Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/472

 390 NOTES AND QUERIES. [io» s. iv. NOV. u, iw. autobiography, compiled from the dictation ! of a lady, once in affluent circumstances, who was, at the time it was issued, living at Brigg in a condition of great poverty. Many inquiries have been made regarding this work, but no copy has come to light. Have any of your readers ever seen it ? COM. LINC. 'THE FORTUNE-TELLER.'—Can any corre- spondent tell me the name of the lady who sat to the Rev. M. W. Peters, R.A., as 'The Fortune-Teller'? The picture, now in the possession of E. Turton, Esq., was engraved by R. Smith, whose mezzotint is rare. It is the companion picture to 'The Gamesters,' by the same artist (both women's heads are probably studied from the same model). Early in the nineteenth century the infor- mation I am seeking was probably still well known, and may yet be a " tradition " with some one. M. F. H. "FOUNTAIN-HEADS AND PATHLESS GROVES." (10th S. iv. 350.) UNDER the above heading MR. E. M. LAY- TON inquires as to the authorship of the famous lines on 'Melancholy,' beginning "Hence, all you vain delights." To this query an editorial note is appended stating that the lines are by Beaumont. This, no doubt, is a slip of the pen for Fletcher, since there are no grounds whatever for attributing the lines to Beaumont. Fletcher, in fact, has up to the present generally been credited with having written the lines, because of their forming a part of his play ' The Nice Valour.' However, his claim has not been altogether undisputed. So careful an in- vestigator as Edmond Malone was of opinion that he was not their author. In Sir James Prior's ' Life of Malone,' in the section headed 'Maloniana,' the following note ap- pears :— " Song in ye Praise of Melancholy. F. 80 Bod. Hence all your vain delights. The author of this beaut.iful piece (Dr. Strode), part of which has been ascribed unjustly to Fletcher, because it is sung in his 'Nice Valour," was born about the year 1600 [1602], and died Canon of ChriBt Church in 1644. Milton evidently took the hint of his L Allegro and ' Penteroso' from it. " No. 21 in Catalogue; 8vo, 96 leaves; Miscel- laneous Poetry." From the above it would appear that Malone concluded the poem was Strode's because of its being ascribed to him in the manuscript lie alludes to. But of course ascriptions of this kind cannot always be relied upon, as any one acquainted with the manuscripts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is well aware. When, however, we find that a number of manuscripts, not having any obvious connexion one with another.agree in ascribing a poem to a particular author, we are fairly entitled to consider that they are right in so doing, provided that there is no better evidence to oppose to it. Now, as regards this poem the case stands thus: It is ascribed to Strode, not only in the manu- script mentioned by Malone, but in several others, while, so far as I am aware, there is no manuscript authority for ascribing it to Fletcher. Nor is there, indeed, any positive ground whatever for ascribing the poem to him. Alexander Dyce, in his ' Account of the Lives and Writings of Beaumont and Fletcher,' in speaking of ' The Nice Valour,1 remarks:— " The traces of a second pen, which we seem frequently to discover in it, excite a suspicion that, after our poet's death, another playwright either altered it to its present shape for a revival, or completed it for its original appearance on the stage." It follows, then, that this "second pen" may either have written the poem, or may have simply introduced it into the play. Summing up the case, it appears to me that on the whole Strode has a rather better title to the poem than Fletcher; but I do not contend that the evidence is decisive in his favour. I think, however, that whenever the poem is quoted in future, it should be described as "by Fletcher or Strode." One point remains for discussion. Of course no one would deny that Fletcher was quite capable of writing the poem ; but some may doubt whether a writer so obscure as Strode was equally capable of producing it But that is a doubt which I hope soon to set at rest for ever. William Strode was really one of the finest poets of the seventeenth century, though, by what may be almost termed a miracle of ill-luck, his writings have never yet been collected, and he has thus been defrauded of his due fame. After much research among books and manuscripts, I have at last succeeded in making a com- plete (or approximately complete) collec- tion of his poems, and this I hope to publish at no distant date. When this i« done, I venture to say that all lovers and students of our old English poetry will b« no less astonished than delighted to discover what a treasure of poetic wealth has lain so long unknown and unregarded. BERTRAM DOBELL.