Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 7.djvu/472

 464 NOTES AND QUERIES. [11 s. vn. j™. u, 1913. modest amount of it all comment were fruitless ; only let it be used " decently and in order." A closing thought. How is Dante's sur- prise at meeting Virgil to be accounted for ? Whether i. 79 be " Or se' tu quel Virgilio " <Witte, Scartazzini, &c.) or "O se'tu quel Virgilio " (Bianchi and MSS. D and F), the expression is one of surprise. Yet why feign wonder at a prearranged appearance to him- self ? I take it to be simply a clever and successful ruse to heighten the poetic effects of both illusion and allusion with which the ' Comedy ' abounds. J. B. McGoveen. St. Stephen's Rectory, C.-on-M., Manchester. THE TAILORS' RIOT AT THE HAYMARKET THEATRE, 1805. This organized protest against the revival of the farce ' The Tailors : a Tragedy for Warm Weather,' is a well-known incident that later historians take too seriously. For example, Mr. H. Barton Baker ('History of the London Stage,' second edition, 1904, p. 226) completes his record with :— " So formidable did the riot wax, that a magis- trate had to be sent for and special constables called out; but these were helpless against over- whelming odds, so a troop of Life Guards was ultimately summoned, who, after making sixteen prisoners, put the rest to flight." It is possible some contemporary news- paper report was the source of this, but it reads unbelievably terrible. Imagine the ■" overwhelming odds " that Would be con- tained in the " little theatre in the Hay- market " ! Here is a more sober account, provided by an eyewitness, occurring in ' A Tour in Wales and through Several Counties of England, Including Both The Universities, performed in the Summer of 1805 ' (p. 181). The publisher of this was Richard Phillips, of 6, New Bridge Street, and unless a more exact identification of authorship is on record, I suggest this vegetarian-philan- thropist bookseller was himself the writer and observer. Arriving in London 15 Aug., 1805, with a friend, 41 I accompanied him in the evening to the little theatre in the Hay-market, where the Birth-Day, Catherine and Petruchio, with the Taylors, a Tragedy for TTot Weather, were to be performed for the benefit of Mr. Dowton. The knights of the thimble, however, had tnken it so much in dudgeon that their craft was to be exposed by the representation of the latter piece that they had early occupied the galleries and different parts of the house, to the number of six or seven hundred ; and when the curtain rose such a horrible noise from cat-calls, hisses, groans, and howls, burst out at once, that not a single word could be heard, even had not the clapping of the more respectable spectators, in order to en- courage the actors, increased the tumult and uproar. Every attempt was made on the part of the manager and the more favourite actors to allay this ferment, and several concessions, im- politic in my opinion, were proposed to the vener- able fraternity of the goose ; which the rest of the house could by no means approve of ; but all this proved in vain. The actors appeared and disappeared in dumb shew ; not a single word of the play was allowed to be heard. At last Bow- street officers were obliged to be sent for ; and to give effect to their authority, as an immense crowd was already collected round the doors of the theatre, it was judged prudent to call out a large party of the horse-guards, who soon cleared the street, while the constables, securing forty or fifty of the most vociferous Flints, restored some kind of quiet within doors ; and Catherine and Petruchio proceeded with only occasional in- terruptions, till the poor taylor was introduced on the stage, and in contempt of his fraternity, who had given so much disturbance, was acted in the most burlesque manner that could possibly be con- ceived. This excited fresh uproar for a time, but it gradually died away. The Tragedy for Hot Weather, however, being loudly called for by the boxes, and by all, indeed, who were not in the interests of the taylors, the riot recommenced in all its fury, and it was found necessary to carry off to prison above twenty more of the professors of the art of trimming. This broke the courage of the Flints and they became dungs j but never was there an occasion on which it might lie more truly said that' the Devil was among the taylors ' than what we witnessed." The eyewitness then provides a moral, which fact assists my identification of him as Sir Richard Phillips. Aleck Abrahams. ST. MARY'S, AMERSHAM, BUCKS: CHURCHYARD INSCRIPTIONS. Amersham Churchyard contains far fewer tombstones than does that of many a country town of similar size and popula- tion, considering that it has been used as a burial- ground for so many generations. It is bounded on the north side by the Misbourne stream, which flows on through Chalfont, and empties itself into the River Colne. The church is a handsome edifice, chiefly in the Perpendicular style, and has an em- battled tower containing six bells, inscribed as below:— Treble. Our Voices Shall With Joyfull Sound Make Hilb And Valleys Eccho Round 1771 (On Waist) Pack & Chapman of London Fecit (Incised) Jn° Lawrence ic JnD Towne Ch Wardens. 2. (Almost blank.) There was formerly an inscription, which has been taken off and filed smooth. The