Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 11.djvu/620

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. XL JUNE 26, im

To this may be added a work by Huig de Groot (Hugo Grotius), born at Delft in 1583. Grotius, when imprisoned at Loevesteyn, says Dr. Bosworth ('Origin of the Dutch,' 1836, p. 25), wrote his most celebrated poem in Dutch, ' Bewijs van den waren Gods- . dienst ' (' Evidences of the True Religion '), a work better known in England by its Latin title ' De Veritate Religionis Chris- tianse.' He wrote this work in Dutch verse for fishermen, and sailors on long voyages. The Rev. J. Halbertsma says :

" I have often heard old Friesian sailors reciting whole pages from this book. Grotius was after- wards induced by the learned to translate it into Latin, and it has been since translated into almost all the languages of Europe, and, I believe, into Arabic."

R. OLIVER HESLOP.

Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

. The well-known ' Voyage autpur de ma Chambre ' of Xavier de Maistre might, I think, be placed under this head, although the author was not actually in prison, but under " close arrest " (military) at the time.

E. E. STREET.

Amongst notable literature written in gaol may be catalogued ' De Consolatione Philo- sophise ' (Boetius) early in the sixth century ; the ' Capitola,' a poem in praise of his prison, by Cellini, if his own evidence is trustworthy ; and the ' Purgatory of Suicides,' and ' Wise Saws and Modern Instances,' a series of tales, written by Thomas Cooper, the Chartist poet, in Stafford gaol, 1842-4, whilst undergoing a sentence of two years' imprisonment for conspiracy and sedition, both published in 1845. B. D. MOSELEY.

Abraham de Wicquefort's ' Ambassador ' may be added. C. J.

Chidiock Tichborne (1558 ?-1586) wrote his beautiful 'My Prime of Youth' in the Tower the night before his execution. This poem was quoted by Sir J. D. (afterwards Lord) Coleridge in the Tichborne case.

GEORGE WHALE.

' The Pilgrim's Progress ' by no means ex- hausts the tale of Bunyan's prison literature. The ' D.N.B.' gives quite a long list of works composed during the author's detention in the county gaol of Bedford. For a list of works produced in prison by Sir Richard Baker, the well-known author of the 'Chronicle of the Kings of England' and ' Theatrum Redivivum,' see ' D.N.B.'

C. E. LOMAX.

See in D'Israeli's ' Curiosities of Literature r the article entitled 'Imprisonment of the Learned.' To the examples there given add Thomas Usk's ' Testament of Love ' (see Prof. Skeat's ' Chaucerian and other Pieces ' ), and the following items, taken from second- hand catalogues :-.

1. La Serre (Sieur de), "The Mirrour which flatters not, transcrib'd into English from the French, by T. C[ary], and devoted to the well- disposed readers." 8vo, 1639.

This curious book was dedicated by the French author to Charles I. and Henrietta Maria. The translator, some of whose own compositions in verse are at the end of the book, seems to have done his work while prisoner in the Tower in 1638.

2. " The Bee Reviv'd, or the Prisoners Magazine, containing the greatest curiosities, in prose and verse, &c., for the benefit of the Compiler, a prisoner for debt in Whitechapel Jail." 8vo, 1750. Dobell's Catalogue, Dec., 1903.

3. " The Oppressed Captive, being an historical novel, deduced from the distresses of real life, in an impartial and candid account of the unparallel'd sufferings of Caius Silius Nugenius, now under con- finement in the Fleet Prison, at the Suit of an im- placable and relentless Parent. Wrote by the Author and Sufferer in the Fleet Prison." 12mo, 1757.

Richard Savage, the friend of Dr. Johnson, was a prisoner for debt in the Bristol Newgate when he wrote his poem ' London and Bristol Delineated.'

L. R. M. STRACHAN. Heidelberg.

[Further discussion is not invited.]

ROBERT NOYES (10 S. xL 288, 431). I do not think there are any pictures by Robert Noyes in the Wolverhampton Art Museum. I have those of Lichfield Cathedral, Ludlow Castle, Caernarvon Castle, and Tintern Abbey ; also a portrait of a friend of the artist, Mr. J. Lane.

There are two or three in the possession of my brother, Rev. R. J. Noyes of Har- borne ; but, as your correspondent states, many of the artist's works have been sold and scattered. 1 liave little doubt, however, that some of his best works may be found in country houses both in Shropshire and Staffordshire, as most of his work was done in these counties. I may mention that I have a photograph of a picture of Queen Square, Wolverhampton, but where the original is I have no knowledge.

Robert Noyes was buried in St. John's Churchyard, Wolverhampton. Most of his work was done between 1815 and 1840. He is mentioned in one of the histories of