Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 7.djvu/411

 ii8.vp.MAY24,i9i&] NOTES AND QUERIES. 403 wrote the down's part in ' Appius and Virginia.' On the face of it this is not unlikely, as it is known that the two dramatists wrote ' A Cure for a Cuckold ' in collaboration, and the style of the clown's speeches in ' Appius and Virginia ' is quite different from anything else in Webster. Not only is the style different, but the clown's witticisms are almost invariably of a most indecent description. This gross- ness is of a kind characteristic of Rowley, but very rarely to be met with in Webster's unaided compositions. The clown in ' A Woman never Vext' is servant to the widow, just as Webster's clown is servant, to Vir- ginia, and he indulges in similar ribald talk with his mistress, full of verbal quibbles and gross iquivoques. As, however, this type of clown is also to be found in many of Heywood's plays, it is more likely that Webster is merely conforming to the fashion of the period. If the similarity in the style of the clowns' speeches is considered an insufficient reason for ascribing them both to Rowley, then I suggest that Webster imitated Rowley, and borrowed some of his witticisms from Rowley's play. At any rate, two of the clown's most indecent quibbles in ' Appius and Virginia ' are to be found in a slightly varied form in ' A Woman never Vext,' though in Rowley's play the clown is not responsible for both, one being put into the mouth of another character. It is scarcely necessary to repeat these un- savoury jokes here ; it is sufficient to men- tion that one deals in a quibbling fashion with the name of a fish, the other with one of the wards of the " Counter " or debtors' prison, and that, so far as I know, they are not to be found elsewhere. Both plays also contain a pun on the words " sorrow " and " sorrel," though in a different form. In ' A Woman never Vext' Bruin's daughter Jane, in a speech playing throughout on the names of flowers and herbs, says :— " If you touch my honesty there, I '11 make you eat sorrel to your supper, though I eat sullen-wood myself."—Hazlitt, 'Dodsley,' xii. 141. Cf. the clown's speech in ' Appius and Vir- ginia ' (end of Act III. sc. iv.):— " If the case go against me, I will gire you a quart, not of wine, but of tears; for instead of a new roll, I purpose to break my fast with sops of sorroii:" Tho allusion here is to sorrel-sops, the name of a drink or posset of some kind, which was apparently used not only medi- cinally, but as a sauce. The pun is in each case obvious. According to Wright's ' English Dialect Dictionary ' the common sorrel is, indeed, still called " sorrow" in some South-Country dialects. I find allu- sions to sorrel-sops in Fletcher's ' The Loyal Subject,' I. iv., and 'Monsieur Thomas/ III. i., and in Heywood, ' A Mayden-head Well Lost' (1634), Act III., but, except possibly in the last instance, without any indication of punning. ' A Woman never Vext' was printed [in 1632; the exact date of its composition is- unknown. H. D. Sykes. Enfield. (To be conclude!.) THE RECORDS OF THE CITY LIVERY COMPANIES. (See 11 S. vi. 464 ; vii, 101.) Painter - Stainera. — From Pitman's ' Ac- count ' (1906) it appears that the Accounts of the Company are complete from 1713, the Minutes from 1623, and the Register of Apprentices from 1666. There is a pam- phlet giving the names of the respective Masters from the commencing date of the Accounts; the best edition of this pam- phlet contained in the Guildhall Library was produced in 1896-7. Parish Clerks.—I am informed by Mr. W. J. Mayhew, the Clerk of this ancient but non-livery Company, that the Accounts date from 1636, and the Minutes from 1610. Christie's 'Account' (1893) gives an early list of Masters from 1448 to 1523, from the Company's bede roll. Paniors.—It would seem from brief extracts cited in Welch's 'History' (1904) that the Company possesses Accounts of early seventeenth-century date, but the precise year of their opening is not specified appa- rently. The same authority informs us at p. 22 that " the series of Minute Books extends in unbroken sequence from the year 1565 to modern times." Pewlerers.—At p. 14 of Welch's ' History ' (1902) it is remarked that the Accounts date from 1451, while at p. 170 we are informed that the Minutes run from 1551 onward. The Appendix gives a list of the Masters and Wardens from 1450. Poulters.—A list of the then constituted members of the Court of this Company ia appended to the Ordinances of 1692, as set out in the printed ' Charter and Ordi- nances ' (1903). The work is too limited in its scope to afford any information as to. the Accounts and Minutes, however.