placed, coffinless, in the
earth. The illuminations in the old missals represent this. And it is
not impossible that the extract from the "Table of Dutyes," on which
H.E. founds his inquiry, may refer to a lingering continuance of this
rude custom. Indeed, a statute passed in 1678, ordering that all dead
bodies shall be interred in woollen and no other material, is so worded
as to give the idea that there might be interments without coffins. The
statute forbids that any person be put in, wrapt, or wound up, or buried
in any shirt, shift, sheet, or shroud, unless made of sheep's wool only;
or in any coffin lined or faced with any material but sheep's wool; as
if the person might be buried either in a garment, or in a coffin, so
long as the former was made of, or the latter lined with, wool.

I think the "buryall without a coffin," quoted by H.E., must have
referred to the interment of the poorest class. Their friends, being
unable to provide a coffin, conformed to an old rude custom, which had
not entirely ceased.

Alfred Gatty

* * * * *

SHAKSPEARE'S USE OF THE WORD "DELIGHTED".

If the passage from _Measure for Measure_, which has been the subject of
much controversy in your recent numbers, be read in its natural
sense--there is surely nothing unintelligible in the word "delighted" as
there used.

The object of the poet was to show how instinctively the mind shudders
at the change produced by death--both on body and soul; and how
repulsive it must be to an active and sentient being.

He therefore places in frightful contrast the condition of _each_ before
and after that awful change. The BODY, _now_ endowed with "sensible warm
motion," to become in death "a kneaded clod," to "lie in cold
obstruction, and to rot." The SPIRIT, _now_ "delighted" (all full of
delight), to become in death utterly powerless, an unconscious--passive
thing--"imprisoned in the viewless winds, and blown with restless
violence round about the pendant world," how intolerable the thought,
and how repulsive the contrast! It is _not_ in its state _after death_,
but _during life_, that the poet represents the spirit to be a
"delighted one." If we fall into the error of supposing him to refer to
the _former_ period, we are compelled to alter our text, in order to
make the passage intelligible, or invent some new meaning to the word
"delighted," and, at the same time, we deprive the passage of the strong
antithes