Chapter D

NOTES IN ANSWER TO MINOR QUERIES.

_Genealogy of European Sovereigns._

Sir,--Perhaps the following books will be of service to your correspondent Q.X.Z., viz.:--

"A Genealogical History of the present Royal Families of Europe,
the Stadtholders of the United States, and the Succession of the
Popes from the 15th century, &c. &c., by the Rev. Mark Noble."
London, 1781.

"Historical and Genealogical, Chronological, and Geographical
Atlas, exhibiting all the Royal families in Europe, their origin,
Descent, &c., by M. Le Sage." London, 1813.

"Complete Genealogical, Historical, Chronological, and Geographical
Atlas, &c., by C.V. Lavoisne." Philadelphia, 1821.

W.J.B.

_Countess of Pembroke's letter--Drayton's Poems--A Flemish Account--Bishop Burnet._

Your correspondent, at p. 28., asks whether there is any contemporary copy of the celebrated letter, said to have been written by Anne, Countess of Pembroke, to Sir Joseph Williamson? I would refer him to Mr. Hartley Coleridge's _Lives of Distinguished Northerns_, 1833, p. 290. His arguments for considering the letter _spurious_, if not conclusive, are very forcible, but they are too copious for this paper.

Your readers, who may not be conversant with that undeservedly neglected volume, will confess their obligation, when they have consulted its pages, in having been directed to so valuable and so original a work. It may be observed, that those letters of the Countess which are authentic, are certainly written in a very different style to the one in question; but this letter, if addressed by her to Sir Joseph Williamson, would be written under peculiar circumstances, and being in her 84th year, she might naturally have asked the assistance of the ablest pen within her reach. I have the copy of an interesting letter, addressed by the late Mr. John Baynes to Ritson, in 1785, stating his admiration of the Countess's "spirit and industry, having seen the collections made by her order relative to the Cliffords--such as no other noble family in the world can show."

I join in wishing that Mr. Pickering would add a judicious selection from Drayton's poetical works to his _Lives of Aldine Poets_. To the list given by your correspondent (p. 28.), may be added a work entitled _Ideas Mirrour Amours in quatorzains_ (London, 1594, 4to. p. 51.), which was lent to me about forty years ago, but which I have not seen since. Some notice of it, by myself, will be found in the _Censura Literaria_. with the following note by Sir C. Brydges:--"The extreme rarity of this publication renders a farther account desirable, and also more copious extracts. It appears wholly unknown to Herbert, and to all the biographers of Drayton." It is unnoticed by Ritson also. Chalmers, in his _Series of English Poets_, has referred to this communication, but he has not printed the poem amongst Drayton's works.

The expression "a Flemish account" is probably not of very long standing, as it is not found in the most celebrated of our earlier dramatists, unless, indeed, Mrs. Page's remark on Falstaff's letter may be cited as an illustration:--"What an unweighed behaviour hath this Flemish drunkard _picked out of my conversation_, that he dares in this manner assay me."

If the habit of drinking to excess prevailed in the Low Countries in the sixteenth century to the extent represented, may not the expression have arisen from that circumstance, and been equivalent to the contempt which is usually entertained for the loose or imperfect statements made by a tipsy or drunken man?

When quoting opinions upon Burnet, we must not forget the brief but pregnant character which Burke has given of the Bishop's _History of his Own Times_. In his admirable speech at Bristol, previous to the election if 1780, Burke says, "Look into the History of Bishop Burnet; _he is a witness without exception_."

Dr. Johnson was not so laudatory:--"Burnet is very entertaining. The style, indeed, is mere chit-chat. I do not believe that he intentionally lied; but he was so much prejudiced, that he took no pains to find out the truth."

The reader may refer to Dr. Hickes's _Criticism_ (Atterbury's _Correspondence_, i. 492.). Calamy's expression is a significant, if not a very complimentary one, as regards Burnet's candour (_Life and Times_, i. 59.).

I.H.M.

Bath, Dec. 1849.

_Viz., why the contracted form of Videlicet._

I shall be much obliged if any one of your readers can inform me of the _principle_ of the contraction viz. for videlicet, the letter _z_ not being at all a component part of the three final syllables in the full world.

[Cross symbol]

[Is not our correspondent a little mistaken in supposing that the
last letter in "viz." as originally a letter z? Was it not one of
the arbitrary marks of contraction used by the scribes of the
middle ages, and being in form something like a "z," came to be
represented by the early printers by that letter? In short, the
sign3 was a common abbreviation in records for terminations, as
omnib3 for omnib_us_, hab3 for hab_et_. Vi3, corruptly viz. is
still in use.]

_Authors of Old Plays._

We are enabled by the courtesy of several correspondents, to answer two of the Queries of Q.D., in No. 5. p. 77., respecting the authors of certain old plays.

G.H.B. informs us that _Sicily and Naples_ was written by Samuel Harding; of whom, as we learn from J.F.M., an account will be found in Wood's _Athenae_.

NASO informs Q.D. that _Nero_ was written by Matthew Gwinne; there are two editions of it, viz. 1603 and 1633,--and that a copy of it may be procured at 17. Wellington Street, Strand, for 2_s_.

_Birthplace of Coverdale._

Can you inform me of the birthplace of Miles Coverdale?

W.C.

["Bishop Myles Coverdale is supposed to have been born in the year
of our Lord 1488, in the district of Coverdale, in the parish of
Coverham, near Middleham, in the North Riding of Yorkshire; and it
is the opinion of the learned historian of Richmondshire, that it
is an assumed, and not a family name." These are the words of the
Rev. Geo. Pearson, B.D., the very competent editor of the works of
Bishop Coverdale, published by the Parker Society. His reference is
to Whitaker's _Hist. of Richmondshire_, vol. i. p. 17.]

_Caraccioli--Author of Life of Lord Clive._

In reply to K.'s query in No. 7., I have to inform him that "Charles Caraccioli, Gent." called himself "the Master of the Grammar School at Arundel," and in 1766 published a very indifferent _History of the Antiquities of Arundel_; and deprecating censure, he says in his preface, "as he (the author) was educated and till within these few years has lived abroad, totally unconversant with the English tongue, he flatters himself that the inaccuracies so frequently interspersed through the whole, will be observed with some grains of allowance." His _Life of Lord Clive_ was a bookseller's compilation.

WM. DURRANT COOPER.

* * * * *

QUERIES.

LOVE, THE KING'S FOOL OF THAT NAME.

In Rawlinson's Manuscripts in the Bodleian (c. 258.), which I take to have been written either in, or very soon after, the reign of Henry VIII., there is a poem thus entitled:--

"THE EPITAPHE OF LOVE, THE KYNGE'S FOOLE."

Can any of your readers furnish me with information regarding him? He was clearly a man worthy of notice, but although I have looked through as many volumes of that period, and afterwards, as I could procure, I do not recollect meeting with any other mention of him. Skelton, who must have been his contemporary, is silent regarding him; and John Heywood, who was also living at the same time, makes no allusion to him that I have been able to discover. Heywood wrote the "Play of Love," but it has nothing to do with the "King's fool."

The epitaph in question is much in Heywood's humorous and satirical style: it is written in the English ballad-metre, and consists of seven seven-line stanzas, each stanza, as was not unusual with Heywood, ending with the same, or nearly the same, line. It commences thus:

"O Love, Love! on thy sowle God have mercye;
For as Peter is _princeps Apostolorum_,
So to the[e] may be sayd clerlye,
Of all foolys that ever was _stultus stultorum_.
Sure thy sowle is in _regna polorum_,
By reason of reason thou haddest none;
Yet all foolys be nott dead, though thou be gone."

In the next stanza we are told, that Love often made the King and Queen merry with "many good pastimes;" and in the third, that he was "shaped and borne of very nature" for a fool. The fourth stanza, which mentions Erasmus and Luther, is the following:--

"Thou wast nother Erasmus nor Luter;
Thou dyds medle no forther than thy potte;
Agaynst hye matters thou wast no disputer,
Amonge the Innocentes electe was thy lotte:
Glad mayst thou be thou haddyst that knotte,
For many foolys by the[e] thynke them selfe none,
Yet all be nott dead, though thou be gone."

The next stanza speaks of "Dye Apguylamys," who is told to prepare the obsequy for Love, and of "Lady Apylton," who had offered a "mass-penny," and the epitaph ends with these stanzas:

"Now, Love, Love! God have mercy on thy mery nowle;
And Love! God have mercye on thy foolysche face,
And Love! God have mercye on thy innocent sowle,
Which amonges innocentes, I am sure, hath a place,
Or ellys thy sowle ys yn a hevy case;
Ye, ye, and moo foolys many [a] one,
For foolys be alyve, Love, though thou be gone.

"Now, God have mercye on us all,
For wyse and folysche all dyethe,
Lett us truly to our myndes call;
And to say we be wyse owr dedes denyethe,
Wherefore the ende my reason thys aplyethe:
God amend all foolys that thynke them selfe none,
For many be alyve, thoughe Love be gone."

It is very possible that I have overlooked some common source of information to which I may be referred; and it is very possible also, that this epitaph has been reprinted in comparatively modern times, and I may not know of it. This is one of the points I wish to ascertain.

J. PAYNE COLLIER.

[Was there no such person as Love, and does the writer mean merely
to pun upon the word? Cupid certainly played the fool in the court
of Henry VIII. as much as any body.]

* * * * *

MARE DE SAHAM--POSTUM PUSILLUM--WATEWICH.

I am much obliged by J.F.M's answers respecting those places. If he will look to the _Historia Eliensis_, lib. ii. c. 84, 85. vol. i. pp. 200-204. (_Anglia Christiana_), he may be certain whether or not he has correctly designated them. He may at the same time, if he be well acquainted with Cambridgeshire, give me the modern interpretation for _Watewich_, also mentioned in chap. 84. of the _Hist. Eliens_.

W.B.M.

* * * * *

THE ADVENT BELLS.

The Advent bells are ringing in many parishes throughout various parts of England during this month of December, if I may judge from my own neighbourhood--on the western borders of Berks--where, at least three times in the week, I hear their merry peals break gladsomely upon the dark stillness of these cold evenings, from many a steeple around. In the Roman States and the kingdom of Naples and Sicily, the "pifferari" go about playing on a kind of rough hautboy and bag-pipes, before the pictures of the Madonna, hung up at the corners of streets and in shops, all through Advent time; but why are the church bells rung in England? What reference in ancient documents can be pointed out for the meaning or antiquity of the usage?

He who draws upon a joint-stock bank of literature as rich as yours, Mr. Editor, already is, should bring a something to its capital, though it be a mite. Allow me, then, to throw in mine. At p. 77. "A SUBSCRIBER" asks, "if William de Bolton was an ecclesiastic, how is it that his wife is openly mentioned?" For one of these two reasons: 1st. By the canon law, whether he be in any of the four minor orders, or in any of the three higher or holy orders, a man is, and was always, called "Clericus," but clerks in lower or minor orders did, and still do, marry without censure; 2d. The Church did, and still does, allow man and wife to separate by free mutual consent, and to bind themselves by the vows of perpetual continence and chastity, the man going into a monastery, or taking holy orders, the woman becoming a nun. Such, I suspect, was the case with Sir William de Bolton ("Sir" being the ancient title of a priest) and his wife, whose joint concurrence in the transfer of property by charter would be legally required, if, as is likely, she had an interest in it.

Your correspondent "MUSAFIR," while on the subject of the _Flemish account_, p. 74., is in error, in assigning to a Count of Flanders the "old story" of the cloaks; it belongs to Robert, Duke of Normandy, who played off the joke at Constantinople in the court of the Greek emperor, as Bromton tells us (ed. Twysden, i. 911.)

CEPHAS

* * * * *

THE POETS.

Many years ago a _Sonnet_, by Leigh Hunt, characterising the poets, appeared in the _Examiner_. Can any of your readers inform me whether the following, which I quote from memory, is correct?