Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 4.djvu/351

 ii s. iv. OCT. 28, mi.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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aware that no portrait properly belongs to the book, this remark may perhaps convey a wrong impression to some people. It may therefore be well to point out that that portion of the book which includes ' The Civile Wares' is made up of the "remain- der" sheets of the edition of 1609. Some copies have bound up with them the original engraved title-page containing a portrait of Daniel by Cookson ; and a few have also the dedication to Marie, Countess Dowager of Pembroke, A copy of the ' Whole Workes,' without this engraved title-page and dedica- tion is quite perfect, though no doubt its value would be enhanced if either one or both were included. W. F. PRIDEAUX.

BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER : ' MONSIEUR THOMAS.' In this play, Act V. sc. vi., there is a passage which has never been explained. But the explanation is not difficult, when once pointed out.

Sam. Thou art not married ?

Hylas. By th'mass, but I am, all to be married ; I am in the order now, Sam.

The difficulty is in the first line of Hylas's speech. In ed. 1778 alterations are proposed ; on which Mason's note is that neither the old text nor the proposed readings can be right. Weber says the same, and proposes a new reading in which he has no faith ; and ends by leaving the reader " to adopt any variation which pleases him best."

The right answer is to accept the text as it stands, merely remembering that both " ail-to " and " be-married " are com- pound words. The former means " alto- gether " or " very " ; the latter means " much married " or " completely married." And the whole line means " By the mass, but I am ! very much married, indeed ! " The poor man's case was simply irremediable.

I find that the phrase occurs again in Ben Jonson, 'The New Inn,' V. i., where Fly says that Lord Beaufort is *' all to be married."

The compounds with be- as a prefix are so numerous that the ' N.E.D.' could not deal with them all ; so that be-married is omitted. WALTER W. SKEAT.

KELMSCOTT PRESS TYPE. The Times Literary Supplement of 28 September states

"that after Morris's death.... his ornaments and borders were presented to the nation, and are kept at the British Museum ; his types are in the hands of his trustees."

The foregoing is on the lines of a card I saw some time since in the Sunderland Public

Library, to the effect that a book exhibited was " printed from types cut by William Morris." Information as to the numbed of years required to cut types sufficient for a good-sized work was omitted.

I presume that by " ornaments and bor- ders " is meant the original zincos, not the electros or stereos actually employed in the printing of Kelmscott Press productions. The Golden Type employed in some of these, as the Times reviewer says, was modelled upon the heavy-face Roman of Nicolas Jenson, and was cast by one of the older English letter-foundries, Sir Charles Reed & Sons, now absorbed by another firm. I am uncertain as to who engraved the pun- ches, but the matrices struck therefrom were made by Reeds, who always kept a small stock of type on hand. This was put into the melting-pot after Morris's death, in the presence of his representatives, the punches and matrices being taken away by them, and presented to the British Museum.

Whatever this institution has in its keeping would not prevent reproduction, as type-designs, &c., in this country can only enjoy the limited protection that registra- tion gives ; so that there would be no diffi- culty in copying the Golden Type (or any other Morris type-face). Several type- foundries, English and American, have brought out similar " faces " with such titles as Jenson Old Style, Italian Old Style, Venetian Old Style, Morris Old Style, &c. A leading American type-foundry has sold Morris borders and initials for some time past as well. CHARLES S. BURDON.

[The punches' (like those of other first-class modern types) were cut by Mr. Prince. We believe our correspondent's account is strictly accurate as to the Troy and Chaucer founts, but that Mr, Morris's trustees reserved the Golden Type for use in a few selected works. The only blocks in existence of the illustrations, borders, deco- rative initials, &c., are in the British Museum. We believe that during Mr. Morris's lifetime the use of the American reproductions of his type was stopped ; but until some one is public- spirited enough to incur the expense of a pro- tracted lawsuit, it is impossible to say what pro- tection is afforded by copyright and registration of design. It, is however, fairly easy to dis- tinguish between type fom original matrices made by a punch and type from electrotype matrices made from photographs of print.]

CHRISTOPHER BASSNETT, NONCONFOR- MIST MINISTER. He was the son of Nathaniel Bassnett (ob. 1699) of Chester, apothecary, churchwarden of St. Peter's, Chester, 1661-2, by his wife Frances (married 1658), daughter of Ralph Richardson, High Sheriff of Cheshire. His birth, 30 January, 1677, and baptism,