Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 10.djvu/13

 10 s. x. JULY 4, 1908.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

are not in any known part of Chapman, although Collier refers them to Chapman's continuation of Marlowe's poem, where he found the third one :

4 Good Deeds,' p. 141.

Good deeds, in case that they be evil placed, 111 deeds are reckoned, and soone disgraced : That is a good deed that prevents a bad.

(signed) G. Chapman.

Allot next mingles Thomas Lodge's 'Glaucus and Sylla,' 11. 29-30, with Spenser's ' Ruines of Time,' 11. 55-6 :

' World,' p. 379. Take moysture from the sea, take colour from his

kind, Before the World devoyd of change thou finde.

All that in this World is great or gay

Doth, as a vapour, vanish and decay.

(signed) Ed. Spencer.

I can only find the last eight lines of the next quotation in Sylvester, in the ' Babylon,' 11. 524-31, of Du Bartas :

' Sleepe,' p. 319.

A drowsie head to earth by dull desire Draws downe the soule, that should to heaven

aspire.

Writing these later lines, wearie well-nie Of sacred Pallas pleasing labour deare, Mine humble chin salute th oft my brest ; With an ambrosian deawe mine eies possest, By peece meale close ; all moving powers die still ; From my dull fingers drops my fainting quill : Downe in my sloath-bound bed again e 1 shrinke, And in darke Laethe all deepe cares I sinke.

(signed) J. Syl.

With Sylvester's fine rendering of Du Bartas' s charming lines, I end examples that have come under my notice of mixed passages in ' Englands Parnassus.' It is true that under 'Fortune,' p. 117, Collier thought he had found a similar case in con- nexion with a quotation from 'The Mirror for Magistrates ' ; but he was mistaken. He used a copy of the 1610 edition of the work, which omits the line that he dis- tinguishes from the rest of the passage. A glance at an earlier version of the ' Legend of Lord Irenglas' will show that Allot copied his original accurately.

One result of the finding of these mixed passages is that, whereas at first my com- putation of the number of extracts in ' Englands Parnassus ' gave a total of 2,330, that figure has had to be increased corre- spondingly with the errors as they have become known to me. What the real number will be when the quotations are all located is a matter for intelligent speculation.

Allot' s book was excellently planned, but it was badly executed. His design was to display in a handy form the thoughts and opinions of poets of his own and the

previous generation, and to invite com- parison between the literary achievements of English authors and their foreign rivals,, both ancient and modern ; and, as such a work would cover mudh of the domain of thought, he curtailed his extracts to a few lines, thus forming a dictionary of quota- tions that could be readily consulted. To- these short extracts he added longer ones containing descriptions of beauty as applied to form, place, and scenery ; and rounded off with examples showing the proper way of using tropes and other ornaments of speech. And it was part of his plan that underneath each of his quotations the signature of the author should be placed.

To compile such a work as that required not only taste and judgment, but steadiness of purpose, and no mean clerical skill. A close examination of Allot' s extracts reveals the fact that they did not assume their present order until after much shifting about from place to place ; for not only do we find authors mingled indiscriminately, but quotations under the same headings and from the same works follow a different, order from their originals. On the other hand, it is easy to trace passages that Allot selected ; and when going systematically through a work little that he took is missed ;. and, moreover, one can clear up many of his errors at the same time, because on& gets to know the matter he would take ; and therefore, if it is not quoted under the right signature, it will almost surely be found under a wrong one, or stand as an unsigned entry, either alone or mingled with another passage.

It seems to follow that he must have> used separate slips for each of his entries, and that he often forgot to write the- authors' names on them, and then trusted to luck for this information after he had arranged his extracts under their several divisions. And what seems to have proved his greatest trouble was the vicious practice of using the word " Idem " instead of the- author's name. This practice would appear to be right at the time of transcribing to one- who had not had the training of a scribe, because, as in the case of Sylvester or Spenser, who yielded so much material, it would seem irksome to write the name in- full on each slip, when " Idem " would, apparently answer the same purpose. But when it came to the time of distribution the folly of this course would be manifest,, because the slips would change their places,, and the " Idems " would indicate that the passages very often belonged to authors