The mayor and Mayoress
attended, and were much pleased to witness the happy faces of the
girls, to whom the Mayoress distributed one shilling each."
Can any of your curious contributors give me any account of these
_Red Maids_?--why they are so called, &c., &c.?--and, in fact, of
the charity in general?
It will not be one of the least of many benefits of your
publication, that, in noticing from time to time the real intention
of many ancient charitable bequests, the purposes of the original
benevolent founder may be restored to their integrity, and the
charity devoted to the use of those for whom it was intended, and
who will receive it as a charity, and not, as is too often the case,
be swallowed up as a mere place,--or worse, a sinecure.
ARTHUR GRIFFINHOOF, JUN.
* * * * *
THE NAME OF SHYLOCK.
Dr. Farmer has stated that Shakspere took the name which he has
given to one of the leading characters in the _Merchant of Venice_
from a pamphlet entitled _Caleb Shilloche, or the Jew's Prediction_.
The date of the pamphlet, however, being some years posterior to
that of the play, renders this origin impossible. Mr. C. Knight, who
points out this error, adds--"_Scialac_ was the name of a Marionite
of Mount Libanus."
But "query," Was not _Shylock_ a proper name among the Jews, derived
from the designation employed by the patriarch Jacob in predicting
the advent of the Messiah--"until _Shiloh_ come"? (Gen.
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