Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/444

 364

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. m. MAY is, wws.

curiosa, e diletteuole. Con la sua Tavola copies Appresso Gervasio Anesi. Con licenza de' Superior A Priuilegio." 8vo, pp. [Ixiv] 448.
 * inm delle cose piii notabili. In Venetia, MUCXXX

Whilst the title-page gives the date 1630 the colophon says 1629. The British Museurr ilias editions issued at Venice in 1627, 1639 1660, and at Bologna in 1683.

On p. 282 begins a second part entitleo 'Oracoti, overo Saggi Detti di Modern Ingegni.' This is simply a reprint of the come di Donne' (Vinetia, G. Giolito, 1550) issued without the author's name, but known to be the work of Ortensio Lando.
 * Oracoli di Modern! Ingegni si d' Huomin'

The British Museum has a copy of Rai mondi's 'Delia Sferza delle Scienze,' a title which recalls that of Lando's ' La Sferza d Scrittori ' ; but a friend who has kindly com- pared the two books informs me that there is no apparent resemblance. The ' Sferza was, however, practically conveyed by Ger- vasio Annisi in a book ' Delia Sferza della Scienza et de Scrittori ' (Vinegia, 1640).

Another of our plagiarist's books is :

"Delle Caccie di Eugenio Raimondi Bresciano libri quattro. Aggiuntoui 'n questa nuova 'niprea- -sione altre Caccie che sperse in altri libri audauano.'" 4bo.

'There is no name of printer or place, but the dedication is dated " Di Venetia li 14 de fsettembre 1630." The book, of which there is a fine copy in the John Rylands Library, contains several curious engravings of hunt- ing, fishing, and shooting with bows and .arrows as well as with guns. The British Museum has three editions of this book, of which the earliest was printed at Naples in 1626.

Another plagiarist was Annibale Novelli, whose ' Solva di Bellissimi Dubbi ' (Piacenza, 1597) is practically a reprint of parts i. and ii. of Lando's ' Dubbi ' (Vinegia, 1552). Lando is a picturesque figure in the literature of the sixteenth century, as I have elsewhere .attempted to show (Transactions of the Royal Society of Literature, Second Series, vol. xx. p. 159). He has certainly suffered at the hands of the appropriators of other men's brains. Plagiarism on the scale practised by Raimondi almost passes beyond the region of theft and becomes conquest. It is also an extenuating circumstance that he has added an index of fourteen pages to the contents of the 'Oracoli.'

WILLIAM E. A. AXON.

Manchester.

'THE BEGGAR'S OPERA' IK DUBLIN. One of the Dean's letters to Gay in the Swift correspondence (' Works,' edited by Sir

Walter Scott, second edit., 1883, xvii. p. 152) bears such a palpably wrong date, that one wonders how the blunder has gone so long undetected. It cannot even be assumed that the date given is a misprint, as the letters are arranged chronologically.

Although we know full well that the original production of ' The Beggar's Opera ' took place in London on 29 January, 1727/8, Swift is here represented as writing to Gay from Dublin on 27 November previously, a propos of his piece :

"We are as full of ib, pro modulo nostro, as London can be; continually acting and houses crammed, and the Lord-Lieutenant several times there laughing his heart out."

The exact date of the first Dublin per- formance of ' The Beggar's Opera ' has never been determined, but there are strong reasons for believing that the event took place about the middle of March, 1727/8. In Dickson's Dublin Intelligence for 19 March occurs an advertisement of the publication of a penny broadside containing ' Namby Pamby's New Epilogue to " The Beggars Opera " as it was Spoken at the Theatre in this City.' Four days later the same journal had a paragraph quaintly setting forth that

"the New Opera, which is again to be Play'd to- night, was on Thursday more crowded with spec- tators than ever, and really it is now so far the Topick of General Conversation here that they who lave not seen it are hardly thought worth speaking
 * o by their Acquaintance, and are only admitted

nto Discourse on their Promise of going to see it the first Opportunity, which is so advantageous to our Com median* that we are told Boxes, &c., are jespoke for 16 or IS nights to come."

Apparently, Gay's opera was performed

ntermittently at Smock Alley until the end

of the season in June. On the 13th of that

nonth the Franchises were ridden in Drog-

leda, and, attracted by the crowd, the

Dublin company travelled thither, and gave

at least two performances of the opera, with

tfiss Lyddel as Polly. The original Dublin

~\)lly had been her sister Mrs. Sterling.

_When Smock Alley reopened for the vintet ,' season, early in November, ' The beggar's Opera 'again cropped up, and was )layed for the fortieth time on 28 December, "728, for Vanderbank's benefit. Under these ircumstances, it is feasible to infer that the actual date of Swift's letter should be

November, 1728.

Now that I am dealing with the fruitful opic of 'The Beggar's Opera,' perhaps I may be pardoned for putting on record here , little-known fact, although one that has no ssociation with the Irish stage. The piece vhich made Rich gay and Gay rich also