Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 3.djvu/88

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NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. in. FEB. 4, mi.

LONDON, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY k, 1911.

CONTENTS.-NO. 58.

SIR CHARLES WENTWORTH DILKE, 81.

NOTES : Tottel, Puttenham, and Chaucer, 82 "Terra Susana," 83 Burial-Entries of Strangers, 84 "Pas- senger" in the 'N.E.D.' Sir Thomas Bodley, M.P., 85 Ordinaries of Newgate "The Old Mogul," Drury Lane " Vail" : its Use by Scott, 86.

QUERIES :-"Tewke," "Tuke," a kind of Cloth Prickly Pear and Monreale Cathedral Henry, Prince of Wales- Herbert W. Stebbins- William Elmham ' Death of Capt. Cook,' 87 Lea Wilson's Collection of Bibles- Benjamin Garlike Scottish Titles conferred by Cromwell Sir Francis Bathurst Long Barrows and Rectangular Earthworks Parish Formation Fairfax : Sayre : Maun- sell Sudane or Soudan Family' Guide for the Penitent,' 88 Pyrrhus's Toe Warren Family Sir Charles Chalmers Hampshire Map Amphisbsenic Book Hungarian Bib- liography " Rebecca and her Daughters " Pawper or Pauper Bird Subterranean Chamber in Staffordshire, 89.

REPLIES .-Thread - Papers Benjamin Bathurst, 90 Archdeacon Fifield Allen Thackeray and the Stage- Thackeray's Last Words Matthew Prior's Birthplace- Bishop FitzGerald, 91 Authors Wanted" Essex " as a Christian Name "Ennomic" Corpse Bleeding, 92 Speaker's Chair, 93 Count of the Holy Roman Empire- Miss Pastrana" Bolt/on ffaire groates " Canova's Busts, 94 Corn and Dishonesty Smiths of Parndon Rev. Sebastian Pitfield's Ghost Church with Wooden Bell- Turret' Flying Dutchman,' 95 Spider's Web and Fever Coroner of the Verge Club Etranger, 96 "Carent" Songs of the Peasantry Inscriptions in Churchyards W. J. Lockwood The Three Wishes Knots in Handker- chiefs, 97 Blackstone's ' Commentaries ' Whyteheer, 98.

NOTES ON BOOKS :-' The Oxford English Dictionary.' Booksellers' Catalogues. OBITUARY : Canon Hewitt.

TOTTEL' S ' MISCELLANY,' PUTTEN- HAM' S 'ARTE OF ENGLISH POESIE,' AND CHAUCER.

ALTHOUGH more than 350 years have passed since Tottel published his ' Miscellany,' the authorship of only four of the 134 anonym- ous poems in his book is claimed to have been traced, and one of these claims is ex- tremely doubtful. I have found three more authors to share in them, Chaucer amongst the number.

On the strength of a MS. note-book of verse, partly composed, and partly copied from others, by a William Forrest, and finished by him 27 October, 1572, the authorship of two poems seems to be definitely settled. One of these (Arber, p. 173),

I lothe that I did love, Ac.

Forrest assigns to Lord Vaux, and his assignment is corroborated by George

Gascoigne in the Epistle to young gentlemen prefixed to the 1575 edition of his * Posies ' (" Cambridge English Classics," p. 11). The other is the celebrated song (Arber, p. 163)

Geve place you Ladies and begon, &c. assigned by Forrest to John Heywood. In the * Arte of English Poesie,' p. 247, Puttenham unhesitatingly asserts that Lord Vaux also wrote (Arber, p. 172)

When Cupid scaled first the fort, &c. Which of the Lords Vaux is meant by Puttenham, Forrest, and Gascoigne is a matter that has not been determined, and is still open to discussion.

Next we come to the doubtful ascription. In Tottel (p. 164) there are fourteen lines which seem to be an extract from a poem formed on the plan of the legends in ' The Mirror for Magistrates,' and the first letters of the lines and the final one of the quotation spell the name " Edwarde Somerset." It is extremely unlikely that Somerset wrote these lines, because the conceit of signing a name in verses was commonly practised by writers of those times, who sometimes make the party designated speak in the first person.

Up to the present, so far as I can learn, these are the only poems in Tottel's " Un- certain Authors " that have had authors* names subscribed to them since the ' Mis- cellany ' first appeared in June, 1557. Churchyarde, however, in his * Challenge/ 1593, claims that he wrote " many things in the booke of songs and Sonnets " printed in Queen Mary's days, meaning, no doubt, Tottel's work ; but I have sought vainly through his known work for proof of the statement, which I do not challenge, for Churchyarde was a voluminous writer, and evidently a very honest man and a good fellow withal. ' The Gorgeous Gallery of Gallant Inventions,' 1578 a similar anthology to Tottel's, and intimately con- nected with it, for it prints several poems included in the * Miscellany,' though some- times in a varied and not easily recognizable form -contains one of Churchy arde's songs, commencing,

The heat is past that did mee fret, &c.

Parke's * Heliconia,' pp. 94-5.

No signature is given, but the original or amended version of the song, minus two- stanzas and with variations, occurs in ' Churchyardes Charge,' 1580 (Collier's re- print, pp. 51-2). But Tottel yields nothing tike what can be seen hi Churchy arde's mown work.