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WILLIAM D'AVENANT ON SHAKSPERE. Wishing to refresh my memory on the career of sir William D'Avenant, the noted poet and dramatist of the seventeenth century, I had recourse to the General biographical dictionary of Mr. Alexander Chalmers. The article occupies five pages; the authorities cited being the Biographia Britannica and the writer himself! After a proemial flourish, which calls for no remarks, we have this exciting statement

"Young Davenant, who was born Feb. 1605, very early betrayed a poetical bias, and one of his first attempts, when he was only ten years old, was an ode in remembrance of master William Shakspeare: this is a remarkable production for one so young."

stanza into nonsense! In 1810 the old error was repeated by Chalmers in the work to which he refers as one of his authorities, and it came forth once more under the auspices of James Boswell in 1821. So ends my case. The offence is neither more nor less than this-the promotion of a captive to the rank of captain without due authority!

I must add that Lowndes misdates the Madagascar of 1638, and that Mr. W. C. Hazlitt, the unsparing Aristarchus of bibliographic literature, gives both the title of the volume, and its curious votive inscription, incorrectly.

Barnes, S.W.

BOLTON CORNEY.

SHAKSPEARIANA.

"The swaggering upspring reels."

Hamlet, Act I. Sc. 4. There has been lately published in Germany Brockhaus, Leipzig) a new edition of Chapman's Tragedy of Alphonsus, Emperor of Germany, editor has added numerous notes and a preface edited by Dr. Karl Elze of Dessau. The learned intercourse between England and Germany in full of research, showing there was a far greater those times than is generally imagined. The work cannot fail to be welcomed in this country as a valuable contribution to Elizabethan literawritten in English. At p. 83, we read ture, especially as both notes and introduction are

I must here interpose some critical objections to the above statement. 1. Herringman, who collected and published the works of sir William in 1673, and the widow of the poet, who dedicated the volume to his royal highness the duke of York, write D'Avenant. 2. Aubrey and Wood assure us that the poet was born in February and baptised the 3 March 1605. So also wrote the exact Thomas Birch in 1736. Now Chalmers, with the option of two admissible modes of stating the historic year, adopts a deceptive modewhich contradicts what immediately follows. 3. The assumption that the ode in question was written when D'Avenant was only ten years old, though made by an editor of twenty-one royal octavo volumes of English verse, needs no refutation-but I shall produce the plain words which To this passage the editor appends the following gave rise to the travesty:—

"Thus much is certain, that our author [D'Avenant] admired Shakespear more than any English poet, and that one of the first essays of his muse was a poem upon his death, which happened when Davenant was about ten years old."-John Campbell, esq. 1750. (B. B. vol. iii.) The authoritative text of the ode on Shakspere is contained in Madagascar; with other poems. By W. Davenant. London, printed by John Haviland for Thomas Walkly-1638. 12°. This small volume has been too much slighted by those who should have examined it, and the consequence has been a series of errors. In 1648 Moseley published a second edition of it with a mutilated line, which quite destroys the sense of the stanza; and in 1673 Herringman adopted the same mutilation. In 1780 Malone judiciously added the ode to the commendatory poems on Shakspere. He misplaced it, however; adopted the mutilated line of Moseley or Herringman; and in 1790 repeated his former error. In 1793 Steevens set aside his propensity to critical censure, and implicitly adopted the error of Malone; and in 1803 Isaac Reed, who had accepted the literary legacy of Steevens, with regard to his revised notes on the plays of Shakspere, adopted the old error, with an addition which converts another

note:

"An Almain and an upspring that is all."

"Upspring' neither means an upstart,' as most Shaksperian editors [as well as Nares, though he cites the present line from Alphonsus] have imagined, nor the German Walzer,' as Schlegel has translated it in Hamlet, I. 4, but it is the Hüpfauf, the last and consequently the wildest dance at the old German merrymakings. See Ayrer's Dramen, ed. by Keller, iv. 2840 and 2846 : —

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and garrulous, but still shrewd old man, Polonius, we might have understood that he knew the difference between Hamlet the royal bird, when himself, and the silly fowl that love had now likened him to. As it is, we understand that he advises his friend that he is only mad for the nonce, as it suits him; and when he chooses to be sane, he can distinguish differences as well as another.

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since. It is in the form of an engraved stamp composed of brass attached to an ebony handle, bearing on the face of the shield the figure of an imperial eagle crowned, with wings extended, and clasping in its talons a massive key with the initials apparently "C. J. P." in a monogram depending from the key. Surrounding the impress are the words "Paveur de la Guerre." As a tradition exists that Napoleon delighted, whenever an opportunity allowed, in paying his troops himself when on active service, is it not (3rd S. possible that this seal was specially employed, honoris causa, when the emperor so played the paymaster? C. R. H.

J. A. G.

"The luce is a fresh fish: the salt is an old coat."

I do not see that it is at all necessary to establish a connection between the above line and the visit of the Danish monarch, as is attempted by MR. PROWETT. Amongst the decorations at the coronation of James I., it is very probable that his arms were impaled with those of his consort, the daughter of the King of Denmark, or hers associated with his collaterally, and so the singular charge of the stockfish would be publicly known. It appears to me exceedingly likely that the words were added in reference to the queen's arms, and if not before, for the representation before the king in 1604.

Nothing which throws the least light on Shakespeare's writings can be deemed unimportant, and in this case, I think, thanks to "N. & Q.," a very interesting fact is educed from what has been considered a dark and unmeaning passage. PHILIP E. MASEY.

24, Old Bond Street, W.

"The gaudy, blabbing, and remorseful day."

King Henry VI., Part II. Act I. Sc. 1. The terms "gaudy" and "blabbing" seem very inapplicable to anything remorseful, or even pityful, if we must take the word with such a meaning. Would not a remorseful man be more inclined to be sullen and taciturn? Shakspeare was a complete master of metaphor; his poetic instinct was unerring. Query then, 1. Is it Shakspeare's? 2. If not, how much more of King Henry VI. is not Shakspeare's? 3. Is the play of King Henry VI., in three parts, not a single play of Shakspeare's, in five acts, largely interpolated by some unknown hand? J. S.

A RELIC OF WATERLOO.-Including amongst its readers and correspondents so large an infusion of our Continental neighbours, to their kindness in a future number of "N. & Q." the writer will probably be indebted for an explanation of an official seal picked up immediately after the battle on the field of Waterloo by an English captain of artillery, in whose family it has remained ever

TRIVET: JOHN OF BOLOGNA.-In Trivet, under the year 1250, it is said: "Hoc anno primum celebratum est Londoniis, sub Magistro Joanne, episcopo Bosonensi, fratrum prædicatorum capitulum generale."

A note to this passage in the edition of Trivet, published by the Historical Society, p. 238, indicates that the person referred to is the celebrated Dominican preacher, John of Vicenza. But John of Vicenza was neither a bishop nor master of the order of Dominicans. The person mentioned by Trivet is evidently John, who resigned the bishopric of Bologna, and was afterwards chosen master of the order, and whose death is recorded in Baronius, Ann. Eccl. under the year 1253, with a quotation from Capistranatus respecting him.

F. B.

IRISH ETYMOLOGY.-Permit me, a student of the Irish language, to correct a singular misapprehension of the meaning of the compound word, bolz an-t-slaton (bolg-an-t-slatoir), by the writer of the interesting review of Kennedy's Legends and Fictions of the Irish Kelts, which appeared in The Times of Friday, May 31. The word is a compound of two nouns with the article An interposed; bolg, a bag or wallet, and solair— a collection, and literally means the genitive of rolair. a provision, a getting, collections, a magazine, a miscellany, and not "bag-of-dirt," as the reviewer ludicrously mistakes. In the Munster dialect the word is written bolg-an-t-rolačair. The last word of the compound, rolar, has been obviously confounded with rolcain, the genitive of the noun † lcp= dirt. The introduction of the adventitious letter

a wallet of

the Gaelic called eclipsis, which here silences the before rolain is owing to a euphonic law of 8 sibilant by the substitution of the t mute.

JOHN EUGENE O'CAVANAGH.

LAKE HABITATIONS. In Lazistan, on the borders of Asia Minor and Georgia, it is stated by Amedée Jaubert in his Voyage en Arménie et en Perse, p. 100, that the Lazes have their habita

tions scattered about here and there on the crests of the mountains near the shores of the sea. They are of wood and raised on posts. The lower part is not inhabited on account of the dampness of the soil, and the upper story is surrounded by a covered gallery. I may observe that such mode of building is not uncommon in Turkey, but sometimes the lower part is walled in on two or three sides as a stable for cattle, or as a covered place for the use of the men or women servants.

Xenophon found the Lazian house among the then inhabitants, the Mossunekes, during the retreat of the ten thousand.

It is to be observed that only some of the Lazian dwellings are in the nature of lake houses

or cranoges.

HYDE CLARKE.

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JOHNNY PEEP: DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF STORIES.

In Allan Cunningham's one vol. edition of Burns' Life and Works, p. 331, I find the following:

"Burns was one day at a cattle-market held in a town in Cumberland, and, in the bustle that prevails on these occasions, he lost sight of some of the friends who accompanied him. He pushed to a tavern, opened the door of every room, and merely looked in, till at last he came to one in which three jolly Cumberland blades were enjoying themselves. As he withdrew his head, one of them shouted Come in, Johnny Peep!' Burns obeyed the call, seated himself at the table, and, in a short time, was the life and soul of the party. In the course of their merriment, it was proposed that each should write a stanza of poetry, and put it with half-a-crown below the candlestick, with this stipulation, that the best poet was to have his halfcrown returned, while the other three were to be expended to treat the party. What the others wrote has new sunk into oblivion. Burns's stanza ran thus:

"Here am I, Johnny Peep,

I saw three sheep,

And these three sheep saw me; Half-a-crown a-piece

Will pay for their fleece,

And so Johnny Peep gets free.'

:

"The stanza of the Ayrshire Ploughman being read, a roar of laughter followed, and while the palm of victory was unanimously voted to Burns, one of the Englishmen exclaimed, 'In God's name, who are you?' An explanation ensued, and the happy party did not separate the same day they met."

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66 LETTER FROM PLAQUEMINES.
(Special Correspondence of The Picayune.)

"Parish of Plaquemines, May 31, 1867. "In the absence of local news, allow me to entertain your readers to-day with a subject which is not entirely devoid of interest.

"Who killed Gen. Braddock? Gordon, in his History of Pennsylvania, and after him Monette, in his History of the Valley of the Mississippi, answer that a provincial named Thomas Fawcett was supposed to have committed the deed. The general had cut down a provincial, for disobeying orders in sheltering himself from the enemy's fire. The brother, who witnessed the act, determined to avenge his death, and awaited the first opportunity, when he lodged his ball in the body of his overbearing commander.

"Now, if the following account be correct, a Capt. Robert Allison it was who shed the blood of Gen. Braddock.

"The disastrous defeat of this famous general on the 9th of July, 1755, in the expedition against Fort Duquesne, now Pittsburg, is well known, says a writer in the March number of the Historical Magazine. In his extreme self-confidence and presumption, disregarding the warnings of Washington, he fell into an ambuscade of French and Indians, seven miles from the fort; and after having five horses shot under him, was mortally wounded, and the whole army then retreated in great disorder, leaving their wounded and baggage to the mercy of the savage foe.

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In Traits and Stories of the Scottish People, by the Rev. Charles Rogers, LL.D. (1867), p. 60, I always lived-James S. Allison, Esq., now fifty-four years find the following:

"Sir William Drummond, happening to be in London, proceeded to a tavern where several of his brother poets

Now, I am informed by a most respectable gentleman, a native of Iredell county, North Carolina, where he has old that when he was a small boy his father lived on the same with his grandfather, William Allison, and his grandmother, Agnes Allison, whose original name was

Allison, and the cousin of her husband. That she was in Philadelphia county, Pa., her parents having come from Ireland and settled there; and that she died in 184, aged about eighty years. That she told him, the sail James S. Allison, many a time that she had an old brother by the name of Robert Allison, who was a captain in Braddock's army, in the advanced guard; and that this brother-who was also in several skirmishes with the Indians in connection with General, then Col. Washington, and also a captain in the Pennsylvania troops in the Revolutionary War, and was killed near the close of italways told her that when they fell into the ambuscade in Braddock's campaign, and many had been killed, and especially the officers, they could not see the enemy among the trees and bushes, nor defend themselves, and the general would not let them retreat; then that he, the said Capt. Robert Allison, directed his orderly sergeant to shoot him, in order that they might get out of the difficulty without any further useless sacrifice of life. This officer, instead of shooting the general, shot several horses under him; and then that he, the said Capt. Robert Allison, took the gun out of the hands of the officer and shot Braddock himself. That he told her, his sister, Agnes Allison, not to make this public at that time, for he would be hung for it.

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My informant, however, born in 1812, often heard her speak of it, up to 1834, when she died; and he had more knowledge of it than the other grandchildren, for he was the oldest grandchild, and was often in the company of his grandmother. The two families used water from the same spring, in the lower end of Iredell county, N. C., to which his grandparents had emigrated from Pennsylvania, before the revolution.

"The name Robert is a prevailing name to various branches of the extensive Allison family in this country;

the writer has known of at least six of that name. The allegations of this old lady on other points, so far as they go, correspond with the various histories, but she never read any history of the transaction. And no family, either in Pennsylvania or in several adjacent counties in North Carolina, is of higher respectability than the name of Allison. There is no essential improbability in the

statement, and it is believed that in the Mexican war, and the more recent war, in our land, cases of this kind have often occurred where officers in the army have been purposely shot by their own men.

"There would seem to be no motive for Capt. Robert Allison to claim this deed for. himself, if it were not the fact. He would be liable to condign punishment if the matter came to light; hence a good reason for not having it known out of the family for a long time, and till the danger was past.

"By way of conclusion, let it be stated here that, according to Bancroft, Braddock had five horses disabled under him; at last a bullet entered his right side, and he fell mortally wounded. He was with difficulty brought off the field, and borne in the train of the fugitives. All the first day he was silent; but at night he roused himself to say: Who would have thought of it?' On the night of the 12th of July, he roused from his lethargy to say, We shall better know how to deal with them another time,' and died. His grave may still be seen, near the national road, about a mile west of Fort Necessity.

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"Edward Braddock was born in Perthshire, about the year 1715, and died near Pittsburg, Pa., on the 13th of July, 1755. He had served with distinction in Spain, Portugal, and Germany. GLEANER."

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What is known of this incident, and where can a full account be seen? J. T. F. The College, Hurstpierpoint.

"ARTICLES TO BE OBSERVED," 1549.—At vol. v. p. 243 of Mr. Pocock's recent edition of Burnet's History of the Reformation (being No. 33 of the collection of Records, part ii. book i.) is a document headed

"Articles to be followed and observed, according to the King's Majesty's Injunctions and Proceedings."

It consists of a series of orders or injunctions, and begins with the words

reading of the injunctions all such as make mention of "That all parsons, vicars, and curates omit in the the popish mass, of chantries, &c."

Burnet appears to have got it in manuscript from Dr. Johnstone, an antiquary of that day; but such of Dr. Johnstone's papers as are still extant appear to be at Campsall Park, near Doncaster, and Mr. Pocock says this document is not among them. Can any of your correspondents tell us whether the original or any contemporary dupliin episcopal registries or private collections or cate or authentic copy be now in existence, either elsewhere? The document has no date. Burnet treats it as belonging to the year 1549 or thereabouts. Cardwell has reprinted it from Burnet in Documentary Annals of the Church, i. 63.

Σ.

REV. DR. BLOMBERG.-Can any of your correspondents inform me as to the authentic parentage of the late Rev. Dr. Blomberg, who was sometime Vicar of Cripplegate? He was also a Canon of St. Paul's; and he likewise held an official position at court, viz., as Clerk of the Royal Closet, or Dean of the Chapel Royal.*

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ROBERT BROWNING'S "BOY AND ANGEL." Will some student of Browning oblige me with answers to two questions anent this enigmatical little poem?-1. What is its precise inner meaning? 2. On what legend is it founded?

With regard to my first question. I see dimly in the poem a comparison of three kinds of praise, viz., human, ceremonial, and angelic. Further, I see dimly a contrasting of Gabriel's humility with Theocrite's ambition.

With regard to my second question. Is there

[* Dr. Blomberg's father was a British officer quartered in the West Indies, where he died in the earlier part of the reign of George III. There is a marvellous story told of him, that on the evening of his death his shade appeared to Major Torriano and another officer stationed in St. Kitts. See "N. & Q." 2nd S. vi. 50, and Dr.Whalley's Journals and Correspondence, ii. 449.-ED.]

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