Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/385

 ii s. xii. NOV. 13, 1915.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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in which should be united permanence and security- In pursuance of this decision, on the 28th October, 1773, the foundation stone of the present buildings to which has been absurdly given the old appella- tion ' Newgate' was laid in Little Green, a piece of ground on the north side of the city. The street in which it is situate is now called Green Street."

J. LANDFEAR LUCAS. Glendora, Hindhead, Surrey.

DERIVATION OF HANWELL, MIDDLESEX. There have been several repetitions lately of the absurd error concerning the origin of this place-name. The latest occurs in ' N. & Q.,' ante, p. 305. To derive it from St. Ann's Well is but a specimen of the punning guesswork so common among amateur etymologists. Do let us have this one nipped in the bud !

This place was named Hanewell T Cartu- larium Saxonicum,' ch. 1050) in Anglo-Saxon days, long before the corruption in our language which involves the dropping of the letter h set in with the Norman French invaders. EDWARD SMITH.

PLAYS AT HAMPSTEAD, 1709. A complaint from the vicar, churchwardens, &c., of the parish of Hampstead states that a playhouse has been lately erected in the town against their consent, and that great scandals, annoy- ances, and disorders may be occasioned therein. The Court suppresses the using and acting of any unlawful games or plays in Hampstead, and directs the petty constables and headboroughs of the town to appre- hend the players that they may be punished as rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars (' Middlesex County Records,' ed.W. J. Hardy, F.S.A., p. 346, July, 1709).

Hampstead seems to have been as far back in regard to the stage as James Burbage's London was. CHARLOTTE C. STOPES.

"DISPATCH" OR "DESPATCH." Referring to the recent letters of Sir Harry Poland and of Sir George Birdwood in The Times, may it not be considered a matter of fancy whether one writes "dispatch" or " despatch," and be regarded as akin to "honor": "honour," and to "sergeant": " serjeant '' ? In my memory of forty years' perusal of The Times I have never seen " diocese," but ; ' diocess," and I understand that this is one of the pigeon-holed words of The Times, as also " connexion " instead of " connection " ; " marquis," not "marquess " ; and of late years the Americanized word " jewelry " instead of " jewellery."

JAS. CURTIS, F.S.A.

GEORGE WILKINS AND SHAKESPEARE'S ' PERICLES.' It has long been suspected that Shakespeare did not write the whole of ' Pericles.' In 1868 Delius advanced the theory that George Wilkins, a contemporary playwright and the author of a prose noveE called 'The Painful Adventures of Pericles,. Prince of Tyre,' was also part author of the play. Further evidence in support of this view was afterwards adduced by Fleay in. his ' Shakespeare Manual ' (pp. 209-33), and by Boyle in a paper read before the New Shakspere Society in February, 1882.

All these critics agree in assigning the first two acts to Wilkins, and both Delius and Boyle have drawn attention to resemblances between certain passages in this play and in, Wilkins's ' Miseries of Enforced Marriage.' One not insignificant parallel has, however,- escaped them both.

In the Gower Chorus to Act I. the following words are used in reference to Antiochus and his daughter :

But custom what they did begin Was with long use account no sin.

Wilkins's prose novel (admittedly founded on the play) here has :

" They long continued in these foule and unjust imbracements till at last the custome of sitme made it accompted no sinne."

And in his play ' The Miseries of Enforced Marriage,' Act IV. (Hazlitt, ' Dodsley,' ix. 512), we find these lines :

For vice being foster'd once comes impudence, Which makes men count sin custom, not offence.

Mr. Boyle's arguments in support of Wilkins's claim to Acts I. and II. of ' Peri- cles ' (including the Gower Choruses) seem to me quite conclusive, but as so eminent a critic as Prof. Saintsbury has declared (' Cambridge History of English Literature,' v. 188) that " the allocation of parts of this play to other dramatists [than Shakespeare], named or unnamed, is as hazardous a piece of hariolatry as has been tried," no scrap of corroborative evidence can be deemed un- important. H. DUGDALE SYKES.

Enfield.

' THE HOUSE THAT JACK BUILT.' One has sometimes wondered what is the origin of the various nursery rimes and stories which are the delight of one generation after another of children in the nursery.

At the end of a little volume containing the ' Service for the first two nights of the Passover,' printed in Germany, and appar- ently in use by the German Jews, is given as an appendix a poem which may hava given rise to ' The House that Jack Built/