Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/588

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NOTES AND QUERIES, do* s. v. JUNE 23, im

placed by the side of the door, at the sight level a great improvement, for the majority of those that have been put up are so high as to be barely readable.

Upon the house now known as No. 110, Hallam Street (formerly Charlotte Street), Portland Place, a tablet has been placed re- cording that Dante Gabriel Rossetti was born there, his father being a teacher of Italian. Young Rossetti was something of an infant prodigy, for we learn that his first poem "was written in his own handwriting towards the age of five," but his brother adds, " He may have been just six rather than five but I am not certain." His first picture was of his rocking-horse; this is said to have been attempted " at the age of about four." Drawing had a rare fascination for him, and once having started, he never dropped the notion, his brother stating that he could not remember a time " when it was not under- stood in the family that Gabriel meant to be a painter." Drawings many of them truly recognized as very childish efforts appeared in rapid succession. In 1836 the family removed to No. 50 in the same street, and after the midsummer holidays young Dante, then nearing his ninth year, was first sent to school, his previous education having been home-given. His career is well known, and need not be recalled here.

Lovers of the art of John Constable will be glad to know that the London County Council has recognized his worth by placing a tablet upon No. 76, Charlotte Street, Fitz- roy Square, where the great exponent of landscape lived and died. He began his residence there in 1822. and from a letter dated 31 October in that year we gather that he had many difficulties in getting the alterations and repairs satisfactorily carried out, and he adds :

" I have got the large painting room into excel- lent order ; it is light, airy, sweet, and warm. I at one time despaired of attaining either of those qualities. I have now two six-footers in hand one of which I shall send to the Gallery-at 20W."

Five years later he seems to have tired of his quarters here, and to have longed to " see nature "and to be "out of the way of idle callers"; and in addition his wife's health caused him great anxiety, so he moved to a house at Well Walk, Hampstead, and let off a portion of the Charlotte Street residence. In November, 1828, his wife died at Hamp- stead, and, saddened by the loss, " he returned with his children to his house in Charlotte Street, but retained the one in Well Walk as an occasional residence." From ^s studio a,t Qharlottp Street he sept many

pictures to the Academy, the most famous being * Salisbury Cathedral,' * The Corn-Field,' 1 Hampstead Heath,' Waterloo Bridge, 3 'The Lock,' and ' The Valley Farm.' At Charlotte Street he died suddenly, 31 March, 1837, from heart failure.

The work of the London County Council in marking these houses is much to be com- mended. W. E. HAKLAND-OXLEY.

Westminster.

[A house in Hampstead Road bears a tablet notifying that it was the residence of Cruikshank. It was also that of Clarkson Stanfield.]

ROBERT GREENE'S PROSE WORKS.

(See 10 th S. iv. 1, 81, 162, 224, 483; v. 84, 202, 343,

424, 442, 463.)

I HAVE yet one more extract to make from Primaudaye. It will be in answer to the query, Has any other contemporary Eng- lish writer of importance availed himself of this storehouse of research 1 It appears to me a reasonable conjecture that Marlowe drew therefrom his earliest hints for his fine drama, 'The First Part of Tamburlaine the Great,' which is believed to have first appeared in 1587, the year in which Greene began to find T. B(owes's) translation so desirable. In dealing with this important subject I am referring for Marlowe to Ward's lowe,' and especially toBullen's Introduction to his edition of the dramatist. Bullen goes into the question of Marlowe's sources for his play at some length ; from the pages of The Academy (20 Oct., 1883) he quotes from Messrs. Herford and Wagner, who have shown that '* Marlowe was indebted to the lives of Timur by Pedro Mexia and Petrus Perondinus." Mexia's 'SilvadeVariaLecion' (1543) was translated into English and known as Fortescue's 'The Foreste,' which appeared in 1571 ; "and there can be little doubt that the book was an early favourite of Marlowe's," says Mr. Bullen. Of course Mexia may have been the source whence Primaudaye also drew his sketch, since there was a French translation. I have not access to 'The Foreste.' It would be an interesting piece of research to see if Primaudaye supple- ments in any respect the account therein which Marlowe drew from. The article upon Timour in the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica ' (ninth ed.) gives the date of Perondinus at 1600, a Latin memoir.
 * English Dramatic Literature,' Dyce's ' Mar

The earliest reference to Marlowe's play by name that has been quoted is from Greene's 'Perimedes 1 (Gosart, vii. 8), 'Address to the |ie$der,' where Qreenp shqws |iimse.]f