Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 11.djvu/493

 ii s. XL JUNE 19, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

48S

Bardsley (' English Surnames,' 1875, p. 62) appears to take the derivation from the day of the week for granted, and is backed up by Ferguson (' Surnames as a Science,' 1883, p. 182). The Gazetteers afford no clue.

S. A. GBUNDY-NEWMAN.

Walsall.

Jacke Jugeler. Edited, with Introduction and

Notes, by W. H. Williams, M.A. (Cambridge

University Press, 4s. 6d. net.)

WRITTEN in the manner of the Heywood inter- ludes, ' Jacke Jugeler ' is one of the very earliest specimens of English comedy. A pleasant one-act farce of three scenes, designed for an hour's per- formance by boys, it is familiar through various mediums to students of sixteenth -century poetry. It was edited for the Roxburghe Club in 1820; it is one of ' Four Old Plays ' published under Child's editorship in 1848 ; it appears in Hazlitt's Dodsley of 1874 ; and it is given by Grosart in vol. iv. of his "Miscellanies of the Fuller Worthies Library" (1872-6).

The piece has usually been considered anony- mous, and Mr. Williams in his edition makes an important advance on the previous attitude. On the suggestion of Prof. Bang, he systematically endeavours to show that it is the work of Nicholas Udall, the author of 'Ralph Roister Doister.' It is a quite plausible theory, of which the editor makes admirable use in his detailed and skilful Introduction. He begins by showing resemblances between the little comedy and Udall's masterpiece, and contends that the one has essential features that obviously give it a kind of preliminary rela- tionship to the other. This implies that it must have been written before 1552, the year in which Udall's play is now believed to have been composed. Verbal resemblances are apt to be unsatisfactory pegs on which to depend for literary conclusions, for both in word and phrase contemporaries have common property. With several of the parallels he submits between the presumptive and the actual Udall Mr. Williams does not escape this inevitable difficulty, but he makes the roost of the position, and by some of his instances he distinctly impresses the attractiveness of his theory. He is even more arresting when he discusses the textual methods of the two dramas, and explicitly indicates what are probably Udall's autobiographical touches in the smaller and ostensibly superficial delineation. On the whole, if Mr. Williams does not absolutely prove his case, he proffers strong presumptive evidence for Udall's authorship of 'Jacke Jugeler.'

In regard to his text he proves himself a dexterous and scrupulously careful editor. He has been able to examine the unique copy of the play in the col- lection of the Duke of Devonshire, and he makes a noteworthy contribution to historical philology by devoting part of his Introduction to a summary of the peculiarities of spelling presented in that ver- sion. Other features of substantial interest are the tabulation of various readings in a section of the Introduction, and the quotation of a later frag- ment in an appendix. Here and there in the work there are doubtful passages. Some of these as, e g., the threat implied in line 904 are probably

beyond the range of editorial elucidation. Mr- Williams, however, carefully tackles them all in his scholarly notes, and generally his decisions should command respect. In the two considerable portions of the play that practically reproduce scenes from the ' Amphitruo ' of Plautus, he keep* the Latin original constantly in view, and more than once he is able to prove that preceding ex- positors would have shown prudence if they had been careful to do likewise. The abundance of apposite parallelisms given in the notes invests this- section of the work with a separate and distinctive value. The publishers' share in the product de- serves hearty commendation. In a throng of" textual peculiarities the nicest possible handling was indispensable, and such slips as " knane" for knaue and " knanes " for knaues, in lines 798 and' 861 respectively, are trivial exceptions to the general accuracy.

The Arcana of Freemasonry. By Albert Church- ward, M.D. (Allen & Unwin, 7s. Qd. net.) THIS work is in great part a collection of lectures, delivered by the author upon the ancient sources, of Masonry. Much labour must have been expended upon the collection of material, but it may be doubted whether Dr. Churchward's two claims that he has dispelled the cloudy mists of antiquity which have formed an impene- trable obstacle to many writers, and that in no other part of the world than Ancient Eygpt can the origins of Freemasonry be found (p. 9) \vill ! receive such acceptance as he might wish. The whole subject is, and will have to remain, debat- - able.

The respectable age which most of its members , are content to ascribe to the Masonic craft palea - before the statement on p. 147 that " Free- - masonry has existed for at least six hundred thousand years " ; and such assertions as " The proofs of all my contentions are in the Ritual of Ancient Egypt, and on the various monuments," are apt to call to mind an observation lately ,- made elsewhere, that Freemasonry and Egypto-- logy are not synonymous terms. To dismiss all\ that has been done for the history of the craft. with the words, " We have no history for those who cannot read ancient writings, except a decipherment and translation of some of these symbols and workings which I have given "* (p. 163), is less than appreciative of much that has been done by writers whose works are re- garded at least with attention ; whilst the collocation of modern authors given by Dr. Churchward on p. 147, " Gould, Anderson, . Armitage, Horsley, Lawrence," is rather a surprising one, and hints a doubt whether his preoccupation with Egyptian lore has not tended towards exclusion of other necessary studies. Whilst painstaking and recondite research is ; evident, it is possible that setting this foith in language of a less positive and more persua- sive character might have better furthered its a author's aims.

An interesting chapter on ' Operative Masons ' rests upon pretensions (as yet unsubstantiated) that in" parts of England there exist bodies in direct succession to Sir Christopher Wren and his associates in the building of St. Paul's Cathe- dral, in contradistinction to the Free and Ac- cepted Masons. Dr. Churchward appears to . take these operative claims for granted, and.