Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/17

 ii s. XL JAN. 2, 1915.], NOTES AND QUERIES.

POEM ATTRIBUTED TO DR. JOHNSON. (See 11 S. x. 304.) The magazine from which Lord Buchan, assuming that he is A. B., tore these verses is The Gentleman's, vol. xviii., 1748. They are printed on the reverse of the page that contains the Preface. Johnson's ' Vanity of Human Wishes ' was published in January, 1749, but he must have declined on a lower level if we are to suppose that about the same time he wrote the address to Mr. Urban. Could Johnson have passed the couplet His missive weapon gives a distant wound, And brings the Vultur breathless to the ground ?

The writer recollected his Pope. " The bounding steed " is from the imitation of Horace, ' Epistles,' II. i. 383, and " Mathgsis " has the same quantity as in ' Dunciad,' iv. 31.

There is a curious resemblance between Through the same medium Falsehood's colours play, And Truth's white radiance gives unbroken day,

and Shelley's

Life, like a dome of many- coloured glass, Stains the white radiance of Eternity.

'Adonais,' st. 52. Have they a common source ?

The verses addressed to Mr. Urban on the completion of vol. xix. are still milder. They are signed Phil-Urban. Those who have access to other volumes can say whether it was a regular practice to prefix such addresses. Johnson is known to have touched and corrected many verses written by others. EDWARD BENSLY.

THE FOUNDER OF THE HULME TRUST. The ' D.N.B.' does not give the birthplace of William Hulme, the founder of the Hulme Trust. By the publication of the Bolton Parish Registers, a transcription which this writer has just issued, it is possible to fix the place definitely. Among the baptisms for 23 March, 1631, we find " Willyam Holmes, son of Willyame de Breighmitt, grandchilde to Mr. Bichard Banister." From this it may be inferred (says Mr. W. Hewitson, who reviews the book in The Manchester City News) that William Hulme was born at his mother's old home at Breightmet, then a township within the parish of Bolton. His mother, Christian, was the daughter of Bichard Banister, and her marriage is recorded in the Bolton Begister under date 6 May, 1630. William Hulme seems to have lost both parents before he was 8 years old. He was married at Prestwich Church on 2 Aug., 1653, and died at Kersley in October, 1691.

ARCHIBALD SPARKE, F.R.S.L.

"THE DAY." This phrase, made familiar to us by recent events, may indicate a necessary element in huge ambitions in the few cases permitted by the nature of things to mature in history. Or may it be an echo of Seneca's * Suasoria,' I. means, motive, and measure all chiming with the original ? I quote from the Elzevir edition, vol. iii. pp. 3, 4, and venture to add capitals :

" Deliberat Alexander, an OCEAN UMNAVIGET

Venit ILLE DIES, Alexander, exoptatus, quo TIBI OPER.E EST adesse. lidem sunt termini et regni tui, ET MUNDI."

J. K.

' ' COUSAMAH. ' ' In the * Oxford Thackeray ' edition of ' The Newcomes,' in which the text followed is " that of the 1864 edition," the last revised by Thackeray himself, Col. Newcome is made to say : "Do you suppose I want to know what my kitmutgars and cousamahs are doing ? " I suggest that there is a mistake here, and that what the great novelist wrote was not " cou- samahs," but " consamahs," and that the printer has in this instance mistaken the author's n for u, and very likely his u for an a. Thackeray, son of a Bengal civilian, and himself born in India, must have been familiar with the name khansama, which in his father's time was probably written consumah, or even consumer the name by which in Bengal the chief table servant in a European's household is known. I do not think it at all likely that he wrote cousamah, which perversion of the word, however, has now, owing to a compositor's mistake, probably been perpetuated in all the editions of 'The Newcomes.' PENRY LEWIS.

WE must request correspondents desiring in- formation on family matters of only private interest to affix their names and addresses to their queries, in order that answers may be sent to them direct.

NAME OF PLAY WANTED. An engraving by Hollis of ' Mr. G. V. Brooke as Philip of France ' represents him as reciting the following lines : The Pope, my Lords ! Four letters, things, not

names !

The Pope ! Did earth receive him from the stars ; Or sprang he from the ocean ? &c.

They are quoted from Act III. sc. iii., but the name of the play is not given. Could any one tell me what it was ? It would seem to have been a version of Shakespeare's ' King John.' G. C. MOORE SMITH.