Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/307

 ii s. iv. OCT. H, mi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

301

LONDON, SATURDAY, OCTOBER Ik, 1911.

CONTENTS.-NO. 94.

NOTES : Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke : his Epitaph, 301 Inscriptions at St. John's, Westminster, 302" Wigesta," 304 Tilleman Bobart Jonathan Wild's Influence Hamlet Johnson, 1590' Remarkable Passages in the Life of a Private Gentleman,' 305 Funeral with Heraldic Accessories Gordon of Park Baronetcy The Macdonald Chieftainship, 306 Sundial Inscription Rev. John M 'Bride Richmond, Yorkshire : Market Custom, 307.

OUERIES .'Nelson : " Musle "John Jarvis the Dwarf- Mr. Stock, Bibliophile. 1735, 307 Midhurst Grammar School Jonathan Wild's "Ghost" Statues in Venice- Alexander Ross : Wm. Ross John Preston, D.D. Bishop Percy, 308 Norman Court : Whitehead Family Authors Wanted' Nibelungenlied ' : its Localities Baked Pears == Wardens " Bon-chr^tien " Pears Robert Parr, Cen- tenarian, 309 Dr. W. Mead, Centenarian Earl of Jersey's Ancestress Obsolete Fish Coloman Mikszath's Works in English John Lord, Bt. Wanstead Flats and George III. Angell Family " Friday " as Christian Name Le Botiler Family, 310.

REPLIES :-Madeleine Hamilton Smith, 311-Miles's Club, 312 Ceylon Officials C. Corbett, Bookseller" All my eye and Betty Martin " ' A Caxton Memorial 'George I. Statue in Leicester Square, 313 Pope's Description of Swift" Busy as Batty " Tattershall : Grantham, 314 Hulda Dates in Roman Numerals Bibles with Curious Readings The Lord Chief Justice and the Sheriff 1 Essay on the Theatre,' 315 Leman Street Urban V.'s Family Name, 316 "Pile" Side of Scissors C. Elstob Zadig of Babylon Hunyadi Janos, 317 John Owen "Hie locus odit," &c. "Terrapin," 318.

NOTES ON BOOKS: Capt. Whitaker's 'Enfield' Reviews and Magazines.

Booksellers' Catalogues. Notices to Correspondents.

FULKE GREVILLE, LORD BROOKE: HIS EPITAPH.

THE violent death suffered by Lord Brooke at the hands of his valet Ralph Haywood is well known. Apparently in his will Brooke had granted annuities to many of his dependents, but for some unknown reason omitted any mention of his old servant Hay- wood. The ' Dictionary of National Bio- graphy ' says :

" The neglect rankled in Hay wood's mind, and on 1 Sept. following, while waiting on his master as he lay in bed at his London house in Holborn, Haywood charged him with injustice. Brooke severely rebuked Haywood's freedomfof speech, whereupon Haywood stabbed him with a sword. Haywood straightway withdrew to another room and killed himself. Brooke was seventy -four years old and did not long survive his wound. He died 30 Sept., 1628, after adding one more codicil to his will bequeathing handsome legacies to his surgeons and attendants in his illness."

As a result of this unfortunate affair two attacks on Brooke and his character have come down to posterity. The one is a tractate (B.M. Addit. MS. 4839, printed in * Biographia Britannica ' ) representing Brooke as extremely parsimonious ; the other is an epitaph in verse, also repre- senting Brooke as parsimonious. It seems strange that both of these pieces should attack Brooke at the one point that we take to be unassailable his generosity.

The only copy hitherto known of the defamatory epitaph was first reproduced in Huth's * Inedited Poetical Miscellanies,' 1870. This has been reprinted in Grosart's edition of Brooke's works (" Fuller Worthies' Library "). Recently I purchased a seven- teenth-century commonplace book dating from about 1640. In this volume appears again the defamatory epitaph, in fuller form (with the addition of six lines) and with different and generally better readings. I am sorry if the re-occurrence of this poem shows that the number of Brooke's enemies was larger than has been generally sup- posed. Since the poem has already been printed, and will probably be of permanent interest to students of Brooke, I desire to record this fuller and better version :

Epitaph on the old swearing Lord Brookes.

Reader I'le be sworne vpon a booke

Here lies y e Bight vgly y e L d Brooke

Who, as I have a soule to save,

Did not deserve to have a grave.

For I would I might never goe farther

He was accus'd of a horrible murther

Because t'was thought he began

To kill one Ralph Howard his man

W ch for my part by Gods lyd

I beleave he never did.

Ill natur'd he was, else l#t me never wagg,

For he never was known to lend his f reind a nagg ;

And would to God I were fleade

If he lock not in his trunke y e nippins of bread

Besides would I might never- stirr more

But for spending he would have line w th a whore.

And it would make a man very sick

To thinke how ill he rewarded his musick.

Nay, there be a huge company thinke

He wrote down few legacies for sparing Inke.

For I protest and as I hope to live

Of all things on earth he did not love to give

For so costive he was and wary of thrift

He would not helpe his freind at a dead lift.

He call'd his executor ragga muffin

Because he was expensive to buy a new coffin

For I pray, quoth he, to what intent

Should y e wormes be well hous'd since they pay

no rent ?

And by this sad light that shines He thought it simple to pay tithes to divines For when he was dying, he disputed at large Whether his soule might travell to save charge And just as his soule was about to begone Cause corne was deare he eate brown bread! at the

com'union.