Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 5.djvu/594

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NOTES AND QUERIES. tn s. v. JUNE 22, 1912.

DR. FELL : MARTIAL. Every one has heard of the epigram beginning : I do not love thee, Doctor Pell, but I was not aware, until a day or two ago, while turning over the leaves of my Martial, that, with the exception of the name of the person addressed, it was an exact trans- lation of one of his ' Epigrams,' bk. I. xxxii. :

Non amo te, Sabidi, nee possum dicere quare ; Hoc tantum possum dicere, Non amo te.

Martial, then, was the author ; who was the translator ? PHILIP PERRING.

7, Lyndhurst Road, Exeter.

[See 7 S. vii. 166, 268, 295.]

TABLETTE BOOK OP LADY MARY KEYES.

" The Tablette booke of Lady Mary Keyes own sister to the misfortunate Ladye Jane Dudlie> writt in the year of our Lorde 1577, imprinted at London by one Robert Barter, printer to the King's most excellent Majesty, anno 1604."

I have a book professing to be a reprint of the above, published by Saunders Ottley, & Co. in 1861. Is anything known as to the genuineness or otherwise of the original book, which professes to be an autobio- graphy ? There is a mention of Shake- speare's poems in the book. Besides this anachronism there are other indications which throw doubt on the authenticity. Any information on the subject would be wel- come. A. H. O. [See 3 S. vii. '350.]

SHAKESPEARE'S SIGNATURES. I shall be glad to know whether the following state- ments are considered to be accurate by Shakespeare students and literary experts. I have taken them from a pamphlet of 32 pages entitled ' The Shakespeare Myth,' by Sir E. D. Lawrence, Bart., 1912 :

1. There are only six so-called Shakespeare signatures, and every one of these was undoubtedly written by a law clerk, and not by William Shakes- peare.

2. In the ' Answers to Interrogatories,' 1612, at the Record Office, the name " Wilm Shaxpr " is over a neat blot, apparently the mark of this witness, as not being able to* sign. This name, and the name of the other witness, Daniell Nicholas, and the writing of the body of the ' Answers ' are all in the same handwriting, i.e., of the same law clerk.

3. The purchase deed of 1613 at the Guildhall was taken to the British Museum and the signa- ture of Shakespeare upon it very closely compared with the mortgage deed signature of Shakespeare in the Museum. After a long and careful exami- nation of the two signatures, some twelve or twenty officials agreed that neither of the names " William Shakespeare " upon the deeds could be supposed to be signatures, but merely a clerk's writing.

4. It is not possible that these two signatures could have been written at the same time, in the

same place, with the same pen and the same ink, by the same hand. Yet that is what they profess. They are widely different. One is by an old man, the other by a young one. One was written by the law clerk of the seller ; the other by that of the purchaser. Neither do the deeds say they are signed, but only sealed.

5. On examining the three Shakespeare signa- tures to his Will at Somerset House, 1616, it is evident that they were all written by the law clerk who wrote the body of the Will; and who also wrote the names of the witnesses, which are also in the same hand as the Will itself.

6. Magdalene Thumm-Kintzel, in ' Der Men- schenkenner,' Leipzig, January, 1909, conclu- sively proved that the Shakespeare signature was written by the same hand as that which wrote the body of the Will. The Will was originally drawn to be sealed ; and it is not stated to be signed, but only to be " published."

7. It is evident that if these statements are correct, a very wide field is opened for conjecture and inference, tending seriously to modify some of the usual Shakespearian conclusions.

The writer says (p. 3) that some of the particulars are derived from ' Bacon our Shakespeare,' 1902. See a review by Mr. Andrew Lang of ' Passages from the Autobiography of a Shakespeare Student,' by R. M. Theobald, M.A., in The Morning Post for 27 May. D. J.

[3 S. iii. 284, 435.]

EARDLEY : PRIMRAM. In a volume of Hebrew verse by our old masters called ' Treasures of Oxford,' and published by Groombridge in 1851, two interesting names of subscribers are given. One is Sir Culling Eardley, Bart., who subscribed 41. ; the other is Mr. Henry Primram. Neither of these gentlemen was of the Hebrew faith. I am, therefore, all the more interested in them, and should much like to have further information about them, especially with reference to their literary studies.

M. L. R. BRESLAR.

Percy House, South Hackney.

" DR. SYNTAX." 1. Who was the author of ' Dr. Syntax' Tour through London,' with plates by Williams ?

author, and how many plates are there, including title ? Plates also by Williams.
 * 2. Was ' Dr. Syntax in Paris ' by the same

3. In what work is to be found a plate ' Dr. Syntax studying the Antique in the Gardens at Versailles ' ?

ASTLEY TERRY, Major r General.

' THE KENTISH NOTE-BOOK.' Where and when was this published ? I want to refer to vol. ii., which I should like to borrow. R. STEWART BROWN.

34, Castle Street, Liverpool.