Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 8.djvu/415

 10 s. vm. NOV. 2, 1907.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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LONDON, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1907.

CONTENTS. No. 201.

NOTES : Peacock's 'Maid Marian' and Tennyson's 'Foresters,' 341 The Wardlaw Family, 342 Norman Court Nameless Portraits " Peccavi ": "I have Sindh," 345 Dryden's 'Alexander's Feast' Paris Garden, 346 "Top the candle," 347.

QUERIES : English Literary Almanacs Defunct Periodi- calsWest London Rivers "In essentials, unity" Authors of Quotations Wanted Dissenting Preachers in the Old Jewry Scully Family, 347 Hodson of the Indian Mutiny Tyrone Power "Cut his stick," 348 Anthony Trollope : Key to ' Phineas Finn ' " Varap^e " William Weare's Murder " Narrow between the shoulders" " With full swinge," 349 Archbishop Black- burnPlace-Names in Old Map Brass as a Surname Westminster Sanctuary, 350.

REPLIES: No. 7, Fleet Street, 350 Palgrave's 'Golden Treasury,' 351 Archbishop of Dublin in 1349 "Abbey" : " Abbaye "George Fitzroy, Duke of Northumberland. 352 -"Stake" in Racing Umber Bird ' In God is all" " The Common Hangman," 353 Lych Gates George I. : the Nightingale and Death American Factory Workers' Magazine, 354 "Suck-bottle" "The World Turned Up- side Down "Tottenham Churchyard, 355 "Nora de Guerre" Goat's Blood and Diamonds, 356 Servius Sulpicius The Pedlars' Rest Unroofed Railway Carriages, 357 Zotfany's Indian Portraits Reindeer : its Spelling, 358.

NOTES ON BOOKS: "The Charm of London' 'The Reliquary.'

Booksellers' Catalogues. Notices to Correspondents.

T. L. PEACOCK'S ' MAID MARIAN ' AND TENNYSON'S ' FORESTERS.'

THE source of Peacock's legendary romance ' Maid Marian ' has not yet been traced. The story of Maid Marian itself can only be followed back to 1592, in which year Stow (' Annales ') relates it as follows :

" The Chronicle of Dunmow sayth this discord arose betwixt the king and his barons, because of Mawd called the faire, daughter to Robert Fitz- water, whome the king loved, but the father would not consent, and thereupon ensued warre through- out England. Whilst Mawd the faire remayned at Dunmow, there came a messenger unto her from King John about his suite in love, but because she would not agree, the messenger poysoned a boyled or potched egge against she was hungrie, whereof she died."

John plays here in some respects a similar part as in Peacock, but a relation between Marian and Robin Hood is not hinted at. The first work in which occurs the idea of the -supposititious daughter of Lord Fitzwater adopting the name of Marian, and accom- panying Robin Hood on his adventures during his outlawry, is an old play written conjointly by Anthony Munday and Henry

Chettle, and it is from this play that Peacock has derived the pith of his novel.

It is entitled ' The death of Robert, earle of Huntingdon, otherwise called Robin Hood of merrie Sherwodde ; with the lamentable tragedie of chaste Matilda, his faire maid Marian, poysoned at Dunmore by King John,' and was printed in London in 1601. A resemblance to this play can be traced through nearly the whole of ' Maid Marian.' The drama begins with the interruption of the Earl of Huntingdon's wedding and his consequent outlawry in precisely the same way as in the novel. Both works contain an account of a quarrel between Baron Fitz- water and Prince John, although it is dif- ferently and more ably related by Peacock, who introduces it somewhat later in his narrative. In the play, for instance, Prince John is already mentioned as being in love with Matilda in Act I. sc. iii., whereas the allusion to this in the novel occurs first in the ninth chapter. In the drama Fitzwater's daughter joins her lover, who has degenerated into a freebooter, is formally married to him, and rechristened " Maid Marian " a course of events that is also followed by the novelist. One great improvement of Peacock's is that he avoids calling Matilda " Marian " before she adopts that name, and " Matilda " after she has adopted it, such a confusion being a conspicuous shortcoming of the play. The scene in which Matilda assumes a new name, and decides to assist her lover in the prosecu- tion of his predatory acts, is not only anala- gous as regards the subject-matter, but also exhibits traces of similarity in language.

The following citations, extracted and abridged from the two works, will sufficiently illustrate this. They describe the " Orders " of the freebooters as contained in ' Maid Marian ' on the one hand, and in the play on the other, which are represented in both cases as having been spoken by Little John.

The play.

First no man must presume to call our master By name of earle, lorde, baron, knight, or squire : But simply by the name of Robin Hoode That faire Matilda henceforth change her name, And by Maid Marian's name be only cald. Thirdly, no yeoman following Robin Hoode In Sherwood, shall use widowe, wife, or maid, But by true labour, lustfiill thoughts expell. Fourthly, no passenger with whome ye meete, Shall yee let passe till hee with Robin feaste ; Except a poast, a carrier, or such folke, As use with foode to serve the market townes. Fifthly, you never shall the poore man wrong, Nor spare a priest, a usurer, or a clarke. Lastly, you shall defend with all your power Maids, widows, orphans, and distressed men.