e
present century, the occasional "steps" which there were in the
foot-path--making the street a succession of terraces. This fact renders
intelligible the passage quoted from Pope's letter to Mr. Pearse, in
which he speaks of "y'e second Terras in St. James' Street." Why, too,
omit that characteristic feature of the street, the rows of _sedan
chairs_ with which it was formerly lined? The writer of this perfectly
remembers seeing Queen Charlotte in her sedan chair, going from the
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