LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1867. CONTENTS.-No 297. NOTES: -Star-Chamber Prosecution for Deer-Stealing, by a Sir Thomas Lucy, 181- Mr. W. Carew Hazlitt: Lost Books, &c., 183 - Herne's Oak: Singular Phenomenon presented by the Wood, 184-Folk-Lore: Baptismal Superstition-An Infant Palm-Dressing an Infant-Somnambulism-Superstition about Cats-A Norfolk Vulgar Error, 184- A New Clock Dial-A Naval Yarn on "Drawing the Long Bow" - Death of the Oldest English Resi dent in Smyrna Paranomasia The Centre of the United States - Deer Leap - Abyssinia, 185. in the " county of Wourcester,† inclosed with pale and by all the tyme aforesaid and yet used and kepte for the keepeinge and breedinge and cherishinge of Deere And whereas your Majestie intendinge a due and speedy reformacion of the abuses and offences usually attempted, committed, and done against the anciente and other good and necessary lawes and statutes of this kingdome of England concerninge unlawfull hunteinge, and entrynge into anie Forreste, Parke, Chase, or Warren, to kill or destroye anie Deere or game with anie dogges, nettes, or gonnes, did by your highnes most gracious proclamacion against unlawfull huntynge, sett fourth, made, and published in the first yeare of your highnes said raigne of England, Fraunce, and Ireland, straightly charge and comaund all and every person and persons of what estate and degree soever, not to hunte, kyll, take, or destroye by anie of the wayes or meanes abovesaid, or by anie other unlawful meane device or invencion whatsoever, anie of the games abovesaid, contrary to anie the lawes or statutes aforesaid, nor that they should have, keepe, or use anie Deere-haies, Bucke-stalles, dogges, gunnes, or nettes, contrary to anie of the said lawes or statutes. And that yf anie person or persons should, after the said proclamacion made and published, offend in anie of the premisses against anie of the said lawes and statutes, that then he should not onely undergoe and suffer the severe sentence and punishmente of the same, as well for such offences then after to be attempted or done as for lyke offences formerly committed, but alsoe such paynes and penaltyes as may be inflicted uppon such as wilfully contemne and disobey your highnes comaundemente royall, as in and by your highnes said most gracious proclamacion whereunto relacion beinge hadd more at large yt may appeare. Yet soe yt is, yf yt may please your most excellente In the further prosecution of my labours among these records, I have met with another bill and answer, which may probably be of interest to Shakespearian inquirers. I send you a copy of the bill, which was filed on June 27, 1610. The answer, which is that of William Wall, the first-named defendant, I have not copied, as it simply amounts to a plea of Not guilty. It is probably not necessary that I should say more in illustration of this paper, or by way of attracting to it Majestie, That William Wall of Rooke, in the county of Wigorn, gentleman; Rowland Harnage of Kynlett, in the county of Salop, gentleman; the attention of your readers, than merely to remark that it relates to a case of deer-stealing (a very common practice in those days, and the subject of many proceedings in the Star Chamber), and that the plaintiff in the suit is a Sir Thomas Lucy. GEORGE KNIGHT. QUERIES:- Private Act of Parliament - The City Poets QUERIES WITH ANSWERS:-"The Waefu' Heart"-Snowdon Castle Robert Holmes Camoens' "Lusiad" English Journalism - Battle of Harlaw, 188. REPLIES:- Bishop Giffard, 189-Rattening, 191- Har vest Home, 192-Whipping Females, 193-"Ye Mariners of England" - Earl St. Vincent - Last on Shakespeare -Bus Passage from Fortescue - Dole -"High Life below Stairs" - Swatfal tall-Shekel - Keats and "Hyperion"- The French Word "Ville" in Composition Nose-bleeding Two Churches under one Roof-False Quantity in Byron's "Don Juan" Royal Christian Names Bishop Hay - Vent: Weald - Frederick, Prince of Wales-John Archer-William Sharp, Surgeon - The Protesting Bishops -More Family Marriage of First Cousins The Word" Beagle," &c., 194. Literary Intelligence. Notes. A STAR-CHAMBER PROSECUTION FOR DEER- MR. BRUCE, in his remarks upon the Shakespeares of Rowington, lately published in "N. & Q." (3rd S. xii. 81), explained the nature of the work upon which, under the direction of Mr. Hardy, the Deputy-Keeper, I am at this time engaged among the Star Chamber proceedings in the Public Record Office. The Public Record Office. "To the Kinges most excellente Majestie. "Humblye Complayneth and sheweth your most excellente Majestie, your highnes most faythfull and obediente subjecte Sir Thomas Lucy, of Charlecott in the county of Warwicke, knight," That, Whereas, your, highnes said subjecte long before and on the day of Julye, in the seaventh yeare of your Majesties most happie raigne of England, Fraunce, and Ireland, was, and ever synce hath bene and yet is lawfully and rightfully seised in his demesne as of fee of and in one Parke in the parishe of [* Of course this was not the Sir Thomas Lucy who is said to have prosecuted Shakespeare for this same offence. We take it to have been his grandson.-ED.] [t Joyce Lady Lucy, wife of Shakespeare's prosecutor, was "daughter and heir of Thomas Acton of Sutton, in the county of Worcester." A good deal has been made of the circumstance that Charlecote was not in Shake speare's time a deer-park, but it would seem from this document that the poet's offence against Sir Thomas Lucy may have been committed elsewhere than at Charlecote.-ED.] NOTES AND QUERIES. out of season, in very insolente manner bragginge Richard Bennett of Kynlett, aforesaid, in the said county of Salop, yeoman; Symon Phillippes of and publishinge what they hadd [done], and giveKynlett aforesaid, in the said county of Salop, inge out that they would againe, at their pleasure, come and hunte in your subjectes said parke, in yeoman; Henry Holoway of over Areley, in the county of Staff:, yeoman; Gerrard Lawley of Kyn- despight of your subjectes keepers; and accordlett aforesaid, in the said county of Salop, yeo-ingly the said Riottours, divers and sundry other man; and divers other persons, to the nomber of night tymes in Sommer, in the said seaventh tenn or twelve persons more, as yet unknowen yeare aforesaid, in most riottous and unlawfull unto your said subjecte, beinge all of them men of manner entred into the said Parke, and with barbarous and uncivill disposicion and of most in- dogges and crossebowes did chase, hunte, kyll, solente humors, and unrespectyve of your highnes, and distroye divers and sundry deere in the said not wayeinge or esteemynge your highnes said parke, which said wilfull, insolente, contemptuous, proclamacion nor the said lawes nor statutes of and riottous misdemeanors and miscarriages of the this realme; but most wilfully contemnynge and said William Wall, Rowland Harnage, Richard disobeyinge your highnes said comaundemente Bennett, Symon Phillippes, Henry Holoway, other persons, were committed, perpetrated, and royall, in and by the same proclamacion noti- Gerrard Lawley, Roberte Tirry, and of the said fied and divulged, in and uppon the said day of July in the seaventh yeare aforesaid, of done synce anie generall or other pardon of your some former plott and agreemente amongst them, highnes or of anie your Majesties noble progenidid very unlawfully nere aboute the evenynge of tours which pardon such offences, and are not the same day meete togeather at the then dwel- onely directly contrary to your highnes said exlinge howse of one Roberte Tirry of Sowsenett in presse most royal comaundemente, and therefore the parishe of Mamill, in the said county of worthely deservinge severe chasticemente, but doe Wourcester, an Alehowsekeeper, and there beinge tend to the pernicious example to others of lyke soe mette togeather, they, togeather with the said lewd and evill disposicion and misgoverned kind Roberte Tirry, did conspire and combyne them- of lief to incurre the lyke enormityes. Nowe selves togeather to hunte Deere that night fol- for asmuch as yf such inordynate misdemeanors and contemptuous and exorbitante crymes willowinge in your subjectes said Parke, and haveinge soe conspired and combyned themselves togeather, fully committed against soe high a Majestie and to the entente that they would not be hindred, against the quiet govermente of this your highnes but would have full and free passage and progresse realme should escape unpunished, yt would be a in their said purposes and deseignes, they armed greate ymboldeninge and encoragemente to other and arrayed themselves with gunnes, fowlinge of lyke audacious, insolente, and misgoverned peeces, crossebowes, swordes, rapiers, daggers, condicion to fall into the lyke, and manie more fawchions, pyke-staves, and such lyke weapons, as grievous and enormous offences; whereas yf due well invasyve as defensyve, and beinge soe armed chasticemente and condigne punishmente be inflicted uppon the said riottours and offendors, yt and arrayed, they in the night of the said day of July did ryde all on horsebacke togeather will breed a terror and be an admonicion to others from the said howse of the said Roberte Tyrry of lyke evill conversacion not to offend in any unto your subjectes said Parke, and did then take such wise: May yt therefore please your most alonge with them from the said howse unto your excellente Majestie, the premisses considered, to subjectes said Parke divers greyhoundes to hunte graunte unto your said subjecte your highnes and kyll Deere there. And beinge come unto the most gracious wryttes of Subpena to be directed said Parke, they all very unlawfully, routously, unto the said William Wall, Rowland Harnage, and riotously, beinge armed and arrayed as afore- Richard Bennett, Symon Phillippes, Henry Holoway, Gerrard Lawley, Roberte Tyrry, and other said, entred into the said Parke, and beinge soe entred into the said Parke, in wilfull contempte the said evill doers, whose names your said suband disobedience of your highnes' said comaunde-jecte humbly prayeth he may inserte into this mente royall, not haveinge lawfull tytle or autho- his bill as the same shall come to his knowledge, ritye soe to doe, riottously and unlawfully, against thereby comaundinge them and every of them, at the mynd, will, and pleasure of your said subjecte, certayne dayes and under certayne paynes therein then and yet beinge owner and possessor of the to be lymmitted, to be and personally appeare said Parke, did ryde amongst deere then in the before the Lordes of your highnes Counsell in your Majesties high Courte of Starre Chamber, then and there to answere unto all and singular said Parke feedinge, and then and there in the said Parke did very unlawfully, with the said greyhoundes, hunte and chase the wholl hearde of the premisses, and to stand to and abide such order, deere then and there feedinge, and with the said sentence, Decree, and Judgmente touchinge the greyhoundes then and there did kyll, take, and premisses as to the said most honorable Courte destroye divers and sundry of the said deere, not shall seeme to be for the honour of your most excellente Majestie, and for reformacion of the respectinge whether they were deere in season or 182 said wilfull, insolente, and contemptuous misdemeanors, and to staud with right equity and good conscience. And your said subjecte shall dayly pray unto th'almighty for your highnes most happie and prosperous raigne longe to contynue over us. "Jo: WALTER. "THO: GREENE. (Indorsed) "Mercurii 27° Junii, A° 8 Jacobi Regis. "TH. MYNATT. "R[etorn] xva M[ich.] . In the preface to the Hand-book of Mr. W. Carew Hazlitt, now in the course of publicationa work which argues an extensive acquaintance with early English literature, and promises the results of much toilsome research -I observe some remarks on adventurers in the same path which neither indicate candour nor taste. On those nice points it would be useless to comment; but the author advances a statement in illustration of the beneficial tendency of his own doings, as corrective of the history of literature, which comes within the scope of critical inquiry. To expose visionary claims, when such instances arise, is an act of justice to others, and I shall repeat the statement in question with the addition of counter-illustration: The Greek text of Heliodorus, who flourished in the fourth century, was first printed at Bâle in 1534, and a French version of the romance, by the celebrated Amyot, appeared at Paris in 1547 (Clavier+Brunet). As to the first English trans MR. W. CAREW HAZLITT: LOST BOOKS, ETC. "He that sparingly or unwillingly praiseth another, seemeth to hunger and thirst after his own praise."-lation, which is my especial object, the fact has Francis Meres, M.A. 1598. been patent more than four-score years that it was licensed for the press in 1568 (Herbert, p. 921). It was printed forthwith; is briefly recorded in the third part of the Bibliotheca Heberiana; and the volume is thus described in the Bodleian catalogue of 1843 — An exact enumeration of the early editions of an estimable work is an object of much importance. It is by the collation of such editions that we ascertain which of the series exhibits the best text, and any addition to lists of that nature is a real acquisition. So far, I commend the plan of Mr. Hazlitt. But the expunction of an edition reported by authors of repute is a process of an opposite character. Its non-existence may be possible, or even probable-but how can it be proved? To omit the item is to smother inquiry, and may deprive such lists of the very circumstance on which their value chiefly depends. I should be disposed to retain it, but with some mark to denote its questionable authority. If Mr. Hazlitt had claimed supremacy as the chronicler of broadsides, ballads, jest-books, drolleries, and projected publications, I should have read his remarks without a word of dissent. But the three works which he specifies are of another class. The Ars adulandi of Ulpian Fulwell is pronounced by Mr. Collier to be most clever and amusing; of Heliodorus it is confidently asserted— castitate superat reliquos eroticos Gr. auctores; and of Thomas Howell-that he was Apolloes impe. I shall now produce my counter-illustrations, but shall give precedence to Heliodorus, as one of the ancients. "HELIODORUS.-An Ethiopian historie, very wittie and pleasaunt, Englished by Thomas Underdoune. 4°. Lond. by Henrie Wykes, n. d." The absence of its date is out of the question. As Henry Wykes printed no work after 1569, it is obvious that this volume is one of the three hitherto-supposed-to-be-lost books. The same article furnishes me with an instance of bibliographic expunction. Mr. Hazlitt omits. no doubt purposely, the Heliodorus of 1577. I shall call up, as witnesses on the other side, bishop Tanner, Samuel Paterson, George Steevens, and the rev. Philip Bliss: "UNDERDOWN (Thomas) filius Stephani Oxoniensis, transtulit in linguam Anglic.-Heliodori historiam Aethiopicam, lib. x. ad ed. com. Oxon. As they somewhat be more.' Lond... et MDLXXVII. 4to."-Tho. TANNER, Bibliotheca Britannico-Hibernica, 1748. "An Ethiopian historie, written in Greeke by Heliodorus, englished by Tho. Underdown, black letter, imprinted by Hen. Middleton 1577 [40]."-Sam. PATERSON, Cat. J. Hutton, 1764, No. 773. Tanner and Paterson are explicit and unanswerable. Steevens, in his Ancient translations of classic authors, and Bliss, in his additions to Ant. Wood, give the same testimony. And what is the result? Mr. Hazlitt is sure of the undivided enjoyment of his attempt at novelty. No one can in future assert, himself excepted, that the Heliodorus of 1577 never had being. I shall pass over the remainder of the article on Heliodorus, with all its errors, and proceed to salute the moderns. Ulpian Fulwell and Thomas Howell seem to have been men of note in their own time, but they are now seldom named, and their works have ceased to be procurable-nor are they very accessible to metropolitan students. After a further illustration of the contested statement, which is the chief object of this note, it was my wish to record some bibliographic particulars of the above-named Elizabethan authors, but now propose to reserve them for a non-controversial occasion, and shall avoid a deviation from my text. ULPIAN FULWELL.-The existence of the Ars adulandi of Fulwell, as published in 1576, was proved by the catalogue of the Shakesperiana of Mr. Edward Capell, printed in 1779; which catalogue was re-printed in the Book rarities of the rev. C. H. Hartshorne in 1829. Moreover, the volume was thus described, the words within brackets excepted, by Mr. Edward Cranwell, under librarian of T. C. C., in an Index of early English books, published in 1847: -: While working up a portion of this memorable tree into covers for the book I have written on its identity, looking on the end I observed a great peculiarity. The annular rings accumulated in a healthy vigorous manner up to a certain point, when they suddenly ceased, became almost imperceptible, then increased again in size till they attained nearly their former width, afterwards gradually diminished towards the outer edge of the tree, when they finally became undistinguishable. Upon mentioning this phenomenon to an intelligent gardener of fifty years' experience, without informing him in what wood I had observed it, he said the tree must have been struck by lightning, or blighted in some way so as to have stopped its growth, otherwise such an appearance would not have been presented. It was in the nature of trees as it was with us: when they arrived at maturity, they began to decline the same as we did; but it was generally a gradual process, the rings in the trunk would become smaller and smaller by degrees as the sap flowed less and less up the tree. I have since examined the wood more closely, and, from the healthy part of the tree to the outside of the piece, have counted 164 annular rings; if to these are added twenty for the sap which was wasted away from it, and forty-four yearswhich time, at least, it is known to have been dead-we are carried back as far as 1639, as the latest time when the tree could have been seared or blighted. How much earlier than this it may have been, I am not in a position at present to prove; but considering that the rings are so small as to be scarcely discernible, and that some of the outer portion of the tree has been wasted away, I submit that it is not a very preposterous idea to assume it not improbable that it happened during Shakspeare's time. Referring to the first edition of The Merry Wives of Windsor, published 1602, we find no mention of Herne's Oak; neither do we in the reprint of 1619. The first mention of it is in the first folio edition, 1623: so that the probability is that the story of "Herne the Hunter" existed before the tree was attached to it, which, subsequent to 1602, being blasted, the superstition of the age imputed to the evil power of the spirit of Herne, who, according to the previous tradition, "walked in shape of a great stag, with huge horns on his head." We are therefore led to suppose that, between 1602 and the date of Shakspeare's death, 1616, he perfected the first sketch of the play by adding to it such information as he could gather, and such improvements as his matured judgment suggested; and, if we take the period of his retirement at New Place as the probable date when he calmly set himself to revise and improve his plays, collecting them together in the form in which they were given to the world in 1623-say 1610 or 1612-we are thus brought to within twenty-seven or twenty-nine years of the date to which we can satisfactorily trace the blasting of Herne's Oak to have taken place; evidence which, if not sufficient in itself to identify this tree with the play of Shakspeare, yet, when taken in connection with all the other points in favour of the tree which I have previously advanced, it forms a powerful collateral evidence which the most sceptical cannot deny. W. PERRY. 5, North Audley Street. FOLK LORE. The following has lately come to my knowledge, and perhaps may be worthy of enrolment with their kindred in "N. & Q." : Baptismal Superstition.-While standing at the font last Sunday (tenth after Trinity), and preparing to baptize two children, the nurse attendant on one of the parties abruptly demanded of the other nurse if the child she presented was a boy. The reply seemed to satisfy her. I took an early opportunity to question her on the subject, and she replied that she "wondered at my not knowing that a boy was always christened before a girl." On my assuring her that such was not the custom here, she said: "In Scarborough, where I came from, it is always the custom to baptize and bury a boy before a girl." And she added, when I pressed for a reason: "Doesn't it look reasonable?" Further "deponent sayeth not." This is the reverse of the custom named in 2nd S. i. 226, but accords with that named by your earlier correspondent in 1* S. ii. 197. An Infant Palm. - On examining an infant's hand, the mother excused the dirt of its palm by saying: "You know we never wash the palm of an infant's hand: my other child was eighteen months old before I ever washed his palm." On expressing my surprise at such a dirty excuse, she replied: "They say, if an infant's palm is washed, it will make it 'light fingered."" Dressing an Infant.-When an infant is first dressed, its clothes should never be put on over its head (which is very unlucky), but drawn over its feet. GEORGE LLOYD. Darlington. Somnambulism. "Among other pleasant talke, he shewed hir how hee doubted that hee was not well christened: for, as hee said, hee vsed oftentimes to rise out of his bed in his sleepe, and going about the house, should doe he wist not what himselfe."-The Image of Idlenesse, sig. e. iij. verso, 1581. Superstition about Cats. "A child of eighteen months old was found dead near Plymouth; and it appeared, on the coroner's inquest, that the child died in consequence of a cat sucking its breath, thereby occasioning a strangulation."- Annual Register, Jan. 25, 1791. W. ALDIS WRIGHT. Trin. Coll., Cambridge. A Norfolk Vulgar Error. "At Norwich, on Saturday, a woman was summoned from Horsted for throwing water over another woman. The evidence showed that the defendant fetched two pails of clean water from some little distance for the purpose mentioned; but before ducking the complainant she washed her hands in it, and on inquiry as to her motive for doing so, it was found that it was done in the belief that if a person throws dirty water over another the law is powerless, and can have no hold upon the individual committing such an assault. The magistrates showed her the fallacy of such a belief by fining her 6d. and costs, or the alternative of a month's imprisonment."-Stamford Mercury, July 26. A. O. V. P. A NEW CLOCK DIAL.-Having occasion to call at a dram shop, to inquire the locus in quo of a person of whom I was in search, I observed a clock which recorded the hour and minute of the day in the same way as the office almanacs do, by shifting the day of the week, the day of the month, and name of the month. This clock I read as follows: 27 MINUTES PAST In a minute's time the figure 7 slided down, and 8 appeared; in another minute's time the 8 slided down, and 9 appeared. The figure in the ten's place, 2, would, in like manner (for I did not wait to see it), slide down to show 3, as 9, in the unit's place, slid down to admit of the appearance of 0. The figure representing the hour changes after the lapse of 60 minutes. The words "minutes" and "past" are fixtures. This clock cost 451. T. J. BUCKTON. A NAVAL YARN ON "DRAWING THE LONG Bow."-The following affair was honourable to the parties, according to the Code of Honour of the day. It so happened that a naval officer in conversation after dinner inquired of Lieutenant Cecil if he knew the gallant Captain Stackpole of the Statira frigate. Lieut. Cecil replied he did, and had the best opinion of him as a brave officer, but inadvertently added, that he believed him capable occasionally of "drawing the long bow." This answer became a topic of conversation in the gun-room of the Statira, and at length reached the ears of Capt. Stackpole. Four years however elapsed before the two officers met; but the opportunity at last offered, when the Statira was lying in the harbour of Port Royal, and the Argo, of which Cecil was senior lieutenant, happened to enter that port. Capt. Stackpole immediately wrote to Cecil to inquire whether he had made use of the offensive words. Cecil answered that he had no recollection of having used the phrase; but as a brother officer and a man of honour had quoted his words, he could not act otherwise than avow them. The result was a duel, in which Capt. Stackpole, receiving a shot on the shoulder which shattered his epaulet, fell dead on the spot, and His Majesty's navy was thus deprived of the service of a brave and meritorious officer. "To draw the long bow" is, or rather was, to exercise the gift of narrating à la Munchausen. J. S. Stratford, Essex. |
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