Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/336

 278 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io* s. iv. SEPT. 30,isx*. Chatto & Windus, 1888). Another, with many " spoken " interpolations, appears, with the music, in "Davidson's Musical Miracles: 120 Comic Songs sung by Sam Cowell," no date, but published somewhere in the early sixties of last century. A third, and I think the most common, is in a quarto comic song- book, with music, published about the same time as Sam Cowell's, but upon which for the moment I cannot lay my hands. The favourite comic songs of forty-five to fifty years ago were 'Villikins,1 'Lord Level,' 'Billy Barlow,"The Ratcatcher's Daughter,' and ' The Cork Leg.' These had a long run, especially 'Villikins,'' Lord Lovel,' and 'The Ratcatcher's Daughter.' Within the last five years I have heard the two former given as recitations by an elderly K.C., who remembers their popularity. RICHARD WELFORD. Newcastle-upon-Tyne. THOMAS A BECKET (10th S. iv. 147, 214).—It would vastly surprise me if I could be con- vinced that "the present family claim descent from the martyr." In my opinion, THE RECTOR OF SOUTHWARK CATHEDRAL is utterly mistaken. JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT. RUSHBEARINO (10th S. iv. 87, 216).— A well- illustrated work entitled 'Rush-Bearing,' written by Alfred Burton, was published in Manchester in 1891. It contains a complete history of the custom and its origin, and records where the rush-cart was annually dragged through the street, and also where the custom is still kept up, or was until recently. T. N. BRUSHFIELD, M.D. Salterton, Devon. LOCAL GOVERNMENT RECORDS (10th S. iii. 287, 337, 355).—A diary such as asked for will be found in the 'Justice's Note-Book of Capt. John Pickering, 1656-60.' See Thoresby Society, vol. xi. GERALD FOTHERGILL. 11, Brussels Road, New Wandsworth, S.W. Jflir.cfllrnuous. NOTES ON BOOKS, to. The Works of Thomas Nashe. Edited from the Original Texta by Ronald B. McKerrow.—Text. Vol. III. (A. H. Bullen.) WITH the third volume, now issued, the text of Mr. McKerrow's admirable edition of Nashe is com- plete. A fourth volume, yet to appear, will be occupied with a memoir, notes, and a glossary. Vol. iii. opens with ' Have with yov to Saffron- Walden,' and contains " Nashe's Lenten Stvffe' and • Svmmer's Last Will and Testament,' together with 'Shorter Pieces' and 'Doubtful Works.' Saffron Walden was the birthplace of Gabriel Harvey, against whom, and his brothers Richard and John, Nashe's satire is constantly directed. ' Have with yov to Saffron-Walden' probably contributed more than any other work of Nashe to the formal prohibi- tion of the printing of his works and those of Gabriel Harvey. With the feud generally, though it looms large in Tudor literature, and brings on the stage many Elizabethan celebrities, we may not concern ourselves. Philologically, Nashe's tract is of ex- treme interest, and it is doubtful where, outside Urquhart's Rabelais, instances can be afforded of such " excrementall conceipts and stinking kennel- rakt vp invention"—to use Nashe's own words—u are employed. For this reason we look with much interest for the forthcoming glossary and notes. That Nashe copied directly from Rabelais we will not say, and his knowledge of language unclean or vituperative may well have been a gift. We seem, however, to trace Rabelaisian influences. These are specially noticeable in ' Nashe's Lenten Stuffe,' which is devoted to the praise of the red herring, and is a monstrously clever piece of extra- vagance, owing something, doubtless, to those praises of the ass, the flea, and so forth, which in Latin were a favourite amusement of Dutch humourists and grammarians. Nashe was born at Lowestoft, hence his familiarity with his subject. In this work appears his allusion to his ill-starred and imprinted play ' The Isle of Dogs," which involved him in so much trouble, and which he here calls the " imperfit Embrion" of his idle hours. In it, too, appears the word " Honorifica- bilitudinitatibus," used in an abridged form by Shakespeare. Innumerable quaint words and allu- sions are to be found. Turban, a Turkish head- gear, is spelt as "turbanto." A pleasing reference appears (p. 195) to Christopher Marlowe : '• Let me see, hath any bodie in Yarmouth heard of Leander and Hero of whom diuine Mn •• •• sung, and a diuiner Muse than him, Kit Marlow?" ' Summer's Last Will and Testament' is more accessible than Nashe's other works, but is necessarily included. It is of no particular significance as a drama, but has some good lyrics. It is, however, too familiar to call for comment. Among the doubtful works appears the licentious 'Choiseof Valentines,'which bears on it the name of Nashe, and may well have been one of the indecencies he owns to have written for the delectation of his aristocratic patrons. It has been recently reprinted by Mr. Farmer. 'Ao Almond for a Parrat' has many signs of Nashe's style. In any case, we are in favour of liberal treatment in such matters, and would rather that a work curious in itself should be erroneously ascribed than that we did without it altogether. Much desirable bibliographical information » sap- plied in what is really an ideal edition. For toe fourth volume we wait with some impatience. There are few writers who stand more in need of illus- trative comment and of glossarial explanation than Nashe. Mr. McKerrow is rendering invaluable service. It is needless to state, in the case of a work issued by Mr. Bullen, that it is artistic and luxurious in all typographical and other respect*, and is a thing to be treated with reverence and love. Hakluj/tm Posthumu* ; or, Pnrchas Hit Pilw-imr*. By Samuel Purchas, B.D. Vols. VII. and V11L (Glasgow, MacLehose & Sons.) Two further volumes of the great and spirited undertaking of Messrs. MacLehose have teen the light, and we are in the way, with what i» given and promised, of speedily possessing a complete^