Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 10.djvu/47

 ii s.x. JULY is, 1914.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

41

LONDON, SATURDAY, JULY IS, 19U.

CONTENTS. No. 238.

NOTES : The Probable Date of Webster's 'The Devil's Law Case.' 41 Illustrations of Casanova, 42' A Biblio- graphy of Thomas Holcrofb,' 43 - ' Berrow's Worcester Journal ' Record of Monumental Inscriptions in Hert- fordshire, 46 Lines hy Sidney Godo'phin " Anent " " Felix Summerly " (Sir Henry Cole), 47.

QUERIES : " Placing " in Universities, 47 Cotterell, Coterill, and Variants An Oxford University Print Adulation of Queen Elizabeth Medallic Legends, 48 Safety hi a Thunderstorm Moses Franks John Bacon of the "First Fruits Office Translation of the Life of M. de Benty Plautilla and some Mediaeval Princesses "Aschenald" Greek Newspaper published in London

Wellington : Chandos 'The Manchester Marine' The Order of Areopagus, 49 Robert Burton's Symbol Signs of Cadency Isaac Savage of Kintbury Maria Riddell and Burns Rv. James Thomas, c. 1819 52, Newgate Street : a Sculptured Stone, 50 Army Scouts and the Fleur-de-lis, 51.

E.EPLIES : Sir Gregory Norton, the Regicide, 51 "The Broad Arrow " : the King's Mark Burnap, alias Burnett

Cowlard, 52 Oriental Names mentioned by Gray Hessian Troops in America, 53 Scott's 'Rob Roy' Lesceline de Verdon, 54 Palm the Bookseller, shot by Napoleon, 55 "Condamine" Books on Chelsea Authors of Quotations Wanted Old Etonians George Byam Edward Richard Burrough, 57" B'izard " as a Sur- name Tristan de Acunha Adye Baldwin of Slough Military Execution A Bibliography of Thomts Holcroft Alexander Smith's 'Dreamthorp' Privy Councillors, 58 Chilean Views, 59.

NOTES ON BOOKS :-The Oxford Dictionary' Pageant of the Life and Death of Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick.'

Notices to Correspondents.

JOHN WEBSTEK: THE PROBABLE DATE OF ' THE DEVIL'S LAW CASE.'

THE full title of the play runs thus :

" The Deuils Law-Case, Or, When Women goe to Law, the Deuil is full of Businesse. A new Tragecpmoady. The true and perfect Copie from the Original!. As it was approouedly well Acted hy her Maiesties Seruants. Written by John Webster 1623."

Mr. Fleay has asserted that the play may have been written in 1610, on the score that, in Act IV. sc. ii., Romelio states his age to be 38, having been born in the year 1572. This kind of argument, which was used, in the case of ' Romeo and Juliet,' in order to assign 1591 as the date of the play, on account of the 1580 earthquake, is not altogether to be relied upon, especially for racters in this play are convicted of false- hood. The second piece of evidence adduced
 * The Devil's Law Case,' as most of the cha-

by Mr. Fleay is not unimpeachable either : " The enclosure of commons, he says, was then beginning" (a fact alluded to by Wini- fred, Act I. sc. ii. ). This was no recent grievance, however, since a petition of the inhabitants of Stixwold in Lincolnshire has been quoted by Mr. G. Shaw-Lefevre in ' English Commons and Forests ' (1894) ; nay, a popular song published in ' N. & Q.' (5 S. vi. 246) proves that as early as 1548 the public were complaining of an edict of the Regent Somerset to the same effect.

The play is reported to have been acted by " Her Majesty's Servants." Therefore it can have been produced no later than 8 July, 1622, when the late Queen Anne's Men were granted a new privilege under the style of " Children of the Revels " three years after their patron's death. The name of " the Queen's Servants," indeed, is men- tioned subsequently in Sir Henry Herbert's papers (with reference to Massinger's ' Bond- man,' for instance) when " the Queen of Bohemia's Servants " are meant. In the present case, however, the latter company is out of question, the words " Her Majesty's" being applied to none but the Queen of Eng- land.

The under-title of the play has been hitherto unheeded, though it plainly alludes to some scandalous lawsuit in which the litigants had been women. Among the many cases which were tried in James I.'s reign, during which Lord and Lady Rochester, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Giles Mompesson, and Bacon appeared before the Courts of Justice, none answers Webster's description so well and is so fitly paralleled by the play as Lake v. Exeter, which came to an issue in February, 1619.

The daughter of Sir Thomas Lake, Secre- tary of State, having married Lord Roos, the Earl of Exeter's grandson and heir, a serious misunderstanding soon broke out between her and her husband's very young step-grandmother. Lady Lake, who of course took her daughter's side, not only hinted that the Countess had been unduly intimate with Lord Roos, but accused the noble lady of having attempted to poison her and Lady Roos, and produced a written apology by which the Countess had tried to gain the mother's and daughter's forgive- ness This lawsuit between an illustrious house and the family of a powerful statesman created a tremendous excitement, especially after Lord Roos's escape to Rome. Lady Exeter, however, asserted herself innocent, and protested that the written confession had been forged by Lady Lake. The latter