Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 1.djvu/156

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. i. FEB. is, 1904.

glade " made for Venus's sake " in the floure of his youth," with which songs, as Go we has it, " the land fulfilled is overal." No les appropriate a trait is it that, besides his othe graces and accomplishments, the Squire " courteous, lowly, and serviceable " ; so tha it is altogether a tempting assumption tha we have here a portrait, sufficiently disguise^ to preserve artistic illusion, of Chaucer when lie was a " lusty bachelor " " as fresh as is the month of May." W. J. GOODRICH.

[For the Prioress's French see the discussion in 7 th S. ix. 305, 414, 497 ; x. 57, 98, 298, 392.]

PEG WOFFINGTON'S LETTER. (See 3 rd S. xii 430.) As Woffington autographs are among the rarest known, one hesitates before pro nouncing the mysterious letter given at the above reference a forgery, but it needs to be pointed out that sundry statements made therein by the vivacious Peg fail to square with facts as we know them.

Remark the charming inconsistency of thi epistle. Although the tone throughout L that of the easy familiarity subsisting be- tween equals and friends, it is addressed to "My Pretty Little Oroonoko," and the writer concludes by informing her " Dr Black boy " that she is his "admirer and humble ServV One would be inclined from this to entertain the painful suspicion that the easy- going actress had become enamoured of a negro lackey ; but the opening paragraph gives one pause, for Peg begins by telling her mysterious acquaintance that "Sir Thomas Robinson writes me word y* you are very pretty, which has raised my curiosity to a great pitch, and it makes me long to see you."

If the Robinson referred to was "long Sir Thomas," he must have communicated from abroad, as he was appointed Governor of Barbados in August, 1742, and not recalled until 1747. This "pretty little Oroonoko" might have been a black page sent by him as a present to the Duke of Richmond ; but why Mistress Woffington should have troubled herself to discuss her personal affairs with "Master Thomas Robinson" passeth under- standing. The whole reads like one of those laughter-provoking epistles which used to addle the brains of poor Lord Dundreary.

One thing is certain. If Peg Woffington really wrote this letter, Genest's account of the Drury Lane season of 1743-4 is both inaccurate and incomplete. The letter is dated " Saturday, Xbr 18th, 1743," a slip, as 18 December in that year fell on a Sunday. Assuming that the 17th was meant, one notes the intimation, " I play the part of S r Harry

Wildair to night," but Genest has no note of her in that role save on the 14th and 19th of the month. Nor does he give us any clue whereby we can identify " the acting poet- aster" who was then at Goodwood, but who, a little time previously, had made his first appearance on the stage in association with Peg, and who, not long after, played Carlos in ' Love makes a Man.' Who was this mysterious debutant, whose " gracef ull motion of his hands and arms " was due to his early experience in " spreading plaisters when he was aprentice " ? Delane played Carlos at Drury Lane on 15 November, 1743, but he was far from a novice. Can the allusion have been to Foote, who appeared at Drury Lane early that season, quick on the heels of his debut at the Hay market 1 Beyond Delane and Theophilus Gibber there svere no other male accessions to the company that season, if Genest is to be believed.

Swiny was of course Owen MacSwiney, erst while manager of the Italian Opera-House, and for some years Mrs. Woffington's guide, philosopher, and friend. He was old enough to have been her father, and rewarded her complacency by leaving her all the worldly goods he died possessed of. The allusion to MacSwiney militates against the supposition that the letter is a forgery, for none save bhose who had made a profound study of Mrs. Woffington's life could have been aware of the great influence exercised over her by
 * he witty old Irishman. And your average

iterary forger's knowledge is at best but superficial.

If this letter is still extant it would be nteresting to compare it with any other Woffington autograph that may exist, par- icularly with the signature to her will ; but as that seems to have been made when she paralyzed, it might not prove very

trustworthy.

F. F. L.

"ONE-NINTH CHURCH." The discovery of ihe solitary " centralone " of Cistercian priories vas a novel development in monkish archi- ecture. There has crept into the literature f Anglo-Judaism an equally amusing, if less picturesque, freak in ecclesiastical edifices. Add. MS. 29,868 contains two lists of Jews esident in London about 1660, and these were for the first time published in extenso >y Mr. Lucien Wolf in 'The Jewry of the Restoration,' a valuable paper read before he Jewish Historical Society of England in 902. Several of the Jews resided in " Chre- hurch " Lane, and in the first list the address f five is given as being "at Mr. Linger a lumers in Church." That Jews should, or