Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/309

 ii s. in. APRIL 22, mi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

303

seasons are specified : Shrove Tuesday, Ash Wednesday, Lent, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension Day, Whitsuntide, Ember, and Christmas.

In one way or another the following saints and days are mentioned : Alban, All Souls, Anne, Bennet, Charity, Crispin, Crispian, David, Denis, Francis, George (very often), Gis, Gregory, Hallowmass, Holy Cross, Holy Rood, Jaques, Jamy, Jeronimy, John, Katharine, Lambert, Lammas, Luke, Martin, Mary, Michael, Michaelmas, Nicholas, the O's, antiphons, Patrick, Paul, Peter, Philip, Philip and Jacob, Stephen, and Valentine.

On these it may be remarked that " Gis " is much older than Shakespeare, and was a conventional disguise of Jesu. Under " Mary " may be included " lady help," which was a usual ejaculation, and is often found in inscriptions (' Love's L.,' II. i.). " Philip and Jacob " is noteworthy, for it is so printed in the Elizabethan Prayer Book of 1559, and is preserved by a church in Bristol to this day.

A tew miscellaneous items : the clerk to say " amen " after the priest, ' K. Rich. II.,'

IV. i. ; the ten commandments, ' Measure for M.,' I. ii. ; confession of sin, * Othello,'

V. ii. ; prayer and fasting, parts of penance,
 * Com. Err.,' I. ii.

The corresponding passages in the Book of Common Prayer are not set out, but they will be easily found. . W. C. B.

BISHOPS' TRANSCRIPTS OF LONDON PARISH REGISTERS.

IT is not, I believe, generally known that there exist amcng the diocesan records in St. Paul's Cathedral a considerable number of transcripts of the registers of individual parishes in London and the neighbourhood for the year 1629-30 (Lady Day to Lady Day), tied up together in "two good-sized bundles.

There is also (and this has, I think, been mentioned before, though very briefly) a bound volume containing a number of tran- scripts for the period of the Plague and Fire, many being of some interest. Among them are chiefly transcripts for the follow- ing parishes, so far as the City is concerned, viz. :

SS. Anne and Agnes, Bridewell (Precinct).

St. Bartholomew the Great.

St. Ghristopher-le-Stocks.

St. Katherine Coleman.

St. Ivatherine Cree.

St. John Zachary.

St. Leonard, Shoreditch. St. Margaret, Lothbury. St. Margaret Moses. St. Martin Outwich. St. Mary Colechurch. St. Mary, Woolnoth. St. Michael, Queenhithe. St. Michael-le-Quern. St. Olave, Hart Street. St. Olave, Silver Street.

Of these some are for 1664, some 1665, and some 1666 ; there being also included in the volume an isolated return for the parish of Holy Trinity, Minories, covering the year 1638-9.

Among the Middlesex returns for 1665, in the same book, are to be found Acton and Baling, the latter having visitation present- ments recorded on the same sheet.

According to my observation, both the earlier and later collections which I have alluded to will be found to comprise tran- scripts for parishes of which the original registers have long since perished. Lists of all the transcripts are preserved at the Diocesan Registry.

WILLIAM McMumiAY.

St. Anne and St. Agnes with St. John Zachary ' Gresham Street, E.C.

SHAKESPEARIANA.

' KING LEAR,' II. ii. 166-76. These lines (in the Globe, 170-80) run as follows (Kent soliloquizing) :

Approach, thou beacon to this tinder globe, That by thy comfortable beams I may Peruse this letter. Nothing almost sees miracles But misery : I know 'tis from Cordelia, Who hath most fortunately been inform'd Of my obscured course ; and shall find time From this enormous state, seeking to give Losses their remedies. All weary and o'er-

watched,

Take vantage, heavy eyes, not to behold This shameful lodging. Fortune, good night ; smile once more ; turn

thy wheel !

[He sleeps.

The whole context seems necessary to- explain the lines,

I know 'tis from Cordelia, Who hath most fortunately been inform'd Of my obscured course ; and shall find time From this enormous" state, seeking to give Losses their remedies.

Furnesa (New Variorum, 1880) cites all the leading editors on this passage, but little light is afforded. Johnson read " state- seeking." Jenny ns supposed Kent to be reading snatches of Cordelia's letter, and Steevens and Collier follow him. Malone supposes that two half-lines have dropped