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NOTES AND QUERIES. [io s. vn. APRIL 13, 1907.

as everybody has, or ought to have, the 'Autocrat' within easy reach. For the reader of ' N. & Q.' no more delightful passage can be found in Holmes than this, with its references to family portraits " the great merchant uncle by Copley " ; great-grandmother by the same artist, " stiffish but imposing in brown satin and fine lace " ; " claw-foot chairs and black mahogany tables " ; "a set of Hogarth's original "plates ; Pope, original edition, 15 volumes, London, 1717 " ; and books

" Above all things, as a child he should

have tumbled about in a library" and should be at home " whenever he smells the invigorating fragrance of Russia leather," All these things and more go to the moulding of Oliver Wendell Holmes's man of family, and he makes the bold and apparently, though not really, anti-republican declara- tion : " No, my friends, I go (always, other things being equal) for the man that inherits family traditions and the cumulative humanities of at least four or five genera- tions." At the eleventh breakfast, shortly after telling about " the wonderful one-hoss- shay," he returns to the subject, and glances at another phase of it. This, too. should be read ; but what the " Autocrat " says at the first breakfast is, I think, the thing sought for. JOHN OXBERRY.

Gateshead.

ANNE PLANTAGENET, DUCHESS OF EXETEK (10 S. vii. 149). Anne Plantagenet had by her first husband, Henry, Duke of Exeter, a daughter Anne, who was first wife of Thos. Grey, Marquis of Dorset, and died s.p. (see Milles, 'Cat. of Hon.').

Collation of Milles, Banks, Burke, &c., with certain items in the Patent Rolls, produces puzzling discrepancies concerning the marriages of another Anne the sister of Henry, Duke of Exeter. According to the pedigrees, her first husband was John Neville (son of Ralph, first Earl of West- moreland), who died s.p. 29 Hen. VI. ; and her second husband John Neville, brother to the said earl ; but on turning to the ' Cal. Rot. Pat.' I find (p. 265), under date 1463, 18 May, a grant (in trust) to several persons (including Richard, Earl of Warwick and Salisbury) of divers fees, manors, advowsons, &c., that were late of Thomas Ormonde and Anne his wife as the right of the said Anne, daughter of Anne, late Duchess of Exeter, sister of Thomas Mountague, Kt., sometime Earl of Salisbury, father of Alesia, late Countess of Salisbury, to hold during the life of the said Thomas Ormonde

without rendering anything to the king. At p. 36, under date 1467, is a grant, to trustees, of the manors, lands, &c., that were late of Thomas Ormonde, alias Botiller, Kt., and Anne his wife, &c., as the right of the said Anne, and in the king's hands by reason of an Act in Parliament, 4 Nov., 1 Ed. IV. (1461), against the said Thomas Ormonde, to hold for the life of the latter by such services, &c., as they were held by before 4 March, 1 Ed. IV. This Thomas Ormonde would seem to be identical with the Thomas who, according to Burke, &c., on the death of his brother John in 1478 became seventh Earl of Ormonde, was attainted 1 Ed. IV., restored 1485, and died 1515. But Burke gives as wife of this Earl of Ormonde Anne, daughter and heir of Sir Richard Haukeford.

ETHEL LEGA-WEEKES.

JKisrdlattmts.

NOTES ON BOOKS, &c.

EARLY ENGLISH DRAMATISTS.

The Dramatic Writings of JRichard Edward*,.

Thomas Norton, and Thoma Sackritle. Edited

by John S. Farmer. (Early English Drama

Society.) The Dramatic Writings of Nicholas UdalL (Same

editor and publishers. ) Six Anonymous Plays. Second Series. (Same

editor and publishers.)

WITH great energy the task is conducted of issu- ing the publications of the Early English Drama Society, and the new additions to the series bring us into what may be regarded as the thick of the beginnings of the regular drama. Bvit two ] Jays appear in the volume dedicated to Richard Ed- wards, Thomas Norton, and Thomas Sackville. These consist, however, of two of the best-known and earliest works of the secular stage. ' Damon and Pythias ' is the only extant work of Edwards, , who is also credited with the composition of 'Palamon and Arcyte,' a play founded on the subject of Chaucer's 'Knight's Tale,' and of 'The Two Noble Kinsmen,' and played successfully before Queen Elizabeth at Oxford, where, accord- ing to Anthony a Wood, its first performance was accompanied by a fatal calamity. In the perusal of ' Damon and Pythias ' one is impressed by a; vein of sentiment not common in works of so early a date, and the struggle of the two friends for precedence in death proves positively moving. 'Ferrex and Porrex,' otherwise ' Gorboduc,' the- second of the contents, is the much - discussed tragedy in five acts, the first three of which are assigned on the title-pages of the early unauthorized editions to Thomas Norton, while the work, on the strength of the last two acts, is generally attributed to Thomas Sackville, afterwards Lord Buckhurst and Earl of Dorset. Whatever may be the merits - (much disputed) of this work, its right to inclusion in the present or any representative collection of, the early drama will not be contested.