Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 3.djvu/61

 io*s.ui.jAy.2i,i9Q3.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Pope, nor lose their own Right ' : he declaring pub- lickly in Print, in the name of the State, ' That the Pope was trusted to keep two Keys ; one of Pru- dence, and the other of Power : And that if they were not both used together, Power alone is not effectual in an Excommunication.' "

"These Contests were the occasion of Padre Paulo's knowledge and interest with King James, for whose sake principally Padre Paulo compiled that eminent History of the remarkable Council of Trent : which History was, as fast as it was written, sent in several sheets in Letters by Sir Henry Wot- ton, Mr. Bedel, and others, unto King James, and the then Bishop of Canterbury, into England, and there first made publick, both in English and in the uni- versal Language."

A very notable feature in Sir Henry Wotton's 'Reliquise Wottonianse, 3 1085, is a letter dated 17 Jan., 1637, addressed "To the Right Worthy Provost and Professor Regius of Divinity [Collings] in Cambridge." From his long residence as British Ambassador to the State of Venice, Wotton became inti- mately acquainted with Father Paul, and the personal details he has preserved of that illustrious man are in the highest degree interesting. The letter is too long to quote entire, but the following extract is worth reproducing here :

" And now, Sir, having a fit Messenger, and not long after the time when Love-tokens use to pass between Friends, let me be bold to send you for a New-Years-gift a certain Memorial, not altogether unworthy of some entertainment under your roof ; namely, a true Picture of Padre Paolo the Servita, which was first taken by a Painter whom I sent unto him from my House then neighbouring his Monas- tery. I have newly added thereunto a Title of mine j own Conception, Condi ii Tridentini Eviscerator ; \ and had sent the Frame withal, if it were portable, which is but of plain Deal, coloured Black like the Habit of his Order. You have a luminous Parlour, which I have good cause to remember, not only by delicate Fare and Freedom (the Prince of Dishes :) but above all, by your own Learned Discourse : for to dine with you, is to dine with many good Authors: In that Room I beseech you to allow it a favourable place for my sake. And that you may have some- what to tell of him more than a bare Image, if any shall ask, as in the Table of Cebes [a Greek quota- tion omitted] ; I am desirous to characterize a little unto you such part of his Nature, Customs, and Abilities as I had occasion to know by sight or by enquiry. He was one of the humblest things that could be seen within the bounds of Humanity ; the very Pattern of that Precept, Quanta doctior Tanto nbmissior. And enough alone to demonstrate, That Knowledge well-digested non infiat. Excel- lent in Positive, excellent in Scholastical and Polemical Divinity. A rare Mathematician, even in the most abstruse parts thereof, as in Algebra and the Theoriques ; and yet withal so expert in the History of Plants, as if he had never perused any- Book but Nature. Lastly, a great Canonist, which was the title of his ordinary service with the State : And certainly in the tirae of the Pope's Interdict, they had their principal light from him. When he was either reading or writing alone, his manner was to sit fenced with a Castle of Paper about his Chair,

and over head : for he was 9f our Lord of St. Al- ban's opinion, That all Air is predatory ; and espe- cially hurtful when the spirits are most employed. You will find a Scar in his Face, that was from a Roman Assassinate, that would have killed him as he was turned to a wall near to his Covent : And if there were not a greater Providence about us, it nii-ht often have been easily done, especially upon such a weak and wearyish Body. He was of a quiet and settled Temper, which made him prompt in his Counsels and Answers ; and the same in Consulta- tion which Themistocles was in Action."

I should say that this letter was included, for the first time, in the edition of 1685 of the 'Reliquise.' Burnet prints it also in his 'Life of Bishop Bedell, published in the same year (p. 253). A. S.

(To be continued.)

BOOKS OF LADY DILKE. The South Kensington Art Library has been the reci- pient of a splendid gift, the fine collection of the late Lady Dilke having been presented to it by Sir Charles Dilke, -who has added some valuable books from his own collection. Lady Dilke's library was largely made up of rarities, including incunabula and works from the Aldine and Elzevir presses, mostly in choice morocco bindings. It is to be hoped, for the convenience of bibliophiles, that a special catalogue will be issued.

H. T.

THE LYCEUM THEATRE. Now that, for the first time for a great number of years, there is no longer a Lyceum amongst the London playhouses, a few of its memories, so dear to all old lovers of the drama, may be worth recording in the pages of ' N. & Q.' Few of ou r London theatres have had a more chequered career than the Lyceum, in spite of the many successes achieved on its boards. Built some- where about 1765, it passed from theatre to picture gallery, lecture hall, panorama, and a host of other entertainments, and then back again to theatre, till its destruction by fire in 1829. It arose, however, phoenix-like, from its ashes five years afterwards, and was renamed " The English Opera-House." Beaz- ley was the architect, and it was one of the costliest theatres erected in London up to that date. Its greatest successes were Weber s opera ' Der Freyschiitz,' which was first given in English there, and a number of German operas which followed one another for some considerable time. From an opera-house it once more became a theatre, and then followed a long period when it served as a place of extremely miscellaneous entertainment, at one time even affording shelter to Madame Tussaud's waxworks. In 1840 it once again reverted to the drama, but its most interest-