Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/31

 n s. iv. JULY s, mi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

DISRAELI AND BULWER. I have dis- covered three mistakes about Bulwer (after- wards Lord Lytton) in Mr. Monypenny's ' Life of Lord Beaconsfield,' two of which are Disraeli's, whilst the third is presum- ably Mr. Monypenny's.

On p. 124 Disraeli says :

" Just at the commencement of the spring of 1830, if spring it could be called, I made the acquaintance of Lytton Bulwer and dined with him at his house in Hertford Street. He was just married or about just married : a year or two. We were both of us then quite youths ; about f our-and-twenty . ' '

As Bulwer was born in 1803 and Disraeli in 1804, it follows that Bulwer completed his twenty-seventh year, and Disraeli his twenty-sixth, in 1830. But they were really acquainted before that year, for the ' Life of Lord Lytton ' by his son shows that they were corresponding early in 1829, when Bulwer's home was a house called Woodcot in Oxfordshire, whither he had gone after his marriage on 29 August, 1827. In a letter of 26 July, 1829, Bulwer tells Disraeli that his lease of Woodcot will expire on 24 August, after which his address will be 36, Hertford Street.

Writing to Lady Blessington on 12 Janu- ary, 1837, Disraeli says :

" I am sorry about B.'s play ; I would not write to him as I detest sympathy save with good fortune .... From the extracts which have met my eye the play seems excellent."

A foot-note to this (on p. 344) says that the play was ' The Lady of Lyons,' but that is impossible, as that play was not written till 1838 ; but in January, 1837, ' The Duchess de la Valliere ' was played for a few nights and then had to be withdrawn as a failure. W. A. FROST.

16, Amwell Street, B.C.

' PILGRIM'S PROGRESS,' SECOND EDITION, 1678 : SUPPRESSED PASSAGE. In the Lon- don Nation of 13 May a long piece of narrative is cited, which is said to have formed part of the second edition of Bunyan's master- piece, of which, however, only one copy remains. One passage in particular is rather difficult to understand on first reading it :

"As he [Christian] struggled with one of the branches, he became entangled with a briar, and a thorn fixed itself in him. It might have been alive, for as he tried to free himself, it dragged his clothes from his body, and then tore a deep gash in his side. Christian could not[?] see right into him, and was amazed to find there was no heart in the hole ; but in place of a heart there were cogged wheels of brass, which revolved with a clicking noise at a great rate."

According to the 'N.E.D.,' "him" was used for "it" in the objective case down to the seventeenth century, though the last example there given is no later than 1612. " Heart " in the concluding sentence does not express the author's meaning with good effect ; while the general description has much of the obscurity of certain parts of the Apocalypse. In all subsequent editions the entire passage is said to have been sup- pressed. N. W. HILL.

New York.

GRIMALDI AS A CANARY. The following description, which is taken from a letter of "S. G. O." in The Times, I January, 1849, seems too good to be lost :

" When Grimaldi used to come on the stage as a canary bird in full plumage, well can I recollect the ecstasy of every schoolboy who looked upon him. When he shook his wings, there was laughter ; when he began to clean his breast- feathers with his beak, there was much laughter ; when he took up the gigantic piece of groundsel in his claw, and then began to peck it with true canary relish, the laughter was tremendous and prolonged. It might have been the day before the dreaded annual visit to the dentist ; it might have been the very last night of the holidays : all of the future or the present was merged in the one delicious sense of schoolboy enjoyment of fun."

RICHARD H. THORNTON.

36, Upper Bedford Place, W.C.

" GOTHAMITES "^LONDONERS. In these

days the citizens of New York are apt to be referred to by their comic journals as " Gothamites," in memory of "the Wise Men of Gotham " of old English legend. But a couple of centuries ago those of London were apt thus to be alluded to, as is evident from the following advertisement, which appeared, on the eve of the general election caused by the death of George I., in The Daily Post of 13 July, 1727 :

" This is to give Notice, that there will soon be a General Meeting of the Positive Goathamites for Nominating such worthy Persons to their. Representatives, as will exert their best Endea- vours against the Use of Common Sense in all Political Affairs.

" P.S. Likewise a full and true Account of some late Suffrages of these Wise Men of Goatham will be published in the L d n J rn I of Saturday next."

ALFRED F. ROBBINS.

ELEEMOSYNARY STUDENTS AND GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. In his new work entitled ' La Renaissance Tcheque ' my honoured Slavophil friend Prof. Louis Leger alludes to a custom or understanding recog- nized in German universities, perhaps in