Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 60.djvu/156

 's language in ‘Henry IV’ (pt. ii. line 1) when referring to Hotspur's death and the battle of Shrewsbury (stanza 113). Similarly in stanza 4 he notices the speeches made to ‘the many-headed multitude’ by Brutus and Mark Antony at Cæsar's funeral. These speeches were the invention of Shakespeare in his play of ‘Julius Cæsar,’ and it is clear that Weever had witnessed a performance of Shakespeare's play of ‘Julius Cæsar’ before writing of Cæsar's funeral. Weever's reference is proof that ‘Julius Cæsar’ was written before Weever's volume was published in 1601. There is no other contemporary reference to the play by which any limits can be assigned to its date of composition. The piece was not published until 1623, in the first folio of Shakespeare's works. As in his first, so in his second volume, Weever mentions Spenser's distress at the close of his life (stanza 63). Four perfect copies of Weever's ‘Mirror of Martyres’ are known; they are respectively in the Huth, Britwell, and Bodleian libraries, and in the Pepysian Library at Magdalene College, Cambridge. The only other copy now known is imperfect, and is in the British Museum. The poem was reprinted for the Roxburghe Club in a volume edited by Mr. Henry Hucks Gibbs (afterwards Lord Aldenham) in 1873.

Subsequently Weever published a thumb-book (1½ inch in height) giving a poetical history of Christ beginning with the birth of the Virgin. The title-page ran ‘An Agnus Dei. Printed by V. S. for Nicholas Lyng, 1606.’ The dedication ran: ‘To Prince Henry. Your humble servant. Jo. Weever.’ The only copy known is in the Huth Library (cf., Censura Literaria, ii.; Huth Library Cat.)

In the early years of the seventeenth century Weever travelled abroad. He visited Liège, Paris, Parma, and Rome, studying literature and archæology (cf. Funerall Monuments, pp. 40, 145, 257, 568). Finally he settled in a large house built by Sir Thomas Chaloner in Clerkenwell Close, and turned his attention exclusively to antiquities. He made antiquarian tours through England, and he designed to make archæological exploration in Scotland if life were spared him. He came to know the antiquaries at the College of Arms and elsewhere in London, and made frequent researches in the libraries of Sir Robert Cotton and Sir Simonds D'Ewes. His chief labours saw the light in a folio volume extending to nearly nine hundred pages, and bearing the title ‘Ancient Funerall Monuments within the United Monarchie of Great Britaine, Ireland, and the Islands adjacent, with the dissolved monasteries therein contained, their Founders and what Eminent Persons have been in the same interred’ (London, 1631, fol.). A curious emblematic frontispiece was engraved by Thomas Cecil, as well as a portrait of the author, ‘æt. 55 Ao 1631.’ Weever dedicated his work to Charles I. In an epistle to the reader he acknowledges the encouragement and assistance he received from his ‘deare deceased friend’ Augustine Vincent, and from the antiquary Sir Robert Cotton, to whom Vincent first introduced him. He also mentions among his helpers Sir Henry Spelman, John Selden, and Sir Simonds D'Ewes. A copy which Weever presented to his old college (Queens') at Cambridge is still in the library there, and has an inscription in his autograph (facsimile in Clerkenwell, p. 351). Almost all Weever's sepulchral inscriptions are now obliterated. His transcripts are often faulty and errors in dates abound (cf., Angl. Sacra, par. i. p. 668; Gent. Mag. 1807, ii. 808). But to the historian and biographer the book, despite its defects, is invaluable. A new edition appeared in 1661, and a third, with some addenda by William Tooke, in 1767. Weever's original manuscript of the work is in the library of the Society of Antiquaries (Nos. 127–8).

Weever, who dated the address to the reader in his ‘Funerall Monuments’ from his house in Clerkenwell Close, was buried in 1632 in the church of St. James's, Clerkenwell. The church was subsequently entirely rebuilt (cf. Clerkenwell, p. 48). The long epitaph in verse inscribed on his tomb is preserved in Stow's ‘Survey of London’ (1633, p. 900, cf. Strype's edition, bk. iv. p. 65; Gent. Mag. 1788, ii. 600).



WEGUELIN, THOMAS MATTHIAS (d. 1828), soldier, born at Moorfields in London, was the eldest son of John Christopher Weguelin by his second wife, Elizabeth. He was appointed a cadet in the East India Company's service in March 1781 on the Bengal presidency. He arrived in Calcutta in April 1782, having previously been promoted to an ensigncy on 16 June 1781. He joined the third European regiment at Burhánpur, and received a lieutenant's commission on 22 Sept. 1782. In November he was removed to the first battalion of the 22nd native infantry, at the frontier station of Fatehgarh in the dominions of the nawáb of Oudh. In March 1783 he proceeded to the Farukhábád district, where he took part in some petty