The Press.
London, England, 1856-07-26 00:00:00

'SHE PRESS.

walks may be the word really used by Shakespeare,
because we know that he must have seen it in the
earlier play, between which and his own admirable
comedy there is however little more likeness than
between the block of marble and the beautiful
figure which may be formed out of it by the sculp-
tor's master-hand. In this play the " old corrector "
proposes to change a good old English word, where
no change is required. Vincentio, angry, as he well
may be, at the treatment he receives, exclaims :

Thus strangers may be haled and abus'd.
Mr. Collier thereon remarks, " Which is hardly verse,
but the addition of two omitted letters makes it in-
disputably so :
Thus strangers may be handled and abus'd."
But in the former line the verb haled is a word of
two syllables, and on that score no change is needed ;
it is also more expressive than handled; it is
found very often in other plays of the poet, as well
as in our noble English Bible. The old play of Sir
Thomas More, ascribed to the latter end of the six-
teenth century, opens with this line

Whither wilt thou hale me ?

In the comedy of Patient Grisselt, printed in
1003, we find this line :

He shall not hale them thus.—Act iv. ac. 2.

And again in the same scene :

He brings commission

To hale them hence.

[Tennyson also, a careful conservator of English,
has adopted this word. It is only another form of
" haul."—En.]
The word "lovely," frequently used by Shakespeare
in the sense of " loving," meets with no favour in
the eyes of the old ,corrector, who draws his pen
through it, replacing it by "loving ;" and Mr. Collier
approves of the change, considering lovely as a mis-
print in such places as, for instance, where Pe-
truchio, in The Taming of the Shrew, intends to

seal the title with a lovely kiss.—Act iii. sc. 2;
or when Helena, in A Midsummer Night's Dream,
speaks of herself Hermia as

Two lovely berries moulded on one stem;

or where Lucetta, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona,
is grieved that shA

Should censure thus on lovely gentlemen.
But the question arises, did Shakespeare write
"lovely "? if so, we must leave it where we find it.
In the old Taming of a Shrew, before referred to,
this very same word occurs. Alfonso, who answers
to Baptista in the later play, addresses his newly-
married sons-in-law—

Come lovely sons, Sze.
It is not a sufficient reason to alter words because
they do not exactly suit a modern appreciation,
otherwise much of Shakespeare's text will require
revision.

GEORGE RUSSELL FRENCH.

WHITE ANTS OF AFRICA.—In Western Africa
there are at least two varieties of the white ants,
which are distinguished from each other by their
form, their modes and places of living, and by their
peculiar habits. One of these classes is well known
to African travellers for building large clay houses
or turreted tumuli. These bear so much reseal
blanee to the circular huts of the native inhabitants
in some parts of the country, that they have been
mistaken for them. The tumuli are eight or ten
feet in diameter at the base, ten or twelve feet high,
and terminate in a small round point. They are
surrounded by half a dozen or more cones or
turrets, which terminate in points at different
heights along the outer surface. The interior re-
veals a most wonderful mechanism in the number of
its avenues, cross streets, recesses, and in the most
perfect arrangement of its innumerable cells. On a
level with the base, and about the centre of the
mound, is the palace or residence of the queen.
She is ten times as large as her largest subject, is of
a very uncouth form, and is scarcely capable of
locomotion, but is carefully guarded by a band of
faithful soldiers. It is very rarely that a queen can
be made a captive. The hill must be demolished
with great rapidity, or she will be borne off through
some subterranean passage. This species of ant is
about the fourth of an itch in length, with a fist,
hard head, terminating with a pair of sharp, hori-
zontal pincers, something like the claws of a crab.
Their pinch is very sharp, and seldom fails to thaw
blood. If their habitation is broken into they get
exceedingly enraged, and march out with uplifted
head to attack their assailant, even should it have
been an elephant that run his tusk into their quiet
citadel. If one of the small turrets is broken off, a
head workman or engineer moants upon the breach,
surveys the damage, and by some means of commu-
nication which we do not understand, summons
hundreds of labourers to the spot, and in the
course of two or three hours all the injury is re-
paired. Clay is brought up from the interior, and is
laid on, mouthful after mouthful, with all the skill

SATURDAY,

and exactness of a practised mason. There is no
outlet or opening in the mound anywhere above the
ground. Nor are the inhabitants ever seen except
whin their habitations are broken into. Their
migrations are always under the ground, and very
little is known of their habits, therefore, except
what is found out by demolishing their habitations
—Wilson's Western Africa.