Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/302

 248 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io» 8. iv. SEPT. 23, UK*. "CATERPILLERS OF THE COMMONWEALTH." —The title-page of Stephen Gosson's' School of Abuse' (1579) is worded as follows :— "The Shoole of Abuse, Containing a pleasaunt inuective against Poets, Pipers, Plaiers, lesters, and such like Caterpillera of a Commonwealth, tea. Shakespeare uses this phrase, " caterpillers of the Commonwealth," of Bushy, Bagot, and Green in 'Richard II.,' II. iii. 166. The expression is again employed of Empson and Dudley in the ' Fragmenta Regalia' of Sir Robert Naunton (1628-32), in the following passage:— " [Leicester] his father was that Dudley which pnr histories couple with Empson, and both be much infamed for the caterpillars of the commonwealth during the reign of Henry VII.," &c. In 1631 Weever also employs the same words •with reference to the same people. Can any of your readers inform me :— 1. The earliest occasion when these words •were coupled. 2. Whether the phrase was, in the sixteenth century, a catchword of the time t 3. Whether Shakespeare's use of it can reasonably be attributed to his familiarity with Gosson's work 1 4. Whether the histories of the period, previous to the publication of ' Richard II.' (1597), were in the habit of employing the phrase with reference to these or any other courtiers, as Naunton implies they did ? Shakespeare uses the word " caterpiller" in the same sense in other places, and in a most striking manner in '2 Henry VI.,' IV. iv. 36, when the passage is compared with Gosson's title, and when it is borne in mind that Gosson's work was an attack upon the stage. It seems probable that Shakespeare was having a hit back in making a Kentish man call scholars, lawyers, courtiers, and gentlemen "false caterpillers." F. W. BAXTER. 170, Church Street. Stoke Newington. N. RAWDON.—Who was Miss Rawdon, who married Samuel Hautenville, of Dublin, in the eighteenth century ? She was related to the Earl of Aloira. (Mrs.) HAUTENVILLE COPE. 13, Hyde Park Mansions, W. VIRGIL OR VERGIL ?—Which of these two is the more correct spelling of the great Mantuan's name? So far back as 1489 Angelo Poliziano (commonly known as Poli- tian) discussed the rival claims of the two spellings in his wonderful ' Miscellanea,' and the evidence in favour of Vergilius. Sub jvdice it-lit,--- Us est; but the preponderance of choice seems to weigh in favour of Virgil, And rightly so, as I think. Vergil is hyper' pedantic. J. B. McGovKRN. St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester. CAREY OR CARY.—Capt. John Bailie, of Innishargie, co. Down (b. 1663, d. 1687), married Catherine Carey or Cary (d. 1691). Did the said Catherine belong to the Falk- land, Hunsdon, or Monmoutn families of Carey, or to the branch that migrated to Donegal in the seventeenth century? Any information as to her parentage will be gratefully received. KATHLEEN WARD. Castle Ward, Downpatrick, Ireland. MINNISINKS.—Every one is familiar with Longfellow's short ppein ' The Burial of the Minnisink,' descriptive of Indian life. In what part of North America did these Indians live? They are not mentioned among the races or tribes enumerated in the> ' Encyclopaedia Britannica.' W. D. SPRINGETT. St. Matthew's Vicarage, 67, Brixton Hill, S.W. MEREDAY, CHRISTIAN NAME.—I have come across the singular name Mereday. Whence comes it ? R. B—R. ALMANSA.—Who was he ? He has no niche in that temple of fame the 'D.N.B.,' but he is referred to in a, to me, singularly dis- appointing book, ' Toledo and Madrid : their Records and Romances.' The author asserts, with reference to Charles I.'s abortive Spanish match :— "Oddly enough, the record which says most upon the subject, and is obviously the most reliable, is least consulted of any. I mean the letters of Almansa, which continued to be written at intervals throughout our countryman's sojourn at Madrid.1' -P. 170. Unless Almansa be a pseudonym for Howel here is another source for delectation on the part of DON FLORENCIO DE UHAGON, who not long ago (Hi11' S. iii. 48) was interesting him- self and us in the details of Charles's romantic expedition. ST. SWITHIN. JOHN VAUS, GRAMMARIAN.—A copy of the first edition of "Rudimenta puerorum in
 * i.i-triii grammaticam per Joannem Vaus

Scotum," printed in Paris by Badius Ascen- sius in 1522, was in the library of the late David Laing, and was sold at Sotheby's, 12 December, 1879, but has not been traced. I fail to find the edition in any public library. The second edition (Paris, Badins Ascensins, 1531) and the third edition (Paris, Robert Masselin, 1553) are in the library of the University of Aberdeen. The fourth edition