Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 12.djvu/422

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NOTES AND QUERIES, [ii a. xii. NOV. 27, 1915.

Town and Country magazines, and in nearly every case the criticism was unfavourable. But although they have no literary merit, and displayed the worst of bad taste at the time of their publication, these satires help to throw much light upon the social history of the time. It is a most instructive task for any one who wishes to gain an intimate knowledge of the period to identify the actual persons who are satirized in these pages. It is often possible to recognize a name which otherwise might have been buried in obscurity, and by collating the various lists one is able to understand the opinion of contemporaries with regard to many a famous individual. These pamphlets thus form a most valuable commentary upon the well-known memoirs of the century, and I append a bibliography of the most familiar of them, which no doubt the readers of * N. & Q.' will be able to amplify. Except for their impertinence there is nothing objectionable in any of them.

Sketches | and | Characters | of the most Eminent and most Singular | Persons | Now Living. | By Several Hands. | Vol.1. | Bristol. | Printed for John

Wheble | 1770.

[The author was Philip Thicknesse.]

Modern Characters | For 1778. | By Shakespeare

London : | Printed and sold by D. Brown |

1778.

[These " characters " appeared originally in The Morning Post and Public Advertiser, and the author is supposed to have been the Rev. Mr. Barton, Rector of St. Andrew's, Holborn.]

Sketches | From I Nature, | In | High Preserva- tion, I By the Most Honourable Masters; |

London | Printed for G. Kearsly | 1779.

The | Picture Gallery. | Containing Near | Two Hundred Paintings By the Moat | Distinguished Ladies in Great Britain. I ......London : ] Printed

for G. Kearsly 1780.

The | Abbey of Kilkhampton ; | or, | Monumental Records | For the year 1980. i Faithfully Tran- scribed | From the Original Inscriptions |

London : | Printed for G. Kearsly | 1780.

[This satire is attributed to Sir Herbert Croft, and has been noticed in ' N. & Q.,' 9 S. xii. 381, 411, 488; 10 S. i. 12 ; xii. 323, 451 ; 11 S. i. 76, 212.]

Miniature Pictures. | Written Originally by Mr. Gay, | Author of The Beggar's Opera, etc. etc. | Newly Adapted to | The Most Fashionable and

Public Characters, | of Both Sexes, Now Living

Containing | above Six Hundred Portraits; |

London, | Printed for M. Smith 1781.

The | World as it Goes : [ Exemplified in the | Characters | of | Selected from the Most Dis- tinguished | English Poets, | from | Chaucer to

Churchill; | And all the | Characters Applied. |

London : ) John Fielding, | 1781.

[Written by William Combe ; cf. his Royal Register,' vii. 35.]

Ways and Means : | or, a | Sale [ of the | L[ord]s S[piritua]l and T[empora]l, | By R[oya]l P[ro-

clamatioln ; | London : Printed for G. Kearslv

I 1782

Prophecies I Delivered by a | Descendant | from the | Oracle of Delphos, | of the Lives and Deaths London: | Printed for W. Priest 1791.
 * of the | Following Distinguished Personages, I

I purposely have excluded from my list all satirical poems of the style of ' The Diaboliad ' or ' The Torpedo,' which are also cryptic productions and which exist in- large numbers. HORACE BLEACKLEY.

JEWISH TREASURE -TROVE.

(See ante, p. 395.)

IN the middle of the sixteenth century the Jews of Constantinople appear to have obtained considerable influence with the Turks. A Jew is credited with being the boon companion of Selim the Sot (II.), and another member of the race about the same time acquired the sovereignty of the Archi- pelago. The next story we hear about the Tomb of David is, therefore, one in which the Jews take an important part.

About the year 1561 a Constantinople Jew of wealth and influence visited Jerusalem for the purpose of praying at the tomb of David. He seems to have fixed upon the ancient church of the " Cenaculum " on Mount Sion, just outside the city walls, as the correct site (perhaps in consequence of Benjamin of Tudela's story) ; but, as will be- seen hereafter, such an identification could have had no basis in any tradition older than, the twelfth century. On begging to be permitted to worship within the Franciscan church of the " Cenaculum," he was indig- nantly refused by the monks. The Jew threatened revenge, and on his return to Constantinople rebuked the Grand Vizier for his indifference to the tomb of one of the great Prophets of Islam, in permitting it to remain in the hands of the infidel Nazarenes. His representations, aided by bribes, had the* desired effect, and the Franciscans were accordingly driven from their convent, and eventually permitted to purchase their present property within the walls of Jeru- salem.

But although the Jews are perhaps rightly credited with having something to do with the expulsion of the Christians from the " Cenaculum," they have certainly not benefited if such was their desire by the change in its ownership. We do not hear of the Moslems permitting the Jews to approach