Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 4.djvu/522

 432 NOTES AND QUERIES. cio-s. iv. xov. 25, MK. water " provided patrons with a dramatic treat." The first mention of club is in the same number in which the Bijou occurs and this is the only one up to that date Another paper, The Theatrical Journal, o 4 November, 1868, mentions the Imperia Dramatic Club, located evidently at the Lecture Hall, Carter Street, Walworth. Ai the end of this publication, however, a lis' of amateur clubs is given: "The Burton,' "Essex," "Qarrick" (established fifteen years), "Milton," "Tower Hamlets Kifle Brigade," "The Shakespearian," "Thalia,1 "Fitz-Roy," and "Alexandra" (Liverpool) They are all called Dramatic clubs, and there were many more. S. J. A. F. PRISONER SUCKLED BY HIS DAUGHTER (10" S. iv. 307, 353).—According to an old copper- plate engraving by Alex. Yoet, jun. (in my possession), issued about 1640 (date o; artist's death), this subject was paintec by Paul Rubens. The inscription beneath is as follows : " En pia nata, svvm, proprio fovet vbere patrem. Ille senex, dvro, car- cere pressvs erat." Some years ago I observed in a Liverpool broker's shop a very fine copy of the original painting. The vendor informed me that it was practically unsaleable on account of the unpleasant nature of the subject. WM. JAGGARD. 139, Canning Street, Liverpool. This subject was at one time much in favour with painters and poets. To the list of pictures already given let me add 'Kindes- liebe (Cimon und Pera),' by Peter Paul Rubens, in the Rijks Museum at Amsterdam. It would, I think, be interesting to enlarge the inquiry to include literary treatments of the subject. Garrick produced (26 February, 1772) a tragedy, "Tne Grecian Daughter,' by Arthur Murphy, in which the heroine saves her father's life (behind the scenes) in this unusual manner. Murphy, in a postscript to the published play, says it is founded on a passage in Valerius Maximus (lib. v. c. 4, 'De Pietate in Parentes'), which narrates how a Roman woman, whose jailer had instruc- tions to starve her to death, was thus saved by the ministrations of her daughter. The Latin author refers to a Greek tale, "in which the heroine performs the same act of piety to a father in the decline of life." Murphy continues, "The painters long since seized the subject, and by them it has been called ' Roman Charity.'" In order to improve his play, by giving it " an air of real history," Murphy made the father, Evander, a king of Syracuse, deposed and imprisoned by Dionysius the younger, and rescued by his son-in-law, Timoleon. After this outrage on historical fact, we are not surprised to find Dionysius the younger saddled with the misdeeds of the elder tyrant of that name, and, in the last act, killed by the imaginary daughter of the imaginary* king. I have given Murphy's reference to Valerius Maxi- mus without verifying it. I hope it is more accurate than his history. Towards the end of his ' Postscript,' he admits an obligation for "no more than three lines" to the 'Zelraire' of Belloy ; also that "the subject of his tragedy lias been touched in some foreign pieces." The 'BiographiaDramatics' says :— "The first idea of writing this play is said to have been suggested to Mr. Murphy by a picture which he noticed as he was waiting in the room of a celebrated painter. In this picture the sentinel, as he witnesses the interesting scene of the daughter suckling her parent, bursts into tears." According to the same dictionary, Tom D'Urfey's ' The Grecian Heroine : or, the Fate of Tyranny' (published 1721), had Timoleon among its characters. I have not a copy at hand to refer to, but think it not improbable that it illustrates the same story, and may have furnished Murphy with his "air of real history." In my own time I have only known this affecting fable do duty in a waxworks exhibition in Briggate, Leeds, which I patronized one evening more than twenty years ago. There I found the incident, which the dramatist had to leave to the imagination, done to the life without any reticence. The show woman regarded it with pride as one of her finest exhibits. According to the descriptive handbook (which, because of its quaint style, I pre- served), the story is as follows :— " Antony Molina [odd name for a Grecian daughter's father], a high and powerful gentleman. was detected among many others, during a period of civil commotion, of plotting against the king. He was ordered to be cast into prison and starved to death. His daughter got permission to see him once a day. She was searched every day as she entered the cell. She suckled her father for twelve months, when the king became acquainted with it. He softened his wrath so much, that he instantly granted the aged Molina a pardon, reinstated him in his former possessions, and settled a thousand & year upon his virtuous and affectionate daughter." E. RlMBAULT DlBDUf. MR. J. SMITH has seen a picture of •he door of the prison at the base of the Belfry at Ghent. This is popularly known as the ' Mammelokker,' and was put up when
 * he 'Caritas Romana,' a bas-relief over