Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/319

 io"> s. iv. SEPT. so, 1905.] NOTES AND QUERIES. 261 LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER SO, 1905. CONTENTS.—No. 92. NOTBS :—The Origin of ' She Stoops to Conquer'—' Byways In the Classics.' 201— Punctuation In MSS. and Printed Bookfl. 262—" Growing down like a cow's tail "—Beckford and Rabelais—Ward Family—Bolles •. Conyers—" Towers of silence," 2J4—Nuttlnu : " The Devil's Nutbag," 266. QUBRIKS :— Sylvaln Marechal — Duchess nf Cannlza>-o— Antbem by Farrant — Chauncy Correspondence, 265 — EBPLIES:—Thomas Poundc, S.J., 238 —Gibbon's Greek, 272 — George III.'a Cleverness — Authors of Quotations Wanted—"Sacra; Paglnae Professor," 273—Spanish Verse —Scottish Naval and Military Academy—"The fate of the Tracys "—" Bear Bible," Spanish, 274—Gordon of the West Indies —Roger Ascham : " Schedule"—Translated Surnames—Faded Daguerreotypes—Dumas : its Pronun- ciation—Henry Sanderson, Clockmaker. 275 —Bishops' Signatures—" Newlands," Cbalfont St. Peter—Harold II. and the Royal Houses of England, Denmark, and Ruitla —Gallows of Alabaster, 276—Dante's Sonnet to Guldo Cavalcantl—The Duke'e Bajrnlo In Long Acre — Index of Probates—' Villiklna and his Dinah.' 277—Thomas a Becket—Rushbeariux—Local Government Records, 278. NOTBS ON BOOKS:—McKerrow's KrtlMon of Nashe — •Hakluvtus Pnsthumus'—Waller's Edition of Cowlev— •Calendar of Letter-Books of the City of Londonv — • Neolithic Dew-Ponds.' Notices U> Correspondents. ifatts. THE ORIGIN OF 'SHE STOOPS TO CONQUER.' "DOCTOR GOLDSMITH," writes Johnson to Boswell, No name is yet given to it. The chief diversion arises from a stratagem by which a lover is made to mistake his future father-in-law's house for an inn. This, you see, borders upon farce. The dialogue is quick and gay, and the incidents are so prepared as not to seem improbable." Whence Goldsmith took this plot of his has never been told by any of his biographers. It was, in fact, derived from an incident which happened to the dramatist himself. •Goldsmith was travelling in Ireland on foot near Edgeworthstown, co. Longford, and was on the look-out for an inn to rest in and pass the night. As he proceeded he came to Ardagh House, the residence of Mr. (afterwards Sir Ualph) Fetherston. It was a square, ugly building, and Goldsmith, taking it for an inn, made his way in and rather peremptorily called for refreshment. Mr. Fetherston (the old Mr. Hardcastle of the piece) saw through the mistake, and resolved to keep up the •farce. He put himself into an innkeeper's dress, his rubicund countenance well quali- fying him to play "mine host," while his daughter, Miss Fetherston, ran upstairs and donned cap and apron, to personate the chambermaid ; and that night Goldsmith went to sleep in the full persuasion that the house was an inn. The next morning Mr. Fetherston and his daughter resumed their real characters, and great was Gold- smith's dismay—great as young Marlow's in the play—to find them seated in full dignity at the breakfast table, and to realize the mistake he had committed. The story is told on the best authority—that of Lady Fetherston, the wife of the present baronet. Tony Lumpkiri's trick of tying his step- father's wig to his chair so that, as old Mr. Hardcastle remarks, "When I went to make a bow I popped uiy bald head in Mrs. Frizzle's face," had its origin also in a similar trick played on Goldsmith himself by the daughter of his friend Lord Clare, when Goldsmith was on a visit to _that nobleman. She often related the incident to her son, Lord Nugent. Goldsmith was one who in his writing drew largely on his own experiences ; witness 'The Traveller,' 'The Deserted Village,'and 'The Vicar of Wakefield.' It is this which gives to them much of their charm—their fidelity to nature. EDWARD MANSON. 8, Old Square, Lincoln's Inn. 'BYWAYS IN THE CLASSICS.' (See ante, p. 238.) THE reviewer of Mr. Platt's book refers to the verses on Virgil's use of the words "Pius," "Pater," and "Dux Trojanus" as applied to ^Eneas, and asks. Who is the author of these lines t The author was James Smith, of 'Rejected Addresses' fame. See Barham's 'Life of Theodore Hook,' p. 162 (Bentley, 1877), where the verses in question are printed. As they are very witty, and may not be familiar to all readers of ' jj. & Q.,' I give them :— Virgil, whose magic verse enthralls— And who in verse is greater?— By turns his wandering hero calls Now Pius, and now Pater. But when, prepared the worst to brave, An action that must pain us. Queen Dido meets him in the cave He dubs him Dux Trojanus. And well he changes thus the word, On that occasion, sure, Pius .(Eneas were absurd And Pater premature. T. F. D. The lines referring to Virgil were written by James Smith, the well-known author, in
 * has a new comedy, which is expected in the spring-