Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 2.djvu/251

 11 8. VIII. SEPT. 27, 1913.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

245

Bosola's appearance upon the scene, while the Cardinal, Ferdinand, and Count Mala- teste are in close conference together, betokens " some falling out amongst the cardinals "

These factions amongst great men, they are like Foxes, when their heads are divided They carry fire in their tails, and all the country About them goes to wrack for 't.

' D.M.,' III. iii. (Hazlitt, 220). was probably suggested by the use of a similar illustration in the ' Characters ' :

[A meere Petifogger] " Is one of Sampson's Foxes ; He sets men together by the eares, more shamefully than Pillories.'" Rimbault, p. 129.

Pescara and Delio are watching the Cardinal, Ferdinand, and Malateste in conference :

Pes. The Lord Ferdinand laughs. Delio. Like a deadly cannon That lightens ere it smokes.

In such a deformed silence, witches whisper their charms. ' D.M.,' III. iii. (Hazlitt, 221).

This striking line is a close imitation of a passage that occurs in the character of ' A Divellish Usurer ' :

" He remopves his lodging when a Subsidy comes ; and if hee be found out, and pay it, he grumbles Treason ; but 'tis in such a deformed silence, as Witches rayse their Spirits in." Rimbault, p. 134.

Lastly, the Cardinal's ejaculation : Yond 's my lingring consumption.

' D.M.,' V. ii. (Hazlitt, 265). an ejaculation prompted by the appear- ance upon the scene of his mistress Julia, of whom he would fain, be rid seems to have been suggested by an observation applied in the * Characters ' to 'A Verv Woman ' :

" She is Salomons cruell creature and a man's Walking-consumption." Rimbault, p. 50.

H. D. SYKES. Enfield.

(To be continued.)

EGERTON s * FAITHFUL MEMOIRS OF MRS. OLD FIELD,' 1731. This is a sketchy and discursive book, but it possesses a certain value in the eyes of collectors of theatrical literature on account of the portrait that forms the frontispiece. This portrait is seldom found in good condition, as, being folded, it is often broken in the ply. The book purports to be written by " William Egerton, Esq.," and there is no publisher's name on the title-page. No one knows who " William Egerton " was, although he

seems to have been accepted as a real personage by some writers. Mr. Lowe, in his ' Bibliographical Account of English; Theatrical Literature,' under the titles " Egerton " and " Oldfield " makes no suggestion to .the contrary. There can, however, be no doubt that the book was^ published by the notorious Edmund Curll, and that it was written by him or by one of the hacks in his employment. The following- fact, of which I have seen no previous notice,, sufficiently attests the truth of this assertion.. In 1741, ten years after the publication of c The Faithful Memoirs,' Curll issued from " The Pope's Head " in Rose Street Better- ton's ' History of the English Stage,' to which, was appended ' Memoirs of Mrs. Oldfield.' These memoirs are merely an abridgment of the book of 1731, in which most of the super~ fluous and extraneous matter is omitted.* On p. 75 of the original ' Memoirs ' there is a letter from Charles Taylor, who is said to have been a servant of Christopher Rich,, which is addressed to " Mr. Egerton, &c." ;. in the reissue, p. 55, this letter is addressed to "Mr. Curll, &c." Again, on p. 142 of the original there is a letter, addressed to " William Egerton, Esq.," from Mrs. M. Saunders, the devoted friend of Mrs. Old- field, describing the great actress's last moments ; in the reissue, p. 73, this letter is also addressed to " Mr. Curll." As Curll signed the dedication of Betterton's ' His- tory ' to the Duke of Grafton, the book was probably written or inspired by him* A good portion of it is " lifted " from the ' Life of Betterton,' published in 1710, while- other paragraphs have been borrowed from Mrs. Manley's ' Adventures of Rivella,' a book which was also issued without name- of publisher in 1714, although in the third edition, which was issued in 1717 under the^ title of ' Memoirs of the Life of Mrs. Manley,* the name of Curll as publisher appears on the title-page. The title-page of this so- called third edition is, indeed, the only new thing about it, with the exception of the

to William Oldys, without, I think, any real justi- fication. Neither Bolton Corney, in his paper on Oldys, nor W. J. Thorns, in his r Memoir of Oldys/ makes any mention of the book. On p. 23 of the 'History' the writer tells the story of the mock marriage between Aubrey de Vere, Earl of Oxford, and the actress known as "Roxolana," and says that the victim was "the famous Mrs. Marshall." The unfortunate victim of this trick was neither Ann nor Rebecca Marshall, but Elizabeth, the younger of the Davenport sisters. Oldys, whose knowledge of the stage was "extensive and peculiar," could not have committed this error.
 * The authorship of this book is often ascribed