Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/357

 10 s. VIIL OCT. 12, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

295

in ruins, is about three miles from Witney
 * and is on the banks of the Windrush.

JOHN PICKFORD, M.A.

Newbourne Rectory, Woodbridge.

BIDDING PRAYER (10 S. vi. 448 ; vi 32, 70, 92, 277). In the interesting replie to this query I do not observe any referenc -to the part King Edward VI. took in th matter. One of the numerous little tract (all now rare) written by Dr. Richard Stewarc Dean of St. Paul's, dealt with the subjec thus :

"Judgment of a Private Prayer in Publick relating to the Orders of the Church of Englanc With an Account of the Bidding Prayer. Oxford L. Lichfield for Richard Sherlock. 1684." 12mo pp. 12.

On p. 8 the Dean says :

"One thing I shall adde more, and it is a shor discourse, How the Pulpit Forms of Prayer wer brought into the Church of England. We mus know then that in the time of Popery the manne -commonly was to use the Lord's Prayer or else ar Ave Maria before [the] sermon, so that when Edward the Sixth came to compose his ' Injunc tions,' he made choice, as he had good reason, o the Lord's Prayer for that purpose. But because ii was thought fit that the King's just supremacy in ecclesiastical things should be at the least weekly published to the people, it was thought expedient to premise to the Pater Noster a Form, as his the Priest was not to speak to God, but only to the People, exhorting them to pray instantly for such and such persons, but he prayed not to God at all iintill he closed with the Lord's Prayer. This was likewise confirmed in the ' Injunctions ' of Queen Elizabeth and expressly called the ' Form of Bidding Prayer.' And when King James of blessed memory turn'd those ' Injunctions ' into Canons his Law- runs : Canon 55 : ' That Ministers should move the People to joyn with him in prayer, viz., in this Form of Bidding Prayer: "Ye shall pray for Christ's Catholick Church," &c., concluding always with the Lord's Prayer.'"
 * Injunction ' stiles it, of Bidding Prayer, wherein

Among other places this quaint pulpit exhortation is recited in Holy Trinity Church at Stratford every April.

WILLIAM JAGGARD.

ROBIN HOOD PLAYS (10 S. viii. 70). The play of ' Robin and Marian ' is said to have been performed, according to annual custom, by the schoolboys of Angiers so early as 1392. Friar Tuck is mentioned in 'Skelton's play of ' Magnificence,' f. 5 b. (See Warton's ' English Poetry,' Murray, 1870, pp. 163 and 556).

' Robin Hood's Pastoral May Games,' anonymous play, 1624. ' Robin Hood and his Crew of Soldiers : an Interlude,' 1627, anonymous. Of the latter, and of ' A Pastoral Pleasant Comedie of Robin Hood and Little John,' David Erskine Baker

says in his : Biographia Dramatica ' that although they are " in all the lists, yet I do not find any of the writers who pretend to have seen them. Langbaine and Jacob have mentioned them without date." He continues that it is only in ' The British Theatre ' that he met with the following three pieces in addition to the ' Pastoral May Games ' and the ' Crew of Soldiers ' :

"Robert Earl of Huntingdon's Downfall, after- wards called Robin Hood of merry Sherwode ; with his Love to the chaste Matilda, the Lord Fitz water's Daughter, afterwards his Maid Marian. An historical Play, by Thomas Heywood, 4to. 1601."

"Robert Earl of Huntingdon's Death, otherwise called Robin Hood, of merry Sherwode, with the lamentable Tragedy of chaste Matilda, his fair Maid Marian, poisoned at Dunmow by the King. An historical Play, by T. Heywood, 4to. 1601. This play and the preceding one are both printed in the old black-letter, and are neither of them divided into acts. The first part is introduced by J. Skelton, Poet Laureate to Henry VIIL, and the other by Fryar Tuck. The story on which they are both, founded may be seen in Stow, Speed, Baker, and the other historians of the reign of Richard I."

" Robin Hood. Opera. Acted at Lee's and Harper's Booth, Bartholomew Fair, 8vo. 1730." (See also Henry Morley's ' Bartholomew Fair,' Warne & Co., p. 318.)

One more is given by Baker ; " Robin Hood: a Musical Entertainment, 8vo. 1751. This piece was performed at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, but without any great success ; it had little more than musical merit to ecommend it, which was not then quite so much he idol of public adoration as it seems at present to be."

Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne ' (Percy's Reliques ') appears never to have been Iramatized.

' The Poetical Register ; or, the Lives and Characters of the English Poets,' 1723, notes only four plays : ' Robin Hood's 'astoral May Games ' ; ' Robin Hood and lis Crew of Soldiers : an Interlude ' ; leywood's ' Robert Earl of Huntingdon's Downfall : an Historical Play,' 1601, acted "by the Earl of Nottingham's Servants, ind his ' Robert Earl of Huntingdon's Death ; or, Robin Hood of Merry Sherwood ; vith the Tragedy of Chaste Matilda,' 1601.

J. HOLDEN MACMlCHAEL.

"Bus" FOR "OMNIBUS" (10 S. viii. 47). P. T. G. says : " ' Motor-bus ' has ecome official alas ! " I agree ; but if lie officials had written " motorbus," I hould approve.

I think " bus " amply expresses what he thing is when you know. Why, then, o more ? Is it on the exploded theory f making words show their derivation ?