Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 12.djvu/129

 10 s. XIL A. 7, 1909.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

101

LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 7, 1W9.

CONTENTS.-No. 293.

NOTES : ' Horae Subsecivae,' 1620, 101 Bibliographical Terms, 103 Inscriptions from Kingston, Jamaica, 105 Balloons and Flying Machines Historiographers Royal Latin Poem of Robert Burton, 106 'Taxatio Eccle- siastica Nicholai IV.' George Selwyn's Fondness for Executions Gilt Gingerbread, 107.

QUERIES : Words and Phrases in Old American News- papers, 107 Louis XVIII.'s Queen and Westminster Abbey High Wycombe Van Dyck Edmund, Baron de Harold Bullingdon Club Belcher Family Neil and Natt Gow W. H. Coffin in Abyssinia, 108 Windows from Church at Trier Authors Wanted ' British Con- troversialist' John Parr, Embroiderer Company Spoons " If two and two make four," 109 " Googlie " Barton Grammar School Constitution Hill : Parliament Hill Lady Ursula Epitaph, 110.

REPLIES : Nimbus, 110" Coffee," 111 The Parker Con- secration Baughan : Boffin March etti Collection of Drawings. 112 The Storm Ship" Bosting "Miss La Roche Mysterious Naval Foe,113 Statues and Memorials in the British Isles London : the Name Eliza Fenning's Execution Schopenhauer in English "Te Igitur" Engraving by J. G. Will, 115 Authors of Quotations Wanted Hengler's Circus "The" prefixed to Place- Names " Between you and I," 116 "The Evils," Field- Name "Tudor" spelt "Tydder" "Chops of the Channel "Polly Kennedy, 117" One shoe off and one shoe on " " The Scomer upon the Hope" Flint Pebbles at Brighton Thackeray Arab Sheikh Nefzaoni - Jews in Fiction Glamorgan " Taff y-on-a-Stick " Paine's Remains Saints' Satisfaction, 118.

NOTES ON BOOKS :-Westminster Abbey Muniments- Mrs. Gaskell's ' North and South.'

Booksellers' Catalogues.

Notices to Correspondents.

SUBSECIV^E,' 1620.

IN the year 1620 a small octavo volume of anonymous essays appeared in London. The title-page reads as follows:

Horae Subsecivse Observations

and Discourses.

London.

Printed for Edward Blount, and are to

be sold at his shop in Pauls Churchyard

at the signe of the Black Beare.

1620.

This little book bears no external mark of its authorship, yet I think that a careful reading of its contents clearly reveals the creator whose identity is masked. A short address to the reader by Edward Blount, the publisher, follows the title-page, but gives no clue other than a denial by Blount of any share in the work. "I take not upon mee," he says,

"to write either in the praise, or discommenda- tion of this Booke ; it belongs not unto me ; but now it is abroad, must wholly bee sub-

mitted to your judgment and censure The

Author of the Booke I know not ; but by chance hearing that a friend of mine had some such papers in his hand, and having heard them commended, I was curious to see and reade them over ; and in my opinion (which was also confirmed by others, judicious and learned) supposed if I could get the Copie, they would be welcome abroad. My friends courtesie bestowed it freely upon me, and my endevour to give you contentment caused mee to put it in print."

So much for Blount's denial that he wrote the book. He goes on to say : " The Booke, you see, is of mixt matter, by the way of observations, or Essays, and Dis- courses." Here we have a use of the word " essays " which was previously only to be found in Bacon and Montaigne. Bacon and this anonymous writer, then, are the only men of their time to use this word in the sense of brief dissertations on some theme of manners or morals.

The book consists of twelve ' Observa- tions,' or essays, and four ' Discourses.' The titles of the twelve essays suggest those of another contemporary writer. Thus we have essays here ' Of Arrogance,' ' Of Ambition,' ' Of Affectation,' ' Of De- traction,' ' Of Selfe-will,' ' Of Masters and Servants,' ' Of Expences,' ' Of Visitations,' ' Of Death,' ' Of a Country Life,' ' Of Religion,' and * Of Reading History.' Several of these titles are found in the Essays of Bacon, while all of these subjects are treated by him, there or elsewhere, in more or less detail.

It may be worth recalling the dates of publication of Bacon's Essays. The editio princeps appeared in 1597, and was reissued in the following year. This edition con- tained ten essays, including papers entitled ' Of Followers and Friends,' ' Of Expense,' and ' Of Honour and Reputation.' A fresh edition appeared in 1612, and con- tained thirty new essays, including papers entitled ' Of Seeming Wise,' ' Of Ambition,' ' Of Death,' and ' Of Religion.' At last, in 1625, the final English text appeared with eighteen new essays. ' Horae Subsecivae ' was published, as I have said, in 1620, eight years after the first revision of Bacon's Essays, and five years before the second. It is well that this order should be kept in mind.

' Of Arrogance.' " Arrogance," the author says,
 * Horse Subsecivae ' opens with an essay

" is the assuming to a man's selfe, the Titles of Virtue, Learning, Honour, Riches, or the like, without the possession, or (if with the possession; without the evidence."