Page:Notes and Queries - Series 11 - Volume 8.djvu/347

 ii s. vii. MAY 3, i9i3.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

343

borrowings from Rich's * New Description of Ireland,' published in 1610," forbid us to place the composition of ' The White Devil ' earlier than that year.

The resemblance between the passage in Webster's play and in ' The New Descrip- tion ' about Irish gamblers is certainly striking. But what does Webster mean by saying that the Irish gamester will play himself naked " and then wage all down- wards " ? There is nothing in Barnaby Rich to explain this. The fact is that both Webster and Barnaby Rich borrowed in- dependently from the same source Richard Stanyhurst's ' Description of Ireland ' in Holinshed. The passage in Stanyhurst (chap. viii. fo. 28 recto ; Holinshed. ed. 1577) reads as follows :

" There is among them [i.e., the "Wild Irish "] a brotherhood of Karrowes, that prefer to play at chartes all the yere long, and make it their onely occupation. They play away mantle and all to the bare skin, and then trusse themselves in strawe or in leaves. . . .for default of other stuff?., they paune theyr glibs [i.e., locks of hair on their forehoads], the nailes of their fingers and toes.... which they leese or redeeme at the curtesie of the wynner."

Here, then, in the words I have italicized (omitted by Barnaby Rich) is the explana- tion of Webster's " and then wage all down wards."

With regard to the allusion to howling at Irish funerals, it will be noticed that Bar- naby Rich expressly states that Stanyhurst is his authority. He is quoting him almost verbatim. The original passage is to be found in the same chapter and on the same page of Holinshed :

" They follow the dead corpse to the grave w th howling and barbarous outcries, whereof grew (as I suppose) the proverbe. . . .to weepe Irish."

Edmund Campion was the actual author of both these passages. Holinshed in his preface to Stanyhurst's ' Historic of Ire- land ' acknowledges that he has made use of materials derived from Campion, and both passages appear practically verbatim in the 1633 edition of the latter's " Historie of Ireland, printed in 1571," to be seen in the British Museum Library the Irish funerals passage in bk. i. chap. v. p. 13, and the description of Irish gamblers in bk. i. chap. vi. p. 19.

There still, however, remains some ground for believing that Webster had seen Barnaby Rich's book as well as Stanyhurst.

Barnaby Rich amplifies Stanyhurst's infor- mation about the conduct of Irish women at funerals. Compare the quotation from Webster with the passage in Barnaby Rich

which follows immediately after the word* " To weepe Irish " :

" It may be so, and it is troth that in Citties- and Townes where any deceaseth that is of worth or worthinesse, they wil hyre a number of women: to bring the corps to the place of buriall, that, for some small recompence giuen them, will 1 furnish the cry, with greater shriking and howling,, then those that are grieued indeede, and haue- greatest cause to cry."

Webster's "Procure but ten of thy dis- sembling trade " and his use of the word " furnish " possibly point to his acquaint- ance with Barnaby Rich's fuller account. But as the source of the allusion to Irish gamblers is undoubtedly Stanyhurst (or Campion), and not Barnaby Rich, one would be scarcely justified in attaching any weight to the evidence of the last-quoted passage in support of a date after April, 1610.

H. D. SYKES-

Enfield. '

STATUES AND MEMORIALS IN THE! BRITISH ISLES.

(See 10 S. xi. 441 ; xii. 51, 114, 181, 401 ; 11 S. i. 282 ; ii. 42, 381 ; iii. 22, 222, 421 ; iv. 181, 361 ; v. 62, 143, 481 ; vi. 4, 284,. 343 ; vii. 64, 144, 263.)

SOLDIERS (continued). SIB JOHN MOORE.

Glasgow. In George Square, facing South Hanover Street, is Flaxman's statue of Sir John Moore. It is of bronze, and represents the hero of Corunna standing erect, bare- headed, clad in a heavy military cloak,, held together over his breast with his right hand. His left hand rests negligently upon his sword. The cylindrical pedestal bears the following inscription :

To commemorate

the military services of

Lieutenant-General Sir John Moore,

native of Glasgow,

his fellow citizens

have erected this Monument,

1819.

Bothwell, Lanarkshire. In one of the- glens on the Orbiston estate is a statue of Sir John Moore by an unknown sculptor. The figure is 9 ft. high, and is placed on a low pedestal. The General is represented standing in deep thought. There is a story to the effect that Sir John was a suitor for the hand of the then Lady Douglas, who erected this statue to commemorate her grief for his untimely death.

Sandgate, Kent. On 19 Nov., 1909, a memorial of Sir John Moore was unveiled