"SELDOM-WHEN:" UNOBSERVED INSTANCES OF SHAKSPEARE'S USE OF
THE LATTER.

(Vol. vii., p. 38.)

MR. FRASER'S remark about the word _anywhen_ has brought to my mind two
passages in Shakspeare which have been always hitherto rendered obscure
by wrong printing and wrong pointing. The first occurs in _Measure for
Measure_, Act IV. Sc. 2., where the Duke says:

"This is a gentle provost: _seldom-when_
The steeled gaoler is the friend of men."

Here the compound word, signifying _rarely_, _not often_, has been
always printed as two words; and MR. COLLIER, following others,
has even placed a comma between _seldom_ and _when_.

The other passage occurs in the Second Part of _King Henry IV._, Act IV.
Sc. 4.; where Worcester endeavours to persuade the king that Prince
Henry will leave his wild courses. King Henry replies:

"'Tis _seldom-when_ the bee doth leave her comb
In the dead carrion."

Here also the editors have always printed it as two words; and, as
before, MR. COLLIER here repeats the comma.

That the word was current with our ancestors, is certain; and I have no
doubt that other instances of it may be found. We have a similar
compound in Chaucer's _Knight's Tale_, v. 7958.:

"I me rejoyced of my lyberte,
That _selden-tyme_ is founde in mariage."

Palsgrave, too, in his _Eclaircissement de la Langue Francoise_, 1530,
has--

"_Seldom-what_, Gueres souvent."

_Seldom-when_, as far as my experience goes, seems to have passed out of
use where archaisms still linger; but _anywhen_ may be heard any day and
every day in Surrey and Sussex. Those who would learn the _rationale_ of
these words will do well to consult Dr. Richardson's most excellent
_Dictionary_, under the words AN, ANY, WHEN, and SELDOM.

This is at least a step towards MR. FRASER'S wish of seeing _anywhen_
legitimatised; for what superior claim had _seldom-when_ to be enshrined
and immortalised in the pages of the poet of the world?

S. W. SINGER.

Manor Place, South Lambeth.

* * * * *

CHICHESTER: LAVANT.

(Vol. vii., p. 269.)

Your correspondent C. affirms, as a mark of the Roman origin of
Chichester, that "the little stream that runs through it is called the
Lavant, _evidently from lavando_!" Now nobody, as old Camden says, "has
doubted the _Romanity_ of Chichester;" but I am quite sure that the
members of the Archaeological Institute (who meet next summer upon the
bank