Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/252

 204

NOTES AND QUERIES. [io*s.v. MARCH 17,1906.

=a Latin epistle to T. B. C., which is imperfect a translation of ' The Author's Epistle Dedi catorie to the King,' also imperfect, but wit! concluding words "At Barre, in the mpnetl

of Februarie, 1577 Peter de la Primau

daye " ; an author's address ' To the Reader of 4 pages ; and a page of contents. There is an entry in the ' Registers of the Stationers Company' (ed. Collier, Shaks. Soc., 1849 vol. ii. p. 198) : "1584-5. 6 Julij., Mr.Bishop Mr. Newbery. lid. of them, for printinge the French Academye, translated into Eng lishe by Thomas Bowes vj d ."

In the following extracts from Primaudaye the full passages can only be given where they are brief. I shall have to content my- self with cross-references in the larger ex- cerpts ; but variations of interest may be pointed out.

Primaudaye, chap. i. 'Of Man,' p. 15


 * 'Timon the Athenian, detesting the im-

becilitie of man's nature, used and imploied all his skill to perswade his countrimen to abridge and to hasten their end by hang- ing themselves upon gibbets which he had caused to be set up in a fielde that he bought for the same purpose." Greene, * Farewell to Follie' (Gros., ix. 341), 1591: "Well did 'Tymon of Athens see the miserie of man's life, when he bought a piece of ground, wherein hee placed gibbets, and spent his time in such desperate Philosophic as to per- suade his friends to hang themselves, so to avoide the imminent perilles of innumerable misfortunes." The anecdote is in Plutarch's 'Life of Antony,' differently told, and re- ferred to in Shakespeare's 'Timon,' V. i. 215, who follows Plutarch.

Primaudaye, chap, ix., 'Of Dutie and Honestie,' pp. 100, 101 : "Lycurgus after his

lawes were given to the Lacedemonians

.at his departure from Lacedemon to go to Delphos, he caused his citizens tosweareand promise that they would keepe his lawes

inviolably untill his returne This done he

went to voluntarie banishment, and com- manded that after his death the ashes of his bodie, being burnt should be cast into the wind, that by this means the Lacedaemonians might never be absolved." Greene, 'The Royall Exchange' (viii. 234-5), 1590 : "Lycurgus

when he had given lawes to the Spar-

tanes, he swore them to keepe his statutes inviolate till his returne from Delphos, whither he banished himselfe ; and after his death caused his bones to be burned and the ashes to be throwne into the sea, that they might for ever be tyed to the observing of Lawes." This piece of Greene's is stated to 'be a translation from the Italian. It appears

to me that the aphoristic quaternary mem- bers of which it is composed may be so ; but the comments thereupon are Greene's own, or rather, in many cases, Primaudaye's, as will appear. On p. 302 there is independent proof of this, for we read : "By this, the Author rneaneth, as I gesse," &c.

Primaudaye, chap, x., 'Of Prudence,' p. 114: "Aristippus on a time beheld him [Diogenes] eating coleworts for his supper, he said unto him." Greene, 'Mourning Garment' (ix. 131): "With Diogenes he would eat coleworts, with Aristippus deli- cates."

Primaudaye, chap, xii., p. 129: <; Phocion

replied Thy words (quoth he to him),

young man and my friend, may fitly be compared to Cypres trees, For they are great and tall, but beare no fruite worth any- thing." Greene, 'Penelope's Web' (v. 222),

1587: "Phocion being demanded of one

how "he liked her speech: My friend (quoth he), her wordes may be compared to cipres trees that are great and tall, but beare no fruite worth anything." H. C. HART.

(To be continued.)

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

CENTENARY.

MARCH GTH, 1906.

THE Browning celebration should not pass without a note in 'N. *fe Q.,' for in its pages "requent references have been made to the poetess, and the difficulty in definitely fixing date and place of her birth, which some writers on the centenary seem to imagine has only recently been settled, was solved in

N. & Q.' on the 20th of July, 1889 (7 th S. viii. 41). The subject formed the first article n the number, the following extract being

iven from the register of Kelloe parish
 * hurch, co. Durham :

" Elizabeth Barrett Mouldron Barrett, first child f Edward Barrett Mouldron Barrett, Esq., of /pxhoe Hall, a native of St. Thomas's, Jamaica, by tis wife, Mary, late Clarke of Newcastle, born

March 6th, 1806, and admitted [into the Church!

^eb. 10, 1808."

On the 24th of February, 1866, an editorial ote states (3 rd S. ix. 155) that Mrs. Browning

commenced her literary career, while still in her teens, by several contributions to the leading periodicals of the day. Her earliest separate works were, 'An Essay on Mind/ 12mo, 1826, and a translation of the 'Prome- theus ' of JEschylus, 12mo, 1833." The Editor refers "for a graphic notice of Mrs. Brown- ing" to Miss Mitford's ' Recollections of a Literary Life.'