Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 2.djvu/402

 330

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io> s. n. OCT. 22, loo*.

published in 1674 by Herringman is nothing more than an amended copy of the Dryden- Davenant play of 1670. This was so com- pletely Scott's view that the version of ' The Tempest' given in his 'Dryden' is wholly taken from the later quarto. My contention, as first entered upon some few months back in Anglia, that the so-called comedy of 1674 represented the book of Shad well's opera, can now be maintained beyond dispute. PROF. CUMMINGS points out that in 1680 Pietro Keggio published his " Song in the Tempest. The words by Mr. Shadwell," commencing "Arise, ye subterranean winds." As this song is printed in Act II. sc. iv. of the 1674 quarto, it follows that that particular version of * The Tempest ' must undoubtedly be Shad well's.

I fail to gather from PROF. CUMMINGS'S statement whether he retains the impression that Reggio wrote the vocal music for * The Tempest' of 1674. To me it hardly seems probable, as the celebrated lutenist apparently remained at Oxford, where he had settled on first coming to England, until after the publication there of his treatise on singing in 1677.

Plausible as appear PROF. CUMMINGS'S conjectures in support of his theory relative to the later date of Purcell's 4 Tempest' music, they are based on un- satisfying data. Failing some really definite clue to the period of perform- ance^ we are left to flounder in a puddle of surmise, and the best we can do is to pre- serve an open mind. In support of PROF. CUMMINGS'S contention, it may be advanced that the text of the anonymous quarto of 1674 (otherwise the Shadwell opera) was reprinted in 1690. But, considering that the entire resetting of an old opera would ad- vance it to the category of new productions, it is passing strange that theatrical annals are silent as to any such production. Beyond the existence of Purcell's music, we have no evidence of any revival of 'The Tempest' from 1674 until the first quarter of the eighteenth century.

One other point I advance with some trepi- dation, as the authority upon which I lean is none of the stoutest. Grove states that Locke wrote the vocal music and Draghi the instru- mental for 'Psyche,' and that the former published his quota in conjunction with his ' Tempest ' music in 1675. Of the correct- ness of this statement I can say nothing, not having the work to refer to ; but it appears to me that if the preface cited from by PROF. CUMMINGS be common to both scores, Locke's allusion to his omission, by arrangement

with Draghi, of the " tunes of the Entries and Dances," refers rather to the ' Psyche ' than the * Tempest ' score. Those who have made a study of the French comedie-ballet will know how apposite the term " entries " is to that curiously composite form of theatrical entertainment. Hence it would be more fitly applied to an opera like ' Psyche,' possessing a French prototype and employing French dancers, than to a native-grown and more homogeneous production like ' The Tempest.' I submit these reflections to PROF. CUMMINGS for what they are worth, and would fain ask him to re-examine Locke's preface in con- nexion with the work, and see whether the reference to Draghi does not admit of this interpretation. W. J. LAWRENCE.

4 EXPERIENCES OF A GAOL CHAPLAIN ' (10 th S. ii. 267). So long ago as 1868, in the 'Hand- book of Fictitious Names/ p. 188, under pp. 226 and 208, the name of Erskine Neale was given as the author. See also Boase's ' Modern English Biography.'

EALPH THOMAS.

This work originally appeared in Bentletfs Miscellany, circa 1845, and was reissued in three volumes in 1847 by the same publisher. It is a purely imaginary record, though per- haps based on truth. Some of the scenes are laid in Suffolk, and some in Devonshire. The author was the llev. Erskine Neale, rector of Kirton, an adjacent parish to Newbourne, and afterwards vicar of Exning, near New- market. The preface is misleading, as it purports to prove the book an actual record of facts, and there certainly is an air of vraisemblance. JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

In the 'D.N.B.'(vol. xl. 141) this is included in the works of the Rev. Erskine Neale, who died in 1883, and Allibone also attributes it to him.

At 9 th S. ix. 449 I asked for the author of ' Stray Leaves from a Freemason's Note Book, by a Suffolk Rector' (1846), but no replies appeared. This last has been erroneously attributed to Dr. George Oliver (mainly be- cause issued by a publisher of the latter's works), but I think it was written by Mr. Neale, who held livings in Suffolk, and gave similar titles to his books, e.g., 'The Life- Book of a Labourer ' and ' The Note-Book of a Coroner's Clerk.' Notices of Mr. Neale's books appeared at 6 th S. xii. 465 and 7 th S. i. 31, but no mention was there made of ' Stray Leaves.' W. B. H.

[Reply also from W. C. B.]

PARISH DOCUMENTS : THEIR PRESERVATION (10 th S. ii. 267). Would it not be possible for