Notes and Queries, Number 55, November 16, 1850 by Various
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Various >> Notes and Queries, Number 55, November 16, 1850
{401} NOTES AND QUERIES:
A MEDIUM OF INTER-COMMUNICATION FOR LITERARY MEN, ARTISTS, ANTIQUARIES,
GENEALOGISTS, ETC.
* * * * *
"When found, make a note of."--CAPTAIN CUTTLE.
* * * * *
No. 55.]
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16. 1850.
[Price Threepence. Stamped Edition 4d.
* * * * *
CONTENTS.
NOTES:--
Authorship of "Henry VIII." by Samuel Hickson 401
On Authors and Books, No. IX., by Bolton Corney 403
Notes on the Second Edition of Mr. Cunningham's
Handbook of London, by E.F. Rimbault 404
Folk-lore:--Laying a Ghost--A Test of Witchcraft 404
Minor Notes:--Quin's incoherent Story--Touchstone's
Dial--America and Tartary--A Deck of Cards--Time
when Herodotus wrote--"Dat veniuam corvis."
&c. 405
QUERIES:--
Dryden's "Absalom and Achitophel" 406
Minor Queries:--The Widow of the Wood--Edward
the Confessor's Crucifix and Gold Chain--Cardinal
Erskine--Thomas Regiolapidensis--"Her Brow was
fair"--Hoods worn by Doctors of Divinity of Aberdeen--Irish
Brigade--Doctrine of immaculate Conception--Gospel
Oak Tree at Kentish Town--Arminian
Nunnery in Huntingdonshire--Ruding's
annotated Langbaine--Mrs. Tempest--Sitting
cross-legged--Twickenham:
Did Elizabeth visit Bacon
there?--Burial towards the West--Medal struck by
Charles XII.--National Debt--Midwives licensed 406
REPLIES:--
The Black Rood of Scotland 409
Replies to Minor Queries:--Haemony--Byron's Birthplace--Modena
Family--Nicholas Breton's Fantasticks--Gaudentio
di Lucca--Weights for weighing
Coins--Mrs. Partington--The East-Anglican Word
"Mauther"--Cheshire Cat--"Thompson of Esholt"--Minar's
Book of Antiquities--Croziers and Pastoral
Staves--Socinian Boast--MSS. of Locke--Sir Wm.
Grant--Tristan d'Acunha--Arabic Numerals--Luther's
Hymns--Bolton's Ace--Hopkins the
Witchfinder--Sir Richard Steel--Ale-draper--George
Herbert--Notaries Public--Tobacconists--Vineyards 410
MISCELLANEOUS:--
Notes on Books, Sales, Catalogues, &c. 414
Books and Odd Volumes Wanted 415
Notices to Correspondents 415
Advertisements 415
* * * * *
NOTES.
AUTHORSHIP OF "HENRY VIII."
In returning to the question of the authorship of _Henry VIII._, I am
anxious to remove a misconception under which MR. SPEDDING appears to
labour relative to the purport of a remark I made in my last communication
to you (Vol. ii., p. 198.) on this subject. As we appear to be perfectly
agreed as to the reasons for assigning a considerable portion of this play
to Fletcher, and as upon this basis we have each worked out a result that
so exactly coincides with the other, I conclude that MR. SPEDDING, as well
as myself, has rested his theory solely on positive grounds; that is, that
he imagines there is strong internal evidence in favour of all that he
ascribes to this writer. It follows, therefore that the "third hand" which
he thought he detected must be sought rather in what remained to
Shakspeare, than in that which had been already taken from him. I never for
an instant doubted that this was MR. SPEDDING's view; but the inequality
which I supposed he had observed and accounted for in this way, I was
disposed to refer to a mode of composition that must needs have been
troublesome to Shakspeare. The fact is, that, with one or two exceptions,
the scenes contributed by the latter are more _tamely_ written than any but
the earliest among his works; and these, different as they are, they
recalled to my mind. But I have no doubt whatever that these scenes were
all written about the same time; my feeling being, that after the opening
Shakspeare ceased to feel any great interest in the work. Fletcher, on the
other hand, would appear to have made a very great effort; and though some
portions of the work I ascribe to him are tedious and overlaboured, no
censure would weigh very strongly against the fact, that for more than two
centuries they have been _applauded_ as the work of Shakspeare.
As to the circumstances under which _Henry VIII._ was composed, it is an
exceedingly difficult question; and if I venture, on the present occasion,
to give the impression upon my mind, I do so, reserving to myself the full
right to change my opinion whenever I shall have acquired more knowledge of
the subject, or, from any other motive, shall see fit to do it. I consider
this case, then, as one of joint authorship; in point of time not much
later than the _Two Noble Kinsmen_, and in other respects similar to that
play. If the conclusions of the article in the _Westminster Review_, to
which MR. SPEDDING alludes, be accepted, the writer of the introductory
notice to _Henry VIII._ in the _Illustrated Shakspeare_, published by Tyas,
will recognise the "reverent disciple" whom he hints at, but does not name.
In short, I think that {402} Fletcher was the pupil of Shakspeare; and this
view, it appears to me, demands the serious attention of the biographer who
next may study or speculate upon the great poet's life.
I don't know that I can add anything to MR. SPEDDING'S able analysis of
_Henry VIII._ There are certain _tricks_ of expression he, no doubt, has
observed that characterise Fletcher's style, and which abound in the play.
It might be useful to make notes of these; and, at some future time, I may
send you a selection. I now beg to send you the following extracts, made
some time ago, showing the doubts entertained by previous writers on the
subject:--
"Though it is very difficult to decide whether short pieces be genuine
or spurious, yet I cannot restrain myself from expressing my suspicion
that neither the prologue nor epilogue to this play is the work of
Shakspeare. It appears to me very likely that they were supplied by the
friendship or officiousness of Jonson, whose manner they will be
_perhaps found exactly_ to resemble."--_Johnson._
"Play revived in 1613." "Prologue and epilogue added by Jonson or some
other person."--_Malone._
"I entirely agree with Dr. Johnson, that Ben Jonson wrote the prologue
and epilogue to this play. Shakspeare had a little before assisted him
in his _Sejanus_.... I think I now and then perceive his hand in the
dialogue."--_Farmer._
"That Jonson was the author of the prologue and epilogue to this play
has been controverted by Mr. Gifford. That they were not the
composition of Shakspeare himself is, I think, clear from internal
evidence."--_Boswell._
"I entirely agree with Dr. Johnson with respect to the time when these
additional lines were inserted.... I suspect they were added in 1613,
after Shakspeare had quitted the stage, by that hand which tampered
with the other parts of the play so much as to have rendered the
versification of it of a different colour from all the other plays of
Shakspeare."--_Malone._
"If the reviver of this play (or tamperer with it, as he is called by
Mr. Malone) had so much influence over its numbers as to have entirely
changed their texture, he must be supposed to have new-woven the
substance of the whole piece; a fact almost incredible."--_Steevens._
The double character of Wolsey drawn by Queen Katherine and her
attendant, is a piece of vigorous writing of which any other author but
Shakspeare might have been proud; and the celebrated farewell of the
Cardinal, with his exhortation to Cromwell, only wants that quickening,
that vital something which the poet could have breathed into it, to be
truly and almost incomparably great.
"Our own conviction is that Shakspeare wrote a portion only of this
play.
"It cannot for a moment be supposed that any alteration of Shakspeare's
text would be necessary, or would be allowed; as little is it to be
supposed that Shakspeare would commence a play in his old-accustomed,
various, and unequalled verse, and finish it in the easy, but somewhat
lax and familiar, though not inharmonious numbers of a reverent
disciple."--_Tyas's Shakspeare_, vol. iii. p. 441.
At the same time I made the following notes from Coleridge:--
"Classification, 1802.
3rd Epoch. Henry VIII. Gelegenheitsgedicht.
Classification, 1819.
3rd Epoch. Henry VIII., a sort of historical masque, or show-play."
"It (the historical drama) must likewise be poetical; that only, I
mean, must be taken which is the permanent in our nature, which is
common, and therefore deeply interesting to all ages."--_Lit. Rem._,
vol. ii. p.160.
What is said in this last extract might be applied (as Coleridge, I feel no
doubt, had he gone one step farther into the subject, would have applied
it) to the Shakspearian drama generally; and tried by this test _Henry
VIII._ must certainly be found wanting.
Before I conclude I am anxious to make an observation with regard to the
extract from Mr. Emerson's _Representative Men_ (vol. ii. p. 307.). The
essay from which this is taken, I presume to be the same, in a printed
form, as a lecture which I heard that gentleman deliver. With abundant
powers to form a judgment for himself, I should say that his mind had never
been directed to questions of this nature. Accident, perhaps, had drawn his
attention to the style of _Henry VIII._; but, with reference to the general
subject, he had received implicitly and unquestioned the conclusions of
authorities who have represented Shakspeare as the greatest borrower,
plagiarist, and imitator that all time has brought forth. This, however,
did not shake his faith in the poet's greatness; and to reconcile what to
some would appear contradictory positions, he proposes the fact, I might
say the truism, that the greatest man is not the most original, but the
"most indebted" man. This, in the sense in which it is true, is saying no
more than that the educated man is better than the savage; but, in the
apologetic sense intended, it is equivalent to affirming that the greatest
thief is the most respectable man. Confident in this morality, he assumes a
previous play to Shakspeare's; but it appears to me that he relies too much
upon the "cadence" of the lines: otherwise I could not account for his
_selecting_ as an "autograph" a scene that, to my mind, bears
"unmistakeable traits" of Fletcher's hand, and that, by whomsoever written,
is about the weakest in the whole play.
It is a branch of the subject which I have not yet fully considered; but
MR. SPEDDING will observe that the view I take does not interfere with the
supposition that Fletcher revised the play, {403} with additions for its
revival in 1613; a task for the performance of which he would probably have
the consent of his early master.
SAMUEL HICKSON.
* * * * *
ON AUTHORS AND BOOKS, NO. IX.
_Eustache Deschamps._ Except in the two centuries next after the conquest,
contemporaneous French notices of early English writers seem to be of
rather infrequent occurrence.
On this account, and on other accounts, the ballad addressed to Geoffrey
Chaucer by Eustache Deschamps deserves repetition. Its text requires to be
established, in order that we may be aware of its real obscurities--for no
future memoir of Chaucer can be considered as complete, without some
reference to it.
The best authorities on Eustache Deschamps are MM. Crapelet, Raynouard, and
Paulin Paris. To M. Crapelet we are indebted for the publication of
_Poesies morales et historiques d'Eustache Deschamps_; to M. Raynouard, for
an able review of the volume in the _Journal des Savants_; and to M. Paulin
Paris, for an account of the manuscript in which the numerous productions
of the author are preserved. Of the author himself, the learned M. Paris
thus writes:--
"On pourroit surnommer Eustache Deschamps le Rutebeuf du XIVe
siecle.--Ses oeuvres comprennent des epitres, des discours en prose,
des jeux dramatiques, des ouvrages latins, des apologues, un grand
poeme moral, et un infinite de ballades et rondeaux pieux, bouffons,
satiriques," &c.
Two impressions of the ballad in question are before me; one, in the _Life
of Geoffrey Chaucer by sir Harris Nicholas_, dated 1843--and the other in a
volume entitled _Geoffrey Chaucer, poete anglais du XIVe siecle. Analyses
et Fragments par H. Gomont_, Paris, 1847.--I transcribe the ballad from the
latter volume, as less accessible to English students:--
"BALLADE INEDITE ADRESSEE A GEOFFREY
CHAUCER PAR EUSTACHE DESCHAMPS.
O Socrates, plains de philosophie,
Seneque en meurs et _Anglais_ en pratique,
_Oui des grans_ en ta poeterie,
Bries en parler, saiges en rethorique,
_Virgiles_ tres haulz qui, par ta theorique,
Enlumines le regne d'Eneas,
Lisle aux geans, ceuls du Bruth, et qui as
Seme les fleurs et plante le rosier,
Aux ignorants, de la langue pandras
Grant translateur, noble Geffroy Chaucier.
Tu es d'amours mondains Dieux en Albie,
Et de la rose en la terre angelique,
Qui _d'Angela_ Saxonne et (est) puis flourie
Angleterre (d'elle ce nom s'applique).
Le derrenier en l'ethimologique
En bon angles le livre translatas;
Et un Vergier, ou du plant demandas
De ceuls qui _sont_ pour eulx auctorisier,
_A ja_ long teams que tu edifias,
Grant tranlslateur noble Geffroy Chaucier.
A toy, pour ce, de la fontaine Helye
Requier avoir un _buvraige_ autentique
Dont la doys est du tout en ta baillie,
Pour _rafrener_ d'elle ma _soif_ ethique
_Qui men_ gaule seray paralitique
Jusques a ce que tu m'abuveras.
Eustaces sui qui de mon plant aras;
Mais pran en gre les euvres d'escolier
Que par Clifford de moy Bavoir pourras,
Grant translateur noble Geffroy Chaucier.
L'ENVOY.
Poete hauls loenge destynie
_En_ ton jardin ne seroie qu'ortie
Considere ce que j'ai dit premier
Ton noble plant, ta douce melodie
Mais pour savoir de rescripre te prie,
Grant translateur noble Geoffroy Chaucier."
The new readings are in Italics, and I shall now repeat them with the
corresponding words as printed by sir Harris Nicolas:--
"Anglais=angles; Oui des grans=Ovides grans; Virgiles=Aigles;
d'Angela=dangels; sont=font; A ja=N'a pas; buvraige=ouvrage;
rafrener=rafrecir; soif=soix; Qui men=Qu'en ma; En=Et."
After such an exhibition of various readings, arising out of only two
copies of the same manuscript, it is evident that a re-collation of it is
very desirable, and I am sure the result would be thankfully received by
the numerous admirers of Chaucer.
BOLTON CORNEY.
_Eustache Deschamps_ (Vol. ii., p. 376.).--J.M.B. is desirous of learning
some particulars of this French poet, contemporaneous with Chaucer. He will
find a brief notice of him in the _Recueil de Chants Historiques Francais,
depuis le XIIeme jusqu'au XVIIIeme Siecle_, by Le Roux de Lincy (2 vols.
Paris, 1841, Libraire de Charles Espelin). He is there described as,
"Ecuyer et huissier d'armes des rois Charles V. et Charles VI., qui
resta toujours fidele a la maison de France;"
And the editor adds:
"Les oeuvres d'Eustache Deschamps contiennent pour l'histoire du XIVeme
siecle des renseignemens precieux; on peut y recueillir des faits
politiques qui ne sont pas sans importance, mais on y trouve en plus
grand nombre des details precieux sur les moeurs, les usages, et les
coutumes de cette epoque."
His poems were published for the first time in one vol. 8vo., in 1832, by
M. Crapelet, with this title: {404}
"Poesies morales et historiques d'Eustache Deschamps, ecuyer, huissier
d'armes des rois Charles V. et Charles VI., chatelain de Fismes et
bailli de Senlis."
As regards the "_genuineness_" of the poem cited, I am inclined, with
J.M.B., to think that it admits of question, the orthography savouring more
of the end of the fifteenth than of the close of the fourteenth century. I
am sorry not to be able to explain the meaning of "_la langue Pandras_."
D.C.
* * * * *
NOTES ON THE SECOND EDITION OF MR. CUNNINGHAM'S HANDBOOK OF LONDON.
21. _New Tunbridge Wells, at Islington._--This fashionable morning lounge
of the nobility and gentry during the early part of the eighteenth century,
is omitted by Mr. Cunningham. There is a capital view of it in Bickham's
_Musical Entertainer_, 1737:
"These once beautiful tea-gardens (we remember them as such) were
formerly in high repute. In 1733 their Royal Highnesses the Princesses
Amelia and Caroline frequented them in the summer time for the purpose
of drinking the waters. They have furnished a subject for pamphlets,
poems, plays, songs, and medical treatises, by Ned Ward, George Colman
the older, Bickham, Dr. Hugh Smith, &c. Nothing now remains of them but
the original chalybeate spring, which is still preserved in an obscure
nook, amidst a poverty-stricken and squalid rookery of misery and
vice."--George Daniel's _Merrie England in the Olden Time_, vol. i. p.
31.
22. _London Spa_ (from which Spa Fields derives its name) dates as far back
as 1206. In the eighteenth century, it was a celebrated place of amusement.
There is a curious view of "London Spaw" in a rare pamphlet entitled
_May-Day, or, The Original of Garlands_. Printed for J. Roberts, 1720, 8vo.
23. _Spring Gardens._--Cox's Museum is described in the printed catalogue
of 1774, as being in "Spring Gardens." In the same year a small volume was
published containing _A Collection of various Extracts in Prose and Verse
relative to Cox's Museum_.
24. _The Pantheon in Spa Fields._--This place of amusement was opened in
1770 for the sale of tea, coffee, wine, punch, &c. It had an organ, and a
spacious promenade and galleries. In 1780 it was converted into a
lay-chapel by the Countess of Huntingdon, and is now known as _Northampton_
or _Spa Fields Chapel_. Mr. Cunningham speaks of the burying-ground
(originally the garden), but singularly enough omits to notice the chapel.
25. _Baldwin's Gardens_, running between Leather Lane and Gray's Inn Lane,
were, according to a stone which till lately was to have been seen against
a corner house, bearing the arms of Queen Elizabeth, named after _Richard
Baldwin_, one of the royal gardeners, who began building here in 1589.
26. _Rathbone Place._--In an old print (now before me) dated 1722, this
street is called "_Rawbone Place_." The Percy coffee-house is still in
existence.
27. _Surrey Institution, Blackfriars Road._--This building was originally
erected, and for some years appropriated to the _Leverian Museum_. This
magnificent museum of natural history was founded by Sir Ashton Lever, who
died in 1788. It was afterwards disposed of by way of lottery, and won by
Mr. James Parkinson, who transferred it from Leicester Place to the Surrey
side of Blackfriars bridge.
28. _Schomberg House, Pall Mall_, (now, I believe, about to be pulled
down), was once the residence of that celebrated "quack" Dr. Graham. Here,
in 1783, he erected his _Temple of Health_. He afterwards removed to Panton
Street, Haymarket, where he first exhibited his _Earth Bath_. I do not find
any mention of Graham in Mr. Cunningham's book.
EDWARD F. RIMBAULT.
* * * * *
FOLK LORE.
_Laying a Ghost._--Frequent mention is made of the laying of ghosts, and in
many localities the tradition of such an event is extant. At Cumnor, Lady
Dudley (Amy Robsart's) ghost is said to have been laid by nine Oxford
parsons, and the tradition is still preserved by the villagers; but nowhere
have I been able to ascertain what was the ceremony on such an occasion.
Is anything known on the subject?
A.D.B.
Abingdon, Nov. 1850.
_A Test of Witchcraft._--Among the many tests applied for the discovery of
witchcraft was the following. It is, I believe, a singular instance, and
but little known to the public. It was resorted to as recently as 1759, and
may be found in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ of that year.
"One _Susannah Hannokes_, an elderly woman of Wingrove, near
Ayleshbury, was accused by a neighbour for bewitching her
spinning-wheel, so that she could not make it go round, and offered to
make oath of it before a majistrate; on which the husband, to justify
his wife, insisted upon her being tried by the Church Bible, and that
the accuser should be present: accordingly she was conducted to the
parish church, where she was stript of all her cloathes to her shift
and undercoat, and weighed against the Bible; when, to the no small
mortification of her accuser, she outweighed it, and was honorably
acquitted of the charge."
A.D.N.
Abingdon, Nov. 1850.
* * * * * {405}
MINOR NOTES.
_Quin's incoherent Story._--The comic story of Sir Gammer Vans (Vol. ii.,
p. 280.) reminds me of an anecdote related of Quin, who is said to have
betted Foote a wager that he would speak some nonsense which Foote could
not repeat off-hand after him. Quin then produced the following string of
incoherences:--
"So she went into the garden to pick a cabbage leaf, to make an
apple-pie of; and a she-bear, coming up the street, put her head into
the shop, and said 'Do you sell any soap?' So she died, and he very
imprudently married the barber; and the powder fell out of the
counsellor's wig, and poor Mrs. Mackay's puddings were quite entirely
spoilt; and there were present the Garnelies, and the Goblilies, and
the Picninnies, and the Great Pangendrum himself, with the little round
button at top, and they played at the ancient game of 'Catch who catch
can,' till the gunpowder ran out of the heels of their boots."
L.
_Touchstone's Dial._--Mr. Knight, in a note on _As You Like It_, gives us
the description of a dial presented to him by a friend who had picked it
"out of a deal of old iron," and which he supposes to be such a one as the
"fool i' the forest" drew from his poke, and looked on with lacklustre eye.
It is very probable that this species of chronometer is still in common use
in the sister kingdom; for my brother mentions to me that, when at school
in Ireland some fifteen or sixteen years since, he had seen one of those
"_ring-dials_" in the possession of one of his schoolfellows: and Mr.
Carleton, in his amusing _Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry_, thus
describes them:--
"The ring-dial was the hedge-schoolmaster's next best substitute for a
watch. As it is possible that a great number of our readers may never
have heard of--much less seen one, we shall in a word or two describe
it--nothing indeed could be more simple. It was a bright brass ring,
about three quarters of an inch broad, and two inches and a half in
diameter. There was a small hole in it, which, when held opposite the
sun, admitted the light against the inside of the ring behind. On this
were marked the hours and the quarters, and the time was known by
observing the hour or the quarter on which the slender ray, that came
in from the hole in front, fell."
J.M.B.
_America and Tartary._--
"Un jesuite rencontra en Tartarie une femme huronne qu'il avoit connue
au Canada: il conclut de cette etrange aventure, que le continent de
l'Amerique se rapproche au nord-ouest du continent de l'Asie, et il
devina ainsi l'existence du detroit qui, longtemps apres, a fait la
gloire de Bering et de Cook."--Chateaubriand, _Genie du Christianisme_,
Partie 4., Livre 4., Chap. 1.
Yet, with all deference to the edifying letters of this missionary jesuit,
it is difficult to make such distant ends meet. It almost requires a copula
like that of the fool, who, to reconcile his lord's assertion that he had
with a single bullet shot a deer in the ear and the hind foot, explained
that the deer was scratching his ear at the time with his foot.
Subjoined is one more _proof_ of the communication which once existed
between America and the Old World:
Colomb disoit meme avoir vu les restes des fourneaux de Salomon dans
les mines de Cibao."--Chateaubriand, _Genie, Notes, &c_.
MANLEIUS.
_Deck of Cards._--
"The king was slily finger'd from the _deck_."
_Henry VI._, pt. iii. Act v. Sc. 1.
It is well known, and properly noted, that a pack of cards was formerly
called a _deck_; but it should be added that the term is still commonly
used in Ireland, and from being made use of in the famed song of "De Night
before Larry was stretched,"
"De deck being called for dey play'd,
Till Larry found one of dem cheated,"