Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/199

 n s.x. SEPT. 5,1914.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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Hrc4H PETERS : ' TALES AND JESTS ' (11 S. x. 105). May I be allowed first of all to thank your correspondent MR. J. B. WIL- LIAMS for his extremely valuable and interest- ing articles, and to express the hope that lie will amplify what he has said on the subject of the ' Tales and Jests ' ? I have myself made from time to time certain notes as to the sources from which some of these talcs may have been immediately derived, but a very short experience is sufficient to convince one that to attempt to discover the origin of such matter as is contained in this book is a practically hopeless task. I have used Caulfield's reprint, which I believe reproduces the first edition, though it seems there were at least three issues of the same date ; and a fuller bibliographical note as to these than that in Collier's ' Cata- logue ' would be useful.

Of the ' Tales and Jests ' as they appear in the reprint, No. 1 is, according to a MS. note in a copy in the B.M., a Norman tale of the twelfth or thirteenth century, and appears in Le Grand's ' Fabliaux ' ; Nos. 3, 4, 8-10, 14, 16, 17, 19, 20, and 23-30 are taken from Taylor's ' Wit and Mirth,' 1630, in some cases verbatim ; No. 6 is from Armstrong's ' Banquet of Jests.' These, and no doubt some of the others, did not originate with Peters.

There are references in ' Peter's Pattern ' and ' Peter's Resurrection ' (both printed in 1659) to No. 39, and the first of these two tracts also mentions Peters's best-known " jest," No. 7, which may be allowed him, though the same thing in a slightly different form is to be found in ' England's Vanity,' 1683, and ' The Scotch Presbyterian Elo- quence,' 1692, without any reference to his authorship. G. THORN-DRURY.

REGISTERS OF PROTESTANT DISSENTERS (11 S. ix. 489; x. 30, 93). I had occasion to consult some Non-Parochial Registers at Somerset House some time ago, and was given every facility for so doing, without the formality of a personal recommendation, on showing that it was not my purpose to make extracts therefrom that might deprive the Department of its statiitory fees. In other words, the registers were not accessible to me, without payment, for genealogical purposes. That there is some means of getting over this ruling is, however, apparent from the fact that entire registers of Roman Catholic missions, in the Registrar- General's '"study, have been transcribed by private individuals and printed by the Catholic Record Society.

The Non-Parochial Registers are of genea- logical and antiquarian rather than of legal value, and should be treated accordingly. One would like to see a Literary Search-Room opened in the Department on similar lines to that in the Probate Division, with rules of admission applicable to all alike, and a scale of charges framed in accordance with the special nature of these documents. At present there is no proper accommodation for the antiquary, and no staff available for his supervision, so it is in the interests of the Department to discourage applicants for free admission.

To MR. A. L. HUMPHREYS' s bibliography of the subject may be added ' The Quaker Records,' by Josiah Newman, printed in ' Some Special Studies in Genealogy,' 1908,. and ' Some Notes on the Early Sussex: Quaker Registers,' by the present writer > in Sussex Arch. Coll., vol. lv., 1912, which should be consulted by those interested in the records of Quakerism.

PERCEVAL LUCAS.

Rackham, Pulborough.

NOTES ON SHILLETO'S EDITION OP BURTON (11 S. ix. 186, 513). Baptista Mantuanus's line,

Sorte tua contentus abi, sine cetera nobis.

(' Eel.,' v. 46),

is apparently, as Prof. W. P. Mustard has pointed out in his excellent edition of the ' Eclogues,' indebted to Petrarch's

Sorte tua contentus abi, citharamque relinque.

' Eel.,' iv. 68.

But it should certainly have been noticed that Petrarch's predecessor in expression was Claudian, who in the second book of his ' Raptus Proserpinae ' (220, 221) wrote :

Fratris linque domos : alienam desere sortem :

Nocte tua contentus abi.

EPITAPH : "I WAS WELL ; I WOULD BE BETTER ; I AM HERE " (11 S. vi. 469 ; x. 154). Since writing the answer at the latter reference I have come on the following passage :

" It would seem (he added) that Addison had not acquired much Italian learning, for we do not find it introduced into his writings. The only instance that I recollect, is his quoting, ' Stavo bene ; per star meglio, sto qul.' " Boswell's 'Johnson,' 7 April, 1775 (vol. i. p. 546, in the 'Everyman's Library" edition).

Malone's note is :

" Addison, however, does not mention where this celebrated Epitaph, which has eluded a very diligent enquiry, is found."

I am not able to consult Birkbeck Hill's dition. EDWARD BENSLY.

Reydon, Southwold, Suffolk.