and the greasie miller is the cooke. It is no bigger then a plumme, and yet it serves the king from towne to towne. It is an eye. (81) Question: Solution: (82) Question: Solution: (83) Question: Solution: (84) Question: Solution: (85) Question: It was not, nor is not, nor never will be; hold up your hand and you shall see. It is the little finger, that was not, nor is not, nor will it bee so great as the rest of the fingers. Downe in my yard I have three swine, the more meat I give them the lowder they cry; the lesser I give them the stiller they lye. It is three milles. There dwels a shoomaker neere the hall yet they of them have many a paire. It is a smith which maketh shooes for horses. . Riddle me, riddle me, what is this: Two legges sat upon three with one legge in his hand; in comes foure legges, and snatcht away one legge. Then up start two legges, and flung three legges at foure legges, and so got one legge againe. A man sitting upon a three-footed stoole with a legge of mutton in his hand; a dogg came and snatcht it from him, and he flung three-footted stoole at the dogge, and so got the legge of mutton againe. I have a meddow, and in my meddow are ten oakes, under every oake are ten coates, and in every coate are ten sowes, and every sow hath ten piggs. Tell me how many tithe piggs will be of these. Ein Rückblick auf die Rätselsammlungen des englischen Renaissancezeitalters ergibt, daß dieser Zweig der Volkspoesie eine reiche Entwicklung erfahren hat. Fünf gesonderte Sammlungen sind zu erweisen, von denen zwei durch mehrere Auflagen liefen. Die vier, die ganz erhalten sind, zeigen jede einen verschiedenen Charakter: Die Demaundes joyous haben am wenigsten, die Riddles of Heraclitus am meisten Originalwert; die Merrie Riddles spiegeln die heimische Tradition in der volkstümlichsten Weise, die Pretty Riddles mit gelehrtem Anhauch. Die poetische Ausführung ist bereits in den Rätseln von c. 1530 beliebt, gegenüber den durchaus prosaischen Demaundes joyous; sie wächst in den Merrie Riddles und steigert sich in der Sammlung von 1598 zu langen Gedichten; mit diesem Kunstmoment nimmt auch die Gedankenhaftigkeit des Inhalts zu, also die Interessenahme der Gebildeten, bis zur Erörterung natur wissenschaftlicher Probleme in den Riddles of Heraclitus, so daß ein Jahr darauf, 1599, die Anspielung Shakespeares um so begreiflicher wird. Die Sammlung, auf die er hinwies, war die volkstümlichste, die am öftesten gedruckte und wohl auch die ästhetisch gelungenste; es bewährt sich abermals sein Geschmack für gute Volkspoesie, die ihn zu soviel Spott gegen Bänkelsängerballaden veranlaßte. Feiner als der Schulmann von 1598 hat dann der Redakteur der Pretty Riddles 1631 die Volkstradition mit Gelehrsamkeit durchmischt; sein Buch trägt den zarten, etwas epigonenhaften Reiz jakobeischer Poesie; nach ihm verfiel die Gattung wieder der Kunstlosigkeit. Schon die «Holme Riddles », erhalten in einem Ms. aus der Mitte des 17. Jahrhunderts und herausgegeben von F. Tupper (Publications of the Mod. Lang. Association, New Ser. XI, 211 ff.), stehen inhaltlich und formell auf tieferer Stufe. Von einzelnen Rätseln, wie sie da und dort zwischen anders gearteten Dichtungen eingesprengt erscheinen (vgl. z. B. Anglia XXVI, 228), mag hier abgesehen werden. Am Schlusse habe ich den Bibliothek verwaltungen des Britischen Museums und der Bodleiana Paradiese für Bücherwürmer! verbindlichsten Dank zu sagen. Desgleichen Herrn stud. phil. W. Fritsch für Abschrift der Sammlung von c. 1530, der Merrie und Pretty Riddles, Herrn stud. phil. G. Schultze-Buchwald für Kollation der Merrie Riddles und Abschrift der Riddles of Heraclitus, Herrn Dr. phil. W. Drechsler für sorgsame Kollation sämtlicher Texte. Was Shakespeare ever in Ireland? A Conjectural Study. By W. J. Lawrence. Although speculation has long been rife as to the various countries visited by William Shakespeare in his capacity of player no one has put in a claim on behalf of Ireland, the likeliest of all. Owing to the apparent hopelessness of ever arriving at positive evidence that the Great Hypnotiser of posterity gained knowledge outside his native land, the saner school of Shakespearean investigators has veered round to the opinion that the poet was placidly insular, a fireside man, through whose veins coursed none of the fever for travel so characteristic of his age. It is on the whole, perhaps, a safe attitude to take, although to many it will hardly seem feasible that an unadventurous person of this type would have ever departed from the rural shades of Stratford-upon-Avon. It needs no great stretch of the imagination to suppose that Shakespeare would have at least availed himself of such opportunities for travel as came naturally in his way. As to whether he ever visited Ireland, it must be conceded that in our present, almost final, state of knowledge too many postulates have to be taken as granted to permit of a satisfactory solution. The utmost one can say with safety is that purely in his capacity as player he might have found his way to Munster. The question hinges largely upon the much debated point concerning Shakespeare's supposed visits to Bath and Bristol. That once established, and the claim for Ireland would he strengthened very materially. We know full well that in the Elizabethan - Stuart era it was customary for the players to desert the metropolis with each succeeding Jahrbuch XLII. 5 |