Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/281

 ais. iv. SEPT. 30, 191 1.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

275

'The prospectus went on to the said lake was

TV

^present that been one of the many victims of that in- satiable barathrum of the drama, the oven of

" to be supplied with sea water from the Essex coast by means of earthenware pipes, iron pipes being injurious to sprats ; to stock the lake with all kinds of sea fish except sharks, there being plenty of land sharks to be had in the neighbour- hood, so as to supply the metropolis with live sea-water fish at reduced prices, and to have one hundred bathing machines to accommodate the metropolis with sea bathing."

Further, it was intended

" to erect a large building in the centre of the wood, called Coal Pellwood, on the north side of the intended lake, which building was to be used for insane surveyors and attorneys who have lately infested the neighbourhood of Highgate, to the annoyance of the ordinarv

inhabitants.

ALAN STEWART.

LONDON DIRECTORIES OF THE EIGH- TEENTH CENTURY (11 S. iv. 168, 234). The most obvious and most accessible of all libraries for this purpose is that of the Corporation of London at Guildhall. Here will be found a well-nigh complete series of London Directories and of similar publica- tions which preceded the London Direc- tory as we now know it, the present chief Librarian, Mr. Kettle, having devoted special attention to the completion, so far as pos- sible, of the admirable series got together by his predecessors in office.

GEORGE POTTER.

10, Priestwood Mansions, Highgate, N.

WASHINGTON IRVING' s * SKETCH-BOOK ' (11 S. iv. 109, 129, 148, 156, 196, 217). No. 10 (Jeremy Taylor), " There is a grave digged," &c., is taken from the Funeral Sermon on the Countess of Carbery, under one-fifth through, vol. viii. p. 433 in Eden's edition of Taylor's works.

EDWARD BENSLY.

Aberystwyth.

ELIZABETHAN PLAYS IN MANUSCRIPT (11 S. iv. 205). Sir Edward Sullivan's assertion that " not one original MS. of even a single play [produced between 1572 and 1642] has survived " is not strictly accurate, for in the British Museum among the " Auto- graph Literary Works, &c.," CaseX there is " the unique autograph MS. of Philip Massinger's

4ma nrorJ-ir ' T^^IT^-IT,^ ^^ ~\7"^,-. T i~-i- > _ i_ j A T

the pie-eating Somerset Herald ; and that one copy did perish there can be very little doubt. Colley Gibber, however, had men- tioned his having seen a transcript of it, with the stage directions inserted in the margin ; and in the year 1844, " concealed in a vast mass of rubbish," this very tran- script turned up once more. The discoverer, Mr. Beltz, made a present of it to the public through the long defunct Percy Society.

A play by Massiriger, the name of which does not appear, Sir Henry Herbert on 11 January, 1630/31, refused to license, because it contained dangerous matter, as the deposing of Sebastian, King of Portugal, by Philip II., and there being a peace sworn betwixt the Kings of England and Spain. There is little doubt (vide ' Ency. Brit.,' vol. xvii.) that this was the same piece as ' Believe as You List,' in which time and place are changed, Antiochus being substi- tuted for Sebastian, and Rome for Spain. In the prologue Massinger ironically apolo- gizes for his ignorance of history, and pro- fesses that his accuracy is at fault if his picture comes near " a late and sad example." The obvious " late and sad example " of a wandering prince could be no other than Charles I.'s brother-in-law, the Elector Palatine. The source of Massinger's play seems to have been ' The True History of the Late and Lamentable Adventures of Don Sebastian, King of Portugal, after his Im- prisonment in Spain until the Present Day,'

London, 1602.

TOM JONES.

In the MS. Department of the British Museum is an ancient Latin MS. play of ' John the Baptist,' by Nicholas Grimaldi, M.A., the Elizabethan poet, and editor of Tottel's ' Miscellany.' It is bound, and labelled " Nicolai Grimoaldi Archipropheta Tragcedia. Mus. Brit. Bible. Reg. 12. A. xlvi.," and in 1757 belonged to George II. The press-mark is : 466, p. 198. This play of ^ ^

was printed at Cologne in 1548. There is no date to the MS., but it is evidently of the sixteenth century, and a careful examination of it led me to conclude it was a holograph

i. 12. A. xlvi., Archipropheta '

tragedy ' Believe as You List,' as submitted i copy by the author. The paper contains for approval to Sir H. Herbert, Master of the ^ VL.Trmrk. t.hft same as is on an origin

Revels, and bearing his licence, dated 6 May, 1631. This is the only known autograph work of any eminent dramatist of the Elizabethan period, except the Masques of Ben Jonson. The stage directions, &c., have been added by other hands." In Lieut. -Col. Cunningham's edition it is observed that this MS. was believed to have

watermark, the same as is on an original letter by Nicholas Grimaldi to Cecil, 1549, also in the Museum.

The best printed notice of this poet is by Sir Sidney Lee in the ' Dictionary of National Biography,' though he does not mention the letter. A translation of the