"8. Typhon, Plinio, Vortex, aliis Turbo, et vibratus Ecnephias, de _nube gelida_ (ut dictum est) abruptum aliquid sæpe numero secum voluit, ruinamque suam illo pondere aggravat: quem _repentinum flatum_ à nube prope terram et mare depulsum, definuerunt quidam, ubi in gyros rotatur, et proxima (ut monuimus) verrit, suáque vi sursum raptat."--MIZALDUS, _Ephemeridis Æris Perpetuus: seu Rustica tempestatum Astrologia_, 12º Lutet. 1584. I have sometimes thought that Shakspeare may have written:-- "As flaws cong_est_ed in the spring of day." It is an easy thing to have printed cong_eal_ed for that word, and _congest_ occurs in _A Lover's Complaint_. Still I think change unnecessary. Has the assertion made in _An Answer to Mr. Pope's Preface to Shakspeare_, by a Strolling Player, 1729, respecting the destruction of the poet's MSS. papers, been ever verified? If that account is authentic, it will explain the singular dearth of all autograph remains of one who must have written so much. As the pamphlet is not common, I transcribe the essential passage:-- "How much it is to be lamented that _Two large Chests_ full of this GREAT MAN'S _loose papers_ and _Manuscripts_ in the hands of an ignorant _Baker of_ WARWICK (who married one of the descendants from Shakspear), were carelessly scattered and thrown about as Garret Lumber and Litter, to {54} the particular knowledge of the late _Sir William Bishop_; till they were all consum'd in the general Fire and Destruction of that Town." S.W.S. Mickleham, Nov. 14. 1849. [We cannot insert the interesting Query which our correspondent has forwarded on the subject of the disappearance of Shakespeare's MSS. without referring to the ingenious suggestion upon that subject so skilfully brought forward by the Rev. Joseph Hunter in his _New Illustrations of the Life, Studies, and Writings of Shakspeare_, vol. i. p. 105.:--"That the entire disappearance of all manuscripts of Shakspeare, so entire that no writing of his remains except his name, and only one letter ever addressed to him, is in some way connected with the religious turn which his posterity took, in whose eyes there would be much to be lamented in what they must, I fear, have considered a prostitution of the noble talents which had been given him."] * * * * * FOOD OF THE PEOPLE.--BILLS OF FARE IN 1683--HUMBLE PIE.