Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/118

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [ii s. m. F BB. n, mi.

It is peculiarly interesting to me as helping to substantiate the explanation which 1 advanced in The Oxford and Cambridge Re- view (1910, pp. 86-93) of the difficult phrase " the mobled queen " (' Hamlet,' II. ii. 526). I there contended that mobled, or mdbled, is to be analyzed as mob-led or mab-led, led wandering by Mab, bewildered or bewitched, infatuated. There is as little reason to infer a verb moble from mobled as a verb puckle from puckled. A. SMYTHE PALMER.

" DIE IN BEAUTY " (11 S. iii. 7, 74). The phrase will be found in Ibsen's ' Hedda Gabler ' ; see III. x. ; IV. v. in particular. It forms, as it were, a " Leitmotiv " of the action. I have no doubt that the present vogue of the expression is due to this play ; but whether Ibsen invented it or took it from some other source, I am unable to say. HEINBICH MUTSCHMANN.

University College, Nottingham.

It is, of course, true that in the third and fourth acts of ' Hedda Gabler,' Hedda is full of the idea of dying beautifully or gracefully ; but I do not find the exact 'English phrase in either the version of Mr. William Archer or in that of Mr. Edmund Gosse. Is its equiva- lent in the original Norwegian ? And if BO, what are the precise words ?

JOHN B. WAINEWBIGHT.

GAMNECOURT IN PICARDY : BARBARA DE BIERLE (11 S. ii. 429, 512; iii. 50). After J. B. P.'s convincing demonstration to the contrary, I can no longer maintain that John Erskine of Dun, the Reformer, was married to Margaret Keith My authority for the marriage was a foot-note in M'Crie's ' Life of Andrew Melville,' Edinburgh, 1819. M'Crie asserts that John Erskine of Dun, the Super- intendent of Angus, died "on the 16th of October, 1592, and in the eighty-second year of his age." In a foot-note he names his authority: "Act Buik of the Com- missariot of St. Andrews, Oct. 25, 1593, and Apr. 19, 1594." I transcribe the remainder of M'Crie's note :

., fixes his d eath, by mistake, on

the 12th of March, 1591/2. He also represents him as ' leaving behind him a numerous posterity ' (' Hist.' 384). But his will mentions only ' his son and air and Margaret Erskine his dochter,' who were minors, and whose ' tuitioun, gydinjr & keeping ' he left to ' his weilbelovit spous Mar- garet Kaith thair mother.' 'The noble and potent Lord Robert Lord Altrie ' (probably Mrs. Rrskme s brother) was one of their ' tutouris testftmenUris/" M'Crie's 'Life of Melville,' vol. n. pp. 22-3.

In the light of J. B. P.'s reply it will be observed that M'Crie was in error. He con- founded John Erskine, the great-grandson (known also apparently as " Erskine of Dun"), with John Erskine, the Superin- tendent of Angus. We may gather from the somewhat complicated details that John Erskine the Superintendent died in 1589/90 ; his son Robert in 1590 ; his grandson, John of Logie, in 1591 ; and his great-grandson John in 1592. Father, son, grandson, and great-grandson died within a period of four years. It may also be noted as curious that father, son, grandson, and great-grand- son, within about eighty -four years, were all of them married and had children by the time they had respectively reached their twentieth year.

My thanks are also due to W. C. J., whose citations clearly show that Barbara do Bierle was the Superintendent's second wife. ScoTtrs.

[Reply from MR. ERSKIICE WEST shortly.]

GEOFFREY POLE (11 S. iii. 45). As the writer of the lines at 9 S. ix. 468, I am interested in MR. J. B. WAINEWRTGHT'S note. Geoffrey or Jeffrey Pole, fourth son of Sir Geoffrey Pole (d. 1558), is stated to have married Catherine, daughter of a Dutton of Dutton in the county of Chester, and to have had five daughters Jane, Catherine, Constance, Martha, and Mary and two sons, Arthur (slain s p. at Rome) and Geoffry (or Geoffrey), the latter still living in 1606, and then possessed of Wirehall in Cheshire.

Sir James Pole, a descendant of Geoffrey Pole (living in 1606), is said to have forfeited Wirehall to King William. Sir James Pole had a brother Richard, whose son Richard was the father of three daughters Mary (wife of " Giles Taylor of Lvon's Inn, Gent."), Elizabeth (wife of Paul Green, a vinter of London), and Hannah (wife of Roger Maddock or Mannock, a shoemaker in Chester).

My authority for these details regarding Geoffrey, the son of Sir Geoffrey Pole (d. 1558), is (p. 131) 'A Companion and Key Fisher (London, Simpkin & Marshall, 1832). RONALD DIXON.
 * o the History of England,' by George

1 TIT FOR TAT ' (11 S. ii. 489 ; iii. 56, 76). The authoress of ' Tit for Tat ' was Jane Grace Smith (Mrs. Michael Edward Smith), as may be seen by the British Museum Catalogue. She is an entirely different Derson from the authoress of * Moscha Lamberti.' WILLIAM E. A. AXON.