Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/420

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NOTES AND QUERIES. in s.x. NOV. 21,191*.

KECTORS OF UPKAM AND DTJRLEY (11 S. x. 63, 366). Probably the Robert Godwyn concerning whom the REV. E. L. H. TEW inquires was the person of this name who became a .Fellow of Winchester College, being then B.A., from Bishop's Waltham in 1541, and resigned his Fellowship in 1550 (Kirby, ' Winchester Scholars,' p. 9).

JOHN B. WAINEWRIGHT.

THE ORIGINAL OF 'ALADDIN' (11 S. x. 186). Doubtless many readers should be enraptured with COL. HUBERT FOSTER'S note under this heading that he has " discovered the track of a story wandering across Asia between 200 and" 1000 A.D., and getting ' improved ' on the way." But advancing further in its perusal, any reader whose acquaintance with Chinese history enables him to certify that the Ming dynasty con- tinued from A.D. 1368 till 1681* should be somewhat at a loss to comprehend what manner of reasoning has induced COL. FOSTER to conceive the Chinese tale of a certain Wang and his mother and uncle, which, it appears, began to grow only so lately as during the Ming dynasty (1368-1681), ibo have already passed from China to Western Asia between the much earlier years 200 and 1000. Unless additional evidence is produced by him that there had existed in China a prototype of this tale between the years 200 and 1000, COL. FOSTER'S " discovery " will remain an inextricable myth for ever.

Also it is much to be regretted that COL. FOSTER in his note specifies neither the title nor date of the Chinese book whence Dr. Geil is said to have translated this tale, nor does he explain why he has chosen the years between 200 and 1000 A.D. as the duration of its supposed travel across Asia. As my occasional writings to ' N. & Q.' illustrate, China certainly possesses many a model of the tales ami proverbs now thriving in Europe and Western Asia ; but we must never forget that there are therein a multitude of them which bear enough of native physiog- nomy, but prove on investigation to be the copies, modifications, or metamorphoses of foreign originals. Taking these into con- sideration, one might be justified in suspect- ing whether the Chinese story of the Wang family is not really an imitation of ' Aladdin.'

KUMAGUSU MlNAKATA. Tanabe, Kii, Japan.

pp. 197-8, where, however, the final year of the dynasty is not clearly given, apparently because it was not destroyed at once, but dwindled down alter much lingering.'
 * See, e.g., ' p]ncyc. Brit.,' llth ed., vol. v.

WILKES AND LORD THURLOW ( 1 1 S. x. 366). MR. BLEACKLEY destroys a good story of , the readiness of Wilkes, and he is supported i by the negative evidence in Wraxall's ' Posthumous Memoirs of My Own Time.' In Campbell's ' Life of Lord Chancellor | Thurlow ' the Wilkes story is told, and no axithority is quoted. The late Mr. Jennings in his ' Anecdotal History of the British Parliament ' quotes Earl Stanhope, and gives the witty comment of Wilkes and also Burke's exclamation, " The best thing that can happen to you," and Pitt's exclamation, " O ! what a rascal !" The whole story is worth recalling, and I cite Wraxall as my authority.

Pitt and the King's Government were insisting, on the authority of Dr. Willis, that the King's illness was temporary, and therefore that temporary arrangements should be made by the two Houses for the carrying on of business. The majority believed, on the authority of Dr. Warren, that the King's illness was permanent, and Fox and the Prince's friends claimed that the Prince had a right to the Regency and to appoint a Ministry. The Lords met on 15 December :

" Pitt well knew that the Chancellor had closed his bargain with the heir-apparent since the House of Peers last met on the llth Dec. Every condition demanded was conceded by his Royal Highness, and Thurlow engaged that in the progress of the approaching debate he would oppose Lord Camden's proposition. Pitt, how- ever, did not then know that the negotiation, after being thus concluded, had been suddenly and unexpectedly overturned. Lord Lough- borough, having received intimation of it, instantly repaired to Carlton House, where he clamoured so loudly against the concessions, all which must be made at his expense, that the Prince, in order to appease him, reluctantly consented to send Fox to the Chancellor with a message stating his ill- ability to fulfil the stipulated conditions. Fox only made the notification a few hours before the discussion came on in the House of Peers, a fact of which the Chancellor of the Exchequer [i.e., Pitt] was ignorant."

Lord Stormont had spoken of marks of kindness received from the King.

" ' My own sorrow,' pursued the Chancellor [i.e., Thurlow"), ' is aggravated by the same cir- cumstance. My debt of gratitude likewise to him is ample for the numerous favours which he has conferred on me, which whenever I forget may God forget me 1 ' Pitt, who was standing at only a few paces distant. . . .no longer master of his indignation, turned round to General Manners and to the other friends close to him, and in a low voice exclaimed, ' Oh ! the rascal ! '

The next night Wraxall voted in the Commons for Pitt's resolution. He got the Btory from Manners, and records it in 1820