Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/318

 312

NOTES AND QUERIES, [n s. in.

1911.

MAN IN THE IKON MASK DRAMATIZED (11 S. iii. 267). The following drama bearing this title have been produced :

In 1832 at the Coburg Theatre, by Thoma James Serle, and at the Pavilion, by W. J Lucas.

In 1835 at the Marylebone, by W. Bayle Bernard.

In 1899 at the Adelphi, by (I believe Mr. Norman Forbes Robertson, and at th< Lyric, Hammersmith, by Mr. Max Gold berg.

The last version produced was about two years ago at the Lyceum, but I think it bore a different title. WM. DOUGLAS.

125, Helix Road, Brixton Bill.

The Man in the Iron Mask has been dramatized frequently. A version was pro- duced at the Marylebone Theatre in February, 1855. Another version, by M. Goldberg, was produced at Huddersfield, and after- wards at the Hammersmith Lyric in 1899. Yet another, by Messrs. Perth and Condie, was given at Walsall in March of the same year.

Lastly, the four - act drama entitled The Prisoner of the Bastille,' by Norman Forbes, produced at the Lyceum on 13 May, 1909, is also based on Dumas's romance.

WlLLOUCHBY MAYCOCK.

A drama in five acts on this subject was written by Thomas James Serle, who was \\ell known in the early part of the last century, and took an active part with Douglas Jerrold in founding the Dramatic Author's Society, of which he was Honorary Secretary, for some years.

BOBEKT WALTERS. Ware Priory.

Thomas James Serle adapted ' The Man in the Iron Mask.' As an actor he was associated with Edmund Kean, Young, Charles Kemble, &c. He married Cecilia, daughter of Vincent Novello, sister of Mrs. Cowden Clarke and Clara Kovello, after- wards Countess Gigliucci. TOM JONES.

CLERKS OF THE PARLIAMENT (11 S. iii. 228). I do not know of any work, such as is desired by W. S. B. H., giving the names of all the holders of the Clerkship of the Parlia- ment, with the time they nourished ; but it would be of considerable interest to have the list. One of the earliest specific references to such an official that I have yet seen is in the 'Calendar of the Patent

Rolls, Edward III., 1330-34' (p. 527), and it runs :

" 1334, March 3, York. Exemption for life of Henry de Edenestowe, King's clerk, in con- sideration of his great services as clerk of the Chancery and of the Parliament, from being sent without the Chancery and Parliament to under- take any office or to do anything against his will ; and power for him, with the licence of the chan- cellor, to withdraw for a time from the Chancery to his benefices or elsewhere, for rest and refresh- ment, as he shall see fit ; and when he shall find that he must do so, to stay always in his benefices without undertaking any office."

To take a long leap forward, there is the entry in the ' Acts of the Privy Council, 1554-56 ' (p. 22), under date 17 May, 1554, of a gratuity of 40 to the Clerk of the Parliament, among other officials, " by waie of the Quenes Highnes' rewarde for travayle and paynes taken in the two late Parlia- ments." And in the Historical MSS. Com- mission's calendar of the Cecil MSS. (part v. p. 55) is a document, conjecturally dated 1594, noting that

" Whereas Mr. Mason, clerk of the Parliament, being in years and troubled with some infirmity of his eyes, is desirous to surrender his said office, Robert Bowyer, of the Middle Temple, makes bumble suit that her Majesty will be pleased to grant the same office unto him, to be enjoyed from the surrender or death of Mr. Mason."

The matter of this petition was carried a point further in 1597, on 12 July of which year Th. Smith (who seems to have been a lerk to the Privy Council) wrote from the Savoy to Sir Robert Cecil :

" I crave that you will move her Majesty in my behalf for the Clerkship of the Parliament, now void by the decease of one Mr. Mason, that died this afternoon. The office is but of small commodity, and may be well enough executed by me notwithstanding the place of service I have already in the Court. I have none other on whose "avour I may rely, my lord of Essex being absent, )ut yourself. I think there is and will be one 3owyer a suitor for the place by the means of my Lord of Buckhurst, who may be well worthy, )erhaps, of some other and greater preferment, )ut I may be bold to say (without any ill affec- ion to the man) that he is not fit for this place, >y reason of a great imperfection he hath in his peech." ' Cecil MSS.,' part vii., p. 299.

What fate befell this application is at present to me unknown, but that Thomas

mith (if, as I suspect, he was the Privy Council Clerk of the time) was a pushing advocate of his own interests is evident from i letter of 14/24 November, 1598, from }apt. Jo. Chaniberlayne to the Earl of Essex, vritten from Deuxsbourg, bitterly com- ilaining, regarding certain of his suits, that,

having waded through many difficulties by our only means, I am now like to be put be sides >y Mr. Smith, the Clerk of the Council, that takes